TV review: Nice but dim wannabes make good

Laura is one of the contestants of NZ's Next Top Model. Photo / Supplied

The girls of New Zealand's Next Top Model didn't do much to dispel that myth about models during last night's premiere. You know, like, the one about them, like not, being that smart and stuff?

But they certainly proved themselves more than capable of entertaining, as they delivered no end of unintentionally funny lines.

Like the girl who was in awe of host Sara Tetro because she "like owns 62 models". She made it sound as if Tetro had them hidden in a cupboard under her stairs. All 62 of them.

Then there was the girl who practises her walk all the time, even when she goes to the bathroom. Cross her off the list of potential flatmates.

That was Hosanna from Gisborne, who is fast shaping up to be the bitch of the series. Good. There was some concern New Zealand girls were too nice to make good reality TV.

Hosanna's not very nice but she doesn't care. She's in it to win it. Running to see if she'd made it into the top 20, she said: "If someone did pass me I would have pushed them over."

She's already clashed with one girl - the strange and sullen Teryl Leigh. They both made it into the top 13 so you can expect more catty scraps from them in coming weeks.

Also adding to the drama stakes - a Sudanese model whose family escaped the war-ravished country, and an epileptic former morphine addict. Not even Tyra's bagged one of those before.

If she had, she might have been a little more sympathetic than Tetro was as she interrogated the potential top models. Mama Tyra she ain't.

At one point she went to hug a crying contestant. The girl didn't flinch - but I did. It was similar to how I imagine crabs might hug.

It's fair to say the judging panel don't quite stack up to their American counterparts. The men were too quiet - although Colin Mathura-Jeffree came out with the odd good line. Like when he told one of the girls she looked "like an air hostess who doesn't want to serve anyone".

As for guest judge Angela Dunn - "New Zealand's first supermodel" - I Googled her name afterwards and she wasn't even the top search result. How is that a supermodel?

The real star of the show was the stunning location and backdrop to it all - Queenstown. Even the gardens of Rome in last week's final of America's Next Top Model didn't look nearly as lush as the shores of Lake Wakatipu.

In using the scenic setting, the producers managed to avoid the major problem that has plagued other countries' Top Model spin-offs - cheap nasty studios.

Anyone who's ever seen the British version will be all too aware of how bad lighting and tinny sound can ruin the "drama" of an elimination.

So big tick for that. And big tick for making it more interesting than the dire Australian version.

As for the girls, maybe they're top-model material. Maybe not. They certainly make for some top television.