Airdate: Far North

2023 NZ drama Far North starring Temuera Morrison, Robyn Malcolm and Karl Willett will screen on Paramount+.

The six-part series is based on the mostly true story of how, in 2016, a comically inept gang smuggled half a billion dollars worth of meth on to New Zealand shores, only to have their plans to sell the drugs thwarted by a 70-year-old diesel mechanic, and his aqua aerobics instructor wife.

When a Tongan Australian gang does a deal with one of the biggest drug cartels in the world for half a ton of meth to be smuggled to New Zealand shores, a $500 million fortune awaits them. All they have to do is pick up the drugs.

Their incompetence leads to a series of blunders, invading a small beachfront town and attracting unwanted attention while waiting for the Chinese smugglers. When the smugglers’ boat breaks down, they become stranded with the drugs, and a fixer is sent to salvage the situation. A new plan involving a fake funeral at sea goes awry.

Far North is a saga of screw ups, as everyday people strive to foil an international drug cartel’s largest ever drug deal in the Pacific; the cops’ trip themselves up; and gangsters chase a payday with zero discretion leaving a trail of wreckage you can see from space.

Tuesday, 29 August on Paramount+.