[olivia]

Just sitting here watching Everybody Loves Raymond on Paramount and wondering what sort of comedy you get on the TV in NZ?

Also I know you get some of the UK soaps. Which ones do you get and how far behind are the storylines. Yes, i am afraid to admit i am a soap junkie (since having my son)

Olivia

[jubjub]

We get all the "faves" Emmerdale, Easties, Corro etc, never really watched any of them, although Corro is so far behind Shelly just dumped Charlie...

Comedy, we did get Raymond, but its finished, Malcolm is on instead.

Have a look at these, will give you an idea.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view-preempt/tvnz_epg_skin/#13:00
http://www.skytv.co.nz/index.cfm?pageid=449

[olivia]

Thanks.

The schedules look quite good apart from the dreadful american afternoon soaps. I used to watch The Bold and the Beautiful with French subtitles when I lived in France as an au pair many years ago.

When we move to NZ i aim to break my soap watching as it will be an ideal time to start new habits.

Olivia

[Diny]

We have Sky TV which is the australian 'version'. I usually watch Discovery and History Channel. UK TV is OK but can be pretty dated. As for the 'ordinary' TV channels ..... I have to say that over here in NZ they're pretty rubbish.

I'm not a great lover of TV in any country and I always suggest using the 'off' button.

Diny

[jess]

At the moment enjoying The Amazing Race and Scrubs and the occassional movie. The biggest difference for me between here and the US is how fast the programming changes. At 5:30pm on TV2 they ran the once-a-week US show Everwood every weekday for a month and a half, and then they were done with the season and started running the once-a-week Australian show My Restaurant Rules every weekday for a month and now have moved on to Extreme Makeover Home Edition (blech). If you don't like the programming check back in a couple weeks and it'll be something else!

We will probably eventually get Sky, but so far haven't bothered.

By the way did anyone catch the British Expose show on TV1 the other night? Having Children Ruined My Life? Wow, they made motherhood look truly abysmal!

[Sean-n-Judy]

So which season of LOST is on in NZ? The new season starts here on Oct 4th, but we fly out on the Sept 21st!

[KerryS]

Most tv is pretty atrocious - lots of imported American soaps during the daytime, some poor UK shows and countless infomercials. They buy cheap programmes, or wait until a show is reasonably old and lost it's value before purchasing, so that what is offered is poor quality.
I don't tend to watch much tv here at all - and I have 10 channels to choose from if I really wanted to...

[Moorf]

When we move to NZ i aim to break my soap watching as it will be an ideal time to start new habits.




LOL, I said the same - and now I can't wait for "2 hour Coro Tuesdays" (altho I have to say I can't watch Eastenders anymore it is dire and increasingly I can't be bothered with it... :no if hear Peggy Mitchell say "but we're faaaaamily Billy" one more time the bottle will be thru the telly!! :D )

I'm at home all day and the telly doesn't go on until the 6pm news.... it's trash.. and that's even with Sky!

[jess]

Sean-n-Judy:

TV2 just finished season 2 of Lost a while back. Season 3 will be coming up later in the year so the good news is you won't miss anything!! :D The down side - it will start later here than in the US. Seems to run two or three months behind. Details on the new season starting will be on the TV2 site at
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/tv2_minisite_index_skin/tv2_lost_group

I know, because my OH is seriously addicted.;)

[Smiler]

Just sitting here watching Everybody Loves Raymond on Paramount and wondering what sort of comedy you get on the TV in NZ?

Also I know you get some of the UK soaps. Which ones do you get and how far behind are the storylines. Yes, i am afraid to admit i am a soap junkie (since having my son)

Olivia

Most of the comedy screened here is adverts. They are so bad they are funny. ;) Or so cringing, you have to hide behind the cushions.

[sarahw]

Hi

Depends if you get Sky as to whether the TV is any good. Corro Street is a must!! (yes Moorf we too are hooked!! & also haven't watched a single Eastenders since we got here - we used to watch it religiously!! Too depressing!

We've been watching Big Love, Desperate Housewives, Scrubs & the old re-runs of Friends that are on every night. Also enjoy watching Campbell Live (current events show every evening after the news) & 60 minutes - same. If there's nothing else on we often find ourselves watching BBC news channel or Sky News to see whats going on in the world. They have some pretty good films on the TV channels - if you can stay awake (it takes 3 hours to put on a 1.5 hour film because of all the ads every 5 mins!! Drives you nuts & we usually fall asleep half-way through!!)

There's the UKTV channel which tends to have some good commedies on late at night - 2 pints of lager, Catherine Tate show, Smack the Pony, Kumars etc.,

Heck - sound like all I do is sit in front of the TV!!! Not really, but it is winter!!

[acisman]

We also consider NZ TV to be rubbish. Too many soaps, too many US dramas (hospital and cops) and far too many so called US comedys. There are a handful of reasonable UK dramas and a couple of US programmes, but with so much times given to adverts and programme trailers, we tend to watch only the bear minimum.

Moorf, I really can't believe you can sit through 2 hours of corrie ( or corro as they call it here).


I am thinking of getting up a campaign to give us viewers a bigger say (if we have one already) about the amount of advert time and the frequency of screening a particular advert. 12 minutes per hour plus 2 minures promotion time is far too much and we watch very little TV.


Pam & Dave

[Moorf]

Moorf, I really can't believe you can sit through 2 hours of corrie ( or corro as they call it here).



:o It is a bit sad isn't it.. I think they must have had a run of long episodes in the UK during the Shelley/Charlie saga! It's not always been 2 hours.. honest.. :laugh (but I secretly love wallowing in Corrie for 2 hrs!!).

I must say, I didn't even realise there were so many different variations on the CSI theme until we moved here - every other programme seems to be a crime-hunting-psychic-blonde-with-baggage-trauma room-whodunnit... :wah The motorsport on Sundays is good tho :D

[jubjub]

:o It is a bit sad isn't it..

Dont worry Moorf, I have started watching it too, not watched Corro for about 10 years, moved to NZ, slot straight back in, and dont feel as if I have missed anything... :confused:

And during the day we watch Playhouse Disney... I love it, no adverts, but I do find myself humming the Wiggles songs on a regular basis round the supermarket :exit

[olivia]

Oh well, maybe i'll allow myself one soap then! Eastenders is rubbish over here at the moment too. It keeps losing out to Emmerdale in the ratings when they clash schedules. So it would have to be Corrie anyway.

Have you had the furst season of Prison Break over there yet? I loved it and can't wait for the second series although I don't know how they can improve it.

And Jubjub I understand where you're coming from re the singing. My youngest has recently started watching a bit of the Cbeebies channel and the songs are so catchy. My OH came down for breakfast the other morning and I was singing my heart out to the Bobinogs (don't know if you have this in NZ).

Olivia

[MB]

We don't have Sky. We put 'that' money into broadband instead becuase we use it so much. If we had more money we might -- just might -- get Sky.

As it is we have terrestrial channels 1, 2 and 3 plus the small handful of channels such as Maori TV and C4. We can't get Prime in our part of the Waikato (Prime is the channel that shows Dr. Who), which is a bit of a shame.

These channels are okay if -- no jokes, please -- you don't watch much TV. That is, the children's shows are okay (Massey Ferguson, Blue's Clues, Clifford, etc.); there are one or two good UK series from time to time (e.g., Doc Martin, Jonathan Creek, Little Britain, Connolly's NZ tour) and one or two NZ shows that are all right (Campbell's early-evening newsy magazine show can be quite funny, and there's a NZ sketch show that looks promising). We also like the Aussie show Home & Away, which has somewhat kept to its roots as a domestic family drama -- rather than a pure tongue-in-cheek teen-star soap -- and in my opinion is unfairly and lazily labelled by some folks as trash. It began, I think, as a straightforward daily afternoon drama about foster families, and still has some very good moments when it sticks to what it's best at. (Okay, H&A cheerleading over :laugh ... except to say that...

**SPOILER HUNCH APPROACHING**

...does anyone else hope for an Amanda vs. Zoe showdown of some sort?! Now THAT would be clever writing... who'd ever have thought you'd be cheering Amanda?)

In summary, if you don't expect a huge amount from NZ terrestrial TV, it's pretty good. But if you're really into your telly, I suppose Sky is the way to go.

[Smiler]

:o It is a bit sad isn't it.. I think they must have had a run of long episodes in the UK during the Shelley/Charlie saga! It's not always been 2 hours.. honest.. :laugh (but I secretly love wallowing in Corrie for 2 hrs!!)

Me too on the corrie front!!

I even managed to stay awake through Waking the Dead last night, I like Sue Johnstone and I'm ashamed to say I remember Trevor Eve as Shoestring. Now thats got to be at least 25 years ago?

[southparkers]

Im not addicted to much on tv apart from the aforesaid corrie and for some strange reason neighbours, but one thing I am absolutely addicted to is the Soprano's.
The new series starts here 31st august and we move out and into a caravan on the 6th sept.Just my luck.
I will be begging friends in the village to tape it for me, but then its if they remember/can be bothered.

So, do you get The Sopranos there and has the new series started yet.
Cant wait for next thursday,I wonder who will be swimming with the fishes this time.

April

[MB]

Re. my earlier post: 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'South Park' are on terrestrial TV here, too. Yay!

Ahh, Suzie Essman on 'Curb...'. Isn't she wonderful? Originally when posting this I put in some quotes from her, but they were so full of deletions 'cos of the profanities that it wasn't worth it. "Sick-o, f***-o a*****e!", etc.

Pure joy.

[jubjub]

Sopranos here is just showing Series 6 if that helps.... currently on week 3 or 4...

[southparkers]

Noooooooo

I was hoping you would be behind us,
Never mind Im sure I'll have better things to do when we get there than obcessing about TV .

Thanks

April

[Koen]

Is it possible to track Astra sat from NZ?

[jonSE]

Is it possible to track Astra sat from NZ?

Unfortunately no. You would have to point your satellite dish at the ground in NZ and hope the signals could make it through the Earth. Now if the world was flat we wouldn't have this problem LOL.

Only one consolation about NZ TV - it is better than OZ TV, I can live with the out of date soaps and Pearl and Dean adverts on NZ TV. Where they dig up the dross they put on OZ TV I don't know.

[GeordieLass]

Im not addicted to much on tv apart from the aforesaid corrie and for some strange reason neighbours, but one thing I am absolutely addicted to is the Soprano's.
The new series starts here 31st august and we move out and into a caravan on the 6th sept.Just my luck.
I will be begging friends in the village to tape it for me, but then its if they remember/can be bothered.

So, do you get The Sopranos there and has the new series started yet.
Cant wait for next thursday,I wonder who will be swimming with the fishes this time.

April

This probably won't help you but cd-wow had some of the old series for £12.99 the other day. Worth keeping an eye on anyhoo. I'm a newcomer to the Sopranos and have been getting the dvds off Screenselect throughout this year. We're almost at the end of Series 3.

Are there any dvd-rental-by-post type things in NZ? Or am I going to have to stock up from cd-wow before I leave?

[jubjub]

Something like this??

http://www.dvdunlimited.co.nz/homepage/index.php

[jess]

Olivia - Prison Break is showing here now - season one.

Well we broke down and got Sky after all. They called with $45 installation and two months free on a one yr. contract so we went for it.

Geordie - Besides DVD Unlimited that JubJub mentioned, there's also Movieshack (http://www.movieshack.co.nz/).