I see TV3's out looking for that damned elusive X factor again. The search might go on forever, but it'll never really be about who wins. It'll always be about the judges.

Auckland Theatre Company's season-opening comedy this year is a black slapstick that crowds in some favourite old gags - you know before they begin how they're going to turn out, but the comfortable....

A day after seeing Thriller Live at Auckland's Civic Theatre, I'm still trying to work out what exactly it is.

Those of you familiar with the X-Factor format will know it runs on a pretty basic formula.

The brilliantly inventive stagecraft energises a uniformly excellent cast who bring a clear sense of purpose to the smallest details of their performances.

Here's the thing you notice first: they all look so young. These are kids, you think to yourself, what the hell are they doing dressed up as soldiers charging with fixed bayonets up a hill into enemy fire?

Stories about shocking pink taffeta ballgowns, drinking Baileys at the Open Late Café and seeing Dave Dobbyn at the Gluepot; this audio tour shamelessly mythologises Ponsonby in the 1980s.

The artworks of Michael Parekowhai grace many city venues, but their beauties and ironies are silent.

If there was a missing link between 60s girl groups, California surf-pop, 90s skater rock and Taylor Swift's assertive pop-sassiness it might be this lo-fi band helmed by singer-guitarist Melissa Brooks from Southern California.

Back in 1998, there was one game that ruled them all. With its stellar storytelling and twisted sense of humour, Grim Fandango soon overpowered Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Day of the Tentacle as every budding adventurer's game of choice.

Recently, guitarist Chris Eldridge said Punch Brothers wanted people to make time for this album and peel back its layers. Indeed.

Bob Odenkirk nails it as hapless hero Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul.

As a setting for Shakespeare it would be hard to beat the café balcony of the historic Pah Homestead.

In the relentless search for new and challenging viewing experiences, I turned to Good Morning, a television show with one of those titles that says it all.

Local playwright Victor Rodger has followed up last year's revival (Sons) and premiere (At the Wake) with a new play that brings a light touch to tragedy.

Michele Hewitson writes: Aside from the infuriating filler games, Our First Home is hokey and insincere and has more holes in it than the floorboards in the crappy do-ups on offer.

Given the civil rights subject matter, the greatness of Martin Luther King as the man at the centre of the story, and relevance today it's surprising Selma isn't a bigger, flashier film.

No one should be surprised by this 36th studio album from 73-year-old Dylan being standards.

The sweeping, swooning, beautifully melodramatic world of Father John Misty's latest album is quite a thrill.

Over several mixtapes and two New Zealand live appearances, Joey Bada$$ has proved an incendiary talent.

It felt like Mikky Ekko had come out of nowhere when he featured on Rihanna's 2013 hit Stay. Now the American singer-songwriter is introducing his own music with debut album Time.

As french as croissants aux amandes and so extravagantly theatrical that you can practically smell the greasepaint in the cinema, this small and goofy French comedy follows the struggles of a young teenager to come to terms with his sexual identity.

Entertainment is a funny business, especially when it's not that funny at all. Take, for instance, The Missing, a new British television drama series that launched on TV One on Sunday night in both terrific and dreadful style.

Paul Simon and Sting sound like a somewhat unlikely pairing. But more than 40 years on, their musical ideas seem to be easy bedfellows.

Great drama speaks to any day in which it is performed. The second-most famous play by the great Arthur Miller deals with the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 17th century.

Feisty Bette Davis was memorably photographed by Roddy McDowall in 1981, holding a cushion inscribed, "Old Age Ain't No Place for Sissies".

Some things in life need not be messed with. Fairy bread was perfected ages ago and kids are probably happier for it, the developed world knows what happened when Coca-Cola went "New", and Pokemon's still Pokemon.

Chief Waterboy Mike Scott said after his last album - musical settings of poems by W.B. Yeats - that he wanted to return to rock 'n' roll, hence these nine often rambunctious, sometimes soulful, occasionally thoughtful and mostly engaging songs.