Summer reissue: In Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. This episode is with young-gun hip-hop duo Church & AP. First published April 14, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism … Read more
Summer reissue: In Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The first episode is with cross-Atlantic country maven Tami Neilson. First published April 1, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism … Read more
It’ll be the best email you get all week (probably). Do you struggle to keep up with all the great podcasts and video content The Spinoff puts out every week? Luckily, we have a solution – introducing Rec Room, The Spinoff’s latest and some are saying greatest [citation needed] newsletter. Every Wednesday, starting this week, … Read more
With his play Shot Bro: Confessions of a Depressed Bullet, actor Rob Mokaraka has been helping people from all over New Zealand to open up about mental health struggles. A new documentary explores his journey. Content warning: This story contains descriptions of suicide, violence and abuse, which may be triggering to survivors. In late July, … Read more
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same pain he did. Content warning: … Read more
The 48-hour film festival is back, self-isolation style. While the judging panel is deciding the winners, The Spinoff is showcasing seven films from the competition. We’re sharing one a day in the lead up to the one-hour awards special, airing on TVNZ2. First up, A Necessary Death from team Bubblemates. A Necessary Death follows a … Read more
Like the rest of New Zealand, musicians Marlon Williams and Finn Andrews (The Veils) are in lockdown. They caught up via video chat to perform covers of one another’s songs, talk about their punk dads, and reminisce about backstage karaoke. Before the lockdown, musicians Marlon Williams and Finn Andrews were set to embark on a series … Read more
In the new series Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The second episode is with young-gun hip-hop duo Church & AP. Their first big single, ‘Ready or Not’, dropped early last year. Almost immediately, Elijah Manū (Church) and … Read more
In the new series Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The first episode is with cross-Atlantic country maven Tami Neilson. “There’s before, and then there’s after.” It’s a prophetic lyric on Tami Neilson’s new album Chickaboom, coming from … Read more
Striking scenes from the first week of alert level four restrictions in our biggest city. As New Zealand adjusted to alert level four Covid-19 restrictions, the usually bustling streets of Tāmaki Makaurau were all but deserted. We captured this surreal, strangely beautiful footage during the first week of lockdown, visiting familiar Auckland locations including the … Read more
Cameo is a website where fans can pay for their favourite movie, television, sports or social media star to send them personalised video messages. In the throes of a full-face rash, I paid two of the country’s top sportspeople to send some positive vibes my way. For a while I’ve been obsessed with the idea … Read more
Season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drops on June 6, exclusively on Lightbox. Brush up on all the bonnets, babies and body horror of the first two seasons here. !!! Contains spoilers for season 1 and 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale !!! The first three episodes of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drop on Lightbox … Read more
Joining dancing dildos, flags, Eminem and ponytails, getting-left-off-maps can now be added to our rolling collection of the Last Week Tonight show’s coverage of its most favoured/lampooned nation. Update, February 19, 2019: Topical comedy programme Last Week Tonight has returned to HBO for 2019, and its dedicated New Zealand Monitoring Unit has delivered already. It may have been … Read more
This year was monumental for The Spinoff’s video department, producing all manner of documentaries, exposés and real crackup shit – plus two bloody telly shows! We select 10 of our favourite videos, in no real order, as decided by fierce internal debate. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
While the suffrage anniversary offers real cause for celebration, not everyone exercises their right to vote. In the second of two films in our Aren’t Can’t Don’t series, made with the assistance of NZ On Air, women explain why they don’t vote. One hundred and twenty-five years after women voted for the first time in a … Read more
Time travel, a bleak dalliance with the French King, and some dubious flatmates – is Jamie and Claire’s relationship actually worth it? Fictional relationship expert Madeleine Chapman passes judgement. Season Four of Outlander drops weekly on Lightbox from Monday November 5, and you can binge the three previous seasons there as well!
Today, British singer-songwriter Jess Glynne released her second album, Always In Between. If you don’t think you’ve heard of her, you probably have. Let us re-introduce you. One part ’90s house queen, one part Florence and/or the Machine and one part Natasha Bedingfield in her prime – Jess Glynne started off as a marketing manager … Read more
Can you sum up five seasons of the bed-hopping, flatmate-loving sitcom New Girl in one minute? Madeleine Chapman thinks she can. Watch five seasons of New Girl on Lightbox right here and right now: This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at Lightbox. Do … Read more
The future of screen formats is vertical, if Instagram TV has its way. And that may not be a bad thing, argues Lydia Burgham. Millennials have killed a lot of great things in this world: newspapers, analogue clocks, the music industry, face to face communication – but their greatest scalp of all may be horizontal … Read more
Wellington synthpop genius Disasteradio is playing Auckland City Limits this weekend! To help prepare you, The Spinoff retraces his career in 121 seconds. Wellington synthpop maestro Luke Rowell has been making hi-fi and high energy music under the pseudonym Disasteradio since 2000. He’s been on a prolific run ever since, playing over 400 shows in 22 countries … Read more
The 52nd New Zealand Parliament was sworn in this week. Many things were on display but it would have taken an eagle eye to spot everything that was happening and all that was said. We’ve taken pity on the novices out here and compiled this annotated video guide to the proceedings.
News that the Ministry of Justice spent $23,000 on five internal videos, including one featuring staff lip-synching to a Justin Timberlake hit, has caused the usual sputtering about wasteful government spending. Kathryn van Beek can’t stop the feeling that Timbergate isn’t actually a story. When you’re organising an employee engagement activity for public servants, the … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Auckland mayoral candidate Vic Crone, Alan Johnson of the Salvation Army Policy Unit, and Leonie Freeman from Goodman Property Trust discuss the crisis of homelessness and affordable house prices with Guyon Espiner. The latest Ika Table Talk, titled “Can’t We Fix This Housing Thing?” sold out within hours of being announced. On Tuesday … Read more