How on earth do you fill three days without work? Clearly, by bingeing content you don’t have time for on a normal weekend. The Spinoff is here to help, with 10 favourite marathon-length suggestions.
Kath & Kim (Netflix)
Does it make me a crim to be a Kim? We can’t all be Kaths. The foxy ladies of Fountain Gate are on Netflix: four seasons and a movie, darl. The sooner you realise all men are bastards and develop an interest in watching Aussie quasi-bogans smoke in dish gloves, the happier you’ll be. And that’s the Tia Maria. / Josie Adams
Shane Dawson’s The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star (YouTube)
If you know nothing of Youtube’s twisted, tea-filled, billion dollar beauty community, this series is all you need. Shane Dawson, a fossil Youtuber (he’s like 30) who has been around since before ‘Leave Britney Alone’, has taken on a new role as a pseudo-investigative journalist slash gonzo documentary filmmaker in the past few years, and now releases yawning, hours long explorations into some of Youtube’s biggest and most mysterious personalities.
His latest effort is pretty incredible. Partnering up with his good friend and beauty/internet/Pomeranian mogul trillionaire Jeffree Star, Dawson becomes a character in the story as he plans the release of his own makeup collection, documenting every step of the process. There are million dollar deals, there’s crime, there’s several famous online controversies captured in real time. If you like makeup, internet culture, drama and disgusting amounts of money, you gotta see it. / Alex Casey
Golden Boy (Three)
This weekend I am hoping to finish Golden Boy, Three’s pilot comedy which made me laugh like a bloody drain every week. Mitch (Hayley Sproull) lives in the fictional town of Crawdon and under the looming shadow of her All Black brother, the titular Golden Boy. It’s got the speed and surreality of 30 Rock but set in the most Kiwi environment ever – a small rural town full of absolute freaks. Kimberley Crossman is phenomenally funny as the chipper barmaid and local WAG, Kura Forrester and Chris Parker steal every scene, and Rima Te Wiata and Alison Bruce could basically be a spinoff show of their own. Binge it all in a couple of hours. / AC
Mary Kills People (NEON)
Jay Ryan is a New Zealander and apparently he was on Go Girls? I haven’t seen it but I will. Because I saw him on Mary Kills People and GodDAMN he does things to me. He really does. I just watched three seasons of this show and I’m not even sure what it’s about. / Emily Writes
His Dark Materials (the actual books)
As fans know Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials book trilogy is ostensibly a YA series that uses fantasy as a canvas for more sophisticated conversations about existence, adulthood and belief. Thanks to HBO and the BBC we can soon forget the 2007 film adaptation ever existed (sorry to Nicole Kidman, you were great), with the television adaptation starting next week on NEON, starring James McAvoy and a host of great British talent. This long weekend is a great time to catch up on the books so you can geek out on Easter eggs and plotlines and all the stuff that makes being a fantasy fan worth the wedgies you got at high school. / Leonie Hayden
Interior Design Masters (Netflix)
If you’ve ever wanted to sleep in a bedroom that looks like a pack of Stabilo highlighters (and who hasn’t, let’s be honest) Netflix’s new show Interior Design Masters is all your dreams come true. Ten bold Brits with a passion for interiors and a wacky signature style are unleashed on a series of hotel rooms, family homes and commercial spaces, and the last contestant standing wins a fancy design contract. Part The Block, part Changing Rooms and part The Apprentice, the uber-wholesome IDM is officially out the gate. / Tara Ward
The Dead Author’s Podcast (Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts)
Look, sometimes it’s hard to lift up your head and gaze upon light coming from the screen; what you want is to bask in is some delicious audio. For that, I give you The Dead Author’s Podcast, the funniest, strangest podcast I’ve ever had the joy to binge. The concept is simple: Comedy-slash-podcast legend Paul F. Tompkins plays H.G Wells, popular science fiction writer, as he interviews dead authors (Roald Dahl, Maya Angelou and Anne Frank are special highlights), each played by a different comedian. It ends up being one part comedy, one part history lesson, as Tompkins slyly educates the interviewee on his or her life story. There’s a solid 50 episodes of about an hour each, so you can quite easily get through them in a weekend while never leaving the comfort of your bed. Ideal! / SB
The NZ Lifts YouTube Channel (Youtube)
Currently sitting at 832 videos, this is THE place to binge Aotearoa based lift and/or elevator content.
Filmed by Peter, who is only briefly glimpsed in the reflective surfaces of lifts holding his trusty camcorder, a typical video begins with a brief assessment of the outside of the elevator to be featured. There’s a meticulous rundown of the model and make, followed by testing the call buttons and then the all important ride in the lift.
This is pure information delivery, no words are wasted; a welcome antidote to the usual mouthy YouTubers. The channel also performs a public service as Peter highlights broken lifts and such, like the OTIS Lexan Traction lift at the Novotel in Wellington which has been out of action for two years.
It’s a great, worthy channel. Long may it continue! / José Barbosa
Fleabag (Amazon Prime)
Does this feel like an old recommendation? It felt like everyone in the world has spent all year going on about how great Fleabag is and crushing on creator-writer-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge smoking a cigarette after the Emmy’s. This weekend is your time to catch up. With two short seasons in total, the show is actually the length of two movies. You don’t even need a long weekend to watch that, you could do it in a regular weekend. Come for the great writing and wit of Fleabag, stay for Claire, Fleabag’s neurotic sister who ends up being the true star of the show. It presents as a show about one woman’s relationships (mostly romantic/sexual) but if you have sisters, you’ll find particular joy in the sibling interactions of Fleabag, particularly the second season. / Madeleine Chapman
Dancing with the Birds (Netflix)
Birds. They’re bloody everywhere, and it turns out they’re horny as hell. Netflix’s latest nature documentary introduces us to the bizarre mating rituals of exotic birds, and if you think you’ve seen it all, Dancing with the Birds is here to remind you that you haven’t. Stunning photography, gorgeous wings, should appeal to hornbags and hornbirds alike. / TW