Alex Casey catches the Men’s Panel on Good Morning, where four men dish their tips on how to deal with grumpy women. “And coming up next on the Men’s Panel: taming the tetchy – our motley crew are going to share their advice for dealing with grumpy women” Jeanette Thomas says, as I sit bolt … Read more
Alex Casey spends an afternoon time travelling with Freeview Plus, catching up on all of the extraordinary TV she’s missed out on from The Real to Who’s Doing the Dishes?. Time travel is real, in the here and now. You might not be able to travel 20 years into the future and see yourself flying … Read more
From France we fly to South Korea on this jowl-hating journey to combat the global pandemic of ageing and ugliness. Rachel is in Seoul, a city with the highest plastic surgery rate in the world. “You probably think I’m in Los Angeles – where I live – but I’m not”. The big takeaway here is … Read more
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if New Zealand’s favourite soap-opera and New Zealand’s coolest comedy improv group combined forces? Weird thing to wonder. But it happened on Friday night, when I had the privilege of attending ‘Snortland Street’. It was the stuff of dreams: an evening with Ferndale Strangler-levels of suspense and … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Pixie gets a watery send-off, Drew gets passionate and everyone else gets sweaty. 1) Harry steps up to speak out Poor ol’ Harry is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Just like that time he fell in … Read more
I need to know a lot of things in this life. What is for dinner? What is the deal with tides really? What is the point of anything? To complicate matters further, Rachel Hunter is here to pose another equally stress-inducing question – “how do we be healthy and stay looking young?” Ah shit, I … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Pania exits stage left, Harry spews a geyser and we mourn for poor Pixie. 1) RIP Pikitea When last Friday’s episode ended with the Hannah whanau enjoying a rare state of joy, it could only mean one thing: grief … Read more
“So you want to tell the history of student radio in New Zealand,” asks Mikey Havoc of his one-time sidekick Jeremy Wells. “Do you think you’ll be able to do it in a commercial television hour?” Havoc is, as always, deeply cynical. And perhaps right to be – student radio might be seen as a … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Who’s got two thumbs and didn’t realise until too late that Masterchef NZ is now on two nights a week? Me. It’s me. Shoutout to episode four, in which the contestants … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Pania takes the crazy cake, Chris yells about butchery and TK mumbles his way through every conversation. 1) Pania takes it to the edge Pania’s mental state is unraveling faster than a pair of pants from the $2 Shop. She … Read more
Alex Casey has a sprawling chat with Dani Robinson of The Bachelor NZ about mansion friendships, ruthless edits, and finding love in a hopeless place. I went over to Dani Robinson’s house the other week, to get her take on the brilliant behind-the-scenes TV drama UnREAL. As the runner-up of The Bachelor NZ, I thought … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Story‘s meaty first week, Brown Eye‘s finale and the hors-d’oeuvres of Gloriavale. Story Starts Strong The real replacement for Campbell Live arrived this week, finally giving us a chance to see whether all the pre-maligning was justified. Story came out of the gate with a rare … Read more
Alex Casey sits down with Boganologist Dave Snell and his mate Fro, stars of TV2’s docuseries Bogans, to find out what’s actually going on beneath the leather jackets and car exhaust fumes. I was embarrassed to be sipping a peppermint tea next to two of New Zealand’s premiere bogans. “Let me know if you want … Read more
Calum Henderson goes forking mad for the latest competitive sport to hit Maori TV: furious forklift driving in The World Forklift League. Proof that mad genius is alive and well in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1. Somebody came up with the idea of forklift driving as a competitive sport 2. They then packaged that idea as … Read more
TV3’s brand new 7pm current affairs show Story debuted last night. Duncan Greive and Alex Casey break down the crucial elements of the show with very big shoes to fill. Story is a show with extremely high stakes. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that as the show goes, so goes Mark Weldon. That’s not necessarily fair … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. In my time as Masterchef New Zealand recapper, so far I’ve chosen not to make fun of the judges’ and contestants’ Kiwi accents. This is half because accent gags are … Read more
Alex Casey watches the Gloriavale: Life and Death special on TV2, a documentary from the gated Christian community where the bonnets are bleached, the women have 12 kids and the male elders know all. Last night we were welcomed back into the utopian arms of Gloriavale: Life and Death, far away from the sexual and physical … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Steve makes waves from his hospital bed, Drew has a ponytail penchant and Murray makes a casserole. This week’s power rankings are a sumptuous buffet filled with farewells and fights, revelations and rumours, sexism and Steve. Fill your plate, grab … Read more
In our new feature A Week Of It, a Spinoff writer watches a show every day for a week and reports back with their findings. This week, Alex Casey watches a week of The 4.30 Show to find out what the cool teens of New Zealand are up to. Despite the amount of people telling … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. After complaining in my last recap about judge Al Brown’s wearing of a hat indoors, an incident compounded by the fact that the hat in question was bedazzled with a … Read more
With the news that Mastermind will be getting a revival, Steve Braunias revisits the classic final of 1990, and remembers his old golden-mopped friend Peter Sinclair. Who will they get to host the new series of Mastermind? New Zealand On Air has committed $685,360 to reviving the show, which ended in 1991. You’d want someone smart. … Read more
In our new feature A Week Of It, a Spinoff writer watches a show every day for a week and reports back with their findings. This week, Alex Casey watches a week of Seven Sharp – and finds a meta twist at the end of the viral video tunnel. I normally like to spend 7pm … Read more
Most people like to watch TV. I like to look at TVs. For the past five years I’ve been trawling through TradeMe and saving photos of televisions to my hard drive, with a collection that totals in the hundreds and is quickly approaching the thousands. It’s a bizarre obsession that started innocently enough. I needed … Read more
I have spent a very large chunk of 2015 floating on the choppy whitecaps of the MediaWorks reality TV sea. I’ve recapped and podcasted every week of The Bachelor NZ, Dancing With the Stars NZ and hesitantly lowered myself briefly into X Factor NZ waters. And for what? I’ve often wondered. It’s fun, it’s what … Read more
Last night, whilst Simon Barnett was weeping his way through a winning pasodoble, another notable New Zealander debuted a winning performance piece of their own. It was Max Key, who finally launched his holiday video after much Instagram anticipation/boob-leering promo shots. I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed. In this post-Blair Witch GoPro era, it … Read more
Thank our heavenly Dads, we’ve made it to the grand finale of Dancing With the Stars NZ for 2015. Congratulations Simon Barnett, it’s time for us to crack into The Spinoff’s wig department, and finally hear Jane’s chilling story of Ronan Keating and the bad catering. Join Flapper-era Siobhan Marshall (Jane Yee), satin shirt-era Red … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ.We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a denser dining experience … Read more