Some of the best things on TV: Funny Girls, Brokenwood Mysteries and Anne the Champagne Lady
Now into its third season, Brokenwood is becoming a bit of a national television treasure: our very own wry and idiosyncratic take on the classic murder mystery. In terms of Brokenwood's overseas counterparts, the gripping, atmospheric, and very good six-part second series of Shetland is worth a look on Netflix.
An international-quality documentary series about the internationally renowned Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Why Am I? was a labour of love for its creators and it showed in every carefully crafted sequence and every thoughtfully considered shot. Internationally, ESPN's O.J.: Made in America was colossal: part true crime, part social history, wholly absorbing.
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MasterChef winners Kasey and Karena Bird are great TV talents, and watching them discover a new corner of the world every week with wide eyes and open hearts was a rare pleasure. Credit also to Kiwi Living for keeping on going back to the drawing board - this year's series took a slightly different approach to the humble Kiwi lifestyle show, and the result was more laid back, more relatable, and a lot more fun.
The first season of TV3's Friday night sketch comedy Funny Girls shocked a lot of viewers by being actually ... well ... funny. This year's second season was even better: it was weirder, more specific, and drew from a deeper pool of comedy talent. Internationally Veep was still at the top of its game with its fifth season, but how are they going to make season six now the real White House has become stranger than fiction?
If you need your faith in humanity restored after the year that was, spend a few hours watching these beautiful, good-humoured mini-portraits of Thames' "Life Stylers", the residents of the Supported Life Style Hauraki Trust. Streaming on TVNZ OnDemand or at amystreet.net.
Marae Kai Masters, Sidewalk Karaoke, Finding Aroha, Game of Bros, Mama-Son Learner League - each of Maori Television's reality offerings had more originality, humour and heart than all the big-budget major network reality shows put together.
She bubbled, she fizzed, she was the life of the party. The Champagne Lady joined the Housewives cast seemingly from another realm and lightened every scene she was in with her champagne-fixated eccentricity and that iconic cackle. Her best moment was an outtake shared on the Bravo twitter account in which she Skyped an animal communicator to talk to her pet seagull. Deserves her own show.
Oddly serene and incredibly addictive Japanese reality show about young people living together. Sounds similar to Big Brother or Jersey Shore but is actually more like the complete polar opposite. Watch the first five minutes and emerge 46 episodes later in tears because you don't want it to end yet.
TVNZ's "man channel" had an inauspicious launch back in March, but it has been quietly evolving into a welcome addition to the free-to-air landscape ever since. Mostly that's down to the growing amount of live sports they've secured - the NFL and Bundesliga are big draws, and the smaller-market NBA games are a fun alternative to ESPN for basketball nerds.
The infuriatingly multi-talented Donald Glover, who released a hit album earlier this month, also created and starred in one of the year's most acclaimed new television series. Atlanta premieres on SoHo on Thursday and it's probably going to be good.
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