Grab a slice of moon cheese and sit back as Alex Casey imagines her dream multi-course dinner party plucked straight from our TV and movie screens. This has been a simply scrumptious year for realising just how many things we can’t do any more. We can’t travel internationally. We can’t press lift buttons with our … Read more
Parks and Rec, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place – creator Mike Schur has become a titan of the television sitcom. Jordan Hamel explains exactly how he did it. Mike Schur is a name you may not know, but you almost certainly know his work. His shows are the family-sized pepperoni pizza of network television, … Read more
The ‘Finchy’ of the UK original sitcom is full of himself, makes vulgar jokes and routinely crosses the line of acceptable decorum. Yet somehow, he never gets in real trouble. Sound familiar, asks Liam Hehir Shane Jones, the Minister for Regional Economic Development, is embroiled in questions over funding for a Northland tourism venture in … Read more
Alex Casey talks to TV writer and author Steve Hely ahead of his appearance this weekend in the WORD Christchurch festival. Steve Hely has written for some of the most iconic television comedies of the golden TV era, so it was only fitting that I give him a call whilst wearing a Liz Lemon-style slanket … Read more
Alex Casey assembles her favourite celebrity appearances from the BBC comedy Extras, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Forever shadowed by The Office, and more recently Ricky Gervais’ atrociously long pre-recorded intro to the NZ Comedy Festival, Extras is the wondrous second TV comedy masterpiece from Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. I love Extras. I love … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox category for shows you might want to watch. This week, we queue up some of the most romantic episodes of television for you to enjoy this Valentine’s Day (no matter what your relationship status is). Warning: contains very sappy spoilers. Outlander – … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored post where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. We don’t celebrate it here New Zealand, but that doesn’t mean you can’t gorge upon a mighty platter of great Thanksgiving episodes from your favourite Lightbox shows. The Mindy Project (S01E06 ‘Thanksgiving’) Two of Mindy’s … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored post where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week, we pick our favourite cult television classics. Don Rowe on The Mighty Boosh Lightbox describes The Mighty Boosh as “a surreal comedy set in a zoo”, which is correct in the same … Read more
Voting in the Lightbox People’s Choice Awards has started this week. Alex Casey and Duncan Greive argue the case for their favourite TV villains, heroes, sex symbols and so much more. Lightbox have kicked off their first People’s Choice Awards this week, inviting you to vote for your favourite villains, heroes and sex symbols to … Read more
The people in TV shows are all good and well, but won’t someone think of the animals? Alex Casey ranks her favourite pets scurrying around on Lightbox. It’s always the boring old humans that are remembered for their good work. Everyone’s clapping for Tony Soprano, nobody spares a thought for Adriana’s dog, violently killed onscreen … Read more
Outrageous Fortune’s James Griffin is one of the few New Zealanders who’ve known he was scripting a series’ final episode. José Barbosa talks with him about the different ways, many of them terrible, TV shows have bowed out. The writer Alan Moore (most widely know as the guy who, along with artist David Lloyd, gave Anonymous the idea … Read more
United by history and language, but very much divided by humour, Elle Hunt says America and Britain reveal their national character through the dispositions of their sitcoms. // It’s the last vestige of a once-great empire: the belief, persistent in the face of the fish-slipping sketch and Mrs. Brown’s Boys, The Benny Hill Show, or … Read more
Alex Casey finds a role model in a 40-year-old bearded man from Slough. // I still remember the first time I watched The Office. This was a time before Ricky Gervais got bronzed and ripped and spent 99% of his time yelling about how God doesn’t exist. This was a time before Stephen Merchant starred … Read more