A workplace comedy like we’ve never seen before
Plus a juicy rec for horror fans, a new documentary that delves into the legacy of the Brat Pack, and a classic New Zealand piece of cinema.
I know I say it every week, but this edition of Rec Room really does have a little something for everyone. I enjoyed Three’s new local dramedy Madam, which comes with a stellar cast and made me think that Rima Te Wiata is a national treasure who should be in every show we make. Claire Mabey’s folk horror recommendation might just get me watching something scary, while Alex Casey spent her Matariki weekend discovering a New Zealand cinema classic. If that’s not enough, don’t miss the latest podcast episode of Juggernaut – politics has never been so good. Happy Friday, one and all.
Set in a smalltown New Zealand brothel, Madam wastes no time getting down to business
It’s not often a New Zealand television show wins two major international awards before a single episode has hit our screens, but Madam is breaking all the rules. New Zealand’s latest dramedy premiered on Three last night, just weeks after collecting the Golden Nymph for Best Creation at the Monte Carlo TV Festival and days after winning Best Comedy Series at the prestigious Berlin TV Series Festival. The show is the latest success story to come out of Te Puna Kairangi, the premium fund for international audiences that helped make glossy, well-received television shows like After the Party and Dark City: The Cleaner.
Watching the first few episodes, you can see why Madam won. This bold, funny series is inspired by a true story, and follows exhausted mother and wife Mack Leigh (Academy Award-nominee Rachel Griffiths) as she discovers her husband Rob (Martin Henderson) has been seeing a sex worker. Instead of being angry or upset about his infidelity, Mack is inspired to open her own brothel called Sweethearts, a feminist organisation where sex workers set their own terms without fear of misogyny or violence.
Setting up a brothel in small-town New Zealand is an idea ripe for comedy, and Madam’s cast is one of the most impressive ensembles we’ve seen in a New Zealand drama. Rima Te Wiata steals every scene she’s in, Henderson, Robbie Magasiva and Danielle Cormack are brief but brilliant, and Kura Forrester is a delight as the complaining neighbour. In particular, Ariāna Osborne gives a mesmerising performance as sex worker Tui, whose experience and knowledge is pivotal in making the escort agency a success.
The series is in great hands with the rock-solid Griffiths at the helm, known for her roles in Six Feet Under and Brothers and Sisters. In the first few minutes of episode one, Mack discovers her husband’s infidelity, confronts her husband’s sex worker and makes a midnight visit to a brothel where she sits in on a client appointment (sneezing throughout, thanks to the brothel cat). Moments later, Mack is borrowing money to open her own brothel, explaining that she’s spent 15 years supporting her husband and family and now wants to do something for herself.
The feeling driving that decision is something that many viewers will relate to, but most of us aren’t opening a brothel to solve our mid-life crisis. What makes Mack different? Who is she, really – and why a brothel? Madam drops us straight into the drama, but doesn’t give much time and space to allow the audience to get to know Mack better (and not just as a wife and mother). Establishing her character would have made her motivations more believable, and helped us understand exactly what she’s risking. Perhaps in its haste to get straight down to business, Madam skips some all-important foreplay.
Thankfully, Mack is surrounded by a group of intriguing, complex women who bring heart and humour to the show as they join together to make this new business model work. Madam brings new dimensions to sex work rarely seen in television drama, with the women revealing their personal insights about why they choose the job: freedom, flexibility, being seen. It’s a fresh perspective on the oldest profession in history, one that’s often been the target of discrimination and ignorance (and a stark contrast to the sex workers who serve only as nameless victims in shows like Dark City: The Cleaner).
There’s a lot to like about Madam, and it’s a luxury to have ten half-hour episodes to watch it unfold. By episode three, it feels like the show finds its true balance between light and drama, settling into a quirky, thought-provoking workplace comedy. It also feels like an authentically New Zealand show, and one without any sense of cultural cringe or self-consciousness. Madam has a strong sense of self, ensuring that a show primarily made for New Zealand audiences will also have wide appeal for viewers overseas.
Madam shines with a confidence that’s wonderful to see: this is bold, vibrant, self-assured television. On the surface, this is a dramedy about how society views sex, but it’s also about the power of determining your own fate, however unconventional your choices might be. How good that a show like this can screen on mainstream television, challenging our assumptions about the world around us while also making us laugh. Like a sex worker in a dodgy Northland motel, Madam knows exactly what it’s doing.
Madam streams on ThreeNow and screens on Three on Thursdays at 8.30pm.
Listen to episode 4 of Juggernaut – ‘Quantum Leap’
Roger Douglas’s radical overhaul of the NZ economy kicks through the gears. Corporatisation sends thousands of workers to the dole queue. Labour is returned to power in 1987 and when the global crash hits, Douglas seizes the opportunity to go harder, and go faster. Follow now to make sure you get every episode.
Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Why You should Watch: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (AroVision)
Trust AroVision to provide a 3 hour+ documentary on Folk Horror in film. I love folk horror (I cut my horror teeth on creepy books about witches in blackberry vines, doors in hillsides, trickster faeries, etc) but have to watch horror movies through the cracks between my fingers and with the sound off. Directed by genre film expert Kier-La Janisse, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is a comprehensive, and beautifully woven look at what folk horror is and how those stories have been translated into classic films like The Wicker Man, The Shining, Pet Sematary and Witchfinder General; and more recent films like Midsommar, Wolf Creek and The Witch. It's a fascinating look into the ways in which trauma lingers in land, buildings and communities and can manifest in localised scary stories. The doco includes perspectives from Britain, America, Mexico, Australia and Asia so is relatively wide-reaching (but I'd love a second edition with more). At times the pace (despite the three-hour duration) feels a little like a whirlwind tour but at the same time gives a catalogue of "excellently scary films to watch (with sound potentially off and through fingers)". / Claire Mabey
Why you should watch: Brats (Disney+)
If you’re a fan of classic 80s teen movies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, then Disney’s new documentary Brats should be on your watchlist. Actor Andrew McCarthy (who’s now 61, if you can believe it) was one of the original “Brat Pack” of young actors who ruled American cinemas in the 1980s. Four decades later, McCarthy sets out to reunite with some of his fellow brats – Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez – to find how the term defined their lives and careers, for better or worse. Were they really bratty stars, or just young adults riding the pop culture wave of a lifetime?
More pop culture recs from The Spinoff:
Looking for something good to stream this weekend? We’ve got you covered.
Was it you? I adored Alex Casey’s hardcore investigative report into which one of us told Lorde she walked like a bitch.
I also loved Claire Mabey and Madeleine Chapman duking it out over the third season of The Bear, which is either still really good or has completely lost the plot.
The brilliant second season of The Traitors NZ kicked off this week, so catch up with our review of the premiere episode and week one power rankings.
Anna Rawhiti-Connell reckons the new season of The House of Dragon has the goods to defy franchise fatigue.
Actor Angela Bloomfield reveals a terrifying mermaid experience in this week’s My Life in TV, while pop star Paige shares her perfect weekend playlist.
After years of wondering how I’d hack it in a Below Deck laundry room, it was a treat to chat to Below Deck: Med’s Captain Sandy during her whirlwind visit to Aotearoa.
Why you should watch: Goodbye Pork Pie (TVNZ+)
I’m trying to fill out my New Zealand film education at the moment, and while I’ve long felt intrinsically familiar with the overall vibe of Goodbye Pork Pie, I recently realised I had actually never seen Goodbye Pork Pie. A few minutes into the road trip classic on TVNZ+, I realised this mythological “vibe” I had absorbed (best described as Herbie: Fully Loaded: Down Under, which I also haven’t seen) was so far off. This movie is an absolute madcap coming-of-age caper down the country with heaps of raunch and mischief and Buster Keaton level stunts. Sure, some of the jokes haven’t aged great and the gender politics are weird, but there’s also so many thrilling locations around the country that you will be doing your best Leo-pointing-at-the-telly impression in no time. Long live the Blondini gang! / Alex Casey
You might also like: Thomas Giblin rounds up more of the best New Zealand films available to stream online.
Before we pop off…
The finalists for the 2024 Silver Scroll and Mahoia awards have been announced, with nominees including Stan Walker, Anna Coddington and Tom Scott.
NZ On Screen launched a new collection paying tribute to 30 years of Māori broadcasting funding agency Te Māngai Paho, featuring a wealth of news, current affairs, drama and documentaries from the past three decades.
New reality series I Kissed A Girl (TVNZ+) dropped last week, and this Ensemble piece dives into how different it is from the usual reality TV fare.
That’s a fair suck of the sav: Toadie from Neighbours is leaving Ramsay Street after 30 years.
You’ve got until July 7 to see the Auckland live show of Red, White and Brass, as recommended by Madeleine Chapman. “It’s a play based extremely loyally on the film so fans of the film will love it. My partner and I both cried watching so that's something, and there was something quite beautiful about seeing a Tongan flag flying in the audience of a theatre show.”
What Now is giving us Dungeons and Dragons as we’ve never seen it before: Gungeons and Dragons. With a cast of kids and The Spinoff’s own Te Aihe Butler as the Gungeon Master, this is a fun, creative adventure for kids of all ages.
That’s it for Rec Room for this week. If you liked what you read, why not share Rec Room with your friends and whānau.
