In the past decade, the Māori ghost story – think episodes of Beyond the Veil – and Māori comedy have found fruitful ground on television. They’re almost their own genres. But what if you were to stake a show in the space where they meet? That, more or less, is Dead Ahead.
Miriama Smith plays Kiri Wharekoa, a high-powered lawyer who brings her family – graphic designer husband Matiu, extremely online teenage daughter Awhira and son Nate – home after 12 years in London. They’ve kept the reo, yet they move into Nan’s old country whare as outsiders. Nate has never lived in Aotearoa and doesn’t know anyone, but he soon meets Aunty Huia. Who, it becomes clear, is a ghost (“We prefer the term kēhua, Nate”). And there’s evidently a reason she’s showing up.
The show is a reunion of the partnership that made the Rule of Mum episode for last year’s Motherhood anthology on TVNZ: writer-director-actor Scotty Cotter and Nicole Horan’s Hi Mama Productions – and Smith plays the mother in both. Cotter says Horan pitched him the basic idea for the show two or three years ago.
“From the get-go, we wanted to make a show about a Māori family, one that celebrates us and elevates us as storytellers. And not to sound clichéd, but we wanted to make a show that leans into being Māori but also shifts us from the stereotypical narrative that Māori characters are often portrayed as. We wanted complexity, heart and humour, and to show our people in all their messy, beautiful, layered glory.”
And the ghosts? “I was brought up with the belief that our kēhua – those who’ve passed on – sit with us and walk alongside us. They’re part of who you are. Thinking back to my theatre works, I’ve realised that I naturally blend the mystical and the spiritual into the mundane in my writing. Those two things sit naturally beside each other. I didn’t want to make this heavy or too ‘tapu’. I wanted to create something where both worlds coexist, where our kēhua are just there, part of the chaos, and it’s crack-up and weird and emotional.”
But is it a comedy or a dramedy?
“Yeah, hard out, it’s a dramedy. It’s got laughs; it’s got drama. It’s a little spooky, a bit suspenseful, and hopefully the audience starts going, wait … something’s not right.”
Cotter says he also wanted to make a show that “all ages could enjoy together. Because I remember that was my favourite time when I was a kid. That feeling of nostalgia and togetherness, that’s what Dead Ahead is chasing.”
To that end, no one is clearly a good guy or bad guy in Dead Ahead: everyone’s just trying to make the best of it. Cotter has his fingers crossed for a second season where he can “dig deeper into his characters’ flaws and the circumstances that shape them and have led them to the decisions they have had to make”.
“There is an end game in my head, but I’m more interested in letting the audience decide who they think is good or bad. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll change their minds as things unfold.”
Dead Ahead launches on TVNZ+ on Wednesday, June 30.
