Ahead of the arrival of Better Call Saul season three to Lightbox next month, José Barbosa sits down with star Bob Odenkirk to discuss the hidden details in the show, Saturday Night Live vs Trump and why Cinnabon gets the party poppin’. For a long time, Breaking Bad was the pinnacle of high quality, must-watch TV. The story of … 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. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan dive straight into a record off the back of week one of The Bachelor NZ season three. What do we … Read more
In this Rent Week reissue, Tim Lambourne shares his triumphant tale of how binge-watching the legal drama Suits helped him win his underdog tenancy dispute. A few years ago I lived in a four bedroom flat on Summer Street in Ponsonby, Auckland. If you’re unfamiliar with the suburb, Summer Street is about three quarters of the … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her first power rankings for contestants of The Bachelor NZ 2017, including many dazzling teeth, Dombo prayers and Zac Franich laughs. “It’s easy to meet people, but hard to find someone,” said our new Bachelor Zac Franich, eyes narrowing on the distance as he tried to figure out what he had just … Read more
We sent local Ferndale fanatic James Mustapic along to preview snippets of Shortland Street: The Musical live on stage, because that’s a thing. Big news: there’s a Shortland Street musical in the works and from what I’ve seen of it, it’s iconic. Premiering a rough teaser show as a part of the Auckland Arts Festival, … Read more
Game of Bros is back, sans the free Bachelor marketing, and browner than ever. Before the season two premiere, Madeleine Chapman sat down with Game of Bros superfan* Aunty Henga to judge the contestants based solely on their calendar photo and quote. By the time we got to the Game of Bros season finale last year, my Aunty Henga was about … Read more
Alex Casey breaks down the first episode of The Bachelor NZ season three by way of very accurate statistical analysis. The Bachelor NZ roared back into our screens tonight like a burnt orange Suzuki Ignis driven at about 7km an hour by none other than Zac Franich himself. Before I put my stake in the ground … Read more
Longtime Kim Possible fan Pete Douglas blows the cover on his favourite spy television shows of all time. Back in the mid-2000’s my wife and I went on our OE, and had the bizarre idea of living in Cork, Ireland for a year rather than the usual London jaunt. We were cool, we were different, we were … Read more
Through tears, Jono Pryor used the final minutes of Jono and Ben last night to shine a light on mental health following the recent suicide of a friend. Jess McAllen discusses the impact of such a raw television moment. The following article contains discussion around mental health and suicide. I’ll let you in on a secret: a … Read more
Please enjoy the second episode of our new online series Repressed Memories, wherein James Mustapic revisits weird local shows from his childhood (click here to watch episode one on Sensing Murder and episode two on Sticky TV) When the first season of New Zealand Idol started, I was eight years old and I wasn’t very interested … Read more
Alex Casey interviews No Activity’s Darren Gilshenan about wearing wet church pants, missing out on Margot Robbie and making something out of nothing. No Activity is a difficult show to describe, and one even harder to recommend. So I’ll just say this: it’s really fucking funny. A low-budget Australian comedy first commissioned by the online … Read more
A huge day for reality television and digital communications of emotion in New Zealand. Hold the phone, hold your loved ones, hold Mike Puru – there are emojis for The Bachelor New Zealand now. The Bachelor NZ launched their BachMoji app for both iOS and Android this morning, rattling the emoji community harder than when … Read more
Waiting cautiously in camouflage behind a piece of shrubbery, Calum Henderson observes a rare endangered species in its natural habitat: current affairs television. You almost don’t want to make too much noise about Sunday in case someone in an office somewhere remembers it still exists and realises they’ve forgotten to cancel it. TVNZ 1’s weekly … Read more
Tara Ward watched Māori TV’s bumper compilation of wild moments from All Talk With Anika Moa last night, and reports back with the cream of the crop. The classic ‘Shag/Marry/Kill’ game never gets old, especially when one of the options is dry humping the Briscoes Lady. This was the quandary Alison Mau faced on last night’s … Read more
Te Radar’s Chequered Past tells the stories of New Zealand’s most colourful characters, both infamous and largely forgotten. He explains what drew him to our hidden histories. There was a moment, caught between a grey Central Otago sky and even greyer rocks strewn through the tussock, that I wondered if this was it. Was I … 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. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan meet over some lukewarm chocolate-flavoured water to discuss what’s been going on in popular culture and life. In the … Read more
Alex Casey speculates as to the meaning of the single white rose, a new addition to The Bachelor NZ as it enters its third season this Sunday. Some intriguing Bachelor NZ news has rippled through the internet this morning like a fart on a pristine beach: they are introducing a mysterious white rose to the proceedings. … Read more
Tara Ward gives a tearful farewell to Deirdre, the bespectacled Black Eyed Pea-fanatic of Coronation Street. Coronation Street is set in a surburban netherworld where trams derail into corner shops and serial murderers drive their families into the canal. Why the heck anyone lives there is beyond me, but Deirdre Barlow loved it so much … Read more
Pete Douglas runs down his favourite TV soundtracks of all time after killing the mood at a party with some tense Twin Peaks tunes. Here’s a hot party tip: if you play the theme song from Twin Peaks in the middle of a Saturday night gathering it’s a bit of a mood dampener. I learned … Read more
Please enjoy the second episode of our new online series Repressed Memories, wherein James Mustapic revisits weird local shows from his childhood (click here to watch episode one on Sensing Murder). As far as I was concerned, Sticky TV was the best show on TV when I was a kid. Drew Neemia, Erin Simpson, and … Read more
In the wake of International Women’s Day, Alex Casey remembers an unlikely feminist hero: a squirrel who lives in a plastic dome under the sea. Call the police if you like, but I still think SpongeBob SquarePants is good and funny. I recall long childhood afternoons when I would eat Yum Bars, small bags of … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Maha Albadrawi and Lucy Zee about bringing New Zealand women’s stories to life in So This Happened. Every woman has at least one of those stories. Like gremlins, they often creep out at night in small circles over wine and cheese, more rarely over hushed coffees by daylight. Sometimes they are … Read more
Our in-house animal reality TV expert Tara Ward reviews Keeping Up With the Kattarshians, a reality series which is about exactly that you think. When the world turns to hell in a handcart, it makes sense that we find solace in the peculiarities of the animal kingdom. Actually, it makes no sense at all, because … Read more
Alex Casey compares the dramatic re-enactments of Sensing Murder to fellow bad creep show Celebrity Ghost Stories, to find the true winner in the art of the corny reconstruction. The dramatic recreation remains the hokiest thing to ever grace the creepy TV genre from Sensing Murder to Celebrity Ghost Stories, consistently bad and funny no … 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. It’s a massive week on The Real Pod as Alex, Jane and Duncan discuss the one-two punch of Lorde’s new single and the nation’s new Bachelor. After a ten … Read more
New Zealand’s most fucked up show is back on the air after a merciful hiatus. Duncan Greive says that Sensing Murder is a crime against television – and now, due to a big format change, even worse than it was the first time around. Sensing Murder, one of the most preposterous shows in New Zealand … Read more
Hold your hand on your heart and watch Jimmy Kimmel, Alec Baldwin and Guillermo recreate the most meme-able New Zealand television moment of 2017 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. It was a mere two weeks ago that we posted the clip of Harry Warner’s synching dick pic nightmare on Shortland Street, chuckling heartily over it on The … Read more
James Mustapic introduces our new web series Repressed Memories, and explains why he decided to revisit Sensing Murder for the first harrowing episode. NZ TV shows were such an iconic part of my life when I was younger. I was obsessed: with after school kids TV shows, drama TV shows, and even TV shows about … Read more
Murder Week continues: Alex Casey spends an evening with Sensing Murder’s Sue Nicholson during her Answers From the Other Side tour, and doesn’t get a lot of answers. Look, I’m not strictly saying I believe in ghosts. All I’m saying is, when I was 14 I’m pretty sure I talked to David Lange through a … Read more