Pop Culture

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Featuring old mate John Aiken, a very familiar beard, and New Zealand's own version of Lucinda Light.

Meet the cast of Married at First Sight NZ for 2024

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'It's so good and so bad at the same time... I never watch it in front of anyone.'

‘Everybody rolls their eyes’: Dame Susan Devoy’s guilty TV pleasure

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If you love a Scandi-noir drama, you’ll enjoy High Country.

Review: High Country is the ideal crime drama for a cold winter night

New crime drama High Country is the ideal show for a cold winter night

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Please rise for the national anthem (Bic Runga 'Sway' in American Pie).

Knocked Up, American Pie, the Bean movie: A brief history of NZ music in Hollywood 

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This 'existential cathartic dramedy' from Eagle vs Shark's Loren Taylor is unlike anything this country has ever produced.

The star-studded New Zealand movie you need to see as soon as possible

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What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like 'can you name a single book you’ve ever read?' and 'did you read it, or did you just see the movie?'

A handy primer for arts spokespeople who know nothing about New Zealand art

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Above the Fold: Yesterday the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. 

How a High Court showdown between two Māori culture giants flared and faded in a day

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A new season of one of TV's best comedies, Troy Kingi goes to Joshua Tree and Jerry Seinfeld's bonkers new movie about breakfast.

New to streaming: What to watch on Netflix NZ, Neon and more this week

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If you think you don't remember Montana Sunday Theatre, try hitting play on one very particular piece of classical music.

‘Apologies to Dvořák’: How a serenade for strings cemented one of New Zealand TV’s strongest partnerships

‘Apologies to Dvořák’: How one piece of classical music became shorthand for prestige drama

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'After you’ve chopped up that carrot, who cares what it looked like?'

Waste not, want not: New series Food Rescue Kitchen turns food trash into treasure

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‘I know reality TV is one of those things people love to hate and hate to love, but it’s something New Zealand should be proud of.’

‘I don’t know if we were brave or stupid’: Megan Alatini on changing reality TV

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It's more than just a kids' cartoon about talking dogs, OK?

I saw ‘The Sign’, and it opened up my eyes: All the fuss around Bluey, explained

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The 'Wicked Game' heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn't stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show.

‘A hell of a lot of fun’: Our reviews of Chris Isaak’s dazzling Auckland show

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Hear me out: All I want is a TrueBliss T-shirt

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Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.

Remembering the great TrueBliss vs Bardot national anthem sing-off

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'I just remember seeing them live for the first time and thinking to myself: This is it. This is the reason. This is what life is all about.'

‘It was my Eras tour’: Meet the world’s biggest TrueBliss fans

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Review: Scotney's solo show is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see.

Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko reveals the frightening talent of Ana Scotney

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Is Olivia Rodrigo about to announce a New Zealand show? An investigation

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TrueBliss react to their most iconic Y2K Popstars looks

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A weepy Paul Mescal movie, an inspiring new series about food waste and a whole lot of 80s rock'n'roll mullets.

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From freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own.

How to make the most of oyster season

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The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. 

Tense office dynamics draining your soul? Kink can help with that

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Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops.

A week on, the school phone ban is (mostly) winning praise

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The initial focus on local histories makes sense, as children’s knowledge of the world and their connections to it grows as they do.

Teachers don’t want the new histories curriculum to be ‘rebalanced’

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The national bird has caused a national economic crisis that only the National coalition government can fix.

At last! The kiwi is getting its comeuppance 

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The best places in Ōtepoti to pick up everything from medical romance novels to rare first edition hardbacks.

Dunedin’s secondhand bookshops, ranked and reviewed

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Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don't ask him to adopt you. 

Tips and tricks for when your therapist looks like your dad

, FIRST presents a collection of horror flat stories – featuring maggots, a bail hostel and a massage studio in the lounge.

FIRST’s best flatting stories | FIRST | The Spinoff

 collects some of the best flatting stories from the series so far, from Lucy Suttor setting up a massage studio in her lounge, Ladyhawke seeing maggots for the first time, Angella Dravid’s three years in a bail hostel and Alice Snedden’s flatmate trying to impose a baking tax.

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Featuring maggots, a bail hostel and a massage studio in the lounge.

The Spinoff

Pop CultureSeptember 28, 2022

A compilation of FIRST’s best flatting stories

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