TV in the Land of the Long White Cloud

Most of our friends know that a guilty pleasure that Stacey and I share is reality television. We don't go in for all the shows, or even most of them, but we did love to watch Survivor and Amazing Race. I personally like Survivor because I get perverse delight watching people consistently fail to make fire with twigs, season after season. And, Amazing Race is the ultimate travel show. There are many places that we have seen on the program that are now on our list of places to go someday. The sinful part is that we get a laugh (and a bit of a horrified shudder) out of watching "Ugly Americans" in adverse situations across the globe.

So, what is TV like in New Zealand? Well, last Sunday was the premiere of Survivor: Cook Islands, just a mere 4 weeks after the U.S., so we're pretty excited. But, there are some home-grown Kiwi shows that have also snared us and I'm here to tell you a little about those!

The first is Dragon's Den: New Zealand (the original one was from the U.K). The premise of the show is that 5 wealthy types (the "Dragons") are sitting in the "den" (a beat-up old warehouse building with rusty window hardware and many steps)where they are hoarding money. Brave entrepreneural Kiwis are sent in, one after another, to pitch their ideas for new businesses and try to convince at least one of the Dragons to give them cash to get their dream off the ground. Some of the ideas, inventions and business concepts are quite good and are an immediate hit with the Dragons, and they give them some money. But some of the others range from shockingly bad to just plain gross! Take "Wheel Woman" magazine, a (clearly fetish) magazine that would be devoted to nothing but stories and photos about women and their "interactions" with automobiles. Then there was the guy with the mustache cleaner, who described how his product would clean food and other debris out of the mustaches of millions of men. One of the male Dragons pointed out that he would never hire a moustached man, while one of the female Dragons declared she was now put off dating them! Did I mention that I shaved my goatee? LOL.

One other show we have come to enjoy is not the reality-tv format, but rather the morning news show on TVNZ One, called simply "Breakfast", and co-hosted by Paul Henry and Kay Gregory. The banter between the two of them is quite amusing. Paul, who resembles a wicked little mischevious mouse to me, spends a great deal of time poking fun at everything, Kay included. No one is safe. He makes fun of guests on the show, the other anchors, and New Zealand's small towns. Kay spends her time playing the straight (wo)man, declaring how outrageous Paul is and chastising him for bad behavior. Priceless moments include interviews with guests on uncomfortable topics like sex therapy, where Kay is speaking to the guest and the camera suddenly pans over to Paul who is making strange faces. Today, Paul insisted on showing a shocking video of a pelican attacking and eating a pigeon, much to Kay's horror. Yes, I know, this all sounds childish and silly, but trust me, it is funny. Much of it is owed to Paul's facial expressions and turn of phrase, which is often clever and sharp-witted. I should point out that he is widely despised for the same reason we like him. Yet, he seems to take fiendish delight in reading viewer hate mail.