. Madeline Sami has taken out Paul Henry to be the show’s new host, and welcome a fresh batch of Kiwis to the spooky South Island manor.
The group will be straight into manipulating and scheming against each other as they attempt to build-up a jackpot prize, reveal the ‘Traitors’ in the group and also evade their own elimination from a well-timed, metaphorical knife in the back.
Madeline Sami host of Traitors,
ThreeNow
Watch: Three and ThreeNow
Stalked
Stalked is one of the most important documentaries you’ll watch this year. It follows three women’s nightmarish, years-long experiences dealing with obsessed stalkers.
Mental health adovcate Jazz Thornton presents the show and also shares her harrowing story dealing with a stalker who travelled from Finland to stalk her at her house.
Thornton is high profile, but Zeni was just a normal 16-year-old who was tormented with abusive messages and threats of terrible violence by a man seven years older than her for eight long years, while Tessa faced domestic abuse from a boyfriend that would lead to him kidnapping her after she tried to leave him.
The three-part series will leave you genuinely shaken and should be required viewing.
The Brokenwood Mysteries
Why anyone still chooses to live in Brokenwood, the murder capital of New Zealand, is beyond me.
After 12 seasons of grisly murders the fictitious small town should be a ghost town — figuratively and literally.
Nevertheless, enough residents remain living there to be routinely murdered and keep detectives Mike Shepherd and Kristin Sims in steady employment.
With this season featuring everything from alien abductions to surfing priests there appears to still be a lot of mystery to go around.
The Brokenwood Mysteries.
TVNZ+
Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds
Having just won the prestigious Taite Music Prize for his Māori language album Te Whare Tīwekaweka ,
The film shows the crooner looking to connect with his Māori heritage as he struggles with his cultural identity. Beautifully shot with a breezy vibe, it nevertheless touches on important conversations that Williams has to face himself, and that we as a nation need to address.
Filled with myth-bustingly candid footage of Williams goofing around, doing his te reo lessons and making musical magic in the studio, including jams with Aldous Harding and Lorde, it’s a wonderful doco about the making of a wonderful album and a supreme talent finding himself.
Marlon Williams in Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds.
Whakaata Māori
Bust Up
Having hung-up the last guest towel at The White Lotus , star Morgana O’Reilly now picks up the police baton to lead this local crime procedural set in a small fictional Northland town.
She plays a beat cop who’s forced to partner up with her ex-partner (played by Roimata Fox), a fellow cop who has just returned home after years away policing in the big city.
Anyone who’s survived an ill-advised workplace hook-up will recognise the awkward awfulness of this situation.
The series follows the pair as they attempt to solve a twisting, turning crime while figuring out how to put their unresolved emotions aside in order to catch the bad guys.
Morgana O’Reilly in Bust Up.
Neon
Watch: Sky Open, Neon and Sky Go
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Title of the month goes to this dark comedic thriller that follows a newly divorced mum spiralling.
After witnessing an incident she believes to be a murder, Paula decides to investigate, leading her down a deep rabbit hole of mystery, blackmail and deadly conflict. Which would be manageable if she wasn’t also in the middle of a ferocious custody battle with her ex and juggling the day-to-day parental duties like getting the kids to soccer practice on time. You could say Paula’s mental load is considerable, which explains why she suffers a full blown identity crisis.
Admittedly, this description contains a minimum of pleasurable circumstances, but it’s certainly intriguing.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.
Apple TV+
Extra viewing
Best Foods Comedy Gala 2026
Dai Henwood hosts this comedic tasting platter of the best comedians performing at the NZ International Comedy festival.
Where: Three and ThreeNow
The Four Seasons
The second season of Tina Fey’s must-watch mid-life dramedy checks in for more messy existential and relationship crises.
Mint
Arty and aesthetically experimental BBC series that mashes a gritty Scottish gangster thriller with a Romeo and Juliet romance and decorates the result with plenty of surrealistic touches.
Karl Puschmann is an arts and entertainment journalist, and also runs Screen Crack, a popular Substack dedicated to deep-diving into film and television. screencrack.substack.com.
