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Photos: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal
Photos: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal

Pop CultureFebruary 8, 2023

Treasure Island: Fans v Faves rankings, week two: A Tale of Two Joshes

Photos: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal
Photos: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal

It’s only week two, but already our fans and faves are feeling the strain. Tara Ward power ranks.

Like a pair of Josh Kronfeld’s undies sent out to sea, our Treasure Island castaways have found themselves bobbing around on choppy waters. This was a tense week that saw one contestant sent to join the opposition camp, two Joshes eliminated and six celebrities get super excited over some cold McDonalds. It also rained for three days straight, which is good for the garden but not so good for famous people trying to look composed on the telly.

Luckily, there’s nothing in this silly little game that a six pack of nuggets can’t fix (or is there?), and seeing Dame Suzy Devoy twirl in a flowy kaftan until she gets dizzy should brighten anyone’s bad day. Let’s spin straight into this week’s power rankings.


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ELIMINATED: Josh Kronfeld

Some people walk in the rain and others just get wet, and the rest eat lettuce while their teammates engage in high level strat chat. “You guys are worried about the wrong things,” Kronfeld told the Faves as they planned and schemed, but then Matty blindsided Josh with an elimination nomination and Josh probably wished he hadn’t paid so much attention to his salad. The All Black was farewelled in the traditional manner, by sending his dirty undies out to sea. RIP to us all.

ELIMINATED: Josh Oakley

Josh Oakley was named after Josh Kronfeld, so it’s fitting that he left the game straight after his namesake. Josh O almost beat Art Green in the elimination challenge, but he struggled to roll some balls into a jar and then his whole game was over. Now Josh is sad and his mum Susan Devoy is sad and it’s been pissing down with rain ever since, so make of that what you will.

12. Katie Middleton

Chaos energy from Katie this week, as she threw traditional strategy into the lagoon and started playing her own game. Instead of voting for Josh as captain like she promised, Katie voted for herself, which is a cracker of a tactical move – but only if you remember to tell other people to vote for you as well. Look, Katie’s determined to have a lovely time, and you don’t have to be a dame in a kaftan to know that sometimes that’s all that matters.

11. Dave Ward

Wardie won a hectic game of charades, but opted not to compete in a face-off challenge because he had sunburned shoulders. See? This game really does hurt, especially if you don’t have a sun-smart hat like Jane Yee.

10. Alex King

A tough week for Alex, who was banished to the Fans camp in an unexpected Matty McLean power play, despite not wanting to leave the Faves. Things started awkwardly with the Fans, but eventually Alex started having a great time. By “great”, I mean “less sucky”, but at least she got the fire going and helped Wardie find his first mystical rock, so I think everything’s fine now? It’s fine.

9. Joe Cotton

This slip-and-slide queen wasn’t afraid to tell Susan Devoy off for breaking camp rules, even if it was a chat so tense that I felt awkward in my own home. She also wasn’t afraid to drop another surprising nugget of truth, which is that a McDonald’s meal reward does not cheer up a bunch of soggy celebrities like you might think it would.

8. Adam O’Brien

He’s just one man, playing this game with an overwhelming sense of loathing, waiting for a miracle to wash up on shore.

7. Lana Searle

Thank goodness someone is prepared to ask the big questions in this unyielding contest of power and strategy.

6. Art Green

Big week for Big Art. He ate McDonalds for the first time in three years, inherited Josh Kronfeld’s mysterious rock, and beat Josh Oakley in the elimination challenge. Is The Bach between a rock and a hard place? Sources say: yes.

5. Dame Susan Devoy

A lot can change in one week on Treasure Island, and nobody knows that better than Dame Suzy D. Last week:

This week:

Susan Devoy is a smooth criminal, who – much like a pair of Josh Kronfeld’s gruts – was born to be free. She was given a “first and final warning” by host Jayden Daniels after he discovered Susan was visiting the Fans’ camp, and after her second infringement, Jayden made the entire Faves team give up their food rewards. Matty scolded Suzy D like she was a naughty schoolgirl, but excuse me, your honour, my client pleads innocence, mostly because she doesn’t give a shit. Instead, please refer to this lovely moment of The Dame wafting around in a kaftan, a la Lynette Forday.

4. Anna Thomas

New Fans captain Anna isn’t afraid to make waves, which is handy when you live on a beach. One minute she was upset that Josh didn’t like her, the next she was mad that Josh built a big fish jigsaw by himself, then she was annoyed that Jane told the Faves all the goss about the captain’s vote. Being captain is tough, but imagine how hard it was being that big fish puzzle. That fish has seen some things, and I’m not just talking about Josh Kronfeld’s undies.

3. Lance Savali

He won $5,000 in the charity challenge, but mostly won hearts and minds with this endearing wet weather ensemble. Bravo.

2. Jane Yee

If this was a power ranking of hats, Jane would win every week. If this was a power ranking of winks, Jane would smash the competition into smithereens with a single crease of one eyelid. Sadly, this is a power ranking of power and last week’s captain is now this week’s team player, forced to keep her new captain on side while continuing to scheme with Matty and Lance through a complicated series of winks and nods. Nancy Wake could never.

1. Matty McLean

Dame Suzy D wasn’t the only rule breaker this week, because Matty McLean looked The Bachelor dead in the eye and told a bold-faced lie. Legend has it that lying to Art Green makes your soul shrivel up and turn paleo in an instant, but Matty did it anyway, even trying to throw a challenge so the Fans would win and then nominate Art. He lied, he schemed, he blindsided his teammates. Matty McLean is living his best life on the beach of dreams, even if Suzy D did lose the Faves all their biscuits and tuna.

But canned goods aside, Matty McLean was power personified. He’s discovering new sides to his game, like during the challenge when Dame Suzy D screamed at Matty until he found muscles he didn’t know he had, and together they pushed a pole so hard that the Fans eventually self-combusted into pieces of sand, never to be seen again. A truly heartwarming moment, and that, my friends, is power.

Treasure Island: Fans v Faves screens Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm on TVNZ2 and streams on TVNZ+.


Follow our reality TV recap podcast The Real Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

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The cast of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)
The cast of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)

Pop CultureFebruary 6, 2023

‘I approached writing a TV series the same way I approached writing my Tinder profile’

The cast of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)
The cast of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)

Screenwriter Dana Leaming’s debut comedy series Not Even is out now on Prime and Neon. This is the out the gate story of how it got there.

Kia ora, Hi, What up? Up to? U up? …I’m Dana. 

I wrote and co-directed (with Ainsley Gardiner) the TV show Not Even out on Prime and Neon. It depicts the lives of Māori and Pasifika 20-somethings floating around Wellington failing spectacularly at being adults and failing even worse at understanding their cultural identities.

And it’s a comedy.  

In all honesty I approached writing Not Even like I approached writing my Tinder profile. All my insecurities rose to the surface, got somewhat drunk, called a friend, found a cat, cat was not friendly, got my friend drunk with me, ate dumplings, wrote manically for three hours, freaked out, deleted it and then ended staying up till 4am to then return to my original writing thinking it wasn’t that bad in the first place.

My Tinder profile is now defunct, Not Even on the other hand is anything but. 

Ainsley Gardiner and Dana Leaming on the set of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)

I would say my journey to what is a fully formed TV show on a major platform was a bit, excuse my French, out the gate. 

I first lived and experienced a good portion of what happens in Not Even when I was gracefully (I say this with a heavy sprinkling of sarcasm) crashing through Wellington from about 2009 until 2014 as a uni student and general hot mess. I found struggling with my connection to my taha Māori was causing havoc with my mental health. I was forging an identity but it wasn’t coming easily and I felt like a fraud most of the time which would serve as the basis for the kaupapa of Not Even. 

After a stint overseas I came back to start my Masters in creative writing for the screen at the IIML at Victoria University in 2018 and spent the year developing Not Even as my major project. And then the project lay dormant for three years. During that time I hustled. I worked at a cafe, worked on music videos on the side, got an office job, still tried to hustle on the side but wasn’t making it work as well. Eventually I started to let the dream of being a writer/filmmaker go.

Bear in mind, I was 30 at this point and being a mild failure was getting less cute by the minute. I was like, “alright, you had a moment, that moment has passed and now you’re out here eating toast off your bare chest, girl find another dream.”

So I found another office job that was quite fulfilling – not my dream, but it was good work.

Then I got an opportunity with a production company. I sent my Not Even scripts away to be read and… they politely passed. 

The cast of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)

So like every unhinged 30-year-old with their dream disintegrating right in front of them I got schwasted at my friend’s 30th, went missing for an hour, was found in a tree and was then fed bread on a picnic blanket by my friends. Six months later, around July 2021, I got an email from someone who had read my script back when it was at the IIML – they put it forward to Thomas Robins at Sky Originals and nek minute I was on a zoom call with Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Conder from Miss Conception Films discussing how we were going to go for funding to get Not Even off the ground. 

By December 2021 we had full production funding and I was staring down a 2022 that now had me writing and co-directing my own TV show. 

When I think back to the first hour and a half conversation me and Ainsley had over Zoom I cannot fathom how she thought, yip this woman is the vibe, let’s shoot a TV show together. I don’t know exactly what I said in that Zoom but whatever it was I will be forever grateful to that Dana because I could not see myself going through this without the formidable leadership of Ainsley Gardiner. 

Dana Leaming and Ainsley Gardiner on the set of Not Even (Photo: Supplied)

Ainsley is the tits, there’s no other way to put it. She knows her shit and she’s really freaking smart. And she took me along for the ride which was and still is a genuine privilege and honour I’m still coming to terms with. I was taking a massive step forward and she had this really great way of getting the best out of me in very short spaces of time but also allowing me to impart my vision for the series freely. But the best thing is we had a great time. We laughed like hyenas for a good portion of the shoot in spite of the crazy hours and unpredictable weather. And for that I’m extremely lucky. 

I will never know why it was the right time for my script to somehow make its way in front of a commissioner at Sky and set off my new career. Luck? Hard work? The universe finally answering my drunken prayers? Who knows? 

What I do know is that Not Even is here and I was able to get it made with an awesome cast and crew and amazing co-director. If there’s anything I’ve learnt from this insane experience is that sometimes, for whatever reason, things work out and you get to do it all. It’s a humbling place to be. 

I still eat toast off my bare chest though. 

Not Even is available from February 6 on Neon and SkyGo.

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