Beyond telling relatable stories, it's prescient. Ihumatao is a case of reality mimicking fiction. Aroha Bridge is being mimicked by the events happening at Ihumatau.

In Aroha Bridge's season three finale, Kamo Kamo Corporation constructs a wall separating Aroha Bridge from the rest of world.

"The residents of Aroha Bridge - the angry dads, the people monopolising the cause, those disillusioned and those trying to be wakened - are divided in where they stand politically," writes Lana Lopesi in her review.

"That is until everyone starts to be impacted personally, whether it be through the inability to get burritos or the relentless corporate control of the suburb."

In the same way that Jacinda Ardern has to eventually take a stance on Ihumatao, Tokouso, the overly idealistic mayor of Aroha Bridge, always thought he could please everyone until he finds that he too has to eventually take a stance.

"An uncanny coincidence? Or a premonition manifested by the series' writer?" asks Lopesi.

"Like that friend who asks you if you really want to do that, and then tells you I told you so, Aroha Bridge, acts as a shady pop-up window asking us if we really want to repeat history again."

Aroha Bridge began life as a comic-strip and later developed into a short, online animated series. Now a full-length season made with the support of NZ on Air.

It is a cartoon snapshot of a multicultural melting pot that is New Zealand.

The series focuses on urban Maori characters, delving "into the racial politics and millennial Maori anxieties that manifest in the animated hubbub suburb of 'Aroha Bridge'."

Click here to watch season three of Aroha Bridge

Source

• noted.co.nz
• thespinoff
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: thespinoff

A youthful pope is in the job because the other cardinals hope to manipulate him, particularly the superficially cheerful Secretary of State.

But Pius XIII, Lenny Belardo, makes it clear early on that he will be his own man.

He brings in the nun who raised him, played by Diane Keaton, to be his primary aide and proves himself to be a fearsome and Machiavellian figure.

"Some Catholics may find elements of the show too edgy, but I was gripped by what I watched," said he Catholic Herald reviewer.

When the first episode aired on Italian television, it was a huge hit, and received the highest rating ever for the first episode of a Sky drama.

The series has received five-star reviews, in the USA and in the UK Read Catholic Herald review

Saint Hood Productions was scheduled to announce a series on Sr Blandina Segale.

"At the End of the Santa Fe Trail" is a semi-fictional account based on Sr Blandina's life and largely based on material from the nun's 1932 book with the same name.

Officials said the production is working on finding a network to air the series.

The nun from the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati became famous for her clashes with Old West outlaws and for her work with immigrants.

According to one story, she received a tip that Billy the Kid was coming to her town to scalp four doctors who refused to treat his friend's gunshot wound.

Sr Blandina nursed the friend to health, and when Billy went to thank her, she convinced him to abandon his violent plan.

Allen Sanchez, president and CEO of CHI St Joseph's Children — an Albuquerque community health organisation born of Sr Blandina's work — said the nun is a perfect subject for a television series since many of the same issues she faced still resonate.

"She saw a divided country. She fought violence with nonviolence. She worked to stop discrimination against immigrants," Mr Sanchez said.

"These are all things we are seeing today."

In October, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe came to the end of its inquiry on whether the legendary nun should become a saint, and sent its findings to the Vatican.

The inquiry heard from witnesses who said Sr Blandina fought against the cruel treatment of American Indians and sought to stop the trafficking of women as sex slaves.

They also testified that in death, Sr Blandina has helped cancer patients and poor immigrants who have prayed to her for help.

Sources

• Associated Press
• Image: What's New World