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Month: October 2020

On The Bachelorette, Clare only has eyes — and lips — for Dale

October 28, 2020 /
Yosef Aborady with Clare Crawley on Night 1 of “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

I guess in hindsight we should thank Yosef Aborady for being such a jerk. His tirade against Clare Crawley on “The Bachelorette” was about the only part of the episode that wasn’t about Clare’s obssession with Dale Moss.

Look, I hope Clare and Dale live happily ever after, I really do (and if you’ve been reading my recaps for a while, you know I avoid spoilers on purpose, so I have no idea if they’re still together or not), but I get why the guys not named Dale were so annoyed on Tuesday: we surpassed peak Dale and ran head on into Dale fatigue.

In weeks 1 and 2, Clare at least pretended to be interested in the other men; this week not so much.

She basically scuttled the first group date so she could gab to her friend, former Bachelorette DeAnna Pappas, about Dale. Then, the extended cocktail party she promised the disappointed men turned into an extended makeout session with Dale in Clare’s suite. On the one-on-one date, Clare was so disinterested she couldn’t be bothered to show up for dinner and got host Chris Harrison to send the guy home. And on the second group date, she grilled the men about their resentment of Dale then declined to give anyone a rose.

It looks like next week’s episode, airing Thursday instead of Tuesday because of the U.S. election, is when Clare will blow up “The Bachelorette” and that’s a good thing. Dale seems like a decent fellow (although I’m not convinced he’s as into Clare as she is him), but it’s time to change the channel to something besides “The Dale and Clare Show.”

Which reminds me, Yosef: the single dad decided to give Clare a piece of his mind over last week‘s strip dodgeball date. Not only was it “classless” and “distasteful,” it was an “atrocity,” he declared, which seems like a strong word for a bunch of guys showing their “man goodies,” but OK.

“I expected a lot more from the oldest Bachelorette that’s ever been. I can’t believe that occurred,” scolded Yosef. “You’re not setting the right example for my daughter. ” (Huh? You’re gonna let your 4-year-old daughter watch “The Bachelorette”?)

“I’m ashamed to be associated with you. I can’t believe I sacrificed so much to be here just to watch this distasteful and classless display,” blah, blah, blah.

And then Yosef, who should perhaps reflect on the definition of the word “classless,” told Clare she “sounded a little crazy” on the first group date when she chided the men for seeming more interested in hanging out with each other than with her. Oh boy.

Clare tried to interject and Yosef tried to talk over her: “Do not interrupt me … I’m not done yet.”

Oh, but he was.

“Do not ever talk to me like that,” said a furious Clare. “I never thought I would have to tell any man (other than Juan Pablo Galavis) I would never want them being the father of my child and I stand by that. I would never want my children having a father like you. Get out of here.”

Yosef went but not quietly. “I expected more from the oldest Bachelorette in history. Remember you’re almost 40,” he sniped as he walked away.

Perhaps Yosef should remember that he’s the father of a little girl and he just set the example of being completely disrespectful to a woman. I get it, the strip dodgeball was kind of skeevy, but the way he expressed his opinion about it was condescending and misogynistic, so good riddance to Yosef.

The encounter left Clare in tears and it was Dale to the rescue. He hugged and comforted her, told her he was sorry, that she didn’t deserve Yosef’s abuse, that Yosef was lying when he said the other men were trying to appease her. “I’m here to please you, how about that?”

Mission accomplished. “It’s not even the second rose ceremony yet and I’m so falling in love with Dale,” Clare said.

Anyway, Clare told Harrison she was too rattled to salvage the rest of the cocktail party and went straight to the rose ceremony, handing out another 14 (on top of the four we saw her give out last week).

For the remaining men, the botched evening was a sign of things to come.

I have no idea why DeAnna Pappas showed up in Clare’s suite the next day. Weren’t they all in a bubble? Did DeAnna really get multiple COVID-19 tests and quarantine for days just so she could listen to Clare gush about Dale and smell a pair of Dale’s pants? Yes, seriously, Clare and DeAnna both smelled a pair of Dale’s trousers that Clare kept after he ripped them on a group date.

The upshot was that Dale, Chasen, Jason, Jay, Eazy, Ed, Blake and Riley were kept waiting for hours for their date to begin, then Clare breezed in and told them they’d have a “really long cocktail party” that night instead. They didn’t realize the “really long” part referred to the time that Clare and Dale spent making out on her bed after he told the other men he wanted just five minutes with her. Who knows how long they would have stayed in there and what they would have got up to if Eazy hadn’t knocked on Clare’s door.

And then, with Clare being told by the producers she had to hurry her time with the rest of the men, Dale went back for seconds, interrupting Jay. Dale and Clare were up against a wall smooching and getting a little handsy when Chasen walked in.

The other guys were understandably pissed, especially after Dale got the date rose and tried to justify it by saying he was the “best man suited,” whatever that means.

Clare, admitting in her confessional she’d had to restrain herself from having sex with Dale the night before, went off for a one-on-one with Zach J. and, man, was it awkward. The couples pedicure was a bust and it was all downhill from there. After a swim, Clare leaned in for a kiss, but Zach didn’t meet her halfway, so Clare pulled back and then Zach made everything worse by grabbing Clare by the neck, twice, and trying to force a kiss on her. Clare said that made her feel “extremely uncomfortable” — gee, I can’t imagine why — so uncomfortable that she didn’t show up for dinner and it was up to Harrison to tell Zach he was going home.

Clare gets her turn at the Bachelorette Roast alongside Brendan, Joe, Bennett, Zac C, Demar, Ivan, Kenny, Jordan C and Ben. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

And then came the second group date, a roast presided over by comedian Margaret Cho. The guys all claimed to be sick of Dale, who was in the audience, but they made him the main target of their jokes. Did they really think that ridiculing him would change Clare’s mind? If so, I’ll just echo what Clare said: “Are you new here?”

Instead, the roast made Clare feel defensive about Dale and so later, as she chatted with Bennett and Brendan and Ben and Demar and Jordan and Joe and Ivan and Zac and Kenny, she asked each of them to explain why they made fun of Dale. She declined to give any of them a rose, declaring, “I did not get what I needed with you guys.”

That set the stage for next week’s big bang and for Tayshia Adams to take Clare’s spot as Bachelorette. There will be anger, there will be tears, there will be drama with a capital D.

I’m not certain if Citytv is airing it Nov. 5 or not, but it will definitely be on ABC at 8 p.m.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? Come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Oct. 26, 2020 (updated)

October 26, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Anything for Jackson (Oct. 28, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)

Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings star in “Anything for Jackson.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Super Channel Fuse

I’m not a horror aficionado, but anything starring notable Canadian actors tends to get my attention. The fun in this case is watching a kindly older couple perpetrate evil deeds to bring their beloved grandson, Jackson, back from the dead.

Dr. Henry Walsh (played by Julian Richings, who’s British although he’s worked in Canada for decades) and his wife Audrey (Sheila McCarthy, “Umbrella Academy,” “Little Mosque”) have the perfect plan involving kidnapping a pregnant woman and an ancient book of spells. And did I mention that they’re satanists, who attend meetings in the local library and community centre, complete with snacks?

Victim Shannon (Konstantina Mantelos), one of Henry’s patients, couldn’t have a nicer pair of abductors, which doesn’t lessen her zeal to get free, although Audrey assures her that there’s no chance of that since they’ve thought of every contingency.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans. Henry says the wrong thing to a police detective (Lanette Ware) searching for Shannon, who then insists on coming to the house. And then there’s the guy who plows their snow (Yannick Bisson of “Murdoch Mysteries”), who won’t take no for an answer when Henry tries to send him away. And after their initial spell unleashes a houseful of tormented spirits, Henry and Audrey are forced to call in a fellow satanist (Josh Cruddas) and that’s when things really get messy.

I would call this a horror black comedy rather than a hardcore horror flick although it does have gore and the apparitions, particularly the one dubbed the “suffocating ghost” (Troy James), are suitably creepy. It was written by Keith Cooper, known for his visual effects work on films like “Poseidon” and “Fantastic Four,” and directed by Justin G. Dyck.

It’s the kickoff movie for the annual Blood in the Snow film festival, which is being held virtually this year on Super Channel Fuse from Oct. 28 to Nov. 7. The fest includes the Oct. 31 debut of “Hail to the Deadites,” a documentary tribute by Steve Villeneuve to “The Evil Dead,” its fans and horror in general, featuring an interview with genre superstar Bruce Campbell. See bloodinthesnow.ca for the full lineup.

“Anything for Jackson” will be available on Super Channel on Demand beginning Nov. 1

Truth Seekers (Oct. 30, Amazon)

Emma D’Arcy, Nick Frost and Samson Kayo in “Truth Seekers.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Prime Video

Given the reunion of actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in this horror comedy series, one would be tempted to think it would do for ghosts what “Shaun of the Dead” did for zombies. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly funny or scary.

Frost plays widowed internet repair technician Gus, who lives with his cranky dad (Malcolm McDowell) and dabbles in paranormal investigation with a sparsely followed YouTube channel.

He and his new work colleague, Elton (Samson Kayo), stumble onto hauntings on the job and meet the third member of their gang, Astrid (Emma D’Arcy), after she stows away in their van while trying to escape several malevolent ghosts.

Alas, the ghosts don’t get up to much other than lurking and the odd tepid jump scare. After the spirits are tidily dealt with — including Astrid’s mother, who burned to death in front of her eyes, which elicits no hint of grief from Astrid — the plot veers off into a plan by famous author Peter Toynbee (Julian Barratt) to steal people’s souls using nanotechnology, or at least I think that’s what it’s about.

There’s also a side plot involving Elton’s agoraphobic, cosplay-loving sister Helen (Susan Wokoma), while Pegg pops up occasionally as Gus’s boss in an atrocious hairpiece.

Exhumed: A History of Zombies (Oct. 30, 10 p.m., PBS)

George A Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” is among
the pop culture treatments explored in “Exhumed: A History of Zombies.”

Just in time for Halloween comes a show about how zombies took over the world, or at least pop culture. 

Although this doc touches on entertainments like “Night of the Living Dead,” “Shaun of the Dead,” “World War Z” and “The Walking Dead,” it’s more of a historic than a pop culture take, which is not to say it’s uninteresting. You might not have known, for instance, that in the vodou (as opposed to voodoo) religion of 17th-century Haiti, zombies were a response to slavery and colonization. 

Or that Hollywood’s earliest depictions of zombies had as much to do with fear of voodoo, Black culture and foreigners as with monsters. Or have pondered what George A Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” has to say about race, even if unconsciously, while Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” parallels early mythology about Haitians having their souls stolen, according to the doc’s talking heads.

As host and “monster expert” Emily Zarka says, “Monster history is human history.”

Citizen Bio (Oct. 30, Crave) and Moonless Oasis (Oct. 30, CBC Gem)

The late Aaron Traywick, seen in the documentary “Citizen Bio.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Showtime.

I have grouped these documentaries together because they both feature what’s known as “citizen science.”

The subject of “Citizen Bio” is biohackers, defined here as people looking for alternative ways to treat diseases and prolong human life, outside the established medical framework. 

In particular, “Citizen Bio” focuses on Aaron Traywick, a controversial hacker who claimed to have found “cures” for AIDS and herpes, and who was found dead at the age of 28 floating in a sensory deprivation tank.

Traywick claimed to want to make his vaccines cheaply available to the general public but, in the doc, friends and colleagues raise doubts about the altruism of his motives as well as the integrity of his experiments.

At the same time, the doc makes clear that biohacking is a thriving field of research, despite its fringe, anarchist associations and the lack of sanction from bodies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and one that could yield benefits for humanity.

For instance, Gabriel Licina, one of the biohackers who worked with Traywick, is trying to develop a plastic-eating fungus that could help clean up the world’s oceans.

The Showtime doc was produced by Canadian Graeme Manson, the creator of “Orphan Black,” and directed by Canadian Trish Dolman. 

In “Moonless Oasis,” directed by Nate Slaco, we’re introduced to dedicated volunteers who protect glass sponge reefs in British Columbia’s Howe Sound: by mapping and documenting the existence of the prehistoric life forms during dives, as well as keeping watch for fishers who threaten the reefs by dropping traps in prohibited areas.

It’s clearly a painstaking pursuit but one the citizen scientists feel is necessary to keep the reefs alive. As one of the doc subjects says, “It’s an ecosystem that survived from the Jurassic period.”

Note: This entry was edited to add “Moonless Oasis” after I was able to confirm the air date.

Roadkill (Nov. 1, 9 p.m., PBS)

Iain De Caestecker and Hugh Laurie in “Roadkill.” PHOTO CREDIT: Steffan Hill/The Forge

This British drama about a scheming politician who claims to be a man of the people arrives just two days before the U.S. election, but if you’re looking for a straightforward tale of a corrupt self-promoter getting his comeuppance you’re not in the right place.

Not to give away any spoilers, but this four-parter doesn’t end the way you might expect when you first meet Peter Laurence, a Conservative cabinet minister with secrets to match his ambitions. 

It’s probably best then, not to watch “Roadkill” looking for deeper meaning — there’s certainly nothing deep about the sleazy politician trope — but as a showcase for some of the excellent acting that Brits are known for.

Hugh Laurie, who proved he gives good villain in “The Night Manager,” plays Laurence, a mid-level minister from humble roots who claims to value “freedom” over ideology. When we first meet him he’s just won a libel case against a journalist (played by Irish actor Sarah Greene of “Dublin Murders” and “Normal People”) unable to prove that Laurence was in Washington getting paid to help U.S. interests infiltrate Britain’s National Health Service, as her newspaper claimed.

That doesn’t mean Laurence is home free. Some of the people he trusts with his secrets, including his special adviser (Iain De Caestecker) and his driver (Emma Cunniffe), work against him, not always deliberately. The skeletons in his closet include a mistress (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and an illegitimate daughter (Shalom Brune-Franklin), while new evidence turns up in the lobbying case. And the prime minister (the always excellent Helen McCrory) is fully briefed on Peter’s dirty laundry thanks to her ruthless chief of staff (Olivia Vinall). 

The show, written by celebrated playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Hare, has received some bad reviews in the U.K. for being too left-leaning. It paints a post-Brexit Conservative party as beholden to weapons manufacturers; the prison system as a cheaply run warehouse for the convicted because “the British like locking people up”; and investigative journalism as being at the mercy of rich, aristocratic media owners.

But it touches only briefly on these concerns, nor does it sketch its characters in any particular depth but, then again, it is only four episodes.

It’s mainly Laurie’s show, as we watch the charismatic Peter slither his way up the ladder, leaving human wreckage in his wake.

Odds and Ends

The Child, a.k.a. “Baby Yoda,” and the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Chapter 2 of “The Mandalorian.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM

Let’s be honest, you’ll want to watch Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” arriving Oct. 30 on Disney Plus, no matter what I say about it. Unfortunately I can’t say much since the screener has yet to arrive in my inbox. But I’m chomping at the bit to see where Jon Favreau and the team take Mando and Baby Yoda this season just like everyone else.

If you’re in the mood for something weepy, “This Is Us” returns to CTV and NBC for a fifth season on Oct 27 at 9 p.m. with the Pearson siblings celebrating their 40th birthdays.

If you’re in the mood for something inspiring, check out “Not Done: Women Remaking America” (Oct. 27, 8 p.m., PBS), which chronicles the groundswell of women’s activism that began in 2016 (yes, the year you know who was elected) with interviews with folks like feminist icon Gloria Steinem; Me Too founder Tarana Burke; Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network; Time’s Up co-founders America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Shonda Rhimes and Tina Tchen; and more.

Speaking of Black Lives Matter, there is sure to be activism mixed in with the accolades and music when the “BET Hip Hop Awards” air Oct. 27 (BET, 9 p.m.). DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion and Drake top the nominations list while 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Quavo and Jhene Aiko are among the performers.

Sundance has “The Dakota Entrapment Tapes” (Oct. 27), which was a Hot Docs selection earlier this year, about the investigation into the 2014 disappearance and death of a North Dakota college student who had been coerced into becoming an informant for a secret police task force.

On Netflix, you can travel along with Phil Rosenthal in a fourth season of “Somebody Feed Phil” (Oct. 30) as eats his way around the world with his aw-shucks charm and humour. Just be warned, the pre-pandemic scenes in the first episode of crowds in Rio de Janeiro might make you a little queasy.

Finally, if you’re used to decking your screen with Hallmark holiday movies, W Network kicks off the “Countdown to Christmas” on Oct. 31 at 9 p.m., with premieres every Saturday and Sunday beginning with “Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses.” Yep, that’s what it’s called.

On ‘The Bachelorette,’ all is bare in love and dodgeball

October 21, 2020 /
Clare and the “red team” after a game of strip dodgeball on Tuesday’s “The Bachelorette.”
You should see what the losers were wearing. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Welcome to “The Bachelorette,” the “naked edition.” If you want to be with Clare prepare to get bare: either your feelings or, in the immortal words of Demar, your “man goodies.”

Yep, it was that kind of night.

We started with Clare getting touchy feely with the fellows on a group date, segued to a one-on-one that was more of a therapy session and ended with another group date that must have used up a full season’s supply of ass-covering black bars.

Regardless of what happens with Dale Moss — don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about him — Clare Crawley is definitely blazing her own trail through her “Bachelorette” journey. I’m not sure we’ve seen a Bachelorette who cuts to the chase as quickly as she does.

When self-described “Italian stallion” Brandon couldn’t give Clare a reason for wanting to be with her other than “You’re so beautiful” Clare speedily gave him the boot. When she had to coax the guys on the first group date into asking for one-on-one time, she told them straight up, “You guys all want to hang out with each other you can do that and I can go home and go to bed.”

When Canadian dude Blake Moynes broke the rules (again!) by stealing alone time he wasn’t entitled to, Clare rewarded him with an early rose.

No doubt, we’ll soon see Blake disappointed along with everybody else as Clare and Dale get closer, but she at least made an effort with some of the other men, judging by this episode.

Things kicked off with a kind of cheesy group date about “love language.” Clearly, with everybody in quarantine at La Quinta Resort, we’re not going to see the wide-ranging and varied dates of the BP (before pandemic) era. So we had Riley, Jordan, Yosef, Ivan, Ben, Bennett, the two Zachs and Dale having to make lovey-dovey speeches to Clare, “Romeo and Juliet”-style, as she looked out a fake window.

Dale’s was the longest. To sum up, he told Clare he was committed to giving her everything he had, physically and emotionally. He started to make good on the physical part in an exercise in which Clare was blindfolded and each of the men, also blindfolded, had to touch her while the other dudes watched.

In theory, this was about regaining the touch that everyone had been deprived of in the COVID-19 pandemic; in reality, it was about stirring up jealousy as the men watched other guys getting handsy with Clare, none more so than Dale.

Clare and Dale get touchy-feely during the first group date. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Dale got to do a little more touching, and kissing, at the date cocktail party during which Clare confessed to Dale that her feelings for him scared her. But he didn’t get the date rose. It went to New York lawyer Riley, who also shared smooches with Clare and a “prom” slow dance (did somebody on production tip him off that Clare never went to her high school prom or what?).

The date also exposed a condescending attitude on Yosef’s part toward Clare. When Clare told the men they had hurt her feelings by not stepping up for alone time, Yosef — claiming to speak for all of them, which pissed Riley off — told her, “You’re crazy to think that we didn’t all come here for you.”

That doesn’t sound like love language to me.

On the one-on-one date, meanwhile, the language sounded more like therapy than love speak.

Clare warned former pro footballer Jason they would be sharing deep parts of themselves, which had Jason terrified. Clare, or more likely somebody on the production team, had discerned that Jason was using his sense of humour to compensate for a dark past, so during their evening together Clare and Jason did a little primal scream therapy, read inspirational letters to their younger selves, and busted slates covered in negative words that other people had used to describe them.

Clare, doing her best imitation of a therapist, got Jason to admit to witnessing unspecified painful things in his childhood, which he had kept hidden by pushing other people away and hooking up with multiple women — all of which Clare insisted didn’t scare her.

In one final bit of exorcism, Clare burned the dress she wore during the “Bachelor” finale in which she told Juan Pablo Galavis to get stuffed. It remains to be seen whether other garments will follow on other therapy dates, perhaps a “Bachelor in Paradise” bikini or a “Bachelor Winter Games” parka.

And then came the final group date, a.k.a. “Clare’s Extreme Dodgeball Bash,” a.k.a. “strip dodgeball.”

Because it wasn’t humiliating enough for the “blue team” of Blake, Kenny, Brendan, Garin and Demar to lose every game of dodgeball to the “red team” (Eazy, Brandon, Joe, Jay and Chasen) — thus forfeiting extra time with Clare — they had to walk back to their suite starkers or very nearly so. A couple of the guys kept their jock straps on; the rest just covered their bits with their hands.

“She might see my man goodies tonight,” Demar said prophetically before the game started. That she did and a few others besides. The date card said she wanted a man with some balls: I guess she wanted proof.

Blake Moynes during the dodgeball game, before he lost all his kit. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Anyway, Blake — belying the myth of the polite Canadian — got dressed, combed his beard and wandered over to where Clare was partying with the winners, interrupting Jay right in the middle of a scintillating story about wanting to open his own gym.

Clare let him hang out for a few minutes — despite Jay and the rest of the red team returning to stare him down — and told him she appreciated him coming but did some dodging of her own when Blake tried to kiss her.

The date rose went to Chasen, with whom Clare bonded over the fact they were both considered losers in high school.

We never got through the rose ceremony, probably because the inevitable blow-up with Yosef is being saved for next week. Yosef told the other men the strip dodgeball game was “classless” and that he was going to let Clare know his thoughts — because no doubt she’s just dying to hear them, as are we all.

We saw Blake get his rose and the kiss he’d been denied the night before, and then Clare pulled Dale away so they could talk and do some hot and heavy smooching; like, seriously, she looked like she wanted to devour him.

Next week, Yosef tells Clare he’s “ashamed to be associated” with her and it looks like resentment over Clare’s relationship with Dale will start to build.

“The Bachelorette” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? Come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Oct. 19, 2020

October 19, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Undoing (Oct. 25, 9 p.m., HBO)

Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman as Jonathan and Grace Fraser in “The Undoing.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Niko Tavernise/HBO

If you can’t get enough of Nicole Kidman on television this drama will be right up your alley. “The Undoing,” which reunites Kidman with creator David E. Kelley, is mainly a showcase for Kidman’s talents. And unlike their other show together, “Big Little Lies,” the Oscar winner doesn’t have to share top billing with other powerhouse women.

She plays another well-to-do wife, psychologist Grace Fraser. Grace seems to live a charmed life with husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant), a pediatric oncologist, and son Henry (Noah Jupe), but you just know it’s about to get turned upside down, especially when Grace meets an unsettling young woman named Elena (Italian actor Matilda De Angelis) in the first episode.

Elena ends up brutally murdered in her art studio, Jonathan goes missing and life as Grace knows it unravels.

Based on the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, “The Undoing” is one of those shows that keeps you guessing from episode to episode. I’ve seen five of the six instalments and I really have no idea how it’s going to end.

Other talent includes Canadian actor Donald Sutherland as Grace’s father (he has a scene involving the dressing down of his grandson’s private school principal that you really don’t want to miss), Noma Dumezweni as a tough-as-nails lawyer, Ismael Cruz Cordova as Elena’s bereaved husband and Edgar Ramirez as a persistent police detective. Emmy winner Susanne Bier (“The Night Manager”) directs.

The settings and the cinematography are beautiful. Kidman looks like a Pre-Raphaelite vision as she traverses Manhattan with her flowing red curls and long, velvet coats.

“The Undoing” is not perfect by any means — we get very little sense, for instance, of who Elena was other than a murder victim who might have been disturbed — but it’s definitely watchable.

Darkness: Those Who Kill (Oct. 19, Acorn)

Natalie Madueño, Kenneth M. Christensen in “Darkness: Those Who Kill.” PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn TV

Whatever the state of pandemic TV production, there seems to be no danger of running out of psychological crime thrillers, what with other countries’ output to draw on. 

This Danish series has familiar elements: young female victims (a depressing commonality of many crime dramas), a male killer, a driven male detective who, in this case, teams up with a female criminal profiler. 

After detective Jan Michelsen (Kenneth M. Christensen) and profiler Louise Bergstein (Natalie Madueno) link a decade-old disappearance and murder with the kidnappings of two other young women in a town near Copenhagen they try to get inside the suspect’s head (Mads Riisom) in the hope of finding at least one of the victims alive.

Elsewhere, the series has been compared to Welsh crime drama “Hidden.” It also put me slightly in mind of “The Fall,” in that we know who the killer is early on.

Be warned that the show lives up to its title; in the two episodes I screened there was a brutal rape scene.

The Queen’s Gambit (Oct. 23, Netflix)

Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in “The Queen’s Gambit.” PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Bray/Netflix

 Given the resemblance of this seven-episode series to a biopic I at first thought perhaps it was based on a real person but, silly me, there were no elite female chess players in the 1950s and ’60s. In fact, I have read that a woman didn’t break into the top 10 until 2005, more than two decades after the publication of the Walter Tevis novel on which this show is based.

The fictional heroine here is Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy (“Peaky Blinders,” “The Dark Crystal”), a child chess prodigy who discovers her talent while living in an orphanage, which is where she also develops an addiction to the tranquilizers given to the girls to control their moods.

To be fair, I got access to the screeners just this morning and only had time to watch one episode, so I can’t pass judgment on the series as a whole. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it seems like a fairly straightforward biographical tale with the twist that the troubled genius is female.

The series was created by Oscar nominee Scott Frank (“Logan”) with Allan Scott. Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov was involved as a consultant to keep the chess scenes as authentic as possible.

Netflix also has Season 2 of “Unsolved Mysteries” debuting Oct. 19 and Season 3 of David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” on Oct. 21.

Year of the Goat (Oct. 24, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

One of the animal stars of “Year of the Goat.” PHOTO CREDIT: Markham Street Films

Couldn’t you use something warm and fuzzy to take the edge off a stressful year? This documentary, airing on “CBC Docs POV,” gives you an up close and personal look at goats and the people who love them.

Filmmakers Michael McNamara and Aaron Hancox (“Catwalk: Tales From the Catshow Circuit”) spent a year embedded with several Ontario farm families and their critters in the run-up to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the “Super Bowl of agricultural fairs,” where their animals were part of the dairy show competition.

Yes, there’s lot of footage of cute, cuddly animals but also a look at the hard work involved in caring for them, with a special emphasis on the farm children’s devotion to their charges.

One thing comes through loud and clear: these animals are well loved, poop and all.

Odds and Ends

Devery Jacobs in “Rhymes for Young Ghouls.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jan Thijs

As a partner in the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, which runs online Oct. 20 to 25, Crave has introduced an Indigenous Stories collection of films. The titles on offer include two from filmmaker Jeff Barnaby: zombie horror flick “Blood Quantum” and “Rhymes for Young Ghouls,” which stars Devery Jacobs (“American Gods,” “The Order”). There are also inspirational story “The Grizzlies,” the debut of “Trickster” co-star Anna Lambe; “Falls Around Her,” starring Tantoo Cardinal; “Maliglutit” (“Searchers”) by Inuk filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq; Oscar winner “Jojo Rabbit” by Taika Waititi and more.

If you’re in the mood for some reality TV, “Battle of the Blades” debuts its sixth season on CBC Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. — one week late after the earlier premiere was scrapped when a member of the production team tested positive for COVID-19. CTV2 has Season 19 of “The Voice” (Oct. 19, 8 p.m.).

If you like country music and/or pandemic entertainment, you can check out how country star Brett Kissel brought live music back to Canada in a physically distanced way in the documentary “Brett Kissel: Live at the Drive-In” (Oct. 21, 8 p.m., CTV2). On the same night, CTV has new episodes of “The Conners” at 7:30 p.m.

Showcase has the new comedy series from Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Funny or Die, “No Activity” (Oct. 25, 10 p.m.), which according to the show blurb “celebrates the mundane.”

Disney Plus has something for “Frozen” completists with “Once Upon a Snowman” (Oct. 23), which reveals the “untold origins” of Olaf, the snowman from the blockbuster animated movies.

Finally, science and/or space geeks might enjoy “Touching the Asteroid” on “Nova” (Oct. 21, 9 p.m., PBS), about the seven-year mission of spaceship Osiris Rex to collect pieces of the Bennu asteroid 200 million miles from Earth and potentially unlock secrets of the origins of our solar system.

On a quarantine ‘Bachelorette’ Clare Crawley’s already smitten

October 14, 2020 /
Clare Crawley waits to meet the men on Night 1 of “The Bachelorette.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Welcome to the Bachelorette Bubble where you’ll get a swab up your nose and, if you’re lucky, a rose on your lapel.

Or is that unlucky — considering that any man not named Dale Moss appears to have zero chance with the oldest Bachelorette in franchise history (and yes, apparently we have to be reminded of that over and over and over again).

One thing that producers couldn’t keep quarantined at La Quinta Resort in California were all the stories about Clare Crawley walking out partway through the season to get with Dale, with “Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise” fave Tayshia Adams replacing her as Bachelorette.

No, ABC hasn’t admitted that’s what’s going to happen — and if you thought they would on Night 1, what are you, new? — but it certainly was strongly hinted at in the promos.

And don’t forget Clare’s reaction after she first met Dale, a 31-year-old former pro football player. Seeming shaken, puffing out her breath after Dale left her to go inside, she said, “I definitely  feel like I just met my husband” — a pronouncement startling enough to bring host Chris Harrison over from wherever he hangs out as the limos empty of men to tell Clare that no one had ever said that at this stage before. But hey, here comes another limo, so snap out of it.

Clare Crawley with Dale Moss on Night 1 of “The Bachelorette,” the man she pegged
as her future husband. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Clare did her duty, chatting with as many of the men as she could manage before handing out 23 roses.

An early theme of the proceedings seemed to be congratulating Clare for being 39 years old — gasp — and still trying to bag herself a man instead of, you know, admitting her old maidenhood and retreating to a solitary life with her two dogs.

In the video call in which Harrison told Clare she’d been chosen as the Bachelorette he said that since she hadn’t given up on herself, “we feel it would be appropriate if we didn’t give up on you.”

Um, you don’t say.

We were reminded of Clare’s Bachelor history, including being runner-up on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season (ick) and a couple of unsuccessful forays on “Bachelor in Paradise.” Curiously, “Bachelor Winter Games,” after which she actually ended up engaged, however briefly, to Canadian food dude Benoit Beausejour-Savard, got left out entirely. Is that because Clare doesn’t consider Benoit one of the “jerks” from her past?

In a conversation in which Harrison dutifully pushed Clare’s buttons, getting her teary-eyed talking about her late father, Clare declared, “I’m here and I haven’t given up on love and I never will. Just by showing up it shows I still want it and I still deserve it,” as if that was actually a question.

It was time to bring on the 31 men. Instead of the usual “getting to know you” packages filmed in some of the standouts’ hometowns, we got footage of them in quarantine at La Quinta, some of it self-taped. Think solo chess games, jumping on the bed, bubble baths and masks, both the coronavirus and cosmetic kind (well, OK, only one guy applied a cosmetic mask). And I don’t know about you, but seeing those big guys’ eyes water after their COVID-19 tests (they had to take more than one to be cleared to meet Clare) made me hope I never have to take one myself.

I won’t bore you with all the men’s names because, let’s be honest, you’ll have forgotten most of them by the time the season ends.

Besides Dale, one of the interesting ones was Blake Moynes, a 29-year-old wildlife manager from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He broke the show’s rules (which is funny because rules get broken all the time if it adds to the drama) by contacting Clare during the quarantine. “It meant everything to me,” said Clare, tearing up, adding that she was struggling because her mother, who’s in a care home with Alzheimer’s, had just fallen and broken her nose.

Clare with Canadian competitor Blake Moynes. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Blake was rewarded with the first kiss (or at least, that’s how it was edited) but then watched in disappointment as Clare spirited away Dale to give him the first impression rose — and an even smoochier kiss.

Speaking of drama, West Virginia lawyer Tyler C. ratted out medical device salesman Yosef Aborady for allegedly creeping on some woman that Tyler knew on Instagram, but Clare believed Yosef when he said there was no substance to the accusation and sent Tyler home.

Clare mediates between Tyler C. and Yosef. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Sounds like Clare might regret that since the word online is that Yosef said some nasty things to her that got him kicked out ahead of a future rose ceremony. We’ll see. To me, the single dad reeked of smarminess and cockiness, which you’d think somebody with all Clare’s experience would suss out right away.

Another potential villain was Bennett, who went to Harvard and said that when you tell people that, it’s described as dropping the “H-bomb.” No, really, he said that. He showed up to meet Clare in a Rolls-Royce and a tux with a white scarf draped around his neck.

Another guy wore a straitjacket, because he’d gone “a little crazy” waiting to meet Clare. There was a knight — in shining armour, get it? Someone wore a fake pregnancy belly in homage to Clare’s “Bachelor” entrance. Someone else wore a T-shirt with a photo of Clare’s dogs, which was good enough to earn a rose without any one-on-one time. There was a dude in a parachute because he’d “fallen” for her and another in a plastic bubble.

I’ll tell you what the men didn’t wear a lot of was ties and socks, lots of fellows baring their ankles. The best dressed had to be sports marketing agent Eazy in his salmon suit, although I couldn’t help but notice when he made his entrance by bursting through a poster that read “Your Future Husband” he seemed to smile at the camera before he smiled at Clare.

Anyway, hold those thoughts. It sounds like in just a few short weeks, the drama is going to be all about Clare blowing up “The Bachelorette,” as Harrison put it. Stay tuned.

“The Bachelorette” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? Come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Oct. 12, 2020

October 12, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Star Trek: Discovery (Oct. 15, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel)

David Ajala as Book and Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham in “Star Trek: Discovery.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Lilja J–nsd–ttir /CBS/©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc.

Season 3 of “Discovery” is going where no other show in the “Star Trek” franchise has gone before, boldly or otherwise, 930 years into the future, which means we’re now in the 32nd century instead of the 23rd.

You may recall that at the end of the second season — in a convoluted plot that I have to confess I had a hard time wrapping my brain around — Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), in a special “red angel” suit, had to jump into the future through a wormhole with the Discovery following behind, because otherwise the evil AI entity known as Control would use information accessible on the Discovery to wipe out the galaxy. Phew.

In the new season, the jump has been made. I won’t tell you where they land or in what order or about the new alien species and technology they encounter, because that would be spoilers.

I also won’t tell you what I think of the three episodes I’ve seen so far, because reviews are embargoed until the day the new season debuts. I’ll just tell you what Sonequa and Mary Wiseman, who plays Tilly, had to say when I interviewed them in January.

“Having to acclimate to this future is going to be a challenge for everyone,” Sonequa said. “And a big part of our journey in Season 3 is figuring out where we are. What is the state of affairs in this future now? What does science look like? How has technology advanced even further?”

She also said the season doesn’t “leave any stone unturned” in dealing with the emotional changes members of the crew experience.

Mary said relationships among the crew have become heightened “when you jump 930 years in the future and everyone you’ve ever known is long, long passed away. Those relationships are imbued with a greater power and it raises the stakes on a storytelling perspective.”

You can read my full interview with Sonequa and Mary here.

If you’ve been following “Discovery” news online, you already know about the new cast additions this season, including Book, played by David Ajala; Adira, a nonbinary character played by nonbinary actor Blu del Barrio; and Gray, a transgender character played by trans actor Ian Alexander.

Howie Mandel: But, Enough About Me (Oct. 12, 9 p.m., CTV)

Howie Mandel is seen in “Deal or No Deal.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Daly/CNBC

Contrary to what you might expect from a showbiz documentary, there’s a fair amount of humility to be found in this film about Toronto-born comedian, actor and TV host Howie Mandel. 

Mandel delights in revisiting his old haunts in Toronto, including Northview Heights Secondary School, the former location of Yuk Yuk’s comedy club and the North York synagogue where he got married, and he unironically describes getting a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame as the pinnacle of his career.

He also candidly discusses the highs of that career (playing the Comedy Store, doing “The Tonight Show” 21 times, “St. Elsewhere,” “Deal or No Deal”) and the lows (getting kicked off “The Tonight Show” and all his offers drying up after the cancellation of his shortlived daytime talk show). 

Mandel, now an “America’s Got Talent” judge, also talks candidly about his struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, anxiety and ADHD.

Throughout the doc, directed by Barry Avrich, you get the sense of someone who’s simply delighted to still be working. Mandel, who calls his family his legacy, says what’s important is that “me and the people I’ve had the responsibility of raising are nice,” which sounds very Canadian indeed.

And since we’re talking about Canadians and comedy, the CTV Comedy Channel has the third season of “Corner Gas Animated” (Oct. 12, 9 p.m.) bringing you more of the style of humour that Brent Butt and crew perfected in six seasons of “Corner Gas.” In the first episode, Davis (Lorne Cardinal) has to plan a last-minute epic birthday party for Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and you can guess how well that goes.

Des (Oct. 15, Sundance Now)

David Tennant as serial killer Dennis Nilsen in “Des.” PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now

If you’re a David Tennant fan (and how could you not be? “Broadchurch,” “Good Omens,” “Jessica Jones,” “Doctor Who,” “Blackpool,” etc.) check him out playing real-life Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, a.k.a Des, in this true-crime drama.

Nilsen — whom Tennant looks creepily alike in costume — was convicted of six counts of murder in 1983, although he confessed to killing 15 young men whom he had brought back to his London apartment.

The series is based on the book “Killing for Company” by Brian Masters, who’s played by Jason Watkins in the show. The fascination for Masters — and likely for viewers too — is how ordinary Nilsen seemed. The series portrays him as so beloved by his office mates that they refused to let police search his office without a warrant since they couldn’t fathom him being a killer.

In the first episode, a young man reports encountering Dennis three years before he was caught and escaping when Dennis tried to strangle him. His story at the time was dismissed by police as “a lovers’ tiff.” It put me in mind of Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur, who was arrested but not charged in 2016 after a man said McArthur tried to strangle him. Almost three years later, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight murders.

Enslaved (Oct. 17, 9 p.m., documentary; Oct. 18, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Samuel L. Jackson in the docuseries “Enslaved.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

This Canadian-U.K. co-production presents a new take on the shameful history of the slave trade by focusing not on the ships that successfully carried captured Africans to countries like Brazil, England, the United States and Cuba, but the ones that were lost on the journey.

The first episode focuses on a Spanish slave ship called the Guerrero that sank off the Florida Reef in a battle with a British ship charged with stopping illegal slave vessels. Forty-one enslaved Africans went down with the Guerrero. The groups Diving With a Purpose and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers collaborate with marine archeologist Corey Malcom to find what’s left of the Guerrero underwater by tracking the iron objects that the crew of its adversary, the Nimble, threw overboard to avoid grounding on the reef.

“This is a grave site. I’m humbled,” says diver Alannah Vellacott after finding an artifact that appears to have come from the Guerrero.

Meanwhile, American actor Samuel L. Jackson, an executive producer of “Enslaved,” goes on a very personal journey, to connect with his enslaved ancestors by visiting a Benga village in Gabon, West Africa. In a ceremony that is usually closed to outsiders, Jackson is reunited with his tribe.

The six-part series, directed by long-time documentary-maker Simcha Jacobovici, makes it clear that slavery is part of the present as well as the past. Each episode focuses on a search for a sunken slave vessel, a personal journey by Jackson, and a historical investigation by Jacobovici and journalist Afua Hirsch.

Odds and ends

Amalia Yoo as Leila Zimmer in “Grand Army.” PHOTO CREDIT: Marni Grossman/Netflix

There’s so much more stuff coming up this week. We’ll start with Netflix, which has “Grand Army” debuting Oct. 16. It’s a social, sexual, political coming-of-age story set in a racially diverse Brooklyn high school and focusing on five students in particular. It was shot in Toronto, which I sometimes found distracting because some of the landmarks were so obviously not Brooklyn, but that’s just me. There’s also “Social Distance” on Oct. 15. The title pretty much sums it up since it was created, cast and produced in quarantine and is about people dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that will be very familiar to viewers. One of the episodes I screened, for instance, was about a woman teaching her college students remotely, whose mother is about to be locked down in her nursing home and whose support worker has to supervise her daughter via webcam since she can’t get child care.

The critically acclaimed reboot of “One Day at a Time,” which stars Justina Machado and Rita Moreno, and has updated the white single mother and family of the original to a Cuban American clan, comes to network TV, with its fourth season beginning Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. on Global.

Disney Plus has the movie tearjerker “Clouds” (Oct. 16), which is based on the true story of Zach Sobiech, an American teen who died of cancer in 2013. A song he recorded and posted on YouTube, called “Clouds,” went viral before his death and is still racking up views, while a fund in his name continues to raise money for osteosarcoma research. Fin Argus stars as Zach. Disney Plus also has the wildlife series “Meet the Chimps” (Oct. 16), shot in the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana.

If you’re in the mood for documentaries, CBC has “The Killing of Phillip Boudreau” (Oct. 17, 8 p.m. on “CBC Docs POV”), about the 2013 slaying in a small Nova Scotia community of Boudreau, who was known for poaching lobster from the local fishermen. He was shot and drowned by another boat crew, a crime that still divides the town. TVO has “Margin of Error” (Oct. 17, 9 p.m.), which looks at political polling and, in particular, an Ottawa startup whose artificial intelligence, nicknamed Polly, seems to do a better job than traditional pollsters of predicting elections.

I enjoyed it so much when I saw it during the Toronto International Film Festival that I have to recommend the Spike Lee film “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” which airs on HBO Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.

Finally — deep breath — Season 2 of the middle school cringe comedy “PEN15” begins on CBC Gem on Oct. 16. And PBS has “The Trouble With Maggie Cole” (Oct. 18, 8 p.m.), starring beloved British comedian Dawn French.

Watchable the week of Oct. 5, 2020 (updated)

October 5, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK 1: Trickster (Oct. 7, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Joel Oulette as Jared and Anna Lambe as Sarah in “Trickster.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

Of all the many elements that go into making a successful TV show, casting is arguably one of the most important.

The cast is our proxy, the people we have to follow wherever the characters lead, so there’s a lot riding on getting it right. The casting team for “Trickster,” led by Jon Commerford and Rene Haynes, did a bang-up job, especially with series lead Joel Oulette.

Just 17 when he played teenage protagonist Jared, Oulette had only a few supporting roles to his name when he took on the starring role in “Trickster” — but you’d never know it from the skilful way he elicits our empathy and our interest.

Jared is an ordinary teen in Kitimat, B.C. with some extraordinary burdens. He juggles the usual stressors like school, part-time work, friends and a new romance, but also supports his parents financially and emotionally: mother Maggie (Crystle Lightning), a hard-partying hellraiser who hears voices, and father Phil (Craig Lauzon), a recovering opioid addict who has a child on the way with his new partner.

That might sound dysfunctional, but Jared has a loving relationship with both his folks. His real troubles arise outside the family unit: from his mother’s drug dealer boyfriend (Joel Thomas Hynes), the swaggering stranger who tries to insinuate himself into his life (Kalani Queypo) and the strange things Jared starts seeing.

“Trickster” fits into a continuum of supernatural teen-focused dramas, everything from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to “Teen Wolf” and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” but the mythology explored here comes from Indigenous traditions, particularly of the Haisla Nation of northern B.C.

Indigenous viewers might appreciate seeing their stories reflected onscreen while non-Indigenous ones might learn something; in both cases, they can expect to be entertained. 

You can read my interview with the cast and series co-creator Michelle Latimer here.

SHOW OF THE WEEK 2: Departure (Oct. 8, 10 p.m., Global TV)

Rebecca Liddiard in “Departure.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Global TV

You can’t watch “Departure” and not marvel at the sight of maskless people packed into a passenger jet with not an empty middle seat in sight. I myself have not been on a plane since January and don’t expect to be on one for a good long while thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But you should watch “Departure” not because it’s a reminder of the before time but because it’s a well-made, suspenseful drama with a fantastic cast.

Canadian legend Christopher Plummer, still a force to be reckoned with at 90, and excellent British actor Archie Panjabi head the team, but there are plenty of other Canadian names who deserve to be on your radar, among them Kris Holden-Ried, Rebecca Liddiard, Allan Hawco, Mark Rendall, Tamara Duarte and Evan Buliung (whom I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live onstage at the Stratford Festival and elsewhere). And don’t forget Brits like Shazad Latif (“Star Trek: Discovery”), Peter Mensah and Claire Forlani.

The six-part series is about what happens after a plane carrying 256 passengers and crew disappears over the Atlantic Ocean on its way from New York to London. The crash is but a small part of the first episode, plus brief flashbacks throughout. The drama comes from watching a team of investigators led by Panjabi’s and Holden-Ried’s characters figure out what brought the plane down, something that kept me as engaged as any detective drama in the two episodes I’ve seen so far.

There’s also a mystery involving one of the passengers for the team to solve, but I won’t say what because that would be a spoiler.

You can read my interview with Plummer, Panjabi and series creator Vincent Shiao here.

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace (Oct. 8, 8 p.m., CBC) and Company Town (Oct. 10, 8 p.m., CBC)

A scene from the documentary “There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

I’ve grouped these two “CBC Docs POV” documentaries together because they both deal with the consequences of capitalism and the loss of valued ways of life. 

In “There’s No Place,” Lulu Wei uses her debut film to examine the loss of Honest Ed’s discount store and the adjacent Mirvish Village after the buildings at Bloor and Bathurst Streets were sold by David Mirvish to Vancouver developer Westbank Corp. for rental units. Mirvish and Westbank aren’t portrayed as villains here, but the story of gentrification disrupting communities is a familiar one in Toronto. The overwhelming feeling as the onetime discount mecca crumbles is not just the loss of an affordable place to shop, affordable housing for tenants like Lulu and her partner, and affordable work spaces for artists like Gabor Mezei in Mirvish Village, but of the loss of a very piece of the city’s soul.

In “Company Town,” the way of life at stake is Oshawa’s century-plus history of automaking as General Motors decides to close its assembly plant in the city, with direct layoffs for more than 2,000 workers and thousands more jobs threatened in supply companies.

The blame is laid squarely on corporate greed, but there’s anger to spare for Unifor president Jerry Dias after the best the union could get out of GM was a promise to save 300 jobs by turning the Oshawa factory into a stamping plant.

The lasting impression from this doc by Peter Findlay is of the human cost of such decisions.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (Oct. 9, Netflix)

Victoria Pedretti and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in “The Haunting of Bly Manor.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eike Schroter/Netflix

If you like a good old-fashioned, things-that-go-bump-in-the-night ghost story then turn down the lights and settle in for Season 2 of the “Haunting” anthology series. This one is based on several horror stories by 19th-century author Henry James, particularly his 1898 tale “The Turn of the Screw.”

The action has been updated to 1987 when perky American teacher Dani (Victoria Pedretti, “The Haunting of Hill House”) takes a job as au pair to a couple of odd, orphaned children in the English countryside (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Amelie Bea Smith).

Clearly there are otherworldly presences lurking in the mansion, but Dani is also haunted by something creepy from her own past and there’s the mystery of what happened to the children’s former governess (Tahirah Sharif).

It’s scary good fun, though not so spooky that it will have you jumping out of your skin at every turn, and with enough dramatic heft to keep you moving on to the next episode.

The Right Stuff (Oct. 9, Disney Plus)

From left, Micah Stock, Jake McDorman, Aaron Staton, Michael Trotter, Patrick J. Adams, Colin O’Donoghue and James Laffery in “The Right Stuff.” PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

You might have noticed there’s a space race on TV these days. On the heels of recent space exploration dramas like “For All Mankind” (Apple TV Plus) and “Away” (Netflix) comes this show based on the 1979 Tom Wolfe novel (previously turned into a well-regarded 1983 movie).

It’s the story of the seven men selected as the United States’  first astronauts and, more narrowly, the rivalry between two of them, Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

As portrayed by Jake McDorman (“Limitless”) and Toronto-born Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”), Shepard is an emotionally repressed, fiercely competitive womanizer while Glenn is a teetotalling, politically aware self-promoter, both keenly ambitious to become the first American in space.

The series is a bit of a throwback in its “Mad Men”-esque portrayal of some of the astronauts’ hard-drinking, skirt-chasing antics. The women in the plot mostly exist to stand by their men. Eloise Mumford gets the most fully realized arc as Trudy Cooper, wife of astronaut Gordo Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue) and an aspiring space pilot in her own right.

That being said, it’s an engrossing character study of the men involved and a skilful portrait of a particular period of time, when America was in the grip of space fever and astronauts were the new celebrities. 

Odds and Ends

From left, Aurora Browne, Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen of “Baroness von Sketch Show.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Roundstone PR

The first ladies of Canadian sketch comedy return for the fifth and final season of “Baroness von Sketch Show” (Oct. 6, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem). Expect the usual mix of silliness and satire. Highlights of the first episode, which I screened, include a post-breakup extraction team and female Mafioso discussing “shooting” etiquette.

CBC also has a new adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” (Oct. 7, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem) set in contemporary Britain and France that benefits from the present-day setting, which ups the relatability. Lea Drucker, Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern and Daisy Edgar-Jones star.

Also new to CBC Gem is “Detectorists” (Oct. 9), a British comedy that had very good reviews on its home turf about two blokes who spend their days metal detecting for buried treasure. It was created by and stars Mackenzie Crook (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) alongside Toby Jones (“The Hunger Games”).

Here’s another one that I didn’t get to screen: “neXt” (Oct. 6, 9 p.m., Global TV). It’s a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence turned deadly and just looking at the trailer makes me kind of glad I never got an Alexa. It’s from “24” producer Manny Coto and stars John Slattery (“Mad Men”) and Fernanda Andrade.

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