New Zealand celebrated 50 years of television in 2010, and the anniversary marked the dawning of an eventful decade in local film and television. Television channel C4 evolved into Four and then Bravo, TVNZ U and Heartland came and went, and Duke arrived. Viewers began to turn away from broadcast television to embrace the novelty of on-demand content, with the arrival of web series and streamers like Lightbox, Netflix, TVNZ OnDemand and ThreeNow offering new and exciting ways of watching. What remained unchangeable was our nation's ongoing affiliation with Middle Earth — the decade kicked off with filming for The Hobbit trilogy and ended with the Amazon Lord of the Rings reboot coming to town. 

Halfway through all of this chaos, we arrived as writers for what was then just a humble television blog called The Spinoff in 2014. Here's our rundown of the decade that was. 

Reality ate television

If homespun series like Living the Dream and The Mole whet our appetites for local reality television in the 2000s, then the 2010s dished up a veritable buffet of options for the nation to gorge upon. The decade opened with glitzy imports like MasterChef NZ and The Apprentice NZ, which set the scene for big budget international franchises being remade down under in our charming, slightly bung, number-8-wire kind of a way (for example, a jandal-based elimination on New Zealand's Next Top Model's first series that aired at the end of the noughties had been sponsored by Havaianas). 

As Twitter started to pick up steam towards the middle of the decade, reality shows like The X Factor NZ and The Bachelor NZ saw comedians and normies alike furiously live-tweeting their way through the drama together. We united in unbridled outrage when judges Willy Moon and Natalia Kills made harsh comments towards contestant Joe Irvine, with Kills accusing him of "copying her husband's look". Following the public uproar, the pair were quickly fired from the show and fled the country. On the flip side, the nation cooed in unison online when chiselled bachelor Art Green gave the final rose to Matilda Rice with the immortal line "it's always been you" (they now have three kids together). 

While we found another golden reality television couple in Brett and Angel on Married at First Sight NZ, other seasons didn't quite reach the same heart-eyed heights, nor did other romance reality offerings like First Dates NZ and Heartbreak Island. Perhaps our love affair with houses and DIY was stronger — The Block NZ eventually bloated out to four nights a week, despite the realities of the property market hitting home. And that's all to say nothing of other franchise juggernauts like Survivor NZ, The Great Kiwi Bake Off and Project Runway NZ. 

The 2010s were ripe with reality scandals, and we're not just talking about the unspeakable racial slur uttered on The Real Housewives of Auckland. In 2012, there was uproar after The GC received $420,000 from NZ On Air to follow the lives of young Māori living in the Gold Coast — unprecedented for a reality show. The reviews were scathing, but soon trumped by short-lived Kardashians rip-off The Ridges, which was described as "a dark stain on Kiwi-made television".

Thankfully, there were also many rays of light in the darkness. House of Drag made a winner out of trans drag king Hugo Grrl — a world first for the genre. The Casketeers, a reality series following the day-to-day operations of Tipene Funerals, became a miraculous smash hit despite the maudlin subject matter. Navigating the realities of death with humour and heart, the series was a reminder of how reality television can deal with complex issues like no other genre, while also creating space for New Zealanders who might otherwise remain unseen. 

Good things came to an end

After six seasons of fornication and foul language, award-winning drama Outrageous Fortune ended in 2010. The series had changed New Zealand's television landscape with its fierce portrayal of a West Auckland crime family trying to play it straight, and 725,000 of us watched matriarch Cheryl West (Robyn Malcolm) finally get her house in order. Outrageous Fortune wasn't the only beloved series we said goodbye to during the 2010s — music channel C4 played its final video in 2014, while the following year saw the end of three shows that consistently represented the voices of ordinary New Zealanders. 

First came the axing of Campbell Live, the 7pm current affairs show hosted by journalist John Campbell. For 10 years, Campbell Live advocated for people affected by issues like the Christchurch earthquakes and the Pike River mine disaster (as well as offering lighter fare, like dogs driving cars). Then, Māori TV's live Friday night interactive singing competition Homai Te Pakipaki ended after nine years of joy-inducing karaoke, while Christmas saw the curtain fall on TVNZ's long-running series Good Morning. For nearly two decades, Good Morning had entertained daytime viewers with a reliable mix of interviews, lifestyle and infomercial content — as well as the occasional dying swan ballet performance from craft queen Astar. 

The Taika-verse expansion

At the start of the 2010s, Taika Waititi had just one short film (Two Cars, One Night), one feature film (Eagle vs Shark) and a whole lot of false teeth to his name. By the end of the decade, Waititi had helmed a giant Marvel franchise and was about to be the first indigenous person in history to win Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards. That's not to mention the trio of instant-classic New Zealand films he made during this hugely productive period.

It began with Boy in 2010, a big-hearted yet heartbreaking coming-of-age comedy set in 1980s Tairāwhiti that introduced the world to young rising star James Rolleston and breathed new life into both 'Thriller' and 'Poi E'. Then came What We Do in the Shadows in 2014, a cult classic mockumentary about vampire flatmates — co-written and co-directed with Jemaine Clement — that led to an award-winning American spinoff series of the same name and a beloved local offshoot in Wellington Paranormal. 

Rounding out the Taika trilogy of the 2010s is Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016, a Barry Crump-inspired caper starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison, who reportedly received a standing ovation from a festival audience at Sundance. Based on Crump's novel Wild Pork and Watercress, the film quickly broke box office records and surpassed Boy to become Aotearoa's biggest local film. Waititi won New Zealander of the Year in 2017, called out racism in Aotearoa in 2018, and chased it all down with the soon-to-be Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit in 2019. Quite the run, indeed. 

Shortland Street went stratospheric

The nation's longest running soap grew in strength and confidence through the 2010s, including celebrity cameos from the likes of musician Ed Sheeran, a devastating poonami and increasingly explosive Christmas cliffhangers. Who could forget in 2013 when medical troubadour Chris Warner (Michael Galvin) serenaded his colleagues moments before a bomb detonated at his bach, or 2016's bloody ending that involved the complex 'who shot Drew' mystery? The soap celebrated 25 years on New Zealand screens in 2017 with a dramatic, feature-length episode, but it was a single line of dialogue in an otherwise ordinary episode that garnered international attention that same year. When an exasperated Chris Warner grabbed the family iPad and implored his son to "please tell me that is not your penis", the moment made headlines around the world, culminating in American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel reenacting the scene with Alec Baldwin. They were only eight little words, but the line quickly joined "you're not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata" in New Zealand's pop culture lexicon. 

Te reo Māori went mainstream

The 2010s also saw more people embracing te reo Māori in primetime, far beyond a simple "Kia ora, Shortland Street" of days gone by. News media incorporated our indigenous language everywhere from Maiki Sherman's One News report delivered entirely in te reo Māori, to the likes of Guyon Espiner and Jack Tame weaving it throughout Morning Report and Breakfast. In 2019, journalist Oriini Kaipara made history as the first reader on a mainstream news broadcast to wear moko kaue. "This is for US. ALL OF US," she wrote on Facebook at the time.  

Beyond the newsroom, film and television also rose to the occasion. Toa Fraser's 2014 film The Dead Lands brought te reo Māori to the big screen in the action horror revenge epic that follows Hongi (James Rolleston) seeking vengeance for the death of his father. Four years later saw the start of Ahikāroa, a series following a group of rangatahi Māori as they navigate life. "Growing up I never saw Māori accurately portrayed because of a lack of Māori writers, producers and directors telling our stories," writer Annette Morehu told The Spinoff. "I have had so many people come to me and tell me how much it has helped them to see those stories being told." Ahikāroa is now our longest-running bilingual series in history. 

Scripted television stepped up

Five years after we bid goodbye to Outrageous Fortune, the West whānau returned in 2015 with the prequel series Westside, which ran for six seasons. Scripted dramas continued to be popular, including Norse fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons and pub quiz team dramedy Nothing Trivial, as well as Australian co-production 800 Words. We tapped into our darker psyches with mysteries like The Blue Rose and The Bad Seed, while the award-winning series Harry proved we could also produce gritty and tense police dramas.  

In 2013, Jane Campion's atmospheric drama Top of the Lake won global recognition, receiving several Emmy Award nominations and earning actor Elisabeth Moss a Golden Globe for her compelling portrayal of a detective investigating the disappearance of a young schoolgirl in Central Otago. One year later, The Brokenwood Mysteries began and quickly became one of New Zealand's most successful television exports. The charming whodunnit murder mystery series screened everywhere from Japan to Bulgaria, with three million French viewers watching each week to deduce who was guilty of the latest grisly murder in the rural New Zealand town.

A new breed of comedy was born

In the noughties, 7 Days, Pulp Comedy and the swagbag of chaotic host-led shows on C4 had put more funny folks on‑screen than ever before. This led to an explosion of local comedy series in the 2010s and gave rise to a brand new generation of young comics on our screen. Sketch variety show Jono and Ben at Ten was a launchpad for stars like Guy Williams, Rose Matafeo and Laura Daniel, and catapulted them all into eventually leading their own groundbreaking comedy series in New Zealand Today and Funny Girls. 

Despite some downsizing towards the end of the decade, 7 Days stayed strong with its rotating cast of local comedians, and also inspired a raft of other comedy panel shows throughout the 2010s — Best Bits, Have You Been Paying Attention, Word Up to name a few. News and entertainment series The Project NZ launched in 2017 with comedians working behind the scenes and frequently in the coveted fourth chair slot, and late night studio outings like Brown Eye and our own The Spinoff TV delivered a sideways look at the week in news. 

Web series also brought new comedy voices into television's mainstream. Roseanne Liang's Flat3 was born out of a lack of work for Asian actors in Aotearoa, and Jessica Hansell's Aroha Bridge followed a pair of biracial twins in their Mangere Bridge-inspired community. "We need to provide deeper archetypes for women, Māori/Pacific/all nationalities, our queer family, artists of all ages and physical abilities," Hansell wrote for The Spinoff in 2016. "Comedy, screenwriting and animation all need these voices and we should be making way for them."

Unscripted television made magic 

But for all the scripted drama in the world, there were plenty of unplanned TV moments that caught the nation's attention. Many of the unforgettable moments came courtesy of our politicians, like John Key's awkward three-way handshake during the Rugby World Cup 2011 presentation, David Seymour twerking on Dancing with the Stars NZ, and then-Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern pointing her finger at Mark Richardson live on the AM Show in response to his question about whether women should be required to tell their employers about their pregnancy plans. All that, and yet nothing could top the astonishing sight of someone chucking a flesh-coloured rubber dildo at National MP Steven Joyce's head during a 2016 press conference at Waitangi. 

Going off at the Grammys

If we don't count Keith Urban or Flight of the Conchords, the 2010s were the biggest decade on record for New Zealanders sweeping major categories at the Grammys — and it's all thanks to two massive songs. The first was 'Somebody That I Used to Know' by Gotye (Australian) ft. Kimbra (New Zealander), which came away with record of the year and best pop duo performance in 2013. "I feel unbelievably blessed to have been a part of this song," said Kimbra, "and thank you to Prince!" (Prince presented the award). 

Just one year later, Ella Yelich-O'Connor (aka Lorde) and producer Joel Little were up on that very same Grammys stage in the peak of 'Royals' fever. First released on SoundCloud for free, her debut single had stormed the world in 2013 and quickly became one of the bestselling singles of all-time. In 2014, the pair accepted Grammys for best song of the year and best pop vocal performance in classic understated New Zealand style. "Thank you to everyone who has let the song explode," said a 16-year-old Yelich-O'Connor, "because it has been mental".

Sums up the whole decade, really. 

 

— Alex Casey and Tara Ward are staff writers at The Spinoff.