Hope and Wire - Full Series

Māori warriors were slaughtered by tribes from up north — my tīpuna — and then the Pākehā settlers came in here and built an entire city on tapu land.

– Donna (Miriama Mcdowell) in the first episode of Hope and Wire

There were five big jolts, qualified as aftershocks. And one by one, they slowly just shook the city to bits. Churned it to dust. It just shreds everybody's nerves, that. Did my brain in.

– Len (Bernard Hill) in the first episode of Hope and Wire

I just wanted to be in it, really ... we need to talk to ourselves nationally about these experiences and television is a good way to do it, especially as a drama.

– Actor Stephen Lovatt on his role in Hope and Wire, The NZ Herald, 29 June 2014

Rachel House is simply tremendous as Joycie: she carries the drama and embodies the terrible mix of anxiety and fatigue that people in Christchurch know. The rendering of the earthquakes themselves and the blending of real-life footage with acted drama are a technical triumph.

– Writer Russell Brown on the first episode of Hope and Wire, Public Address website, 4 July 2014

Visually there were moments of great power. There were nearly seamless combinations of actual and recreated footage of carnage — including file footage I've haven't seen before. The earthquake scenes were visceral. The decision to break the fourth wall, or to look and talk directly to the camera challenged me somewhat ... But the intent, to tell a sprawling story, to represent a raw and recent disaster called for an approach that somehow skirted the documentary and the dramatic.

– Reviewer Paul Casserly on the first episode of Hope and Wire, The NZ Herald, 4 July 2014