The consensus seems to be that mainstream New Zealand-made reality shows are something of a joke. For proof, all you need to do is look at the hype surrounding next week's debut of The Ridges - heck, the marketing team behind that show have actually incorporated some of the negativity surrounding its stars into the promotional materials.
New Zealand's Got Talent starts on Sunday night and the pre-show hype on that is about as exciting as a wet blanket. My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef are both utterly forgettable. The less said about The GC, the better. Even our own version of Next Top Model seems to have gone the way of the dodo.
No wonder Colin Mathura Jeffree was so keen to do some stand-up comedy at the Red Nose Day telethon.
But in spite of the poor state of mainstream local reality fare* as a whole, I have to be honest and say that I really enjoyed TV3's The Block NZ, which finished this week with a pair of two-hour episodes that saw the houses completed, cleaned up and auctioned off - siblings Libby and Ben were named the champs after their house was auctioned off for $961,000, which was $160,000 past the reserve price.
Actually, I'm quietly disappointed with the outcome. I was firmly in Rachel and Tyson's camp and had been following them since the start of the series. That a buyer was able to bid smack on the reserve, not a cent more (which meant no money for the quirky couple) was almost shameful, especially when the bidders weren't meant to have knowledge of the reserve prices.
In fact, the main reasons I enjoyed The Block NZ have little to do with any of the contestants and more to do with aesthetic choices the show made in how it would look and how it played out.
Those choices started with a perfect host. I'm a fan of Mark Richardson thanks to his work on nightly sports show The Crowd Goes Wild, but his work on The Block NZ was even better than I could have imagined, his somewhat aloof style belying a friendly demeanour that showed itself in some of this week's better moments.
Shannon Ryan made a great co-host too, and I'm not just saying that because I think she is absolutely gorgeous. She is gorgeous, though.
I also liked the pacing of the show. After talking to a couple of viewers, it seemed their impression was that the show was too fast-paced and that was making things hard to follow. But I liked that it was quick, even frenetic at times. There was a lot to get through in two hours a week - four houses and couples, four rooms being designed simultaneously, plus the various challenges. The quick pace of the show made you feel as though the contestants really were on a tight deadline and under pressure.
There is also a tendency to let promotional material overpower the actual content on a show like this - and while The Block NZ did seem like a long Bunnings advertorial at times, it didn't really bother me too much: the amount of promo is probably my biggest gripe with the show (with any show like this), but most of the promo comments were in context with what was happening on the show, not wedged in or tacked on to fit some kind of "mentions per minute" quota.
It certainly wasn't as unbearable as a show like Masterchef or Next Top Model, where sponsor and product placement manages to permeate every second of every episode.
Nope, The Block NZ definitely wasn't as bad as those shows. In fact, The Block NZ might be one of the better reality competition this country has produced in quite some time. It was definitely my favourite NZ-made reality show from the last couple of years, and I hope TV3 decides it wants some more.
What did you think of The Block NZ? How do you think it stacks up against other reality shows produced in NZ?
(*) There is a whole other world of locally made reality TV that can be enjoyable to watch at times; shows like Police 10-7, Neighbours at War and so on. I'm just talking about the big rating shows that dominate the headlines and which everyone seems to either love or hate with a passion.
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Can Rachel and Tyson have their own reality show? Would make better viewing than The Ridges!
Loved it from start to finish.....even better when you mysky it and cut out the pesky ads :) Hope they do another one and keep Mark as the host.
Despite my initial misgivings, I actually really enjoyed it. Like you, I was also disappointed with the result. Not so much in the winners, as I tipped Ben and Libby to take it out. But that four homes in the same location, all pretty much the same size, and essentially differing only in stylistic design choices would have a $150K difference in final sale prices.
I'm also disappointed at the ridiculously overpriced outcome that Ben and Libby got for their house. The real losers are future Auckland house buyers in that area, as agents will use that price to indicate that is what houses in that area are worth.
Loved the show, hated the outcome. Now that I know just how disappointing the end result can be, I wouldn't dream of leaving my daughter for 10 weeks. Potentially for nothing.
Hate NZ tv series, movies, music etc with a passion so never watch any of this crap.
The funniest thing is how Richardson looks so much like the tennis player Sam Querrey. Feel sorry for Sam as the only Querrey is Richardson.
I felt Ben and Libby was the right result, but I really wanted Rachel and Tyson to do really well.. such a gutting outcome from an auctioneer who came across as easily the worst of the four on the night.
Funny, I was literally saying the same thing yesterday. I loathe most NZ reality shows, but I thought The Block was really well done. My only complaint was that the couples were so limited in what they could do and we don't learn anything from the show in terms of DIY (We did learn about painting and building boxes I suppose...)
Still, it was way more enjoyable than I expected and I'd watch a second season.
I beg to differ - the block stood out as being watchable only because everything else was so darned dire.
Taken on its own meritsd it was nothing short of a series brain dead adverts for a bunch of sponsors who I didnt bother rembering and even worse still, a sweat shop for the contestants who aside from one couple were bilked out of a lot of time that could have been money.
Reality TV forms a big part of the blight on the TV production landscape that starves other content out of existence (the lack of a local content quota is another).
You could tell when the block was on as you could almost hear the IQ points being shed nationally as the shallow end of the gene pool turned on their tellies
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"The consensus seems to be that mainstream New Zealand-made reality shows are something of a joke."
That's my view of all reality shows, not just the NZ made ones :-)