Month: April 2022

Watchable on Netflix, Crave April 25 to May 1, 2022

April 25, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Ozark (April 29, Netflix)

From left, Skylar Gaertner, Sofia Hublitz, Laura Linney and Jason Bateman in “Ozark” Season 4.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the first part of Season 4 of “Ozark.”

Keep an eye on the women in the final heartbreaking episodes of “Ozark.”

The things they do for love of their families drive the twists and turns that make the show’s last seven episodes such an exhilarating ride.

Keep your eye in particular on Laura Linney, who is stupendous as Wendy Byrde, who we’ve watched over four seasons transform from disgruntled wife, mother and money launderer to ruthless criminal mastermind.

The key question is whether the Byrde family, including Marty (Jason Bateman), daughter Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), can free themselves from doing business with a Mexican drug cartel without getting killed, and resume a non-criminal life back in Chicago.

I won’t answer that question because it would be a major spoiler and I’m not allowed to discuss anything that happens in the series finale.

As Season 4 resumes, the Byrdes are trying to maintain the precarious deal they’ve struck with Javi (Alfonso Herrera), psychotic nephew of jailed cartel leader Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), and medical company CEO Claire Shaw (Katrina Lenk): Javi supplies the raw material for Shaw Medical’s opioids and Claire funds Wendy’s pet project, a family foundation that will give Wendy major political influence.

But everything is threatened by Ruth (Julia Garner), who’s out for revenge against Javi for murdering her cousin Wyatt and his heroin dealer bride Darlene. Ruth’s actions in Episode 8 tip the dominos that fall throughout the remaining six episodes.

There are other complications: Jonah is still furious with Wendy over the cartel hit on her brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey) and refusing to return to the family business; Ruth enlists old enemies of the Byrdes (and familiar faces from past seasons) to make a play for the Missouri Belle casino, imperilling their main means of laundering money for the cartel; a dangerous new player emerges in Omar’s sister and Javi’s mother, Camila (Veronica Falcon); and private detective Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg) is still poking around the Byrdes’ past, this time while investigating the disappearance of Ben.

That last complication brings Wendy’s estranged father, Nathan Davis, to town, a nasty, misogynistic, sanctimonious drunk ably played by Richard Thomas. Nathan is not only bankrolling the search for Ben; he’s threatening Wendy’s relationship with Jonah and Charlotte.

How Wendy responds to that threat allows Linney to do some of her finest acting in the entire series. It also allows a partial rapprochement with Ruth, who knows from horrible fathers, which only makes future developments all the sadder.

In its own twisted way, “Ozark” has always been about family and that continues to drive the plot, whether it’s Ruth trying to avenge a beloved cousin, Camila trying to do right by her son, or Marty and Wendy doing dangerous and morally reprehensible things to keep their children safe.

Those things continue to exact a terrible toll on the people around the Byrdes as well as on Marty’s and Wendy’s psyches. In these last episodes the masks slip: there are still vulnerable human beings behind Wendy’s coldly rational machinations and Marty’s bland efficiency.

It’s a welcome revelation and a reminder of where this all started: with a husband and wife navigating an impossible situation as best they could to keep their family alive. As to where they end up, you’ll have to watch to find out and it’s a wild ride.,

Short Takes

Jon Bernthal, right, as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins in “We Own This City.” PHOTO CREDIT: HBO

We Own This City (April 25, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

When “The Wire” debuted 20 years ago, it posited that the institution of policing, in one American city at least, was broken. Now its creator, David Simon, and his producing partner George Pelecanos are back to tell us nothing has changed. “We Own This City,” based on the book by journalist Justin Fenton, portrays the activities of corrupt officers in Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, who in real life were jailed for stealing cash and drugs, planting evidence and claiming overtime they hadn’t worked. Jon Bernthal stars as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, ringleader of the dirty cops but a hero to the brass for all the arrests his unit racks up — this at a time when many officers were refusing to even get out of their cruisers after charges were laid against the cops involved in the death of Freddie Gray. The series jumps around between showing the corrupt task force members in action between 2003 and 2017; the drug investigation that cracks open the task force case; the FBI investigation of the task force members; the efforts of one ill-fated homicide detective (Jamie Hector of “The Wire” and “Bosch”) to distance himself from his time with the task force; and the ultimately fruitless efforts of a civil rights lawyer from the justice department (Wunmi Mosaku) to have troublesome officers held to account. With all that ground to cover over just six episodes, “We Own This City” is not well suited to those with short attention spans, or a distaste for dense, complicated plotting and dialogue. It also occasionally gives way to speechifying, particularly in the segments involving Treat Williams as a police college instructor decrying the futility of the war on drugs. But it hits home when it turns it focus away from the preening, swaggering cops to the mostly poor and Black citizens hurt by their actions, like the father of three whose wrongful arrest and theft of that week’s pay leads to the loss of his job and a hole he might not be able to dig his way out of.

Sophie Rundle and Suranne Jones in Season 2 of “Gentleman Jack.” PHOTO CREDIT Aimee Spinks/HBO

Gentleman Jack (April 25, 10 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Good news for fans of this period drama based on the life of 19th-century diarist Anne Lister: Suranne Jones brings the same mix of humour and vivacity that made her portrayal of Anne such a delight in Season 1. In fact, the gusto with which Anne approaches her various activities is intensified, whether it’s overseeing renovations at family estate Shibden Hall, getting her coal mining business in order or running interference with the relatives of heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), who are scandalized by the fact she’s about to move in with Lister. Ann and Anne are also navigating their way through some bumps in their unofficial marriage, with Anne pushing for legal changes that will allow them to alter their wills and Ann coming to terms with Lister’s romantic past. I got to speak with Jones, Rundle and “Gentleman Jack” creator Sally Wainwright for the Toronto Star. You can read the story here.

Marilyn Monroe after her wedding to Arthur Miller, right, in “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (April 27, Netflix)

If you stream this documentary expecting a murder mystery involving transcendent but tragic movie star Marilyn Monroe you’ll be disappointed. Irish author Anthony Summers, on whose research the doc is based, has been clear that he doesn’t believe Marilyn was murdered and that she voluntarily ingested the pills that killed her on Aug. 4, 1962; whether it was suicide or a misjudgment of the dose is still open to interpretation. What the doc does explore is a potential coverup the night of her death due to her romantic relationships with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney-General Robert Kennedy. Based on interviews conducted by Summers for his book “Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe” — the audio of which, lip-synced by actors, constitutes the bulk of the film — it’s suggested that Bobby Kennedy visited her home and argued with Marilyn the day she died; that she was still alive when an ambulance got to her Brentwood house and that her body was returned there after she died on the way to hospital, and that members of the FBI scoured the house of any evidence of her connection to the Kennedys before the death was officially reported. The doc also touches briefly on Monroe’s life: a troubled childhood involving sexual abuse, spent in foster homes and an orphanage; her incredible fame and aspirations to be a serious actor; her unhappy marriages to baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. None of this will be new to people who are fans of Monroe, but at the very least it’s a reminder of how much was lost that night in 1962.

Netflix also has comedy special “David Spade: Nothing Personal” (April 26); “Bullsh*t The Game Show” (April 27), hosted by Howie Mandel; and the final episodes of “Grace and Frankie” (April 29).

Elisabeth Moss as Kirby Mazrachi in “Shining Girls.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

Shining Girls (April 29, Apple TV Plus)

If you have no knowledge of the novel on which this series is based, you’ll think at first you’re getting a standard crime drama. Newspaper archivist Kirby (Elisabeth Moss, who also executive produced and directed at least one episode) gets pulled into a murder investigation in 1990s Chicago when it appears the victim has the same cross-shaped cuts on her stomach that Kirby suffered when she was attacked six years before. Working with reporter Dan (Wagner Moura in a sympathetic performance), Kirby discovers multiple potential victims of the same killer whose cases have been ignored by the police. But strange things are happening: Kirby has a cat one moment, a dog the next; her apartment number changes; she lives with her mom Rachel (Amy Brenneman) then suddenly has a husband, photographer Marcus (Chris Chalk). Then we see another woman murdered near the end of Episode 1, but she’s still alive in Episode 3. And there’s a killer (a creepy Jamie Bell) who doesn’t age and appears to be able to predict the future. All is eventually revealed, including the mysterious house that gives the killer his ability to play with time. With its shifting realities, the drama can sometimes feel a little unmoored, but Moss keeps us moving forward and interested in Kirby’s fate. The supporting cast includes Phillipa Soo, Christopher Denham and Moss’s “Handmaid’s Tale” cast mate Madeline Brewer.

Jay Baruchel is host and chief worrywart in the docuseries “We’re All Gonna Die.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

We’re All Gonna Die (April 30, Crave)

If it’s possible to be cheerful while discussing the prospect of humanity’s annihilation then Jay Baruchel is your man. The actor and comedian hosts this six-part docuseries that examines various ways that humans could be wiped off the face of the Earth with humour and a sprinkling of f-bombs (as opposed to nuclear bombs, which are the subject of Episode 2). There are things here to give you pause — paleontologist David Evans’ description in Episode 1 of what happened the day a Manhattan-sized asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs is not for the faint of heart — but the point is made that fear of a thing is sometimes worse than the thing itself. Fearful or not, there’s no harm in giving a listen to what we might be in for. Other episodes deal with pandemics, alien invasion, volcanoes and climate change.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times 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.

Watchable on Crave, W, Netflix, AMC April 18 to 24, 2022

April 18, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Man Who Fell to Earth (April 24, 10 p.m., Crave)

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Faraday and Naomie Harris as Justin Falls in “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Rico Torres/Showtime

The science fiction in this series sequel to the cult film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” based on the Walter Tevis novel, can feel uncomfortably close to science fact.

It might be difficult for all but the most ardent UFOlogists to imagine beings from other planets walking among us, but when Anthean alien Faraday (Chiwetel Ejiofor) tells his reluctant human collaborator Justin Falls (Naomi Harris) that Earth has until 2030 before temperatures hit extinction level, it doesn’t feel all that far-fetched.

It also feels fitting that the extraterrestrial who represents Earth’s best hope presents as a Black man and his human companion is a Black woman. It’s a smart casting choice that gives a couple of terrific actors a chance to shine and there’s an implicit analogy in the fact that Black American men and women are often treated as aliens in their own country. (Although I’m not sure what it says that Faraday belongs to his planet’s drone or working class and his fellow ET, Thomas Newton, who is white, is an adept or teacher.)

When we first meet Faraday, we see him as the polished imitation of a human he has become, a self-described “tech god Willy Wonka” holding a theatre full of acolytes rapt, before cutting back to his crash landing as a yellow-eyed alien in the oil fields of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

He has answered the summons, 45 years later, sent out by Newton (played by David Bowie in the movie and Bill Nighy in the series). You’ll recall that Newton was originally sent to Earth to find water for his planet but never made it home, having been corrupted and abused by the earthlings he encountered. Now Anthea is on the brink of oblivion and only a few thousand inhabitants remain.

To save his world, and possibly Earth along with it, Faraday needs to access technology that Newton created and he needs to convince Justin, a disgraced former MIT scientist, to help him do it.

Meanwhile, the CIA, led by an agent named Spencer Clay (Jimmi Simpson), knows that someone new has fallen to Earth and is out to capture him.

And there are other complications. Faraday and Halls recruit a risk specialist named Hatch Flood (Rob Delaney) who lays out what would happen if alien technology allowed the world to quit its oil dependency cold turkey: complete chaos essentially.

That’s about as far as things get in the four episodes made available for review. In those episodes, Faraday begins to shift from wide-eyed, water-guzzling alien — his continual thirst is a source of humour along with his early attempts to learn English— to besuited visitor with a dazzling new energy technology to offer, while Justin begins to break free from the self-imposed prison in which she’s put her brilliant mind.

Obviously, TV and film productions about aliens are really about the human condition. “The Man Who Fell to Earth” posits both hope and threat in its initial episodes, which are driven by the charismatic performance of Ejiofor.

There’s also a strong supporting cast, which besides Harris, Nighy, Delaney and Simpson includes Clarke Peters, Kate Mulgrew and Sonya Cassidy.

It remains to be seen how far along the remaining six episodes take Faraday to fulfilling his mission and the series to fulfilling its promise, but it’s off to a good start.

Crave also has the well reviewed Robert Pattinson movie “The Batman” (April 18); the documentary “Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain” (April 20); Season 2 of “The Flight Attendant” (April 21, 9 p.m.) with Cassie (Kaley Cuoco), sober and moonlighting as a civilian CIA asset; “Gaslit” (April 24, 9 p.m., Starz), a look at the Watergate scandal that focuses mainly on John Mitchell (Sean Penn) and his wife Martha (Julia Roberts); Season 3 of hitman comedy “Barry” (April 24, 10 p.m., HBO); and horror comedy “The Baby” (April 24, 10:30 p.m., HBO).

Short Takes

Brooklyn Letexier-Hart and Elle-Maija Tailfeathers in “Night Raiders.”

National Canadian Film Day (April 20, Crave, Super Channel, Hollywood Suite)

Although it’s a speck compared to the Hollywood behemoth to the south, Canada does have a national film industry, and some of the country’s broadcasters and streamers are celebrating it. The selection on Crave ranges from recently acclaimed Indigenous films such as Tracey Deer’s “Beans” and Danis Goulet’s “Night Raiders” to movies from internationally recognized auteurs like David Cronenberg (“Eastern Promises”) and Denis Villeneuve (“Incendies”). Super Channel has films on three of its channels — Fuse, Vault and Heart & Home — ranging from classics like the 1981 comedy “Porky’s” to 2020’s “Jasmine Road,” about a Syrian family taken in by an Alberta rancher, and 2007’s “The Stone Angel,” based on the Margaret Laurence novel about a cantankerous old woman who refuses to go gentle into that good night. Hollywood Suite, meanwhile, is focusing on Indigenous filmmakers with titles like Jeremy Torrie’s “The Corruption of Divine Providence” and “Indian Horse,” based on the Richard Wagamese novel about a residential school survivor. Check with the channels for times and to see the full selection.

Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter and *Chloë Sevigny* as Lynn Roy in “*The Girl From Plainville*.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Dietl/Hulu

The Girl From Plainville (April 21, 9 p.m., W Network/StackTV)

This series is less a crime drama than a tragedy involving two broken young people. Over eight episodes it tells the story of the real-life case involving the suicide of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III, known as Coco to his family, and his 17-year-old girlfriend Michelle Carter, convicted of involuntary manslaughter for sending him texts encouraging him to kill himself. That Michelle sent the texts is not in dispute, but the drama — aided greatly by the excellent performance of Elle Fanning — makes a convincing argument that she was just as troubled as Conrad. Fanning portrays Michelle as a socially awkward, immature teen with no real friends and a tendency to lie or exaggerate to make herself seem interesting, And for a short period following Conrad’s death, Michelle is the centre of attention as the grieving girlfriend, practising a particularly performative type of grief. The show traces how she and Conrad (Colton Ryan) met in Florida while vacationing with their families and developed an intense two-year relationship founded almost entirely on texts, with the pair living about an hour apart in Massachusetts. Both were prescribed medication for their mental health issues; her for eating disorders, him for depression and anxiety after a previous suicide attempt. Would Conrad have eventually killed himself without Michelle egging him on? Impossible to say. His death is clearly a heartbreaking tragedy, both for the loss of his potential and the grief of his family (Chloe Sevigny is also excellent as his mother, Lynn Roy). Only the real Michelle Carter can say why she told Conrad to get back in his carbon monoxide-filled truck in July 2014 after he started to lose his nerve, and she never testified at her trial and has stayed out of the public eye since her release from jail in January 2020. But the drama makes it possible to see Michelle as a troubled human being rather than just a monster.

Alan Doyle gives Griff Rhys Jones a lesson in preparing cod tongue in “Griff’s Canadian Adventure.” PHOTO CREDIT: Blue Ant Media

Griff’s Canadian Adventure (April 21, 8 p.m., BBC First)

Welsh comedian Griff Rhys Jones would be the first to admit he can but scratch the surface in a travel series about “one of the largest slabs of the inhabited world,” but that doesn’t make his attempt to encapsulate Canada in these six episodes less entertaining. Only the first one was made available for review, in which Jones starts his almost 8,000-kilometre journey in Newfoundland, visiting spots like Conception Bay, St. John’s, Petty Harbour and Bell Island. The greatest hits are here — Signal Hill, the Jellybean Row Houses, moose, fish, kitchen parties — but also attractions that might not be top of mind, like the Bell Island iron ore mines, targeted by Hitler’s submarines in the Second World War. Jones is an engaging visitor, with an itinerary that includes Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and British Columbia. (Sorry, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, you didn’t make the cut.) At least he’s focused on Canada rather than “those noisy people in the basement,” as he calls Americans.

Odds and Ends

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in Season 6 of ” Better Call Saul.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

“Better Call Saul” is the show I most wanted to preview this week, but the screener gods were not smiling on me. Nonetheless I have every confidence that the sixth and final season, which debuts April 18 at 9 p.m. on AMC and AMC Plus, is going to be worth the wait.

Another highly anticipated debut this week is Season 2 of “Russian Doll” on Netflix on April 20. The streamer also has the documentary “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch” (April 19); Spanish-language drama “The Marked Heart” (April 20); the Turkish thriller series “Yakamoz S-245” (April 20); the Japanese comedy series “He’s Expecting” (April 21); Season 5 of real estate reality show “Selling Sunset” (April 22); gay coming-of-age series “Heartstopper” (April 22); and French body-swapping drama “The 7 Lives of Lea” (April 22).

I didn’t screen the documentary film “Polar Bear” (April 22, Disney Plus) because reviews were embargoed until the debut, but I imagine it will be both beautiful and heartrending.

Prime Video has “A Very British Scandal” (April 22), companion to the Emmy-winning “A Very English Scandal.” Two-time Emmy winner Claire Foy (“The Crown”) stars as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, who was the subject of a vicious smear campaign during her 1963 divorce from the duke (Paul Bettany).

Apple TV Plus’s offerings this week include the docuseries “They Call Me Magic” (April 22) about basketball great Magic Johnson and “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball” (April 22) about player Makur Maker.

Finally, OMNI TV has “Abroad” (April 24, 8:30 p.m.), a new sketch comedy series starring Filipina comedian Isabel Kanaan.

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, BritBox April 11-17, 2022

April 11, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The First Lady (April 17, 9 p.m., Crave)

Viola Davis as Michelle Obama and O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama, with *Kathleen Garrett*
*as Laura Bush*, in “The First Lady.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Lee Davis/Showtime

“The First Lady” is the kind of show you really want to like. What could be more admirable than shining a light on the women behind the most powerful men in the United States, arguably the world, women who contribute to that power even if their contributions are largely unsung?

And to be sure, there are things to like here, beginning with the fact that three very capable actors, Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson, are portraying Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt, respectively. All three women have clearly brought great care and attention to their roles.

Of the three, Pfeiffer’s performance is the one that seems the least like imitation.

Over the five (of 10) episodes I watched, I was often distracted by how Davis and, to a lesser extent, Anderson held their mouths; the former to sound like Obama; the latter to approximate Roosevelt’s overbite.

There’s also the fact that Betty Ford’s story is such a relatably human one, what with her breast cancer diagnosis and addiction to alcohol and pain pills. Pfeiffer does full justice to both the character’s vulnerabilities and strengths, bringing to life her grace, her warmth, her determination and also her frustration at the burdens of being a political wife. But her marriage to Gerald Ford (played by Aaron Eckhart) is portrayed as a loving partnership.

Alas, warmth isn’t a trait that comes through in the portrait of Obama, aside from depictions of the younger Michelle’s (Jayme Lawson) relationship with her parents. I’m not saying that women have to be warm and fuzzy, but Obama’s default in her interactions with Barack (O-T Fagbenle), his staff and her daughters seems to be stuck on formidable and fierce.

Anderson gives us Roosevelt’s great intelligence and energy, her insecurity about her “plain” appearance, her deep hurt over the discovery that Franklin (Kiefer Sutherland) was having an affair with her secretary, which shifted their marriage from a romantic to a platonic one.

Though it may be hard to see what these three women have in common, the show presents them as sharing a reluctance to be first ladies and pushing back against the expectation that, as such, they would content themselves with ladylike activities like decorating and gardening. It probably should be a shock that kind of sexism has persisted from 1932 through 2008 (and beyond), except it isn’t.

As I said, “The First Lady” is a show you want to like and it’s likeable enough as a standard sort of biopic treatment of three worthy women, but it never reaches the depths of really well done biographical fiction like “The Crown.”

Crave also has Season 4 of the “Things We Do in the Shadows” movie spinoff “Wellington Paranormal” on April 15.

Short Takes

Lucy Boynton, Jonathan Jules, Will Poulter and Joshua James in “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BriBox

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (April 12, BritBox)

Looking for something fun to watch? How about an Agatha Christie mystery in which a handsome young ex-naval officer and his aristocratic female friend try to answer the question of the title: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Those are the last words of a man whom Bobby Jones (Will Poulter, “Dopesick”) tries to help after he finds him dying at the foot of some cliffs in the Welsh seaside town of Marchbolt. It seems to be an open and shut case of accidental death, but then Bobby is poisoned and the photo he saw in the dead man’s pocket doesn’t match the one published in the local paper. He and his childhood friend Lady Frances Derwent (Lucy Boynton), a.k.a. Frankie, concoct a scheme to get inside the English countryside home of a man they suspect of switching the photos and possibly even pushing the victim off the cliffs. Along the way to a solution, there are more dead bodies and an attempt on the life of “Knocker” Beadon (Jonathan Jules), Bobby’s business partner in a used car dealership. The production has the distinction of being written and directed by actor Hugh Laurie, who also plays a small role as the director of a local asylum and a potential villain. Published in 1934, “Evans” is perhaps not one of Christie’s most revered books, but it makes for a lively three-part series with characters who are easy to root for and lovingly rendered period details.

Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller in “Anatomy of a Scandal.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Anatomy of a Scandal (April 15, Netflix)

This series is essentially a potboiler dressed up to look like prestige drama. Coming from prolific producer David E. Kelley and with a cast that includes Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey” and Rupert Friend (whom I so identify with “Homeland” that I kept referring to his character as Peter in my notes), it has style but falls short on substance. Friend plays James Whitehouse, a government minister caught cheating on his wife Sophie (Sienna Miller) with an underling who then accuses him of rape. Dockery plays Kate Woodcroft, the lawyer who prosecutes the rape case. “Scandal” has nothing enlightening to say about sexual assault or the liberties taken by powerful men. In fact, the victim in the rape case, Olivia (Naomi Scott), is a cipher, there mainly so the show can probe James’ and Sophie’s shared past as privileged Oxford students, a past that has relevance to Kate. James and his friend the prime minister (Geoffrey Streatfeild) were part of a nasty group of toffs back then called the Libertines, whose main purpose seemed to be drinking to excess and sexually harassing female students. The group’s activities take on added significance in the somewhat ridiculous ending to the show’s six episodes. By that point, however, you might not give a toss about what happens to James or Sophie.

There is a ton of other Netflix content out this week, including the women’s prison comedy “Hard Cell” (April 12); docuseries “Our Great National Parks” (April 13), narrated by former president Barack Obama; Season 2 of Argentinian comedy series “Almost Happy” (April 13); Brazilian comedy series “Smother-in-Law” (April 13); Spanish series “Heirs to the Land” (April 15) and the Indian crime drama “Mai” (April 15).

Kiernan Shipka in “Swimming With Sharks.” PHOTO CREDIT: Roku/YouTubbe

Swimming With Sharks (April 15, Roku)

This Hollywood drama is like a modern-day “All About Eve” in which the wide-eyed newbie is less interested in undermining the Hollywood star than in worshipping her. Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men,” “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) is Lou, who becomes an intern in the office of studio exec Joyce (Diane Kruger) and soon makes herself indispensable, albeit through sometimes drastic means. It becomes clear that Lou didn’t land in Joyce’s office by accident. It also becomes clear that Lou isn’t who she says she is. Joyce, meanwhile, is experiencing both personal and professional turmoil behind the icy demeanour: she’s battling to get a prestige literary film adaptation made while the racist and misogynist head of the studio (Donald Sutherland in a particularly unsavoury role) keeps a tight hold on the purse strings; and she’s trying to get pregnant with her philandering artist boyfriend (Gerardo Celasco). Meanwhile there’s psychosexual tension building between her and Lou, which culminates in them spending the weekend together at Joyce’s beach house, where Lou indulges a sexual fantasy of Joyce’s. It’s one of a number of lurid scenes that pop up in “Sharks,” some of which seem more like kinky window dressing than integral to the plot. In fact, the series as a whole, based on the 1994 film of the same name, can feel like empty calories. To make a show that posits Hollywood as a cutthroat place full of backstabbers and sycophants is nothing new. Though Shipka makes Lou extremely watchable, her twisted tale doesn’t add anything revelatory to that narrative.

Odds and Ends

Paul Rabliauskas and Darcy Waite in “DJ Burnt Bannock.” PHOTO CREDIT: APTN

You can get a double dose of comedian Paul Rabliauskas this week. The performer from Poplar River First Nation has a comedy special debuting on Crave, “Paul Rabliauskas: Uncle” (April 15), shot during the 2021 Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. He also co-stars in the web series “DJ Burnt Bannock” (April 11, APTN lumi). The comedy stars creator Darcy Waite as would-be DJ Kevin Cardinal, with Rablliauskas as his cousin Allan and Joy Keeper as his Kookum.

Prime Video seems quite bullish on its new neo-western/supernatural mystery “Outer Range” (April 15), which stars Josh Brolin and Canadians Tamara Podemski and Noah Reid of “Schitt’s Creek.” Reviews are embargoed until Wednesday.

I didn’t have time to screen more than one episode of “Roar” (April 15, Apple TV Plus), not enough to give it a fair review.

Sorry, but even if I’d had the time I wouldn’t have screened “The Kardashians” (April 14) on Disney Plus. Disney also has “Scrat Tales” (April 13), animated shorts starring Scrat from the “Ice Age” movies.

Finally, Global and StackTV have the new CBS competition series “Come Dance With Me” (April 15, 8 p.m.), in which young contestants partner with an untrained family member.

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, Hollywood Suite April 4-10, 2022

April 4, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Allegation (April 7, 9 p.m., Hollywood Suite)

Peter Kurth as defence lawyer Richard Schlesinger in “The Allegation.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Screen shot/Hollywood Suite

That some of the world’s worst injustices come from so-called justice systems is surely not a shock to anyone who keeps abreast of current affairs, but the point is made in a particularly eloquent and entertaining way in this German drama.

It’s based on a real 1990s German child abuse case — and will have echoes for anyone who remembers the “satanic panic” cases in California in the 1980s and Saskatchewan in the 1990s — but you needn’t know the antecedents to enjoy this smart and gripping show.

It begins with a doctor in the small town of Ottern examining an unseen six-year-old girl and pronouncing “beyond reasonable medical doubt” that she’s been subjected to chronic sexual abuse. The nurse who takes the photos during the exam texts a friend about it, which sets off a chain-reaction social media frenzy of condemnation for the perpetrator.

Then suddenly we’re in Berlin, in the company of a defence lawyer whose best days appear to be behind him, being woken in the middle of the night to represent a woman accused of killing her husband for the life insurance money.

Peter Kurth, whom you’ll remember if you watched another excellent German drama, “Babylon Berlin,” is masterful as lawyer Richard Schlesinger. He’s a wounded bear of a man whose somewhat slovenly appearance and curmudgeonly demeanour belie a sharp intelligence and keen understanding of human nature.

But mob enforcer Azra (German-Iranian actor Narges Rashidi) is even sharper. Though we first meet her when she’s beating Schlesinger up — a warning over a gambling debt he owes — they become allies and even friends of a sort. She helps him see a small detail that destroys the seemingly open-and-shut case against the accused husband killer and then asks him to defend a man in the child abuse case in Ottern on behalf of an unnamed client.

By the time we revisit it, the case has expanded to 16 children, 26 adults accused of running a child sex ring and public outrage at a fever pitch. Although there’s no corroborating physical evidence and all of the accused have denied the allegations, the statements of the children attesting to the abuse seem like an insurmountable obstacle for the various defence lawyers.

But when Schlesinger digs in, he finds that the investigation was taken away from the local police and handed over to a child psychiatrist with no criminal justice training, overseen by an inexperienced public prosecutor who shares her unshakeable belief that the children are telling the truth.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, but it’s both fascinating and thrilling to watch Schlesinger work the case, tearing holes in what seem like rock solid facts. It’s also worth noting that no matter how convincing his arguments, public belief in the guilt of the accused remains resolute.

Schlesinger tells the child psychiatrist, Ina Reuth (Katharina M. Schubert), that morality has to be separated from the law, which might seem counterintuitive but later appears indisputable in light of the harm done in Ottern.

The plot of this drama turns on very dark perceptions, but there’s also a lightness to it. Schlesinger’s interactions with various secondary characters are funny, whether it’s the exasperated pet store employee who sells him a goldfish, the front desk clerk at his Ottern hotel or the priest who lets him store his files in the monastery’s scriptorium. But the tonal shifts are never jarring.

The best shows, like truth, aren’t black and white, and “The Allegation” is one of these.

Short Takes

Ansel Elgort and Hideaki Ito in “Tokyo Vice.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eros Hoagland/HBO Max

Tokyo Vice (April 7, 11 p.m., Crave)

The first couple of episodes of this much anticipated series seem less about vice than a sort of “an American in Tokyo” tale as U.S. expat Jake (Ansel Elgort) fulfills his dream of becoming the first foreigner to work for a prestigious Japanese newspaper in 1999. All floppy-haired, gung-ho energy, Jake tries to navigate the newsroom’s restrictive rules, where he is dismissively referred to as “gaijin” (foreigner in Japanese), and to ingratiate himself with the vice cops who could help him do more than rewrite police press releases. I suppose it makes sense since the show is based on the memoir of the real Jake Adelstein, about his years on the Tokyo crime beat for the Yomiuri Shinbun daily, but the show didn’t start to jell for me until the third episode. That’s when Jake’s story becomes more intertwined with other characters’, including veteran detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe), American hostess bar employee Samantha (Rachel Keller) and junior Yakuza member Sato (Sho Kasamatsu). Watanabe’s fellow Oscar nominee, Rinko Kikuchi, also co-stars as Jake’s supervisor Eimi. We know from the opening minutes of the series that it’s all leading to a showdown two years later between Jake, Katagiri and the organized crime group over a story they don’t want Jake to write. Non-spoiler alert: Jake lived to tell the tale. Much of the dialogue is in Japanese with subtitles, which shouldn’t be an issue for anyone, although it’s challenging initially to figure out the hierarchy among the Yakuza. And the series benefits from the authenticity of being shot on location in Tokyo. I have to be honest though; maybe it’s just Ansel Elgort overload, having recently watched him in “West Side Story,” but Jake was the least appealing character for me.

Crave also has Season 3 of “A Black Lady Sketch Show” (April 8, 11 p.m., HBO) and the docuseries “The Invisible Pilot” (April 4, 9 p.m., HBO), which plays a bit of a trick on viewers: you think you’re watching the story of a man, Gary Betzner, who inexplicably committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in 1977, and it becomes a completely different story halfway through the first episode.

From left, Joy Delima, Chris Peters and Yari van der Linden in “Dirty Lines.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Dirty Lines (April 8, Netflix)

There’s a bumper crop of new shows on Netflix this week but — out of those I had access to — I chose to focus on this Dutch dramedy based on the true story of Europe’s first erotic phone line company. It may be hard to believe in the age of on-demand internet porn, but there was a time when people would pay to listen to recordings of sexy stories. “Dirty Lines” is not actually that dirty; it’s more about how its characters navigate their own relationships with sex and other people, including the two brothers behind Teledutch: Frank (Minne Koole), a husband and father-to-be who’s ambivalent about monogamy, and Ramon (Chris Peters), also a married father who’s secretly gay. Our way into the story is Marly (Joy Delima), a young, sexually inexperienced student whose life changes after she’s caught on camera by a news crew while doing a one-off recording for Teledutch. It turns out she’s horrible at play-acting sex but very good at turning sexual fantasies into phone scripts, which gives her a much needed job and boost in confidence. The drama is set in late 1980s Amsterdam against the backdrop of cultural developments like the rise of house music and political ones like the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s not a must-see, more of a nostalgic, gently humorous diversion.

On a much more serious note, Netflix also has the docuseries “Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story” (April 6), which was not available to screen, about the English TV star who raised millions for charity but was found after his death in 2011 to have sexually abused as many as 500 children and adults. April 6 also brings reality series “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move on,” in which commitment-phobes have to decide whether to wed their current partners while playing footsie with other people’s significant others, and “Green Mothers’ Club,” a South Korean drama about the friendships and rivalries between five grade school moms. There are two more docs on April 7, “Return to Space,” about NASA astronauts hitching a ride to the International Space Station with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and series “Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star,” about the slaying of South Africa’s Senzo Meyiwa. Dramas “Queen of the South” (April 7) and “Elite” (April 8) return with fifth seasons. And April 9 brings two more South Korean shows, “My Liberation Notes” and “Our Blues.”

Odds and Ends

From left, Alexander Elliot, Keana Lyn and Rohan Campbell in “The Hardy Boys.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

If you enjoyed the first season of the latest adaptation of “The Hardy Boys” novels — and I found it entertaining — you’ll be pleased to know the second season is debuting April 4 at 8 p.m. on YTV and StackTV. Brothers Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe Hardy (Alexander Elliot) are back solving mysteries with friends Callie (Keana Lyn), Chet (Adam Swain), Phil (Cristian Perri) and Biff (Riley O’Donnell). And there’s a new girl in town, Belinda (Krista Nazaire).

Irish mysteries are usually right up my alley so I regret I didn’t have time to screen Acorn’s latest original series, “Harry Wild,” debuting April 4. “Harry” is Harriet, played by veteran English actor Jane Seymour. The retired English professor starts interfering in a murder case being investigated by her police detective son (Kevin Ryan) and enlists the teen who mugged her (Rohan Nedd) as her sidekick.

Apple TV Plus has “Pinecone & Pony” (April 8), a kids’ show based on a book by Canadian author Kate Beaton about a warrior-in-training and her equine best friend.

Prime Video’s new offering this week is the movie “All the Old Knives” (April 8), starring Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton as CIA agents and former lovers who have to root out a mole.

If you’re a fan of American history and/or Ken Burns films, know that his two-part documentary “Benjamin Franklin” debuts on PBS April 4 and 5 at 8 p.m., with Mandy Patinkin providing the voice of Franklin.

Month: April 2022

Watchable on Netflix, Crave April 25 to May 1, 2022

Watchable on Crave, W, Netflix, AMC April 18 to 24, 2022

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, BritBox April 11-17, 2022

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, Hollywood Suite April 4-10, 2022

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta