TVNZ's Freeview channels are a disappointment

On the face of it, TVNZ6 & 7 are a huge opportunity to experiment. The government is funding their programming until 2012, so commercial pressure is nonexistent at the moment. This would be the perfect environment for Serial Killers style sitcoms or Big Picture-ish documentary series to flourish. However TVNZ appears determined to avoid producing anything that requires significant writing effort.

With TVNZ7 in particular, a Wellycentric cultural aesthetic has combined with reality TV techniques to give us shows that manage to be both cheap looking and unwatchably dry.

The set ends up being the make-or-break factor, which is why Backbenchers emerges as the best of the offerings. Political talking heads on the subject of pay equity would be soporific in the absence of a liquefied audience heckling the panel and presenters.