Plenty of famous Kiwi faces appear in the hit Netflix series. Yet, despite the show hitting No. 1 on streaming charts around the world, one cameo appearance seems to have gone unnoticed.

Steven Abbot, a clear-cut villain sporting combat pants, a bushy beard and blood red John Lennon sunglasses, is about to leave two people, a scientist and his sick wife, to burn to death. At the last minute, he realises they could be key to solving the pandemic ravaging the planet.

He has a change of heart. “Johnny!” bellows Abbot, beckoning his younger brother into the room. “Help our new friends pack.” In walks Johnny Abbot, a clear lookalike of Steven, with a kinder face and more hair on his head – especially down the back of his neck. 

My family, curled up on the couch smashing popcorn into their faces, didn’t blink. To me, that haircut was the giveaway. It was a glorious mullet, one so good it made me gasp. I’m sure I’d seen it before. I had. “That…” I stammered at the TV, “… is Marlon freaking Williams!” 

It shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise. Netflix’s hit series Sweet Tooth is full of New Zealanders. Shot here across the second half of last year, the post-apocalyptic show about a deadly virus and half-animal human hybrids features plenty of them, from Anna Jullienne to Jodie Rimmer, Suli Moa and Rhys Darby. 

Plenty of New Zealanders worked on the show behind the scenes too. A recent Stuff report suggests as much as 80% of the cast and crew were locals, including 28 heads of department. As well, three episodes were directed by New Zealanders Toa Fraser and Robyn Grace. 

But Williams? Williams is different. Williams is a full-time musician, known not for his acting but for singing gorgeously epic songs about heartbreak and putting on spellbinding live shows.

What is he doing in episode six of Sweet Tooth, sporting a wistful American accent, eating pop tarts straight out of the packet, and setting a horse free? Was it really him, or was my mind playing tricks on me? I had to know the answer. 

I checked Williams’ Wikipedia page. No mention of Sweet Tooth. I checked Google. Nothing. So I checked IMDB, the Hollywood bible. Williams’ other acting stints, on the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga sob story A Star Is Born, and the 2015 Aussie mini-series The Beautiful Lie, were listed. But, when I first checked the page, there was no mention of Sweet Tooth.

In the age of social media, where every single canary fart gets logged on Twitter, surely someone else had spotted this obvious cameo appearance? Yet even Twitter was bereft of details, with just a couple of lone tweets that didn’t help my situation. One said: “Am I crazy or does Marlon Williams appear in Sweet Tooth?”

I was starting to think I was crazy too. So I did what anyone else would do in this situation. I found Williams’ website, clicked on the contact link, and fired a message into the ether.

The reply landed in my inbox the following day. “I feel like almost no one in the New Zealand press has noticed him being in it,” said Williams’ manager, Alastair Burns, from Heartstop Music. Yes! There it is! The proof I needed!

Burns had a theory why no one else had spotted him. “I guess it just featured so many Kiwi cast and his role is small.” But it’s not that small. Johnny Abbot is a cult figure in Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth comic books that the TV series is based on because he likes to help the child hybrids imprisoned by his evil order brother. No spoilers, but this becomes important in the eighth and final episode of the series, when Johnny Abbot makes his second appearance in the show.

I asked Burns if Williams would talk to me, to tell me how he ended up in Sweet Tooth, and what it was like making a show that has topped streaming charts around the world. How had no one else noticed his appearance in the show?

But his answer was no. Williams is too busy making new music. “He’s deep in recording mode,” Burns said. That’s a good thing. That means the follow-up to 2018’s Make Way For Love might be on the way.

Burns also raised the potential of something else, something that hasn’t yet been confirmed – a second season of Sweet Tooth. Yes, Williams might need to keep that stunning mullet of his intact, just in case his “role expands”. 

“We don’t know anything yet but hoping it works out,” Burns told me. I’m hopeful too. My family just finished Sweet Tooth last night, and we’re bereft. It’s the first show we’ve all been able to binge, and fall in love with, together.

What are we supposed to watch now?

A new season of heart-warming American drama Virgin River arrives on Netflix today. Tara Ward has some ideas about what fans can look forward to.

Watching Virgin River is the TV equivalent of eating a big meal of comfort food. It’s a show to escape into, set in a world where nothing bad happens and the biggest drama is who wins the egg relay race at the community fair. It’s flawed, but the deeper you dive into Virgin River, the less you care. You’ll fall in love with Virgin River, because that is the law in Virgin River. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 

Virgin River follows Melinda “Mel” Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge), a nurse practitioner who moves from Los Angeles to the remote Northern Californian town of Virgin River for a fresh start. Mel is leaving behind a world of pain, but adjusting to small town life won’t be easy. The town’s grumpy doctor doesn’t want her there, the mayor lied about the job, and it seems her only friend might be handsome-but-troubled bar owner Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), who might just be the best bloke on the telly. 

You can already sense where Virgin River is going, but that’s why I love it. This is safe, cosy television that will warm your heart on the coldest of winter nights. Relationships are built, pasts are confronted and there’s plenty of pashing in front of an open fire. This is what you came for, lovers, and Virgin River will win you over with its likeable characters and a love story that you’ll get completely behind, even though Martin Henderson has been your secret boyfriend since the mid-1990s when he wore his denim overalls with one buckle undone on Shortland Street. Call me on my landline, Martin. 

Virgin River is beautifully bland and deliciously predictable, and I will hoover up this new season like it’s my final meal. But how predictable is it, really? Here are some guesses at what could (won’t, but should) happen in season three. 

1) The scenery will still be incredible

Trees! Water! Man made buildings! Virgin River is a glorious utopia of natural wonders, even if it does have scary men and dead bodies hiding in the forest. Have you seen those mountains? Wouldn’t want to climb them, always happy to look at them. 

2) Jack will open up about his PTSD, peeling back his layers like a vulnerable onion

In truly heartwarming scenes, Jack will wrap himself in a patchwork quilt and reveal his trauma stems not from being a marine in Afghanistan, but from living in a small New Zealand suburb called Ferndale, when his ambulance driver dad Tom Neilson went to the dairy for cream and never came back. Mel will be astonished, but she will hold Jack and they will weep together, because one time in Los Angeles she saw cream and she understands his pain. 

3) Preacher will run out of pie

This will be the true cliffhanger of season three, because Preacher’s pie keeps the town moving. Virgin River is nothing without Preacher’s food and Preacher is nothing without Virgin River, and Piegate will be a big old disaster wrapped in pastry and regret. 

4) The skeleton in the corner of Doc Mullin’s office will come to life, and Jack and Mel will seek refuge in a ramshackled mountain cabin with an open fire and plenty of cut wood to escape it

A bone is never just a bone in Virgin River. 

5) Mel’s gorgeous log cabin will be swallowed up by cushions

She lives in a rustic house of dreams, but I’m sure there are 10 more cushions and quilts stuffed in there every episode. It’s a pillow pandemic. Mel came to Virgin River to escape her troubles, but maybe they’re just beginning. Pray for Mel, pray for her surfaces. 

6) Hope will remember she’s the mayor of Virgin River

She’ll make everyone address her as “Your Royal Hopeness”, and pass a local law that makes community gossip a compulsory discussion topic at every council meeting.  

7) Mel will change lives with her perfect mix of reflexology, instinct, and big city medical know-how

Mel’s modern approach to medicine means she often clashes with Doc, who thinks women should take notes and dust things. She’ll catch him at a weak moment, find his pressure points and quickly massage some feminism into him. Doc will begin to feel better. After all, Mel worked in Los Angeles, she probably knows the Kardashians. After Doc puts his socks back on, he’ll realise Mel should do what Mel does best, which is help people, save lives, and look wistfully at Jack’s lumberjack dimples, just like the rest of us.

8) The annual egg relay race will be clouded in controversy

Allegations of cheating and steroid use will run rampant through Virgin River, and I wouldn’t put it past General Store owner Connie to – prepare yourself – use a rubber egg. Connie has hidden depths, and rubber eggs are barely scratching the surface.

9) Doc and Hope will become the biggest hornbags in town

I’m here for it. Love these oldies getting their second wind. 

10) Charmaine’s babies will be born with Jack’s stubble and Mel’s incredible hair

Science suggests this is unlikely, but that won’t stop a delicious Virgin River rumour. The babies will be known as the Amazing Twins of Virgin River and their story will spread far and wide amongst the land, because Mel’s hair is spectacular. Some days it’s auburn, some days it’s blonde, and in season two, it’s as long and flowing as the Virgin River itself. Yes, she’s going through some tough emotional stuff, but her hair? That beautiful barnet never lets her down.

Season three of Virgin River arrives on Netflix tonight.