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When a large congealed blob of fat in the Wellington sewers becomes sentient, Minogue and O'Leary go underground to confront the monster.

New Zealand's capital city is a hotbed of supernatural activity, so Officers Minogue and O'Leary take to the streets to investigate all manner of paranormal phenomena.

Primary Title
  • Wellington Paranormal
Episode Title
  • Fatberg
Date Broadcast
  • Wednesday 31 March 2021
Start Time
  • 20 : 30
Finish Time
  • 21 : 00
Duration
  • 30:00
Series
  • 3
Episode
  • 6
Channel
  • TVNZ 2
Broadcaster
  • Television New Zealand
Programme Description
  • New Zealand's capital city is a hotbed of supernatural activity, so Officers Minogue and O'Leary take to the streets to investigate all manner of paranormal phenomena.
Episode Description
  • When a large congealed blob of fat in the Wellington sewers becomes sentient, Minogue and O'Leary go underground to confront the monster.
Classification
  • PGR
Owning Collection
  • Chapman Archive
Broadcast Platform
  • Television
Languages
  • English
Captioning Languages
  • English
Captions
Live Broadcast
  • No
Rights Statement
  • Made for the University of Auckland's educational use as permitted by the Screenrights Licensing Agreement.
Subjects
  • Television programs--New Zealand
  • Paranormal phenomena--New Zealand
  • Police--New Zealand
  • Capitals (Cities)--Wellington--New Zealand
Genres
  • Comedy
  • Crime
  • Fantasy
Contributors
  • Jemaine Clement (Director)
  • Paul Yates (Producer)
  • Melanie Bracewell (Writer)
  • Mike Minogue (Actor)
  • Karen O'Leary (Actor)
  • Maaka Pohatu (Actor)
  • The New Zealand Documentary Board (Production Unit)
  • NZ On Air (Funder)
- These are good fish and chips. - Mm. I reckon this is the best fish and chip shop in the Greater Wellington Region. - No, the best fish and chip shop is the vegan fish and chip shop. - Isn't that just a chip shop? - Yeah. - Hey, you've got grease on your face. No, no, this side. - I'm doing that. - No, no, it's like a mirror. - Oh, you're one of those mirrorers. You're meant to do... comparitatable. - Comparitatable? - Mm. - That doesn't make any sense. - Just because you don't know all the big words doesn't mean- - Just think about how a mirror works, right? - Yeah. - OK, imagine that's a mirror. Right? OK. - Yeah. - I'm saying to you, there's the food. - Yeah, but that's when we're sitting across from each other. We're sitting beside each other. So you'd be pointing there. And then it would be here. - I'm pointing there. No, but I'm not, because it's a mirror, so that's there. - We're sitting next to each other. - But what about when we're sitting like this? - Well, when we are sitting like that, sure. - OK, then you've got grease on your face here. Just here. - Just there? - There. - Well, I don't think you need to point to my face. - RT: Testing. One, two, one two. Can you tell me if this radio is working? Over. - Yeah, it's working, Sarge. - Good. I got new batteries. I'm gonna need to you go out and investigate a disturbance at Taita Petrol Station. - A disturbance? - Yeah. - That sounds disturbing. - A disturbing disturbance. - Yeah, copy that. - MAAKA: Yeah, copy that. - Shall I put the siren on? - Yeah, definitely put the siren on. We've gotta get there fast. ('WELLINGTON PARANORMAL' THEME MUSIC) Captions by Able. www.able.co.nz (SIREN WAILS) - This is the scene of the disturbance. - Yeah, I know. I just drove here. - Gidday, mate. We've had a report of some unusual activity here. - Yeah. - Hey, um, what happened? - I didn't see anything. Happened over in the car wash. - That car wash? - Yeah. Some dodgy stuff happened, but... I didn't do anything. - Dodgy? - I heard him say dodgy. - Hey, look, it might be easier if we just came inside for a bit of a chat. - Yeah, so, it'll compromise my safety if you guys come in. - But we're police officers. - Yeah, I've heard that one before. - What, you think we're fake police officers? - Yeah. - Where do you think we got our police car? - I dunno. Online? - OK, well, look, do you have any information as to what happened here tonight - any more information that could help us out? - Yeah, I've got a security video here. - That might have been quite helpful a little bit earlier on. - So, here we have a car coming up. - Mm-hm. - Yep. - They came and bought a coupon before. Punching in the couple of digits that you've gotta put in for it. I think they're going for a premium - premium wash. Ooh, here they go, going in. Now four people in it. Now their car's getting a bit of a wash. - O'LEARY: Yep. - Still in there. Still in there. - Yep. - Still in there. - Still in there. Yeah. Got it. Still in there. - Here they come, here. There's no one in there. - O'LEARY: Where's that car now? Ooh, what is that smell? That is horrific. - MINOGUE: That is so much worse. There's slime in there. What kind of car wash is this? - What's this? (SLIME SQUELCHES) Look at that. - Eugh! - Are you scared? - No. Actually just concerned, because we're not meant to be tampering with evidence, I think. Don't think I really wanna walk in there. (OMINOUS MUSIC) - Ooh, bloody hell. - Use your baton. 8-2-9-3-8-2. 8-2-9... - 2-9... 3... - 3-8-2. - Asterisk. Can you hold that? - Good team work. - They never put those bits in, though, do they? - Nah. - You know? - Well, they consider that stuff boring, don't they? - Well, it's actually not boring at all. I mean, it's excellent policing, and it sends a really good message out to people, doesn't it? - Cooperation. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) It's not as exciting as I remember car washes being. - Mm. - Can we put on some music? (GROANS) Popsicle down. - Minogue, look, that's how we get ants in the car. Can you get it? - You get your little hands in there. Comparatively. - You put your long fingers down there, to get the iceblock that you dropped. Pull the seat back, cos I can't reach. Oh, what is that? - I got the stick. That's from last week's one. - Get that one. Don't leave that down there. That's not even an ice block. - I got it. I got it. Is that normal? - No, don't open our windows in the car wash. What kind of car wash did you get? - Mega. Should I have got basic? O'Leary, there's someone out there. EERIE VOICES: Help us! - What are we supposed to do? - They're asking for help. - We've gotta help them. We've got a responsibility. - No way! Don't do it, O'Leary! - I'm gonna open the window. - You said, 'Don't open it!' You said, 'Don't open the window!' - I'm opening it. - Join us! - Oh! No, that's not a good idea. Help me. I'm getting violated. - Don't touch her face! That's a police face! Get your hand off it now! - Oh, it tastes disgusting. - Why are you swallowing it? - I'm trying to tell you to get your window up! Out! That was violating my face. - Eugh, that was disgusting. Well, that's why you don't unwind your window in a car wash. - Thank you, Minogue. (TYRES SCREECH) - Do the slide. - Yeah. - Yeah! - There's still people in there. (TENSE MUSIC) O'LEARY: Where are they? TJ: Have I done enough to wear the jersey? Gotta sweat out that fear because this is bigger than me. I do it for my fans and my family. ION4 hydration. Sweat it out witih Powerade. (ENGINE RUMBLES) PHONE: Flow ` everything's flowing. When you can hit that flow, you basically become one. Challenge yourself to be better, to do it with more style and grace. (ENGINE RUMBLES IN BURSTS) That's what I aspire to. (TENSE MUSIC) - Right, just before you guys go out tonight, I would like to commend Parker for what a great job he's done in confiscating fireworks this week. (APPLAUSE) - Thanks, Sarge. - Yeah, it's not easy being the fun police, but sometimes you've gotta ruin everyone's Guy Fawkes for the sake of public safety. - I actually think that the fun police are just police who are fun - so, you know, fun police, so... - You know what? That is a great attitude. And speaking of fun police, (CHUCKLES) we're gonna be doing a bit of a controlled burn-off of said fireworks at the back of the police station on Friday night. - Any big ones in there? - Whoa, Mama, there's TNT in here. - Hey, whoa, whoa, Parker. Be extremely careful with that. - OK. Oh! - Right, that's enough for tonight. Get out there and make our communities feel safe. Thank you. Oh, uh, not you two, Minogue and O'Leary. You know where to meet me. - Is this where you wanted to meet? - Obviously. So, let me get this straight. Not only did you not find the missing persons, not find the suspect, you also managed to ruin your uniforms. - And the car. - Yeah, but it could have been worse. - How? - We could have ruined the car worse. - Let's keep this brief. You both smell horrible. Can you give me a description of what the assailant looked like? - Description's tough. - I mean, I'd start with 'blobby'. - I'd throw in 'gelatinous'. - Really good. - Yeah. I saw some arms and legs in there. - Yeah, there was also a couple of human faces. - I remember a face. - Yeah, there was. And then... making that muffled noise. It was almost like there was a membrane or something. - The face was like... can I use your lunch box? - Yeah, go for it. - GROWLS: Hello. Hello. - Didn't- No. No, like this. (MUFFLED SQUEALING) (SQUEAKS) - That's good. - That actually makes me think that you were doing it. - It wasn't me. I was in the car. But I could hear that noise. - It does sound a little bit like a cat. - No, a cat's more like this. (MEOWS) - Yeah. I often make that mistake, though. Sometimes I think the neighbours are calling, 'Help,' but really it's my cat calling 'meow'. - You don't have a cat. - Well, not any more. - Right, um... Minogue, stay absolutely still. Don't move. - What? What is it? - Yeah, no. - Is it on me? - Yep. - It's on me, isn't it? - Yep. - I can feel it on my face. - I'm gonna punch it. - Don't punch it! - Don't punch it. Don't punch it. Come here. Come, come. Come over here. - Get it off! Get it off! - There you go. - Eugh! - Eugh! That's suspicious. Right, well, I'm gonna get this to the lab. In the meanwhile, there have been reports of a horrible smell coming from the Waterloo area. To be honest, I did initially ignore the call cos I thought it was more of a council issue, but then they started to report missing pets. - Should you really be ignoring calls, Sarge? - Don't question me. (DOG BARKS IN DISTANCE) - WOMAN: I don't bloody know who it is, do I, Neil? I haven't opened the door yet. - Hello, ma'am. How's it going? I'm Officer O'Leary. This is Officer Minogue. - You are real police officers, I take it? - Well, of course we're actual real police officers, yes. - Where else would we get the car, if we weren't real police officers? - Oh, on eBay. - Where is this happening? - We can get into that a bit later, but at the moment, we've just got some questions about some reports from around this area. We'd really love to come in and just ask you a couple of questions, if that would be OK. - Yes, that's fine. Wipe your feet, please. - What is going on with this real police officer thing? - She's starting on the back foot, I can tell you that much. - That's my husband in there. - (GROANING) - Just ignore it. Those noises are pretty common. - OK. So, look, how long has this smell been around? - Neil? - Oh, no, the exterior smell. - Oh. Oh, a couple of weeks. Yeah, the plumbing's been very unreliable, you know? - Mm. Ours is all right at the moment. - That's interesting. Look, do you have any suspicions-? - (NEIL GROANS) - Suspicions of what might...? - NEIL: Oh! - He has IBS. Just ignore it. It's very normal. - Do you have any idea what's causing it? - Well, we think it's genetic. - NEIL: Help! - Can't even bloody go to the toilet by himself. - Excuse me. Sorry, Neil, can we come in? - NEIL: Yes, do come in. I do need some help, yes. - OK. - Oh, I don't think this is a police matter. - Oh, that is not normal. - That's not normal. (TOILET FLUSHES) (NEIL GROANS) - Don't resist! Do not resist! - I don't think he's resisting on purpose. - Neil, get out of the toilet! - Stay calm, sir. We're sorry to inform you your husband's been swallowed by the toilet. - That's awful. - We'll continue to do everything we can. - You haven't done anything. - We did everything we can. - NEIL: Get me out of here, please! - Neil? Is that you? - Of course it's me, Marlene. Who else would be hanging out in the drain? - I don't know. One of your weirdo mates? (PLUMBING RUMBLES) - I need help! - Follow the voice. - Ow! - Neil? - He's in the shower hole. - He's gone over there. That way, that way, that way. - Are you there, Neil? - Ow! - This way. Go, go, go, go! - Go, go, go! - I'm moving! Ow! I think my claustrophobia's kicking in. - Neil! Neil, stay there OK? - Don't move! - Stay put. - Don't use the toilet. No, I can hear him. - (NEIL GROANS) - Hang on. Wait. - Shh! - Yep, down this way. - Down this way. - He's in some sort of subterranean drainage system. - Help! Ow! - Look! - It's OK, sir. We're gonna help you! We're gonna help you, sir. This is never gonna work. - It is working. - I stand corrected. - He's very rubbery and smelly. Are you normally this rubbery, sir? - Not normally, no. - Are you normally this smelly? That's another case closed for Officer O'Leary and myself. As you can see, the victim is recovering in the boot of the car. Generally, he'd be in the back seat. But given the slime and the stench, he sort of ruled himself out there. But the main thing is, we've rescued him. - There are at least five or six other guys trapped down there. - Well, I mean, at least they're not in immediate danger. - I felt like my body was becoming liquid and my mind was becoming part of some malignant hive brain. - I think what can happen is when you hear those sorts of words like 'malignant'... - 'Hive mind.' - 'Hive mind'. I mean, very easy for the general public to start panicking, but I think that's the last thing we wanna do here. - That thing is going to take more lives. - We know, mate. Good as gold. - Yeah. But there's really no need for concern. (KNOCK AT DOOR) - Ah. Hey, guys. Thanks for coming to the lab. Um, I've been doing some research. - Are you the most qualified for that, Sarge? - Well, seeing as nobody else knows about this in the entire world, I'm actually the world's foremost expert at this phenomenon at this present time. - Yeah, and we talked to Forensics before as well, and they helped us quite a bit. These are their lab coats. - Yes. Yes. Yes. That's true. That stays between us. They did help a little bit. But mostly I've been doing my own research. I've been reading up blogs about blobs. - Did you figure out what it is? - Yeah. I ran some tests on that little sample that I got off your neck, Minogue, and I found some startling results. The substance you collected is a fatberg. - That's not that startling, in isolation, is it? Cos obviously fatbergs are a thing in Wellington waterways. - OK. Also, it's sentient. - That is startling. - That's really startling. - Parker, reveal the maze. - OK. Here we go. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) - Oh, it's kinda just getting stuck in the corner. - I said it was sentient. I never said it was intelligent. - Just gone round that corner, eh? And then down that way. - Yeah. - That's what I'd have done. - Very easy to be critical of the blob from this angle, isn't it? We get to see the whole thing. But from the blob's eye view, you know, it's just surrounded by walls. - Now, this sample here is far too small to take over my body, per se. But, um, Parker, show them diagram one. OK, so, for example, the fatberg began consuming small animals such as this goldfish here, and then grew in size, and then ingested, say, a cat, then grew larger and ingested larger animals in turn, so, say, this octopus, for example. And then larger still - and here we've used a giraffe, just to keep it fun, you know? It then grew larger and larger still, moving on to consuming human beings. And here we have the end result, which is a rather epic proportion of accumulated fat and human beings and animals. - I'm not really worried about any of these. - No. - But it's this one, isn't it? It's when it starts consuming humans, because it affects us personally. - Parker, reveal the map. - Yeah, sure. Sorry. Sorry, guys. - Now, these are all locations of reports of suspicious-looking blobs all around the city. My theory is that this thing resides deep in the heart of the sewer system. We need to stop this thing, before all of Wellington is completely covered in fat. - Would that be so bad, though? - Wouldn't be comfortable, would it? (BIRDS SQUAWKING, BONGO DRUMMING) Excuse me, where am I? You're lost in the procrastination place. Yeah, right. That makes sense. MAN: Slap yourself out of it. Whoo! * - So, Officer Minogue and myself have descended into the Wellington sewer system to investigate the fatberg. It's a complex network of tunnels and drains which collect the city's waste product- - O'Leary. O'Leary. - Yeah? - Do you reckon my bum looks disappeary in these? - Minogue, I'm just talking to the camera about what we're doing down here in the sewer system. - It's absolutely vital when we're in these new and potentially hazardous environments that we're wearing the appropriate safety gears at all times. - (SNIGGERS) You fullas all ready? - Yes. - I'm ready. - So, we're in the tunnels. Pretty hazardous in here. Top, bottom. You'll notice the floor is concrete, so I've got 45 rules for you. All of them - don't run. All right? Now, come on, then. Follow me. These drains are woefully neglected, so I always knew something like this was gonna happen. - What? That a sentient fatberg would start swallowing people? - Well, I couldn't predict that - obviously not that. But something very similar to it. - So, it could obviously take a really long time to find what it is we're actually down here looking for. Um, but... Actually, this is just what we're looking for. - Great police work, O'Leary. - Thank you. - The good news is that this has shrunk considerably. And also the fatberg seems to now be very low on energy. So that's actually a really good result for us. - Yeah. This is why I think Officer O'Leary and myself would make great candidates for detective. We're always detecting things like this, and that makes up probably 10% of being a detective. - Possibly even more than 10%. - Mm. - EERIE VOICE: Help us! - What's that? - MICHELLE: Oi! No running. - MINOGUE: Walking. - Oi. - That's grown considerably. - Never saw anything like that before. - MINOGUE: We're closing on it. We're pursing the suspect through a labyrinthine structure. He's very cunning - or she, or they - for a blob. - We're definitely making ground. Wait. It stopped. - I think it's coming back. Did we actually finalise a plan on what we were gonna do if we caught up with it? - Negative. - Tactical retreat. - Walking. This way. This way! (TENSE MUSIC) - It's gone. - Yeah, I think it slipped down one of the pipes. - Well, where do those pipes go? - Uh, over there. (FATBERG SQUELCHES) - That's a dead end. - It's a dead end. Feels like it's bad karma for teasing that little blob in the maze. (VOICES GROAN) - Join us. Join us. - Maybe, seeing as it's sentient, I can reason with it. Hey, look, um, we just need to have a bit of a chat, OK, guys? Um, what you're doing is not OK. - WOMAN: It is OK. - No, no, no. - It's OK. - Join the fatberg. - We're not particularly interested in being part of a fatberg. - Yeah, not interested. - You'll like it. It's nice. - Join us! - Help! Minogue! Assistance! - I'm on my way! - MICHELLE: Walking. - I'm on my way slowly. - Let me go! Let me go! Please release me. I'm a member of the New Zealand Police. I don't wanna be part of the fatberg! - Can you give us a hand here, mate? Rather than just filming, if you could help us. Thanks. Appreciate it. - (GROANS) - (PANTING) - MINOGUE: Come on... It's got the cameraman. Feels like it's too late for him. - O'LEARY: It's definitely too late. - It's coming after us. - O'LEARY: Looks to have renewed energy. - MINOGUE: Requesting permission to walk much, much faster. Much faster. (FATBERG RUMBLES) Keep going. Hopefully it can't go up stairs. - Aw, Stairs! - Stairs? Oh, stairs! - MINOGUE: Go, go, go, go, go! - O'LEARY: I'm just waiting. - Go, go, go! O'Leary, go, go! Go! Go! It's coming! (FATBERG SQUELCHES) - O'Leary, go, go, go! - Go, go, go, go! - MAAKA: You're worthless. You're nothing. Parker, affecting its self-esteem has done nothing. How is your research coming? - I've googled how to destroy fat. It keeps just showing me ads for my local gyms. Wellington Gyms for Him. Burn Dat Fat. - Hey. That's actually a good idea, Parker. - You think I should join? - No, not that. How do you destroy fat? You burn it. (GASPS) - (FATBERG SQUEALS) - Get out of there, Minogue. - I thought that thing was gonna kill me and eat me alive! - What? That doesn't make any sense. Quick, quick, quick! Yeah, good. - We regret to inform you that one of the other camera guys has been taken by the fatberg. I think his name was Ben or Evan or Bevan. - Kevin. Kevin? - Our deepest condolences. - The good news is, though, that we have managed to contain the fatberg in the sewers. - So that's good news- - (SCREAMING) - Excuse me. - Great work all round, team. - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously... - (SCREAMS) - Wait for that guy to finish. - It's a new kind of breakdancing, it must be. - Probably doing a TikTok. - (WOMAN SCREAMS) - In my opinion, that doesn't look good. - That's our- my favourite fish and chip shop. (WOMAN SCREAMS) - Save them! Save them! Save them! Too late. Too late. (TYRES SCREECH) (DRAMATIC MUSIC) - Parking's a bit off. - Still awake, Sarge. Have you been to sleep? - No time for sleep. City's at stake. Turns out the best way to take this thing out is to explode it from within the inside. - Come on. Let's go. - Deploying payload! (GRUNTS) - (WOMAN GROANS) - Oh my God. That woman's in danger. Quickly! Go, help pull her out. - O'LEARY: We'll save you! - You've got nothing to worry about. We've got you. - Don't light it yet. There's human lives in there. - Don't worry! We'll save you! - (SQUELCH!) - She was unsaveable, Sarge. - Parker, light the fuse. - It's too moist, Sarge. - Use the flame to dry it out. - Light it quickly, Parker! - Parker! - Hurry up! - Go, Parker! - Time is of the essence, Parker! - (FUSE HISSES) - Let's go! Let's go! - Go, go, go! Go! Run for cover! OK. (PANTS) - This is gonna be a good one, I reckon. Eh? - Sure it's lit? - Doesn't look like it's lit any more. - I saw a light going when you lit it. - I guess that wick must have got rained on. It's not gonna work. - MAAKA: That thing's gonna absorb the whole city now. - Can't win 'em all, Sarge. - Look, I reckon I should go and have a look at it. - I reckon O'Leary might as well look. She's the- - Bravest. - Closest. - I'm gonna go. Ready? - Three, two, one. (FIREWORKS SHRIEK) Argh! Right in my eye. - Eugh! - So, um, we've dealt with the problem. - The sewers have been damaged. - Irreparably. - We're hoping they can be repaired shortly. - Obviously there were some casualties. It was a really tough judgement call, but if we hadn't acted in time, then the whole city would have become a fatberg. - Although the majority of the feedback coming from inside the fatberg was positive. - Yeah, but we're pretty sure that most people didn't want to become part of an enormous blob. - Just depends whether you're a team player or not. - Hey. Hey, look, look, look. The people survived. - Oh, look - Evan. - Kevin? - Kevin. - You see, I thought there might be, like, a slim possibility that the elastic nature of the fatberg would act as a shock absorber, thereby absorbing the impact of the explosion and protecting the people. - Mm. - Did you? - Yeah. - PARKER: They're looking a bit worse for wear. - Look at that one. - Covered in goop. - And that one. - I still maintain, you know, great work by the team. - Oh, yeah. No, we nailed it. - Absolutely. - Really good result. - Hey, uh, there's some of it still alive there.
Subjects
  • Television programs--New Zealand
  • Paranormal phenomena--New Zealand
  • Police--New Zealand
  • Capitals (Cities)--Wellington--New Zealand