Sam Brooks is a playwright, journalist and critic. Email him on sam@thespinoff.co.nz
Sam Brooks looks back on Gwen Stefani's Love.Angel.Music.Baby on the album's fifteenth anniversary.
Who has nabbed the title of Dirtbag Bird of the Year 2019? Sam Brooks has the result.
Auckland's Giant Santa is retiring after the 2019 festive season. Sam Brooks has the good oil on what's happening to the local icon.
Sam Brooks, noted critic of the Queer Eye juggernaut, reviews Over the Top, a memoir by the show's most flamboyant star Jonathan Van Ness.
Sam Brooks is back with the real bird of the year competition: Dirtbag Bird of the Year.
As the HBO TV adaptation arrives on NEON, Sam Brooks looks back on His Dark Materials, the only children’s book series he was allowed to read as a kid.
Sam Brooks reviews the most anticipated game of 2019: Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding.
Sam Brooks reviews the latest Trails of Cold Steel entry and finds a rare thing: a game full of love and care.
The first half of the final season of depressed equine comedy BoJack Horseman drops today on Netflix, and it's as bleakly hilarious as ever.
People are calling Watchmen the next Game of Thrones, but what is it? Here's the essential background before you start streaming it on NEON.
Sam Brooks finds that nostalgia only goes so far in the 2019 remake of MediEvil.
The Movies, a documentary series that celebrates movies and their impact on culture, is available on TVNZ OnDemand today. Sam Brooks pulls some of the best quotes from its galaxy of stars.
Last night, Paula Bennett and Chloe Swarbrick finally debated the 2020 Cannabis Referendum. Sam Brooks has the play-by-play.
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don't know how to sew.
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’.
Jennifer Lopez gives the performance of her career in Hustlers, and mark Sam Brooks' words, she's going to get an Oscar for it. And it's long overdue, he writes.
Another acting challenge bites the drag dust with this take on Downton Abbey. Sam Brooks recaps the second episode of Drag Race.
Sam Brooks reports on his time at the first weekend of the inaugural Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, which coincided with the launch of Tuia 250.
Start your Chitty-Chitty Bang Bangs and may the best lady win! Sam Brooks recaps the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
Every single Lip Sync For Your Life/Legacy, ranked.
Ryan Murphy’s latest show for Netflix indulges without excesses and fires off shots without finding a target.
Grim post-apocalyptic settings are a dime a dozen in gaming, but which ones are the most realistic? Sam Brooks talked to climate scientist David Tong to find out.
Bad erotica never sounded so good. Sam Brooks talks to Jamie Morton of My Dad Wrote a Porno, about the hit podcast's fifth season and upcoming return visit to New Zealand.
Countdown's restriction on the sale of energy drinks to under-16s came into force this week. Avid energy drink consumer Sam Brooks writes on his relationship with the buzzy beverages.
Sam Brooks reviews Carnival Row, an Amazon Original which can't break free from its own shallow edginess.
With Falling Inn Love, New Zealand gets its very own Netflix romcom – so how accurate is its depiction of small town NZ?
