Where: Lightbox
Movies:
Tangled
Here's a controversial opinion for you to take straight to the closest bank: Tangled is a lot better than Frozen. A Rapunzel reimagining starring the vocal stylings of once-popstar-turned-mild-movie-star Mandy Moore, it's Frozen with way less ice and way more hair. And no inexplicable magic icicle powers either, it's all totally above board mystical flower spells. Featuring rousing musical numbers such as When Will My Life Begin and I See the Light, yes it's a Disney romp and yes it's also a pretty nice 2 hour Pantene commercial that the whole family can enjoy. Get down from that ivory tower and let your hair down for once in your life. / AC
Where: TV2 at 6.30pm on Sunday
Free to Air Shows:
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
It's only the greatest UK panel show fusing two cultural greats: comedy and pop music, and it continues to entertain and surprise every week. Featuring team leader stalwarts Noel Fielding and Phil Jupitus, the rotating panel of celebrity guests play games such as "Intros", an acapella challenge that rarely works well and What Line Next, a test of lyric knowledge that can easily be played along at home. The show has had a gargantuan 18 year run, leading to now-iconic appearances such as Amy Winehouse talking about "cat aids" and Jamelia literally getting a hernia because she laughed too hard. If the promise of a potential laugh-induced hernia doesn't sell it to you, I don't know what will./AC
Where: Prime at 10.50pm on Saturday
NZ TV:
NZ With Nadia Lim
The other day I saw Nadia Lim power-walking along my street wearing a visor and I nearly blacked out on the pavement. She's got real star power, the dream aspirational figurehead of normal person turned reality celeb turned actual celeb. So, if Nadia Lim wants to bloody show you around New Zealand, you bloody let her. This eight-part series sees her visit the top food producing regions in the North and South island. Watch in awe as powerful Nadia convinces conservative High Country sheep farmers to eat Asian inspired lamb shanks, and you won't believe the tiny apple-sized melons they find in Hastings! / AC
Where: TV One at 3.55pm Saturday
Reality:
Survivor San Juan Del Sur: Blood vs Water
Survivor has been going strong for a whopping 29 seasons, so it must be doing something right. The return of the Blood vs Water format this season sees families and couples team up and eventually turn on each other as they compete to be the sole survivor on the island. Mothers and daughters go head to head in aggressive mud challenges (not as sexy as you think), and young lovers are dramatically split (not as sad as you think). It's great television, especially seeing as the last episode saw the shocking blindside elimination of Jeremy, most likely to win the game and most likely to be voted craziest abs in San Juan Del Sur. It's anyone's game, and a great time to get involved if you aren't already. / AC
Where: FOUR at 6.30pm Sunday
Sport:
Bowls: World Singles Champion Of Champions / Rugby ENGAGE
Curling on grass. No pin bowling. Beret-less ground petanque.
There are many names for bowls, but one thing's for sure: only one fool-country in this fool-world is fool enough to put bowls on national television. Which is why it must be watched: the ineffable strangeness of this particular sport being on your screen. Better yet, this competition - for some reason nearly always hosted in Fendalton - pitches the national champions of all the world's bowls-playing nations against one another - therefore guaranteeing gratuitous mismatches and players who are legitimately worse than you. Also catch ENGAGE, perhaps the world's only cerebral rugby show, closing out another epic season. But as its host Scotty Stevenson noted this week, maybe it's not over after at all - 2015 Super Rugby training has already started. / DG
Where: Rugby ENGAGE: Sky Sport One at 6pm Friday, Bowls: SKY Sport 2 at 10.30am Saturday and Sunday
Sky Pick:
OCD Ward
Colloquially 'OCD' now means someone who checks the back door's locked before they leave the house, or waits until after midday to eat lunch. Which might be more accurately described as 'regular human behaviour'. ITV's OCD Ward reclaims the condition from casual misuse and shows you the frontlines of its therapeutic counteraction. If I'm honest, it looks like hell on the trailer, all palm-licking and hallway-lying, but if all it does is stop people saying they're OCD because they refresh twitter a few times a day, then that's enough. / DG
Where: VIBE at 8.30pm Sunday
More Spinoff:
It's been sci fi week on The Spinoff
• José Barbosa explains why TV Sci Fi Sucks (and Rules)
• David Larsen makes the case for Orphan Black being the best TV show of this era
• It's not outer space, but it's the future: Joseph Harper recaps the latest episode of Survivor to get you in the zone
Like The Spinoff on Facebook. Follow The Spinoff on Twitter
- The Spinoff
