Paddy Gower’s certainly got issues – fresh, punchy issues

Launching a new current affairs show can’t be an easy job. Every TV show, doco and opinion-to-camera that anyone ever had is available somewhere on the internet – and the world is full of people who will tell you we live in a post-news society anyway.

Well, the hell with that, said someone at Newshub. Let’s try it anyway. And let’s get one of the few undisputed rock stars of NZ broadcast journalism to front it.

Gower’s specials on drug and alcohol use in New Zealand have been hits. So why not build a weekly show around a man who we obviously have a soft spot for?

Paddy Gower Has Issues is a punchy take on an old format.

From Holmes to Hosking to Campbell – we have been relying on men behind desks to present packages of pre-recorded stories and live-audience reactions for decades.

But Gower just happens to be bloody good at it. In fact, he might turn out to be the actual best we’ve ever had. Gower doesn’t have a Ken-doll face to hide behind. He’s not particularly disarming – and he definitely isn’t smooth or disingenuous.

He occasionally even looks a bit flustered and stage-scared. And for those reasons, plus he’s clearly done the work and knows what the hell he is talking about, I trust Gower in a way I haven’t trusted a local current affairs host in years.

And right out of the gate, Gower latched onto a story that needed to be told and carried it home like a feral cat with a shorttailed bat.

(That’s a joke. Watch the show and you’ll understand.)

It turns out New Zealand has two different accepted ways of teaching kids to read. And there’s a pile of evidence that one method is a lot better than the other.

So why isn’t ‘‘structured reading’’ the NZ standard?

And why is child literacy being entrusted to a post-code lottery?

Reporter Laura Tupou asked the questions and gave the examples, before Gower showed up for the slam-dunk: an interview with Jan Tinetti in which the Minister of Education seemed to announce changes would be made.

It might have been a case of claiming a victory after a decision had already been made.

But even if that was what happened, it was nicely done and all involved came out looking like a winner.

Earlier, Karen O’Leary’s story on the music in supermarkets delivered the laughs – and an interview with a bloke from Countdown who no comedy writer could ever have invented.

Personally, I could have done without Eli Matthewson and Courtney Dawson presenting the week’s news stories. The writing of these segments was miles behind what Gower, Tupou and O’Leary were serving up. Or, y’know, you could disagree with me completely and tell me Matthewson and Dawson were the only watchable people on screen.

Whatever, I like Paddy Gower Has Issues.

It’s not bland, it feels like it could go completely off the rails in a good way – and it seems to celebrate actual journalism. More please.

Paddy Gower Has Issues is available to stream on ThreeNow. New episodes also debut live on Three at 7.30pm on Wednesday nights.