Here's one thing I've noticed about living overseas: you can learn a lot about a country's culture by watching TV.
Really, you can. For example, when I was living in Sweden, I learned about proper barbecue etiquette by watching a show where a bearded man with a striped shirt salted a fish for some reason, before inexplicably sprinkling what appeared to be lemon juice on top. While living in Germany, there was a whole channel that literally showed nothing but the feed from a camera attached to the front of a train, accompanied by a thumping techno soundtrack. While I have no idea what the purpose of any of it was, I did learn what all the different metro stations looked like before I'd actually visited any of them, which I suppose would've come in handy if there was a fire or something (I have to say, I thought the music was pretty good, too).
So when I came to Aotearoa, I had high hopes. Maybe there'd be a show that would educate people about how to identify the various types of flightless birds native to the Land of the Long White Cloud, I thought. Or maybe there'd be something that showed what typical Kiwi culture was like, such as a Big Bang Theory-style sitcom set in Wellington or a small-town police procedural taking place in Southland. Or, maybe, there'd be an awesome drama based on famous Maori legends, complete with stunning set pieces and actors speaking te reo (you know, like Game of Thrones, but with fewer dragons and less incest). With so many big-budget Hollywood blockbusters shot here, I assumed the TV would be of an equally high quality in terms of both its production value and the number of different shows.
Imagine my surprise when I came upon... well, all of it, really.