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Month: June 2020

Watchable the week of June 28, 2020

June 28, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Welcome to Chechnya (June 30, 9 p.m., HBO)

Grishna, right, and boyfriend Bogdan (not their real names) wait tensely for a flight to take off
as they flee Russia in “Welcome to Chechnya.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

I had forgotten about the 2017 HBO TV interview in which Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied that gay men were being tortured in the Russian republic because there were no gay people there.

This documentary by Oscar nominee David France (“How to Survive a Plague”) is a harrowing and heartbreaking repudiation of that nonsense, and a reminder as we finish Pride Month here that gay rights are non-existent in other parts of the world.

France profiles the work done by the Russian LGBT Network to rescue residents at risk of torture and death at the height of the state-sponsored purge of homosexuality in Chechnya.

France posed as a tourist to obtain his guerrilla footage and digitally altered the faces of his subjects in post-production to protect their identities. We go inside a Moscow safe house where gay refugees anxiously await the visas that will allow escape to safe countries (for one man, it becomes too much; he slits his wrist and his house mates must tend the wounds themselves since calling an ambulance is too risky).

We also ride shotgun during the nerve-wracking rescue of a young woman from Grozny whose uncle has threatened to expose her as a lesbian unless she has sex with him. And we watch the scrambled flight from Russia of a man and his entire family after Chechen agents discover where they are hiding: their tension as they wait for the plane to take off is nearly unbearable.

The words of the survivors in this doc are not the only evidence of the detention and torture of gays and lesbians; chilling videos of people being raped and beaten are sprinkled throughout. One of the most distressing shows a man preparing to drop a flagstone on the head of a lesbian relative.

Even one of the rescuers, Olga Baranova, has to flee Russia when her own identity is exposed as she tries to help a young woman who’s being sent back to Chechnya.

One brave victim, Maxim Lapunov, filed a criminal case against Russian authorities, becoming the only person to speak publicly about his detention and torture, but it was briskly dismissed by Russian courts. He has since filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

The good news is that the Russian LGBT Network resettled 151 people in the first two years of the purge, 44 of them in Canada with the help of Toronto’s Rainbow Railroad.

But as exhausted rescuer David Isteev says at the documentary’s end: “This story needs a proper ending and that’s still very far away.”

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (June 28, 10:05 p.m., HBO)

Late author Michelle McNamara, the protagonist of “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,”
with husband Patton Oswalt. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

True crime documentaries are still a popular genre with good reason and the story of the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist, is among the most fascinating cases.

Former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo is expected to plead guilty Monday to 13 rapes and 13 murders, just a fraction of the sexual assaults and other attacks attributed to him between between 1974 and 1986.

But this documentary series is not as much about DeAngelo as it is about Michelle McNamara, the author and blogger who obsessively researched the case in a bid to unmask the killer — an obsession that contributed to her death in 2016 from an overdose of prescription drugs combined with an undiagnosed heart condition.

Her book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” on which this limited series is based, was published posthumously in 2018 — just a few months ahead of DeAngelo’s arrest — thanks to McNamara’s husband, comedian Patton Oswalt; her researcher and fellow true crime obsessive Paul Haynes; and journalist Billy Jensen.

The series is part true crime survey, part McNamara biography and part love story, but it also gives voice to DeAngelo’s victims, who are still visibly struggling with the trauma inflicted on them.

Say I Do (July 1, Netflix)

From left, Gabriele Bertaccini, Thai Nguyen and Jeremiah Brent prepare
to celebrate their handiwork in “Say I Do.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

This series is basically “Queer Eye” for weddings, but with three gay experts instead of five: interior designer Jeremiah Brent, fashion designer Thai Nguyen and chef Gabriele Bertaccini. But what it most reminds me of is “I Do, Redo,” the Canadian show that was banished from all Bell Media platforms after star Jessica Mulroney was caught misusing her white privilege against a Black social media influencer. The Canadian series featured couples redoing marred first weddings whereas “Say I Do” mainly features pairs marrying for the first time, but the beats are very similar: couples facing hardships, dream weddings pulled off in just days, emotional bonding between brides and grooms and experts. Non-spoiler alert: There will be tears.

“I Do” is one of several shows Netflix is releasing this week, including a revival of the classic documentary series “Unsolved Mysteries” (July 1); fantasy drama “Warrior Nun” (July 2) and “The Baby-Sitters Club,” based on the beloved young adult novels (July 3).

Malory Towers (July 1, 11 a.m., Family Channel)

From left, Ella Bright, Zoey Siewert and Danya Griver in “Malory Towers.”
PHOTO CREDIT: WildBrain Television

You don’t necessarily have to be a tween girl to enjoy this adaptation of the British novels by Enid Blyton, set at a 1940s English boarding school by the sea. The setting is suitably picturesque and the girls pursue their adventures — midnight feasts, telling ghost stories, playing lacrosse, swimming at the rock pool — with a cheerful earnestness that isn’t cloying. The series was partly shot in Toronto and co-stars Canadian actor Zoey Siewert as jokester Alicia.

Hamilton (July 3, Disney Plus)

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo in the movie version of “Hamilton.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

The monster hit musical “Hamilton” faced a double whammy when the coronavirus hit: it was forced offstage when theatres closed, including here in Toronto, and this movie version had its release curtailed. But its streaming debut should be a boon for Disney Plus, given the insane popularity of the theatrical version, as well as for anyone who’s always wanted to see it and could never score tickets. I haven’t watched the movie, shot in 2016 in New York, but I was lucky enough to see the musical live in Toronto and can vouch for how entertaining is. The bonus here is that you get to see the original Broadway cast, including creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the starring role.

Cottagers & Indians (July 4, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Drew Hayden Taylor directs and narrates the documentary “Cottagers & Indians.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

Indigenous author, playwright and filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor gives the documentary treatment to a longstanding dispute that he has already explored in theatrical form. In a nutshell, Indigenous man James Whetung is seeding huge swaths of Pigeon Lake with wild rice, a traditional Indigenous staple that was virtually wiped out over a century ago due to non-Indigenous development; cottagers like Larry Wood say the rice is impeding their enjoyment of the water and even endangering people since boats have to travel very close to shore to avoid it. The doc makes clear that reconciliation is a complex and difficult process — although Hayden Taylor illustrates that there are places in Canada where Natives and non-Natives are making it work. What’s frustrating is that the doc ends without a resolution in sight, despite the proposal of what seems like a reasonable compromise.

Odds and Ends

Judges Stacey McKenzie, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Jeffrey Bowery-Chapman in “Canada’s Drag Race.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Bell Media

If you love “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” drag queens or just fun, escapist TV, then do tune into “Canada’s Drag Race” (July 2, 9 p.m., Crave). I haven’t yet seen a full episode, but I did get to check in with the resident judges about what to expect. You can read about it here.

“Robot Chicken” returns for a 10th season of stop-motion comedy (June 28, midnight, Adult Swim). “The Sommerdahl Murders” (June 29, Acorn) combine Danish crime drama with marital discord. “Hanna” (July 3, Amazon Prime Video), about a young woman with extraordinary fighting skills, returns for a butt-kicking second season.

Watchable the week of June 21, 2020

June 21, 2020 /

Perry Mason (June 21, 9 p.m., HBO)

Matthew Rhys as the title character in “Perry Mason.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

It’s clear from the opening moments of this adaptation, which feature a murdered infant with his eyelids gruesomely sewn open, that we’re not in 1960s TV-land anymore.

Forget the upstanding courtroom lawyer played by Raymond Burr in the 1957 to ’66 TV series, this Perry Mason is a rumpled, cynical private detective practising his sleazy trade in 1930s L.A. at its noirest. (In the first episode, he’s employed to take tawdry photos of a Fatty Arbuckle-esque actor caught in flagrante delicto with a starlet, with a side of whipped cream.)

The good news is that Perry, played by the very able Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”), doesn’t stay a sad-sack loser for the entire eight episodes because, really, how many more anti-heroes does TV need? His innate decency spurs him to do the right thing for a woman who’s being railroaded in the murder case thanks to corrupt, brutish cops and a venal district attorney (Stephen Root), and lands him in the defence lawyer role better known to TV viewers and readers of Erle Stanley Gardner’s books.

This version of Mason may not be familiar, but the genre – dark, gritty crime drama – certainly is. Think “L.A. Confidential,” “True Detective,” “Bosch,” a more modern depiction of L.A.’s criminal underbelly; even “Boardwalk Empire,” which shares a director with “Mason,” Timothy Van Patten. The supernatural “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” also comes to mind, since both shows are set in the L.A. of the ’30s and include an Aimee Semple McPherson-like evangelist.

In “Mason,” that role, of Sister Alice, is played by Canadian Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”), part of a cast stacked with ringers, including John Lithgow, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Lili Taylor and Shea Whigham.

Rylance (“The Knick”) and Chalk (“Gotham”) take on roles that existed in the original series, Della Street and Paul Drake, but here the characters have new identities that allow for 21st-century context: Della, still a legal assistant, is something of a budding feminist while Paul, now a Black police officer, chafes at racism and corruption within the force.

The episodes certainly can meander, mostly in aid of Perry’s back story – we get flashbacks to his World War I service, attempts to reach out to his estranged son, sex scenes with his lover (Mexican actor Veronica Falcon) – but the acting and the central plot are interesting enough to keep it watchable.

Lucy Worsley’s Royal Myths & Secrets (June 21, 8 p.m., PBS)

Historian Lucy Worsley does her best impression of Queen Elizabeth I giving her famous speech at Tilbury in “Royal Myths & Secrets.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of PBS

I confess I’ve been devouring books about royals since I was a child, with a particular soft spot for England’s Queen Elizabeth I. She happens to be the first subject of this three-part docuseries featuring historian Worsley, the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, which is the charity that manages the places where the kings and queens of England once lived. Don’t let Worsley’s animated demeanour and penchant for playing dress-up fool you; she knows her stuff. Each episode explores fallacies involving three queens. Besides Elizabeth, the subjects include Queen Anne (yes, the one played by Olivia Colman in “The Favourite”)  and Marie Antoinette. 

Late Night in the Studio (June 26, CBC Gem)

Nobu Adilman plays a CBC archivist in the comedy “Late Night at the Studio.”
PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

This comedy series is a perfect pre-Canada Day watch if you’re looking for something that makes slyly and gently subversive fun of Canadian culture. The conceit is that Nobu Adilman (writer, actor, podcaster, Choir! Choir! Choir! co-founder) is a CBC archivist — sharing hidden gems from the vaults. Each 12-minute episode reveals another totally fake program: an adventure series starring a young David Suzuki; a cartoon about a talking doughnut hole that looks suspiciously like a Timbit; a cheesy 1980s soap opera set in Regina, Saskatchewan; a 1970s children’s show that teaches some unusually harsh lessons; and a 1960s Christmas special in which all holiday traditions get equal billing. The CBC itself takes some ribbing. Worrying that “Late Night” isn’t getting enough viewers to stay on the air, Adilman quips, “Then again, this is the CBC.”

We’re Funny That Way: A Virtual Pride Special (June 26, 8 p.m., CBC Gem)

Two-spirit Mohawk singer Shawnee performs in “We’re Funny That Way: A Virtual Pride Special.”
PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

Like everything else that involves crowds of people, Pride celebrations have been driven online by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the annual We’re Funny That Way Festival, which showcases queer comedians and other performers. Truthfully, standup routines need a crowd for the jokes to land properly, but musical performances translate well to the virtual realm, and the special includes songs from Shawnee, Lucas Silveira, Kate Rigg and drag queen Miss Conception. Gavin Crawford also hits the mark with an impression of “Little Edie” in “Grey Gardens.”
And Carolyn Taylor of “Baroness von Sketch Show” turns a haircut into performance art, while a sketch involving comedians Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath and their trans daughter Kinley aims straight for your heart.

Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 (June 26, Disney Plus)

Kristen Bell records the song “Some Things Never Change” for the film “Frozen 2”
in the docuseries “Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2.” PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

I have never watched either of the “Frozen” movies, but I still found this behind-the-scenes look at the making of the sequel watchable. Starting 11 months before the movie hit theatre screens, this docuseries invites you into the creative process and gives you a sense of the very detailed work that goes into making a big-budget animated film. The big names are well-represented, including actors Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, and songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, but also unsung heroes like animators Wayne Unten and Malerie Walters, and storyboard artist Marc E. Smith.

Odds and Ends

Dr. David Langer in a special episode of the docuseries “Lenox Hill.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

A special ninth episode of “Lenox Hill” (June 24, Netflix) revisits the Manhattan hospital where the first eight episodes were shot in 2019 just as the coronavirus pandemic begins to lay waste to New York City, which became the epicentre of COVID-19 in the United States.

“Isolation Stories” (June 23, BritBox) is a hybrid of traditional drama with DIY TV-making. Actors play characters who are dealing in various ways with the pandemic. The actors, including Sheridan Smith, Eddie Marsan, Robert Glenister and more, got remote guidance from the directors and shot the scenes themselves with the help of their families.

A couple of different specials pay tribute to the people helping get the world through the coronavirus crisis. First up is “United We Sing: A Grammy Tribute to the Unsung Heroes” (June 21, 8 p.m., Citytv and CBS). Hosted by Harry Connick Jr., it features a plethora of musicians and actors. “Global Goal: United for Our Future – The Concert” (June 27, 8 p.m., CTV, Crave) celebrates all those who are working on COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, including scientists, health workers and activists. The celebrity guest list won’t be announced until sometime this week.

If you’re excited about the July 2 preview of “Canada’s Drag Race,” you can get a sneak peek at the queens who are competing on “Drag Ball Presented by Crave.” It streams June 27 at 8 p.m. on the Drag Race on Crave YouTube channel and the Pride Toronto Twitch channel. Performances by all 12 of the contestants are promised along with messages from judges Brooke Lynn Hytes, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Stacey McKenzie, and “secret” celebrity guests. I’ll have an interview in the Toronto Star with all the judges ahead of the premiere, but you can read my previous interview with Brooke Lynn and the stars of CBC Gem’s “Queens” here.

CBC Gem series ‘Queens’ spotlights the queens of Toronto

June 19, 2020 /
Jada Shada Hudson as drag queen Paper in the comedy series “Queens.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Queens

There’s suffering for your art and then there’s shivering for your art.

Toronto drag queen Jada Shada Hudson recalls doing the latter while shooting the CBC Gem series “Queens,” which debuts today, June 19, back in December.

“It was really, really, really chilly,” Jada said about the outdoor shoot. “And my outfit was not really winter. There were some girls, they were wearing scarves and mittens and everything, and I am there in a plastic jacket. But it was so fun to be a part of this project.”

“It wasn’t so bad that first day of filming when it was so freezing and I got to just lie around in that fur jacket,” joked her co-star, fellow Toronto queen Champagna.

“Whenever we were shooting outside everyone came rushing back into Crews (Church Street bar Crews & Tangos) to warm up,” added Justin Gray, who created the series. “Shoes came off because their feet were wet and hairdryers went to their feet, so it just smelt like warm, warm socks.”

Gray, a.k.a. drag queen Fisher Price, fell into drag performing a few years back after taking a breather from trying to break into the film and TV industry. And the more he performed, the more “little fun ideas” he started getting about the people and situations he encountered. “And then it snowballed into wanting to write this silly, campy whodunit … By taking myself out of the film world for a little bit I kind of found myself right back in it,” he said, chatting on a Zoom call with Jada, Champagna and their “Queens” co-stars Allysin Chaynes.

The six-part series takes place the day of the fictional Miss Church Street pageant in Toronto’s Gay Village. Someone is trying to sabotage the pageant, putting obstacles in the paths of the various contestants. In the case of Paper, Jada’s character, it starts with a visit to a strip club followed by a trip to the emergency room.

For Naomi, played by Allysin, a visit to the mall to exchange a bronzer ends up with her getting locked in a makeup store during a gas leak. Luckily, she has a bottle of wine and her insecurities to keep her company.

Allysin spent 13 hours shooting that scene overnight at a mall. Then she and Justin grabbed a few hours sleep, put their drag on and headed to the Beaver, their home bar on Queen Street West, for a show.

“We really honestly don’t know how we did it,” Justin said. “We shot basically a feature film in seven days, including multiple lead actors, several locations and dealing with winter weather as well.”

Besides the three queens I talked with, the show also stars Toronto drag performers Baby Bel Bel, Ivory Towers, Quick Lewinsky, Lucy Flawless and Lucinda Miu.

Allysin Chaynes as drag queen Naomi in the CBC Gem series “Queens.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Queens

“It was such a fun thing to be a part of and such a cool thing to put your name on, and have yourself represented in a very interesting part of Canadian queer history,” said Allysin.

“It’s also a testament to a drag performer writing a show about drag performers starring drag performers,” she continued. “Justin really understands where we’re all coming from story-wise in terms of what he’s written, but can also understand how much each of us has been honing our individual public personalities over however long we’ve been doing drag.”

Allysin came to drag out of art school, OCAD University to be precise, where she had been using drag makeup as part of her practice. Champagna was looking to vent her creative energy after finding limited success as a queer, male actor. Doing drag, “all the doors started opening,” she said. And Jada, who sings and dances, had been performing as a man in talent shows in the Village but got talked into trying drag after losing a contest to a drag performer at Crews & Tangos.

Her drag name is borrowed from two Black performers she admires, actor Jada Pinkett Smith and singer Jennifer Hudson. Champagna’s flowed, if you’ll pardon the pun, from “a really drunk-ass night” with friends and, yes, champagne. And Justin picked his after being in a Codeine-induced haze in a hospital waiting for surgery and spotting a kids’ Fisher-Price play phone.

Champagna as drag queen Elaina in comedy whodunit “Queens.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Queens

Allysin shares her name, a play on 1990s grunge band Alice in Chains, with “a five-foot-tall Romanian porn star. I think I’m beating her in Google results now, which is really exciting. And hopefully this show helps more. My life’s goal is just to outrank her on Google.”

All the queens were excited to share “Queens” with the world. Besides checking it out on CBC Gem, you can go to pridetoronto.com as part of its Pride Month “Feature Fridays” for a special screening of “Queens” and panel party with the cast beginning tonight at 9 p.m.

“I’m intensely proud of the crew and cast that we have together for this project,” Justin said. “It filled me with so much happiness to have a heavily LGBT, POC crew as well as having seasoned veterans that have been working in Canadian television for years now that were strong allies and really pulled all the strings they could to make a lot of things for the show possible.”

“Justin won’t say this about himself … but we could not have asked for a better script, a better series or a better showrunner,” added Allysin. “It’s refreshing to have a queer series, and especially a queer series about drag, that is not necessarily about each one of our personal hardships or upbringings or adversities that we face. It’s us being viewed as people who work in a job and have experiences.

“It was a dream to work on,” she said. “We got to wake up every day and get paid to go hang out with our friends and say funny things written by one of our friends.”

Note: If you’d like to read more about “Queens,” go to thestar.com to read my Toronto Star interview with the cast as well as Brooke Lynn Hytes of “Canada’s Drag Race.”

Watchable the week of June 14, 2020

June 14, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Beecham House (June 14, 10 p.m., PBS)

Saiyami Kher as Khamlavati and Tom Bateman as John Beecham in “Beecham House.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Masterpiece

It’s inevitable that whenever a new period drama comes to PBS, viewers think wistfully of “Downton Abbey.” Alas, “Beecham House” is not an heir apparent to that beloved show.

It has some upstairs-downstairs dynamics, a regal setting and a cast member in common (Lesley Nicol, a.k.a. Mrs. Patmore), but it lacks its predecessor’s heart and soul.

It was co-created and directed by Gurinder Chadha, who’ll forever be known for giving the world “Bend It Like Beckham,” but the Indian characters here serve less as well-rounded people in their own right than as means of advancing the plot for the white characters.

Hunky British actor Tom Bateman (“Vanity Fair”) stars as John Beecham, an Englishman in late 18th-century Delhi, India, who has quit the rapacious East India Company and set up house in a beautiful Indian mansion with his half-Indian infant son.

John, though seemingly honourable, has a serious case of white saviour syndrome. He abhors his previous employer’s treatment of the native population and aims to set up a trading network with fair pay for the Indian artisans who supply the goods, but various obstacles intervene. They include a French general (Gregory Fitoussi, “World War Z”) and Indian emperor (Roshan Seth, “Gandhi”) who think he’s a British spy; an interfering mother (Nicol) who wants him back in England and is predictably xenophobic about Indian culture; a wastrel of a brother (Leo Suter, “Sanditon”); a duplicitous business partner (Marc Warren, “State of Play”); and an English governess and potential love interest (Dakota Blue Richards, “Endeavour”) who doesn’t trust him. 

So yes, there’s a lot going on, including a couple of love triangles and a mystery involving the mother of Beecham’s child, but the various plot lines and relationships don’t get enough breathing space over six episodes for us to become truly invested in the characters. Since the show was cancelled after one season in the U.K., that’s perhaps beside the point.

It’s not devoid of charm, particularly the locations in Rajasthan, India, so if you’re in the mood for a period soap opera with beautiful scenery, sets and costumes, this might fit the bill.

Grantchester (June 14, 9 p.m., PBS)

Lauren Carse as Ellie Harding and Tom Brittney as Will Davenport in “Grantchester.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Kudos/ITV/Masterpiece

I confess the last time I watched “Grantchester” James Norton (“Happy Valley”) was still in the lead. But, as Season 5 begins, new vicar Will (Tom Brittney, “Outlander”) seems to have settled into a nice rhythm solving crimes with detective Geordie (Robson Green).

On the surface, it’s TV comfort food with its 1950s setting in verdant Cambridgeshire, but it touches on serious issues such as homophobia, women’s rights, PTSD and sexual exploitation, and that’s just in the first two episodes of the new season.

Its life lessons are delivered with a gentle touch, a spark of humour, a minimum of gore and a healthy does of humanity.

Besides Brittney and Green, Tessa Peake-Jones returns as Mrs. Chapman and
Al Weaver as Leonard, and Lauren Carse provides a love interest for Will as nosy local reporter Ellie.

Mae West: Dirty Blonde on American Masters (June 16, 8 p.m., PBS)

American movie star Mae West at the height of her fame in 1933.
PHOTO CREDIT: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mae West’s bump and grind physicality and double entendres might seem quaint these days given the varied sexual menu available in both movies and television. But in 1930s Hollywood she pushed the envelope about as far as it could go and became rich and famous in the process.

This doc makes the case for West as a proto-feminist and savvy businesswoman. She invented her blond, buxom, man-eating persona at a time when women weren’t expected to be overtly sexual, let alone own their sexuality. And she became the highest paid actress in America and helped pull Paramount Pictures out of bankruptcy.

She was no social justice warrior, but she put men in drag onstage in the play “The Drag” in the 1920s and gave Black women speaking roles in her 1930s films. She was jailed on obscenity charges in 1927 for the play “Sex,” in which she played a prostitute.

Mae’s movie supremacy lasted just a few years before Hollywood caved in to calls for censorship from religious groups and established a production code administration that vetted scripts in advance. She was replaced at the top of the food chain by Shirley Temple.

But the documentary makes clear that West never lost her self-confidence or her drive. She took her act to Las Vegas in the 1950s, and continued to play the blond bombshell into her 70s and 80s in movies like “Myra Breckinridge” and “Sextette.” She died in 1980 at the age of 87.

Odds and Ends

Jennifer Pudavick, Brittany LeBorgne, Heather White and Maika Harper in “Mohawk Girls.”
PHOTO CREDIT: CBC file photo

“Mohawk Girls” (June 16, 9 p.m., CBC) was billed as an Indigenous “Sex and the City” when it debuted on APTN in 2014, but Tony Wong wrote in the Toronto Star at the time that it also examined “issues of racism, sexuality and culture in a frank and oftentimes subversive way that would not be out of place on edgier cable” – although sex and love are definitely on the minds of its four protagonists as they navigate life on the rez.

I didn’t get to see the documentary “Dads” (June 19, Apple TV Plus) in advance, just the same trailer as everybody else, but it looks sweet enough. If you want to see famous fathers talking about the highs and lows of being dads – and probably shed some tears along with them – then check it out. It’s directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of filmmaker Ron Howard, who of course is included in the doc.

More than once, conservative lawyer Roy Cohn is described as “evil” in the documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” (June 19, 8 p.m., HBO) and the film does nothing to disabuse us of this notion. That’s probably no surprise given that it was made by Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom Cohn sent to the electric chair for allegedly selling the Soviets secrets about the atomic bomb.

Watchable the week of June 7, 2020

June 7, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: I May Destroy You (June 7, 10:30 p.m., HBO)

Michaela Coel as Arabella in “I May Destroy You.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Natalie Seery/HBO

Given the world’s focus on #BlackLivesMatter, there’s an undeniable timeliness to this series; it was created by Black U.K. artist Michaela Coel (“Chewing Gum”) and its key cast members are Black. But its focus is not Black oppression, although that is touched upon, but how Coel, as Arabella, and her fellow Black millennials navigate their relationships with sex – particularly various forms of sexual violence.

When we first meet Arabella, she’s leaving her Italian boyfriend to return to London and sweating the deadline for a first draft of her new book. When she ditches the writing to go party with a friend, her drink is spiked at a bar and she is raped. She later experiences another violation in a consensual relationship.

Throughout the series, Arabella navigates the fallout of that, in ways that are both healthy and unhealthy, with the help of friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu), a gay man dealing with sexual trauma of his own.

It can be uncomfortable viewing at times, particularly when the characters engage in self-defeating behaviour, but it is also compelling viewing. Coel, who wrote and produced the show as well as starring in it, makes us care about these people. We want to see them come out the other side of their pain.

While the subject matter is sombre, the series has moments of lightness, joy and even comedy. And Coel is extremely watchable.

The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever! (June 8, 8 p.m., ABC and Citytv) 

Oh, the drama! Surely you haven’t forgotten Tierra Licausi and her reign of villainy on Sean Lowe’s “Bachelor” season. PHOTO CREDIT: Francisco Roman/ABC

As I’ve mentioned on my “This Is Me” page, I got my start as a TV writer covering reality TV, and I have written about “The Bachelor” and its spinoffs longer than any other show. So you better believe I’ll be watching Warner Bros’ and ABC’s latest attempt to keep us hooked on the “Bachelor” franchise.

With “The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart” gone and mainly forgotten, and shooting of “The Bachelorette” delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, producers have repackaged the, well, greatest seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” into three weekly hours of highlights.

I wasn’t able to see any of the episodes in advance, but they will include commentary from host Chris Harrison, who shot his segments with his son behind the camera at his own home, and call-backs to the stars of the seasons.

It all begins with Sean Lowe, the man I feel quite confident calling the most popular Bachelor ever and the only one in 24 seasons to have married the woman he proposed to in the season finale.

I have a feeling drama-starved “Bachelor” fans will be on board with this one.

CORRECTION: I originally wrote that Harrison was shooting at the Bachelor mansion, based on information in the Starweek TV guide. If you’ve watched the show, you’ve already noticed this wasn’t the case.

Odds and Ends

Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, Kayvan Novak as Nandor and Matt Berry as Laszlo in the season finale of “What We Do in the Shadows.” CREDIT: Russ Martin/FX

I’m looking forward to the Season 2 finale of vampire comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” (June 10, 9 p.m., FX) but also sad to see it go since it could be a while before shooting starts on Season 3. This episode promises surprise guest stars and I can’t wait to see how they’ll top Mark Hamill from earlier in the season or Tilda Swinton in Season 1.

Netflix has a bunch of stuff debuting this week, including Volume 6 of “Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj” on June 7; teen drama “Curon,” medical docu-series “Lenox Hill” and Brazilian zombie thriller “Reality Z” on June 10; and two crime dramas, “The Search” from Mexico and “The Woods” from Poland on June 12.

HGTV Canada has the socially distanced series “Design at Your Door” (June 11, 10 p.m.), in which homeowners receive virtual advice on their redesigns from HGTV experts, including former “Brady Bunch” kids Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb.

CTV Life Channel presents three wedding-related shows on June 9: the third season of “Where to I Do?” (9 p.m.), Jessica Mulroney’s “I Do, Redo” (9:30 p.m.), which previously ran on the main CTV channel, and the Canadian debut of “Bridezillas” (10 p.m.).

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