In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today, local man Kenneth Cooper shares his Survivor NZ application with us. Click here to watch Kiwis of Snapchat #1 featuring Jami-Lee Ross Click here to watch Kiwis of Snapchat #2 featuring Kelvin Cruickshank This … Read more
Tara Ward breaks down the most memorable disguises from spy drama The Americans. If you like your drama with more layers than a hot lasagne, then serve yourself up a giant slice of The Americans. Set in 1980s Washington DC, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are your typical American family: two well-mannered children, a beautiful home … Read more
Moon TV’s ‘Non Celebrity Traffic Island’ marooned a group of regular folk on a traffic island in Remuera. Here, we share some useful survival tips from the harrowing social experiment. Being marooned on a reality TV show is hard yakka, just look at Nikki Kaye in Fish Out of Water, or The Bachelorettes fighting over … Read more
Season two of All Talk With Anika Moa premieres tonight on Māori Television. Madeleine Chapman attended the taping and was transformed into a star. The studio audience wasn’t big. In fact, it took me just a few seconds to count 19 bodies total, including me. I knew the audience for All Talk With Anika Moa would be … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the seventh week of The Bachelor NZ, including a freaky massage, puppet kisses and a torturous ice bath challenge. Before we race into the power rankings like a rogue raccoon into an animal cafe, we need to talk about wtf was going on in The Bachelor NZ land this week. The dramatic … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. The Real Pod team are reunited after a tumultuous few weeks to chill out and talk Bachelor and pop culture like a bunch of frozen contestants in an ice … Read more
Like a true blue aging reality starlet, the Bravo logo has had a bit of work done in order to attract more men. Alex Casey asks the men of The Spinoff if it has worked. The more observant reality fiends among us may have noticed that Bravo, presumably inspired by the tanned and tucked talent that … Read more
In an early Auckland Writers Festival appearance, the creator of Veep and The Thick of It urged network execs to resist meddling – and chipped in on the great New Zealand political pizza debate. The British creator of television including The Thick of It, Veep and I’m Alan Partridge has offered some words of advice for New Zealand commissioners hoping … Read more
Alex Casey sits down with Anika Moa ahead of her return to television in All Talk With Anika Moa season two. Warning: contains burps, swear words and tangents about flaps. Interviewing Anika Moa is a little bit like attending a celebrity roast, except she’s the celebrity and you are the one getting mercilessly roasted. She’ll … Read more
The latest season of Broadchurch has been applauded for its nuanced handling of sexual violence in a way seldom seen on television. Charlotte Graham looks at what the show did right, and what it got very, very wrong. Contains spoilers for season three and frank discussion around sexual violence, please take care. I don’t watch … Read more
With the penultimate season on Lightbox this week, Alex Casey does a deep dive into Reddit to find all the Psycho references in prequel series Bates Motel. As the Scary Movie franchise has demonstrated, nothing gets the party started like a pop culture reference, however slight or heavy. Bates Motel, both a prequel to and … Read more
Alex Casey talks to comedian Ed Gamble about his time impersonating a prince on Almost Royal, and how to catch a catfish. The BBC America series Almost Royal follows the aristocratic sibling duo Georgie and Poppy Carlton – supposed descendants of the royal family – as they travel to the United States to meet the … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today, Sensing Murder psychic Kelvin Cruickshank attempts to contact Jonah Lomu, again. Click here to watch Kiwis of Snapchat #1 featuring Jami-Lee Ross
In a tell-all appearance on The Real Pod this week, ex-Bachelor Jordan Mauger revealed how he chose the winner of season two, among other confessions including when he really wore the earpiece. Jordan Mauger, star of The Bachelor NZ season two, has revealed to The Spinoff that he flipped a coin to decide who was … Read more
In a Very Special Episode of The Real Pod, Jane Yee and Alex Casey have a revelatory two-on-one date with ex-Bachelor Jordan Mauger. Welcome to a landmark episode of The Real Pod, where Jane and Alex are joined LIVE and IN PERSON by Jordan Mauger of The Bachelor NZ 2016. Despite his resistance to watching … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the sixth week of The Bachelor NZ, including tuk tuk tension, elephant dung and a dolphin in the mansion. In a bold comparison drawn by Ally, spending time with Zac in Bangkok this week was like “winning a ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.” Swapping out the everlasting gobstoppers for dried scorpions, and … Read more
The Spinoff’s in-house therapist Ms X returns after reading a concerning article about The Bachelor NZ contestant Claudia Hoskins. On Sunday morning, a reality TV article filed under the Entertainment section of the Herald caused me to fire off more “wtf” texts than I usually do. The Herald quoted a Woman’s Day article in which … Read more
How will Three add some Kiwi flavour to the unmissable televised trainwreck that is Married at First Sight? Tara Ward has some suggestions. Ladies, drag that net curtain off the window. Fellas, you might like to wash and condition your facial hair, because a new reality tv franchise is about to hit our shores in a Cyclone … Read more
Ghazaleh Golbakhsh can’t stop watching property porn, from Location, Location, Location to The Block NZ. As a lifelong renter, she wonders why she bothers. A few years ago, I remember being at a party and witnessing my friends who had all just bought into the property market (yes there really was a time) moan on … Read more
David Farrier was sucked into a tickling vortex back in 2014, and spent the next few years immersed in the world of Competitive Endurance Tickling. Throughout 2016 he took the resulting film, Tickled, to festivals around the world and followed it up with The Tickle King on HBO last month. After three years he was … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we trawl their catalogue for shows you might want to watch. This week, we outline six things you need to know about Six. New to Lightbox this month, History Channel original action series Six follows the daily lives of the members of the Navy SEAL Team 6 … Read more
Aaron Yap binges local series This Is Not My Life, a sci-fi mystery that could sit comfortably alongside Black Mirror and Orphan Black, and asks why New Zealand has stopped making genre TV. In this recent Spinoff piece, I wrote about my experience, or more so lack of, with New Zealand television. I pondered … Read more
Calum Henderson watches TVNZ DUKE’s new fishing show Screaming Reels, Leigh Hart’s latest comedy venture to rival Outdoors With Geoff. Editor’s update: Screaming Reels premiered on Australia’s Channel 7 at 10.30am on Saturday 27 categorised under “sport” and “reality”, raising some questions as to whether or not our Trans-Tasman neighbours realised it was a parody. The network denies … Read more
Tara Ward drops her shortbread in fright as a brand new trailer for Outlander season three arrives out of nowhere. Praise be to all things mythical and bagpipey, for the latest Outlander preview dropped yesterday like a hot bannock onto a dusty floor. The fevered sighs of malnourished Outlander fans reverberated around the world, much … Read more
Jane Yee, Alex Casey and FAMOUS BACHELORETTE SHARI FLAVALL gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. With Duncan rocking a flower crown with the best of them at Coachella, Alex and Jane are joined by Shari Flavall of The Bachelor NZ … Read more
Aaron Yap reviews Pamela Adlon’s Better Things, the semi-autobiographical exploration of Hollywood and parenthood co-written by Louis C.K. There’s a terrific bit in the new Louis C.K. special where he admonishes “the way people talk about their mothers”. He recalls an after-match interview with a football player who scored a bunch of goals. “My mum … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the fifth week of The Bachelor NZ, including unauthorised Jenga, bad poetry and an incredible bombshell. Ahh, nothing better after a long Easter weekend than to rest your rotten chocolate-coated dentures in a vat of Colgate Optic White and kick back in front of a relaxing episode of The Bachelor NZ. That … Read more
Tara Ward goes on a wild Easter hunt to find any half-decent free-to-air television over the long weekend. This Easter’s television viewing is as bleak as a hollow egg that some selfish bastard already pinched the chocolate buttons out of. If you’re relying on terrestrial television this holiday weekend — stuck in a remote bach … Read more
Longtime Hugh Laurie fan Pete Douglas counts the reasons why the Chance actor and Spice World star remains one of the greats of our time. How is it the second week of April already? I feel like I have only just digested my Christmas pudding, taken the decorations down from the tree, experienced the empty … Read more