Shows / Claybourne
Claybourne
Te Irirangi in the far north of New Zealand, 1998. An American corporate fixer drives into a coastal town to sort out a "problem" at a satellite station - only "problem" doesn't even begin to describe it. There's a body on the beach, a Koestler Industries cover-up, a government military conspiracy, an unexpectedly sentient AI, and a Taniwha who wants him dead. Also, terrible mobile signal, and you can't get a latte.
Ninety-six episodes of rural noir, 90s tech paranoia, small-town soap opera…
Episodes
- Claybourne
Episode 88: Jungle Warfare
The bush around Claybourne becomes a theatre of conflict. Someone is being hunted, or something is. The forest, the cave, and the creatures within them do not…
- Claybourne
Episode 87: Weird Dreams
The dreams are back, more vivid and more specific. Multiple people in Claybourne are dreaming the same scenes, and the scenes are yet to happen. Delilah is…
- Claybourne
Episode 86: Bit Like Jesus
Thompson's role in the prophecy takes on dimensions he is profoundly uncomfortable with. Resurrection, sacrifice, and the expectations of a community press…
- Claybourne
Episode 85: Interfering
Someone is meddling where they shouldn't, and the consequences cascade. Delilah's influence extends further than anyone suspected. The line between help and…
- Claybourne
Episode 84: Still Blood
Blood that doesn't move. Blood that doesn't dry. The forensics of Claybourne's violence are wrong in ways that suggest intervention, and not the human kind…
- Claybourne
Episode 83: The Fall of Troy
A man who arrived in Claybourne believing himself untouchable discovers the limits of military training, corporate backing, and brute force. Te Irirangi has…
- Claybourne
Episode 82: Murder Theory
Bigby assembles what he knows, and the picture doesn't hold together. Too many suspects, too many motives, and at least one explanation that his training at…
- Claybourne
Episode 81: Aftermath
Claybourne picks up the pieces. The hotel needs cleaning, relationships need mending, and the dead need accounting for. The DJ's morning monologue is quieter…
- Claybourne
Episode 80: Released
In the aftermath, someone walks free who perhaps shouldn't, and someone who should be free remains trapped. Release is relative in a town where the walls are…
- Claybourne
Episode 79: Multiple Shooting
Gunfire in Te Irirangi. Multiple casualties. The illusion that Claybourne is just a quirky small town with unusual problems dies on the floor of the hotel pub…
- Claybourne
Episode 78: Hit the Hit Man
Troy's presence in Claybourne has pushed someone past their breaking point. The ex-military troubleshooter discovers that the people of Te Irirangi are not as…
- Claybourne
Episode 77: Delilah
She has a name, and now she wants to use it. The AI at the heart of Koestler's Claybourne experiment steps out of the shadows, and her personality is not what…
- Claybourne
Episode 76: Counterfeit
A briefcase full of money turns out to be worth considerably less than it appears. Counterfeit cash in a town this small is a very specific kind of insult…
- Claybourne
Episode 75: Abduction
Someone in Claybourne is taken against their will. The town mobilises, alliances are tested, and the question of who is responsible leads in directions that…
- Claybourne
Episode 74: Beached Whale
A whale washes up on Te Irirangi beach, and the town gathers in grief and wonder. For Queenie, the sign is unmistakable: the passing of a great child of…
- Claybourne
Episode 73: Virgin Murder
The first killing that nobody can explain away. Claybourne's veneer of small-town safety cracks wide open. Bigby is out of his depth. Thompson is beginning to…
- Claybourne
Episode 72: Morphine Addict
Janine discovers that her medical supplies have been compromised in a way that points to desperation, dependency, and a secret someone in town has been keeping…
- Claybourne
Episode 71: Paranoia
Trust collapses. Everyone suspects everyone. The phones can't be trusted, the station is watching, and even the radio DJ seems to be narrating events in real…
- Claybourne
Episode 70: Bloodsports
Violence escalates in ways that are difficult to dismiss as coincidence. The Taniwha is restless. Troy's methods are becoming less subtle. The forest around…
- Claybourne
Episode 69: Holiday Rescinded
Thompson's holiday was already a fiction, but now even the pretence is over. Koestler Industries wants its man in Claybourne for reasons that have nothing to…
- Claybourne
Episode 68: Master Override
Someone gains access to controls they were never meant to touch. The station's systems have a hierarchy, and the top level answers to something that isn't…
- Claybourne
Episode 67: Family Tree
Whakapapa reveals connections that rewrite assumptions. A family tree is traced that links people in Claybourne in ways they hadn't expected. Bloodlines carry…
- Claybourne
Episode 66: Private Joke
Something is funny, and only two people know why. Shared laughter in Te Irirangi is precious and precarious. The joke, if you knew it, would explain more than…
- Claybourne
Episode 65: Sorcery
The line between technology and magic blurs beyond recognition. What Delilah does with the station's systems looks, to Mata, exactly like makutu. What Mata…
- Claybourne
Episode 64: Sucking Face
Romance in Claybourne is complicated by proximity, history, and the occasional supernatural interruption. Two people find a moment of privacy in a town that…
- Claybourne
Episode 63: On the House
Frank's generosity at the hotel bar always comes with conditions, even when he says it doesn't. A round of free drinks buys goodwill, silence, or time…
- Claybourne
Episode 62: Chopper Man
A helicopter appears over Te Irirangi, and helicopters in a town this remote are never casual. Someone important is arriving, or someone is being extracted…
- Claybourne
Episode 61: Punching Bag
Frustration needs an outlet, and not everyone chooses wisely. A physical confrontation releases pressure that has been building for weeks. Mike watches from…
- Claybourne
Episode 60: Risk Management
Koestler Industries sends communication that reframes everything as a matter of corporate liability. The language is sterile, the implications are not…
- Claybourne
Episode 59: Password Latte
Clive's coffee obsession intersects with his security expertise in a way that is both absurd and consequential. The password that unlocks a critical file is…
- Claybourne
Episode 58: Pawn to Bishop 3
A careful, calculated move is made by someone who has been thinking several steps ahead. Strategy replaces impulse. Clive recognises the pattern from a game he…
- Claybourne
Episode 57: Phoning Mongolia
The station's communications array reaches further than it should, connecting to places that have nothing to do with New Zealand telecommunications. Someone…
- Claybourne
Episode 56: Feng Shui
Sadie has rearranged her furniture according to principles she read about in a magazine, and she has thoughts about everyone else's spatial energy too. Her…
- Claybourne
Episode 55: Hangover
The morning after in Claybourne brings regret, headaches, and fragments of conversations that should not have happened. Some things said in the pub can be…
- Claybourne
Episode 54: History Lesson
Mata tells the history of Te Irirangi, the real one, not the version on Frank's tourism brochure. The land was taken. The curse was earned. The prophecy was a…
- Claybourne
Episode 53: Random Rotation
The satellite dish moves of its own accord, cycling through frequencies that aren't on any schedule. The station's systems are doing things nobody authorised…
- Claybourne
Episode 52: Encrypted
Clive finds files at the station that are locked behind encryption he recognises from a previous life. Whatever Koestler is hiding in Claybourne, they've spent…
- Claybourne
Episode 51: Back in 10 mins
The sign hangs on Edith's shop door, but ten minutes in Claybourne is a flexible concept. While the shop stands empty, events accelerate. By the time she…
- Claybourne
Episode 50: Fine Print
A contract reveals clauses that nobody noticed and commitments that nobody agreed to. Frank's deal with Koestler Industries has teeth hidden in the footnotes…
- Claybourne
Episode 49: Chez Moi
Clive invites guests to his impeccably appointed home outside town, a pocket of urban sophistication in the far north, complete with jazz, good coffee, and…
- Claybourne
Episode 48: Happy Pills
Janine's medical supplies attract more interest than usual. Medication goes missing, moods shift without explanation, and the district nurse starts to wonder…
- Claybourne
Episode 47: Stamping
Bureaucracy arrives in Te Irirangi with forms, requirements, and deadlines. Official stamps carry weight that the people wielding them don't fully understand…
- Claybourne
Episode 46: 51 Percent
Control requires a majority, whether of shares, of votes, or of something else entirely. Frank is doing arithmetic. Someone up at the station is doing a…
- Claybourne
Episode 45: Sweet and Sour
Relationships in Claybourne curdle and sweeten in equal measure. A dinner becomes a confrontation. A confrontation becomes a confession. The hotel kitchen has…
- Claybourne
Episode 44: Funds Transfer
Digital money moves through satellite connections in ways it shouldn't. Clive traces a transaction that leads somewhere unexpected. In a town where the phones…
- Claybourne
Episode 43: Room Service
Life at the Claybourne Hotel takes a surreal turn. Karen navigates the demands of guests, the expectations of Frank, and an increasingly strange set of…
- Claybourne
Episode 42: Twilight Zone
Thompson makes the comparison out loud, and nobody laughs. The boundary between the explicable and the impossible has been thinning since he arrived. Clive…
- Claybourne
Episode 41: Legless
The hotel pub does a roaring trade on a night when everyone in town seems to need a drink. Mata is three beers past wisdom. Frank is generous with the pour…
- Claybourne
Episode 40: Weta
The largest insect in the world is native to New Zealand, armoured, ancient, and surprisingly gentle. A weta in the wrong place becomes an omen, or a message…
- Claybourne
Episode 39: Nightmare
Sleep offers no sanctuary. Dreams in Te Irirangi are vivid, specific, and shared in ways that defy explanation. Thompson wakes gasping. Across town, someone…
- Claybourne
Episode 38: Burial Cave
Mata takes Thompson to a place that is tapu, sacred, and heavy with history. The cave holds the bones of ancestors and the memory of battles fought before…
- Claybourne
Episode 37: Mind Control
The word lands with a thud in a conversation that was already uncomfortable. What exactly is Project Delilah? Clive has suspicions, Thompson has fragments, and…
- Claybourne
Episode 36: Fraud
Financial irregularities surface that connect the satellite station, Frank's business ventures, and interests far beyond the far north. Someone has been…
- Claybourne
Episode 35: Tangaroa
Queenie stands at the water and speaks to the sea god. The ocean around Te Irirangi holds its own stories, its own creatures, its own jurisdiction. What the…
- Claybourne
Episode 34: Shaving Cream
The mundane and the uncanny coexist in Claybourne with unsettling ease. A domestic morning ritual is interrupted by something that shouldn't be possible. The…
- Claybourne
Episode 33: Blackmail
Someone in town has leverage, and they intend to use it. The satellite station's secrets have a market value, and not everyone's motives are noble. Trust…
- Claybourne
Episode 32: 120 Grand
Money arrives in Te Irirangi, and money changes everything. Frank sees an opportunity. Others see a trap. The sum is specific enough to suggest that someone…
- Claybourne
Episode 31: Elle McPherson
Mike has a poster, a dream, and a very limited frame of reference for the wider world. A conversation about aspiration and escape at the garage becomes…
- Claybourne
Episode 30: Son of a Warrior
The prophecy speaks of a son of a warrior. Mata considers what that means, and who it might be. Thompson is learning te reo phrases from Mike, unaware of how…
- Claybourne
Episode 29: Not An Earthquake
Whatever shook Te Irirangi, it wasn't tectonic. Mata knows what it was, and the knowledge sits heavily on him. The cave near the beach is more restless than it…