Ahead of a visit to New Zealand from some of Twin Peaks’ most iconic characters, die-hard ‘Peakie’ Angela Cuming meets three of her heroes and asks what it’s like to be part of a cultural phenomenon for almost 30 years. Sheryl Lee’s laugh travels down the phone line to my suburban home in Hamilton and wrap … 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
Like books and vinyl records, DVD box sets are holding firm against the streaming tide, writes Aaron Yap. It used to be bloody hard to watch TV, didn’t it? These days it’s as easy as turning on the tap. Just sacrifice a smashed avo toast a month, and you can afford to zone out to … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we pick shows from their extensive back catalogue that you might like to watch. This week, we get your long weekend sorted with the best shows to binge watch. Queen’s Birthday weekend is so close we can almost smell the corgi shampoo in the air, and the … Read more
Angela Cuming remembers watching Twin Peaks as a child, and the power cut that kept Laura Palmer’s killer a mystery. I was only 10 years old when Twin Peaks – and the real world – found me. Once a week, in the dark, I would sit on the sofa bed in Dad’s home office and, … Read more
Pete Douglas runs down his favourite TV soundtracks of all time after killing the mood at a party with some tense Twin Peaks tunes. Here’s a hot party tip: if you play the theme song from Twin Peaks in the middle of a Saturday night gathering it’s a bit of a mood dampener. I learned … Read more
With summer upon us, there is no better time to shut all the sunlight out of your room, pull a blanket over your head and watch TV until your eyes hurt. We assemble the best shows on Lightbox that you can binge from pilot to finale. Wolf Hall Binge time: 6 hours, like a perfectly … Read more
Recent TV-to-film flubs such as Ab Fab: The Movie and David Brent: Life on the Road have proved that the transition is not always easy. Aaron Yap rounds up the television shows that have managed to make it to the big screen without stuffing it up. Ricky Gervais should have put David Brent to rest … Read more
With the reboot just around the corner, Pete Douglas revisits the surreal early 90s classic Twin Peaks and the role that made Kyle McLachlan a TV star. When I first came across Twin Peaks, I was drawn in by its creepy weirdness and bizarre vision of small town American life. What the … Read more
A brand new influx of second-hand television shows has led Aaron Yap to question whether we are suffering a reboot epidemic. Last week Fox dropped a bunch of trailers for their upcoming 2016-2017 TV slate. Many of these were reboots and remakes of pre-existing film/TV properties: 24: Legacy, Prison Break, The Exorcist, Lethal Weapon and … Read more
David Lynch’s iconic television series Twin Peaks first aired 26 years ago on network television. Ruth Spencer relives her enduring relationship with the cult classic. A photo on Facebook of VHS tapes in a skip, an entire series sprawled against some hedge clippings. Did anyone want these Twin Peaks tapes before they went to the tip? Did … Read more
Laura Vincent runs a one-woman roundtable discussion, presenting evidence as to why her favourite show Pretty Little Liars deserves just as much attention as Game of Thrones or The Wire. It was sincerely and without hyperbole that I said, after watching the season six premiere of Pretty Little Liars, “that episode was literally better than any episode … Read more