The sixth and final season of The Americans drops on Lightbox today. Alex Braae reflects on the unique, tense brilliance of the series. The worst part about being deeply invested in the characters at the centre of The Americans is your fear for them. Not a fear that they’ll be killed off – that would almost be … Read more
You want mothers? Lightbox has ’em. Tara Ward takes a look at the best TV mothers to hang with this weekend. Mothers. They’re everywhere these days; at work, at the gym, on the television. They’ve even had the audacity to give themselves a day in their own honour (it’s tomorrow, FYI). Nowhere is safe from women … Read more
The Americans is not only one of the best shows on TV right now (with the fifth season dropping on Lightbox this week), it’s an education tool. Tara Ward studied the show and came away with tips on how to decipher if your real-life neighbours are also real-life spies. If you’re looking for an intelligent drama … Read more
Alex Casey and Sam Brooks round up the new content coming to Lightbox this month, including the highly anticipated return of The Handmaid’s Tale, Russian spies in wigs and Helen Mirren’s career-defining role! The Handmaid’s Tale S2 (April 26) The last we saw of Offred and the gals, a cute way of characterising a group of women … Read more
At the end of every year, our columnist Aaron Yap wraps up his likes, dislikes and learnings from TV’s shifting media hellscape. Jeez, what a stinking hot mess. As 2017 thankfully draws to a close, reflecting on the year that’s been for TV has become quite the exercise in existential soul-searching – to couch it in the … Read more
Our friendly TV sponsors at Lightbox have a whole bunch of shows nominated for the Emmy Awards this year, so we got our resident award shows obsessive Sam Brooks to pick which ones might take home the gold. I love me an awards show. A bunch of people in pretty dresses saying long speeches and … Read more
Tara Ward breaks down the most memorable disguises from spy drama The Americans. If you like your drama with more layers than a hot lasagne, then serve yourself up a giant slice of The Americans. Set in 1980s Washington DC, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are your typical American family: two well-mannered children, a beautiful home … Read more
Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman live blog the highs and lows of the 2017 Golden Globe awards, for all of you poor folk stuck in the office pretending to work. This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at Lightbox. Do us and … Read more
In his final Monitor column for the year, critic Aaron Yap lists his 10 favourite shows from 2016. 10) Stranger Things In hindsight, there’s so much that irks me about this ‘80s sci-fi-horror pastiche. The all-surface, no-subtext aping of the movies it’s influenced by. The instant-cult memefication spawned in the wake of its popularity. Winona … Read more
Aaron Yap celebrates the superb Cold War spy drama The Americans. The Americans is currently the best spy show on TV. Scratch that. It’s the best show on TV, period. I’m saying this as a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Homeland, a show that its most avid followers have to admit is awfully patchy, even at its … Read more