Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including intense tent problems and the sad departure of Rachel McKenna. 1) Rachel walks towards the light Just another ordinary week for our Rach: she got drunk, knocked down a wedding marquee and vowed to find herself. Before our tiny little brains could comprehend the ridiculous idea … Read more
The emergence of the mysterious and timeless Anne ‘The Champagne Lady’ Batley Burton as a natural born New Zealand celebrity has been the greatest treat of Real Housewives of Auckland. Alex Casey spent a few hours in her strange world. “I’d rather save all the animals and bugger the people to be honest.” The Champagne … Read more
The Great British Bake Off is back on our screens, bringing with it treacherous sponge cake, dry nuts and a myriad of emotions. Tara Ward breaks down the six psychological stages of the show. Imagine an idyllic paradise of wildflowers and lush green grass, where tiny lambs frolic next to a gurgling stream and daffodils wave … Read more
This Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey recalls a television scandal combining both home renovation and face-lifts that made the internet explode. Recently, swept up by the same nauseating force of nostalgia that once saw me fork out $30 for a rusty Chupa Chups Spice Girls tin, I Googled ‘Bob the Builder’ just to see what me friendly … Read more
In this week’s episode of #realpod, Jane, Duncan and Alex discuss life drawing, Rescue Remedy pastilles during childbirth and Angie Stone the marshmallow woman. The team assembled this week to discuss episode eight of The Real Housewives of Auckland, a week that saw Angela Stone peel back her marshmallow layers to reveal… more marshmallow. Taken by her emotional … 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) Angela Stone Hell has frozen over, the pigs are flying through the air … Read more
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal makes elite home cuisine look possible with little more than an old mushroom and an iron. But how achievable are his recipes? Tara Ward watches How to Cook Like Heston to find out. For those of you who think being adventurous in the kitchen means using a non-stick frypan, How to Cook … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including Bella’s massage, Warner tears and Kate with the good hair. 1) Rachel has left the building Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? That’s exactly how Rachel McKenna felt as she was ushered from the building … Read more
Christchurch local Moata Tamaira looks into the greatest sitcom map-related mystery of the 21st century: why was the New Zealand city chosen as a mappelganger for Parks and Recreation’s Pawnee? This post was published in October 2016. Once upon a time the best you could hope for in terms of pop culture references to Christchurch … Read more
Alex Casey previews episode one of Funny Girls, and we debut an exclusive clip ahead of the show’s return tonight on Tv3. No pressure on Funny Girls season two but, as the hapless but impeccably-dressed producer Pauline says, all they have to do with their late night 22-minute comedy sketch series is “further all women and … Read more
A rare experimental edition of On the Rag featuring Laura Daniel and Madeleine Sami, two key players in TV3’s female-driven sketch comedy Funny Girls. In this special edition of On the Rag, Alex Casey chats to Madeleine Sami (director) and Laura Daniel (writer and star) of Funny Girls ahead of the second season. What does it take … Read more
Before the new season of Funny Girls premieres with director Madeleine Sami at the helm, Pete Douglas revisits the characters from her brilliant local comedy Super City. Local comedies don’t come much more ambitious than Super City. Over two glorious seasons, local legend Madeleine Sami created and played a bunch of diverse, strange and hilarious characters living … Read more
In this week’s episode of #realpod, Jane, Duncan and Alex discuss the return to normalcy for The Housewives, the Parnell pussies and Norrie. The team assembled this week to discuss the return of Real Housewives in the post-racial slur world to spit out the big questions faster than a clay pigeon flying into Anne’s open arms. … 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. We return to the power rankings this week after the horrific racist shitshow wherein … Read more
For Monitor this week, Aaron Yap basks in the grinning goofiness of DUKE’s Angie Tribeca, the best cop show spoof you probably aren’t watching. My tastes in comedy tend to drift towards fare like Louie and Curb Your Enthusiasm, where laughter stems from dark, cringe-making, cankerous worldviews of the human condition. But revisiting The Naked Gun … Read more
TVNZ’s Terry Teo remake is a return to form for New Zealand family programming, says Ethan Sills, and a shining example of what our local television should be. What will it take for the rest of the industry to take note? When you’re a kid, nothing seems impossible. You have the whole world ahead of … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including Rachel’s war path, Warner’s windswept hair and some incredible VR technology. 1) Rachel is scary Rachel picked up a plethora of life skills during her 10 seconds of rehab, like how to not give a shit, and how to scare the bejeesus out of everyone … Read more
With the second season of local comedy web series Auckward Love available now on TVNZ Ondemand, the folks behind the show share their worst experiences in the dating trenches. Holly Shervey (Auckward Love creator, writer and plays Alice) I was outside Countdown and a middle-aged chap came up to me and asked if he could paint me … Read more
A Black woman living in New Zealand talks about this week’s episode of Real Housewives, and why it’s indicative of a broader racist culture in New Zealand we still refuse to acknowledge. This week’s episode of Real Housewives has left many people shocked. They cannot believe that there are white people who think it’s okay … Read more
The second big-budget local drama of the year debuted last night. Duncan Greive watches and finds some promise buried under very familiar problems – and one serious lapse of judgement. When a brand new company was awarded $15m in NZ on Air funding for two brand new shows within a matter of months, it sent shockwaves … Read more
Brave scientist and television enthusiast Lucy Zee attempts to solve one of the last remaining mysteries of modern times: at what moment does Elliot in Mr Robot become irresistibly attractive? There’s no doubt that Mr Robot is one of the most engrossing, trippiest shows of 2016. But apart from the intriguing storyline, the Emmy-winning acting and the … Read more
In a special extended episode of our Real Housewives of Auckland podcast, Jane, Duncan and Alex discuss the fallout from Julia’s racist slur, both within the show and in the wider world. The sixth episode of #RHOAKL was dominated by Julia’s saying “boat n*****” in reference to Michelle, particularly the aftermath, in which she tried … Read more
Tara Ward dives into a delicious, piping hot serving of all-new Breakfast, and breaks down the key changes in TV One’s revamped morning show. A fresh day dawned in New Zealand yesterday and with it a new era of breakfast television. “This is your Breakfast, this is New Zealand’s Breakfast” said new co-host Jack Tame. “I’m … Read more
Disney have once again come under fire for cultural appropriation, this time for the release of their Maui costume for kids. Madeleine Chapman explains why it might not be so bad. Mulan is my favourite movie. Not my favourite Disney movie or even my favourite children’s movie. Mulan is my favourite movie, period. I’ve seen … Read more
With Jeffrey Tambor taking home his 4000th Emmy award yesterday and the new season arriving exclusively to Lightbox on Saturday, Sam Brooks tells you exactly why you need to catch up with Transparent. When Transparent was announced as a pilot for Amazon TV, a pilot where Arrested Development patriarch Jeremy Tambor would be playing a … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including the arrival of Sass, sad bears, and everyone’s favourite, Damo. 1) Leanne is a sweet scented, demented Jezebel The 100% pure romance of Leanne and Howard’s love affair pierced my cold dead heart like a pungent sprig of rosemary through a freshly butchered piece of … Read more
Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman will be live blogging every moment of the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards for all you poor sods stuck at work.
This morning, an hour after news of a Real Housewives racism scandal broke, Duncan Greive spoke with Michelle Blanchard on the phone from the US about the episode. “This flat champagne, it’s driving me nuts,” says Michelle Blanchard, from an airline lounge in New York. She’s drinking in the afternoon, an hour away from boarding a flight … Read more
The Spinoff was granted an exclusive preview of next week’s racism-scarred episode of The Real Housewives of Auckland on Friday. Here Duncan Greive discusses the shocking moment, and the fallout within and without of the episode. This morning the Herald on Sunday reports that one cast member of Real Housewives of Auckland calls another cast member “n*****” … Read more