Tara Ward recaps the rollicking premiere of Outlander season four, available exclusively on Lightbox. Contains major spoilers. The season premiere of Outlander was, as Queen Oprah would say, a full circle moment. Mostly because Claire Fraser kept wanging on about all the circular things she could think of – her wedding rings, the hangman’s noose, those soft … Read more
In the sixth episode of Project Runway New Zealand, the designers had to make a high-fashion look inspired by wallpaper designs. Henry Oliver ranks the results. Like a headmaster starting the assembly after some school-wide bad exam results, let me say up front how disappointed I am with the designers work this week. Tut tut. Last … Read more
They said he couldn’t do it, but what else are you going to do in seven days? Sam Brooks watched 42 episodes of Outlander in a single week to catch up before the fourth season premiere tonight on Lightbox. One week ago today I sat around The Spinoff’s story-pitching firepit, and said I thought it would … Read more
Time travel, a bleak dalliance with the French King, and some dubious flatmates – is Jamie and Claire’s relationship actually worth it? Fictional relationship expert Madeleine Chapman passes judgement. Season Four of Outlander drops weekly on Lightbox from Monday November 5, and you can binge the three previous seasons there as well!
Tune in to a carnival of royal waves and welly wanging. Over the course of four days, the country was host to a group of foreign bludgers. They were swanning around like they owned the place. Sucking up resources like they were brundlefly. And we were the ones funding them.
Your Northern hemisphere favourites are back this month (Outlander and Vikings) but there be gold on these here Lightbox shores too, yarr. The Spinoff staff run through what’s new to Lightbox in the month of November. Outlander (Season 4, weekly every Monday from November 5) Guy Fawkes Night will go off with a bang when the much-loved … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we assemble with armfuls of Halloween candy to talk about the past week in reality TV and real life in New Zealand. MAFSNZ is over, so what did we … Read more
In episode six of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell’s journey finally takes him to the national museum. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. If I had to pick one artefact from Get It to Te Papa to be enshrined in our national museum, it … Read more
To you, she’s just Phoebe from Friends. To me, she’s the one of the finest actresses of the small screen, writes Sam Brooks. Lisa Kudrow was the best actor on Friends. Regardless of how you rank the Friends characters (and if you rank Ross anywhere but last, you’re wrong), Kudrow’s performance is unimpeachable. When I watched all ten seasons of … Read more
Polish off your whisk and separate your egg whites because it’s Dessert Week on The Great Kiwi Bake Off. Let’s pray to the gingerbread gods that Harry and Meghan managed to catch this week’s episode, because they’d learn more about Aotearoa in one hour of GKBO than three thousand years of Orc visits and Government House … Read more
In episode five of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell’s odyssey takes him to the front door of New Zealand’s only true living legend: Suzanne Paul. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. On March 2, our TV crew pulled up to a big house on … Read more
Alex Casey celebrates New Zealand’s king of the costume box, Rawdon Christie. Here at The Spinoff, we’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the mystery man they call Rawdy. Gracing the couch on TVNZ’s Breakfast for four years, he was a beloved early morning oddity who interrogated politicians as sternly as he … Read more
In the fifth episode of Project Runway New Zealand, the designers had to make an avant-garde look inspired by a family-friendly car. Henry Oliver ranks the results. So how do you follow-up the sustainability challenge? With the Holden challenge of course! Last week, my five-year-old daughter asked: “Why do they all have the same car?” This … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her final sermon on season two of Married at First Sight NZ. As the experiment draws to a close, I have one thing to say to Married at First Sight NZ. To borrow an ancient proverb from Ottie, I feel like we’ve all suffered through this experiment together, day by day, for what … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa speaks the gospel of fanny packs. Personally speaking 2018 has been a huge year for me. This year, at both work and home, there’s been new challenges to overcome and big projects to drive to completion. I’ve … Read more
Halloween is coming up, and you’re panicking. We know, and we’re here to help. Costume designer Christopher Stratton has your solutions, both easy and not! As someone whose livelihood is costuming though – I have zero tolerance for boring out of a bag costumes. I also understand that time is a precious, limited resource – … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Call the police, because it’s time for a CHAOS POD this week. Cracking open a couple of ice cold Red Bulls, your friendly Real Pod team dissect all the real news and reality TV that … Read more
In episode four of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell goes on the hunt for Auckland’s infamous winking, come-hithering Giant Santa. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. As we headed in to interview Mayor Phil Goff for this episode, a call came through to our … Read more
It has been announced that Celebrity Treasure Island, the iconic New Zealand reality show that almost killed Mountain Dewer Lana Coc-Kroft, will return next year. Sam Brooks peers into his dollar-store crystal ball to predict the contestants. It’s coming back. The show that introduced us to celebrities… again. The show that almost killed our most … Read more
Alex Casey plucks out the most exciting highlights from TVNZ’s new season line-up. As we slide dramatically into the end of the year like a starved polar bear off a rapidly melting ice cap, it feels like there isn’t a hell of a lot to look forward to in 2019. Psychic Betsey Lewis – who … Read more
From deep within her grave, Alex Casey delivers the power rankings for week four on Married at First Sight NZ. Honestly, liquidate my heart, pour it into a Soda Stream, blast it with ice cold fizz and pour it out in the Adrenalin Forest, because I just can’t take this anymore. We are nearly at … Read more
Julia dropped a metrosexual bombshell on Married at First Sight this week. Dejan Jotanovic goes deep on the implications of this, and what’s behind our society’s relationship to masculinity. Married at First Sight pegs itself as the ultimate experiment. Six couples are forced to not only cope with clashing values and combusting pasts, but the scrutiny … Read more
The slice of heaven that is The Great Kiwi Bake Off was this week awash with sweet and/or salty caramel. Tara Ward ranks the gooey results. It seeped over slices, it poured over pineapple, it oozed over benches and onto floors and threatened to drown us all in a sticky sea of sugar. Drowning in caramel … Read more
In episode three of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell starts a valiant campaign to move the country’s most famous sign to Te Papa: the Deka sign in Huntly. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. The first thing most people notice about Huntly is the … Read more
In the fourth episode of Project Runway New Zealand, the designers had to make a sustainable red carpet look. Henry Oliver ranks the results. It’s the sustainability episode! So, let’s begin on a downer: Fashion is, by some estimates, the second biggest polluter by industry after oil. About 80 billion pieces of clothing are consumed globally … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we are finally reunited… kind of. With Duncan coming and going from the studio as he pleases, we are momentarily joined by Hayden Donnell, host of the Lightbox exclusive … Read more
The new drama from Facebook Watch (yes, that’s a thing) is the small screen’s most delicately rendered and thoughtful tackling of grief since Six Feet Under, writes Sam Brooks. Grief is like a snowflake made of shit – every experience is unique and unpleasant in its own way. When someone dies, the grief radiates outwards … Read more
In episode two of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell goes in search of the animatronic veges that instilled both delight and horror in ’90s kids across the nation. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. My memories of the Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit and Veges … Read more
Unisex bathrooms, weird homophobia and even weirder visual effects. Sam Rutledge revisits the simultaneously regressive and progressive Ally McBeal. “Men are like gum anyway – after you chew a while they lose their flavour.” Calista Flockhart’s titular Ally McBeal delivers this line in 1997 with all the guts of someone who has had absolutely enough right … Read more