As she preps for season two of hit thriller One Lane Bridge, Pip Hall – TV and theatre writer, basketball player, aqua ballerina and Mariah Carey fan – tells Michelle Langstone why, aged 48, she feels like she’s only just hitting her creative stride. Portraits by Edith Amituanai. Spoiler alert: Contains plot points from season … Read more
In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate. In this year’s election, Aotearoa will vote on whether or not to legalise voluntary euthanasia for those with a terminal illness who have less than … Read more
Looking for a family friendly drama to enjoy this lockdown? TVNZ’s new teen series Mystic might be the perfect choice. Out in the television galaxy, somewhere between the giddy orbit of Paw Patrol and Riverdale, lies a dark void where young adults wait patiently for their next favourite series. While there are plenty of TV … Read more
The latest episode of Bad News follows Alice Snedden on a quest to expose the double standards around nudity, and break down the barriers by getting the first-ever topless scene on Shortland Street. Ever wondered why TK Samuels can’t stop taking his shirt off, but we’ve never seen a woman’s bare chest on Shortland Street? … Read more
In Jordan Peele’s new show, the acclaimed director of Us and Get Out once again uses horror as a vehicle to critique our broken society. If you’re watching the best, deepest and most thoughtful television today, chances are you’re watching a good piece of horror TV. The latest entrant into the recent boom is Lovecraft … Read more
It’s the television reunion you didn’t know you needed, and a reminder of one of the best New Zealand shows you might never have seen. Friday night’s episode of Shortland Street saw lovesick doctors Boyd and Zara celebrate their wedding, and it was a nice time. The bride and groom were thrilled and Chris Warner … Read more
Around a quarter of the country has been at home for just over a week. So what the hell are they watching? Here’s what New Zealanders have been streaming on Netflix, Neon, TVNZ on Demand and ThreeNow in the past week. YouTube is not included in these statistics. That’s between you, God and the algorithm. … Read more
The second season of the female-focused anthology series is as much a portrait of a disintegrating marriage as it is a crime story, writes Catherine McGregor. This review contains mild spoilers for episodes one and two. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, they say, but we all know it’s not actually true, not … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Three’s mainstay 7 Days, and finds a show that is still worth the watch, but needs to change. The first joke of 7 Days in 2020 is a mask joke, followed up by a ball gag joke. Dai Henwood then chides host Jeremy Corbett with this scorcher: “It’s always something sexual with … Read more
Glow Up NZ is the latest reality franchise to hit New Zealand screens, and Tara Ward discovers a show with plenty of heart. “An online makeup revolution is sweeping the world,” host Megan Papas tells us in the opening moments of Glow Up NZ, TVNZ On Demand’s new reality competition about the wonders of makeup artistry. … Read more
In the fourth episode of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, Alice makes some inquiries upstairs about the charitable status of churches after finding out the makers of Weet-Bix have an exemption from paying tax. New Zealand is a secular society, but “advancement of religion” is still one of the main things that define a charity. That … Read more
Forget John Connor. Terminator: Dark Fate, now streaming on Neon, proves that Sarah Connor is humanity’s real saviour, writes Sam Brooks. When you think of Sarah Connor, there’s one image that comes to mind immediately. It’s not from the first Terminator film, which presents Linda Hamilton as a waitress with bangs higher than heaven who … Read more
In the third episode of all new Bad News, Alice recounts her overwhelmingly positive experiences with the health system and wonders: why isn’t it the same for all New Zealanders? With an average lifespan seven years shorter than Pākehā, Māori have long suffered systemic inequity in our healthcare system. Alice, on the other hand, hasn’t … Read more
A new season of reality series Selling Sunset just landed on Netflix. Tara Ward finds that if you set your expectations low, you won’t be disappointed. If you threw Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Million Dollar Listing and The Hills into a reality TV juicer, you’d pour out a long, tall glass of Selling Sunset. … Read more
Some of the best shows on Neon will take between a day and weeks to get through. Here’s a guide to the classics you’ve been holding off on, how long they take to watch, and why you should watch them. It’s a scientific fact that there’s too much TV and nobody has enough time. There’s … Read more
From the trusty old blue disposable medical face mask to a bandana made out of a pair of gruts, New Zealand’s TV news and current affairs shows have been a veritable parade of PPE this week. José Barbosa has compiled all the best examples here: The news that Auckland was moving back to level three … Read more
It’s Amazon Prime Video’s new show about the most extreme adventure race in the world, and host Bear Grylls wants us to enjoy it from the comfort of our couch. I tried to kill Bear Grylls in You Vs Wild, really I did. I made him swim with crocodiles, I forced him to eat termites … Read more
Opinion: Why is JK Rowling so mad about periods, and why are so many people mad at JK Rowling? Alice Snedden waded into the volatile waters of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism for the latest episode of Bad News. After the horrible year we’ve had, the last thing anybody needed was for JK Rowling to make … Read more
In the second episode of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, Alice goes to an event at parliament to try to talk with a group of ‘gender critical’ feminists – but things don’t go quite as planned. You’ve probably heard the term used in relation to high-profile people like JK Rowling, but what are Terfs, or Trans … Read more
A new New Zealand-made drama about life in lockdown was dropped from Prime’s schedule, just days before it was due to start. What’s going on? Peter Salmon reckons the perfect time to watch a New Zealand drama about a second-wave Covid lockdown is during a second-wave Covid lockdown. Prime disagrees, having removed new short drama … Read more
The first episode of the all new Alice Snedden’s Bad News asks why migrant sex workers aren’t legally allowed to operate in New Zealand. Sex work was decriminalised in New Zealand in 2003, but not for everyone – it remains one of the only jobs migrants aren’t allowed to do. But is the law successfully … Read more
She’s Cheryl West, she’s Ellen Crozier, she’s the woman who makes headlines for throwaway jokes online. Sam Brooks talks to Robyn Malcolm, actor and activist. There’s nothing more compelling on a New Zealand screen than Robyn Malcolm wanting something. Whether it’s Cheryl West trying to get a lingerie business off the ground, Ellen Crozier shaking … Read more
Looking for a wonderfully trashy movie to watch? TVNZ OnDemand now have some of Lifetime’s best dramas for your viewing pleasure. In a world of serious and credible television, the arrival of Lifetime to TVNZ OnDemand is joyous news. Lifetime is an American cable channel that churns out emotional drama after emotional drama, and it’s the best … Read more
You probably shouldn’t expect any happy endings from buzzed-about new Neon show Gangs of London, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The Hero’s Journey, a 17-stage literary structure popularised by the 20th century work of literature professor Joseph Campbell but present through centuries of storytelling, lays out for creators and consumers a well-trodden … Read more
What happens when New Zealand’s queen of K-Pop rallies a room full of kids to become homegrown popstars? You get TVNZ On Demand’s K-Pop Academy. Korean pop music – or “K-pop” – is, arguably, the biggest musical genre on the planet. BTS is its most famous name, but South Korea is home to plenty of … Read more
Announcing eight new episodes coming soon to The Spinoff and RNZ. Good news for people who love Bad News – Alice Snedden’s docu-comedy series tackling some of Aotearoa’s most contentious social and political issues is back for a second season. Like the first, which saw Alice go head-to-head with Don Brash in an episode about … Read more
What are you going to be watching in August? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ OnDemand. Click here to see our listings from July. The biggies Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story (on Netflix from August 14) The original … Read more
Finished watching Floor is Lava and looking for your next dose of bonkers TV? Cannonball is the show for you. The world is going to Hades in a handcart, and for one hour each week, I need the distraction of blue skies, warm sunshine and beautiful people volunteering to make fools of themselves on television. … Read more
Muppets Now, the troupe’s first foray into the world of streaming, takes on the YouTube era with hilarious – if somewhat disjointed – success. If you can’t be funny, be happy, and if you can be both, then you’re probably doing pretty well at life. The Muppets have spent the better part of a half-century … Read more