Three decades since it first emerged on our screens, Captain Planet and the Planeteers will always be remembered as the show that introduced an entire generation to corporate greed and environmental protection. Children of the late 1980s and early 1990s had a number of iconic cartoons to choose from: Transformers, He-Man, Gummi Bears, My Little … Read more
From eggplant emojis and twerking llamas to sweaty anthropomorphic butts, we present some of the most fascinating, hilarious and outrageous complaints dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from 2019 to now. Avocadon’t (January 2019) The ad: In this ad from Specsavers, a man gets ready to join a cricket match, but when he reaches … Read more
Sam Brooks takes a look at new American streaming service Quibi, and asks what sets it apart from all the rest. So what is Quibi and what makes it different? Quibi is a new streaming service based out of the US with one twist: you can only watch it on your phone. Or, to use … Read more
Where do we watch content, what do we want from it, and how do we view New Zealand news? Here’s what we learned from NZ On Air’s latest survey on identity, culture and the media. We still like to watch free-to-view TV Despite the lingering doom and gloom around linear television, almost three-quarters of respondents … Read more
Emily Writes gushes about the show she never thought she’d enjoy so much: the endurance-testing, gravity-defying Australian Ninja Warrior. I never intended to watch Ninja Warrior. I had originally thought it was similar to that show where people get nailed on a course above water. I didn’t really see the appeal of people getting smacked … Read more
When comedy documentary Funny As was made, a lot of interviews got left on the cutting room floor which NZ On Screen quickly picked up. Here are some of our favourites. We’re a pretty funny bunch us Kiwis. Trapped on a tiny island at the end of the earth it appears we’ve evolved just a … Read more
New Netflix movie The Tall Girl was roundly mocked before it even came out. Josie Adams, a tall girl herself, reviews it. “You know that really, really, really tall girl you go to school with? The one that people call LeBron, Skyscraper, Patty long legs?” That’s Jodi, the 6-foot-1 protagonist of The Tall Girl. I’m … Read more
With American comedy PEN15 landing on Neon today, Alice Webb-Liddall chats with its creators and stars about uncovering all the shameful secrets pre-teen girls thought they got away with. Being a 12-year-old girl is hard. There’s schoolwork, there’s parents who just don’t understand, there’s friendship dramas and there’s the encroaching threat of periods, first kisses, … Read more
For decades fans have argued over the best Star Trek captain. No longer. Today we present the definitive ranking of every main crew member aboard a televised Federation starship (or space station). Every Star Trek fan has wrestled with it: is Kirk a better captain than Picard? Is Archer better than both? The captain you … Read more
The Enemy Within, which drops weekly on Lightbox from today, combines the funnest parts of a spy thriller with the complexity of a character study, thanks to a compelling lead performance. Sam Brooks reviews. The title ‘The Enemy Within’ is one of those multi-entendre’d ones that you can tell someone was very satisfied to come up with. … Read more
What do the TV gods have in store for the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, as season 5 of Vikings returns? Alex Braae recaps the first episode back. Perhaps fitting for a show about an era where murderer and plunderer were legitimate occupations, Vikings got a bit messy for a while there. The first half of … Read more
In a case of terrible timing, one set of The Boys are playing at the same time as the other set of The Boys on Saturday night. Which to watch? Alex Braae assesses the options. 7.30pm. Saturday 8 September. The room looks on as you hold the TV remote in an iron grip, visibly sweating … Read more
Each week, Jesse Mulligan talks to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, through TV, radio and in print, and his voice is beloved throughout the country. He tells Alex Casey about the humiliating failures, awkward experiments and games of Strip Honk he endured along the way. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. Jesse Mulligan … Read more
Eager to outrun the tide of media irrelevance creeping at its doorstep, TVNZ has finally come round to the new world order by going ‘big on local, big on audiences, and bigger OnDemand’. Jihee Junn sits down with some of the company’s biggest execs to hear about their plan for the future. Ever the quick-witted … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for last week, including Drew’s transformation into a vampire, Curtis’ love for Chickpea Casserole and Boyd’s peaking paranoia. 1) Don’t panic, Boyd – it’s probably just hormonal Boyd hit peak paranoia this week. He lost his bag and found it again, which can mean only one thing: Fentich are on to … Read more
Tara Ward recaps this week’s episode of Outlander, including ye olde seduction, 1000 yard stares, and other frivolities of the well-to-do. Contains spoilers. And smoulders. Oh, Outlander, you were far too good to us this week. Body parts flew all over Scotland in celebration of this glorious hour of television, an episode filled with more action and anticipation than we’ve … Read more
Our off-peak TV connoisseur Calum Henderson watches The Tipping Point, the human versus machine game show that strikes a crucial balance between moronic and enthralling. In moments of hopelessness and despair, it can be easy to think that TV’s best game shows belong to the past. Millionaire has been clocked. Every possible permutation of Deal … Read more