Sam Brooks is a playwright, journalist and critic. Email him on sam@thespinoff.co.nz
Sam Brooks reviews the most anticipated game of the year: the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
A lifelong Studio Ghibli fan guides you through what films to introduce your kids and when.
It's got one of the best happy hour wine deals in the city, and that's just the start.
The new true crime documentary sensation shares many of the flaws of its own subject.
We explain CNZ's new $16 million Emergency Response Package addressing the impacts of Covid-19, along with some added clarity from CEO Stephen Wainwright.
From Wednesday at 11:59pm, New Zealand will be in lockdown for four weeks. Here's what that means.
As we head into our first weekend practising social distancing, Sam Brooks offers a few tips on how to be social while saying alone.
Sam Brooks surveys the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the performing arts community.
HBO’s biggest drama since Game of Thrones returns for a third season to NEON tonight. Here’s everything you need to know about Westworld season three.
This is yet another tab clogging up your browser, and that's fine.
Sam Brooks reviews Media Molecule's Dreams, the game that allows you to turn your dreams into (virtual) reality.
Sam Brooks reviews Japanese novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold – which Aucklanders, inexplicably, will not stop buying.
Lifelong superfan Sam Brooks got to play five hours of the Final Fantasy 7 remake ahead of its release. He reports back on how the game successfully adapts the twenty-year old classic.
Less than half of New Zealand adults have a will. One hundred percent of New Zealand adults die.
The new wave of RTDs might have cool labels and no carbs or whatever, but none come close to the perfection held within that little yellow can.
Sam Brooks reviews I Am Not Okay With This, the series that feels like a calculated mash-up of a bunch of other Netflix shows you really liked.
After days of rumours, Mediaworks have removed Hannah Tamki as a cast members for the 2020 season of Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks reflects on the past two days of controversy.
Over the weekend, a Twitter spat blew up into a full blown controversy when New Zealander Jason Lei Howden blew up his own movie with a bizarre series of tweets.
He's been the country's leading supporter of the strangest films in the world, and now he's made his first feature film, starring Elijah Wood.
The Star Wars prequels are universally regarded as the nadir of the franchise, but at least they gave us spinoff series The Clone Wars, writes Sam Brooks
Shen Yun ads are impossible to avoid, but what the hell is Shen Yun?
Sam Brooks investigates what would happen if Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist took a trip to New Zealand to listen to our finest export: Our bangers.
Sam Brooks heads along to Meatstock 2020, and finds himself questioning the symbiotic relationship between meat-eating and machismo.
To All The Boys I've Loved Before was the Netflix hit of 2018, but the sequel feels designed to replicate the success of the original without half as much heart.
Sam Brooks talks to artists in this year's New Zealand Festival of the Arts about the work they’re making and what collaboration means to them.
Sam Brooks watched today's NFL Super Bowl and recaps the moments that mattered.
