Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. This Friday the 13th, Alex Casey lines up some television brought to you exclusively by Lady Luck (or not, in some cases). // The 4400 If there is anything unluckier than being sucked … Read more
The Herald asked us to contribute entries to a forthcoming list of the worst reality TV shows in New Zealand history. Here’s an extended cut of Duncan Greive’s entry – a love letter to a televisual cesspit known as The Player. // In April of 2004 filming commenced on Sky’s first ever reality TV show. … Read more
In case you missed it, last night John Campbell got the biggest treat of his life. It had just been a regular episode like any other, until there was an abrupt change in John’s silky schedule. Suddenly, Ali Ikram beams live from the Kings Arms. I mean beaming in both senses of the words, you can … Read more
NZ On Air announced a whole slew of true blue kiwi documentary projects today, so I decided to break down the lucky winners and see what televisual bang we are getting for our hard-earned buck. Our Big Blue Backyard 2, 6 x 1hr on TV One Buck: $2,066,927 Bang: A whale of a series, and an unsurprising … Read more
Calum Henderson looks back at the 1992 World Cup through the garish lens of Sky’s incessant memorialising and finds the coverage was as fine as the cricket. Was the 1992 Cricket World Cup really as good as everyone remembers it? Is it wrong to hold a flame for the golden summers of One World of Sport? … Read more
Appointment viewing… is a regular column which features a Spinoff writer watching one or more episodes of a current show and attempting to decode its appeal. This week: Alex Casey watches TV3’s new crime-comedy-drama Backstrom. // What’s it about? It’s a tale as old as time – a crime show that opens with a dead body, followed … Read more
The debut of Duncan Greive’s weekly X Factor power rankings, which will drop Monday mornings and serve as a guide to where the show’s momentum lies. Season two of X Factor New Zealand started recording months ago, and already feels like it’s been going for years. The show has already run for 14 hours, versus the 18 … Read more
Alex Casey recaps the sixth episode of Lightbox’s much anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. Can I just that this episode is so bloody beautiful and heart wrenching and perfect. It is easily my favourite so far, felt incredibly reminiscent of the Breaking Bad bottle episode “Fly”. Standing apart from the rest of Better Call Saul … Read more
Let us take a minute to step off the gilded X Factor NZ patios of Bangkok to the dusty suburban plains of TV1’s Our First Home. The other night whilst Joe Irvine was swimming at (presumably) the beach from The Beach, Robyn Schreuder was up to some true blue wheelbarrow mishaps. Being the card that she is, … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss Judges’ Retreat Week on X Factor NZ, and look towards our Top 12 contestants. // Eli Mathewson on Lili’s Lockdown Lili stands inside a Bangkok hotel when a sudden realisation seeps over her. With all the excitement of a beach holiday, a chance to plan some cheap dental and tough … Read more
Aaron Yap checks the pulse of In The Flesh‘s peculiarly English zombies. // If there’s still an abundance of forgettable, interchangeable zombie movies around to convince seasoned horror fans that the genre’s practically played out, Dominic Mitchell’s BBC 3 mini-series In the Flesh can be considered the counterargument. For those who appreciate a little ambition … Read more
Fragmentary Thoughts is a new comic strip by José Barbosa, in which he’ll tackle a different television show or phenomenon each month. This time round it’s everyone’s favourite Ed Sheeran-belting swear-fest: The X Factor NZ. This season of The X Factor NZ has already brought us much: a contestant with a past manslaughter conviction, poor beautiful Stan getting chewed … Read more
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Alex Casey lists a few of the most inspirational women in television land. // Yes International Women’s Day was yesterday, and no I don’t care that this post is way too late for our timezone. I was too busy celebrating womanhood with social netball and peanut butter chocolate to assemble … Read more
With the shocking departure of Jazzy “Jazzy” Acton from our screens last night, beaming Archie Hill represents the last of the 14-year-olds standing on stick thin, vinyl-trousered legs at this year’s X Factor. He absolutely ripped Ed Sheeran a new one at the auditions, before walking on stage and into our hearts with ‘Blank Space’ … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? TK and Kylie hits the clubs, a bathtub hits the floor and Leanne hits the road: Although Pania had tried to get him into internet dating, TK found love in a hopeless place this week – with … Read more
The Bachelorettes Revealed In the biggest and only TV news you need to know this week, TV3 have released the full lineup of women vying to win the heart of New Zealand’s first ever Bachelor. If you would like a comprehensive assessment of their entire personalities and life experience based on a photo and a short … Read more
My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to X Factor NZ host Dominic Bowden. // There is no denying Dominic Bowden has earned the title of New Zealand’s National Host. After early beginnings on kids TV show Squirt, he moved to hosting … Read more
This Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey discovers a deeply bizarre 1970s period show packed with family drama and, er, neighbourly relations. // I don’t know a lot about softcore pornography, but I know that the trailer for Swingtown looks like one: This 2008 series is set in 1976, and was made with the hopes of recreating … Read more
Duncan Greive visits the set of Best Bits, One’s panel show discussing the week’s worst television, to see how the sausage gets made. // On a glass coffee table in the Best Bits green room there is a bowl with two chocolate chip biscuits in it alongside a purse-sized packet of Carefree panty liners. “I see they’ve … Read more
With The Bachelor NZ coming to TV3 on March 17, Alex Casey analyses all the biographies of the newly-announced Bachelorettes, and flags some early favourites to look out for. // The Bachelor NZ is mere weeks away, and finally we are getting a little more intel on the women looking to find love in a hopeless place … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s X Factor-centric After the Factor podcast is joined by Guy Williams, star of Jono and Ben, voice of The Edge and (most importantly) prolific X Factor live-tweeter. Together they break down the third week of X Factor. Topics include boot camp happenings, Avatar sex and Dom Bowden’s meadow apology. They also rerank … Read more
Alex Casey recaps the fifth episode of Lightbox’s much anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. All I can say is, thank goodness there’s finally been some light shed on Chuck’s bizarre condition (candlelight of course, not anything fluorescent). After stealing the neighbour’s paper last week, the police busted in on Chuck with as much gusto as they have … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss boot camp week of The X Factor NZ.// Robyn Gallagher on The Forgotten Four During the first boot camp episode, we were very quickly introduced to the 48 contestants who were going on to the merciless six-seat challenge. They were all familiar faces from the audition shows, but … Read more
José Barbosa farewells Parks and Recreation, the American sitcom that stood for the power of people, Pawnee or otherwise. // I have a friend who is a political junkie. He nerds over the finer details of democracy’s pulsating innards and loves nothing better than witnessing true political engagement. A few years ago he had a small … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a new sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. This week, Alex Casey assembles a terrifying lineup of stone cold killer television. // Hannibal With the second season arriving to Lightbox this week, there’s no better time to sink your teeth … Read more
This Music Monday, Alex Casey draws parallels between a fake singing competition featured within The Office and all the thrills, spills and celebrities of X Factor NZ. // The past few weeks have been filled with a literal and metaphorical airing of X Factor NZ‘s dirty laundry. We have had Slim Shady killers being edited out faster … Read more
Last Friday Leonard Nimoy died in his bed at home. He lived in Bel Air, so he had done pretty well from a life spent portraying a human/Vulcan hybrid with green blood. Nimoy played many other characters in his career, both before and after Star Trek, but in terms of fame Spock overshadowed all of … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? We meet Professor Boris, three Ferndale folk flee, and Chris talks about colons for some reason: It was Colon Week at the Street, with Professor Helgard (known to his friends as Boris) visiting the hospital to hear … Read more
That Girl is a Monster After her luxury Sound of Music showcase at the Oscars on Monday, it was confirmed yesterday that Lady Gaga has signed on for the latest season of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth series in the Ryan Murphy anthology. Little else is known about the project, with Gaga that first … Read more