In the summer of 2012, Call Me Maybe exploded across radio, launching talent agent Scooter Braun's latest project Carly Rae Jepsen into the limelight.

Playwright Gary Stalker's intriguingly titled work pulls off a surprising feat with sophisticated, unashamedly literary writing.

The three choreographers contributing state of the art pieces for this ground-breaking season with the New Zealand Dance Company were given the brief of "light, illumination, space, image and movement" by the company's artistic director Shona McCullagh.

The finale of True Detective season two was everything the previous episodes hadn't been. It was exciting, it was tense, most of all, it was coherent.

Humans is a "sci-fi thriller" in the most accessible, engaging sense of those words, set in a parallel near-future where synthetic humans - "synths" - are a common household appliance.

Like every other book of Stephenson's, this one uses formal language to position itself a small, strategic distance from its readers, like a speaker standing behind a lectern.

A grinding, persuasive power binds this collection of short fiction and essays, many of which have been published elsewhere in the past two or three years.

Did you forget about Dre? No one would blame you if you did. The godfather of gangster rap has spent more time making headphones than releasing new music lately.

A mid-winter Messiah comes with a certain olde worlde appeal and on Sunday Viva Voce went to some lengths to make this a Messiah with a difference.

In Benjamin Markovits' vivid new novel, the city becomes a symptom of America gone wrong. He tells Mick Brown about losing out and fitting in.

So one Direction have made their first musical statement post-Zayn Malik's departure.

Adam Lambert played Auckland's Civic Theatre last night, delighting a full house of devoted fans with his "therapy session".

I must admit my previous undying admiration for Wellington's creative wonder boys The Phoenix Foundation died a little after 2010 album Buffalo which had one great song - that title track - and nothing much else to remember it by.

Neighbours. Sure they're fine now, but what about when we're all living underwater?" asks Bill Kerton, presenting a premise more exciting than the one about to be retread more times than a farmer pacing a fence.

Unnecessary narration and lazy scripting make TVNZ's new series Bogans a boring affair, writes Michele Hewitson.

Some of our biggest TV talent lies not in A-list actors and big name presenters, but everyday Kiwis residing in the provinces, writes Duncan Greive.

The first episode of MasterChef NZ included a fish dish that looked like prison food and a contestant who had never seen the show.

There are sparks of humanity to be found in Success' skilfully drawn takes on deeply flawed middle-aged former buddies.

Tom Cruise's latest Mission: Impossible film is darker and funnier than its immediate predecessor and feels more like a Euro-espionage thriller than a spy story stuck on an action chassis.

Wilco is giving this album away for free. Maybe it's the guilt of making ardent fans of the respected Chicago art-rock outfit fork out for their 77-track "odds and sods" collection Alpha Mike Foxtrot from last year.

Wondering what to see at the International Film Festival? Here are our latest reviews from the Auckland leg of the nationwide event.

Bullet Heart Club is well-named: the outfit that produced Rochelle Bright's heartbreaker hit Daffodils now brings us Bright's shot at heart-stopping suspense.

Disney on Ice's Dare to Dream had my whole family mesmerised. Stunning, magnificent and magical - the production will not disappoint.

What exactly is FreeviewPlus, and what does it do? After living with it for a couple of weeks, Karl Puschmann may have finally figured it out.

When Kevin Parker posted early single Let It Happen back in March, he was signalling a bit of a change for the Tame Impala sound.

Our reviewer Russell Baillie discovers there's big fun to be found in Ant-Man's small-scale thrills.