All pa for the course

One Land sees two cultures on a collision course - without bikini-clad girls. Photo / Supplied

Laura Ingalls wilder with Maori people. Why haven't we done this sooner? New reality series One Land is less Little House on the Prairie, more Little Whare on the Pa. But with uplifting national identity themes.

I have only seen tonight's first episode of this "cultural and social experiment" but I know already, along with the cured eel and wet crinolines, there is going to be lots of hugging and lots of learning between the Pakeha and Maori families. With no fruity girls in bikinis, no Marc Ellis and no sponsors it is hard to believe One Land comes from Julie Christie's production house Eyeworks - along with collaborators Black Inc. Who knew the company that brought us Celebrity Treasure Island could be so restrained and scholarly?

The premise for the show is the sort of thing that causes New Zealand on Air executives to wet their panties. Take a Maori family that only speaks te reo and a Maori family with no knowledge of their culture and plonk them together in a pa to live like Maori would have in the mid-19th century. That means no electricity, no toilet, no running water, no basics of modern life - but with one whanau speaking only te reo and the other speaking none, there are many amusing pidgin Maori charades. From one family: "It's raining. The Sky Father is crying for his wife the Earth Mother." The other: "Are these our beds?"

"Yeah, mate. You like?"

"No."

Also thrown into the mix is a Pakeha family who are European settlers - from Christchurch, natch - who have never had any contact with Maori.

"Two cultures on a collision course" the voiceover informs us, with as much laid-back drama as can be summoned when there is no Matthew Ridge in sight.

One Land is a class act but I can't imagine historian James Belich saying: "This is the most crazy arse thing we've ever done." That comes from Pakeha midwife Tarnia Smith, as she struggles into her bonnet in preparation for getting on a tall ship to go back in time. "We're either going to divorce each other or be stronger when we get back." After seeing her response when her husband tries to stop her setting her long dress alight - "fricking know-it-all!" - the outcome remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Smiths' two larrikin sons look set to be the colonial Marc Ellis characters. "The boys' clubbing days are about to come to an abrupt end," the narrator smirks. And Evan Dalrymple - the Maori man who knows nothing of his heritage - looks set for a dramatic character arc. "He's my rangitira, so we'll see where we go with that," Dalrymple drily ponders his te reo-speaking village chief.

One Land is a fish-out-of-water show with a difference - it may help you pass NCEA history.

Speaking of fish-out-of-water shows, two weeks ago when I reviewed Toni Collette's new multiple personality drama United States of Tara, I included a quote from the New York Times review of the show. I must have been having my own evil-twin moment because there was another quote and some turns of phrase that I included in my article but didn't attribute. The rest of the review was entirely my own made-up rubbish. My bad.

* One Land debuts on TV One tonight at 7.30pm.