Around 2pm every day this week, The Spinoff counts down the 100 most iconic local television moments of the 2010s. Today, moments 40-21.
Previously:
The 100 NZ TV moments of the decade, #100 – #81
The 100 NZ TV moments of the decade, #80 – #61
The 100 NZ TV moments of the decade, #60 – 41
40) This wonderful live cross
Blood moon. Artificial light. Up high. Back to you in the studio. / Alex Casey
39) Filthy Rich and everything about Filthy Rich, 2016
To quote Duncan Greive’s chilled out review of the premiere. “The show becomes a caricature of New Zealand, with heartless wealth and plucky poverty and a cynical pimp and a conniving businesswoman. The show it called to mind the most was Dallas, a groundbreaking drama centred around the scions of a wealthy family. State-of-the-art in 1980. Nearly four decades on we need so much more.”
38) Miriama Kamo throws down on Hosking, 2016
Marae host Miriama Kamo calmly put Hosking in his place after he’d added his two cents to a Seven Sharp story about New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd. “Like most Māori, I have lived with casual and often deliberate racism my entire life,” Miriama said. “But when we use a powerful prime time television platform to dismiss and ignore racism in our community, in my view, that’s unacceptable.” / TW
37) The woman tells all, 2016
The second season of The Bachelor NZ was mostly super boring – Jordan Mauger, a sometime actor, doing a poor job of faking interest in a group of confused women. Yet one genuinely liked him: Fleur Verhoeven, who eventually ‘won’ the series. Her joy was short-lived – he broke up with her hours after shooting wrapped, and she responded in an electric and deeply affecting interview on Story. He became a pariah – but worse was to come. At the end of a lengthy interview on The Spinoff’s ‘The Real Pod’ the following year, he casually revealed to the hosts that he flipped a coin to decide the winner. The story went around the world, making it the third Three reality show of the decade (after Real Housewives of Auckland and X-Factor NZ) to acquire international ignominy. / DG
36) The Shortland Street poonami, 2018
Drew was just a doctor, standing in front of a burst septic pipe, asking it to drown him. Now this was an Emergency Defecation Situation worthy of some Hilary Barry hysterics. Pootastic. / TW
35) Wolf meets Cheryl on Westside, 2017
As I wrote in 2017, he was just a boy in a leather jacket, standing in front of a girl, asking her to let him steal a fistful of cigarettes. / AC
34) Robyn’s tumble on My First Home, 2015
Wheelbarrows are evil and must be stopped. / TW
33) Suzy Cato arrives on Dancing With the Stars NZ, 2018
Where Were You When Suzy Cato Burst Through The Crowd Wearing A Gold Lamé Top And Leather Pants? / AC
32) Justin Bieber doesn’t know German, 2010
I think it’s important to acknowledge just what an impact Justin Bieber’s whirlwind 2010 visit had on our pop culture canon. Not only did it provide this wonderful moment, it also gave us the killer L&P and the great hat heist of the decade. Chill? We don’t say that in New Zealand. / AC
31) This is the fucking news
It was an iconic exchange. “This is a fucking library”. “This is the fucking news!” It doesn’t matter that the moment was actually a scripted part of a law revue skit – it felt real and in character at that moment, coming at the peak of Paddy Gower’s eye-popping political editor fame, before he chilled out On Weed. / DG
30) The end of ULive
“For two and a bit years, the hallowed halls of TVNZ’s gleaming mothership were a playground for New Zealand’s most exciting young talent. There was the guy from Squirt and two future Billy T winners, one of whom just won the Olympics of comedy in Edinburgh. It was eccentric, electric, and then it was gone.” / AC
29) Mouse in the house on The Ridges, 2012
The Spinoff’s Hayden Donnell investigated the conspiracy of the decade: what was that mouse really doing in Sally Ridge’s kitchen? “It crept up silently. Jaime saw it first. She screamed. Sally immediately screamed in reply. The mouse just seemed to dance in the centre of the room, ignoring their distress, taunting them like a deranged shaman of the underworld.” / TW
28) Guy Williams pranks Breakfast, 2010
Crazy to think that this was definitely, definitely the last time a comedian pranked the media. / AC
27) David Seymour twerks
Even accounting for Maz Quinn’s stone-faced, stone-bodied one episode cameo, David Seymour was easily the least competent contestant on Dancing with the Stars NZ this decade, and would be all-time if another ACT leader, Rodney Hide, hadn’t dropped his partner mid-routine last decade. Seymour was kept on by text voters as a kind of living meme, which directly led to the splendour of a hypercoloured libertarian twerking on primetime TV. / DG
26) Naz vs the world on The Women Tell All
New Zealanders aren’t meant to make US-style reality television. We’re too shy, too self-effacing. Too damn polite most of the time. This is why Naz Khanjani was such a startling presence on the second season of The Bachelor NZ – she was a lot more than we were used to. Yet all that was just an appetiser for her command performance on The Women Tell All, when she dominated the show to the point of breaking its strict format, lying all over Mauger and delivering endless perfect lines, searing herself into the memory of anyone who watched it. / DG
25) Oriini Kaipara reads the news, 2019
“This month journalist Oriini Kaipara made history as the new face of the 1News midday bulletin and the first newsreader on a mainstream news broadcast to wear moko kauae,” Leonie Hayden wrote for The Spinoff earlier this week. “She expressed her joy in a Facebook post, saying ‘This is for US. ALL OF US.’ And it really felt like it was.”
24) National Party ‘Lose Yourself’ election campaign ad, 2014
The National Party rowed into a river of controversy when Eminem’s music publisher sued them for breaching copyright on notorious boomer anthem ‘Lose Yourself’. Steven Joyce reckoned the ad was “pretty legal”, Eight Mile was spewing, and National was later ordered to pay $600,000 for the use of Eminem’s work. The name of National’s track? ‘Eminem-esque’. / TW
23) Know what I’ve heard about you? Not a fucking thing, 2016
Fact: Gilda Kirkpatrick’s savage putdown of fellow real housewife Angela Stone was a better, more withering one-liner than almost any which came out of New Zealand’s scripted drama in the ‘00s. / DG
22) Ferndale welcomes Blue
For all the undeserved crap that Shortland Street gets heaped upon it, largely by people who don’t watch it, it’s a lot more progressive than most of our other TV media. / TW
21) Ghost Chips, 2011
Spoon. / TW