Last night was Sudden Death: Cuties vs Hippies. As always, the two teams went head to head cooking a three-course meal for the ever-glamorous panel of celebrity judges. The entrées were up first, because this is MKRNZ not Crazy Land NZ. The Cuties were making cheese tortellini, flexing their strong pasta muscles in the face of pasta … Read more
The Corporate Dads were safe as hell after their major pizza hustle of the last ep, and the three remaining teams were left fighting for a place in the coveted MKRNZ semifinals. Jessie and Ricki were on the Sudden Death loser couch, and the rest of the teams were left to make a romantic date night … Read more
SURVIVOR SAN JUAN DEL SUR BLOOD VS WATER 2 POWER RANKINGS 14) TERRIBLE GAMEPLAY I thought the orange tribe was bad. This was way worse. This blue team has maybe the worst strategic since the first season of Survivor. Almost everyone was bad. Old mate Keith, who was on the rise, really screwed the pooch. … Read more
We talked to “The Social Media Buddies” aka Sam and Dan from My Kitchen Rules New Zealand about getting trolled by school teachers, the big lamb screw-up and having major Mum beef with Sean Connolly.// Sam and Dan were the youngest MKRNZ team by far, two early twenty-somethings from Auckland who were coined “The Social Media Buddies” (because they … Read more
Our resident The Block enthusiast Tara dissects the week on Newell St. This week is all about breakthroughs, with Quinn and Ben finally hitting some sort of stride and Damo breaking both a creative block, and a door off it’s hinges. // It was a big week on The Block NZ. Damo was compared to a stray dog, … Read more
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
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
SURVIVOR SAN JUAN DEL SUR: BLOOD VERSUS WATER 2 POWER RANKINGS 17) NIGHT ROCKER Rocker owned this ep, so it only makes sense to start with the fact that Johnny Rock looked absolutely terrifying in night vision mode. 16) JULIE ROCKER Yeah. On the surface, Julie Rock has had a bit of a rough time, what with her … 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
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
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
The first couple eps of Survivor San Juan Del Sur: Blood vs Water 2 played out as you’d expect. Pretty low-key. Mostly getting to know the key components. In episode one the blue team won both challenges and the orange team kicked off twinnie Nadiya. It was a fine, if a little unspectacular ep, where … 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
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
As reality TV pioneer Survivor opens a mind-boggling 14th year, superfan Joseph Harper details its increasingly meta evolution in previewing season 29. // “If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is “death.” – Sun Tzu, Ancient Chinese military strategist. “You got to hustle if you want to make a dollar. Everybody … 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
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
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
The thing about living in a free country is that you can rock around the corner and if you happen to stumble across The Block, so be it. The entire thing had been covered in shrink wrap which is for weather prevention but also, annoyingly, snoop prevention. It was worse than staring at your wrapped presents under … Read more
It’s time for everyone’s favourite foodies Steve and Maura to try and convince us that they aren’t a pair of city slicker yuppies. Any chance of them achieving this was immediately lost at the first sight of one of their fedora-wearing friends at the dinner table. They should have called their instant restaurant Yuppie-Kai-Yay and just embraced it. … Read more
Our resident The Block NZ analyst Tara sums up the week that was. This week her findings reveal a strange mesh of family rooms, Jay Jay Feeney in a harness and some crushed pineapple dreams.// Episode 13: Tuesday 16 September It’s Day 17 on The Block NZ…or is it? The contestants head off to meet … Read more
The Corporate Dads are back, this time armed with Led Zeppelin t-shirts and an assured promise to “smash it out of the park” in their second instant restaurant. They begrudgingly rocked up to the supermarket in their Audi. Aaron maintained they didn’t deserve to be there, still blaming it all on stupid old Nana and … Read more
This episode we cruised back into foggy Orewa in the back seat of a beige VW Beetle for our second date with Beauty and the Beast. Tracey and Neill ensured us that they have been preparing since their last disastrous instant restaurant. Their rigorous preparation seemed to consist mostly of synchronised swinging at the park. … Read more
The nuclear fallout from last episode’s bombshell still hadn’t cleared as the lowest ranking teams were pushed straight into an elimination round with The Gatecrashers. There are three whole new teams to get acquainted with: “Sporty Mums” Theresa and Joelle, “Wellington Foodies” Steve and Maura, and “Sugar and Spice” Dai and Dal. The first instant … Read more
This episode took us to Hawkes Bay, “fruit bowl of New Zealand” and home of sisters Kelly and Meghan. Much like The Newlyweds, it doesn’t speak volumes to their personalities that their team name is “Hawkes Bay Sisters”. The pair have played their cards close to their chests, mostly focussing on co-ordinating very fancy outfits … Read more