Realityeo.com

Because I love television. How about you?

Month: December 2020

Watchable the week of December 28, 2020

December 28, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Call Me Kat (Jan. 3, 8 p.m., Fox, CTV)

Mayim Bialik stars as the titular cat lover in “Call Me Kat.” PHOTO CREDIT: Fox/Bell Media

It’s a real-life story you could make a TV show about: young actor has a hit TV series when she’s still a teenager, quits full-time acting at 19 to get a PhD and have a family, snags a small role on a sitcom in her 30s that turns into nine more seasons as a lead on one of the most popular shows on TV and now, at 45, is starring in her own series.

That’s the story of Mayim Bialik, the “Big Bang Theory” mainstay and neuroscientist who stars in new sitcom “Call Me Kat” as a 39-year-old single woman who owns a cat cafe.

Will TV lightning strike three times (counting “Blossom”) for Bialik? Having watched four episodes I can tell you I was charmed by smart, witty, klutzy, eternally optimistic Kat and I say that as someone who doesn’t generally like sitcoms.

Bialik, who also gets to show off a bit of her singing and dancing talent here, carries the lead with aplomb, but she also has a great team around her.

Darlene Hunt, known for writing and producing credits like “The Big C,” “Roseanne” and “The Conners,” shepherded this U.S. version of the British sitcom “Miranda” into being. One of the “Kat” executive producers, alongside Bialik, is the man who played her boyfriend/husband on “Big Bang,” Jim Parsons. And Bialik’s cast mates include talents like Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson as her crush, bartender Max; TV vet Swoosie Kurtz as her overprotective mother, Sheila; and Kyla Pratt (“One on One”) and Leslie Jordan (“Will & Grace”) as her employees Randi and Phil. 

The actors work well together, well enough that you buy into the relationships between them from the get-go. And there’s a sense of joyfulness to the overall production, not least because Kat is so unapologetically her quirky, sometimes awkward self — occasionally breaking the fourth wall to confide in the audience.

That joy was also palpable during a Zoom panel with Hunt, Parsons and the cast for the Television Critics Association in December. Bialik called “Kat” “the best playground ever” for the actors.

“I can absolutely say that my time on ‘Big Bang Theory’ was fantastic and life-changjng, and my time on ‘Blossom’ was fantastic and life-changing. But the way that we get to work and these actors that you see, and our writers and just this whole team has made this, for me personally, the greatest job I’ve ever had.”

She added: “What I love is that this is not a show about a woman trying to find someone. It’s a show about a woman trying to be happy finding herself and seeing what happens along the way.” 

I second that. As much as having a comedy built around a single woman is not new, it’s still refreshing to see a series about a woman of a certain age and body type (i.e. not a size zero) who’s proud of herself and her choices, including her singlehood.

And if you like “Call Me Kat,” know that it switches to its regular time slot on Jan. 7 at 9 p.m.

Elizabeth Is Missing (Jan. 3, 9 p.m., PBS)

Glenda Jackson stars as Maud in “Elizabeth Is Missing.” PHOTO CREDIT: STV Productions

Speaking of things that it’s refreshing to see on TV, you can add a film in which the main character is a woman and a senior citizen to the list.

Glenda Jackson, a two-time Oscar winner (in 1971 for “Women in Love” and 1974 for “A Touch of Class”) and a double Emmy winner for the TV series “Elizabeth R,” plays Maud, a woman with early-stage Alzheimer’s who doggedly tries to solve the disappearance of her friend Elizabeth (Maggie Steed), despite her failing memory and the indifference of others to her quest.

Along the way, Maud is also haunted by memories of her sister, Sukey (Sophie Rundle), who disappeared in 1949 and whose absence was never explained.

It’s a wonderful performance from Jackson who, at 84, is in virtually every scene of the TV movie, adapted from a 2014 novel by Emma Healey. This was Jackson’s first acting project since 1992, when she first won a seat as a British member of parliament. 

She very movingly portrays the indignities and frustrations of growing old, of feeling betrayed by mind and body alike, of being ignored and patronized. “Am I invisible or something?” Maud yells at one point. “I want to scream!”

And yet, Maud is determined and resourceful, refusing to give up on either her sister or her friend to the point that she can’t be ignored anymore.

If you’d like to watch another story about a resourceful older woman, check out “Laura Ingalls Wilder: From Prairie to Page” on  “American Masters” (Dec. 29, 9:30 p.m., PBS), about the author of the “Little House on the Prairie” novels. Ingalls Wilder was in her 60s when her memories of growing up in an American pioneer family in the late 1800s were translated into the beloved children’s books, which are still being read almost 90 years after they were first published, while the “Little House on the Prairie” TV series has never gone off the air.

The documentary deals with harsh realities of pioneer life that were left out of the books — not least the fact her family’s various homestead were built on land stolen from Native Americans — as well as the books’ racism and the unacknowledged role of her daughter Rose in getting them published. Nonetheless, it’s still an interesting slice of history.

A Perfect Planet (Jan. 3, 8 p.m., BBC Earth)

Lesser flamingoes and weeks-old chicks at Lake Natron in Tanzania in “A Perfect Planet.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BBC Earth

Speaking of senior citizens, how about sparing some admiration for David Attenborough, still lending his voice to nature documentaries at the age of 94 in a bid to convince humans to save the planet.

This latest series looks at the forces of nature that have kept Earth in perfect balance for thousands upon thousands of years, including volcanoes, sunlight, weather and oceans, while the fifth and final episode will examine human impact on the planet — spoiler alert, it’s not good — and what we can do to restore its balance.

Despite that underlying message, the episode I screened about volcanoes was far from preachy; it didn’t need to be. The species it highlighted were so fascinating and inspiring in their single-minded drive to perpetuate themselves it seemed impossible not to be seized with the idea that life on Earth is worth preserving.

Consider the lesser flamingo chicks that run three miles over the exposed bed of Lake Natron in Tanzania, in perilous conditions, to reach the freshwater springs where they can feed; or the pregnant female iguanas that risk death to descend into a volcanic crater on Fernandina Island in the Galapagos to lay their eggs in warm volcanic ash; or the finches that adapted to harsh conditions on Wolf Island by becoming vampires and feeding on the blood of Nazca boobies.

The photography, as you would expect, is stunning. Bonus “behind the scenes” segments at the ends of episodes recount just what lengths the camera people and other crew members went to, to get those beautiful shots.

Odds and Ends

Captain Jack Harkness, a.k.a. John Barrowman, is back in the “Doctor Who” holiday special “Revolution of the Daleks.” PHOTO CREDIT: James Pardon/BBC Studios

Daleks and Captain Jack Harkness are two names likely to gladden the hearts of Whovians. They both make appearances in the annual “Doctor Who” holiday special, “Revolution of the Daleks” (Jan. 1, 8 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel). I didn’t get a sneak peek, but Barrowman’s appearances are usually fun and I’m a fan of Jodie Whittaker’s take on the Doctor. Other guests in the cast include Chris Noth (“Sex and the City”) and Dame Harriet Walter (“Killing Eve,” “The Crown”).

I also didn’t get an advance look at the new episodes of “Vikings” (Jan. 1, 9 p.m., History), but these are the final 10 of the series so fans will undoubtedly want to tune in.  Look for Ivar the Boneless (Alex Høgh Andersen) to again face Alfred the Great (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) in battle as the Irish-Canadian co-production concludes.

If you want some Canadian content to ring in the new year, CBC and CBC Gem have “Canada’s New Year’s Eve — A Countdown to 2021” Dec. 31 at 11 p.m. no matter what time zone you’re in across the country. Rick Mercer hosts and there is music from Canadians like Brett Kissel, Tyler Shaw, Neon Dreams, Alan Doyle, the Jerry Cans and more.

Canadian fans of the beloved TV comedy “Friends” take note: all 10 seasons land on Crave on Dec. 31, which will forthwith become the exclusive streaming home for the series. Crave is also where you can find Season 13 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” as of Jan. 1 at 9:30 p.m.

“Five Bedrooms” (Jan. 3, 10 p.m., W Network), is about five friends who decide to buy a house together to beat rising real estate prices, which makes it sound like an HGTV docuseries , except it’s actually a dramedy set in Australia.

Someone put a ring on it on ‘The Bachelorette’ season finale

December 23, 2020 /
Host Chris Harrison and Bachelorette Tayshia Adams on proposal day.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

SPOILER ALERT: STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHO TAYSHIA GOT ENAGAGED TO.

As a certain 16th-century playwright once wrote, “All’s well that ends well.”

There were moments of frustration on the “Bachelorette” finale, to be sure — Ben being allowed to stay, a very unhelpful daddy-daughter talk — but Tayshia Adams ended up engaged to Zac Clark after a truly beautiful proposal and seemed to be deliriously happy.

I don’t know about you, but I had myself a good cry. As Tayshia might say, it was a lot.

Given what we’ve watched the last couple of weeks, it seemed very likely that Zac would be the last man standing, not that “Bachelorette” producers didn’t try to throw us off the trail.

First there was the return of Ben Smith, which I thought was kind of ridiculous.

Just repeating “I love you” over and over again should not have been good enough for a second chance. I was expecting Tayshia to tell him that he was too late and to send him home for good, but instead she invited him to that night’s rose ceremony and then she kissed him — like, really kissed him. Ugh.

Still, I figured Tayshia would give the first rose to Zac then seem to waver between Ben and Ivan for drama’s sake before giving the second rose to Ivan. Instead, she picked up a rose, put it down again and uttered the dreaded words, “Ivan, can we talk really quickly?”

So yes, Ivan was sent home. Tayshia blamed it on religious differences that had come up during their overnight date. “At the end of the day religion’s part of my morals and my beliefs,” she said.

What does that mean? Is Ivan an atheist? Does he only go to church at Christmas and Easter? We never found out. Ivan went pretty quietly although he did say in the SUV of Shame that he figured Tayshia wouldn’t end up with anybody because “me and her made the most sense.”

Ivan and Tayshia on their hometown date, presumably not talking about religion.

His departure raises a couple of questions. Had Ben not shown up, would Tayshia have gone through the charade of introducing Ivan to her parents for the sake of the format, despite knowing they were incompatible? Was Ben allowed to come back just so Tayshia could send Ivan home and still have two finalists?

Whatever Ben might have thought was going on, it was clear after watching both him and Zac with Tayshia’s family that he was around just to make up the numbers.

For instance, Tayshia’s father Desmond asked Ben, “What do you see in Tayshia?” His answer: “For me, what made me come back to this experience, even though I was sent home, is the way that she makes me feel and I would be an idiot not to come back.”

Sorry dude, but that answer’s about you, not her.

Zac’s responses seemed less self-centred and more mature.

When Desmond expressed concern that an engagement between Zac and Tayshia might be a “test” rather than a commitment, Zac replied, “What I’ve really had to look at is, when all this goes away and it’s just me and her, life is not always easy. Supporting each other through these tough times is what I actually look forward to.”

So, in other words, he seemed to have thought beyond the “Tayshia makes me feel good” stage.

In any event, there are no guarantees when it comes to relationships, on or off “The Bachelorette,” which is why it was kind of annoying when Desmond turned up at Tayshia’s door to have a doom and gloom conversation with her.

“I’ve seen you hurt before and I can’t let that happen this time,” he told her, referring to her divorce. “Seeing these guys, we don’t want things to go backwards for you. It might not be what you want to hear, but I don’t want you to be making the biggest mistake of your life.”

Gee, thanks Dad.

I have a few questions of my own. Is Tayshia not an adult capable of making her own decisions? How exactly do you keep somebody from getting hurt unless you lock them in a room and throw away the key? Was this conversation all her father’s idea or did production have a hand in it? If it happened just before her date with Zac, as it was presented, why was Tayshia wearing the same denim dress she had on when she went to see Ben, whose date appeared to come after Zac’s?

Tayshia and Zac on their fantasy suite date.

However it unfolded, Tayshia did seem rattled when she met with Zac. They had a good time at their dance lesson, but that night Tayshia expressed her fears: that Zac’s feelings might change if she put her career ambitions aside to become a full-time mother, that he might eventually run away.

Zac, who was celebrating his ninth anniversary of being sober, told her the reason his recovery was so important to him was because “it allowed me to not run away . . . and actually face life as it comes my way.”

“To hear you say your fear is that things will change or that I’ll run or whatever it is breaks my heart because if I were given the opportunity to propose to you, I am not doing that unless I am committing to you, for life.”

Tayshia’s mind was set at ease, so much so that she didn’t even bother having her final date with Ben. She visited him in his room and gave him the old “I care about you so much” — pause — “I just feel like my heart is with somebody else” speech.

There was nothing left on the to-do list but a proposal.

We had to endure some more commentary about Tayshia’s doubts — and she started crying when she checked in with Chris Harrison — but of course she and Zac were getting engaged. Duh.

I won’t repeat Zac’s whole proposal speech. The part that really got me went as follows: “I love you, Tayshia. I love you because you’re a fighter. I love you ’cause you’re a strong, independent woman. You make everyone around you better. I love you because you believe in me. I love you because you’re a total dork. And I love you because you drive me absolutely wild. I love everything about you.”

I’ve had a few people tell me they don’t buy that Tayshia and Zac really love each other. It seemed pretty convincing to me.

Tayshia gave a lovely speech too, telling him, “I love you, Zac Clark. And I’ll do absolutely anything to keep that huge smile on your face because you do everything to keep a huge smile on mine.”

There was an emerald-cut Neil Lane diamond to put on her finger, a final rose to put on his lapel, happy tears, laughter, hugs, kisses, dancing and then they hailed the cardboard taxi from their hometown date and carried it away with a “Just engaged” sign on the back, which was absolutely adorable.

There was no “After the Final Rose” for us to bask in their joy (or to commiserate if they had broken up), but judging from the interview that Tayshia gave to People magazine, which appeared Tuesday night, it seems she and Zac are still very much a thing.

Assuming that Clare Crawley and Dale Moss are still together — and from what I can glean online, they are — “Bachelorette” producers must be feeling extremely pleased with themselves. Not only did they pull off a satisfying season during a pandemic, they ended up with two engagements, almost as good as a season of “Bachelor in Paradise.”

Now we’ll have to see if Matt James can keep up the streak when his “Bachelor” season starts Jan. 4.

I’ll be watching and recapping. In the meantime, you can comment here (no spam please), come visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

It’s down to 2 — oops, we’re back to 3 men — on ‘The Bachelorette’

December 22, 2020 /
Tayshia Adams and Zac Clark get handsy during Night 1
of the “Bachelorette” season finale. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Things got messy during the fantasy suites episode of “The Bachelorette” — and I don’t mean because Tayshia and Zac spent part of their date slathering each other in paint.

Their time together was one of the cleanest parts of Monday’s episode in that it seemed pretty straightforward: Zac said he loved Tayshia; she said she loved him back; Zac seemed like the man to beat in the proposal derby.

But Tayshia’s journey hit a couple of big pot holes. First, Brendan Morais, the man who seemed like the biggest threat to Zac’s frontrunner status, sent himself home after deciding he wasn’t ready to commit to Tayshia. Then Ben Smith, the guy Tayshia sent home last week, came back to declare his love and complicate the hell out of everything.

Here’s how I thought the night was going to go: Tayshia was going to send dear sweet Ivan Hall away and make Zac and Brendan the final two. Even if Ben did come back, as everyone expected, Tayshia would send him home . . . again.

Now? Well, considering we saw Tayshia kissing Ben in the promo for Tuesday’s episode it looks like she might give him another chance. What does that mean for Ivan and Zac? Guess we’ll find out tomorrow night.

In the meantime, we’ve got a couple of fantasy suites to talk about.

Brrrrr. Tayshia and Ivan climb into tubs of ice water on their date.

Ivan was first up. I’m not sure who decides who gets what date, but from my point of view he got a raw deal — as in raw from the cold. He and Tayshia set a record for “world’s longest coldest kiss” by smooching while sitting in tubs of ice water for more than six minutes. “How is this going to affect his performance in the fantasy suite later tonight?” quipped host Chris Harrison, who oversaw the event with “Bachelor” security dude Big Paulie.

Things warmed up from there. Later, at another one of those dinners where nobody actually eats, Ivan told Tayshia he was falling in love with her. Personally, I was suspicious of the fact that she looked down instead of right at him when he said it, but she did tell him, “I definitely have been falling for you too.”

After going through the charade of reading the fantasy suite card (as if he was going to say no to forgoing his individual room) they repaired to possibly the cutest fantasy suite ever in an Airstream trailer. Ivan said they stayed up all night talking. The end result: Ivan was ready to propose and Tayshia said she could picture “a really beautiful life” with him.

One down, two to go.

Tayshia and Zac during the clothed part of their painting exercise.

There was no ice involved in Zac’s date with Tayshia. They started hot and just kept sizzling along. Having to strip down to bathing suits and cover each other with body paint fuelled their natural chemistry. There was much smooching.

At dinner, Tayshia, who’s said a couple of times that she wants five children, questioned Zac about his mother’s contention that he didn’t want any kids. Zac assured her he was ready to be a dad and, furthermore, “I don’t think, I know that I love you,” Zac told her.

“I love your smile, your strength, how you treat other people. I just love the human being that you are.”

Tayshia put her hand to her face, seeming overcome by emotion, and replied, “It’s just wild because I love you too.”

She seemed delighted by Zac’s admission, laughing and kissing him, and making him repeat the words. The laughing and kissing continued in the fantasy suite, where it looked like Zac and Tayshia might stay up doing more than talking, but who knows?

But despite how thrilled Tayshia seemed with Zac — they even jumped on the bed together — she noted that Brendan had had her heart “since Day 1.”

Nobody who saw her heartwarming “hometown” date with Brendan could doubt there was a real bond between them, which made what came next all the more shocking.

Don’t let the smile fool you. Brendan seemed nervous during his diamond date with Tayshia.

Going into the date, Brendan said he was nervous about the idea of proposing, but in the normal scheme of things you’d expect those jitters to subside in the fantasy suite. Except Brendan gave off a deer caught in the headlights vibe when he and Tayshia met up with resident “Bachelor” jeweller Neil Lane and Tayshia tried on bling, including wedding rings.

It seems so Machiavellian. The guy’s getting cold feet about getting engaged so trap him in a room full of engagement and wedding bands. If the point was indeed to stoke Brendan’s doubts it worked like a charm.

Holding back tears, he told Tayshia at dinner that he wanted a wife and kids “more than anything on the face of this Earth, but then coming to the realization that there’s a big part of me that’s still broken, there’s a big part of me that still needs time to heal,” Brendan said.

“All I want is to give you my whole heart, but as I sit here today my heart isn’t whole and it really breaks my heart, because you deserve a man that is complete and you deserve a man who is healed from his past and, unfortunately, right now I’m not that man.”

It was one of the more heartbreaking goodbyes we’ve seen in the franchise. Tayshia cried as she and Brendan hugged at the waiting SUV. He kissed her hand and said, “Thank you, Tayshia. God bless you, OK?” And then he was gone and Tayshia cried even harder.

But she was composed the next day, when former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay showed up for a pep talk, on top of the one Tayshia already had from JoJo Fletcher. Not that it wasn’t nice to see Rachel, but I’m a bit mystified as to why these former Bachelorettes keep popping up for what amounts to filler, especially in the middle of a pandemic.

Tayshia with Ben on a previous episode.

Anyway, Tayshia was all ready mentally to hand roses to her final two when Ben turned up, first at host Harrison’s door, claiming he simply had to tell Tayshia that he loved her.

Tayshia didn’t seem thrilled to see Ben. Nonetheless she let him in and listened as he blamed his complete lack of emotion at their breakup on how caught off guard he had been.

“The feelings that I’ve had for you, I just didn’t know what it was, but I’m in love with you,” Ben said. “Like the life we could have together, the thought of that, it keeps me awake at night and I’m not sure what to do right now.”

Say thanks for your time and head back out the door is what I would suggest, but that wasn’t happening. Tayshia was the one who left the room, looking very upset. “I mean, I just want to cry. I don’t know what to do,” she told an unseen producer.

Frankly, it seems like there’s a lot to do in tomorrow’s two-hour finale. Tayshia has to figure out what to do with Ben; there’s a rose ceremony; the final two have to meet her parents; she has to have a potentially upsetting conversation with her father. And then, maybe by the end of it all, she’ll be engaged.

It airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of December 21, 2020

December 21, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Letterkenny (Dec. 25, Crave)

K. Trevor Wilson, Jared Keeso and Nathan Dales, and friends, in Season 9 of “Letterkenny.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Maybe it’s the particular genius of Canadians to make comedies about places in which not much happens. I mean, think about it, “Schitt’s Creek,” our most successful comedy ever based on worldwide acclaim and Emmy Awards won, was set almost entirely in a small, sleepy town and, more often than not, in two motel rooms. Brent Butt and crew spun six seasons out of Dog River in “Corner Gas,” a place where there wasn’t a lot going on. And the “Trailer Park Boys” hatched their hare-brained schemes in a mobile home park.

In “Letterkenny,” the main preoccupations are drinking, fighting, fornicating (or at least talking about it a lot) and, occasionally, chorin’. On paper, it sounds ridiculous. In practice, thanks to the commitment of series creator Jared Keeso and the rest of the cast to their oddball, small-town characters, and the skill with which they navigate the trademark rapid-fire dialogue, it’s pretty brilliant.

Not everything hits the net, of course, if I can use that phrase in keeping with the show’s hockey obsession. The first episode of the new season has one of those big fight set pieces that are so much fun (they remind me a tiny bit of the ones in the old “Batman” show of the 1960s, minus the cartoon “Blam!” and “Kapow!” exclamations and with even cooler music). But the American and Canadian armed forces guys who turn up to help and then hang around shirtless in the bar didn’t really up the comedy quotient for me.

On the other hand, there’s a dialogue in another episode between main characters Wayne (Keeso), Daryl (Nathan Dales), Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) and Katy (Michelle Mylett) about whether whistling sounds can come from parts of the anatomy besides the mouth that had me in stitches.

And you probably won’t want to miss Mark Forward’s master classes in cringe comedy as Coach forces his beer league players, including Jonesy (Andrew Herr) and Reilly (Dylan Playfair), to listen to monologues about his late wife Barb’s erotic skills.

“Letterkenny” also has its sweet moments of caring and camaraderie. Even oversexed bartender Gail (Lisa Codrington) gets a little love this season.

Bridgerton (Dec. 25, Netflix)

Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset, Lord Hastings, and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton
in “Bridgerton.” PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Attention lovers of period drama and star-crossed romance, Shonda Rhimes and her team have a Christmas gift for you.

I’d love to tell you what I think of it, but alas, review coverage is embargoed until Tuesday.

“Bridgerton” is the first original scripted series from Rhimes’ Shondaland as part of her Netflix deal. Created by her “Scandal” protege Chris Van Dusen, it’s based on the “Bridgerton” novels of Julia Quinn, about an aristocratic family in Regency London and their romantic pursuits.

Refreshingly, some of the other aristocrats are played by Black actors, including Rege-Jean Page (“Roots”) as the dashing Lord Hastings, Adjoa Andoh (“Doctor Who”) as Lady Danbury and Golda Rosheuvel (“Silent Witness”) as Queen Charlotte.

Phoebe Dynevor (“Younger”) also stars as Hastings’ romantic interest, Daphne Bridgerton, and Dame Julie Andrews gives voice to Lady Whistledown, the gossip whose scandal sheet keeps all the lords and ladies on their toes.

Soul (Dec. 25, Disney Plus)

Jamie Foxx gives voice to Joe Gardner, the protagonist of the new animated film “Soul.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney/Pixar

This new animated film from Disney and Pete Docter (“Up,” “Inside Out”) could be subtitled “The Meaning of Life.”

For main character Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a music teacher living a fairly mundane life in New York City, there’s only one thing from which he derives meaning: jazz music, which he longs to play professionally at the Half Note club.

He finally gets his shot, asked by a former student to fill in at a gig with legendary saxophone player Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), but Joe is so enraptured after his tryout that he doesn’t pay attention to where he’s walking and steps into an open manhole. Next thing you know, he finds himself minus his body, on a conveyor belt to the Great Beyond.

Joe manages to escape to a more hospitable spiritual realm called the Great Before, where souls — portrayed as child-like, amorphous blue-green blobs — are assigned personalities. But they can’t travel to Earth and into bodies until they find a spark, something that fires their will to live. Mentors, experienced souls stopping in on their way to the Great Beyond, help them do that.

In his desperate scramble to get back to Earth and to his gig, Joe gets mistaken for a mentor and paired with 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who has decided she has no interest in living and has already foiled mentors like Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali and Marie Antoinette.

After they end up in the Zone, a place where lost souls wander, Joe and 22 get help from a hippie mystic named Moonwind (Graham Norton), who leaves his body at regularly scheduled intervals, to get to New York. But the re-entry into Joe’s body doesn’t go quite as planned. I won’t tell you how because that would spoil the fun of a delightful interlude in the film.

Once on Earth, 22 finds delight in almost everything: the taste of pizza, the sound of a trombone, a seedling falling from a tree. Her enthusiasm opens Joe’s eyes to the fact there’s more to life than jazz and that he’s been missing out on a lot because of his obsession.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, although this being Disney you can probably surmise that it’s an uplifting one. It’s a sweet, beautifully animated take on a weighty subject.

Odds and Ends

Yannick Bisson in character as William Murdoch with musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
on the “Murdoch Mysteries” set. PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn TV

If you’re a fan of the long-running Canadian detective series “Murdoch Mysteries,” the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and classical music, the special “A Music Lover’s Guide to Murdoch Mysteries” (Dec. 24, Acorn TV) will be right up your alley. Seven members of the TSO gather on the series’ police office set to play a selection of songs that Murdoch might have listened to in the early 20th century. The selections include Ravel, Brahms, Canadian composer Laura Gertrude Lemon, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Scott Joplin and the beautiful “Blue Danube Waltz” by Strauss, as well as music composed by Robert Carli for the show. “Murdoch” star Yannick Bisson hosts in character and there are clips from the series interspersed with the music.

If you’re a fan of rich people behaving badly and/or manufactured reality show drama, tune into “House of Ho” (Dec. 21, 8 p.m., Super Channel Fuse). The docuseries follows Vietnamese immigrant turned wealthy Houston businessman Binh Ho and wife Hue, his spoiled son Washington, daughter Judy and other relations. Frankly, Binh’s patriarchal attitudes and Washington’s seeming neglect of his wife and kids to go drinking and gambling with clients left a bad taste in my mouth.

If you enjoyed the most recent season of “The Mandalorian,” which ended with that blockbuster finale on Friday, you might enjoy “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian ‘Making of Season 2′” (Dec. 25, Disney Plus).

No ‘I love you’ means no rose as the Bachelorette picks her final 3

December 16, 2020 /
The “Bachelorette” final four had to recreate their hometowns at La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, including this New York City backdrop for Zac Clark. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

If your heart wasn’t melting watching the “hometowns” episode of “The Bachelorette” on Tuesday night it’s possible you don’t have one.

This was one of the sweetest, most emotional hometown episodes we’ve ever seen — without anyone going near an actual hometown.

There were no obnoxious siblings, no overbearing parents, no taxidermy collections, no fake autopsies: just four nice guys with nice families who seemed to really, really love them, which just made it all the more heartwrenching when Tayshia Adams had to send one man home.

The mood was set in the early minutes of the show when host Chris Harrison arrived to tell the finalists which of their family members had made the trip to La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, Calif., and they got teary-eyed (except Ben, who apparently doesn’t cry) and all hugged each other.

Tayshia has talked about what a great group of guys she has and now that she’s got rid of dead weight like Bennett and Noah I couldn’t agree with her more.

Normally, Tayshia would have travelled to each of the men’s hometowns to meet their families. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the families had to come to her, not just showing up, but quarantining and taking who knows how many COVID tests at the resort.

And the suitors had to create little slices of their hometowns at La Quinta, which to be honest felt kind of refreshing compared to the show and tells we usually get.

Brendan Morais, Tayshia and his niece Aliyah play some carnival games on their “hometown” date.

Brendan started things off with a recreation of a small-town carnival, the kind of thing he’d attend in his hometown of Milford, Mass. And if that idea wasn’t adorable enough he had his niece Aliyah join him and Tayshia to play games like ring toss, win stuffed animals, eat popsicles, dance, ride toy horses, cavort in a bouncy castle and show off their secret handshake.

So the date was already screaming “keeper!” Then Brendan upped the ante with an emotional reunion with his big brother Daniel, whom he told Harrison was “the closet thing I had to a father after my father passed.”

“I feel like I haven’t told you enough, or at least in a long time, how much you mean to me,” Brendan told his bro. I mean, is that heartwarming or what?

The good feelings just kept flowing, with Tayshia getting encouragement from Daniel and his wife Christi that Brendan was ready to get married. At the end of it all, Tayshia declared, “I really am falling in love with him. I truly feel like Brendan could be my husband.”

After that date, us too. But there were three more dates to go.

Tayshia and Zac ride a “cab” on their hometown date.

Zac Clark, whose hometown is listed as Haddonfield, N.J., took Tayshia to “New York,” where they walked around in a cardboard taxi (once Zac had taught Tayshia how to hail one), ate bagels and pizza, then took in a view of the “Hudson River.”

Tayshia later met Zac’s parents, Douglas and Beatrice, and his brother Matt.

“They saved my life,” Zac said. “They believed in me when I had a pretty gnarly drug addiction that could have taken me out at any time.”

Matt was a little skeptical, though. He asked Tayshia point blank how her feelings for Zac compared to the other three guys and she didn’t answer him — which Matt pointed out — although she did say she was falling in love with Zac.

But Douglas and Beatrice were on board.

“I haven’t seen him smile that much in a long time,” Douglas told Tayshia, “and that’s something that’s really making me happy.”

Zac’s smile also came up in an emotional chat with his mom. “I would not be alive if it wasn’t for your strength,” Zac told her. “So nothing means more than for you to see me happy tonight and see me smiling and see me at peace.”

So I think we’re all agreed: another keeper, right?

Ivan and Tayshia do some Filipino cooking on their hometown date.

Next up was Ivan Hall, who instead of taking Tayshia to a hometown, took her to a kitchen where they made Filipino “lumpia,” or spring rolls, coached via video by Ivan’s adorable niece Kehlani.

Ivan and Tayshia were cooking in more ways than one in that kitchen as they laughed and kissed and danced. Then Tayshia met Ivan’s father Clarence and his mother, whose name I don’t think we got.

Mom was skeptical given how fast everything was happening but told Ivan she’d welcome Tayshia with open arms if he chose to be with her. Clarence bonded with Tayshia over the fact they both had marriages that didn’t work out (Ivan’s mom is his second wife) and both married young; Clarence at 24, Tayshia at 25.

 “I’m really impressed with the young lady,” Clarence said. “She and Ivan could be a good match.”

There was one more family member for Tayshia to impress. Ivan’s brother Gabriel, the one he told Tayshia about who’d done time in jail, made a surprise appearance, which had Ivan in tears. Then Gabriel teared up talking to Tayshia about how loyal Ivan had been to him. Like I said, it was an emotional night.

By the time the date was done, Tayshia had passed muster with the fam and Ivan said he was falling in love with Tayshia.

Ben and Tayshia rollerbladed to the “boardwalk” at “Venice Beach” on their date.

Last but not least, Ben took Tayshia to “Venice Beach,” even though he was raised in Indiana. Things seemed to be going great. Tayshia said she was smitten with Ben and he said he’d never been happier. Ben’s parents weren’t able to make it to La Quinta because of the pandemic, but Ben’s sister Madeline, the one he told Tayshia saved his life, was there along with close family friend Antonia, and they both seemed delighted with Tayshia.

Tayshia, who earlier in the episode expressed unease about not knowing how Ben felt about her, asked for and received assurance from Madeline that Ben wasn’t “hiding” anything. It’s too bad Tayshia couldn’t have overheard Ben’s conversation with Antonia because Ben admitted to Antonia that he was in love with Tayshia.

He was all set to tell Tayshia, too, but he clammed up when they were alone together and she asked him how he felt.

When Ben walked into the rose ceremony it was with the idea that it might be too late to tell Tayshia he loved her. But we’ve seen instances where an inability to clearly express feelings was used as a red herring just to make viewers think that person wasn’t getting a rose, so it was hard to tell if Ben had really blown it.

Honestly? I had no idea who Tayshia would send home. She seemed to have strong feelings for all four and had also had deep conversations with all of them about real stuff, whether it was Brendan’s previous marriage, Zac’s former drug addiction, Ivan’s experiences with racism or Ben’s suicide attempts.

This season has certainly had its share of silliness, but it’s also had some of the most meaningful interactions I can recall. Maybe being quarantined during a pandemic was a reminder for at least some of the men of what was really important in their lives.

Unfortunately for Ben, he never got the chance to tell Tayshia how he felt. Would it have made a difference? We might never know. Tayshia did say that she couldn’t keep putting energy into pulling things out of Ben so perhaps a declaration would have been too little too late.

In any event, Ben put his walls right back up after Tayshia rejected him, brushing it off with “I’ll be all right. I’m always all right.”

“He couldn’t give me one ounce of emotion,” said an upset Tayshia after he left.

But Ben clearly wasn’t all right. “I’m still in love with her,” he said, looking stricken in the back of the SUV. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to fall out of love with her.”

For Ben’s sake I hope he figures it out and that he’s got that therapist who helped him after his suicide attempts on speed dial.

Tayshia is moving on, with fantasy suite dates and maybe a proposal next week.

(Update: it sounds like Ben is going to be back next week to ask Tayshia to give him another chance. I’m skeptical it will work, but it will be good for the drama.)

It airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

The Bachelorette picks her final 4 and the Men Tell All, all in 1 night

December 15, 2020 /
Host Chris Harrison and Bachelorette Tayshia Adams on “The Men Tell All” part of “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Fasten your seatbelts, Bachelor Nation. With apologies for borrowing from Bette Davis, it looks like it’s going to be a bumpy ride, not to mention a really speedy one.

“The Bachelorette” crammed what would normally be two episodes worth of material into one on Monday night, including a “Men Tell All.” Hometown dates follow Tuesday. Next week is the two-part season finale, which presumably means fantasy suite dates on Dec. 21 and the proposal on Dec. 22.

It’s not quite Clare getting engaged to Dale fast, but it’s brisk.

Likewise, Tayshia Adams moved from dithering last week, so conflicted she couldn’t even hand out a group date rose, to extra decisive this week.

She let two men go ahead of the rose ceremony and then cancelled the cocktail party, so confident was she in her decisions. The final four are, in fact, no surprise. But let’s back up and recount how we got here.

First, there was Tayshia’s one-on-one date with Canadian wildlife manager Blake Moynes. Bachelor 101 says if you’re just getting your first real date the week before hometowns you’re probably a goner.

Tayshia and Blake meet with “Reiki and crystal master” Geeta.

Indeed, after an awkward and kind of pointless session with a “Reiki and crystal master” — which included the inevitable “tantric breathing exercise,” i.e. crotch meld, not to mention Blake getting visibly, er, “charged” — Tayshia felt that Blake wasn’t her “guy.” He didn’t even get a chance to pretend to eat dinner with her before she told him they should go their separate ways, with Tayshia crying buckets as she handed him into the SUV of Shame despite her certainty she was doing the right thing.

That certainty gave Tayshia “clarity” about someone else, so she headed to the suite where the men were hanging out and asked Riley to step outside.

Tayshia explained that she didn’t want to lead Riley on by meeting his family “if my heart is not 100 per cent matching yours.”

Riley, like the lawyer he is, put up a bit of an argument, asking “Why keep me around so long?”

The real answer is that it’s always about the numbers in “Bachelor” or “Bachelorette.” Guys get strung along week after week because the number of men need to match the number of roses.

Tayshia said that her breakthrough conversations with Riley, the ones in which he showed her who he really was, “started coming a little bit later.” And then Riley stopped resisting.

“I can argue all day, but in the end it doesn’t matter because the end result is the same. So the longer I sit here, the longer I look at you, the longer I hear you talk, see you smile, the more pain I feel.”

He left with grace and class and generosity, and Tayshia cried a lot.

I couldn’t help contrasting her emotional reaction to letting Riley go to her sangfroid when she jettisoned Bennett, and thinking how ridiculous it was that Bennett — after coming back to surprise Tayshia the week before — had been allowed to stay until the rose ceremony.

Tayshia gives Bennett the heave-ho the week before. I don’t see any tears, do you?

It was absolutely preposterous to think that Bennett, despite already being sent home once, would vault past men like Brendan and Zac and Ivan in Tayshia’s affections to claim a rose. Clearly his being allowed to return was nothing more than a stupid producer trick, a way to stir up a little crap among the men.

And indeed, the other men were visibly displeased when Bennett came strolling back in before the rose ceremony, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. “You guys looks like you’ve seen a ghost,” Bennett cheerfully told Ben, Zac, Brendan, Ivan and Noah, before adding that he’d returned so he wouldn’t be written off as a “Harvard D-bag.”

Then, after all the nonsense about Tayshia feeling conflicted because Bennett told her he loved her, he didn’t even get to converse with her again before she gave roses to Zac, Ivan and Brendan (Ben already had one), dispatching Noah and Bennett.

I did feel bad for Riley, who seems like a good guy, but it had to be those four for hometowns given that they’re the men Tayshia had gotten closest to. If it wasn’t, it would have been quite the shocker.

Next it was time for a truncated “Men Tell All.”

The bad blood between Noah and Bennett was rehashed. Nothing new there. Noah accused Bennett of being condescending and conniving; Bennett accused Noah of creating all the drama. Riley sided with Noah, Kenny with Bennett. There was some shouting between Noah and Kenny, and Kenny had to be bleeped, and host Chris Harrison had to whistle to get them to simmer down. Bennett eventually apologized, but Noah told him he was “an ostentatious Harvard D-bag” and they’d never be friends.

That was small potatoes compared to the real D-bag in the room. Yosef Aborady returned to rehash his exit and his berating of first Bachelorette Clare Crawley over what he called the “classless” strip dodgeball date, which saw the losers of the game strip down to their man goodies (thanks Demar).

Yosef claimed he was “sticking up for these guys,” but Blake and Kenny, who’d both been starkers, said no thanks to that. Jason called Yosef out for being disrespectful to Clare and told him to “shut the fuck up” when Yosef tried to talk over Jason the same way he talked over Clare.

Asked by Harrison if he had any regrets, Yosef was adamant he did not.

“Just so we’re clear, when you watch that, you’re like that’s cool, I would never mind anyone talking to my daughter like that,” Harrison said.

“If my daughter did something like that I would hope somebody would call her out,” Yosef replied, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know right there.

I hope we never see that misogynistic creep on any Bachelor show ever again.

What a contrast between Yosef’s bullshit and Riley, who got emotional after watching tape of his breakup with Tayshia, telling her that despite the heartache, “I appreciate everything you did for me. I would not change this experience for anything in the world.”

Tayshia reassured Riley that he hadn’t scared her off by telling her about his past, which he said was “a weight off my chest.”

Tayshia also made Blake feel a little better, telling him she’d subconsciously put up walls to protect herself against him, knowing he’d had feelings for Clare.

“I’m glad now I can look at you with a smile and remember you like this and not like that,” Blake said, referring to their breakup. “That was brutal for the longest time.”

I know Harrison talks about the bloopers being the funniest part of “Men Tell All,” but what really made me laugh was he and Ed reliving their bromance, spawned when Ed went to the wrong suite while looking for Tayshia’s room at the resort.

“We had a good time, man,” Harrison said. “Just a couple of guys hanging out, having a nice bottle of wine.”

“It was pretty epic,” said Ed. “I’m somehow glad I wasn’t at Tayshia’s that night actually.”

Enjoy the laughs while you can. There were an awful lots of tears in the promo for the final three nights of the season.

The next episode airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of December 14, 2020

December 14, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Expanse (Dec. 16, Amazon Prime Video)

Naomi (Dominique Tipper) is determined to make contact with her son Filip
in Season 5 of “The Expanse.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios

In a sense, there’s no better time for “The Expanse” to return for its fifth and penultimate season than right now, during a pandemic, when many people are locked down and have time on their hands. 

That’s because each episode of the sci-fi series is so densely packed with plot and character dynamics that it demands your full attention. 

It’s also not a good show to come into cold, so if you’re not up on past seasons I’d respectfully suggest a binge watch before you tune into Season 5, which begins with a three-episode drop on Dec. 16 with weekly episodes thereafter.

Once you dig in, it’s easy to see why fans are so passionate about the series that they launched a vociferous campaign to save it in 2018 after its cancellation by Syfy. Amazon came through with a fourth, fifth and, next year, a final sixth season.

In the meantime, everyone’s favourite Earthers, Martians and Belters have plenty to contend with a couple of hundred years into the future.

Besides the fact that the characters are still grappling with the potential dangers posed by the protomolecule and the Ring Gates, there are personal crises to address, especially for Naomi (Dominique Tipper), who’s determined to reunite with her son Filip (Jasai Chase Owens) and try to save him from his terrorist father Marco (Keon Alexander).

Bobbie (Frankie Adams) is on the trail of a conspiracy involving the sale of black market Martian weapons; Monica (Anna Hopkins) has intel that someone is trying to obtain what’s left of the protomolecule; Amos (Wes Chatham) has unfinished business on Earth; and then there are the asteroids that Marco has disguised with stealth technology and set on a collision course with Earth.

Holden (Steven Strait), Alex (Cas Anvar), Fred (Chad L. Coleman), Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Drummer (Cara Gee) are all back too, along with a few new characters.

So yes, there’s a lot to absorb, but what else do you have to do?

Borealis (Dec. 15, 9 p.m., TVO)

A scene from the documentary “Borealis.” PHOTO CREDIT: Primitive Entertainment/NFB

You could call this documentary a biopic, where bio stands for biology. It documents in beautiful, lyrical, even spiritual form the life of Canada’s boreal forest, a life story that’s still being written.

In particular, it focuses on the trees in the boreal forests of Ontario, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, the amazingly complex relationships they have with their environment and what one observer calls the forest’s “eternal ability to replicate itself.”

That ability is under threat thanks to human activity and climate change. The fires that in the natural scheme of things are a means of renewal are becoming more frequent and burning longer; permafrost is melting as temperatures climb, and repeated droughts leave trees unable to defend themselves against predators like mountain pine beetles. 

“The forests were best when we left them alone,” says one of the doc’s mostly unseen expert voices.

The film — directed by Kevin McMahon (“Waterlife”) — ends on a hopeful note, with the planting of new trees and the suggestion that humans, with all their cleverness, will imagine a new way to interact with the forest.

“We can’t live without forests,” says another voice. “We won’t be able to breathe.”

And yet this doc, in its beauty, provides a chance to take a breath and to reflect.

Total Control (Dec. 17, Sundance Now)

Rachel Griffiths as Prime Minister Rachel Anderson and Deborah Mailman
as Alex Irving in “Total Control.” PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now

It’s nice, from time to time, to get a window into cultures outside our North American norm.

This political drama divides its time between Australian capital Canberra and the outback of Queensland, and between white and Aboriginal points of view.

The series was co-created by Oscar nominee and Australian native Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under”), who stars as Prime Minister Rachel Anderson. But the key role is played by Aboriginal actor Deborah Mailman as Indigenous senator Alex Irving. 

After Alex becomes a national hero for confronting a gunman who was about to kill his estranged wife, she is recruited by the PM as a means of shoring up falling poll numbers with an election just around the corner. Alex reluctantly takes the post as a means of helping her fellow Aborigines get a fairer deal from the federal government but must walk a fine line between being a political team player and not seeming like a sellout to her people.

Rachel appears to support Alex’s goals, but other more conservative members of the party are less enthusiastic.

Intertwined with Alex’s story is a plot about a young Aboriginal woman who dies in jail and a fellow inmate with a video that implicates the guards and the prison system as a whole.

If you’ve watched Australian detective series “Mystery Road” on Acorn TV (and if you haven’t, it’s worth checking out), you’ll recognize a few faces here, including Mailman’s and “Mystery” lead Aaron Pedersen’s. 

Odds and Ends

Avraham Aviv Alush and Shahar Tavoch in “Valley of Tears.” PHOTO CREDIT: Hollywood Suite

Pay movie channel Hollywood Suite is showcasing a drama series during its free preview, the Israeli-made “Valley of Tears” (Dec. 19, 9 p.m.). Reportedly the most expensive show ever made in Israel, “Tears” takes place during the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, aiming to recapture territory lost to Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. We see several days of battles through the eyes of characters such as Avinoam (Shahar Tavoch), a wiretapper who is mocked and ignored when he tries to convince his commanding officer Yoav (Avraham Aviv Alush) that the Syrians are about to attack; several members of the Black Panthers protest group (the Israeli one, not the American one) who also belong to Israeli tank crews; and sidelined female officer Dafna (Joy Rieger).

A new adaptation of the Stephen King novel “The Stand” debuts on the CBS All Access streaming service on Dec. 17. I haven’t heard yet whether it will also be available on a Canadian network or streamer down the road. It stars James Marsden (“Westworld”), Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, Owen Teague (“It”), Odessa Young, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear and more.

If you appreciate the artistry and athleticism of ballet, “On Pointe” (Dec. 18, Disney Plus) is a docuseries that follows students at the famed School of American Ballet in New York City, and its production team includes heavy hitters Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Then there’s the Netflix drama “Tiny Pretty Things” (Dec. 14), which unfortunately got left off my screener list, but you probably already know it’s about a young dancer (Kylie Jefferson) who joins an elite ballet school in Chicago after another dancer is murdered. The cast is loaded with Canadians, including Brennan Clost, Jess Salgueiro, Paula Boudreau, Morgan Kelly and John Ralston, plus American-Canadian Lauren Holly.

Speaking of Canadians, CTV is airing a special, “Celebrating Greatness”(Dec. 18, 8 p.m.), that features highlights from 20 years of Canada’s Walk of Fame inductions plus interviews and archival footage from Canadians you’re sure to have heard of, including Shawn Mendes, Drake, The Weeknd and Alessia Cara.

If you haven’t burned yourself out on holiday rom-coms yet, Amazon Prime Video has “Palm Springs” (Dec. 18), which is actually a summer rom-com and a Sundance Film Festival hit that we’re just getting in Canada now. It stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti.

Speaking of holiday viewing, there’s lots to see this week. CBC has “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (Dec. 14, 8 p.m.); “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (Dec. 19, 6:30 p.m.); “The Great Northern Candy Drop” (Dec. 19, 7 p.m.); “Shrek the Halls” (Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m.); “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (Dec. 20, 7 p.m.); and “Home Alone” (Dec. 20, 8 p.m.). CTV Drama Channel has made-in-Canada, same-sex rom-com “The Christmas Setup” (Dec. 18, 8 p.m.) while CTV Comedy Channel has a Christmas episode of “Corner Gas Animated” (Dec. 14, 9 p.m.).

Some men tell the truth, one dares to return on ‘Bachelorette’

December 9, 2020 /
Tayshia Adams referees the “teenage boy drama” between Noah and Bennett on “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

At one point on Tuesday’s “Bachelorette” Tayshia Adams talked about feeling like she was on a roller coaster. You want to know what else feels like a roller coaster? Starting the episode with the ridiculous spat between Noah and Bennett but being like “Yay, at least Tayshia sent Bennett home!”; moving on to hear decent guys like Ben and Riley share deeply personal and painful parts of their pasts and feeling like Tayshia might actually end up with a good person; then being rudely dragged back to ridiculousness by Bennett returning to . . . TELL TAYSHIA THAT HE LOVES HER!?!

The most ridiculous part of all? Tayshia seeming swayed enough by Bennett’s bullshit to consider keeping him around.

You don’t need a Harvard degree to know that’s a really bad idea, but it seems that’s exactly what Tayshia is going to do — at least long enough to rile up the other seven dudes who are still duking it out for hometown dates.

I mean god forbid some genuine, heartwarming things happen in an episode without some manufactured drama to counteract the good stuff and stir the pot.

Tayshia started out strong on Tuesday. She sat Noah and Bennett down and told them their beefing sounded like “teenage boy drama.” Then she told Bennett straight up that him saying there was zero chance she’d end up with Noah (although to be honest, he’s right) was him questioning Tayshia’s integrity: “You’re saying I’m not capable of making decisions of someone that’s . . . suited for me in the future.”

The best part was the pissed-off look on Tayshia’s face as Bennett mansplained his way through his theories of EQ (emotional intelligence), ending with the patronizing “You got this. I have every ounce of confidence in my mind and my heart that that is the case.” (What, no “you go girl”?) That was the point at which I knew Bennett was a goner. The only disappointment was that Tayshia didn’t send Noah packing as well — was it the fact he teared up while bemoaning Bennett’s way of talking to people “like they’re less” that saved his ass?

Whatever the case, Noah got to stay for the rose ceremony and then he got a rose — over Ed (sorry to Ed’s bestie, Chris Harrison, but no big loss), Demar (seriously?) and Spencer, who went from first impression rose winner to zero impression. I mean we’ve barely heard a peep from the guy since that first episode when Tayshia seemed infatuated with him.

Next up was a one-on-one date between Tayshia and Ben.

Forget the part where they rode around the resort on scooters looking for clues to an “oasis,” i.e. a different area of the resort. The big event was dinner where Ben’s pain was the main course.

You think last week‘s confession of his eating disorder was enough to win Ben a rose and a hometown date? Nah! “I don’t know if we can actually be something if he doesn’t open up to me,” Tayshia said.

Well, how’s this for opening up? Ben confessed that after growing up in an outwardly perfect but emotionally lacking family, after leaving home at 18 to join the army, after leaving the military and breaking his back, he was in such a dark place that he tried to commit suicide twice.

Ben assured Tayshia that “the person you see before you today isn’t that person” thanks to therapy, which I hope for Ben’s sake is true.

Ben got the rose, obviously, and then it was on to the group date and more painful revelations.

The shtick was that Zac, Brendan, Ivan, Noah and Riley all had to take “lie detector tests,” answering questions about themselves and their feelings for Tayshia. What it looked like was a laptop hooked up to lights — green for truth, red for lies, yellow for “I’m not sure” — that some unseen producer could manipulate.

The key revelations were Zac answering yes to the question “Have you ever cheated on someone?” and Riley getting a red fail light when stating his name.

First things first: Tayshia was all “Cheating is something I won’t tolerate” with Zac, until he explained that the cheating was kissing another girl at the Bowlerama when he was in Grade 6. They had a good laugh together and said they were falling in love with each other.

Earlier in the episode, Riley got Tayshia some cake for their “one week anniversary.”

It was more complicated for Riley, who was driven to tears by the idea of telling Tayshia about his “rocky” family life. Turns out the name he gave during the test — Devon Riley Christian — isn’t the one he was born with. He was originally named Dwayne Henderson Jr. after his father.

The story got a bit disjointed from there: Riley’s father had sole custody of the kids after Riley’s parents divorced and he told Riley stuff that made him resent his mother, but now Riley and his mother are reconciled and his father is “not here,” but whether he’s dead or just not in Riley’s life wasn’t clear. In any event, Riley said he felt he needed to start from scratch in order to “be an honourable man” and so he changed his name.

Tayshia also did some serious bonding with Brendan and was vibing with Ivan and Noah as well (yeah, I don’t get that one either), so I wasn’t surprised when she said she wasn’t ready to hand out the date rose and needed more time to think it over.

But the fact that she had some meaningful interactions with some men who seem like they actually have something to offer made Bennett showing up at her door after the date all the more annoying.

First off, isn’t the fact that Bennett came back after Tayshia sent him home the ultimate questioning of her integrity? Secondly, he gave her the same lame excuse as before about how he never meant to question her decision-making. Except this time he added, “I’m so, so, so sorry” and “I love you.” And Tayshia claimed to be confused and to need a day to consider whether Bennett could stay.

Seriously? Eazy told Tayshia he was falling in love with her and he was gone in a flash (and yes, I have read about the sexual assault allegation against Eazy and if it’s true shame on him, but I liked him during his time on the show way better than Bennett). Bennett tells Tayshia he loves her and she’s all “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the words ‘I love you’ and it means absolutely everything.”

Actually, I think it means absolutely nothing coming from Bennett’s mouth, but maybe that’s just me.

If Tayshia truly was feeling doubt about sending Bennett away — and I’m at a loss as to why she would — clearly some devious producer exploited that by inviting Bennett back to drop his bombshell. Either that or Tayshia is playing along with the drama.

Speaking of drama, the promo for next week’s two-nighter shows lots of unhappy looking men, Bennett strolling into the cocktail party room with a shit-eating grin, and Tayshia crying a lot and saying she’s done, plus an ornery-looking episode of “Men Tell All.” It airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Dec. 7, 2020

December 7, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: A Suitable Boy (Dec. 7, Acorn)

Tanya Maniktala as Lata and Mahira Kakkar as Rupa Mehra in “A Suitable Boy.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Supriya Kantak/Lookout Point

Love is the universal language of some of the best TV drama and the main preoccupation of “A Suitable Boy.”

The sprawling 1993 novel by Vikram Seth has been given the prestige TV treatment: a BBC One adaptation by Andrew Davies, who gave us TV delights like “Pride and Prejudice” (the 1995 miniseries) and “Bleak House,” directed by Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding,” “Queen of Katwe”).

Like the book, the series is set in 1951 India, four years after the British divided the country into two states, majority Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu India, a decision that triggered massive violence and whose reverberations are still being felt today. That political and religious tension is woven into the familial drama of the miniseries.

Our main focus is Lata Mehra (rookie actor Tanya Maniktala), a university English lit student who’s being pressured to marry by her widowed mother Rupa (Mahira Kakkar). Lata has three suitors — student Kabir (Danesh Razvi), renowned poet Amit (Mikhail Sen) and shoemaker Haresh (Namit Das) — only one of whom her mother considers suitable, particularly since Lata is Hindu and Kabir is Muslim.

(The characters’ kiss has sparked calls for a Netflix boycott and even a police investigation in India.)

Sister Savita (Rasika Dugal) has made a happy arranged marriage while brother Arun (Vivek Gomber) has married into the well-to-do Chatterji family but is too busy looking down his nose at other people to notice he’s being cuckolded by vivacious wife Meenakshi (Shahana Goswami).

The other major romantic entanglement concerns Maan Kapoor (Ishaan Khattar), son of a government minister, brother-in-law to Lata, who has fallen in love with Saeeda Bai (Indian superstar Tabu, who gets top billing in the series), a singer and courtesan. His best friend Firoz (Shubham Saraf) is courting Saeeda’s sister Tasneem (Joyeeta Dutta).

If it sounds like a lot, it is. There are also side plots involving politics and corruption, economic inequality, and violence between Hindus and Muslims, but luckily the miniseries is not quite as sprawling as the 1,349-page novel.

It was shot in India — beautifully so — and offers a view of Indian culture that we’re not used to seeing in mainstream North American television, but the characters’ affairs of the heart, especially Lata’s, are eminently relatable.

The Wilds (Dec. 11, Amazon Prime Video)

Erana James and Jenna Clause in “The Wilds.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Prime Video

Nine teenage girls, on their way to a retreat in Hawaii, are stranded on an island after a plane crash. It becomes clear, through the series’ flashback structure, that something very bad has happened to those young women on that island — even worse than a plane crash. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to tell you much more than that because: spoilers.

“The Wilds” is billed as “part survival drama, part dystopic slumber party,” but what drew me in — based on the few episodes I screened — wasn’t the mystery and the twists and turns but the characters in all their messy, angsty, adolescent female glory.

There are some cliches and some predictability lurking, to be sure, but how often do we get a drama that’s exclusively focused on teenage girls?

Australian Oscar nominee Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under,” “Brothers & Sisters”) is the name star, as the head of the corporation that runs the retreat, but the young stars — Sophia Ali, Shannon Berry, Jenna Clause, Reign Edwards, Mia Healey, Helena Howard, Erana James, Sarah Pidgeon and Chi Nguyen — are the ones who command your attention.

For the Record (Dec. 11, CBC Gem)

Lyriq Bent in “For the Record.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

It’s a small world in this web series, which weaves vignettes about love, sex and identity into six interconnected, 18-minute episodes, each one underscored by a piece of music.

It starts and ends with Ray (series creator Julian De Zotti) and Angela (Anna Hopkins, “The Expanse”), whom we meet as they’re divvying up their record collection post-breakup.

Subsequent episodes have Angela trying to teach niece Madison (Alexandra Beaton) about the futility of love; Ray trying to impress the parents of new girlfriend Sara (Moni Ogunsuyi) and failing miserably when dinner degenerates into an argument about cultural appropriation; Angela’s pastor ex, Stefan (Lyriq Bent), exploring his sexuality with married parishioner Lily (Kira Clavell); Lily’s widowed mother, Joy (Alannah Ong), finding new love and defying cultural and familial expectations with Fiona (Theresa Tova); and Fiona’s pregnant daughter Rain (Justine Nelson) seeking help from newly single-again Ray after she gets into trouble at an EDM festival — which brings us back to Ray and Angela.

The featured music includes classics from the Beach Boys, Bob Marley and Nina Simone, and Canadian artists The Weeknd, Johnny Orlando and Zeds Dead. 

Documentary Corner

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Central Park on Nov. 21, 1980, just weeks before Lennon was murdered. PHOTO CREDIT: Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images via BritBox

Two documentaries this week remind us of musicians who are no longer with us.

In the case of John Lennon, the loss for many people had the same “Where were you when you heard he died?” resonance as for giants like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

In “Lennon’s Last Weekend,” releasing on BritBox on Dec. 8 — 40 years to the day that Lennon was shot to death at the entrance of his Manhattan apartment building — the tone is elegiac. Although its content reflects Lennon when he was alive and happy and fulfilled — as captured in an extensive radio interview he gave the BBC’s Andy Peebles just two days before he died — a sense of loss permeates the film. TV producer Malcolm Gerrie sums it up perfectly when he says, with tears in his eyes, “If only. If only John hadn’t come back (to the Dakota) when he did.”

The documentary contains Lennon’s own words — on why the Beatles stopped touring, on the “more popular than Jesus” controversy, on his past drug addiction, his rivalry with Paul McCartney, his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono, his love of “Fawlty Towers” and more — combined with film footage (mercifully, very little from the scene of his murder) and expert interviews. Most poignantly, Lennon tells Peebles how safe he feels living in New York.

The doc argues not just for what the world lost in the way of a musical talent but as an activist. “I think we need a John Lennon now,” Gerrie says. “We need that kind of outspoken force of nature, which is what he was.” 

In “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” (Dec. 12, 8 p.m. HBO, Crave), the fact that only one of the three Bee Gees (four, if you count baby brother Andy Gibb, who died in 1988 at just 30) is still alive is inescapable, but there’s also a buoyancy to the film, which is more of a standard career survey than the Lennon doc. 

The brothers Gibb — survivor Barry, now 74; fraternal twins Maurice and Robin, who died in 2003 and 2012, respectively — first started performing as children in Australia. Their three-part harmonies propelled them through distinctive career phases as 1960s balladeers, with hits like “New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts”; pop/R&B/disco stars when the brothers’ songwriting talents and Barry’s falsetto made the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack one of the biggest selling albums in history; and, after the massive disco backlash that had them fending off death threats, songwriters for hire for stars like Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Celine Dion.

If your only knowledge of the Bee Gee is from their disco heyday (and for the record, I love their disco songs), you’ll learn something from this film and maybe even gain a new appreciation.

Odds and Ends

Dr. Kypros Nicolaides in Episode 1 of “The Surgeon’s Cut.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix has a new medical documentary series to tempt viewers who loved “Lenox Hill.” “The Surgeon’s Cut” (Dec. 9) devotes each of its four episodes to a different doctor, beginning with Dr. Kypros Nicolaides, who has devoted his life to fetal surgery with some astonishing, and occasionally heartbreaking, results.

HBO has “40 Years a Prisoner” (Dec. 8, 9 p.m., HBO, Crave), about a controversial 1978 police raid in Philadelphia on a radical, back-to-nature group called MOVE, which resulted in the death of a police officer and the imprisonment of two MOVE members.

We’re well into holiday TV and movie season, including all those many, many Christmas movies. Amazon Prime Video has “Happiest Season” (Dec. 10), starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis as the love interests, with Daniel Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” as the gay best friend. On Citytv you can catch “A Christmas Exchange” (Dec. 12, 8 p.m.), starring Canadians Laura Vandervoort (“Smallville,” “Bitten”) and Rainbow Sun Francks (“High Fidelity,” “The Listener”) as strangers who fall in love long distance after they swap digs. Disney Plus has “High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special” (Dec. 11), which if nothing else presents you with the gift of too many colons.

It’s boo! and bye-bye for one man on ‘The Bachelorette’

December 2, 2020 /
Zac and Tayshia demonstrate the mood on the latest “Bachelorette” episode, as in up and down.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Welcome to “The Bachelorette,” a.k.a. “The Haunting of La Quinta Resort.”

Not only was there a date that involved ghost-hunting, Tayshia professed to be haunted by memories of her first marriage; various men dredged up haunted bits of their pasts, like drug addiction, an eating disorder and horrible home lives; and then there was the Ghost of Squabbles Past as the Bennett and Noah feud kept rolling along.

By next week, one of them (maybe both?) will be but a spectre as far as Tayshia’s concerned since she promised to send one of them home before the end of the episode. In the meantime, let’s dig into our fourth week AC (after Clare).

First we had a bit of fluff with previous Bachelorette JoJo Fletcher (and yes, I agree, her face really did look different) showing up to supposedly offer Tayshia moral support, but really to fill in as dispenser of date cards for host Chris Harrison while he took his son to college.

Zac got the first one-on-one, which started with a cringey fake wedding photo shoot that had Tayshia remembering the first time she wore a wedding gown, i.e. her failed marriage. But that led to Zac confessing that he’d been married before, too, which was cool with Tayshia.

There was a lot more to Zac’s story, as Tayshia found out at dinner: a brain tumour at 23; a marriage that lasted only a year because of his drinking and drug-taking; a DUI arrest; stealing from his own father; two rehab stints, the second of which was the charm.

Woah! Talk about a change from the usual vapid getting-to-know-you talk.

It turned Zac into a contender, which is fine, but it’s getting kind of crowded in the “men Tayshia could end up with” corner, which also includes, by her own admission, Brendan, Ben, Ivan, possibly Riley.

Mind you, she did thin the herd during the second one-on-one date.

Tayshia and Eazy on a previous episode of “The Bachelorette.”

Tayshia and Eazy went ghost-hunting since La Quinta is supposedly occupied by the spirits of an oil baron who formerly owned the land, and his wife and baby, who both died after childbirth. The hunt involved walking into a couple of rooms that Tayshia said were freezing cold, hearing sounds and seeing things move (a chair in one case, a framed photo in another), then running away screaming. Ghosts? More likely producers with strings.

It was a fun date, in any event, or at least it was until dinner came around. Eazy said he was falling in love with Tayshia and it was clear from the startled look on her face this wasn’t going to end well.

Tayshia did the old “pick up the rose, then say you can’t have it” fake-out, although she did seem genuinely sorry to hurt Eazy’s feelings. “I’m not there where you are and I don’t know if I can get there,” she said.

Eazy was so stunned he asked, “Tayshia, this is real? You sure?” as she walked him to the waiting SUV.

The most substantial part of the episode came during the group date. It started out frivolously enough with Spencer, Ivan, Ed, Blake, Brendan, Riley, Demar, Bennett, Ben and Noah walking into a room where two naked people were posing and immediately fearing they’d have to take their clothes off . . . again.

But it was just a life-drawing session followed by blindfolded sculpting. “Fifty Shades of Clay,” quipped Bennett after he took advantage of the blindfolds to smooch Tayshia when no one else could see. Spencer sculpted a pepperoni pizza; Ben crafted an infinity symbol; Blake made a penis: way to rep Canada, dude!

Bennett made “homes” for himself and Tayshia in New York, the Hamptons and California, omitting the “mountain retreat” and the “chateau in Paris.” I believe that’s what one calls “flaunting your wealth” — although personally I’m surprised he didn’t build a scale model of Harvard.

But the silliness ended with the self-portrait part of the challenge, the goal of which was that whoever “opened up” the most would win extra time with Tayshia.

Blake talked about growing up in a “pretty failed household” and wanting a “true original family that I just never had”; Riley talked about his estrangement from his mother after his parents’ divorce; Ivan shared his fear that his father, who’d already had cancer twice and a heart attack, was going to die; Ben let his guard down by taking all his clothes off, which at first seemed like a gimmick, until later when he told Tayshia he had suffered from an eating disorder for 15 years.

Tayshia was so moved by the stories she went backstage to cry and then announced she couldn’t choose just one person to get extra time, which was the right thing to do.

Tayshia with Noah on a previous “Bachelorette” episode.

Ben got the date rose, deservedly so. But then things went from the sublime to the ridiculous with the sniping between Bennett and Noah.

I haven’t been Noah’s biggest fan, but holy hell, is Bennett ever condescending! “Young Noah” blah blah blah “I’m not on ‘The Babysitter,’ I’m on ‘The Bachelorette’ blah blah blah . . . completely ignoring the fact that the insults make Bennett seem more immature than he’s accusing Noah of being.

Tayshia called them both on the nonsense. They were summoned to an instant two-on-one to take place before the cocktail party before the rose ceremony.

Bennett claimed to wanted to make peace with Noah, so he brought him a present. It consisted of a bandana in homage to conversations they’d had about their fondnesses for ranching and cowboying (nice); a pair of moustache socks because “the only place you should wear a moustache is on your feet” (not so nice); and a book about emotional intelligence because Bennett said Noah was deficient in that (nasty).

Bennett reverted to telling Noah he had zero chance of ending up with Tayshia. Truthfully, both of them have zero chance of ending up with Tayshia; it’s just a question of who finds that out soonest.

It wasn’t looking so good for Bennett when the episode ended with a “To be continued.” He repeated his comment about Noah’s zero chance in front of Tayshia, which she said was “essentially questioning my integrity,” and then she asked, “What’s in the box?”

Next week, besides settling Noah vs. Bennett and presumably having a rose ceremony, there will be tears for Zac and Riley, and jitters for Brendan.

“The Bachelorette” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

© 2024 Realityeo.com

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑