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Month: January 2021

New blood brings fresh meat for the Bachelor’s Mean Girls

January 26, 2021 /
Matt James started his night with 18 women at the rose ceremony and ended up with 23.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Dumping new women into the cauldron of insecurity and jealousy that is “The Bachelor” several weeks into the season is kind of a no-miss move if drama is the aim.

At the very least, the original women will be flustered enough to generate lots of bitchy B-roll when the new ladies arrive. If the Bachelor keeps at least one of the newbies you’re guaranteed at least another day or two of tension.

But I imagine the producers practically peed themselves with excitement when Matt James kept (or agreed to keep) four of the five women parachuted in on Monday night, then took one of the four on a one-on-one date, leaving several of the OG contestants in a lather.

And when the jealousy reached new levels of verbal nastiness, well, high fives all around in the production room.

It seems like last week‘s gang-up on Sarah was perhaps a rule and not an exception given what went down this week. As usual, Victoria was the chief Mean Girl, but Anna was a close second, with assists from MJ and Serena C.

The episode began with Matt moping about Sarah’s departure and a few of the women gloating about it. “The trash took itself out,” sniped Victoria. When Katie asked her to stop being mean, Victoria responded, “No, I won’t stop, Katie. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.”

Matt and Katie, who had no time for Victoria’s nonsense.

During the group date, Victoria tried to get Katie to apologize: “You told me to stop when I wasn’t done expressing myself.” When Katie pointed out that Victoria’s self-expression consisted of calling Sarah names, Victoria retorted, “I can express myself with name-calling if I choose to.” When Katie didn’t back down, Victoria tried to shame her by bringing up the vibrator from Night 1, but Katie — bless her heart — stuck to her guns.

Model Chelsea, who chatted with Matt about the emotional weight that Black women attach to their hair, got the date rose.

By the time the rose ceremony cocktail party rolled around, it looked like the drama had died down. Matt gave a very unconvincing speech about how he was eventually “hoping to get down on one knee” and distributed kisses and compliments to Pieper and Kit and Katie and Bri. And then, just as Victoria started blathering to Matt, host Chris Harrison interrupted and told Matt he had to talk to him. Right. Now.

Matt liked newcomer Brittany way more than the OG contestants did.

Was Sarah back? That’s what the women thought when an SUV pulled up outside. But brunette bombshell Brittany quickly became their new target when they saw her from a window planting a big smooch on Matt (for the love of god, will someone tell Matt to close his eyes when he kisses?).

She was quickly followed by teacher Michelle, dancer Ryan, nurse Kim and Catalina, a former Miss Puerto Rico whose crown “Queen Victoria” stole right off her head.

Victoria fumed that the interlopers were “random-ass hoes”: Anna said she was having a mental breakdown; Katie worried they were “new and exciting eye candy.” Matt called them “a nice surprise” — so nice in fact that he kept Brittany, Michelle, Ryan and Catalina and sent home Khaylah and Kaili, not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things. It’s mostly changing up the group date fodder.

Speaking of group dates, the next day Matt took Brittany, Ryan and Catalina on a group date with Mari, Bri, Abigail, Magi, Anna and Victoria.

Former Bachelor Ben Higgins was back to oversee a group date.

It was an obstacle course supposedly planned by former Bachelor Ben Higgins: a “Fall in Love Fest” in which the women had to kayak in “pumpkins” across a pond (fall, get it?), then dress in squirrel costumes and hunt for stuffed acorns in a pile of leaves before racing to the finish line.

There was no drama to speak of, unless you count Anna hiding Brittany’s acorn, but that changed at the cocktail party when Brittany interrupted Anna’s time with Matt.

Anna started trash-talking Brittany, egged on by Victoria, who called Brittany “slutty.” Anna claimed to have heard rumours from their mutual hometown of Chicago that Brittany was — gasp! — an escort.

Brittany denied it, saying it was shitty that Anna was drawing conclusions without knowing her. “I know you guys don’t care at all, but it’s really hard,” said Brittany, to which Victoria retorted, “OK, then get out of the house” and laughed.

First off, so what if Brittany was an escort? Would that disqualify her from coming on a dating show? And have we not moved past women slut-shaming each other on this series?

Newcomer Michelle got a coveted one-on-one with Matt.

Against that background, Matt’s one-on-one date with Michelle the next day was a nice respite. The ziplining and hot-air ballooning were fine (some of the other women spied on them with binoculars from a hotel balcony), but it was the dinner conversation that made it clear these two had really bonded in their short time together.

Michelle talked about her work as a teacher, how much she loved her job, how hard the year had been for her students between the pandemic and the killing of George Floyd, and she paraphrased Maya Angelou: “People don’t always remember what you say. They remember how you made them feel,” which happened to be one of Matt’s favourite quotes.

Matt said Michelle had “the type of depth I’m looking for in a woman” and “could be someone that I called my wife,” and you had the feeling it might be game over for the women back at the hotel.

There was fighting as well as fighting words on “The Bachelor,” with guidance from Mia St. John.

Nonetheless, the show must go on, so there was another group date. This time 10 of the women — no newbies, luckily for them — got to train with former world boxing champ Mia St. John and then beat each other up in the “Battle for the Bachelor” while the rest of the women, Harrison and alum Wells Adams watched.

The women didn’t pull their punches, so much so that one bout was stopped after Serena P. got smacked in the throat and the nose by Lauren.

At the after-party, the women began complaining about the new girls again, undeterred by Katie telling them, “At some point we’ve got to get over it and welcome them into the house a little bit.”

It was worse back at the “house,” where Anna and Victoria were tag-teaming again, with Victoria calling Brittany “serial killer weird” and Catalina “the dumbest ho I’ve ever met.”

Katie, who knew firsthand how upset Brittany was about the escort story, decided to tattle. She ran outside to tell Matt there was bullying going on and rumours being spread about the new girls that “could literally ruin their lives.”

So it looks like the poop will hit the fan next week just ahead of the rose ceremony.

There will be tears, recriminations and it looks like Victoria will have a fainting spell of her own.

You can watch all the drama on Citytv next Monday at 8 p.m. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of January 25, 2021

January 25, 2021 /

We Are: The Brooklyn Saints (Jan. 29, Netflix)

Quarterback Dalontai, a.k.a. “D-Lo,” with his dad, Coach Vick, and his MVP trophy
in “We Are: The Brooklyn Saints.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Sometimes the pursuit of the American Dream comes in modest increments, a few yards at a time on a makeshift football field.

In this docuseries, directed by Rudy Valdez (an Emmy winner in 2019 for “The Sentence”), football is not the be-all and end-all but a means to an end; for the mainly Black families whose sons play on the Brooklyn Saints youth teams, football scholarships are their only hope of sending their kids to college.

This is primarily a story of fathers and sons, although the mothers are around, cheering from the sidelines or helping ferry the boys to practice. These dads are frank about the less than ideal circumstances of their own upbringings — absent fathers, poverty, other unspecified troubles — and the fact they want their sons to avoid their own mistakes, to stay in school and away from the streets.

None are more enthusiastic than surrogate dad Gawuala, who doesn’t have a kid of his own on the team but is singularly devoted to the 9 and unders he coaches. One of the most affecting scenes involves Gawuala explaining how a tragedy in his past has invested his coaching with extra meaning, and it’s heartbreaking when he realizes that taking a badly needed job means he can no longer work with “his” kids.

Despite a relative lack of economic privilege — these families are not from the parts of Brooklyn that are gentrified hipster hangouts — the children seem to be rich in love. 

They include 9-year-old quarterback D-Lo, whose quiet intensity belies his age; 8-year-old Aiden, who idolizes his older brother, who’s about to leave for college; and 13-year-old Kenan, who loves football but wants to be an engineer.

The players are taught that football comes third after school and family responsibilities, and that the main purpose of playing is to have fun. There are tears and frustrations after losses, but the boys are told to hold their heads up and learn from the experience.

It’s a heartfelt series and it leaves you rooting for these kids to get everything they want out of life.

“People are gonna look at you and they’re waiting for you to mess up,” Coach Vick tells his son, D-Lo. “As long as you do right there ain’t nothing you can’t have.”

The Long Song (Jan. 31, 10 p.m., PBS)

Tamara Lawrance as July and Hayley Atwell as Caroline in “The Long Song.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Rodriguez/Heyday Television

“The Long Song” opens much as you might expect a “Masterpiece” period drama to open: on a scene of gentility and grace; a grand house, its vast porch shaded by palm trees, the camera lingering on the dressing table of its mistress as harp music plays. A Jamaican-accented narrator speaks of how the life of that “white missus” is “surely full of tribulation” then, as the white woman comes into view screeching for her maid, says tartly, “If that is the story you wish to hear, be on your way.”

Indeed, the white characters in this three-part series are only important insofar as their behaviour affects our real heroine, July (Tamara Lawrance), and her fellow slaves in 1830s Jamaica. And those white characters often behave monstrously, as you would expect in a series that focuses on the Black workers whose stolen labour enriches the English owners of the island’s sugar plantations.

July is born of the rape of her mother, field worker Kitty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), by a Scottish overseer and comes into the possession of Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell) after Caroline, charmed by July’s childish prettiness after spotting her on the road, takes her from her mother as casually as if she was scooping up a cute kitten. 

But the story, based on the novel by Andrea Levy, who was of mixed-race Jamaican and British heritage, doesn’t treat July as merely a passive victim. Smart, resourceful and spirited, she finds subtle ways to get around her mistress and even claims Caroline’s new husband Robert (Jack Lowden) as her own, finding real happiness with him — although it doesn’t last. 

“The Long Song” spares the viewer graphic depictions of physical violence, but July experiences plenty of emotional trauma. The worst of it is inflicted by Caroline, despite her long, symbiotic relationship with July, and Robert, a hypocrite whose vocal support of the abolition of slavery doesn’t extend to marrying the Black woman he claims to love.

Nonetheless, July endures and gets to tell her story in her own words. She is a compelling heroine, bringing a welcome, fresh perspective to the standard lily white fare of “Masterpiece.”

The Lady and the Dale (Jan. 31, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Elizabeth Carmichael with her children in a still from “The Lady and the Dale.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

For awhile in the mid-1970s, Elizabeth Carmichael was one of the most famous women in America. She was the upstart car company owner who planned to beat GM and the other big automakers at their own game with a three-wheeled car known as the Dale.

If you’ve never heard of Liz or the car, you’re not alone. Neither had I, even though she was on the front pages of magazines and newspapers all over the U.S., and the Dale appeared on “The Price Is Right” in 1974.

But it’s also possible you’ve heard of Liz in another context, as the subject of a 1989 episode of “Unsolved Mysteries,” in which she was described as a fugitive by the name of Jerry Dean Michael, an Indiana man who allegedly ran guns for Fidel Castro, was indicted for counterfeiting in the 1960s and might have had mob ties.

Alas, the dream of the Dale, which was envisioned as a high-mileage solution to the 1970s oil crisis, fell apart. Liz and other officers of the 20th Century Motor Car Corporation were convicted of conspiracy and theft charges when they were unable to reimburse angry customers who’d paid up front for cars that never got built.

But the doc — directed by Nick Cammilleri and trans woman Zackary Drucker, and produced by the Duplass brothers — makes a convincing argument that the case against Liz was motivated, at least in part, by transphobia. The media of the day, in their prejudice and ignorance, claimed Liz was merely posing as a man to mitigate the criminal consequences. In fact, Dick Carlson (father of Fox News talking head Tucker), the reporter who outed Liz’s previous identity, continues to this day to misgender her. And when she was caught in 1989 and finally served her sentence for her conviction in the Dale case, she was put in a men’s prison.

Liz had been living as a woman for years, had begun gender reassignment surgery and was accepted as a loving mother by her five children with wife Vivian. And she continued to live as a woman until her death in 2004.

As transgender historian and author Susan Stryker says in the series, it’s hard to think about Liz as a role model. She was a convicted criminal who spent much of her life on the run from the law. But “there’s something really compelling about Liz’s story as a survivor,” Stryker adds, a statement with which I wholeheartedly agree.

I’ll leave the last word to Liz’s daughter Candi: “The woman was a woman. The car was a car.”

Odds and Ends

Logger Craig LeBeau in”Mud Mountain Haulers.” PHOTO CREDIT: Great Pacific Television

Discovery Canada specializes in a subgenre of television that’s all about men and machines battling the elements. Think shows like “Heavy Rescue: 401” and “Highway Thru Hell.” The latest is “Mud Mountain Haulers” (Jan. 25, 10 p.m.), which chronicles the toils of brothers Craig and Brent LeBeau and their employees as they log the Shuswap region of British Columbia. If you like shows about messy and sometimes dangerous jobs and the people who do them, have at ‘er.

CBC and CBC Gem have Season 4 of “Burden of Truth” (Jan. 28, 8 p.m.), with lawyers Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) and Billy (Peter Mooney) fighting for a woman whose home is threatened by a resource company that wants to reopen a dormant mine.

CTV and Crave have “In This Together: A Bell Let’s Talk Day Special” (Jan. 28, 7 p.m.). The annual special highlighting mental health awareness has a particular focus on how people are coping during the pandemic. Hosted by Melissa Grelo and Tyrone Edwards, the show features appearances by actors and singers like Alanis Morissette, Aisha Alfa, Alan Doyle, Malin Akerman, Mayim Bialik and more. CTV Sci-Fi Channel has the Syfy series “Resident Alien” (Jan. 27, 10 p.m.), starring Alan Tudyk (“Firefly”) as an extraterrestrial who crash-lands on Earth with a mission to kill all humans.

On ‘The Bachelor,’ the ‘Mean Girls’ drive a frontrunner away

January 19, 2021 /
Victoria reads Matt a filthy bedtime story on “The Bachelor.”
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

There was some real ugliness on Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor.” The shock is that it didn’t all come from “Queen Victoria.”

In fact, the season’s reigning villain was sidelined for much of the episode while the wrath of the house fell on an unlikely target: front-runner Sarah Trott.

Sarah’s sin was to interrupt a group date that she wasn’t on to talk to Bachelor Matt James, resulting in some of the women on the date not getting time with him. And then Sarah stayed in her room the next day rather than speak to the women she pissed off. So by the time she finally did come down to apologize to them it was like sticking her head in a hive full of angry bees. It was made clear that life with the other women was going to be, in Kit’s words, “horrible” from then on.

The next morning, Sarah decided to go home.

Matt and Sarah during last week’s episode, in yes, happier times.

I have sympathy for Sarah, I really do. First off, Matt and the audience knew what the rest of the women didn’t: that her father was seriously ill, which had to be stressing her out for the three weeks she was at the Nemacolin resort (although one does wonder why, if her father was so sick he could have been weeks away from death, as she told Katie, she would have come in the first place).

Secondly, I can’t imagine what it would be like to really be into someone and not only know that they were dating other people, but have to watch them go on dates with those people. Yes, it’s how “The Bachelor” works, but knowing it and living it are two different things. Not everyone is cut out for it.

Thirdly, how much of a role did production play in Sarah interrupting the date to talk to Matt? Sure, it’s possible that she independently decided she absolutely had to see Matt right there and then. But I have a hard time believing she didn’t get a nudge from production.

The episode began as it ended, with Sarah drama.

You’ll recall that last week we saw her collapse in some sort of fainting spell partway through the rose ceremony. She was fine once she went outside to get some air — with Matt by her side, which had the other women grumbling.

The rose ceremony continued. Victoria got the final rose. Marylynn, whom Victoria had told Matt was toxic, got sent home. Does that suck? Absolutely. My theory is that if if Marylynn had given as good as she got — if she’d argued with Victoria instead of trying to have a calm, adult conversation with her — they both would have been kept around for the drama.

With Marylynn dispatched, Victoria set her venomous sights on Sarah, declaring that the fainting spell seemed fake and Sarah was worse than Marylynn. Hold that thought.

Host Chris Harrison and Ashley Iaconetti Haibon with Matt.

Next up there was a group date that served two time-honoured “Bachelor” traditions: making the group do something embarrassing and bringing back a “Bachelor” alum. In this case, Ashley I. was on a stage reading an erotic passage from host Chris Harrison’s novel “The Perfect Letter” (what’s up with that? has he been listening outside the fantasy suite doors?) as Matt and 10 of the women walked in.

And — surprise — they all had to write their own sexy stories about Matt and read them in front of a live audience, i.e. the other contestants. Most of the prose was more suggestive than salacious, except for Katie’s and Victoria’s, which was filled with words that had to be bleeped out. But Victoria’s seemed to make everybody laugh really hard — except for Sarah.

Sarah said hearing the other women read their stories was “like a knife went through my heart.” She also said that seeing Matt with other people was “triggering” issues from her past involving faithfulness, commitment and jealousy.

Next thing you know Sarah was interrupting Katie’s conversation with Matt so she could tell him how hard she was finding the “process.”

Katie, who is nothing if not forthright, came back to claim her time with Matt, but Sarah said she needed five more minutes. When Katie came back a second time and refused to leave the room, Matt walked Sarah out of the room so he could continue reassuring her — and kissing her — in private.

Sarah then tried apologizing to the women on the group date, but they weren’t having it. Sarah left in tears; everybody else was mad, except for maybe Rachael, who got the date rose.

Would things have blown over if Sarah had come downstairs the next morning and apologized again? I don’t know. But Sarah staying in her room and Matt going upstairs to find her when he was supposed to be taking Serena P. out on a date just made everything worse.

Sarah told Matt she’d been ready to leave the night before; he told her he had “real feelings” for her and convinced her to stay. And oh yeah, not to worry about what the other girls think, which is easy for him to say.

I’d rather show you the donkeys than this photo of Matt and Serena P. from last week.

Then we got a respite from “The Sarah Show,” as Victoria called it, while Matt and Serena Pitt, a publicist from Toronto, went horseback riding. They had a picnic and bonded over the idea of not living life the way other people want you to , and then their smooching session was interrupted by adorable donkeys.

Did Serena get a rose? You bet. She didn’t even have to make any harrowing confessions at dinner. She just talked about her one serious boyfriend and told Matt she could see herself potentially falling in love with him. And then they fell into a hot tub for Champagne and kisses.

Back at the part of the resort where the other women were hanging out, Sarah finally made an appearance just as the second group date card arrived. She apologized both for interrupting the first group date and for not coming down to “clear the air,” but it was a very, very tough crowd.

Serena C. accused Sarah of not taking anyone else’s feelings into account; Victoria said Sarah was treating her time as more important than anyone else’s; and Anna said Sarah’s actions felt calculated.

“Manipulative, toxic,” added Serena.

“I concur. You’re all three of those things, Sarah,” said Victoria.

“Why would you think that we want to make amends with you?” she added. “I do not accept your apology even if you say it 20 more times.”

Kit delivered the coup de grace: “I hope your connection with Matt is very strong right now because the rest of your living situation here is going to be horrible.”

“Yeah,” agreed Victoria, smiling and laughing.

(Just as a reminder of how classy Victoria is, she said if Matt sent Sarah home she’d want to fuck him, because it would be so “hot.”)

Is this the same group of women who said last week they could feel happy for another woman who was going on a date with Matt even if they wanted to be on the date themselves? What happened to that generosity of spirit?

Thank goodness for Katie, who went to see Sarah the next morning to tell her she’d been uncomfortable with the gang-up of the night before.

At first, Katie tried to talk Sarah into staying, saying that otherwise she and Matt would always wonder “what if.” Then Sarah confided about her dad having ALS.

“My dad passed away in 2012, so I 100 per cent encourage you to be with him,” Katie said, with tears running down her cheeks. “I missed out on my goodbyes with my dad so I would never want that for you.”

Sarah stopped to see Matt before she left and he tried once again to convince her to stay, but when she said that she’d prayed about it and she felt “called” to go home, it was clear it was a lost cause.

Sarah left in tears and Matt sadly watched her go.

It would be nice to think we could get back to focusing on some of the nice women who are left, like Abigail. But next week, the producers screw with everyone’s heads by sending in five more contestants, which probably means another week in which Victoria isn’t public enemy No. 1.

You can watch all the drama on Citytv next Monday at 8 p.m. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of January 18, 2021

January 18, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Flack (Jan. 22, Amazon Prime Video)

From left, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Benson and Lydia Wilson in “Flack.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

This show seems like a throwback to the days when television was ruled by anti-heroes, except it’s women instead of men who are breaking bad.

Robyn (Anna Paquin) is a highly skilled fixer who cleans up messes for various celebrities in London, England. When we meet her she’s in a hotel room with two naked men, one of whom is closeted and famous, and the other of whom isn’t breathing. 

Naturally Robyn saves the day, but it should come as no surprise that, like any good anti-hero, her savvy as a troubleshooter doesn’t extend to her personal life.

Robyn can’t stop lying, either to herself or to the people she’s closest to, including her sister Ruth (Genevieve Angelson), a stay-at-home mom whom Robyn followed from New York to London after their mother died, and her devoted boyfriend Sam (Arinze Kene).

Robyn’s best friend is her co-worker Eve (Lydia Wilson), who uses cynicism and snobbery to keep people from getting too close. Rebecca Benson is wet-behind-the-ears intern Melody, who idolizes Robyn, and Sophie Okonedo is their fearsome boss Caroline, sort of a PR version of Miranda in “The Devil Wears Prada.” Marc Warren is Tom, who is drawn into Robyn’s orbit after meeting her at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. 

The series overall is quite cynical. Some of the fixes that Robyn and the team concoct are preposterous, whether it’s a natural skin care purveyor falsely accusing her husband of abuse to explain the bruises from a facelift or a failing footballer pretending to be gay to get attention and sponsorships, but the underlying message is that everyone can be bought.

Paquin has received lots of attention for the show, her first lead role since the one-season “Bellevue” and “True Blood” before that, but over the first season’s six episodes we merely skim the surface of Robyn’s dysfunction.

The dialogue, written by creator Oliver Lansley and his team, is snappy and sometimes funny. Okonedo, who I’m used to seeing in dramatic roles, gets all the best lines: “It’s like being slowly stung to death by incompetent wasps,” she tells her employees when they’re having trouble closing a case. 

Of course, no one really talks like that. But if you can suspend your disbelief, excuse the moments that are too on the nose and lean into the characters’ naughtiness, “Flack” can be fun. 

Painting With John (Jan. 22, 11 p.m., HBO, Crave)

John Lurie shares his painting and his life in “Painting With John.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

“Painting With John” was in the works long before the pandemic turned those of us who can work from home into hermits, but it seems fortuitously prescient. It’s just John Lurie — artist, musician, actor, Grammy-nominated composer, cult TV show maker (“Fishing With John”), former New York scenester — painting and talking from his home on a Caribbean island.

We catch glimpses of his assistant, Nesrin Wolf, and his cook, Ann Mary Gludd James, but this is essentially a one-man show. Lurie wrote and directed the series, and we hear his music on the soundtrack along with his voice.

It’s by turns soothing, funny, interesting and weird. Lurie is a compelling storyteller, whether he’s recounting how he almost blew himself up trying to reheat a curry and sat naked, applying aloe vera to his burns, as a shocked neighbour drove by; the lengths he went to, while living in Manhattan, to get a live eel to photograph for the “Voice of Chunk” album cover; or the hideousness and side effects of cancer treatment.

And he deftly wields his wit against others (“Talking into a camera is just wrong and people who can actually do it well, they’re probably sociopaths”) and himself (“I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing”).

“I will teach you things I learned from life as I go,” he says.

It seems a fair bargain.

The episodes are short, the natural scenery is beautiful, watching Lurie paint is almost hypnotic and he’s got lots of life to share.

HBO also has Season 3 of “C.B. Strike,” subtitled “Lethal White,” Jan. 20 at 10 p.m.

If You Missed It … WandaVision (Disney Plus)

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision in “WandaVision.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

The appeal of this series for me was more in its imitation of the classic sitcoms I grew up with than its connection to the Marvel Universe, into which I have only occasionally dipped a toe.

But the first episode, a riff on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” left me a little disappointed. Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) make a charming pair of suburban newlyweds, but I found it all rather corny and clunky.

It got better in the second and third episodes — reminiscent of “Bewitched,” “The Brady Bunch” and a titch of “The Partridge Family” — as Wanda and Vision began to interact more with their neighbours (including Kathryn Hahn as the brassy Agnes) in an effort to fit in. There’s a nice bit of comedy involving android Vision, his works jammed up by an accidentally swallowed piece of gum, doing a magic show at the town fundraiser and forgetting to hide his superpowers, with witch Wanda having to improvise to make the tricks seem fake.

It becomes clear that Wanda is exerting some type of control over their small-town existence and trying desperately to keep an alternate reality from seeping in, presumably a reality in which Vision is dead, as per “Avengers: Infinity War.”

That’s all likely all old hat for Marvel fans who — if they’ve read the comics and seen the movies — will have an inkling of where the story is going. 

For non-Marvel fans, the fun of “WandaVision” lies in its retro trappings and the performances of Olsen and Bettany.

Odds and Ends

From left, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Eliot Salt, Abigail Cowen, Elisha Applebaum and Precious Mustapha in “Fate: The Winx Saga.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Hession/Netflix

Mean girls, bad boys, outcasts and misunderstood loners: “Fate: The Winx Saga” (Jan. 22, Netflix) has all the usual tropes of angsty high school drama, except the hormones are mixed with magic powers, plus there’s a monster out in the deep, dark woods. Welcome to the Alfea College for Fairies and Magic, the setting for this drama based on Nickelodeon’s “Winx Club” animated series. Abigail Cowen (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) stars as first-year student Bloom and the grown-up cast includes Robert James-Collier of “Downton Abbey.” Netflix also debuts Season 2 of made-in-Canada glass-blowing competition series “Blown Away” and film “The White Tiger,” based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Aravind Adiga, on Jan. 22.

“Political Blind Date” (Jan. 19, 9 p.m., TVO) begins its fourth season of pairing politicians who hold opposing viewpoints to hash out issues of interest to Canadians and, at least while they’re shooting the show, move beyond partisanship. Episode 1 features NDP MPP Sara Singh and Conservative MPP Natalia Kusendova hanging out to discuss hospital overcrowding, health cuts and “hallway medicine,” a topic of even more interest in these COVID-19 times. Future episodes cross party, provincial and even national lines with the mayor of Flint, Mich., meeting the mayor of Huron-Kinloss, Ont., to talk clean water; and an Ontario MPP tete-a-teteing with a Quebec MLA about religious symbols.

If, like me, you’ve watched and rewatched all your British detective favourites in lockdown you’ll be glad to know that Season 2 of “The Bay” is coming to BritBox on Jan. 20. DS Lisa Armstrong (Morven Christie, “Grantchester”) is back with a new murder to solve and a new family to get entangled with.

On The Bachelor, Victoria proves she’s the queen . . . of mean

January 12, 2021 /
Why does Victoria look so happy talking to Matt? Oh right, she’s throwing somebody under the bus.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

It’s time to abolish the Bachelor monarchy.

I’m not suggesting we go all Oliver Crowell on Victoria’s ass (he’s the fellow who had King Charles I beheaded in 1649), but it would be nice to see this particular “queen” deposed.

This being “The Bachelor,” however, Victoria will be with us a while longer so she can stir up some more crap. She was doing a fine job of that on Monday’s episode.

The drama started early. The first date card had barely been handed out before Victoria was bellyaching about how she was only there to be with Matt, she was sick of the other women (um, hello, after one day?), she wasn’t there to join a sorority and anybody who didn’t share her distaste for time spent with anybody but Matt was either lying or fake. Oh, and she didn’t want to go on a group date because she couldn’t be her “most authentic self.”

Which authentic self is that? The one who said “I literally am a queen”?

And when Victoria did get put on the group date, she warned the other women not to be “negative.” Oh the irony.

Anyway, while all that nonsense was going on, Matt was off on a one-on-one with Bri, the communications manager with whom he bonded on Night 1 over their shared heritage of being biracial and raised by single moms.

Bri’s reward for getting dumped off an ATV was drinks with Matt in a hot tub
and she got to count his abs, and said there were between eight and 60.

Bri survived with just bruises and a butt full of mud after Matt overturned their ATV while doing doughnuts. “Bri’s mom is going to kill me,” he said, which was kind of sweet and funny.

Never fear: there was a hot tub in the woods surrounding the palatial Nemacolin resort for them to clean off, drink Champagne and kiss in. No offence La Quinta, but this feels like a proper Bachelor franchise date.

And on a proper Bachelor date, you have to sing for your supper (whether you eat it or not), or more accurately spill your guts about whatever makes you “vulnerable,” a term that is giving “journey” a run for its money as the franchise’s favourite word. In Bri’s case that meant talking about the fact her mother was 13 (!) when she got pregnant with Bri, about her absentee dad and about the fact her mother was now pregnant again and had a new fiance, so “I don’t feel like I have a home to go to anymore.”

Naturally Bri got the date rose and a chance to kiss Matt some more while fireworks exploded overhead.

The fireworks were not confined to the outdoors. Inside the resort, Victoria was still whinging about how she didn’t want to spend time with the other women (note that nobody was forcing her to sit and complain ad nauseam to the other women) and now she claimed they were insulting her by questioning her view of things. And when Chelsea asked Victoria not to generalize with her accusations, Victoria zeroed in on roommate Marylynn for wanting to, in Victoria’s words, pick her brain and understand her better. Marylynn responded that she was merely suggesting that she and Victoria get to know each other. But Victoria, declaring that Marylynn was “psychologically disturbed, literally,” hauled her bags out of the room and decided to sleep on a couch.

(I had a look at the cast list just now because I wanted to see if Victoria was a lot younger than the other women, but no: she’s 27 and Marylynn is 28, so there goes that theory.)

So the stage was set for what Toronto contestant Alana (hello Canadian girl, I overlooked you last week) said was sure to be a “shit show” of a date. Truth be told, it was more of a paint show.

Eighteen Bachelor “brides,” including Victoria, second from left, on a group date with Matt James.

A whopping 18 women turned up for the group date and were given 10 minutes to put on wedding gowns for a photo shoot with Matt. Victoria butted in out of turn, of course, hauled up her dress to make Matt remove a garter from her thigh and laid a sloppy kiss on him — a little tasteless but on brand, I’d say.

Host Chris Harrison interrupted the photo shoot halfway through to tell the women they’d have to “fight” for Matt and by fight he meant form teams, run around trying to capture stuffed hearts from the opposite team’s goalposts, er, wedding arbours, and pummel them with objects like bouquets dipped in paint.

Here’s what the wedding dresses looked like after the game.

The dresses were shredded and so were the hearts of the losing team. All of them except for Mari, who was named “most valuable bride,” had to walk back to their rooms, leaving the winners to have cocktails with Matt.

So what was Victoria’s big confession during her alone time with Matt? She said she has insecurities and she thought, “Oh, I hope I don’t look fat” while choosing a wedding dress.

“I haven’t been deep with a guy like that in a while,” said Victoria.

Hold that thought; we’ll come back to it. In the meantime, Matt gave the date rose to lawyer Lauren, who told Matt she was looking for “a man of faith” because the key to her parents’ healthy marriage was “to keep God first.” That made Matt happy since the fact he’s a Christian sometimes turns people off, he said.

Moving on: it was Sarah’s turn for a one-on-one, flying over the resort with Matt in a biplane. Matt wasn’t steering, nobody fell out.

Sarah wasn’t ready to tell Matt about her family situation at the start of her date.

Conveniently, as he and Sarah drank Champagne on a couch in the woods, the topic turned to family and how Sarah’s dad felt about her being on “The Bachelor.” If you didn’t know any better, you’d almost think Matt already knew about Sarah’s father’s health problems, wouldn’t you?

Sarah didn’t divulge anything right away, but the confession clock was ticking so, over dinner, she told Matt about her dad’s ALS and how she had quit her job as a TV reporter and anchor to be his caregiver.

I have no doubt that would be a hard thing to talk about with somebody you barely know and it’s a damn sight more “deep” than confessing to worrying you’ll look fat in a dress. Yes, I’m talking about you, Victoria.

Matt’s response was very classy. He said he’d pray for Sarah’s father, that he was “honoured” she had made such a big sacrifice to be there with him and asked, “What can I do through this experience to show you I can be somebody you’d want to be with?”

Sarah said, essentially, that he was already doing it. And she got her rose and her kisses.

There was nothing left by then but for Matt to hand out the rest of the roses. The cocktail party was going well. Matt reconnected with favourites like Abigail and Rachael. And when Marylynn expressed doubt about whether Matt really wanted her there since she hadn’t been on a date, he pulled out an orchid from behind the couch, which he (or somebody, anyway) had remembered was her favourite flower.

Poor Marylynn with Matt before Victoria threw her under the bus.

And then it all went to hell when Marylynn showed the other women her orchid. You could see the malevolent wheels turning in Victoria’s head. After blathering on to a producer about Marylynn’s “toxic energy,” Victoria trotted off to tell Matt that she could no longer sleep in her room because Marylynn was so toxic and manipulative.

I mean, it’s utter bullshit obviously. There’s only one person in the group so far who seems toxic and manipulative and that’s Victoria. But Matt dutifully went to Marylynn with Victoria’s allegations and all she could do was tell him none of it was true and hope that he believed her. Then Matt disappeared without talking to anymore of the women, saying he had a lot to think about.

Marylynn tried to clear the air with Victoria, hoping they could come to an understanding, but Victoria wouldn’t even allow Marylynn to sit next to her on the couch. She walked away saying that Marylynn was “too much for me” and then had the nerve to call Marylynn “crazy.” I don’t like to call other women names, but there’s a word that come to mind for behaviour like that and it rhymes with “itch.”

Anyway, Matt came back to hand out roses and had given away nine of them when Sarah, who earlier described herself as feeling “overwhelmed” by the Victoria drama, wobbled off the dais and, with the help of Bri, sank to the floor behind a couch. “I’m blacking out, I can’t see,” she told the medic who was called over as Matt hovered.

And then it was “To be continued.”

Clearly Victoria is going to get a rose because the promo for next week shows her getting into disputes with other women and she’s not wearing her cocktail party dress. “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want,” she tells Katie.

Off with her figurative — as opposed to her literal — head, I say.

You can watch all the drama on Citytv next Monday at 8 p.m. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of January 11, 2021

January 11, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Tiger (Part 1, Crave; Part 2, Jan. 17, 9 p.m., HBO)

Cover image for the HBO documentary “Tiger,” about golfer Tiger Woods. PHOTO CREDIT: HBO

I’m cheating a bit here, because the Watchable list usually includes only releases from Monday to the following Sunday and “Tiger” debuted last night on HBO. But I overlooked it in my virtual pile of screeners last week so I’m correcting my oversight.

If you missed Part 1 you can catch it on Crave ahead of Part 2 on Sunday. 

Truth be told, anything involving sports usually isn’t my thing, but there’s more to this documentary than Tiger Woods’ golf triumphs, although those are certainly represented and might give you a new appreciation for just how great a player he truly is (it certainly did for me).

There’s much here that’s human and relatable, whether it’s how a father relentlessly moulded his son to match the dreams he’d had for him since he was old enough to walk; the enormous pressure on an athlete who not only achieved worldwide fame at a young age but was expected to be a spokesman for Black America; and what happens when the pressure becomes too much and a hero falls from grace.

Part 1, through interviews with everyone from Tiger’s former caddie to his first girlfriend to close family friends, golf rivals and sports journalists, covers the years from when Tiger was a 2-year-old curiosity, appearing on TV in 1978 with Bob Hope, to his 2006 British Open win, shortly after father Earl Woods’ death.

The appearance of Rachel Uchitel at the end of Part 1 — the woman whose affair with Tiger helped topple his squeaky clean public image — lets us know what’s in store in Part 2: the dalliances, the divorce, the drug issues, the 2017 arrest, the injuries, the 11-year drought in majors championship wins up until his surprise victory at the 2019 Masters.

For filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Matthew Hamachek, who did not get their subject on camera, Tiger is neither the “messiah” his father wanted him to be, nor the villain the tabloids painted him as, but a human being who was extraordinarily good at one thing and not so good at others. But the doc, which ends with Tiger hugging his own son after his Masters win as he once did his father, suggests there’s hope this particular human has finally found a balance between golf and life.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (Jan. 13, Netflix)

Frank Salerno in 1985 in “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Netflix, already an old hand at true crime with shows like “Making a Murderer” and “The Keepers,” gives us a worthy addition to the genre with “Night Stalker.”

The series sets the scene: Los Angeles in the 1980s, a place known for glamour and celebrities but with a dark, dangerous side well known to cops like Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno.

Gil and Frank are our guides into the story. Even in a city with hundreds of murders a year, the so-called Night Stalker terrified Los Angelenos.

Gil was a young, green homicide detective in 1985 when he began investigating seemingly unrelated murders with his more experienced partner, already a legendary detective. But it was Gil who first deduced that the killings, as well as a series of beatings, rapes and child abductions, were the work of the same man.

Given the subject matter, and the use of witness testimonies and crime scene photos, some gore is unavoidable, but director Tiller Russell doesn’t glorify the crimes or the killer. Much of the focus is on the detectives, the survivors and the families of the victims.

Bling Empire (Jan. 15, Netflix)

Frenemies Anna Shay and Christine Chiu in “Bling Empire.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Reality TV has finally caught up to the hit 2018 movie “Crazy Rich Asians.” “House of Ho” launched last month (on Super Channel Fuse) chronicling a wealthy Vietnamese-American family. Now we have “Bling Empire,” which follows several super-rich Asians living in Los Angeles and their not so rich friend, model Kevin Kreider. Whether you enjoy this show will depend on your perspective. If you like living vicariously by watching extremely wealthy people spend their millions (or, in this case, billions) you’ll eat up scenes like Anna Shay flying her pal Kelly Mi Li to Paris for a birthday lunch and going shopping for diamond jewelry.

On the other hand, there’s something tacky about such conspicuous consumption when millions of people have lost their livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anna has closets that are probably bigger than some people’s apartments.

In one particularly ridiculous plot twist, Anna and trophy wife Christine Chiu get into a “war” because Anna and Christine own the same pink sapphire and diamond necklace and Christine wears hers to Anna’s party. Anna retaliates by seating Christine at the far end of the table for dinner. I mean, seriously?

I did feel some sympathy for Kelly, who’s in a dysfunctional relationship with a needy actor with an explosive temper. No doubt his tantrums will be played up for drama as the series progresses, but I do hope she escapes that toxicity.

Miss Scarlet & the Duke (Jan. 17, 8 p.m., PBS)

Kate Phillips is Eliza Scarlet in “Miss Scarlet & The Duke.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Masterpiece

“Bridgerton” gave us a period drama with a feminist bent set in Regency England; now “Miss Scarlet” gives us a woman circumventing Victorian restrictions to become a private detective.

If you’re a fan of “Peaky Blinders,” you’ll recognize Kate Phillips as the wife of one of the Shelby brothers (she also played Jane Seymour in “Wolf Hall”). As Miss Scarlet, she’s the quintessential plucky heroine, forced to fend for herself when her private detective father Henry dies (Kevin Doyle of “Downton Abbey”).

Eliza Scarlet isn’t marriage minded, generally the only option open to Victorian upper class ladies without means, but her father taught her the tricks of his trade. She gets some assistance but also resistance from her childhood friend William Wellington (Stuart Martin), a Scotland Yard detective (the Duke is his nickname, presumably because of his last name).

Eliza seems to have little trouble navigating the seamy underbelly of 1882 London, which does require some suspension of disbelief, but this is a pleasant enough way to eat up your lockdown hours.

Odds and Ends

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in “WandaVision.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Marvel Studios

I’m curious about “WandaVision” (Jan. 15, Disney Plus), which looks kind of trippy judging from the trailer. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are Wanda Maximoff and android Vision, two Marvel superheroes living a suburban life in a series that is also an homage to old TV sitcoms like “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” 

CBC Gem has Season 2 of “Endlings” (Jan. 15), a kids’ sci-fi show that’s endearing without being cloying and carries lessons about endangered species without being preachy. The docuseries “Anyone’s Game,” about the Orangeville high school that’s churning out NBA players, gets its main network debut (Jan. 15, 8:30 p.m., CBC). And CBC Gem has the third season of “Fortitude” (Jan. 15), which takes this rather odd series about the inhabitants of an icy Norwegian outpost into even stranger territory. Dennis Quaid is the name star of the season, but Richard Dormer (“Game of Thrones”) really outdoes himself as unhinged sheriff Dan Anderson.

If Kyra Sedgwick playing an overprotective mother hen to her two adult children sounds like something you’d enjoy, Global TV has the new sitcom “Call Your Mother” (Jan. 14, 8 p.m.)

“Batwoman” returns for a second season (Jan. 17, 8 p.m., Showcase) with Javicia Leslie taking the lead from the departed Ruby Rose. Showcase also has Season 2 of Batman prequel “Pennyworth” (Jan. 17, 9 p.m.) and Season 3 of “AP Bio” (Jan. 17, 10 p.m.).

Apple TV Plus has Season 2 of M. Night Shyamalan’s horror series “Servant” (Jan. 15).

Matt James starts his Bachelor season on a buzz and a prayer

January 5, 2021 /
Matt James and some of the 32 women he met on Night 1 of “The Bachelor.”
PHOTO CREDIT, ALL PHOTOS: Craig Sjodin/ABC

How many TV shows can boast a prayer and a vibrator in the same episode? I’m going to go out on a limb and say, up until Monday night, none. But it was an evening of firsts as “The Bachelor” kicked off its 25th season.

First, and most importantly, Matt James is the first Black Bachelor in franchise history, a development that fans have been agitating for for years. Host Chris Harrison emphasized Matt’s newness to the franchise, since he’s never been a “Bachelorette” or “Bachelor in Paradise” contestant (although he delivers his speeches about potentially meeting his future wife like an old pro). Harrison noted that there were a record number of applications from women who wanted to date Matt. He’s a 28-year-old former pro football player and real estate broker living in New York City who runs a charity that provides experiences to inner city kids, many of them homeless. (Personally I’m impressed that he told his limo driver, “I appreciate you.”)

And then we have the show’s first ever deaf contestant in Abigail Heringer, who earned the first impression rose and the first kiss. It’s also the first time a Bachelor has kicked off the festivities with a prayer.

And, more ignominiously, it’s the first time to my memory a contestant has used a sex toy as a Night 1 prop and we’re talking a full on, light up vibrator. For TV purposes, most of the thing was covered with a black bar, although you can see it in all its glory in the photo below. Katie, who’s a bank marketing manager, was waving that sucker around like a lightsaber, as Matt pointed out.

Perhaps we had fair warning in her “Bachelor” bio, which says she’s looking for a man to create “the right vibe.”

Katie brought a, er, toy to help her through the dark times on “The Bachelor.”

That was definitely the kookiest entrance of the night, although Kaili’s debut was a close second. The hostess strolled over to Matt in a bra and panties with just a short, open robe for cover, and asked him to help her choose between two dresses hanging from the rack she was pulling. Give her points for cheek, in more ways than one. And Illeana, who’s a health food developer, asked Matt if she could put her balls in his mouth, as in meatballs, presumably healthy ones.

Kaili asked Matt for some help choosing what to wear.

There were several vehicular entrances. Fashion entrepreneur Kit drove up in a Bentley; hairstylist MJ arrived in a pizza delivery car and gifted Matt with a pie; health care advocate Khaylah commanded Matt’s attention by driving a pickup truck — with a stick shift — as a reminder of North Carolina, where they’re both from.

“Queen Victoria” told Matt she’s looking for a king with a good heart. Aren’t we all?

And then there was Victoria, whose occupation is listed as queen — Queen Victoria, get it? She showed up on a litter carried by four masked men, with a tiara on her head and a crown in her hands, which she bestowed on “King Matt.”

“I know I’m so confident and I’m so fun, and I know I made a good impression,” she said.

I would add so annoying to the list. The looks on some of the women’s faces said it all when Victoria waltzed in holding up her sceptre and declaring, “The queen has arrived, bitches.”

“You can be the queen of your little thing but, like, no. I’m the president, king, CEO,” groused Kit.

Later, Victoria asserted her royal privilege by double-dipping on time with Matt and, naturally, Kit was the woman she interrupted. Might as well get the animosity established early.

Victoria got a rose at the end of the night, of course. It’s Bachelor 101: keep the annoying ones around, especially when they’ve already started pissing other contestants off.

Luckily there were some roses, pun intended, to be found among the thorns.

Matt meets Abigail, the franchise’s first deaf contestant.

Abigail seems like a sweetheart. Matt was very taken by both her looks and their conversation. Abigail talked about how close she is to her family, particularly her sister, who’s also deaf. And Matt, who was besotted with Abigail’s eyes, leaned in for a smooch and then excused himself to go collect the first impression rose.

Bri and Matt had lots in common, including being biracial and raised by single moms.

Up until that point, I thought the rose might go to Bri, who’s a communications manager with things in common with Matt. They’re both biracial: she has a Persian mother who passes for white and a Black father, while Matt has a Black dad and a white mom. And they were both raised by their single moms after their fathers split.

Viewers met Matt’s mom at the start of the episode and it’s clear that they’re close, although it’s also clear that being from a broken home is part of the reason that Matt has failed to commit up to this point — or at least that’s the narrative for the season.

Matt also had a frank chat with Harrison about the pressures of growing up biracial and of being the first Black Bachelor.

“You’ve got people who are cheering for you to find love and then you’ve got people who are cheering for you to end up with a specific person of a specific race,” Matt told Harrison. “That’s something that kept me up at night. It’s like I don’t want to piss off Black people; I don’t want to piss off white people, but I’m both of those, you know what I mean? How do I please everybody?”

“That’s a lot to carry,” Harrison responded. “The most important thing is if you come out of this with joy, peace, love and you have this amazing woman who shares those things.”

Sarah was one of the women who stood out on Night 1.

With contestants like Abigail and Bri, Matt seemed to be off to a decent start. There were also sparks with Sarah, a broadcast journalist who sidelined her career to be a caregiver to her father, who has ALS; and Rachael, a graphic designer who impressed Matt by talking about her fear of being vulnerable. And he seemed taken with Khaylah and Chelsea, a drop-dead-gorgeous runway model, too.

They all got roses at the end of the all-night cocktail party as Matt whittled the group of 32 down to 24, which is still a lot.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the luxury of having a smaller group when Tayshia Adams took over partway into the “Bachelorette” season with just 20 guys, but I know such streamlining is not the normal Bachelor way.

So what’s ahead for Matt? The usual: lots of making out, lots of crying. Apparently some additional contestants show up, among them Heather Martin, the woman from Colton Underwood’s “Bachelor” season who claimed she’d never been kissed.

I’ll be recapping every smooch and sniffle right here.

You can watch Mondays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of January 4, 2021

January 4, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Monkey Beach (Jan. 6, 9 p.m., Crave)

Grace Dove stars as a young woman coming to terms with her powers in “Monkey Beach.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Ricardo Hubbs

I can’t possibly say what it will take to bring about true reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in this vast country of ours, but maybe one very modest, infinitesimal step forward involves consuming culture made by Indigenous people that tells Indigenous stories.

“Monkey Beach” is the film version of Haisla/Heiltsuk author Eden Robinson’s novel of the same name. If you pay any attention to the arts in Canada, you’ve likely heard of Robinson. Her 2017 novel “Son of a Trickster” was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Giller Prize, and is the basis of the CBC TV series “Trickster,” which debuted earlier this year. “Monkey Beach” was likewise nominated for the Giller after it came out in 2000, as well as a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

Like “Trickster,” “Monkey Beach” is set in Kitimaat Village in B.C., the main community of the Haisla Nation, although when we first meet heroine Lisa (Secwepemc actor Grace Dove, who’s known for “The Revenant”) she has run away to Vancouver.

Forces that Lisa isn’t entirely comfortable with compel her to return to Kitimaat and her family. Lisa has been having visions since she was a child, in particular a disturbing premonition of her younger brother Jimmy dying (Joel Oulette, the young Cree/Metis actor who also stars in “Trickster”).

Like “Trickster,” “Monkey Beach” combines a plot that anybody can relate to — a young woman on a journey of self-discovery — with supernatural elements drawn from Indigenous tradition. It also touches on Indigenous trauma, specifically murdered and missing Indigenous women and the blight of residential schools.

Filmmaker Loretta Todd, who directed and co-wrote the script, is of Metis and Cree heritage while the cast is virtually all Indigenous, including Adam Beach (“Arctic Air”), Nathaniel Arcand (“FBI: Most Wanted”), Stefany Mathias (“Da Vinci’s Inquest”), Tina Lameman (“Mixed Blessings”) and Glen Gould (“Cardinal”).

Murdoch Mysteries and more (Jan. 4 to 10, CBC)

From left, Matthew Finlan as Charlie Chaplin, Ryan Tapley as Stanley Laurel and Yannick Bisson
as William Murdoch on “Murdoch Mysteries.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

Quite seriously I had to give CBC its own special category this week. The deluge starts Monday with the return of “Murdoch Mysteries” for its 14th season and “Frankie Drake Mysteries” for its fourth (Jan. 4, 8 and 9 p.m.). The “Murdoch” premiere special guest is none other than Charlie Chaplin (Matthew Finlan), who’s in Toronto with a travelling vaudeville show. And if you’re a fan of vaudeville and silent movies, you’ll enjoy seeing which other famous comedians turn up. Meanwhile, Frankie (Lauren Lee Smith) and her sidekicks are on a scavenger hunt in the woods when they find — what else? — a dead body.

Jan. 5 at 9:30 p.m. brings a new comedy series, “Humour Resources,” which features Jon Dore as an HR manager who coaches comedians via webcam, including Sarah Silverman, Aisha Brown, Scott Thompson and more. That’s preceded by the Season 28 (!) debut of “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” (8:30 p.m.) and never-before-seen sketches from “Baroness von Sketch Show” in “The Final Season: Bonus Episodes” (9 p.m.).

On the same night, CBC’s documentary channel debuts “Anyone’s Game” (9 p.m.), a docuseries about the Oakville high school that turns out some of the world’s best basketball players (it makes its main channel CBC debut on Jan. 15).

Archeologist Kathleen Martinez with two mummies discovered in Taposiris Magna, Egypt.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

If you’re intrigued by ancient history, “The Nature of Things” has “Searching for Cleopatra” (Jan. 8, 9 p.m.), which is both a hunt for the truth about the last queen of Egypt, immortalized via Hollywood as a sexy seductress, and a literal search for her tomb in the ruins of Taposiris Magna.

Finally, a miniseries version of the famous Victor Hugo novel “Les Miserables” premieres Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. I haven’t pre-screened it, but it has a crackerjack cast, including Dominic West (“The Wire”) as Jean Valjean, Olivia Colman (“The Crown”) as Mme. Thenardier, David Oyelowo (“Selma”) as Javert and Lily Collins (“Emily in Paris”) as Fantine. It’s preceded at 7 p.m. by the Season 14 premiere of family drama “Heartland.”

All of these shows will be available on the CBC Gem streaming service, which will also debut Season 3 of the Idris Elba-created dramedy “In the Long Run” on Jan. 8.

Phew!

Surviving Death (Jan. 6, Netflix)

Kimberly Clark Sharp of the Seattle International Association for Near-Death Studies
leads a meeting in “Surviving Death.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

What happens when we die? It’s a question that might hit closer to home more now than ever given how many people have been lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This docuseries suggests that human consciousness survives physical death. Over six episodes it explores the question through phenomena like near-death experiences, mediums, apparitions and reincarnation.

And it’s not just the people who claim to have had such experiences making the case; doctors and scientists also weigh in. A doctor, in fact, describes her own NDE in the first episode, after a kayaking accident left her physically dead for 30 minutes and she could feel, in her words, “my spirit peeling away from my body” and being greeted by warm, loving beings in a pathway full of flowers and exploding colours, in which every second was an eternity.

Yes, it sounds pretty far out.

But as another NDE survivor puts it: “At the end of the day I can’t prove to you, I can only share my experience with you.”

Netflix’s other offerings this week include “Lupin” (Jan. 8), a French crime drama that blends a heist at the Louvre with a story about a man seeking vengeance for racial injustice. It stars Omar Sy (“The Intouchables”) as the gentleman thief. If you’re a fan of clever people, humour and New York City, you should catch “Pretend It’s a City” (Jan. 8),  a docuseries featuring Fran Lebowitz in conversation with filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who also directed. Also debuting: “History of Swear Words” (Jan. 5), which apparently is exactly that, hosted by Nicolas Cage.

All Creatures Great & Small (Jan. 10, 9 p.m., PBS)

James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) with patient Clive the bull in “All Creatures Great & Small.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Squire/Playground Television (UK) Ltd.

I have never read the memoirs of James Herriot, nor seen more than scattered episodes of the beloved 1970s and ’80s TV adaptation of his books, but I found this new version of the story of a young veterinarian in Yorkshire very appealing.

In fact, I binged all seven episodes in one sitting when I meant to watch just a few and move on to other shows.

It’s set in the late 1930s when Scotsman James (Nicholas Ralph, in an impressive screen debut) travels to the village of Darrowby for what’s probably his last shot at a veterinary career, as assistant to the prickly Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West, “Mr. Selfridge”). After a baptism of fire or rather birth, involving a cow whose calf is stuck, he gets to keep the job.

There’s no question this show is a throwback, with a very white and male POV, but it’s also got charm galore, able acting (including Anna Madeley, Callum Woodhouse and Diana Rigg in one of her final roles), breathtaking scenery, gentle humour and drama that’s modest but touching, involving both animals and humans.

Odds and Ends

Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson in Season 2 of “Dickinson.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

If you found yourself caught up in Season 1 of Apple TV Plus’s “Dickinson,” a biographical series about poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) that’s audacious and funny and thought-provoking in the way it combines period drama with modern language, music and perceptions, you’ll be glad to know that Season 2 is afoot, debuting Jan. 8.

The moment that woke reality TV lovers have been agitating for is finally here, when ABC’s “The Bachelor” (Jan. 4, 8 p.m., Citytv) debuts its first Black lead (lagging behind “The Bachelorette,” which just finished a season with its second Black lead). Entreprenuer and philanthropist Matt James is in the hot seat. And yes, I’ll be recapping it here.

Also coming to Citytv is a new season of “Hudson and Rex” (Jan. 5, 8 p.m.). I don’t know about you, but I think everything’s better with dogs. If you’re looking for a brand new comedy, “Mr. Mayor” (Jan. 7, 7 p.m., Citytv), from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock (“30 Rock”), stars Ted Danson as a rich businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles as a joke and wins. Holly Hunter plays his deputy.

TVO Kids has Season 2 of the sports competition series “All-Round Champion” (Jan. 6, 5 p.m.), in which 10 young North American athletes compete in a sport that’s not their own, mentored by Olympian guest judges. It’s hosted by Canadian Olympic hurdler Perdita Felicien.

HBO has the Spanish drama “30 Coins” (Jan. 4, 9 p.m.), a horror series that takes its title from the money that the Bible says Judas Iscariot was paid for betraying Jesus Christ.

Super Channel Fuse has a new factual series, “Secrets in the Ice” (Jan. 5, 8 p.m.), about historic treasures hidden in the coldest places on Earth, including a Siberian mummy and the remains of woolly mammoths.

Sundance Now has Season 2 of “A Discovery of Witches” (Jan. 9), which finds Matthew (Matthew Goode) and Diana (Teresa Palmer) hiding in Elizabethan London. The first season will be available to stream free on Sundance Now and Shudder from Jan. 4 to 18, according to AMC Networks.

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