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Month: June 2021

One man’s ‘Bachelor audition’ gets cut short on Bachelorette

June 29, 2021 /
Katie Thurston lays some truth on Thomas Jacobs at the rose ceremony.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Remember this night, Bachelorette fans.

There will undoubtedly be frustrating moments in the weeks ahead. Next week alone, everybody will get mad at Blake Moynes and it seems like Hunter is going to try to kill somebody. But we will always be able to look back on the night that Katie Thurston told Thomas to take his fake ass home and it will be like balm to our troubled souls.

“Your Bachelor audition ends tonight, so get out.”

I want those words on a T-shirt.

The Bachelorette producers, cruel puppet masters that they are, had just pulled off a great fakeout.

We’d spent huge chunks of the episode listening to people talk about Thomas not being there for the right reasons. Even at the cocktail party, even though it was after freakin’ midnight, people wouldn’t stop talking about Thomas. I’m with Katie: it was exhausting.

But it seemed like she had finally decided Thomas wasn’t worth keeping around, or so she told co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe. There was one rose left. Katie picked it up, sighed . . . and called Thomas’s name. And the show cut to a commercial with everyone at home feeling like Justin’s face looked.

Justin Glaze’s face, not exactly as shown the moment Thomas’s name was called but close enough.

Yeah, I was pissed. I thought Katie had caved to production demands just to buy another week of the “everybody in the house hates Thomas” drama.

But when Thomas walked up to Katie to get his rose, she took a step backward. “You told me things I wanted to hear, but what I learned about you tonight is you’re selfish,  unkind and a liar,” she said before circumventing his “Bachelor audition.”

So Katie is back in my Bachelorette Hall of Fame.

Going into Monday’s episode I was on the fence about whether Thomas was as manipulative as the other guys said. Sure, he admitted that when he came on the show he was interested in becoming the next Bachelor, but I find it hard to believe that thought didn’t cross other men’s minds.

What convinced me he was faking his feelings for Katie was when he interrupted her just as she was about to start handing out roses to apologize to her for “any moment I wasn’t here for the right reasons” and to the other men “for any moments of disrespect.” It reeked of desperation and self-interest. If the guy really believed he and Katie had a solid relationship he would have kept his mouth shut and let the chips fall.

So yes, Katie seems to have a knack for quickly jettisoning the jerks, like she did with Karl. Now what?

Well, Blake Moynes is what. As promised last week, he’s back. (Didn’t you love all the nonsense about keeping his identity hidden until the moment Katie walked up to him? Um, hello, he was in the promo last week?)

Sorry folks, ABC didn’t have current photos of Blake available so here he is with Clare Crawley.

Given my soft spot for Canadian contestants, I’d like to give Blake the benefit of the doubt and think he’s not just a reality TV fame whore or someone who has a Bachelorette fetish, but it’s hard — especially considering the bullshit explanation for why he didn’t join at the very beginning of the season.

Tayshia, whose season Blake was on as well as Clare Crawley’s truncated season, visited Katie to tell her an unnamed “someone” from her past wanted to meet Katie because he thought they would be “an amazing match.” He didn’t show up at the start of the season because he wasn’t sure he wanted “to throw himself back into the wild, crazy roller-coaster this is.”

Sure. Because showing up four weeks into the season and aggravating the men who’ve been there since the start, that’s so much easier.

Even though Katie thought Blake was handsome and they had exchanged DMs after her “Bachelor” appearance, she rightfully expressed some skepticism: “It is concerning that you dated, at this point, two Bachelorettes. If you stay I will now be your third Bachelorette.”

But with a rose going begging after Thomas’s ouster — no, she didn’t give it to Christian, Conor C or David — Katie decided her gut (maybe with the help of a producer?) was telling her to explore things with Blake, so she woke him up in the middle of the night, half-naked in his room, to tell him he could stay. And he locked himself out in the hallway in his boxer shorts and hoodie.

What else happened?

Things got hot on the group date, as in habanero pepper hot. Sure Tayshia, Kaitlyn and Katie
laughed at Greg, then they tried the hot peppers themselves.

There was a group date on which for a whole 19 minutes or so nobody talked about Thomas. Instead they did ostensibly fun “dares” like eat platters full of Twinkies and chocolate cake and mashed potatoes; eat habanero peppers and “propose”; get their butts waxed (that was Tre); and “whisper sweet nothings” into a giant ear, not realizing that Katie and Tayshia and Kaitlyn were listening in.

On that front, Andrew S took his Duke of Hastings impression to a whole other level with his sexy talk. Front-runner Greg, on the other hand, talked about, er, the 50 states? “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” he said — which might have made sense if he wasn’t from New Jersey.

Greg had better luck later at the after-party when Katie told him she was starting to fall for him, although Andrew S upped the competition by serving Katie a plate full of Taco Bell and Lunchables.

But Tre scooped the rose away from both of them by sharing his suspicions with Katie that Thomas was being manipulative, a move that Andrew S vehemently disagreed with because he said it would cause needless drama. But then Josh and Conor and Christian and Andrew M all piled on, telling Katie they agreed with Tre.

It was inevitable that Thomas would make a play to save his ass, which he did by showing up at Katie’s suite before the rose ceremony. He complained that his integrity and character had been “demonsterized,” whatever the hell that means, and the only thing getting him through the unpleasantness was “an opportunity to be with you.”

Katie said he was “perfect” and “Prince Charming,” which kind of made me gag a little, although it turned out all right in the end.

You want to know who the real Prince Charming is? Michael.

Katie said Michael helped her figure out “what I want, what I deserve.”

When everybody else was getting their tighty whities in a knot at the cocktail party over whether Thomas would stay or go, he avoided the topic so as not to add to Katie’s stress, instead telling her how much he liked and missed her and that he was starting to imagine a life with her outside “The Bachelorette.”

“The person you are is exactly the person I have been seeking,” he told her and, you know, when he says stuff like that I believe him.

Katie moves into Week 5 with 14 guys left, including Blake. And yes, some of the other 13 will be hostile toward Blake, which is to be expected. And Hunter will apparently get aggressive in some kind of ball game (sorry folks, I’m not sporty) and somebody will get hurt, but whether those two things have anything to do with each other remains to be seen.

You can tune in 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 June 28, 2021

June 28, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Legend of the Underground (June 29, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

“The Legend of the Underground” profiles men in Nigeria who don’t conform to the country’s
rigid ideals of masculinity. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

As Pride Month events wind down in Toronto and other places around the world, it’s worth noting the ongoing persecution of anyone who doesn’t conform to a heterosexual ideal of masculinity in Nigeria — so much so that media reviewing this documentary were asked not to refer to interview subjects still living in that country as gay, homosexual or anything else that would imply they weren’t straight.

And frankly, I have no issue with that because I watched “The Legend of the Underground” with an underlying sense of dread of what could happen to the “non-conformists” who appeared on camera saying or doing things that might single them out for punishment by a homophobic regime and a citizenry that largely approves of its anti-gay laws.

And yet, the human spirit is resilient. These men persist — despite a law passed in 2014 that bans not only same-sex marriage and relationships but participation in “gay clubs, societies and organizations”; and the risk of torture, even death, at the hands of police and vigilantes.

The doc, directed by Jamaican-American Giselle Bailey and Nigerian-American Nneka Onuorah, focuses on men who live in ways that defy the prevailing norms, whether that’s dressing in women’s clothes, wearing makeup or dancing in high heels.

There are scenes of joy throughout the film — dancing and partying and sharing meals and hugs — but also sobering reminders of the price of not conforming.

James, a young man with a flare for feminine fashion and a large social media following, shows the scar where his aunt bit him on the eye, and screens full of death threats.

There are also emotional scars, no less real for the men rejected by their families.

One of the film’s key subjects, Micheal, says he was asked to leave home at 12 or 13 and lived on the streets for years, becoming infected with HIV.

He fled Nigeria in 2012 after a photo taken of him at an AIDS conference in Washington was seen online back home. When he returned, his apartment was ransacked and he was beaten until he passed out.

He settled in New York but still feels the pull of the country of his birth, returning in the doc to visit friends and meet with fellow activists.

There are signs of hope referenced — the striking out of charges last October against 47 men charged with public displays of same-sex affection at a party; country-wide protests that same month against police brutality — but there is clearly a long way to go.

Micheal continues his advocacy from the relative safety of New York, having founded the non-profit group GBGMC, but others try to effect change from inside Nigeria, including James, who expresses his wish to inspire billions of people with his videos and posts. 

“You have rights. Do you know why?” he asks. “Because you’re human.”

No Sudden Move (July 1, Crave)

Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro in “No Sudden Move.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO Max

The main reason to watch this film from the prolific Steven Soderbergh is to see skilled actors practising their craft.

Don Cheadle leads the cast as Curtis Goynes, a hood just out of jail in 1954 Detroit who takes on what’s supposed to be an easy job for an unknown boss. He and Ronald Russo (Benicio Del Toro) are told to “babysit” a wife and two kids in a suburban home while Charley (Kieran Culkin, “Succession”) drives the husband, Matt (David Harbour of “Stranger Things”), to his office to steal documents from his boss’s safe.

Obviously things don’t go as planned — there wouldn’t be a film if they did — and a double cross sets the criminals for hire on the trail of whoever’s behind the job with the goal of enlarging their payout. And then the double crosses just keep on coming as Curt and Ronald put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.

Other notables in the cast include Brendan Fraser, Jon Hamm, Matt Damon; Ray Liotta and Bill Duke as a pair of mob bosses, and the late Craig muMs Grant (“Oz”), who died in March of complications from diabetes.

There aren’t a lot of women in the flick, including Amy Seimetz as Matt’s wife; Julia Fox as a mob wife and Frankie Shaw as the secretary with whom Matt is having an affair, but at least they get some agency in relation to the men.

As for the documents at the centre of the action? They’re nowhere near as sexy as the targets in other Soderbergh heist movies like “Out of Sight” and “Ocean’s Eleven.” They’re plans for a piece of automotive technology, the significance of which is explained in a postscript about a real life anti-trust case against GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors in 1969.

If that seems a bit prosaic for a gangster film, well, my take on “No Sudden Move” is that it keeps the brain engaged but doesn’t really make the pulse quicken.

Crave also has “Intergalactic” (July 2), a series about a female cop in outer space (Savannah Steyn) wrongly convicted of a crime whose fellow prisoners stage a mutiny aboard a prison transport ship.

Staged (July 1, Hollywood Suite)

Michael Sheen and Anna Lundberg as themselves in Season 2 of “Staged.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Hollywood Suite

It’s no secret that success in showbiz can lead to excess, a truth proven by any number of wretched movie sequels and seasons of shows that have gone on too long.

Alas, “Staged” — a gem of a series that I loved first time around — has fallen into the trap of thinking more is more.

In its first iteration, Michael Sheen and David Tennant played pandemic versions of themselves, bored actors attempting to rehearse a play by Zoom but spending most of their time sniping at or commiserating with each other as their hair, and the lockdown, grew longer.

Clearly, this wasn’t a reality show, but its fly-on-the-wall vibe made it feel fresh and funny.

Alas, Season 2 feels too, well, staged. It’s gone meta with the premise that Season 1 of the show was enough of a hit in the U.K. for the greenlighting of an American remake, one that Sheen and Tennant aren’t welcome in because they’re not considered famous enough in the States. The pair spend most of the new episodes plotting to sabotage the recasting of their roles, but the series’ charm has decreased in inverse proportion to the growth of its guest stars (15 to the first season’s five) and episodes (eight instead of six).  

It still has its moments — mostly when Sheen and Tennant are onscreen alone together, although Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Cate Blanchett are also entertaining in Episode 7  — but the instalments feel long and overstuffed.  

And although the timing of its Hollywood Suite debut isn’t the show’s fault, it’s less appealing now to watch people boxed in by computer screens just when life in Canada is getting back to some semblance of normal. 

Hotel Paranormal, Season 2 (July 2, 9 p.m., T+E)

A scene from Season 2 of “Hotel Paranormal.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Blue Ant Media

The closest I’ve come to staying in a haunted hotel was having dinner at the Angel Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. I felt a sense of unease when I went downstairs to use the washroom and later learned guests had been seen ghosts there. If I’d encountered anything like the spirits in “Hotel Paranormal” I might have ditched my date and run screaming into the night.

The spectres in the show’s second season — at least the first episode, which is the only one I screened — bring more than unease; they seem downright terrifying, whether it’s a spirit trying to drive away the new owners of the Jefferson Hotel in Texas; the ghost of a sadistic prison warden in a Scottish hostelry; or the apparition of a very unhappy woman in an English hotel.

But if you love a ghost story you’ll enjoy these vignettes, which feature interviews with the hauntees and spooky re-enactments of the hauntings, whether or not you’re a true believer. Speaking of believers, “Ghostbuster” Dan Aykroyd, who comes from a long line of paranormal explorers, is back to narrate the show. I had a chance to chat with him for the Toronto Star and you can read the interview here.

Odds and Ends 

Director Questlove at a “Summer Of Soul” screening in Harlem in June.
PHOTO CREDIT: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Disney Plus has something that I believe, sight unseen, is definitely worth watching, “Summer of Soul (. . . Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (July 2), a documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson featuring previously unseen footage from the so-called “Black Woodstock,” the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. It includes performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips and more. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance.  

I didn’t get an advance look at film “The Tomorrow War” (July 2, Amazon Prime Video), but it stars Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) as a hot dad who has to travel to the future to fight a battle to save humankind.

Netflix has a bunch of new things out July 1 that I also didn’t get to screen. They include the Swedish drama “Young Royals,” a gay coming-of-age story about a prince; the Italian romantic drama “Generation 56K,” which shifts timelines between the present and 1998, when its protagonists were first introduced to the internet; and “Audible,” a documentary about a deaf high school football player. On July 2, the streamer has “Fear Street Part 1: 1994,” the first in a series of adaptations of the popular teenage horror novels of the ’90s and beyond.

Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald are back for Season 5 of “The Good Fight” (June 1, 9 p.m., W Network) and the partners are under pressure over Diane’s status as a white principal in a Black law firm.

If you’re a fan of gritty crime drama, morally ambiguous detectives and/or Idris Elba, then note that all four seasons of “Luther” are on BritBox July 1 (and are also viewable free on CBC Gem if you don’t mind the ads).

There’s a new villain and a new frontrunner on The Bachelorette

June 22, 2021 /
Katie Thurston with the survivors of the delayed rose ceremony on “The Bachelorette.”
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

It was story time on Monday’s episode of “The Bachelorette.”

One man told stories — fibs really — and got sent home. Other men told unflattering stories about themselves on a group date and gained Katie’s trust. One contestant shared a particularly sad story that brought him and Katie together. And another guy, well, it doesn’t matter what stories he tells. None of the other men believe a word that comes out of his mouth.

As the episode began, we picked up where we left off last week with Karl making up crap about other men not being there for the right reasons, the rest of the guys freaking out at him (Tre: “Is this ‘The Twilight Zone’ we’re in?”) and Katie adding to the commotion by saying she was too rattled to talk to anyone anymore and was going straight to the rose ceremony — which, of course she was because hello, producer manipulation much?

Would Katie call Karl Smith on his nonsense and send him home?

The only question was whether Karl would get to stick around to stir up more shit, which seemed possible given how these things usually roll.

And then Mike, bless his virgin heart, spoke up mid-rose ceremony and told Katie that all the other men thought Karl was lying, which sent Katie to seek the counsel of co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe, whose very helpful advice amounted to “never mind the men, do whatever you want.”

It would have been disappointing albeit predictable if Katie, after making her name confronting bullies on Matt James’ season of “The Bachelor,” let Karl stay just to up the drama quotient. Luckily, she dumped him and the motivational speaker skulked out without saying a word to her or even giving an exit interview; at least that’s how it was edited.

Also getting the heave-ho were Kyle (admit it, you’re not even sure who that is) and fan favourite John.

One villain down and then it was group date time. And speaking of villains, there was Nick Viall, former “Bachelorette” villain and “Bachelor in Paradise” hero turned mediocre “Bachelor,” drafted as some sort of group therapy coach as Aaron, Quartney, James, Connor B, David, Justin, Thomas, Hunter and Brendan were made to sit in a circle and fess up to crappy things they’d done in their pasts.

Nick Viall popped up on “The Bachelorette” to help hold the men “accountable.”

Nick didn’t have to lead by example so there was no mention of, say, fornicating and telling by talking about the sex you had with the Bachelorette in the fantasy suite on national TV.

The confessions ranged from anticlimactic (David saying he put his career ahead of love) to kind of heartwrenching.

Hunter tearfully described how his marriage imploded because he was so busy working to make money to give his two kids “everything” that he and his wife drifted apart. And Connor, a.k.a. the Cat, recounted how he became an angry drunk while working as a musician in a piano bar and cheated on his girlfriend one night while he was loaded and high.

Katie even made a confession of her own, about a non-consensual sexual encounter, i.e. an assault, one New Year’s Eve that led to her having an unhealthy relationship with sex for a number of years.

But the revelation that made everyone’s Spidey senses tingle (except maybe Katie’s) was Thomas talking about how he initially came on “The Bachelorette” to build “a great platform” and even went on a date the week before he left for filming given his low expectations of actually finding romance. But now, he insisted to Katie, “the feelings I have for you are real.”

Some of the bloom came off Night 1 standout Thomas on Monday’s episode.

To her credit, Katie later pressed Thomas for details of the “red flags” he had mentioned earlier in the day. He didn’t answer her question, just babbled about their connection and how “every single day I’m here this gets realer and realer.”

Thomas seemed to be fixated on getting the date rose, so much so that he double dipped, interrupting Aaron’s time with Katie — while Aaron was talking about his father’s stroke, no less — to take another at-bat. And it was … very confusing.

“What I feel with you . . . is fear and love are two very, very similar things rooted in the same concept,” Thomas said. “And when I look at you and the things that I feel with you, I feel both of those so strongly at the same time.” Say what now?

Katie claimed to be impressed with Thomas’s passion, but I think she just wanted to kiss him.

The date rose went to Connor instead for showing “strength” and “courage” by telling his drunken cheating story.

Speaking of stories, Michael (not to be confused with Mike) had a very raw and real one to tell Katie on the week’s one-on-one date.

Single dad Michael leaped to front-runner status after Monday’s episode.

First there was off-roading in a dune buggy (which Katie managed to flip without Michael in it) and imbibing bubbly in a field, during which it was clear the two have some real chemistry. But let’s be honest, we’re all falling in love with Michael, especially after he said things like “I always hear this ends in an engagement, but it begins with an engagement” and “My life’s better because of you right now.” Swoon.

The big reveal — for Katie, viewers had already heard the story — came at dinner when Michael told her he was a widower, having lost his beloved wife Laura to breast cancer in January 2019.

“I know what it’s like to love,” Michael said. “I know what it’s like to give everything and I have finally gotten to this place where I’m ready to, like, open up my heart. The way I look at this is what a gift to be able to fall in love twice.”

Rather than feeling intimidated, Katie seemed smitten, telling Michael his love story with Laura was beautiful and would never make her feel insecure.

“My job is to make sure you feel the relationship we create is unique,” Michael reassured her. “I have no doubt we can do that.”

I suspect all over North America viewers were melting into little puddles. Michael and Katie ended the evening stargazing on a rooftop under blankets, sharing kisses.

But lest we get too swept up shipping Katie and Michael, there was more tension between Thomas and the rest of the house the next day.

Aaron declared Thomas a psycho (Aaron does get carried away in his confessionals, saying earlier that Karl should have been “exterminated”).

Hunter asked Thomas point blank if he wanted to be the next Bachelor. Twice Thomas avoided the question before finally saying, “Yes, coming into this one of the thoughts on my mind was potentially being the next Bachelor,” although he insisted he no longer felt that way.

Not that any of the men believed him. And thus, the Thomas drama will continue next week. And apparently interloper Blake Moynes will also make his first appearance.

You can tune in 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 June 21, 2021

June 21, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell (June 25, Crave)

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein in a poster image used at a news conference by the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. PHOTO CREDIT: John Minchillo/AP file photo

A Toronto filmmaker, Barbara Shearer, made this three-part docuseries about the woman accused of procuring young victims for notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and it’s a fascinating and horrifying tale.

Epstein died in 2019, his death ruled a suicide, although there are still some who theorize he was murdered to hide the identities of famous and powerful men who shared his taste for sex with teenagers.

Maxwell is currently in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges — a far cry from the life of luxury she lived as daughter of notorious U.K. newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell. Her father figures largely in Shearer’s portrait of Ghislaine, a 59-year-old, Oxford-educated, one-time British socialite.

More than one of the former friends and acquaintances interviewed in the series suggests the key to Maxwell’s identity lies in her relationship as a “daddy’s girl” to a demanding, terrifying father and that, when Robert died under mysterious circumstances in 1991, Epstein took his place as a father figure.

The doc also gives credence to that famous quote about the rich being “different from you and me.” In the milieu of enormous wealth and privilege that Maxwell grew up in, rules were for other people, as one interviewee notes. One gets the sense of billionaire Epstein ordering up schoolgirls to defile as casually as a meal or a bottle of Champagne.

But why would Maxwell, who’s accused of acting as a madam for Epstein —procuring girls from places like the New York Academy of Art and Central Park, or Mar-a-Lago when she and Epstein were in Palm Springs — take part in such vile debauchery? Speculation about daddy issues and codependency aside, no one can really say.

Maxwell refused to be interviewed for the series and her case won’t come to trial until November.

When it does, some observers believe Maxwell’s defence will be that she was just another victim of Epstein’s, but that strikes me as an inherently sexist view and also an offensive one. If Maxwell is guilty, surely she exercised some free will in what she did. It’s as hard to picture her as a victim as it was to view Karla Homolka as a victim of her serial killer and rapist husband, Paul Bernardo.

There is another entity painted in a damning light in “Epstein’s Shadow”: a justice system that treats the rich differently than other people. Epstein was given a slap on the wrist in 2008 despite copious evidence of his sexual activity with underage girls uncovered by police in Palm Beach. It wasn’t until 2019 that he was arrested on multiple sex trafficking charges after a Miami Herald investigation embarrassed the FBI into taking action.

Some believe the case against Maxwell will never make it to open court, either because she’ll be killed in jail or because she’ll be given a deal to prevent her giving evidence against public figures who were part of Epstein’s sordid world.

From Earth to Sky (June 21, 9 p.m., TVO/TVO.org)

Douglas Cardinal is one of the Indigenous architects featured in “From Earth to Sky.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Chapman Productions/TVO

On Monday, National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, attention will still naturally be focused on atrocities of the past, particularly the 215 children found buried at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C, but this documentary film offers a narrative of inspiration and hope without minimizing the pain of what came before.

In 2017, Toronto musician and concert promoter turned filmmaker Ron Chapman met Indigenous North American architects who were preparing an installation for the 2018 Venice Biennale. That lit the spark of “From Earth to Sky,” in which seven of those architects are profiled.

The film begins with Douglas Cardinal, who’s Siksika from the Blackfoot Nation in Calgary and credited as the the first Indigenous architect in Canada, if not North America. Among his buildings are the Canadian Museum of History and the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Not bad for someone who was told as a student it would be impossible for him to become an architect.

Also included in the doc are the first female Indigenous architect in America, Tammy Eagle Bull of Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota; Wanda Dalla Costa of Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta; Alfred Waugh, who’s Chipweyan from the Fond du Lac Band in Saskatchewan; Brian Porter of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario; Daniel Glenn of the Crow Nation in Montana; and Patrick Stewart of the Nisga’a Nation in British Columbia.

All of them have faced obstacles that white architects wouldn’t have to surmount. Cardinal is a residential school survivor; others have endured the generational trauma of residential schools and other fallout of colonialism. But there is an optimism in their work: a pride in traditions and hopefulness for the future that is expressed in the beauty and purpose of what they create.

Common themes emerge as the subjects discuss their practices: involving the communities the buildings will serve in the planning; incorporating traditional Indigenous designs and values in the construction; respecting the natural environment.

For Cardinal, these are practices that can benefit architecture as a whole, especially in the face of global warming.

“The Indigenous teachings can be the foundation for replanning and redesigning our cities,” he says. “We have the responsibility of set(ting) an example not only to our own nations, ultimately to the world as a whole.”

Short Takes

From left, Donald MacLean Jr., Sandy Sidhu, Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Natasha Calis and Tiera Skovbye
in Season 2 of “Nurses.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Corus Entertainment

Nurses (June 21, 9 p.m., Global TV/StackTV)

The conceit of this Canadian drama is that it’s about, yes, nurses, rather than the doctors who are the usual heroes of medical dramas. Let’s not pretend it’s reinventing the wheel; the beats will be familiar to anyone who regularly consumes medical shows as the five lead cast members juggle patient care with personal issues and romantic entanglements. But they’re a generally likeable crew and you get to see familiar Canadian actors guest-starring as patients, including Jean Yoon of “Kim’s Convenience” in the first episode of the new season. A couple of new regulars join the cast, including Rachael Ancheril (“Rookie Blue,” “Killjoys”) as new boss Kate Faulkner and Jordan Connor (“Riverdale”) as nurse Matteo Rey, a potential love interest for Grace (Skovbye).

A teenaged Michelle McNamara as seen in a new special episode of “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (June 21, 10 p.m., HBO/Crave)

This special episode of the popular true crime series is a postscript of sorts. It deals with the 2020 sentencing of Joseph DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer — whose identity writer Michelle McNamara relentlessly chased before her death in 2016 — and the victims finally venting their fury directly to the man whose rapes and murders irreparably altered their lives. That story is woven together with the one that set McNamara on her lifelong true crime obsession: the unsolved murder of Kathleen Lombardo in Oak Park, Ill., in August 1984. But the fact that killing is still unsolved, along with the possibly related stabbing of a neighbour of Kathleen’s who survived, Grace Puccetti, leaves the viewer without a sense of catharsis and makes the whole episode an awkward addition to the original series.

Odds and Ends

Adam Demos and Sarah Shahi in “Sex/Life.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amanda Matlovich/Netflix

I have seen a couple of episodes of the new Netflix drama “Sex/Life” (June 25), but reviews are embargoed so I’m not allowed to tell you what I think of them. It stars Sarah Shahi (“The L Word,” “Person of Interest”) as a wife and mother of two with a seemingly picture perfect life who suddenly starts lusting after her bad boy ex (Adam Demos, “UnREAL”).

Honestly, I think Helen Mirren could make reciting the phone book sound interesting, but I’ll have to reserve judgment on “When Nature Calls With Helen Mirren” (June 24, 8 p.m., Global TV) since I haven’t seen it yet and it looks kind of dumb in the trailer. Mirren narrates the “unscripted comedy,” in which humans give voice to animals.

Also arriving on June 25 is Season 7 of “Bosch” (Amazon Prime Video). Alas, the screeners I requested never materialized, but I recommend it on the strength of the other six seasons and the excellence of Titus Welliver in the title role. Amazon also has “September Mornings” (June 25), a Brazilian drama about a transgender woman whose new life is complicated when she learns she fathered a son in her previous life.

Disney Plus has “The Mysterious Benedict Society” (June 25), based on the kids’ books by Trenton Lee Stewart, about a group of orphaned children recruited for a secret mission inside a boarding school. Tony Hale (“Veep,” “Arrested Development”) stars as Mr. Benedict.

NOTE: The dates and times listed here reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible against broadcast and streaming schedules, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.

Mud gets slung, and wrestled in, on The Bachelorette

June 15, 2021 /
Co-hosts Tayshia Adams, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Bachelorette Katie Thurston oversee yet another potentially violent group date on “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Hey y’all, someone’s not here for the right reasons on Katie Thurston’s season of “The Bachelorette.” It might just be the producers.

Monday’s episode was a smorgasbord of the kind of drama that has little to do with Katie actually falling in love with and marrying someone, and everything to do with keeping ratings and social media mentions up.

There was a group date that seemed designed to make the virgin among the contestants as uncomfortable as possible; another group date that paired two men with a beef in a physical confrontation; and the grand finale was a contestant sowing so much doubt in Katie’s mind about whether the other men were there for the right reasons she was left shaking and crying.

Sure, she managed to deepen some connections in between the drama, but the cocktail party turned into a shit show and the rose ceremony was delayed until next episode.

Karl, centre, on the first, sex-themed group date with Justin, left, and Quartney.

At the centre of the brouhaha was Karl Smith, a motivational speaker from Florida. The word on the net is that Karl might be in this thing to gain social media followers and that could be true, but casting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If Karl is indeed the type of jackass who’d prey on a woman’s insecurities just to get reality TV famous, you think producers didn’t know that going in?

I’ll be honest: I was ready to give Karl the benefit of the doubt after the first bit of tension between him and other men early in the episode, especially given the franchise’s shoddy record with its Black contestants, but by the end, yeah, he just seemed like a jerk.

Next week, we’re promised, the drama continues, with more antagonism between Karl and everyone else in the house, and bad blood between Aaron and Thomas. In the meantime, here’s what was up on Monday.

‘The Greatest Lover of All Time’

Much has been made of the fact that Katie is “sex positive,” so it was inevitable there would be a group date that involved the men talking about sex. It was also inevitable that Mike, the San Diego gym owner who’s saving it for marriage, would be on that date.

Guided by actor, comedian and podcaster Heather McDonald, Christian, Garrett, Tre, Quartney, James, Justin, Thomas, Connor B., Karl and Mike had to answer sex questions — stuff like their favourite sex positions (Mike’s answer was a question mark), a woman’s largest sex organ (nope, not the vagina, the brain) and what piece of clothing increases her chances of having an orgasm (really? socks?).

Tre demonstrated what he’d like to do with Katie using puppets. The safe word was “peaches.”

And then they had to do presentations on what made each of them the greatest lover. It was more about innuendo than raunch, unless you consider hand puppets making out triple X-rated.

When it was Mike’s turn, he read Katie a composition that climaxed with the line “I would wait another 31 years to have sex if it was what proved to you that I would sacrifice everything for you to feel loved and secure.”

Um, yay? Katie bought it, even wiping tears from her eyes, and it won Mike the trophy. But it was Thomas with whom she exchanged steamy smooches at the after-party and who got the date rose. Mike and Connor, who got a redo on his Night 1 kiss, sans cat costume this time, were given honourable mentions.

‘We did make out while he was sitting on a toilet’

First impression rose winner and fan favourite Greg Grippo also got the first one-on-one date, which involved pitching a tent (a real tent, get your mind out of the sex date), turning a bucket into a makeshift toilet, on which Greg sat while he and Katie kissed, and fishing in a river.

Greg and Katie, after they traded a seat on a “toilet” bucket for a log.

The rustic activities — they wore his and hers plaid shirts over hoodies, for gawd’s sake — stirred up lots of emotions in Katie because they reminded her of stuff she used to do with her dad, who died in 2012.

She picked Greg for the meaningful date because “I wanted someone here who I see this going far with,” she said, cementing Greg’s frontrunner status. But a couple of things bothered me. When Katie was struggling to hold back tears as she talked about her father, why didn’t Greg reach out and comfort her? And why did he wait until later at dinner to tell her he’d lost his own father two years before and also had fond memories of them fishing together? Is there some emotional blockage going on or am I reading too much into it?

Once Greg did open up, he couldn’t hold back tears of his own, for which he kept apologizing. But he and Katie ended the evening with fireworks, smooches and mutual admiration.

Katie’s Big Buckle Brawl

This group date started with co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe sneaking into the men’s quarters while they were sleeping, waking them up by banging a pot and a cheese grater (?) with spoons and forcing the participants outside in whatever they had on. It appeared no one was sleeping commando.

And then John, Andrew S, Kyle, Josh, Aaron, Brendan, Hunter and Cody had to put on cowboy outfits and then take their shirts off again to mud wrestle each other, so why not just stay in their underwear?

Aaron is declared the winner in his mud-wrestling match with Cody.

The main event was Aaron vs. Cody. We already learned on Night 1 that Aaron had some kind of beef with Cody, whom he knew from San Diego, and obviously the producers knew that too or they would never have been put on the date together.

Their wrestling match was strenuous enough that Katie noticed the tension between them and, after Aaron won the Big Buckle and got to hang out with her alone, she asked him what was up.

It was something about unspecified social media posts, Cody wanting “to become famous” and handling unspecified situations in a “malicious” way, according to Aaron. When Katie confronted Cody and he denied everything Aaron had said, she decided Cody was the one telling fibs and sent him home.

While Katie was off on her own brooding over Cody’s untrustworthiness at the after-party, Andrew made his move and brought her a glass of champagne. And then they bonded over the fact they both grew up poor, sealing their connection with kisses and the date rose. Better luck next time Aaron and Hunter, despite your handwritten letter.

‘I don’t know how tonight could be ruined’

The minute Katie uttered those words you just knew the cocktail party before the rose ceremony was going to hell in a hand basket.

First Karl mused to the other gents seemingly out of the blue that maybe Cody wasn’t the only dude who wasn’t there for the right reasons. Then he told Katie “there are some people who don’t have the best intentions,” but he wouldn’t give her names or examples, and had the nerve to tell her not to “stress about that.” As fucking if.

Of course she stressed. She stressed enough to give the men a teary speech telling them “if you are not here for me, if you are not here for an engagement, then get the fuck out.”

“I don’t know who is here for the wrong reasons, but from what I’ve been told there are multiple people I should be looking out for,” she added.

She even pulled Aaron aside, thinking that after he threw Cody under the bus he could out the other rats, but he was flummoxed. In the meantime, Karl confessed to the other men that he was the one who had sent Katie into a tailspin. “I heard some stuff circulating around,” he said vaguely. “I don’t know specifics 100 per cent.”

Perhaps that’s because there are no “specifics”? As far as I can tell he flat out lied when he claimed he only brought it up because Kate asked him about it first.

Things ended with the rest of the men rightfully pissed off and Katie in a room by herself crying. And we’ll have to wait till next week to see how it’s resolved and who’s getting roses.

You can tune in 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 June 14, 2021

June 14, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK (Kevin Can F**k Himself, June 20, 9 p.m., AMC)

From left, Brian Howe, Annie Murphy, Alex Bonifer, Eric Petersen and Mary Hollis Inboden
in “Kevin Can F**k Himself.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jojo Whilden/AMC

Toxic masculinity can come with a laugh track and a punch line.

That’s one of the takeaways from “Kevin Can F**k Himself,” an inventive new dramedy starring Annie Murphy in her first post-“Schitt’s Creek” role.

Murphy is Allison McRoberts, sitcom wife. She’s married to Kevin (Eric Petersen, “Kirstie”), a man child who’s more interested in beer and sports memorabilia than in anything his wife has to say.

In the parts of the series shot in brightly lit, multi-camera sitcom style, Allison is the butt of the jokes, trying unsuccessfully to rein in Kevin’s juvenile behaviour — which is abetted by his dim bulb best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer), his father Pete (Brian Howe) and Neil’s sister Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) — while keeping the fresh beers and the scrambled eggs and hot dogs coming.

When the show switches into single camera mode we see the cost of Kevin’s selfishness. After 10 years of marriage, Allison feels like she has nothing to show for her life and that everything that was hers has been systematically taken away by Kevin, revealing an insidiousness to his pranks and his punch-line putdowns.

But Allison isn’t just mad; she plans to get her life back, hatching a deadly serious scheme of her own.

When Allison isn’t being minimized by Kevin’s buffoonery she comes across as intelligent and resourceful, which makes you wonder what she saw in Kevin all those years ago.

And in playing the role, Murphy, who gained fame as the ditzy Alexis on “Schitt’s Creek,” proves she’s not a one-trick pony.

Just as interesting as Allison’s journey from resignation to revenge is neighbour Patty’s transformation. She starts out being one of the boys, scoffing at Allison right along with them while denying the disappointment of her own dead-end life. By the end of the fourth episode, the only ones provided to critics for review, she’s become Allison’s friend and co-conspirator.

I’m curious to see, in the final four instalments, just how far Allison and Patty will go, and also how audiences will react given the show’s very unflattering portrait of male entitlement.

On the other hand, after a decade or two of Don Drapers and Tony Sopranos and Walter Whites, why shouldn’t we cheer when a woman gets mad as hell and decides she’s not going to take it anymore?

Penguin Town (June 16, Netflix)

A pair of African penguins on the hunt for a nesting site
in Simon’s Town, South Africa, in “Penguin Town.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

We’re all used to earnest nature documentaries that seek to inspire our empathy by showing us the majesty of the animals that share our planet. Those are worthy programs, but there’s something to be said for treating members of one of the most beloved of bird species like reality TV stars.

“Penguin Town” anthropomorphizes the heck out of a particular group of African penguins spending their summer (our winter) in Simon’s Town, South Africa, but that doesn’t distract from the knowledge that these creatures are endangered. Arguably, the viewer’s sympathies are even more engaged by the series’ focus on specific birds, who are given names and storylines.

Narrator Patton Oswalt tells us that these penguins, also known as jackass penguins for their distinctive braying cry, arrive in Simon’s Town every November to mate and have babies: activities that are essential given that “if they get it wrong they face extinction.”

The birds are inherently comical as they waddle around town in their tuxedo-like plumage. The comedy is enhanced by the narration as we follow several couples, the middle-aged Bougainvilleas, the newlywed Culverts and “aristocrats” Lord and Lady Courtyard (named after the spots where they make their nests); a misfit named Junior and a group of disaffected singles called the Car Park Gang.

But there’s also tragedy to be found: a mother penguin who disappears while out catching fish for her chicks, possibly eaten by a Cape fur seal, or eggs that are swept away by the rushing waters of a storm.

The dangers are many, the quest to survive and reproduce daunting — Oswalt tells us one of every three chicks born here won’t live to adulthood — but that just makes the successes feel all the more important.

And the birds have some help from the “giants,” as humans are dubbed in “Penguin Town,” thanks to the work of SANCCOB, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. If you’d like to help too you can adopt a penguin here.

Netflix also has Season 2 of zombie apocalypse drama “Black Summer” (June 17) and Season 4 of Spanish teen drama “Elite” (June 18).

Catching Up

From left, Rebecca Benson, Anna Paquin and Lydia Wilson in “Flack” Season 2.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Studios

I wasn’t allowed to share a review of “Flack” (Amazon Prime Video) last week because of an embargo, but I can tell you that I like this second season better than the first, which I found overly cynical despite the hits of humour. The female PR fixers that we met in Season 1 are still doing deals for monstrous celebrity clients and Robyn (Anna Paquin) is still spinning dangerously out of control in her personal life, but in Season 2 we learn something about the women’s backgrounds, which makes them more relatable. Sam Neill guest stars as the ex-husband of imperious boss Caroline (Sophie Okonedo) and Martha Plimpton as Robyn’s suicidal mother. We also meet the mother of Eve (Lydia Wilson) and the parents of Melody (Rebecca Benson). The professional world these women inhabit is still a sordid one, but now I see them more as canny survivors than as predators.

You can read my interview with Paquin and her husband Stephen Moyer, who directed two episodes of “Flack,” here.

Another show I couldn’t talk about was “Loki,” now on Disney Plus. Tom Hiddleston is reliably entertaining as the arrogant God of Mischief, and he and Owen Wilson, playing a civil servant at the Time Variance Authority, mesh well when they’re onscreen together. After the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” Loki gets scooped up by the TVA and is about to be sentenced for crimes against the “sacred timeline” when Wilson’s Mobius convinces the powers that be to lend him Loki for a mission. Variants of the god are wreaking havoc on the timeline and Mobius wants Loki to help him stop them. Naturally, with Loki involved, things don’t go quite as planned. The series will probably appeal most to viewers who are up on their Marvel lore.

Short Takes

Colin Sutton was a detective chief inspector with London’s Metropolitan Police. PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn

The Real Manhunter (June 14, Acorn TV)

I quite enjoyed the Acorn drama “Manhunt,” in which Martin Clunes played a fictional version of Colin Sutton, the real-life detective who solved a 2004 murder in London’s Twickenham neighbourhood and caught a serial killer in the process. If you liked how that miniseries showed the methodical way that Sutton and his team cracked the crime, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this companion series about Sutton and eight of his cases. The murder of Amelie Delagrange in Twickenham Green is covered in the second episode. The first — and the longest at almost two hours — details perhaps Sutton’s most famous case, the capture of a serial burglar and rapist known as the Night Stalker who terrorized senior citizens in Southeast London between 1992 and 2009.

Odds and Ends

“Rick and Morty” are back for Season 5. PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

Adult Swim has Season 5 of animated comedy “Rick and Morty” (June 20, 11 p.m.) with sociopathic Rick (series co-creator Justin Roiland) dragging grandson Morty (also voiced by Roiland) and the rest of his family along on dangerous intergalactic adventures.

Family Channel has the new competition series “Baketopia” (June 14, 7:30 p.m.), hosted by YouTube star Rosanna Pansino, in which the competitors are tasked with creating Instagram-worthy desserts.

It’s finale time for Season 4 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” (June 16, Crave) and since past season finales have traditionally brought big, cliffhanger twists it’s anybody’s guess what this season ender will bring.

NOTE: The dates and times listed here reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible against broadcast and streaming schedules, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.

Meet the new Bachelorette, same as the old Bachelorette

June 8, 2021 /
Katie Thurston and some of the dudes who endured quarantine to hang out
with her on “The Bachelorette,” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

So here we are again. After a disastrous season of “The Bachelor” that left a bad taste in plenty of mouths, sparked accusations of racism within the franchise and led to the departure of host Chris Harrison, a new season of “The Bachelorette” began Monday and it seems . . . exactly the same as every other season that came before it.

The star in what will be the first of two “Bachelorette” seasons to air this year is Katie Thurston, a 30-year-old marketing manager who became a fan favourite among Matt James’ group of contestants after she sparred with the bully-in-chief and tattled on a couple of the mean girls, but then got friend-zoned by Matt.

On her debut as the one handing out the roses, we had the same unwieldy group of some 30 men, same script about journeys, finding love and so on, same promises of conflict tinged with potential violence, same dumb shit-stirring production manipulations: I mean, hello, Blake Moynes from Clare’s and Tayshia’s combined season is coming back as a late contestant?

Roughly a third of the 23 fellows left standing Monday night were men of colour, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything if they’re only there to give the franchise a sheen of diversity, as we’ve seen in past seasons.

Co-hosts Tayshia Adams, left, and Kaitlyn Bristowe greet Katie before the limos started pulling up.

The only real change was Harrison’s absence and I can’t say it was to the show’s detriment. The presence of past Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams as co-hosts injected some positive go-girl energy into the proceedings. I mean, can you imagine Harrison munching on popcorn as he watched the limos pull up and shouting encouragement to Katie from a window as she met the men?

So yes, the men. There were 29 of them to start by my count, well, 28 and one half man, half cat.

Katie bonds with Connor B, a math teacher who showed up dressed as a cat.

Connor B, a math teacher and musician from Nashville, separated himself from the pack by showing up dressed as Katie’s favourite animal, although she left her beloved cat Tommy at home during filming. Connor was one of several men who got first-night smooches from Katie, although personally I thought Connor’s kisses looked a bit like my cat attacking a bowl of canned food. Still, he seems nice enough.

Businessman Michael from Ohio also tried to bond over beasts with Katie, in his case a dog named Tommy, although his real love is his 4-year-old son.

There were a few other sweethearts in the bunch, at least based on first impressions.

Thomas, a real estate broker from San Diego County, said he “felt like a third grader trying to talk to a cute girl for the first time” and made Katie blush with his compliments, although he also seems to feature in some of the drama to come.

Tre, a software engineer from Georgia, showed up in a pickup truck with a ball pit in the bed (because Katie’s “a pretty baller Bachelorette”) and they had fun later sitting in the balls sipping drinks.

Katie had chemistry with Justin, an investment sales consultant from Baltimore who painted her a picture of roses and leaned in for the first kiss.

And I got just a touch of Duke of Hastings from “Bridgerton” vibes when Andrew S, a charming pro football player from Chicago by way of Vienna, spoke with a fake British accent.

I also have to put in a word for the Canadian in the bunch, firefighter trainee Brendan from my hometown of Toronto. Just ask Astrid Loch, who’s expecting a baby with fiancé Kevin Wendt, what she thinks of firefighters from Toronto.

Katie pins the first impression rose on early fan favourite Greg.

But my hands down favourite — me and the rest of Bachelor nation — was Greg, the marketing sales rep from New Jersey who won over Katie with his nervous sincerity and a necklace made of pasta by his 3-year-old niece. I mean, come on, the end-of-episode promo showed he and Katie kissing in the rain. I have no idea if Greg makes it to the end (no spoilers please!), but him getting the first impression rose was a given.

Who’s not so great?

There was some weird unexplained beef between Aaron, an insurance agent from San Diego, and Cody, a “zipper sales manager” also from San Diego. Seemingly out of the blue, Aaron told Cody, “I don’t like you, bro. Like, I’ve never liked you.” I can only assume they have some history back home.

Otherwise, no villains emerged on Night 1. There wasn’t even any double dipping on Katie’s time and the snarkery was mild at best, a few digs at Connor’s cat costume and at James, the software salesman from La Jolla, Calif., who spent most of the night in a giant wrapped box so he could be “present” for Katie.

Personally, I was waiting for someone to show up with a vibrator, hearkening back to Katie’s entrance on Matt James’ “Bachelor” season. Cody brought a blow-up doll named Sandy and Miami motivational speaker Karl depicted Katie as a vibrator-wielding princess in the poster he drew for her, but that was it for sex toys.

There were also a couple of random pairs of gitch. Florida technical recruiter Kyle pulled some tighty whities out of his pants and surgical skin salesman Jeff, who drove his motorhome (a.k.a. “Breaking Bad” RV) from New Jersey, apparently left his boxer shorts lying around before inviting Katie in for a tour. Um, yeah, way to keep it classy.

Oh right and there’s a virgin, gym owner Mike, also from San Diego, because we all know how well having virgins on the show has worked out before. Plus, yeah, what a great choice for a Bachelorette who describes herself as “sex positive.”

When all was said and done Katie handed out roses to a few serious contenders and a bunch of group date fodder.

As for what’s ahead, same old it looks like. The promos showed verbal sparring, men knocking each other around on group date challenges, the obligatory call for the medics, men getting naked or nearly so, lots of tears, hints of betrayal, an angry Katie telling guys to “get the fuck out” if they’re not there for her, Katie herself threatening to go home. So all the usual nonsense, but we’re still watching, aren’t we?

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

Edited because I said that Michael had a 4-year-old daughter rather than a son. Duh.

Watchable the week of June 7, 2021

June 7, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: We Are Lady Parts (June 9, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

Lucie Shorthouse as Momtaz, Juliette Motamed as Ayesha, Anjana Vasan as Amina, Faith Omole as Bisma, Sarah Kameela Impey as Saira in “We Are Lady Parts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Saima Khalid/Peacock)

There are plenty of reasons to watch “We Are Lady Parts,” among them its feminist underpinnings and the fact it treats its Muslim protagonists as individuals rather than stereotypes, but the most persuasive reason I can give is that it’s so much fun.

It’s also smart, witty and coherent with characters that are written like real human beings instead of caricatures, and plotting that feels rewarding even when we can see where it’s going. 

And then there’s the music that the all-female band of the title plays, an assemblage of searing punk songs that series creator Nida Manzoor wrote with her siblings.

Our way into the story is through its narrator, Amina (Anjana Vasan), a PhD student in microbiology living in London’s Whitechapel district, whose main concern is to find a husband — contrary to the advice of her parents, who don’t understand her hurry. (Mom Seema suggests she look for a spouse who can fulfil her “feminine requirements, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.”)

It’s Amina’s man myopia that brings her into the orbit of Lady Parts when she swoons over the drummer’s brother, Ahsan (Zaqi Ismail), and his “lustrous facial hair indicating virility while maintaining boy-next-door adorableness with eyebrows you could hang onto” as he hands out flyers for a band audition.

The fact that accomplished guitarist Amina refuses to play in public, since it induces vomiting or diarrhea, is no obstacle for bull-headed lead singer Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), who’s determined to bring Amina into the fold — over the objections of drummer Ayesha (Juliette Motamed), bassist Bisma (Faith Omole) and manager Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse).

Amina’s own objections go beyond rogue bodily functions to the fact playing in a band could interfere with her matrimonial quest, particularly one whose songs have names like “Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me” and “Voldemort Under My Head Scarf.”

But I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say a girl’s gotta rock, and Amina and Lady Parts do so to thrilling effect. 

(As an aside, the women singing along to the Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” in Ayesha’s VW Golf is the best rocking-out-in-a-car scene since “Wayne’s World” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”)

The members of Lady Parts play loud music and swear and make dick jokes; they also pray and, except for Saira, wear head scarves. And you’ve never seen a woman on TV in a niqab like the constantly vaping, joint-smoking Momtaz, who sells women’s undies when she’s not trying to get Lady Parts gigs.

Saira, meanwhile, who works in a butcher shop, is estranged from her family and in a casual relationship with her boyfriend; Bisma is an aspiring cartoonist (her series is about women who get homicidal on their periods) who’s happily married with a daughter; and perpetually angry Uber driver Ayesha is still exploring her sexuality.

The point is that there’s more than one way to be a Muslim woman, or just a woman for that matter.

Saira says Lady Parts’ music isn’t about getting famous but about “representation.” The series has that in spades, but it’s also just really good television that’s worth your time.

Short Takes

Joel Jackson as Detective James Steed and Geraldine Hakewill as Peregrine Fisher in “Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Finter/AcornTV

Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (June 7, Acorn)

I was initially skeptical of this Australian spinoff because of my devotion to the original “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” about an unconventional female private detective in 1920s Melbourne; I couldn’t imagine anything else comparing. Luckily, I discovered that “Ms. Fisher” is its own delightful thing, with free spirit Peregrine Fisher (Geraldine Hakewill), niece of Phryne, solving her own cases with her own band of endearing sidekicks, her own policeman love interest and oodles of 1960s fashions to ogle. In Season 2, Peregrine tackles new murder investigations while navigating modern womanhood in a patriarchal society and her feelings for Detective James Steed (Joel Jackson).

Toronto’s Afrim Pristine is the host of “Cheese: A Love Story.” PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

Cheese: A Love Story (June 9, 8 p.m., Food Network Canada/StackTV)

This Corus original docuseries falls into the category of shows you should never watch on an empty stomach. In it, Afrim Pristine, owner of Toronto’s Cheese Boutique and the world’s youngest maitre fromager, travels Canada and the world, learning about and sampling various cheeses. He starts with Switzerland, where he delves into the making of Gruyere, raclette and Emmental, and samples the dishes at a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants. The cheese made with coal might not get your mouth watering, but I’ll wager you’ll be searching your cupboards for your old fondue pot. Future episodes include visits to France, Greece, Toronto, Quebec and British Columbia. 

Marine Vacth as Louise in “Moloch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Guillaume Van Laethem/Sundance Now

Moloch (June 10, Sundance Now)

Set in an unnamed seaside town in France, this thriller is a blend of crime, psychological and horror drama. Citizens start spontaneously combusting, flummoxing the police and intriguing newbie journalist Louise (Marine Vacth), who gets drawn into the story in dangerous ways. Also in the mix are psychiatrist Gabriel (Olivier Gourmet) and two of his patients: Jimmy (Marc Zinga), a deeply religious bus driver, and Stella (Alice Verset), a young girl whose life is severely circumscribed by an incurable skin disease. Moloch is the name of an ancient deity that’s found written wherever a death has occurred, so that’s your warning that you’ll have to suspend your disbelief at the series’ conclusion.

Odds and Ends

Anna Paquin as Robyn in Season 2 of “Flack.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios

“Flack,” Amazon’s drama about women behaving badly in the public relations industry, returns on June 11. Reviews are embargoed, but I can tell you Anna Paquin is back as Robyn, the fixer extraordinaire whose personal life is a disaster, alongside quip machine Eve (Lydia Wilson), sweetly ambitious Melody (Rebecca Benson) and icy boss Caroline (Sophie Okonedo). Guest stars this season include Sam Neill, Daniel Dae Kim, Martha Plimpton and Jane Horrocks (Bubble on “Absolutely Fabulous”). Paquin’s husband, Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”), directed two episodes.

The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series debuts with “Loki” on Disney Plus (June 9). Tom Hiddleston leads a cast that includes Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. The series is set after the events of “Avengers: Endgame” and, yes, reviews are embargoed.

Netflix has the second part of the hit French drama “Lupin” (June 11), with Omar Sy as master criminal Assane Diop, who’s modelled himself after literary gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. Since Season 1 ended with both Assane and his son Raoul (Etan Simon) in peril, fans will no doubt welcome the show back, although I’m sure Assane will find a way out of both predicaments.

How time flies. “The Bachelorette” returns June 7 at 8 p.m. on Citytv (and ABC), the first of two seasons this year, this one starring Katie Thurston (with Michelle Young’s to air in the fall). Will the producers have learned anything after the recent disastrous season of “The Bachelor”? I wouldn’t bet on it.

If you’d like to brush up on your history of the American gay rights movement during Pride Month, check out “Equal” on Hollywood Suite (June 7, 9 p.m.), which profiles unsung heroes of the movement using a combination of archival interviews and re-enactments starring Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, Shannon Purser, Samira Wiley and other mostly gay or bisexual actors. Billy Porter of “Pose” narrates.

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