Williams has pulled together a stacked cast of local and international comedy talent for his new spy-parody series, which is set in New Zealand during the 1970s. Rose Matafeo, Bret McKenzie and Joe Thomas (The Inbetweeners) play Michael\u2019s spy colleagues, while Abby Howells, Rhys Mathewson, Scotty Cotter, Claudia O\u2019Doherty and Jay Ryan also appear in episode one. There\u2019s no shortage of impressive cameos across the six-episode season, with the likes of Tim Key, Sam Campbell, Jackie Van Beek and Andy Lee all set to feature in upcoming episodes.<\/p>\n
Clockwise from left, Rose Matafeo, Joe Thomas, Paul Williams and Bret McKenzie in New Zealand Spy (Photo: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
Michael (Williams), Michael (Thomas \u2013 yes, both male spies are named Michael) and Sue (Matafeo) play three new recruits to a spy agency, having undergone a rigorous admission process. \u201cThere are five spots and only three applicants. So\u2026 you\u2019re in,\u201d their boss (McKenzie) tells them. In most countries it takes years to train a spy, but not in New Zealand. Here, Michael, Michael and Sue \u2013 who is the most competent of the three \u2013 are sent on a two-week training camp, where the top spy student at the end of the fortnight wins a meat pack.<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 Michael isn\u2019t the sharpest tool in the shed, and when he\u2019s sent on his first spy mission to Queenstown he struggles to remember the simplest of details, including his own alias. Michael, Michael and Sue need to track down the nation\u2019s biggest enemy of all \u2013 the head of the Australian Intelligence Service. The trio bumble their way through the investigation, but it\u2019s not long before Michael finds himself being shot at by an angry Australian in a snowsuit, somewhere in the mountains overlooking Queenstown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo: TVNZ<\/p>\n
New Zealand Spy is a beautiful show to watch \u2013 not only does it capture some stunning local scenery, but the interior sets have a gorgeously stylish mid-century vibe. The show looks expensive and feels reminiscent of both a Bond film and Flight of the Conchords, as this group of loveable idiots banter their way through the unpredictable world of counterintelligence. The show\u2019s comedy is built on Michael\u2019s hapless interactions with everyone around him, and the New Zealand humour is typically dry, awkward and understated. There are moments when that laconic local humour feels a bit laboured, or the awkward encounters run a little too long. And in the first episode at least, there\u2019s not much more to the story than Michael\u2019s clumsy attempts at living the spy life.<\/p>\n
On paper, New Zealand Spy should work brilliantly. It has a quirky, absurd vision, and with Williams\u2019 love for all things spy-related and an extremely talented cast, it should guarantee a good time. In reality, it\u2019s hard to know what the point of New Zealand Spy is \u2013 but does that even matter? This is an endearingly silly comedy, with enough retro charm to make you not feel guilty about watching something so ridiculous. It\u2019s a bit of fun in a dark, dark world, but while episode one gave us a promising start, the rest of New Zealand Spy\u2019s chaotic adventures will need a little more depth to stop them from sliding completely downhill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Zealand Spy streams on TVNZ+ and screens on TVNZ2 on Wednesdays at 8.30pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to know what the point of Paul Williams\u2019 new spy-parody comedy is \u2013 but does that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[137143,156,111,209081,139,69,55085,117570,1066,35546,6445],"class_list":["post-405977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bret-mckenzie","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-spy","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz-comedy","tag-paul-williams","tag-pop-culture","tag-rose-matafeo","tag-tvnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}