In a case of terrible timing, one set of The Boys are playing at the same time as the other set of The Boys on Saturday night. Which to watch? Alex Braae assesses the options. 7.30pm. Saturday 8 September. The room looks on as you hold the TV remote in an iron grip, visibly sweating … Read more
We’ve hit the arse end of The Block NZ like a human Birdman belly-flopping into the ocean. It’s Kitchen and Dining week! Tara Ward recaps. On the now-seemingly-annual Kitchen and Dining Week, hopes are chopped into tiny pieces and dreams will be burned alive in the Breville slow cooker of our hearts. Never before has a … Read more
Fifteen to 13. The Bachelor AU roars into week three, armed with a guitar, a hot air balloon and a Bali-based jewellery business. Miriam Moore recaps. This week jumps straight into the first date. After feeling awkward about the group date, where Sophie was forced to do some foreign yoga moves, the Honey Badger decided … Read more
This month on Lightbox you can raid the Met Ball with Sandra Bullock, visit Castle Rock with Melanie Lynskey or share some delicious hot tea with four dames. Ocean’s 8 (drops Sep 5) If there was a film that better summed up the feeling of lounging back with a bottle of prosecco, a large bucket … Read more
It’s one of the the longest-running television shows of all time – but what do people remember about it? The cast of the post-apocalyptic madcap theatre show based on The Simpsons weighs in. Look, I know what you’re thinking. Theatre is boring, and nobody should go to it, unless there are cats or British kings rapping. As … Read more
It was a world first that fostered some of our finest young talent, so what the hell happened to TVNZ U? Five years since its closure, Alex Casey takes a look back at the little youth channel that could. Simon Dallow appeared to be holding a dildo, Tim Batt was eating cat food straight out … Read more
All eight glorious horsey seasons of McLeod’s Daughters comes to TVNZ on Demand today. Sam Rutledge ranks the daughters – by order of McLeodiest (just go with it). “Farm soap” isn’t as a ubiquitous term as I’d like it to be. All the drama of a regular soap, but plunked into the rural wild where there … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. The reality TV gods are smiling down on us this week, as The Block NZ delivers the exceptional talent competition and The Bachelor Australia gets extremely raunchy. Duncan doesn’t know how to pronounce Agni, Jane … Read more
Plus6Four Productions’ non-linear who-dun-it web-series Alibi is something entirely new for New Zealand television – and it largely nails the landing. Sam Brooks reviews. The location: a small rural town. The scenario: a girl’s body found in a bathtub. The suspects? Six suspicious people in the town: the local pastor, the slightly foreign teacher, one of … Read more
Nine seasons, two hundred and eight episodes, and a list of cameos longer than the list of women Barney’s slept with. Madeleine Chapman selects the five best, weirdest and most notable. You can watch all nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Lightbox right here: Don’t forget! All existing customers can choose to … Read more
Welcome to Week 8 of The Block NZ, in which Jason Gunn and Tom Sainsbury blesses us with their presence, Mark literally blows his own trumpet, and Chlo and Em choose their paint based on the colour of their mother’s nipples. Life on The Block took its toll on our beloved teams this week. They … Read more
With the first week of The Bachelor: Australia coming at us full noise, there was every worry that the show could only go downhill. Fear not, for the Honey Badger and his competing ladies are back with more drama than ever. Miriam Moore recaps. Week two starts with a bang: The Honey Badger delivers the … Read more
Crazy Rich Asians has been lauded for its groundbreaking representation of Asian-Americans – but how is Asian representation looking in our own country? “Why would you actively try and get into a space where no spaces exist for you?” says Alice Canton, an Auckland-based actress and theatre artist. “If I wasn’t creating my own opportunities, … Read more
Television icon Nigel Latta returns to TV, and this time he’s focused on the one thing that governs us all: the brain. Haimona Grey talks to the man himself. “Our belief has always been that people are interested in interesting things. Sometimes TV patronises the audience, it has a belief that people won’t stay if … Read more
Because what your Friday night really needs is the return of Anne The Champagne Lady and two ladies in suits. Tonight on The Spinoff TV, your friendly hosts Leonie and Alex eschew their usual look for a quicker option: suits and man-size speed makeup. The result? A weirder show than usual with hidden avocados, moon … 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’ve got an amazing new reality series to recap in The Bachelor Australia, Alex has torn her calf muscle and Jane has brought her weird cow lunchbox out of … Read more
Alicia Silverstone was the It Girl of the mid-nineties, and she’s back heading up a new show, American Woman, which drops on Lightbox today. Tara Ward rounds up where she’s been since her yellow plaid days. It feels like a lifetime since Alicia Silverstone burst into our collective consciousness with a string of ‘90s classics like Clueless, Batman … Read more
Hobsonville Point had it all this week: scandal, drama, and a thousand painted teardrops on the window of Agni’s soul. The Block NZ was shaken to its very foundations as we witnessed the Wolf go on a rampage, relived the annual ‘Build a Plank’ challenge, and a thousand My Little Ponies were sacrificed in a ruthless … Read more
They’re the lost seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but now they’re back for New Zealand’s viewing pleasure. Sam Brooks rounds up the early-episode moments that continue to live on in infamy. Season One, Episode One: Porkchop Porkchop! There are many reasons that Drag Race is remarkable, and one of them is that the first queen who … Read more
Strewth! Buckle up Bache-fans, it’s Week One of The Bachelor Australia season six, and we’re already being taken places. Welcome to season six of The Bachelor Australia! For new fans, this show is just like Tinder, except the leading man doesn’t know who he has swiped right on, and 25 potential girlfriends all turn up … Read more
The ‘psychics make up stuff’ TV show is back on New Zealand screens, and it’s just as terrible as ever. In the latest in his series on New Zealand’s most questionable pop culture, James Mustapic looks back on Sensing Murder‘s early years, and what has and hasn’t changed since. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on … Read more
Family Guy has been on our airwaves for a slightly interrupted nineteen years, and it’s been critically reviled for almost as long. Sam Brooks has seen all of it and thinks it’s time he stood up for the perennial punching bag. There have been three hundred and nine episodes of Family Guy and I have seen every … Read more
Skeletons in the Cupboard, a documentary that includes the claim seven foot tall, red-headed Celts built complex astrological stone monuments before Māori arrived in Aotearoa, has been removed from TVNZ OnDemand, but not before it received thousands of views. Jeremy Rose from RNZ’s Mediawatch reports TVNZ has removed a documentary that claims Celts settled New Zealand thousands … Read more
Ahead of a visit to New Zealand from some of Twin Peaks’ most iconic characters, die-hard ‘Peakie’ Angela Cuming meets three of her heroes and asks what it’s like to be part of a cultural phenomenon for almost 30 years. Sheryl Lee’s laugh travels down the phone line to my suburban home in Hamilton and wrap … 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, the team assemble over Chanui biscuits and spicy corn treats to look back at a wild week in New Zealand pop culture news. A man in Rotorua executed the … Read more
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It involved vanilla sponge. Tara Ward power-ranks week six of The Block NZ. I mean, just look at the state of it. It was Week 6 of The Block NZ, where the pinnacle of renovation glory involved strapping two chunks of vanilla sponge together, … Read more
Been living under a proverbial rock for the past ten years and have never heard of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Don’t worry, Sam Brooks has you covered. Okay, so first up: A lot of you will know what Drag Race is. You will be obsessed with it already. You have a top five favourite queen, you have an opinion … Read more
Better Call Saul is dropping weekly on Lightbox right now – and it’s slowly catching up with the start of Breaking Bad. While we wait, here are four fanservicey ways the new show could tip its hat to the old one. Better Call Saul, the often-prequel sometimes-sequel series to Breaking Bad, is back with its fourth … Read more
It’s an eternal argument: which of the two versions of The Office reigns supreme, the original brutal UK version or its heartfelt US spinoff? The Spinoff staff finally weighs in. Alex Casey, senior writer The Office UK is coded into my DNA unlike any other show. I bought the boxset for a bargain $20 from … Read more