What’s new to Netflix NZ, Neon and other streaming services in November

What are you going to be watching in November? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ OnDemand. The biggies The Crown (binge season 4 on Netflix from November 15) Something good was bound to happen in 2020, and the new … Read more

The best binges on Neon for these extraordinary times

Whether it’s a robot uprising, a woman catfishing into the publishing world or a bunch of lovestruck islanders, Neon has you covered. Here’s what we’re bingeing on Neon for the foreseeable future. Westworld Just in time for lockdown, there’s a buzz-worthy show with endless discussion points coming out on a weekly basis. Yup, it’s Westworld. … Read more

Ten great TV shows, ten perfect TV performances

Our writers celebrate the best performances you can watch right now on NEON. Basically? They’re iconic. We all love a good story, and a great plot twist can turn a mediocre TV show into addictive weekly viewing. But what really keeps us coming back are the characters, and seeing actors at the height of their … Read more

Growing up is hard to do: Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth, reviewed

Dr Susan Wardell, a His Dark Materials fan who grew up to be a social anthropologist, reviews the much-anticipated sort-of sequel, The Secret Commonwealth. Is the world fundamentally dead, or alive? Philip Pullman asks in this new book, a thinly-veiled philosophical interrogation of “progressive thinking”.   The book is rich in both human and political intrigue, … Read more

The kids’ fantasy that explains the adult world: A tribute to His Dark Materials

As the HBO TV adaptation arrives on NEON, Sam Brooks looks back on His Dark Materials, the only children’s book series he was allowed to read as a kid. A little girl and her shapeshifting daemon. A sweet-voiced, evil-faced woman with a glamourous monkey for a companion. A giant polar bear wearing armour. When I … Read more

The third best book of 2017: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

All week this Christmas week we countdown the best six books of 2017. Number three: the first book in Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, La Belle Sauvage, described by our London correspondent Scarlett Cayford as ‘just about perfect’. I was doubtful. I saw Pullman speak on the banks of the very river that takes centre stage in La … Read more