It was time for a People’s Choice challenge, and the top five teams were making pizza – the people’s food. At this point, the teams were feeling overwhelmed by the wild MKR journey from their homes, to Kitchen HQ, all the way to Federal Street: “this train has not stopped, we must be on the … Read more
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? It’s all tensions and flying soccer boots at Warner HQ: Harry has finally got some direction in his life. No longer just a snotty brat – he’s going to be an All White. After confessing … Read more
It was Sudden Death, the Cuties vs the Foodies. Jessie and Maura were wearing identical pink tops, and Steve was without a hat – this was clearly serious business. They were making a three-course meal for the celebrity panel, Jessie was ready to vomit and Steve and Maura were flexing their hands, ready to crank … Read more
The remaining three teams went head to head to see who will join Steve and Maura in Sudden Death. Chilling back in the velvet confines, Steve had seized the relaxed opportunity to wear a fedora unlike any other (grey with blue trim). Neena and Belinda were safe again after the shock bikie scone celebration of yester-ep, … Read more
Our resident The Block enthusiast Tara dissects the week in Kitchen and Dining, and draws more than a few parallels with the upstairs/downstairs dynamics of Downton Abbey. As Mark Richardson says every five minutes, it’s all drama on The Block.// Tuesday – Episode 25 It’s Kitchen and Dining Room week – and wait for it, … Read more
Today, the NZ Herald published a gem of an interview with Shortland Street actor Ben Mitchell, wherein he restated his bizarre, unpleasant views about contemporary gender roles. I say restated because this is not the first time he has strongly voiced his proudly misogynist opinions. Shortland St occupies a unique place in this country’s self-image, due to both its age … Read more
Having already mercilessly extinguished one interesting and important broadcast outlet, Paul “Death Star” Henry has moved on to his next whimsical planetary demolition with the announcement of his new cross-platform extravaganza. I guess it makes sense to move Paul Henry back to breakfast slot, given his core viewership probably tends toward an early bedtime. There … Read more
Yesterday, MediaWorks announced that Paul Henry will be hosting New Zealand’s first cross-platform live breakfast show in 2015. If having him on your TV, your radio and your computer is not going to be enough, there will also be an elite range of limited-edition products released to make sure you really get the most Paul Henry out of every … Read more
With the news that Paul Henry will be taking over TV3’s breakfast television and radio, Joseph Moore imagines the final episode in the fake-book laden late-night lair of The Paul Henry Show (please note this work is entirely fictitious although, has anyone actually seen Jesse Peach recently?) // “2 minutes, Mr. Henry!” a voice from a … Read more
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal, revisiting the past week of Ferndale funny business. It has obviously been a hard week for Harry, the dude is having a mayonnaise crisis, a playlist crisis and was told to go away by nasty Rachel. He’s obviously picking up some of this stress from Chris, who slept … Read more
The challenge was to make a vague platter for an undisclosed large group of hungry people. Who would the mystery guests be? Heather wanted a big group of hairy men, Dai wanted All Blacks (Dan Carter, specifically). We would find out later. The teams got to work manically tearing stuff from the storeroom. Jessie and … Read more
Rounding up the week in TV news so you can make cool small talk with peers, postmen and partygoers over the weekend.// The Show About Renewal Gets It’s Own Renewal This week the good people at Lightbox brought the much-anticipated Amazon original series Transparent to our fair shores, and we can’t sing it’s praises high enough. … Read more
Shortland St. Two words which make TVNZ’s ad sales warriors 50% stronger while TV3’s equivalents suppress waves of nausea at the very mention. For 22 long years it has had a monopoly on the New Zealand soap scene, but news broke Wednesday that from 2015 it will finally have competition. TV3 have announced plans for a five-nights-a-weeker … Read more
Last night began with a mystery box challenge, with the contestants whipping open giant boxes to reveal metal machines that looked like something straight out of Jigsaw’s torture chamber. Turns out they were mincers, also turns out most of the contestants had never seen a mincer in the flesh and couldn’t bloody believe it. Stop … Read more
We talked to “Beauty and the Beast” aka Tracey and Neil from My Kitchen Rules New Zealand about cyberbullies called Doreen, experiencing the perfect chip and just giving everything a bloody shot. // I met Tracey and Neil on a sunny Ponsonby afternoon. Neil arrived bang on time, a vision in bright blue from his Kathmandu polar fleece to the … Read more
Tuesday – Episode 21 Welcome to week six – the Nearly Halfway Point of The Block NZ. Say it isn’t so, Mark! Damo and Jo look a bit flash – is it Date Night? Nope, they’re just too lazy to wash their regular clothes, plus Damo melted his pants on an industrial heater. That’s almost … Read more
This episode was a People’s Choice Challenge, where the contestants would run a market stall and a group of hungry punters would give fake money to the best team. These weren’t just any punters though, they were Genesis Energy punters. If Genesis has taught us anything, it’s that in the beginning God created the heavens and … Read more
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal, revisiting the past week of Ferndale funny business. This week seemed very genital-heavy. Grace had a rather distressing birth in Fiji and Nicole’s unborn baby had his weiner put under the microscope. Dallas and Bella decided to stop sleeping together until their wedding night, which lasted about … Read more
The new look New Zealand-made Thunderbirds have been revealed at long last. Well, the back of them have anyway. It’s early days, but we can confidently say that a variety of male hairstyles and hair colours are go! The animated revival of the 1960s sci-fi show is set for a small screen release in September next year, the perfect … Read more
It was the Sudden Death round, and many celebrity chefs had shown to taste the blood (meals) of The Social Media Buddies vs The Newlyweds. And what a line-up it was. First to arrive was Robert Oliver, a homeboy who loves the Pacific flavours just as much as he likes giving TedX talks. He was followed … Read more
The triumphant Red Team from last night’s ep were able to kick back in a sensual velour booth as the others sweated it out in Kitchen HQ. Losers Sam and Dan were in a separate velour prison. The first challenge was “Match Made in Heaven”, aka choosing two complimentary elements and bunging a dish together in … Read more
Yesterday the Madden brothers of Good Charlotte fame took over the Breakfast weather report for some reason. It began with Weatherman Sam dressed in slightly cool punkish clothes (including many large rings) taking a selfie with the rocker twins, before stepping aside and giving them a Maori Place Name Challenge. The masterminds behind Lifestyles of … Read more
With the instant restaurants over, the contestants were split into three teams and set their first challenge. They were sent to the Ronald McDonald House at Starship Hospital to cook a three-course meal for the families living there. A beautiful charitable challenge to start the competition, and a great way to reunite with all of our old favourites. … Read more
Last night David Cunliffe appeared on Campbell Live to give his first interview since Labour lost the election and he stood down as leader. John Campbell leaned forward, “you’re hard up against it aren’t you?” Their beady eyes aligned. Cunliffe looked more exhausted than any comparable cat picture on the internet, explaining that he had been … Read more
Our resident The Block NZ analyst Tara sums up the week that was. This week the teams served up a piping hot round of Dinner Wars, with a sumptuous side dish of bathroom and laundry.// Tuesday – Episode 17 It’s bathroom & laundry week! But first, let us behold the weekly Bitter-Contestants-Judge-Each-Other’s-Rooms competition. Will the teams agree … Read more
The final instant restaurant is with our Wainuiomata darlings, Dai and Dal. The Laoation best friends are a culinary force to be reckoned with or, as Josh put it, “they are the secret assassins.” He also thought that they were Thai so, grain of salt. Their instant restaurant called Mint featured many jars of mint. … Read more
This morning Stuff.co.nz launched the pilot episode of Road Trip, an interactive webseries docu-drama looking to tell New Zealander’s stories from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Or, in this case, Bluff to Cape Reinga. In the first episode we meet Sarah, a frenzied Canadian backpacker and Beni, a chilled out Tongan-Kiwi who is forced to drive her to … Read more
This week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal is jam-packed with equally sexy and hilarious moments from Ferndale. Harry outdoes himself on the insult front by tell a small defenceless child that he has a lead role in Night of the Living Dorks. Garret and Kylie handcuff themselves to the bed in some sort of 50 Shades … Read more
Every Thursday we trawl the internet for golden nuggets of New Zealand nostalgia. This week we found rare footage of pop megastar Kimbra, giving it heaps on a children’s TV show. // What Now? ran a series of segments called “Do Your Thing” in the early 2000s, where a sassy kid host would investigate a particular … Read more