TV review: 'Anika Moa Unleashed' resurrects formative NZ band TrueBliss for anniversary

True Bliss, from left, Erika Takacs, Keri Harper, Joe Cotton and Megan Alatini. Photo / Doug Sherring NZH

Dame Anika Moa. It's got quite a nice ring to it, eh? And it's going to happen, mark my words, lock it in on the 2020 New Year honours list: for services to getting the band back together.

Not just any old band; arguably the most important band New Zealand has ever produced. TrueBliss turns 20 this year, and it's about time we gave them their dues.

Without TrueBliss there'd be no One Direction, and that Zayn song where he says "it's a paradise and it's a war zone" wouldn't exist. Neither would Since U Been Gone, one of the most cathartic break-up tracks of the modern age, or Leona Lewis' heartbreak anthem Bleeding Love. Imagine a world without any of that.

TrueBliss were the ones who started it all. The Popstars reality TV concept devised by Jonathan Dowling was licensed around the world, spawning the likes of Bardot in Australia and Hear'Say in the UK. It was the latter that inspired Simon Fuller to create Pop Idol, which quickly begat American Idol, X Factor and the rest.

So where does Anika Moa come into this? How come she's the one getting a probable Damehood? Basically, her show Anika Moa Unleashed seems to be the only one that noticed this milestone anniversary approaching, therefore was the only one that thought to reunite at least three of the original members to relive the glory days of 1999.

Anika Moa - give the woman a gong.

Sounds like the band already relive these glory days together quite frequently, just not with TV cameras present. "Sometimes when we drink together we'll get so drunk we put on the album and try to remember all the dance moves," reveals Joe Cotton, dressed in her original Evel Knievel inspired bodysuit, a cultural relic that should really be in Te Papa by now. "It's the saddest thing you've ever seen."

Cotton, like all the band members wrangled into the first episode of the two-part special (Keri Harper lives in Taupō – too far to drive – while Carly Binding maybe just couldn't be bothered), seems like she's doing very well these days. What a relief to learn that being in TrueBliss didn't completely screw up their lives, and is now just a fond and distant memory. A memory that lives on in old clips from Popstars, showing the band being mobbed in a variety of different shopping malls.

Part two, the reunion itself, promises to be one of the TV events of the year. Can Moa really take the place of Carly Binding? ("We need someone who's a bit of a bitch but is also really good at singing...") Will they remember the dance moves? Will they remember – this is such a good teaser at the end of part 1 – why they got banned from a hotel in Dunedin?

It comes out on TVNZ On Demand on Wednesday. "We've been waiting for this," Megan Alatini's eyes light up when asked about the chances of a reunion. "We just didn't want it to be us who came up with the idea."

Anika Moa Unleashed (TVNZ On Demand)