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Month: October 2021

Watchable Oct. 25 to 31, 2021

October 25, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Colin in Black and White (Oct. 29, Netflix)

Colin Kaepernick shares a story of determination and hope in “Colin in Black and White.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

Choices and perspectives, everyone has them.

If you watch this limited series created by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and filmmaker Ava DuVernay, you might reflect on the former and experience a shift in the latter.

Kaepernick became famous even to those of us who don’t follow football after he started protesting police brutality and anti-Black racism by refusing to stand during the U.S. national anthem in the 2016 NFL season.

That Kaepernick was essentially blackballed by the league after his protest seems a clear demonstration of the racism he was highlighting. He has not played professional football since the end of that season.

But “Colin in Black & White,” a hybrid of drama and documentary, only briefly mentions what happened in 2016. It’s mainly about Colin as a high school student in Turlock, Calif. (played by Jaden Michael of “Wonderstruck” and “The Get Down”), about his love of football, about being the biracial child of white adoptive parents (played by Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker), about laying the foundations for the man he would become.

And it’s easy to perceive the subtle and not so subtle racism that young Colin experiences as the groundwork for the adult activist, which is no doubt the point.

Indeed, the narration by the real Kaepernick explicitly ties professional sports and American social systems to white supremacy, including a segment that compares football tryouts of Black players to the sizing up of slaves.

The tone isn’t bitter or combative, mind you; Kaepernick is telling it like it is, touching on everything from the denigration of Black beauty to white appreciation for the so-called “acceptable Negro” of popular TV shows.

Meanwhile, we watch young Colin’s single-minded pursuit of an elusive college football scholarship, despite the fact colleges across the country were falling over themselves to sign him up for baseball, a sport he also excelled at along with basketball.

There’s a poignancy to the fact that though Kaepernick went on to quarterback for the only school that offered him a football scholarship, the University of Nevada, and distinguished himself there and as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, his football career appears to be over.

But my perception at the end of the six episodes was not of failure but of triumph, of not losing hope or dignity despite the harms perpetuated by an oppressive system.

“Trust your power,” Kaepernick tells his younger self. “Love your Blackness. You will know who you are.”

Netflix also has the comedy special “Sex: Unzipped” (Oct. 25), featuring rapper Saweetie and a cast of puppets, comedians and sex experts talking about healthy sex.

Short Takes

The Long Call (Oct. 28, BritBox)

Fans of detective dramas “Vera” and “Shetland” will want to give this series a look. It’s the latest TV adaptation of an Ann Cleeves novel, starring Ben Aldridge (“Pennyworth”) as Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Venn is good at his job and happy in his relationship with husband Jonathan (Declan Bennett), but he bears the scars of being shunned by his very religious parents after he left their evangelical sect. The series opens with Venn mourning his father’s death while not being welcome at the funeral. When a man’s body is found on the beach, the victim turns out to have ties not only to the town’s community centre and a couple of the young women who went there, but to the church that Matthew fled. The cast boasts familiar British faces, including Pearl Mackie (“Doctor Who”) as DC Jen Rafferty; Juliet Stevenson (“Bend It Like Beckham”) as Matthew’s mother; Neil Morrissey (“Line of Duty”) as a businessman with connections to the community centre and Martin Shaw (“George Gently”) as a church leader.

Overlord and the Underwoods (Oct. 29, CBC Gem)

This live-action comedy is intergalactic, but its message about the value of family is definitely down to earth. Arrogant alien Overlord (Troy Feldman) — “destroyer of nebulas, maker of smoothies” — has moved in with the family of his seventh cousin once removed, Flower Underwood (Patrice Goodman), making a nuisance of himself while hiding out from interplanetary bounty hunters. Overlord claims to hate Earth — “except for that television show where the housewives are mean to each other” — and the Underwoods, although it seems obvious that his adopted family will grow on him and vice versa. Mom Flower and dad Jim (Darryl Hinds) seem like trusting souls, ripe for exploitation by Overlord, but son Weaver (Ari Resnick) is on to his tricks. The cast includes Kamaia Fairburn of “Endlings” as sister Willow and Jann Arden as the voice of Overlord’s robot sidekick RO-FL. The series comes from Canadian writer Anthony Q. Farrell (“The Office”) and Ryan Wiesbrock (“Holly Hobbie”). If you’re into gentle, wholesome laughs, this might fit the bill.

CBC Gem also has the two-part documentary “Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street” (Oct. 29), which examines not just the 1921 race riot in which hundreds of Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were killed by white attackers but what was lost when most of the community of Greenwood was razed and the pervasive racism in America that laid the groundwork for the massacre.

The short film “Pigs” also gets its CBC Gem debut (Oct. 28). Written by Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Carly MacIsaac, and directed by Chala Hunter, it dramatizes the frustrations of a Black woman serving food and drinks to a mostly white, privileged clientele at a private party. The cast includes plenty of familiar faces from the Canadian TV and theatre scene, including Karen Robinson (“Schitt’s Creek”), Andrew Moodie, Tony Nappo and Christine Horne.

Odds and Ends

The cast of the new drag reality show “Call Me Mother.” PHOTO CREDIT: OUTtv

There’s a new addition to the genre of drag reality TV, with “Call Me Mother” (Oct. 25, 9 p.m., OUTtv), which has entire drag families competing and drag mothers Miss Peppermint, Crystal and Barbada de Barbades forced to eliminate their own adopted drag children. Farra N Hyte, drag mother of Brooke Lynn Hytes, is judge and choreographer. No screeners were available.

Also unavailable to be screened were episodes of Season 13 of “Doctor Who,” the last season for Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. It returns Oct. 31 at 7:55 p.m. on CTV Sci-Fi Channel with the appropriately titled episode “The Halloween Apocalypse.”

Amazon Prime Video debuts animated comedy “Fairfax” (Oct. 29), which lampoons consumer and influencer culture, among other things.

Apple TV Plus has “Swagger” (Oct. 29), about the world of youth basketball, inspired by the experiences of co-creator and NBA player Kevin Durant.

On PBS, there’s “Nova Universe Revealed” (Oct. 27, 9 p.m.), a co-production with BBC Studios Science Unit that tells the story of the universe using CGI images and archival footage from scientific missions. Photorealistic approximations of the birth of the first star, two galaxies colliding and a super-massive black hole are among the supersized drama promised.

More men mean more drama on Bachelor in Paradise Canada

October 25, 2021 /
Illeana Pennetto, Angela Amezcua, Lisa Mancini and Caitlin Clemmens share a laugh — possibly at the expense of the men on “Bachelor in Paradise Canada.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos courtesy Citytv

You know that old saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? Substitute beach bed for bush and you’ve kind of got the theme of this week’s “Bachelor in Paradise Canada.”

As chill as it seems at Camp Paradise — and the vibe is definitely more laidback than on the American show — there is just a titch of strategy involved in this dating game.

This week’s rose givers are next week’s rose receivers, after all. So if you’re going to double dip — I’m looking at you Chris and Brendan M — best do it in a way that doesn’t piss off the person you’re counting on to buy you a few more days of sun and sand.

You’ll recall that last week‘s end-of-episode drama was about Chris ditching Stacy at the cocktail party so he could explore his “connection” with Caitlin, pissing off both Stacy and Kamil, who’d been attached to Caitlin at the lip for the better part of the episode.

The cliffhanger, if you will, was about who would get Chris’s rose. So it goes without saying that on Sunday Chris was ahead of Kamil in the rose ceremony order, just to stoke the illusion he might give it to Caitlin instead of Stacy — although Caitlin was very clear that she didn’t want it.

Well, duh, of course Chris gave the rose to Stacy and Stacy took it, with a caveat: “I do want to make this clear that after today’s events I will no longer be pursuing where this goes,” i.e. I’ll take your rose now, but then you can stuff it where the sun don’t shine.

I love Stacy!

Five of the roses were locked in: Brendan S gave his to Illeana, Brendan M to Angela, Joey to Vay, Jeremy to Kit and Kamil to Caitlin. The only mystery was David, who had to choose between Ana — a woman he barely knew but whom he’d at least kissed — and Lisa, whom he knew a little too well since she was still pissed about him ghosting her three years ago.

Ana Cruz and Lisa Mancini wait, roseless, to see who David is going to choose.

I honestly thought Lisa was a goner, but I guess I underestimated the power of producer suggestion. David said he was giving his rose to “someone who I feel has had a rough go and I’m hoping by giving her another week she can find what she’s looking for.” Lisa accepted it as an “apology rose.”

When Ana left, David cried, but neither she nor Lisa had any sympathy for him. Ana said he was just trying to redeem himself and Lisa said he was “trying to save face so he doesn’t look like a complete D-bag.”

Wow, tough crowd!

The next day, Chris had shifted from talking about how he had a right to his “process” to saying he’d made “some mistakes.” Ya think? And his mood was about to get glummer because here came a new cast member whom even the other men described as a Greek god — although Alex Bordyukov of “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise Australia” is actually Russian-American.

Joey said Alex Bordyukov had that “tall, dark and handsome thing going on.”

Alex had a date card, naturally, and Lisa pounced on him before he could even finish saying that he wanted to talk to all the girls.

“Lisa is a sweetheart but my goodness, if the girl would just try less,” Joey said. “Too desperate, too thirsty: guys can read it from a mile away.”

Also, her conversational approach needed polish. She started by telling Alex her time in Paradise had been stressful then pointing out who was already coupled up, and then Stacy, also unattached but perhaps a bit less thirsty, interrupted before Lisa could tell Alex anything about herself.

In any event, he chose Kit for the date and they went canoeing. They didn’t seem to connect in any significant way. Kit was smitten with Alex’s vocabulary and how smart he seemed, but we didn’t see them kiss.

Back at the beach, Chris asked Stacy to talk, but if he had any hope in hell of getting a second chance with her, she quickly shot that down.

Chris claimed his chat with Caitlin had been about clearing the air with her so he could move forward with Stacy without distractions.

Stacy wasn’t buying that, nor is anyone else, I suspect.

“This is too much drama too early on for me to want to dabble in something I was not 100 per cent sure on,” Stacy said.

“Let’s hug it out, let’s be friends,” she added and the look on Chris’s face over her shoulder was one of pure dread.

Chris’s really bad day was about to get even worse. There was another new arrival: Mike Ogilvie from “The Bachelorette Canada,” a.k.a. “Eight-pack Mike,” according to Chris.

Funny, self-deprecating and with a so far hidden eight pack: firefighter Mike Ogilvie arrived.

Lisa took another swing and a miss with Mike; it was Stacy he zeroed in on. Turns out they had met and gone dancing in Vancouver, and Mike wanted to pick up where they left off. So did Stacy.

They went on a wood-chopping and s’mores date, and I am shipping these two so hard — especially after they shared a s’more “Lady and the Tramp” style, and Mike got marshmallow on his chin and Stacy wiped it off as they laughed. They are adorable together.

Mike told Stacy she was a shining light in a “world full of fakeness and negativity.” Then they had a good long smooch.

So I wasn’t feeling it the next day when Brendan M took Stacy for a conversation that ended up on a beach bed, with Brendan shirtless. Brendan said he was confused about his relationship with Angela because he still had feelings for both Angela and Stacy, but he didn’t want to be “attached by the hip” to Angela like Brendan S and Illeana. Although he described Angela as potential “wifey material.” Seriously? Wifey? OK-ey.

Brendan Morgan seems to be caught between Angela Amezcua and Stacy Johnson.

Brendan M claimed he didn’t want to have his cake and eat it too, but from Angela’s perspective it sure looked like he was chowing down on cake.

“I feel disrespected. I feel like he’s making me look stupid,” Angela said.

Luckily for her, a new man arrived who was totally Angela’s type: Josh Guvi, a filmmaker, actor and model from Vancouver.

Mind you, it looked like the third time might be the charm for Lisa, who bonded with Josh over their “Star Wars” fandom. He also seemed impressed that she made her living as a cos player. But then Angela swooped in, complimenting Josh’s dimples and flirting over his sideline as a fitness model.

Filmmaker, model and actor Josh Guvi turned several heads when he hit the beach.

Sorry Lisa. Angela and Josh went on a sort of adult version of a bouncy castle date with a couple of trampolines tethered to a blow-up raft. They did, as the date card said, bounce. They also kissed.

I’m not sure Brendan M could see that from shore, but he was feeling “a little jealous.” So, like, you mean the way Angela felt watching you with Stacy? Shoe’s on the other foot and all that.

There was one last bit of drama on the beach involving Kamil, Caitlin, Vay and Joey.

I’m not sure if Kamil is jealous or just incredulous that Vay pivoted to Joey so quickly after Kamil threw her off for Caitlin.

Kamil Nicalek threw shade at Joey Kirchner’s relationship with Vay Paquette.

When Kamil and Vay ended up at the bar together, he told Vay he knew “in real life” she wouldn’t go for Joey.

“Who would you see me with?” Vay asked.

“No one that’s available right now,” said Kamil, adding, “It is very early. Nothing’s set in concrete.”

That sure sounded like a hint that if Caitlin wasn’t in the picture Kamil would be Vay’s guy.

Vay perceived it as Kamil “mindfucking” her, which she shared with Jeremy, who — because he’s in a bromance with Joey and also because it’s good for drama — shared it with him.

Saddle up cowboy! We were meant to think violence would ensue when Joey charged over to demand that Kamil stop talking shit about Joey and Vay. Even Jeremy seemed to think it was a possibility, clutching at Joey’s arm and urging him to “Use your words.”

That impression was stoked further by Joey’s speech about how a stud horse in the pasture (him) would come to the defence of a mare (Vay) who was being scared by a coyoot (Kamil). “That stud’s gonna come through. And I’ll tell you what’s gonna be left of the face of the coyoot. Not so much,” he said.

In actual fact, Kamil and Joey had nothing more than a testy verbal exchange, which resulted in Kamil passively aggressively claiming he had no issue with the “space cowboy” and Joey telling Kamil, “Buddy, don’t start chirpin'” before he walked away.

The other conflict involved Caitlin’s continued fear that Vay was making a play for Kamil, Vay’s unease with Caitlin’s dislike of her and Caitlin’s annoyance that Kamil was getting in the middle of their beef.

So Caitlin and Vay had a one-on-one of their own during which Caitlin admitted she was pissed that Vay took Kamil on a date and also said she didn’t respect the way Vay handled “a lot of situations” in the workplace.

I’d love to have heard more about that part, but instead Caitlin concluded with something namby-pamby about how she wanted both herself and Vay “to have a happy time here and find our person.”

Next week: Chris tries to find redemption in a friendship rose from Lisa; Kamil decides to imitate his dog and mark his territory; Caitlin feels pushed “to the wayside”; Angela admits to Brendan Morgan that Josh gave her “a smooch” (um, sorry sweetie, it was more than one); Illeana gets kissy with Alex, prompting Brendan Scanzano to say he’ll leave.

You can tune in next Sunday at 8 p.m. on Citytv. And don’t forget “Bachelor After Show: After Paradise” at 9:30 p.m. If you want to talk Paradise with me you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo


One man’s cheat sheets get failing grade from Bachelorette

October 20, 2021 /
Bachelorette Michelle Young and her suitors. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Michelle Young’s maiden voyage as Bachelorette included a dude who served himself up on a silver platter, but Michelle had another guy’s head on a platter after deciding he wasn’t there for the Right Reasons (yes, we have to capitalize those words).

Moral of the story: maybe don’t pack your crib notes on how to maximize your time on the show in your luggage, especially not in a red binder with the word “Bachelorette” spelled “Bachlorette” on the front.

By and large, the 30 men Michelle met on Night 1 seemed like affable fellows, which is perhaps why some drama needed to be stirred up over Ryan Fox, an environmental consultant from San Jose, Calif.

What a coincidence that co-hosts Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams surprised three of the men in their hotel rooms and then kicked them out while they snooped through their stuff.

Oh jackpot! There was Ryan’s binder with notes on topics like how to get a good edit, how to get more screen time and — dunh, dunh, dunh, dunnnnh — “how to make it seem like you’re super interested.” Oops.

Ryan Fox looking interested in Michelle before she red-flagged his ass.

Kaitlyn and Tayshia were concerned, but not enough to warn Michelle until after she’d been charmed by Ryan, who showed up with an ice cream truck and a cheesy line about serving up “two scoops of love.” It was working for Michelle, though.

Ryan had obviously studied well, since he told Michelle about how he coaches Special Olympics and that he connected with her because she’s “so giving.”

That first thing is definitely true, but once Michelle had been tipped off by Tayshia and Kaitlyn, and gone to Ryan’s room to inspect the documents for herself, the kindergarten teacher went into full on disciplinarian mode.

Ryan claimed most of his notes had been prepared by friends to help him figure the show out since he hadn’t watched more than two hours of “The Bachelorette” — a curious claim considering he took part in the “Bachelor Live on Stage” tour when it made a San Jose stop.

Whatever the reality, Michelle kicked him to the curb. When Ryan asked for another chance she told him sternly, “You need to respect that I’m going to choose to listen to my red flags.” Second guess Miss Young at your peril.

One down, 29 to go.

There was another man in the doghouse. That would be Joe Coleman, a real estate developer and fellow Minnesotan.

Joe Coleman made a good impression until Michelle remembered who he was.

Joe was looking forward to bonding with Michelle over their shared geographic location, love of basketball and biracial heritage, but Michelle — who is sharp as a tack — soon figured out he was the man who ghosted her when they exchanged DMs; when exactly, I don’t know.

Joe blamed it on the fact one of his properties was in George Floyd Square — that’s the Black man who was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 — and that there were murders and shootings happening in the neighbourhood and he was feeling anxious.

Michelle countered that she was “a woman of colour living right there when George Floyd and all these different things are going on,” so would have understood if Joe had explained his anxiety.

She softened when he told her he’d had therapy to help with his poor communication skills — “Being a Black man talking about going to therapy, I want you to know that I see you” — but Joe had to wait until the very last rose to find out if he’d been reprieved.

Let’s be honest, though. It was pretty much a given that Joe would stay, if nothing else as a potential conduit for drama if the other men find out Michelle knew him before the show.

So let’s talk about the men who got good grades.

Michelle was taken with Canadian Nayte Olukoya.

The first impression rose winner was Nayte, a Winnipeg native living in Austin, Texas, with a great smile, an adorable dog and a mom who’s a teacher. But he also seemed uncomfortable with being a child of divorce, with his mom having uncoupled from not only his dad but his stepdad, “who’s my best friend.”

Michelle rewarded Nayte for pushing himself to be vulnerable — we’re going to hear that word a lot for the next couple of months — and sealed it with a long kiss that gave her sparks and butterflies, the first we saw her bestow.

For his part, Nayte said earlier that rather than butterflies he had “pigeons in my stomach.”

Sounds like Nayte is going to be accused of being a player and an actor later on, but I’m just going to put my fingers in my ears and go la, la, la, la, la.

Michelle also connected with Rick, who had the weirdest entrance hands down, disguising himself as a plate of food. Seriously, when a table was wheeled over to Michelle with a serving platter on it, she lifted the lid and screamed because there was Rick’s head on a bed of lettuce.

Michelle went back for a second helping of Rick Leach after he showed up disguised as dinner.

When Rick, a medical sales rep from Los Angeles, finally ditched the garnish he came off as a little, um, intense. He seemed very focused on finding the love of his life and the mother of his children. Fine, but it’s the first night and you spent most of it disguised as an entree.

Among the 23 men whom Michelle kept around were two firefighters: Daniel from Austin turned up in his bunker gear but on a toy firetruck; PJ from Houston drove up in the real deal, sirens blaring, and a slick suit and tie.

Michelle also kept two Chris’s: Chris Sutton, a self-described “southern gentleman” and commodities broker living in West Hollywood, who showed up looking like AC/DC’s Angus Young in a schoolboy suit; and Chris Gallant, a motivational speaker from Halifax.

Rodney Mathews should have asked Ryan if he had any cheat sheets on apple varieties.

Among the many teacher references Michelle (and we) had to endure, Clayton, a Missouri medical sales rep, invited Michelle to spank him with a ruler and scored a rose, and Rodney, a California sales rep, dressed up as an apple. Michelle passed him even though he failed her apple test, describing himself as a Granny Smith, a green apple, despite wearing a red costume.

What did the other successful suitors do? Pizzapreneur Peter fed Michelle cannoli and red wine; Romeo spoke French to her; Will spoke some other language; Pardeep told her his dopamine was on fire; Brandon J brought a bed with him and kissed her hand; Spencer showed up with two basketballs; Martin did a back flip; Leroy took a Polaroid of her; Jamie told her she smiles with her spirit. Don’t ask me what Alec and Casey and Mollique and Olu did, but LT wore his suit without any pants and still got a rose.

Hey, somebody’s got to populate the group dates.

So as Michelle said, “Cheers to really beginning the journey.”

You can tune in next Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv, but please note I’ll be on the road next week celebrating a significant birthday and will not post a recap next Wednesday. You can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable Oct. 18-24, 2021

October 18, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Wakefield (Oct. 18, 9 p.m., Crave)

Nik (Rudi Dharmalingam) comforts a patient in “Wakefield.” PHOTO CREDIT: Screen grab

Things are often not what they seem in this psychological dramedy from Australia.

For instance, when we first meet psychiatric nurse Nik (British actor Rudi Dharmalingam), he’s standing on the edge of a cliff in the stunningly beautiful Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Is he about to jump? That would be a logical assumption in a series whose main concern is mental illness, but as we watch we discover a more prosaic, even comedic reason for Nik’s presence on the cliff, which involves the Dexys Midnight Runners song “Come On Eileen.”

That’s not to say that Nik doesn’t have his issues, as does everyone at Wakefield hospital, patient and staff alike.

Nik is extremely gifted at his job, able to get through to the patients in a way that no one else can, but there’s trauma bubbling beneath the surface involving his absent mother. Flashbacks suggest that mental illness has marred his own family history.

Other complications include the fact that his ex-fiancee, psychiatrist Kareena Wells (Geraldine Hakewill of “Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries”), also works at Wakefield and Nik clearly isn’t over her (nor, it seems, is she over him, despite her marriage to another man). And then there’s Linda (Mandy McElhinney), the acting nurse manager, who’ll do whatever she must to hang on to the job, even if it means blackening Nik’s reputation.

Woven through Nik’s personal story are the stories of individual patients. Some get better and check out after an episode or two; some are so ill there seems little likelihood of them ever leaving Wakefield, such as the catatonically depressed Omar (Richie Miller) or Tessa (Bessie Holland), a compulsive hoarder who doesn’t see the point in living anymore.

What comes through most strongly in all these threads is a sense of shared humanity. Wellness is a continuum that everyone is on rather than a sharply defined state of being as Nik’s and the others’ journeys make clear.

I also recommend “Oscar Peterson: Black + White” by prolific documentary maker Barry Avrich, making its world streaming premiere on Crave on Oct. 22. Unfortunately, I missed my chance to screen it (totally me dropping the ball), but movie critic Peter Howell recommended it in the Toronto Star when it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as a portrait of a “a career that redefined jazz piano, helped give civil rights a soundtrack (‘Hymn to Freedom’), and made (Peterson) a hero and influence to the likes of Quincy Jones, Jon Batiste and even Billy Joel.” It seems to me we don’t celebrates our heroes enough in Canada. Here’s a chance to appreciate one of them.

Crave also has Season 2 of the uplifting and heartfelt “We’re Here” (Oct. 18, 9 p.m.), in which “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hare and Shangela visit small towns in America to help their chosen drag kids put on a show and become more themselves in the process. And the fifth and final season of Issa Rae’s “Insecure” debuts Oct. 24.

Short Takes

Martin Clunes as Colin Sutton in “Manhunt: The Night Stalker.” PHOTO CREDIT: Neil Genower/AcornTV

Manhunt: The Night Stalker (Oct. 18, Acorn)

If you like detective dramas that focus more on the painstaking work of solving murders than lurid true crime cliches you’ll like “Manhunt: The Night Stalker.” Martin Clunes (“Doc Martin”) returns as the fictional version of real-life DCI Colin Sutton, who was called in to help with the case of the Night Stalker, a burglar and rapist who had been operating with impunity in East London for 17 years. His victims were mostly frail elderly women and sometimes men, and the series conveys the deep trauma of the attacks on the victims and their families, as well as the psychological toll of the hunt on Sutton and other officers.

Eve, Brandy, Naturi Naughton and Nadine Velazquez in “Queens.” PHOTO CREDIT: Kim Simms/ABC

Queens (Oct. 19, 10 p.m.)

Yes, 2021 has given us two shows about women of a certain age reuniting to reclaim their music careers. Whereas the Tina Fey-produced “Girls5eva” plays its 1990s girl group reunion for laughs, “Queens” leans into the drama — and sometimes the melodrama. The other major difference is that Girls5eva are a pop group; the Nasty Bitches are a hip-hop quartet. And with rapper Eve, and R&B singers Brandy Norwood and Naturi Naughton in the cast, and Swiss Beatz as the executive music producer, these women aren’t just faking it. Eve plays under-appreciated mother of five Brianna; Naughton is pastor’s wife and conflicted Christian Jill; Norwood is struggling folk singer Naomi, mother to an estranged daughter; and Nadine Velazquez (“My Name Is Earl”) rounds out the cast as disgraced TV host Valeria. Throw in Taylor Sele as manager E-Roc, whom Valeria and Naomi both lust after, and Pepi Sonuga as rapper Lil Muffin, whom the older women take under their wing, and let the female empowerment flow.

Deafblind activist Helen Keller in 1905. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of PBS

Becoming Helen Keller (Oct. 19, 9 p.m., PBS)

I sometimes wish Canada’s public broadcaster had a biography series like “American Masters,” with its exploration of luminaries, both immigrant and native-born, from all facets of American life. I never come away from an episode without learning something new. In this case, the pitifully little I knew about Helen Keller came from the 1962 movie “The Miracle Worker,” which dramatized teacher Annie Sullivan’s early instruction of Helen, who lost her hearing and sight at age one and a half. “Becoming Helen Keller” details her relationship with Annie, who taught her to read, write and communicate, and lived with her for more than 50 years, but it also fills in the blanks of Helen’s very full life as an adult. Among the many things I didn’t know: she graduated with honours from Radcliffe College, then the female equivalent of Harvard; she was a friend of Mark Twain; her books were burned by the Nazis; she was once declared one of the 10 most dangerous women in America for her social and political views; she and Annie once had a vaudeville act. Until her death in 1968, Keller advocated not only for the deaf, blind and others with disabilities, but for workers’ rights, women’s rights and the rights of Black citizens, and was America’s first goodwill ambassador. The doc also highlights her imperfections, including her brief flirtation with eugenics, none of which cancels out the good she did.

Also note that PBS has the Halloween cartoon classic “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Roman Lapshin with some of Vladimir Dvorkin’s paintings. PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

Portrayal (Oct. 24, 9 p.m., documentary Channel)

This doc by Billie Mintz is like a family history crossed with a crime drama and a thriller. Toronto’s Roman Lapshin sets out to uncover a family secret and get justice for his late grandfather, an unknown Russian Jewish painter named Vladimir Dvorkin. In 1990, as a newly arrived immigrant in Tel Aviv, Vladimir met a man at a market who offered to pay him to produce paintings, mostly portraits. That man, Oz Almog, then passed off the paintings as his own, even displaying them in an international exhibition called “Him Too??” There seems little doubt that the paintings are Vladimir’s, since he took video in his home of the portraits that later turned up in Almog’s exhibition. But when a terrified Roman finally works up the courage to confront Oz in Serbia, where he keeps the paintings, Oz says Vladimir was merely his assistant. So is Oz a thief or just an employer who enabled Vladimir’s family to pay their bills? Even Roman can’t decide.

Speaking of family secrets, CBC Gem has the Irish drama “Smother” (Oct. 22), about the uncomfortable revelations that are stirred up after a man is found dead at the foot of a cliff the day after his wife’s birthday party.

Odds and Ends

Shamier Anderson in “Invasion.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Apple TV Plus

I’d love to tell you about the big budget sci-fi show “Invasion” (Oct. 22, Apple TV Plus), but reviews are embargoed until Thursday. However, I’ll have an interview with star Shamier Anderson in Saturday’s Toronto Star and online at thestar.com.

Netflix has got a few new things this week, including the Gwyneth Paltrow-branded “Sex, Love & goop” (Oct. 21), which is ostensibly about helping couples have better sex lives; the animated “Adventure Beast” (Oct. 22), about a zoologist, his niece and his assistant exploring the world and saving animals; and Season 2 of supernatural comic book series “Locke & Key” (Oct. 22).

Yep, another season of “The Bachelorette” is about to begin (Oct. 19, 8 p.m., Citytv) starring the lovely Michelle Young. I’ll be recapping it here so check for posts on Wednesdays.

If you liked all those movies about a killer doll, the series “Chucky” begins (Oct. 19, 10 p.m., Showcase), with Brad Dourif (who will forever be Doc Cochran from “Deadwood” to me) as the voice of the terrifying toy.

It’s kiss and run for one woman on Bachelor in Paradise Canada

October 18, 2021 /
The “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” cast in Episode 2 and yes, there’s an extra woman.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, including screen shots, courtesy of Citytv

If you want to couple up you better pucker up.

Kissing is both currency and communication on a “Bachelor” show. You want to stick around and buy yourself air time? Start sucking face, buttercup.

It was too much for Alice Li, the winner of a contest in which Canadians chose the “Perfect Companion” — although one wonders how much the Toronto accountant, listed as one of the Bachelor Nation fan contestants, knew going into “Bachelor in Paradise Canada.”

After kissing new arrival David — more on him later — she bowed out of a “Sadie Hawkins” dance that was such a smooch fest it must have set a record for a simultaneous “Bachelor” makeout sesh. It reminded me of an old-fashioned high school dance — if all the chaperones had suddenly gone blind or stopped giving a shit about their horny teenage charges.

Alice sat out the Sadie Hawkins dance and then the rest of the season.

Anyway, Alice eliminated herself the next day, explaining she was looking for “that emotional connection before any physical steps,” i.e. she wasn’t keen on kissing strangers.

It probably didn’t help that she went on a date with David Pinard, a Toronto actor and musician whose claim to fame on “The Bachelorette Canada” was giving the star the impression he was more interested in furthering his career than in her. Though David claimed to have turned over a new leaf, the rest of the Paradise cast wasn’t buying it.

“That was so fake,” Brendan Scanzano said after David teared up on hearing that Alice had left. “Get the fuck out of here. Are you kidding me bro?” was Joey’s, ahem, measured reaction. David claimed he was going to give Alice his rose, this despite making it clear on their archery date that he wouldn’t put his eggs in anyone’s basket until he’d met “everyone” in Paradise.

And everyone included Ana, David’s date at the Sadie Hawkins — not Sadie Hopkins, Sarah Hoskins or Sarah Hopkins, by the way; it’s just a dance to which the women invite the men.

Couples pair off for the Sadie Hawkins dance in Paradise.

Before we get into who danced and smooched with whom (to Dean Brody’s “Canadian Summer” and OK, very Canadian, but must we ape the U.S. franchise’s country music fetish?), let’s back up and explore how last week‘s triangles resolved themselves, for the time being anyway.

You’ll recall that real estate agents Kamil and Caitlin were paired up until Caitlin’s real estate frenemy Vay arrived and took Kamil on a date, but then Caitlin snuggled with inventor Chris as a backup. Meanwhile, ex-CFL player Brendan Morgan was wooing both model Angela and interior design student Stacy.

Stacy decided to extricate herself from her triangle. Then Chris, after watching Caitlin in an intense kiss-a-rama with Kamil, decided to read the body language, er, the writing on the wall.

That’s about the time Stacy came around to check on Chris. Stacy said she was being a “friend,” but a teary-eyed Chris saw it as a sign from the Paradise gods. In fact, he told Stacy he’d wanted to meet her ever since seeing her on “Bachelor Canada.”

Chris Kotelmach shares his truth with new Paradise interest Stacy Johnson.

Inevitably, they kissed. Chris seemed to have upped his game a little from last week’s episode. Whereas Caitlin called Chris’s smooch “forced and a little unnatural,” Stacy said it “wasn’t bad.”

Not exactly high praise, but then again, Stacy seemed to have no problem locking lips with Chris on the beach as they slow danced.

And then there was Vay. Kamil at least had the courtesy to tell her he was vacating her for Caitlin before launching himself at Caitlin’s mouth. But Vay was having a hard time picturing herself as anybody’s second choice. “I already know I’m not your person. If you were my person, a connection with Caitlin wouldn’t stop that,” she told Kamil, a tad peevishly.

Vay then set her sights on Joey. I know, I know: Toronto glam girl and Alberta cowboy, who’d have thunk it? But they bonded when Joey opened up about his best friend who died when Joey was 14, coincidentally on April 27, Vay’s birthday. And also, they both liked the way the other kissed.

See, always back to the kissing.

So there were five matched sets going into the Sadie Hawkins, including Brendan S and Illeana, and Brenda M and Angela. That left David and Jeremy as the wildcards.

Once David had been claimed by Ana and Alice had bowed out, Jeremy had to decide between cos player Lisa and her roommate, model and content creator Kit. After kissing both of them he chose Kit, adding to what David ironically called Lisa’s “bad day.”

Why ironic? Because David was a big part of the reason she was having a bad day.

David Pinard bellies up to Kevin’s bar with Joey Kirchner and Lisa Mancini in the background.

The deets as Lisa relayed them to bartender Kevin Wendt: she and David went on a bunch of dates in Toronto, then she got invited to an “adult summer camp” as an influencer and David asked to tag along, but once there ignored her, told everybody he was famous and had sex with someone else. And that was the last time she spoke to him in the three years until he walked up to the Paradise bar.

David, Lisa said, “is like a used greasy car salesman . . . You won’t find out what a piece of crap you just paid for until it’s too late.”

David’s version was that Lisa wanted more than he could give and he tried to apologize after things ended in a way that “wasn’t the best,” but she wouldn’t respond to his overtures. FYI: I don’t think anyone believed his version, except maybe Ana.

Sadly, David was Lisa’s only chance at getting a rose — and no, after two episodes we still haven’t had a rose ceremony!

As weird as it would be to accept a rose from David, I’d be here for it if it meant Lisa could stick around. She’s funny and quirky and we need both those things in Paradise.

The status of Lisa’s rose wasn’t the only drama brewing as the rose ceremony crept near.

I have no idea why Chris thought it a good idea to ditch Stacy to talk to Caitlin so he could “understand the connection” they had — well, fine, drama — but he interrupted Caitlin and Kamil to ask Caitlin if she was interested in exploring “what we had.”

Dude, you had a couple of conversations and a kiss, but OK, let’s roll with it.

“I feel like you might be looking for an answer that I don’t think I can give,” was Caitlin’s ultimate response, given while a peeved Kamil hovered.

Kamil Nicalek and Chris talk Caitlin. “It’s gonna get scrappy,” Chris said.

Chris either has balls or he’s really good at taking producer direction because his next move was to approach Kamil to further stake his claim on Caitlin’s attention.

“Why are you coming for my girl?” Kamil asked.

“She’s not your girl,” Chris responded. “I have a very strong connection with Caitlin.”

“The connection is terminated,” said Kamil.

“I still feel something,” Chris argued.

“Chris, you can feel it for forever, but she’s not reciprocating that to you,” said an exasperated Kamil, following up with “What about Stacy?”

Chris walked away without answering Kamil’s repeated question — “Who ya gonna pick?” — and Kamil threw his drink in the sand. It wasn’t quite Aaron going nose to nose with Thomas and/or Ivan, and the drink glass was plastic, but we’ll take it.

So next week: a rose ceremony; comely new arrivals Alex Bordyukov, Mike Ogilvie and Josh Guvi as the women take the power of the rose; Brendan M waffling between Angela and Stacy . . . again; and Kamil pissing off Joey by suggesting that Vay’s too good for him.

You can tune in next Sunday at 8 p.m. on Citytv to see how it turns out. And don’t forget “Bachelor After Show: After Paradise” at 9:30 p.m. If you want to talk Paradise with me you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable Oct. 11-17, 2021

October 11, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Succession (Oct. 17, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy in Season 3 of “Succession.” PHOTO CREDIT: David M. Russell/HBO

In the opening seconds of Season 3 of “Succession,” as media mogul Logan Roy and his minions helicopter back from the yacht vacation ruined after son Kendall went rogue, I could imagine the accompanying violin strains being replaced by “The Ride of the Valkyries,” “Apocalypse Now” style.

Logan (Brian Cox) isn’t about to destroy a North Vietnamese village — although I imagine he would if it boosted his ego or his bottom line, and he could get away with it — but as he roars later at underling Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), “This is war!”

Of course, the Roy family has always been at a type of war as Logan plays the kids — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) — against each other, but this season the wounds they inflict seem especially vicious.

Kendall is the immediate target since, at the end of Season 2, he used the news conference at which he was supposed to take the fall for the sex assault and murder scandal plaguing the company to instead implicate his father.

Kendall seems to have irrevocably cast himself out of the family while posing as a woke defender of the women exploited by Waystar Royco’s cruise line, although obviously it’s as much about power, ego and impressing Daddy as it ever was.

And just as obviously, it doesn’t take long for his siblings to at least consider the idea of backing Kendall while trying to gauge whether the wounds inflicted on Logan are enough to take him down this time.

There’s an early scene between Shiv and Roman that perfectly demonstrates the mental calculations each character is always running to maximize their self-interest.

As they watch media coverage of Kendall’s bombshell, Roman asks Shiv what she’s thinking.

“I’m thinking that we just need to back Dad right now and I can’t believe anyone would think anything else,” she replies. Then she adds, whispering, “But what am I actually thinking? Well, I’m thinking, is he toast?” to which Roman responds, “I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be thinking: Is he toast?” as Shiv smiles.

HBO has asked critics not to reveal spoilers so I won’t tell you where everyone lands as the jockeying for power continues — and having seen only seven of the nine episodes, I don’t know how it ends — but some deep wounds are inflicted, not only by Logan but by the kids on each other.

Despite its concerns with power, money, politics, media and corporate arrogance, “Succession” has always been a show about family and, particularly, the damage done by an abusive, emotionally unavailable parent, a theme that Season 3 really brings to the fore.

The show’s brilliance — besides the smart scripts, the excellent acting and directing, and the fact it’s thrilling even when it’s just people in a room talking to each other — is that it makes us care about the fates of its conniving, damaged characters despite how loathsome they are.

But it’s Shiv who earns my particular sympathy this season, at least part of the time, as it becomes increasingly clear she’ll never wield real power in the company because of her gender.

The patriarchy is firmly in charge, but one suspects that even if Logan were out of the picture the rot at the core of the family would continue to spread. There is no happy ending imaginable for the Roy clan, who all seem miserable all of the time — with the possible exception of Greg (Nicholas Braun), who continues to offer some comic relief along with Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).

But this misery is well worth our company. This new season of “Succession” is as addictively watchable as the first two.

Short Takes

A re-enactment of the haunting of the Perron family from the docuseries “Bathsheba.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of T+E

Bathsheba (Oct. 11, 9 p.m., T+E)

Whether you believe in the paranormal or you just like a good ghost story, this two-part series is scary enough to spook you. I don’t mind telling you the back of my neck prickled as I sat in my home alone after watching the first episode. It’s about the true story behind the 2013 movie “The Conjuring,” which blamed the haunting of a centuries-old Rhode Island farmhouse on a 19th-century woman named Bathsheba Sherman. It turns out the rumours about Bathsheba being a witch who killed her children are a bunch of hooey, which doesn’t help explain the frightening things that happened to the Perron family when they moved into the 1700s Richardson Arnold House in 1971, including apparitions, voices in the night and even physical injuries. Whatever it was, it still moves four of the five Perron daughters to tears all these years later. The docuseries includes the usual mix of re-enactments with witness and expert interviews, led by Indigenous paranormal investigator Erin Goodpipe, who visits the house to try to communicate with its spiritual residents. Incidentally, the house is currently up for sale by the current owners, who also claim to have experienced strange phenomena while living there.

“Bathsheba” is appropriately part of T+E’s Creep Week, which ends Oct. 17 and includes the debut of “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life” (Oct. 15, 10 p.m.), a series in which the horror filmmaker gives us not just tales of things that go bump in the night but the fallout in the lives of the people who experienced them.

Comedians Daniel Woodrow and Keith Pedro with host Ennis Esmer, centre, on “Roast Battle Canada.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Roast Battle Canada (Oct. 11, 10:30 p.m., CTV Comedy Channel)

In this competition show based on an American original and a Quebec spinoff, Canadian comedians insult each other in a way that’s hopefully funny enough to be declared the winner by an expert panel that includes K. Trevor Wilson of “Letterkenny,” Sabrina Jalees and superstar Russell Peters. I’m not gonna lie, the judges and host Ennis Esmer were sometimes funnier than the comics onstage in the debut episode, although the competitors did get in some laugh-out-loud zingers. And it perhaps goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, this is not stuff you want to be watching with your kids or any easily offended member of your household.

Canada’s Drag Race (Oct. 14, 9 p.m., Crave)

Yes bitch, Canada’s version of the wildly successful “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is back for its sophomore season. The 12 queens competing are not so Toronto-centric this year, with four queens from Quebec, four from Vancouver, one from Ottawa and the show’s first Calgary queen in Stephanie Prince, who’s already looking like a formidable competitor as well as a potential villain. There’s also an assortment of body types and ethnicities among the cast. Canada’s most famous drag queen, Brooke Lynn Hytes, is back to lead the judging panel alongside stylist Brad Goreski, actor Amanda Brugel and TV personality Traci Melchor. Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg, daughter of David, is guest judge in the season premiere. Time to get to werk.

Crave also has Season 2 of the Cape Cod crime and drugs drama “Hightown” on Oct 17.

The Great Canadian Baking Show (Oct. 17, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Ready, set, just try to watch this without running to your kitchen to find a pastry to stuff in your mouth. Ten new amateur bakers from across Canada compete for bragging rights with the often impressive results judged by pastry chef Bruno Feldeisen and pie expert Kyla Kennaley. Comedians Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis have managed to evade the revolving host door to return for a second season of taste-testing, encouraging and uttering the words “Ready, set, bake!”

CBC also has “A Suitable Boy” (Oct. 17, 9 p.m.), the BBC adaptation of the 1993 Vikram Seth novel about a young Hindu woman’s search for love among three potential suitors. It’s a bit overstuffed, but beautifully shot and capably acted.

Odds and Ends

So many screeners, so little time: I didn’t get a chance to check out “Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol,” debuting Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. on Showcase, but if adaptations of Brown’s Robert Langdon novels are your thing you might want to watch this. Ashley Zukerman (“A Teacher,” “Succession”) stars as Langdon.

Showcase also has Season 4 of “The Sinner” Oct. 13 at 10 p.m.

Netflix brings you Season 2 of the popular “The Baby-Sitters Club” on Oct. 11 and Season 3 of “You” on Oct. 15.

This week, Disney Plus has “Just Beyond” (Oct. 13), a YA horror series featuring supernatural phenomena inspired by the graphic novels by R.L. Stine.

Finally, if you’re a fan of British period drama and/or nostalgia, know that a remastered version of the 1981 miniseries “Brideshead Revisited,” starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, drops on BritBox on Oct. 12.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible, 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.

It’s canoes and canoodling on ‘Bachelor in Paradise Canada’

October 11, 2021 /
From left, Joey, Alice, Jeremy, Brendan M, Stacy, Kit, Lisa and Angela hang out
in the Canadian equivalent of the rose palapa. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos courtesy of Citytv

Six makeout sessions, three triangles, one pre-emptive emotional breakdown, one brewing “cat fight.”

Were you worried Canadians would be too polite for drama? Pshaw.

OK, we haven’t had a quadrangle yet, a la Kenny, Mari, Demi and Tia on U.S. “Paradise,” nor have I seen a boom boom room, but the inaugural “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” season is still young.

What we did see on Sunday’s premiere episode was familiar — comely cast members ostensibly looking for love, confessionals, date cards, a bar to gather at, even a beach bed — but also its own thing. That includes a Canadian theme song: “We’re Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time)” by Vancouver band Trooper.

Nobody is going to mistake that Northern Ontario lakeside setting for Mexico, not with its forest backdrop, the canoes and the Muskoka chairs, plus the funny animal shots are of seagulls, hawks, geese, ducks, robins and frogs rather than iguanas and crabs — no sign yet of the “friendly skunks” that bartender Kevin Wendt said he encountered.

Medicine Hat’s Joey Kirchner, with host Jesse Jones, let it almost all hang out on his “Paradise” entrance.

“Bachelor in Paradise” U.S. gave us a naked Kenny Braasch; “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” will see his six-pack abs and tattoos, and raise you a pink Speedo, cowboy boots and cowboy hat in Alberta construction worker and model Joey.

As his fellow Albertan, ex-pro football player turned yoga instructor Brendan M quipped, “The fact that Joey showed up here in a Speedo, I mean that shows a lot of balls; it literally shows a lot of balls” — and note there were no black bars on the crotch shots.

And then there’s Lisa, the squirrel-loving “mermaid” from Season 3 of “The Bachelor Canada,” who just might own the record for earliest tears ever on a “Paradise” season.

Lisa was crying because of things that hadn’t happened yet. “I literally have so much time to create conspiracy theories in my head,” the St. Catharines cos player declared to the other cast members.

She teared up telling Chris, the self-described “Renaissance man” from the sole “Bachelorette Canada” season, that she was expecting other people to be “pieces of shit,” a phrase she used several times on camera — including once when she fell off her six-inch heels.

“Nobody told me we’d be at the beach,” she complained to Kevin, refusing his suggestion to take the shoes off because she’d lose her “power” if she lost her height.

Speaking of power, New York real estate dude Kamil — he of the awkward TV breakup with U.S. “Paradise” ex Annaliese — mistook Lisa at first for Shushanna, the woman who got a witchcraft edit on “Paradise” after she stalked Kamil and burnt his photo in a fire. And, oh yeah, Shushanna also cried a lot.

Kamil Nicalek called Caitlin Clemmens “Clementine” because she was “a sweet time.”

Kamil had the distinction of being part of two triangles: one with Chris and Toronto real estate agent Caitlin, a vet of both the U.S. “Bachelor” and “Paradise”; and one with Caitlin and Veronique, a.k.a. Vay, a Toronto by way of Sudbury real estate agent who just happens to be Caitlin’s nemesis. What a coincidence!

Why does Caitlin dislike Vay? No idea. The former said, “It’s not a conversation that needs to be had on TV” when other cast members pumped her for deets. Vay, who turned up late with date card in hand and chose Kamil — duh — told him she had no idea why Caitlin disliked her.

Kamil vowed to stay neutral like Switzerland or Canada in the beef between the two — if by neutral you mean calling Caitlin his “number one priority” but then kissing Vay a lot.

Chris Kotelmach with Ana Cruz, left, and Caitlin Clemmens, a.k.a. “fuck, what’s her name?”

Chris, meanwhile, had decided Caitlin was going to be the mother of his children, even though at one point he couldn’t remember her name. He took advantage of Kamil’s absence to snuggle with Caitlin and, eventually, kiss her. And the kiss was, to quote Caitlin, “Um, I don’t know,” and also “forced and a little unnatural,” although to Chris it was a double “wow.”

Kisses, as you may know, are a sore point for Chris since in “Bachelorette Canada,” it was Jasmine Lorimer refusing to kiss him that preceded him being sent home. But Caitlin decided to keep Chris in her back pocket to protect herself while Kamil was dallying with Vay.

The other triangle involved Edmontonian Brendan M, American model, “Bachelor” and “Paradise” vet Angela and Vancouver “Bachelor Canada” alum Stacy.

Angela Amezcua only had eyes for former CFL player Brendan Morgan’s green eyes.

Brendan smooched both of them pretty extensively, which shows he developed skills as a player beyond his football days with Winnipeg and Edmonton. Angela seemed to have the edge on kissing though, with Brendan saying, on a scale of 1 to 10, kissing her required “another scale.”

And then there was the other Brendan: Scanzano, as in the man of mystery from Katie Thurston’s “Bachelorette” season, since viewers couldn’t seem to figure out who he was and why he was still there.

He was first to arrive, by boat — so if you’re all trying to figure out where this was filmed, clearly it’s on an island — and the first to form a much coveted connection, with New Yorker Illeana from Matt James’ “Bachelor” season.

Brendan Scanzano called Illeana Pennetto “the real deal.” Um, well, we’ll see.

They were also the first couple that we saw kissing, on a beach bed no less. Brendan seemed all in, although Illeana warned him she would go on a date with someone else if they invited her. I think that’s what they call foreshadowing, folks.

Indeed, the season promo showed Illeana kissing someone who was not Brendan, not unless Brendan cut his hair, dyed it and grew a face full of stubble.

Also, according to multiple cast members in said promo, there’s a “storm” coming — ya think? — with tension on the menu between Kamil and Joey, between Kamil and Chris, between Caitlin and Vay, between Lisa and the yet-to-arrive David of “Bachelorette Canada” and who knows who else? A towel is flung, a glass is flung, Joey’s threatening to make mince meat of a coyote — pronounced cuy-oot — that’s scaring a mare; Kamil is comparing himself to a gorilla and Chris to a rooster.

It’s a jungle, er, a forest out there.

When the episode ended without a rose ceremony — another chip off the American block — there were nine women vying for six roses, only one of which looked like a sure thing.

You can tune in next Sunday at 8 p.m. on Citytv to see how it turns out. And don’t forget “Bachelor After Show: After Paradise” at 9:30 p.m. If you want to talk Paradise you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Bachelor in Paradise ends with proposals, despite visit from ex

October 6, 2021 /
The cast of “Bachelor in Paradise” with guest host Wells Adams before the couples started
dropping like flies. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos except screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC

We mostly got the ending we deserved on “Bachelor in Paradise.”

The pandemic-delayed seventh season finished with the two best couples on the beach engaged — along with a third that, let’s admit it, we were all skeptical about — but not before an idiotic bit of production trickery that was a truly lame attempt to inject drama into the overlong finale.

Kendall Long had absolutely no business being on the beach the day her ex, Joe Amabile, got engaged to Serena Pitt. But there she was, walking down the stairs and onto the platform where Joe was waiting for Serena, delivering a gratuitous speech about how she’d come to Paradise to fully let go of Joe, blah, blah, blah, and now she was “really excited” for him and Serena.

“I felt I couldn’t leave this beach without fully expressing that to you,” Kendall said.

Kendall Long has one final, ridiculous talk with Joe Amabile.

Well, she could have and, in fact, had left the beach already. Whether her return was her idea or the producers’ — I’m going with the latter — it was tawdry and ridiculous.

To add insult to injury, after Kendall left, Joe grimaced and walked away from the platform while the newly engaged Kenny and Mari, watching from above, speculated that Kendall’s visit had put Joe off proposing. I’d like to think Joe walked away to collect himself because he was pissed at the producers, but I’m guessing it was all part of the script, the one that was supposed to make us think that Joe and Serena might not end up together.

Here’s the thing: while the drama is certainly part of the Paradise experience, at the end of it all we want love and a promise of marriage. And we got to see some beautiful, touching, tear-inducing moments between Joe and Serena, Kenny and Mari, and Riley and Maurissa as they all confirmed their love for each other, respectively, on their fantasy suite dates.

And then we watched Kenny and Mari, and Riley and Maurissa get engaged. Joe and Serena seemed so head over heels there could be no doubt that they were about to do the same thing, which is why trying to make it look like Joe’s ex was going to come between them was insulting, cynical and pointless.

After eight weeks of villains and triangles and quadrangles and jerks who were only there to jack their social media followings, we deserved to bask in the reflected glow of the couples who made it to the end without a last ditch bit of production nonsense.

Kenny Braasch, Mari Pepin-Solis, Serena Pitt, Joe Amabile, Maurissa Gunn and Riley Christian
celebrate their engagements on the “Bachelor in Paradise” finale

And the episode did not need to be three hours long, especially since it didn’t include an “After the Final Rose” segment. We had to settle for captions on a video recap of the season that told us the three engaged pairs were still together.

And what of the others who coupled up during the season?

We already knew that Noah Erb and Abigail Heringer were breaking up after last week’s episode. The start of this week’s belaboured the point by showing more of Noah’s and Abigail’s teary parting, with each declaring they weren’t each other’s “person.” Except, we found out later that they’ve started seeing each other again and are taking things “slowly.”

At the next night’s rose ceremony, Thomas and Becca, James and Anna, Aaron and Tia, and Ed and Mykenna agreed to stick together (leaving Chelsea and Natasha to go home alone). Since the latter three pairs had been hanging out for mere days, if not hours, it can’t have come as a shock that they all broke up after Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes — yep, they’re what now passes for a Paradise success story — told them the next day that, essentially, they had to shit or get off the pot with fantasy suites happening that night.

Ed seemed to really want that fantasy suite. Mykenna told him three times that she just wasn’t that into him before he finally stopped trying to MacGyver a relationship between them.

Anna went more quickly after James told her her couldn’t see them falling in love. But James didn’t leave alone. He took his bromantic partner Aaron with him — after Aaron perpetrated what might be the speediest breakup in Paradise history.

“I know we’ve hung out the last couple of days,” he told Tia. “It’s been great and I actually care about you, but James is waiting right now. We’re about to bounce.”

Aaron Clancy and James Bonsall, who should have been voted most likely to live happily ever after.

And bounce they did, happily riding off in the same van.

“I love you, bro,” said James.

“Dude, that’s facts. How do I feel about you, bro?” replied Aaron.

“You’re my world, bro,” whispered James.

Apparently, they’re now roommates and BFFs, so whoever says you can’t find love on a “Bachelor” show is misinformed.

And then there were Thomas and Becca. Thomas was gung ho to take their relationship outside Paradise, telling Becca, “When I Iook at you, everything inside me screams I’m falling in love with you.” But Becca said their connection seemed too good to be true and she couldn’t leave with someone she didn’t fully know.

Thomas Jacobs and Becca Kufrin made it past the last rose ceremony but not the fantasy suites.

I know lots of people have accused Thomas of being fake, but he cried what looked to me like real tears after Becca dumped him, begging her in seeming anguish to “Let me go!” when she ran after him for a final hug. According to the end-of-episode montage, Becca later had a change of heart and they’re now dating and in love.

There was nothing left then but for the final three couples to have their fantasy suite dates and lay the groundwork for the next day’s proposals with the requisite voice-overs about potential cold feet.

The highlights include:

Serena telling Joe she was in love with him and Joe mock-protesting “I was gonna say that later. You’re saying that now?” Serena crying happy tears in her confessional explaining how she felt about Joe. And Joe tearing up when he told Serena that the night they said they were falling in love with each other meant more to him “than anything that’s ever happened to me.”

Oh, and Joe telling Serena he was into her smile, her charm, her looks and her “Toronto accent.”

Riley telling Maurissa about a fantasy he’d had since he was 21 of waking up on a Sunday morning with his wife and daughter, then telling Maurissa, “When I see you, I see Sunday morning.” And during the proposal, Riley and Maurissa confessing they’d fallen in love with each other on their first date.

And even with Kenny and Mari there were sweet moments, notwithstanding that at one point this season Kenny was having sex with Demi and dating Tia at the same time. As he said to Mari during his proposal, “We were tested like no other couple in Paradise.” And his hand shook endearingly as he put the Neil Lane ring on Mari’s finger.

When all was said and done, it was a lovely end to the season. If my favourite couple, Joe and Serena, rewatch it, I’d just fast-forward through the bit with Kendall.

There was one other update that seemed to cheer fans on Twitter.

Wannabe influencers Brendan Morais and Pieper James, we were told, “are laying low,” while the woman Brendan strung along, Natasha Parker, “has over 460,000 followers on Instagram.”

As for me, I’ll be back recapping “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” starting next week — it airs Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. on Citytv — and the new season of “The Bachelorette” the week after that.

You can visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable Oct. 4 to 10, 2021

October 4, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Sort Of (Oct. 5, CBC Gem)

Bilal Baig stars as Sabi, a gender-fluid millennial, in “Sort Of.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

Perhaps the day will come when our screens will be so full of characters of varied genders, sexualities and ethnicities that we won’t feel the need to label them.

But that day isn’t here yet, so “Sort Of” is getting attention for being the first show on Canadian TV to have a non-binary lead character as well as the first to star a queer, South Asian, Muslim actor in Bilal Baig.

If that’s all “Sort Of” had going for it, I doubt I’d like it as much as I do, but it’s also the best kind of comedy series: one in which the humour flows organically and the characters act like human beings and not punchline generators.

Baig, who is queer, brown and trans-feminine (and uses the pronouns they and them), created “Sort Of” with Fab Filippo, who is straight and white. Their common ground was the idea that everyone is in transition in their lives.

So lead character Sabi is figuring out their place in the world, not only in relation to their gender and sexuality, but the other people around them, including their boyfriend, their sister and their Pakistani mother, to whom they haven’t come out yet.

But just when Sabi decides to ditch Toronto for queer-friendly Berlin with gender-fluid best friend 7ven (a delightful Amanda Cordner), the family that Sabi nannies for has a crisis and suddenly everybody’s relationships are in transition. And Sabi decides to stay.

If that sounds earnest, trust me: it’s also fun and charming and touching.

Sabi’s deadpan demeanour belies their vulnerability and big heart. Baig, a first-time TV actor, makes Sabi someone who’s easy to care about and root for.

They’re backed by a capable group of supporting actors, including Grace Lynn Kung and Gray Powell as the couple whose children Sabi minds; Elora Patnaik and Supinder Wraich as their mother and sister; Kaya Kanashiro and Aden Bedard as the kids; and transgender actors Cassandra James and Becca Blackwell as Sabi’s mentor and boss, respectively.

Slasher: Flesh & Blood (Oct. 4, 9 p.m., Hollywood Suite)

Sabrina Grdevich, David Cronenberg and Chris Jacot in “Slasher: Flesh & Blood.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Cole Burston for Shaftesbury

If the dysfunctional family of “Succession” was out for blood as well as money, you might have something like the fourth season of this made-in-Canada horror anthology series.

It focuses on the Galloway clan, which consists of sadistic patriarch Spencer (played by horror master David Cronenberg), greedy siblings Florence (Sabrina Grdevich) and Seamus (Chris Jacot), their more altruistic half-brother Jayden (Corteon Moore), his mother, Spencer’s second wife Grace (Rachael Crawford), and the grandkids and assorted hangers-on.

There’s at least one extramarital affair, a twin kidnapped 25 years earlier who mysteriously reappears, a secret illegitimate child, a reputed family ghost and, because this is “Slasher,” gallons of blood. And that’s just in the first two episodes.

The action kicks off at a family reunion at the Galloway estate on a small island. Rapacious businessman Spencer has a couple of surprises for the clan, one of which is that he’s reviving a former family game, a sort of treasure hunt/survival of the fittest competition, the winner of which will become sole heir to his entire estate.

Florence, Seamus and Grace are particularly cutthroat competitors and the game is a cruel one, but the relations have more than each other to worry about: there’s a killer in the woods and he’s dispatching his victims in ways that suggest the show’s makeup and prosthetics department was working overtime.

Look, this isn’t prestige TV, but it’s kind of fun to watch these people being terrible to each other while waiting for the next splattering of gore. So grab the popcorn (or not, if you’re squeamish) and enjoy.

Short Takes

Rita Moreno in 1953 at the premiere of the film “Lili.” PHOTO CREDIT: Murray Garrett/Getty Images

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It (Oct. 5, 9 p.m., PBS)

If your only knowledge of actor Rita Moreno comes from “West Side Story” or the TV shows “Oz” and “One Day at a Time,” I’d urge you to watch this fascinating documentary. I was a little embarrassed after doing so that I hadn’t paid more attention to Moreno during a seven-decade career that includes dozens of film and TV appearances as well as theatre roles: she’s one of just 16 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award) winners. And it’s clear from the doc that at 89 (87 when the film was being made) she’s nowhere near done. It’s also clear that of all the things that Moreno is, she’s primarily a survivor. The doc covers a lot of ground: her childhood in Puerto Rico; her teen years dancing in New York nightclubs to support her family; the sexism and racism she endured as an MGM contract player cast in “dusky maiden” roles; her rape by her agent; a tortured romance with Marlon Brando that led to a dangerous abortion and a suicide attempt; her reinvention as a TV actor when the movie roles dried up after her “West Side Story” Oscar; her long but troubled marriage; motherhood and more. As Moreno herself says, “Did having to struggle so much take something out of me? Not me, not I.”

Among the Stars (Oct. 6, Disney Plus)

We’re a long way from the days when astronauts were household names and every NASA mission brought blanket media coverage, but that doesn’t make space travel any less fascinating a subject. This docuseries follows American astronaut Chris Cassidy in his quest to get back to the International Space Station, but it also highlights the specialists on the ground who make such journeys possible. And it reminds us that space exploration is still risky, more than three decades removed from the Challenger disaster. The opening minutes of the series follow a spacewalk that had to be aborted when an astronaut’s life was endangered. If you enjoyed the Disney Plus series “The Right Stuff” and companion documentary “The Real Right Stuff,” or Apple TV Plus space drama “For All Mankind,” consider this a worthy addition to your viewing.

Disney Plus also has the Halloween special “Muppets Haunted Mansion” debuting Oct. 8.

Ghosts (Oct. 7, 9 p.m., Global TV)

Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Samantha and Jay, with their paranormal roomies in “Ghosts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Cliff Lipson/CBS

I approached this American remake of the charming British comedy of the same name with both eagerness and trepidation. For every U.S. adaptation that matches or exceeds the U.K. original — think “The Office” or “Shameless” — there are clangers like “Gracepoint,” a remake of “Broadchurch” that even David Tennant couldn’t save. I’m still on the fence about “Ghosts,” in which an American couple (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar) inherits a Hudson Valley estate from a distant relative of hers, not realizing it’s already occupied by an octet of spirits. Based on the first episode (the only one I was given to screen) I much prefer the wry, self-deprecating performance of Charlotte Ritchie in the original to McIver’s perkiness, and the ghosts’ personas didn’t captivate me as immediately as in the Brit version. But I’ve seen other clips that made me chuckle, so perhaps there’s life in this dead people comedy yet.

Odds and Ends

I didn’t get a chance to preview a couple of Crave programs that piqued my interest. “15 Minutes of Shame” (Oct. 7) is a documentary look at public shaming, executive produced by someone who would know all about that: Monica Lewinsky, with “Catfish” host Max Joseph. And the Crave original doc “A.rtificial I.mmortality” (Oct. 8) examines the idea of using technological advances to create an immortal version of oneself.

Netflix’s offerings include Season 4 of L.A. high school drama “On My Block” (Oct. 4); the docuseries “Bad Sport” (Oct. 6), an intersection of sports scandal and true crime; competition series “Baking Impossible” (Oct. 6); and sitcom “Pretty Smart” (Oct. 8).

CBC has Season 3 of its Halifax-set legal drama “Diggstown” (Oct. 6, 9 p.m. on CBC TV and CBC Gem) and Season 2 of sci-fi import “War of the Worlds” (Oct. 6, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem).

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible, 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.

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