INSiDE: the lockdown TV drama that Prime wants to keep locked away

A new New Zealand-made drama about life in lockdown was dropped from Prime’s schedule, just days before it was due to start. What’s going on?  Peter Salmon reckons the perfect time to watch a New Zealand drama about a second-wave Covid lockdown is during a second-wave Covid lockdown. Prime disagrees, having removed new short drama … Read more

Like nothing else on Earth: Go Further South is the slow-TV balm we need

Tara Ward talks to Spencer Stoner, the producer of Go Further South, the slow TV sensation that hits our screens this Easter.   Let’s change Good Friday’s name to “Great Friday”, or maybe “Even Better Friday”, because Prime is giving us the television tonic every lockdown needs. Go Further South, the slow-TV sequel to 2019’s … Read more

What happened when I watched all 12 hours of Go South

Over Easter, Prime aired a piece of slow television gold: Go South. Tara Ward watched the whole thing. First published on 23 April 2019 It was five and a half hours into an epic 12 hour journey through New Zealand when I saw it: a giant cat, randomly standing on the platform of the Christchurch train station. … Read more

Review: Flight of the Conchords amble back onto the stage in Live in London

New Zealand music’s most famous musical comedy duo return to the stage in Flight of the Conchords: Live in London. Calum Henderson reviews. New Zealand television networks have always got a lot of shit for not giving Flight of the Conchords their own series. Fair enough, in hindsight this does seem like a pretty bad call. … Read more

The Spinoff guide to watching free-to-air TV this Christmas

Sam Brooks picks out what you should watch this Christmas when things get too stressful and you just need to curl up on the couch. Christmas is a stressful day for everyone. Whether you’re giving the gifts, receiving them, making the food or eating it, there’s a lot to do. And sometimes you need a … Read more

The NZ television awards are back, baby, and the nominees are….

After five years in which our local TV successes went largely uncelebrated, New Zealand once again has a national television awards. The full list of nominees has just been announced, along with the winners of the technical craft awards which are doled out early. Duncan Greive analyses the list and picks some winners. Incredibly strange … Read more

10 things I learned from Back Benches this week

Tara Ward watches Prime TV’s Back Benches amidst an exciting week for both politics and local colouring book production.  Watching Back Benches was the most educational 45 minutes of television since the time I devoured the infomercial about the ladder that transforms into 370 different positions. Back Benches gave me answers to questions I didn’t know I was asking, like what does free range chicken … Read more

The Spinoff’s election season guide to NZ political TV shows

Duncan Greive and Toby Manhire rate the current crop of political shows on New Zealand television right now.  Most New Zealanders, as John Key was fond of calling them, would very likely be shocked and appalled to discover that our politics shows run just about all year, every year. Irrespective of the election cycle, or … Read more