TimeOut reviews 2018 to find out who's been extra nice, or a little naughty this year.
THE NICE LIST:
Whoever stepped up at TVNZ
TVNZ struck gold by taking a few gambles this year. That's why we're devoting a spot on this list to whoever got House of Drag, Anika Moa Unleashed and The Casketeers over the line. Each show elevated new and exciting voices, providing a reprieve from the usual onslaught of tired reality TV formats. House of Drag shone a light on New Zealand's thriving drag culture; Anika Moa Unleashed gave us, well, exactly that, and it was wonderful; while The Casketeers offered a lovely window into the lives of a modern Māori family who happen to run a funeral home. Ka pai, TVNZ.
If you missed Hannah Gadsby's insane Netflix stand-up special, we have one question: How? Normally, a standup special from an unknown Australian comic wouldn't be noteworthy, but Gadsby's set social media on fire because it wasn't so much comedy as it was a searing social commentary in which she opened up on being queer, being female, being sexually abused, and being mad as hell at the patriarchy. We laughed, sure, but we – and many others – ugly-cried too. It was brutally honest and raw, and often painfully relatable for many women. On top of that, it redefined the boundaries of what comedians could do on stage.
Taika Waititi might be hot Hollywood property now, but along with his producing partner Carthew Neal, he remains committed to telling Kiwi stories. Their company Piki Films assembles a killer team of NZ storytellers: Madeleine Sami, Jackie van Beek, Jessica Hansell (Coco Solid), Tanu Gago, Sophie Henderson & Curtis Vowell. This year, the company released The Breaker Upperers and an interactive documentary on FAFSWAG; they also began production on a new season of Aroha Bridge, while Henderson and Vowell are reportedly working on a new feature film. These are unapologetically New Zealand stories, and ones that might not have previously seen the light of day.
Ladi 6
Let's just take a minute to applaud Ladi6 because frankly, she's underappreciated. Not only does she create killer music, but she also put together a group of brown, female hip hop and R&B artists this year and put her neck out to make sure she could take them all on tour with her. And in turn, those women - JessB, Silva MC and Bailey Wiley – have been reaching out a hand to pull up other women. The Outta Time tour was an exercise in women empowering women and allowed these artists to represent for young, brown girls growing up in Aotearoa. We salute you.
If anyone has been the realest person to follow on social media, it's Hilary Barry. Not only has she defiantly and respectfully taken down sexist trolls but she has done it with an enviable wit that makes us love her even more. She rose above when a viewer took umbrage with her choice of clothing as it "did nothing to enhance her appearance" responding: "Zero f***s given." And when another said, "You think your high and mighty because you disagree with Christians and the Bible. A lot of people know you root around," Barry took the time to correct both their assumption and their grammar saying: "I root around with my husband and it's bloody awesome. P.S. You're not Your." And that's just the tip of the iceberg - good on ya Hilz Baz!
I’m so tempted to offer to help write the BSA complaint of the viewer who plans to lay one because I’m “not classy.” 😂
Look, we're sure a lot of time and effort – and money – went into the latest Air New Zealand safety video but that doesn't make it right. We've finally reached a point in this country where we've started getting over the "cultural cringe" but boy, did this set us back a few steps. Who signed off on this? Why did all these artists' agents recommend they take this job? Who the hell wrote the lyrics? It's probably fine once on Youtube, but when you're forced to endure it on a flight or two, surrounded by non-Kiwis whispering "what the f....?" it's a bad, bad time.
In case you managed to miss it:
J.K. Rowling
Look, we love Harry Potter: It's a timeless story of friendship and grief that'll always mean a lot to us. But the fact remains that it's an unshakeably white and heterosexual story, and no amount of retroactive representation is going to change that. In this year's Fantastic Beasts sequel, Rowling had the chance to redeem her lazy "Dumbledore is gay" claim – but instead, we got a fudged mess, which gave Jude Law's Dumbledore zero to do, wasted its few POC characters, and rewrote details of the original stories (note how Professor McGonagall appears in the film a full eight years before she was supposed to be born).
JK Rowling thinking of all the underdeveloped subplots and characters she crammed into FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD pic.twitter.com/Vc4Bq8RAFu
It's hard to know where to start when it comes to the stars of Aotearoa's trashiest shows. The Heartbreak Island crew caused a national fuss when in the opening scenes they basically ranked fellow contestants' popularity based purely on how they looked (yep, like real life Tinder), and we had to watch their raunchy bedroom scenes even at the supposedly family-friendly time of 7.30pm. Meanwhile, MAFS NZ bore all the stereotypical archetypes; the sassy, nasty, know-it-all "influencer", the "wanna-be-famous" one, and the poor guy who leaves the competition feeling sadder and lonelier than ever before. Sigh.
It's been a long year, but not so long that we've forgotten the whole "New Zealand is racist AF" debacle from back in April. If you've forgotten, Taika Waititi gave that quote in an interview and Garner and Richardson took to The AM Show to – somehow – disagree. "He's gone too far, it's too extreme. Lighten up and change the record," Garner said. Richardson added: "This clown is... getting on the world stage and denigrating this country". Pro-tip: Just because you haven't experienced racism, or recognised it when you witnessed it, doesn't mean it does not exist. And like Kanoa Lloyd said at the time: There's no "metric racism scale ... you either accept that racism exists, or you don't".
We are sorry to say it, but we had to put Jack Tame on the list. The Breakfast host is great at what he does, but we've probably heard enough hip-hop guitar covers for one lifetime. Don't get us wrong, we fully support following your passions, but when you're sing-rapping a Nelly cover with a plaster on your face, it might be time to slow down. Tame brazenly captioned one of his recent covers saying: "Bic Runga covered Kanye, so I can too." Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should. That said, maybe a nice Christmas carol could work? Some Mariah maybe? Just a thought.
