only to succumb to the illness herself. Storylines following Sarah's death saw TK embrace being a solo-dad, with Mitchell believing, "When one relationship closes, another opens up ... Since Sarah died, the dark heaviness that TK experienced with being so depended on by his sick partner has gone and, naturally, he's stepped up to being a dad." Reception TK has proved favourable to female fans and was labelled by the official Shortland Street website as one of the most recognisable faces on the show. In 2008, a mother who was a huge fan of Shortland Street, named her child after the character. TK and his cousin Huia (Nicola Kawana), were portrayed as "middle class" Māori and fulfilled a certain demographic that had been left open after the departure of the Hudson family. At the time, besides the Samuels, the only two other Māori characters had very little to do with cultural issues. Eti Kawaka (Isaac Bell) was departing the soap and Jay Copeland's (Jaime Passier-Armtrong) storylines dealt more often with her sexuality. Because of this, the shows producers ensured TK and Huia appeared, "staunch" about who they were as Māori people. Reviewers predicted that how writers dealt with TK and Huia would directly affect the Māori audience share of Shortland Street. Following the murder of Huia in October 2006, the show came under criticism for its lack of Māori perspective, however producer Jason Daniel defended the move and assured the persecutors that TK remained as one of the shows most popular characters. During a speech at the show's 15th anniversary, the Prime Minister Helen Clark satirically suggested that the question of whether Sarah would marry TK was a major issue. The characters popularity dwindled off by 2014, with The Spinoff writer suggesting that Mitchell's off screen persona was the reason behind the attitude change of fans. The conclusion to the 2011 90-minute episode which saw TK ditch Roimata at the altar to see his daughter's birth, only to end up saving Hunter (Lee Donoghue) from a car crash, were highly praised by reviewers. It became the highest watched episode of the year, with an audience of 834,200. The love triangle between TK, Roimata and Sarah was listed by Television New Zealand as one of the top moments of the 2011 season. In 2013, Television New Zealand named TK and Sarah's reconciliation as the 7th best moment of the season. References