Everybody loves a good ghost story. And the only thing better than a ghost story is a Celebrity Ghost Story. We asked some of New Zealand / the world’s hottest celebrities (who we had contact information for) for their spooky tales. Wallace Chapman Once when I was 18, we were sitting around listening to heavy … Read more
It’s Saturday and all of a sudden people have realised that Halloween falls on a Monday this year. Nobody throws a party on a Monday, so now you need a kick-ass costume for tonight. Luckily, Madeleine Chapman is here to help. It’s hard to tell what’s worse: being the only one at the party with … Read more
Shit got real on Bake Off this week. Forget American Horror Story or Scream Queens, the real horror this Halloween was found in a marquee in the English countryside. Tara Ward witnessed it all fall apart. Tuesday’s episode of Great British Bake Off served up the stuff of nightmares: possible sabotage, irrational behaviour, and terrifying meltdowns. Plus … Read more
The Spinoff presents TGI Funny Girls, an exclusive look at a brand new Funny Girls sketch every Friday. In the age of iMessage and Snapchat, late-night booty calls and texts have become a part of modern language. They’re short, yet vague, and always romantic. Laura Daniels presents a heartfelt summer anthem to celebrate the greatest … Read more
Was Squirt a weird collective cheese dream or did it actually happen? River Lin revisits a favourite childhood show, and takes a walk down memory lane with the key players. As a kid, I devoted most of my Saturday mornings to watching Squirt. It had the best cartoons. The penguin, Spike, was the height of … Read more
With dozens of new television shows being aired every month, it’s hard to keep up. Aaron Yap finally got around to seeing The Flash and found it to be everything he’d ever dreamed of. It’s increasingly rare to stumble onto a TV show by accident. You’re either scrambling to keep up with the latest social media-trending phenomenon, … Read more
As we near Halloween, Alex Casey recommends American Horror Story to deliver frights, freaks and full on costumes. Since its debut, The American Horror Story franchise has morphed like a shapeshifting demon, changing location, time period and introducing new horrifying characters to deliver a fresh nightmare with every season. Like witches? Check out Coven. Fan of … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including undercover superheroes, fishy dilemmas, and Esther’s messy love life. 1) Rajiv is a superhero in a plastic apron Whipping off his jacket and throwing it aside like he was Patrick Swayze about to pull Baby from the corner, Rajiv revealed that he wasn’t just a … Read more
It’s Labour Weekend this weekend to commemorate the 8-hour work day by not going to work for any hours. It makes sense. To celebrate, Madeleine Chapman and Calum Henderson combined brains to find the best and worst places to work on Lightbox. THE BEST 1) Pawnee Parks Department (Parks & Recreation) With Leslie Knope being … Read more
You may not have heard of Minute To Win It and now it’s finished. But there’s still time to catch a few episodes online, as Tara Ward relives TV3’s final episode of the greatest talent show for the uncoordinated. As TV3’s long run of Minute To Win It came to a sad end, I wanted to understand how a … Read more
The Spinoff presents TGI Funny Girls, an exclusive look at a brand new Funny Girls sketch every Friday. Ever woken up after a big night out and been scared to assess your surroundings? In most instances it’s a humbling experience, but sometimes your intoxicated self looks out for your hungover self and what a beautiful … Read more
While the golden age of television continues to blossom overseas, New Zealand’s TV drama output remains stubbornly mediocre. But it didn’t have to be that way, says Duncan Greive – and he has the show to prove it. A couple of years ago, about the same time that the big budget dramas Filthy Rich and … Read more
The ’90s and early 2000s brought with them an influx of young TV idols. But who has stood the test of time? Claire Adamson investigates. I’m not sure if the late 90s truly was a golden age for teen drama, or if it just seems that way because that’s when I was a teen. At … Read more
With the DVD special feature all but a distant memory in this cloud-based hoverboard age, Alex Casey remembers her favourite bonus feature from BBC’s Extras. I’ve already written about how much I love Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s underrated behind-the-curtain series Extras. As a teenager who cradled her DVD boxset of The Office like a … Read more
This is Auckland, where new money meets old. Alex Casey is going to try and laugh at The Real Housewives of Auckland through her weekly power rankings – because if we can’t laugh then all we have is the void. Click here for previous instalments. This episode started so calmly and innocuously, with Gilda having a comical altercation with … Read more
Known for over a decade as a social pages fixture and little else, Gilda Kirkpatrick blazed into sharp relief on the just-completed first season of Real Housewives of Auckland. Duncan Greive sat down and drank a bottle of wine with her for On the Lash, our interview series brought to you by Australian wine geniuses Vinomofo. Photography … Read more
As shows like The Bachelor and First Dates finally make their way to New Zealand screens, Zoe Scheltema presents the wonderfully bad dating shows of the United Kingdom. When you mention the UK these days, people are most likely screaming about Brexit and immigration and Kiwis being banned from doing an OE or whatever is happening re: that. But among … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including super-yacht surgery, love triangles, and the arrival of a brand new cocky doctor. 1) Drew: oh Captain, my Captain Talk about better work stories: “Kylie, remember that time we were cooking tenderloins and were suddenly taken hostage on that super-yacht? With the anaesthelogist who … Read more
The Spinoff presents TGI Funny Girls, an exclusive look at a brand new Funny Girls sketch every Friday. Season two of Funny Girls is well underway and the Spinoff are proud to present a first look at one of the sketches featuring in tonight’s episode. ‘Stuck for life’ is a parody of a family sitcom with an … Read more
Beauty pagents are often thought of as outdated, superficial and sexist. Lucky nobody told the folk at Miss Universe New Zealand, who recently gathered twenty of the country’s most beautiful women together to compete for a sparkly tiara and a huge bunch of flowers. Miss Universe NZ 2016 was a bizarre old night. The audience screamed like they were … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we pluck out shows from Lightbox‘s extensive back catalogue. This week, Pete Douglas presents a guide to all the best popstars who gave telly a whirl. I bloody love a good popstar cameo on a TV show. Ever since Stevie Wonder accidentally crashed into Theo and Denise … Read more
What happens when you put of two of the most enduring soap opera characters together in one room? After years of wondering, we finally found out in this exclusive video. Shortland Street‘s Chris Warner (played by Michael Galvin) and Home and Away‘s Alf Stewart (played by Ray Meagher) are two of New Zealand’s most beloved soap opera … Read more
What happens when you get two soap immortals and sit them down together for a chat? Calum Henderson was there to recount the making of television history. WATCH: History is made: Sparks fly when Chris Warner meets Alf Stewart It could be a vision of the end of the world: Alf Stewart and Chris Warner, … Read more
In this week’s episode of #realpod, Jane, Duncan and Alex discuss adult dancing, Being Real and what to do when life gives you lemons. The team assembled this week to discuss episode nine of The Real Housewives of Auckland, a week that saw multiple book launches, Coco Chanel-inspired wisdom and whatever the hell this is: Beyond that, the … Read more
Calum Henderson has his first date with First Dates New Zealand, and finds an odd mix of charm, milk and Tom Hardy tattoos. If a guy orders a tall pint of milk on the first date it’s probably not a good sign. That’s one of the hard-earned lessons from the first episode of First Dates … Read more
This is Auckland, where new money meets old. Alex Casey is going to try and laugh at The Real Housewives of Auckland through her weekly power rankings – because if we can’t laugh then all we have is the void. Click here for previous instalments. 1) This relatable woman is all of us at an event with free booze … Read more
For Monitor this week, Aaron Yap watches BBC series Criminal Justice, the lesser-known original version of HBO sensation The Night Of, and compares the two gripping murder mysteries. David Fincher, the notoriously exacting American director behind such lurid, ultra-stylish thrillers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl, is a master of making cinematic … Read more
Whilst NBC is frantically burying old tapes of The Apprentice, Pete Douglas holds his nose and dives into the YouTube sewer to find some more stellar examples of Donald Trump being terrible. About 10 years ago I visited Trump Tower in New York. This was during the early popularity of The Apprentice and it seemed like … Read more
The New Zealand Spelling Bee finals have made it to TVNZ 1’s Spellbound. It’s like a 3-hour long penalty shootout where you don’t want anyone to miss, writes Calum Henderson. “Furlow. F-U-R-L-O-W.” This is how I bow out of the finals of the 2016 New Zealand Spelling Bee. It is the third word of the … Read more