TVNZ OnDemand 2021 Highlights

Here are the new 2021 shows TVNZ OnDemand unveiled yesterday (blurbs courtesy of TVNZ or production companies):

GOOD GRIEF 

Set in small town New Zealand, sisters Ellie Goode (Eve Palmer) and Gwen Goode (Grace Palmer) inherit Loving Tributes funeral home after their koro passes away.

Ellie and Gwen couldn’t be more different. Ellie is back where she spent many summers as a child, determined to uphold her koro’s legacy, and excited to spend time with her sister. Gwen, on the other hand, doesn’t like being around dead people and can’t wait to get to Bali and become a DJ. 

With shared ownership of the funeral home, the sisters need to juggle their already strained relationship whilst also working with Loving Tribute’s three employees – none of who are excited to have the sisters as their new bosses.  

By staring death in the face each day, Ellie and Gwen begin to confront the realities of their own lives, and what they want to make of them. 

YOUNG AND…

Young And… is a strand of compelling documentaries, screening on TVNZ OnDemand and Re:, about young New Zealanders and the issues that matter to them.

The documentaries will cover diverse stories about sexuality, culture, gender and social identity from a 20 something perspective in New Zealand today. These storytellers will explore what it’s really like to be in your 20s in this country.

Young And… will reflect the unique rangatahi perspective. These films will be challenging, raw, uncensored, creative and authentic, highlighting the creative talents of six local aspiring documentary makers.

FRICKIN DANGEROUS BRO ON THE ROAD

The comedy trio are bringing their distinctly Kiwi humour to TVNZ OnDemand in 2021!

Each episode Pax Assadi, Jamaine Ross and James Roque visit a small town in NZ – from Feilding, Wairoa to Oamaru; the trio get to know the locals and their town, before performing a comedy show.

With more than humour in their jokes, there is an underlying important message in their comedy act. Frickin Dangerous Bro want to hold up a mirror to New Zealand communities, to showcase the wide range of ethnicities that make up who a “Kiwi” is today.

Join Frickin Dangerous Bro as they hit the Road!

SCRIBE: THE RETURN OF THE CRUSADER

In the early 2000s, you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing ‘Stand Up’ or ‘Not Many’.

To this day, Scribe is one of the biggest, most successful musical artists this country has produced. He was the first person to ever hold the number one spot on both the singles and album charts at the same time in Aotearoa.

We also know him from his widely publicised spiral into drug addiction.

This documentary is Scribe laid bare. His personal journey through open and brutally honest interviews, including with those closest to him.

As he works on his new album – his first in 13 years, we follow him as he reflects on his life, whilst making a comeback into the NZ charts.

So, how many dudes you know flow like this?

WAIATA / ANTHEMS

When Waiata / Anthems debuted at number one in the NZ Top 40 chart last year, it became the first 100% te reo Māori album to do so. Released in celebration of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori 2019, the massively successful album showed what a powerful tool music is in the revitalisation of te reo Māori.

This new TVNZ OnDemand series takes us behind-the-scenes as a new round of our top artists take on the challenge of learning translations, writing waiata, recording and performing their songs in Te Reo Māori.

We’ll be in the recording booth with some of Aotearoa’s best loved musicians, including Che Fu, Bic Runga, Katchafire, Don McGlashan, Hollie Smith, Drax Project, Annie Crummer and Melodownz, where they’ll work with some of our best language proponents and Māori orators to translate their music, and in some cases write brand new tracks.

COYOTE

Coyote is the story of Ben Clemens, who after 32 years as a border patrol agent, is forced to work for the very people he spent his career trying to keep out of America.

Now exposed to life on the other side of the wall, Ben will start to question his black and white views of the world, challenging his ideology and his loyalties.

The Shield’s Michael Chiklis and A Place to Call Home’s George Pullar star in this 10-part series.

IT’S A SIN

Russell T Davies’  fictionalised take on the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the series features a superstar cast led by Olly Alexander (God Help the Girl) and featuring Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Tracy Ann Oberman, Shaun Dooley, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells, Nathaniel Curtis and Lydia West.

It follows three new arrivals to London through the decade as they mature together with the AIDS pandemic looming in the background.

ANGELA BLACK

ITV’s new six-part Hitchcockian thriller stars Joanne Froggatt as a housewife who life appears idyllic: a lovely house in suburban London, days working as a volunteer at the dogs’ home, two wonderful sons and a charismatic, hard-working husband, Olivier (Michiel Huisman).

However, beneath this façade of charmed domesticity, Angela is also the victim of domestic abuse.

When faced with some horrifying truths about her husband, Angela’s life switches from school runs and the dogs’ home to private detectives and buried secrets as she risks everything she holds dear to fight back against the man who has suppressed and tormented her for most of her life.

➢ Here’s the full list TVNZ OnDemand has released: