New Zealand TV-obsessed website The Spinoff curates Weekend Watch, their selection of the best places to rest your weary eyes on your days off, selected by Spinoff editor Duncan Greive (DG) or staff writer Alex Casey (AC). Enjoy!
Days of Our Lives on Lightbox
One of the longest running scripted television shows in the entire world, Days of Our Lives has returned to New Zealand on Lightbox this week in all its soft-focussed and scotch-soaked glory. Despite the shows age, there are no signs of it slowing down. 39 minutes episodes. Five a week. For possibly all of eternity. No wonder they need so much scotch. If you are unfamiliar with the basic premise, the soap follows a handful of large dynastic families as they intertwine, elope and kill each other on a seemingly daily basis. It's Shortland Street, with far less cultural signifiers or evidence that it has been shot on this planet. A vacuum of time, atmosphere and familiarity - Days of Our Lives is the television equivalent of being trapped in an airport. And it's really an incredible viewing experience.
Days of Our Lives last aired in New Zealand on Choice TV in April 2014, which might as well be 300 years in soap time. In that time we've missed plots to burn ex-husbands alive, the death of a local "sexy sociopath" and willy nilly fetus burglary. But it doesn't take long to catch up, and I highly recommend you delve in just to observe the timeless fashion and incredible lines of dialogue ("my only competition is a billionaire ball player that oozes charisma from every pore"). / AC
Nearly running for as long as Days of Our Lives, reality stalwart, Survivor is about to enter its thirtieth season here in New Zealand. World's Apart comes surrounded by acclaim and countless hyperbolic accolades heaped on it by the show's host Jeff Probst, who reckons it's the best season ever. The gimmick this year is that the tribes are split up based on castaway's socioeconomic status. White collars, blue collars, and no collars. All competing for a prize of $1,000,000, contestants must outwit, outplay and outlast each other through a series of immunity challenges and weekly eliminations. It's as much a mental game as a physical one and, on top of it all - there's nothing to eat but rice and the odd scorpion. PSA: don't eat the scorpion, you will vomit.
Maintaining its ongoing commitment to social experimentation, the show uses contestant's employment background to define their tribes for the first time. The white collars are the hopelessly self-interested corporate cogs, several of which arrive on the island in a full suit with gelled-back hair. The blue collar labourers bode well for the physically demanding scenarios, and the no collars will presumably just sit around and make each other shell necklaces. There's a very good reason this show is still around, and this season especially has been touted one of the most explosive yet. / AC
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Sunday SoHo at 7pm
John Oliver has secured himself as a New Zealand favourite, if only for mentioning our country at least three times already on his popular late night talk show. Since his Emmy-winning stint writing for the satirical news show Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Oliver would occasionally fill-in and correspond. And he was good. He was really good. So good that they decided to give him full creative control over very own show. It began last year, just as Stewart announced his retirement someone else picked up the 'poking fun stick'.
How is John Oliver different? We see a lot more of him in each half hour slot than Jon Stewart. Filling almost the full half-hour, his extraordinarily British rants work to equally nail the political dignitaries of the world, as well as the inept way the media covers news events. As we've seen, things can sometimes be incredibly close to home. You can see shades of Oliver in Jono and Ben's Guy Williams, with his Guy Time segments filling a similar constant need to joke about our absurd country. But just bear in mind that, as Oliver has said himself, "it's not journalism, it's comedy - it's comedy first and comedy second." / AC
Dunston Checks In, Saturday FOUR at 6.30pm
A Tokyo zoo has apologised today after naming its latest newborn monkey after the royal baby Princess Charlotte. A quite mild monkey controversy. I would see it as compliment, if anything. If you are left craving sassier simian stories to see you through the weekend, look no further than Dunston Checks In. The 1996 film has barely aged a day, aside from the quite obvious embarrassing treatment of animals not unlike the PG Tips adverts of the 1950s. The plot? The five star Majestic Hotel checks in a wily jewel thief, and his highly skilled Orangutan sidekick called Dunston. Bizarrely, Dunston comes with a full wardrobe including glasses, a tuxedo, a full espionage costume and board shorts. I can only hope that Charlotte the monkey gets the same royal treatment. Dunston befriends a young man who is killing time before going on holiday, and together they work to free Dunston from a life of crime. The kid/animal bond cannot be broken, no matter how many obstacles, naked women (?) and costume changes get in the way. They just don't make family films like this anymore, I'll let you decide whether or not that is a good thing. / AC
Oh, Sit!, Saturday TV2 at 6.00pm
Right at the bottom of the game show barrel I fished up Oh, Sit! - a game show version of musical chairs. I like to choose my reality TV shows based on whether or not they would appear as joke shows in 30 Rock. This one checks all the boxes. During the hour long game show, contestants are forced to rush around five extreme obstacle courses to extremely loud beats. When the music stops? They must traverse across the moat to "Chair Island" before the rest of their competition. Season two (yes, it did get renewed) upped the stakes by creating far more challenging obstacles, and building the mighty "Chair Mountain" to push their contestants to the absolute limit. The contestants are largely deplorable, calling themselves things like "Wooty" (white girl with a booty) and "MILF Hunter" (as I said, just like 30 Rock). Following the trend of TV2's Schitt's Creek, who doesn't want to watch a show with a s*** pun in the title? / AC
