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Because I love television. How about you?

Month: September 2022

Watchable on History, Acorn, TVO Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, 2022

September 26, 2022 /

Please note: This is the last Watchable post until Oct. 24. I am on vacation starting next week and will not be screening anything until I return on Oct. 17.

SHOW OF THE WEEK: True Story (Sept. 30, 9 p.m., History and StackTV)

“True Story” explores the relationship between Indigenous and settler people, according to History.

I have a rather shameful confession to make: there was a time when I bristled at the use of the word “settler” as a name for non-Indigenous Canadians. How could I be a settler when I had been born in Canada, as were my parents and one of my grandparents, the other three being emigrants from England and Scotland?

Well, I’ve learned some stuff since then. In fact, the history of Canada cannot be extricated from colonialism, which means that even those of who were born here are descendants of that colonialism.

That point is made even more convincingly in the original documentary “True Story,” being released on Friday, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, a.k.a. Orange Shirt Day.

But please don’t think you’re in for an hour and a half of browbeating if you watch this doc.

It’s narrated with a touch of playful irreverence by Kaniehtiio Horn, whose voice you’ll recognize if you’ve watched “Letterkenny” or “Rutherford Falls” or numerous other TV shows and films.

Serious information is imparted by Indigenous people with deep knowledge of Indigenous and Canadian history, but humour — even cheekiness — is part of the approach. Think, for instance, of three British redcoats putting up a for sale sign under the banner of “Columbus Stolen Realty”: “Call now . . . We’ll steal your land . . . with a smile!”

The film starts with Indigenous creation stories — and they are varied, Indigenous people are not a monolith — and details the ways in which various peoples shared their histories and cultures, as well as what those cultures offered.

The point is that there were thriving human communities in Canada before white Europeans came along to “discover” them.

You can’t help but wonder what Canada would have looked like if those early settlers had respected the treaties they signed with various Indigenous nations — and much of Canada, by the way, sits on land that was never ceded to the colonizers — rather than reneging on them and forcing the original inhabitants off their territories as white settlement expanded. (It’s worth noting that not all of those treaties were about handing over land but simply obligated the Indigenous and settlers to keep the peace.)

Attempts to assimilate or eradicate the Indigenous were already going on before the British North America Act of 1867 and the Indian Act of 1876 gave these campaigns the weight of white people’s law.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of residential schools and the ongoing intergenerational harm they inflicted on Indigenous people, but did you know about the slaughter of bison in the Prairies in the late 1800s as a tool for starving Metis and other Indigenous off their lands?

“The slogan at the time was ‘Every dead buffalo is an Indian gone,'” notes Horn.

All those dead buffalos are a reminder that you can’t think of Canada’s “colonial project” without reflecting on its effects on the environment and all the creatures, human and non-human, within it.

Watching “True Story,” I couldn’t help but think that colonialism has been harmful for all Canadians, with its patriarchal rigidity and its emphasis, as enshrined in the Catholic Doctrine of Discovery, on exploiting lands and their non-Christian inhabitants in the mistaken belief that some people are superior to others and that humans are superior to other other species. Are not climate change, capitalism with its haves and have-nots, and gender discrimination and violence the natural results of colonialism?

I’m well aware of how difficult it is to tear Canadian viewers away from their “NCIS’s” and “CSI’s” and “FBI’s” and all the other American content out there to watch something Canadian, let alone something Canadian that’s meant to educate as well as entertain.

But as Horn says early in “True Story”: “Is there any hope of reconciliation? Not without the truth.”

We’ve been taught one version of the truth for so long in this country; now it’s time for the truth of those whose ancestors predated white settlement to be heard.

Short Takes

Mark Coles Smith as Jay Swan in “Mystery Road: Origin.” PHOTO CREDIT: David Dare Parker/AcornTV

Mystery Road: Origin (Sept. 26, Acorn)

If you have enjoyed the Australian crime drama “Mystery Road” and its lead, Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen), I can recommend this prequel series, in which we see a young Jay (Mark Coles Smith, “Hard Rock Medical,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock”) begin his career as a police detective. Jay has moved back to his hometown of Jardine in the outback of Queensland, where his self-absorbed father Jack (Kelton Pell) and drunkard of a brother Sputty (Clarence Ryan) still live. The familial complications — including a tragedy in the second episode — are entangled with the professional ones as Swan and fellow cops Max (Hayley McElhinney) and Cindy (Grace Chow) investigate a series of violent robberies that might have a white supremacist connection. Meanwhile, legal aid lawyer Anousha (Salme Geransar) is digging into a cold case involving the brother of Jay’s new love interest, Mary (Tuuli Narkle), that nobody seems to want exposed. As with the other seasons of “Mystery Road,” the outback setting and prominent presence of Aboriginal characters and actors gives it a flavour all its own. But, as with any good show, the specificity only adds to the enjoyment.

Waves crash in one of the Great Lakes. PHOTO CREDIT: Christian Malbec

Great Lakes Untamed (Sept. 26, 9 p.m., TVO, TVO Today and YouTube)

We sometimes forget about the natural marvels that exist within our own national boundaries. That was my thought as I screened part of this docuseries about the Great Lakes that intersect Canada and the United States. For the record, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario contain a fifth of the world’s fresh water supply, both a fascinating and alarming fact with that supply under threat. Directed by Jeff Morales, biologist Ted Oakes and Nicholas de Pencier, known for co-directing the award-winning “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” the series is a trove of information about water bodies that many of us likely take for granted and the varied species that call them home. Did you know, for instance, that a drop of water that entered Lake Superior in 1715 still wouldn’t have made the 3,000-kilometre journey to the Atlantic Ocean by now, via the other Great Lakes, the rivers that connect them and the St. Lawrence Seaway? The series is really a life story of the lakes, beginning with their formation in the last ice age. But the real star of the show is the stunning cinematography by de Pencier, Morales and Hugo Kitching that rivals anything you’d see in one of the myriad nature documentaries that highlight far-away places. Episode 2 airs at 9 p.m. and Episode 3 at 10 p.m. on Sept. 27, with all three repeated beginning at 8 p.m. Oct. 1.

Drew Hayden Taylor with investigative journalist Francesca Fionda. PHOTO CREDIT: Sara Cornthwaite

The Predentians (Sept. 30, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Indigenous documentarian and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, along with producer Paul Kemp, brings his usual wit and insight to the subject of “pretend Indians,” to use his words. In the doc, commissioned by CBC’s “The Passionate Eye” for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Hayden Taylor explores topics like fake Indigenous souvenirs and forged totem poles in B.C.; the explosion in questionable Indigenous ancestry claims in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces; the purchase of faux status cards by non-Indigenous people trying to avoid paying taxes on gas and other items; the granting of Indigenous status to white women who marry Indigenous men; and the question of how much Indigenous blood is enough to be able to claim status. Two of the most notorious Canadian cases of disputed claims of Indigenous heritage — author Joseph Boyden and filmmaker Michelle Latimer — are referenced but not examined in detail. The doc does take aim at a Queen’s University professor named Robert Lovelace who has claimed to have Cherokee ancestry and even established a fake First Nation known as Ardoch. Unlike Carrie Bourassa, a predentian professor who resigned from the University of Saskatchewan, Lovelace was still teaching Indigenous studies at Queen’s at the time “The Predentians” was made.

CBC Gem also has the animated shorts series “Dreams in Vantablack” (Sept. 29), directed by Ian Keteku. Each of its 12 four-minute films is based on a poem by a young Black person grappling with identity. Also coming to CBC Gem on Sept. 27 are the web comedy “Virgins!” by Aden Abebe, about four young Toronto women from East African immigrant homes navigating experiences they are unprepared for; and “Bimibatoo-Win: Where I Ran,” about Charlie Bittern, a 75-year-old residential school survivor, who recreates the 80-kilometre journey he made when he fled from the school in a Manitoba blizzard. On Oct. 2 at 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem debut Season 6 of “The Great Canadian Baking Show.”

Odds and Ends

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and Adrien Brody as the Arthur Miller-esque “Playwright” in “Blonde.” PHOTO CREDIT:  Netflix © 2022

Andrew Dominik’s movie “Blonde” (Sept. 28, Netflix) has been slammed by critics for making a victim, and not much else, out of Marilyn Monroe. But I’ve heard that Ana de Armas is fantastic in the role, which means that as a longtime Marilyn fan I’ll probably watch it anyway. Netflix also has the math and physics doc “A Trip to Infinity” (Sept. 26); the comedy special “Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy” (Sept. 27); the docuseries “Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga” (Sept. 28); period drama “The Empress” (Sept. 29), about the love affair between Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Elisabeth von Wittelsbach; the animated special “Entergalactic” (Sept. 30), from Kid Cudi and Kenya Barris (“Black-ish”); and the docuseries “Human Playground” (Sept. 30), narrated and executive produced by Idris Elba.

I never did finish the first Season 1 of the spinoff series “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” but, if you’re a fan, Season 2 debuts on Disney+ on Sept. 28 with a new coach, played by Josh Duhamel, stepping in for the absent Emilio Estevez. Disney also has the Kerry Washington-produced drama “Reasonable Doubt” (Sept. 27), about a rebel defence lawyer played by Emayatzy Corinealdi; and the film “Hocus Pocus 2” (Sept. 30), a followup to the 1993 movie about a trio of reawakened 17th-century witches.

I would have liked to get a look at detective series “Suspect,” given that it stars James Nesbitt (“Jekyll,” “Murphy’s Law,” “The Missing”) and features Richard E. Grant and Sam Heughan of “Outlander.” It debuts Sept. 27 on BritBox.

Hard to believe, but the tween series “The Next Step,” about students competing on and off the floor at a dance studio, begins its eighth season on Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. on YTV.

It’s pretty quiet on the Crave front, but the streamer does have Season 3 of Peabody-winning “Ramy” via Starz on Sept. 30, as well as the comedy special “Chris Locke: Captain Bones.”

Finally, Hollywood Suite has the broadcast premiere of the documentary “The Long Ride Home” (Sept. 30, 9 p.m.), about a group of Indigenous riders on a two-week-long horseback journey to highlight colonial ills. It’s part of a day of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation programming that also includes the films “The Corruption of Divine Providence,” “Indian Horse” and “Falls Around Her,” and the TV special “Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” at 8 p.m.

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. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.

Bloated ‘Bachelorette’ finale ends with just one engagement

September 21, 2022 /
Gabby Windey, Erich Schwer, Tino Franco and Rachel Recchia on the “Bachelorette” finale.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images

Tuesday’s “Bachelorette” finale was supposed to be the most dramatic ever, but it reminded me of a sitcom.

It’s not that I think there was anything funny about Rachel’s breakup with Tino, or the way he kept trying to make his cheating her fault, but tell me you didn’t watch his tortured attempts to explain away his transgression and think of the “We were on a break” plot line from “Friends.” (If you never watched the show, one character slept with someone else and tried to justify it to his girlfriend by saying repeatedly, “We were on a break.”)

As for Jesse Palmer’s claim that this would be the most shocking finale ever? Give me a break. The dirt on Tino kissing another woman and splitting with Rachel was on social media days ago, as was the intel about Erich’s texts to a woman he’d dated just before he came on “The Bachelorette.”

But, at this point, I don’t feel like I can take anything about this franchise seriously.

We endured more than five hours of a finale — two and a bit last week, three on Tuesday — that could easily have wrapped in the usual two hours, plus a one-hour “After the Final Rose,” all so ABC could sell as many ads as possible. And we were sold a bill of goods about how unprecedented it was going to be to make the boring filler easier to swallow. But I’m still choking on it, personally.

“Bachelorette” and “Bachelor” alum Kaitlyn Bristowe, Catherine Giudici, Sean Lowe, Becca Kufrin
and Michelle Young were in the audience to help pad out the live “Bachelorette” finale.

What did we get for our extra time on Tuesday? Endless, obvious questions from Jesse to Gabby and, especially, Rachel; commentary and advice from the three past Bachelorettes and one Bachelor (and wife) in the audience; the introduction of the next Bachelor (ho hum, it’s Zach Shallcross), followed by Zach “starting his journey” live onstage with awkward introductions to five (mostly blond) contestants; a ridiculous interactive stunt in which viewers voted on Twitter to award one of the women a rose; an extended “Bachelor in Paradise” promo.

I suppose we can take a couple of wins from the night: Gabby’s and Rachel’s friendship is as tight as ever, and Gabby got engaged to Erich and was still with him as of Tuesday night.

As for all that nonsense about how we’d never seen anything on a finale before like Tino’s and Rachel’s breakup? Well, we have, even though the circumstances were different, if you count Arie Luyendyk Jr. dumping Becca on camera post-proposal. And that was worse because Becca was blindsided for the purpose of making “good” TV.

On Tuesday, we were more than nine minutes into the “live” finale before we got a glimpse of the actual finale — you know, the stuff that happened in Mexico — picking up from last week with Gabby upset that Erich didn’t seem ready to propose. But then she went back to his suite, and they kissed and made up, and agreed that they wanted to work things out.

Next up was Rachel’s last evening in Mexico with Tino, when she spilled the beans that Tino had won, essentially — to which he had a curious non-reaction — but who even cares? Even if you hadn’t read last week’s tabloid gossip you could tell from the expressions on Rachel’s and Big Tony’s faces in the insets at the bottom of the screen that it wasn’t going to end well.

After yet more time-wasting filler we got to Proposal Day.

Tino proposed to Rachel, blah blah blah, although I guess you can find some grim humour in Rachel telling Tino how “selfless and gentle and supportive” he was. Vowing to love Rachel forever, Tino put a Neil Lane ring on it and they trotted off on a horse as the studio audience applauded.

Rachel and Tino in Mexico before it all went to hell.

So what happened then?

Rachel told Jesse that she and Tino had been having “difficulties” in their post-show relationship and then Tino “cheated” on her, by kissing another woman at a bar.

Look, stuff happens. Kissing someone else isn’t necessarily a hill to die on. What did seem shady was that Tino tried to keep Rachel from finding out and then, when he got caught, tried to justify it during their on-camera meet-up by reading a bunch of supposedly incriminating quotes from Rachel he kept in his journal.

Rachel said the quotes were all taken out of context, and they flat out disagreed about whether or not Rachel had said she wanted to give her engagement ring back. Tino claimed he thought they were “pretty much done.”

“Never once did we ever say we are broken up, we are not engaged,” Rachel protested.

The most telling moments came when Tino ducked into the backyard — he did that twice — and complained to a producer that Rachel was throwing him under the bus and making him look bad. These do not seem like the words of a man who’s going to love a woman until the end of time.

Still, Tino claimed he wanted to spend the rest of his life making it up to Rachel, but she took off the ring and that was that.

When Tino finally made it into the hot seat on the live part of the finale, he started out by saying how sorry he was and how he wanted to own his actions, but then he ruined it by alluding to something he and Rachel had discussed in private that she said was “deeply personal.” What it was, we don’t know, but apparently something you don’t want discussed in front of a live studio audience.

Maybe Tino genuinely loved Rachel or at least thought he did, but his way of trying to communicate that was abysmal. In fact, as a couple, their communication skills were dysfunctional AF based on what we saw on Tuesday night.

But the fact that Tino came off as more concerned about how he looked than Rachel’s feelings doesn’t justify the stunt the producers pulled on him.

Aven Jones swoops in after Rachel’s final confrontation with Tino.

After Rachel and Tino wrapped up their confrontation, Jesse announced that someone was demanding to talk to Rachel. Her runner-up, Aven, strolled onstage and invited Rachel to leave with him to “catch up.” “I would love nothing more” Rachel exclaimed before she and Aven walked backstage to chat, leaving Tino to just stand there confused as Jesse broke for commercial, making glib comments about how “awkward” and “weird” the situation was.

Yes, it was awkward as hell and obviously the only ones demanding that Aven speak to Rachel at that very moment were the producers, just so they could have a “gotcha” moment.

Finally it was time for Gabby’s ending. And despite all the drama about whether or not Erich was going to propose he did indeed get down on one knee, telling Gabby, “It’s you and me until the wheels fall off.”

So did they fall off? That was the question.

Gabby and fiancé Erich seemed to be in a good place on the finale.

As Gabby and Erich cuddled on the hot seat, Jesse brought up text messages that Erich sent to a woman he was dating before filming started, saying basically that he didn’t think the show was real, but he was going on it to figure out what else to do with his life.

Erich did a better job than Tino of expressing his regret, saying he hadn’t seen a long-term future with the other woman, had led her on and had taken the cowardly way out by using the show as an excuse to end the relationship.

Gabby said he’d told her about the text messages long before they came out on social media, that they had “hard” conversations about them, but it helped improve their communication. And even though “you were kind of an asshole to her,” Gabby was standing by her man.

And that’s good enough for me. They seemed genuinely happy on Tuesday night; I liked the playful, humorous way they related to each other; and Grandpa John is “tickled pink” about the match. So let’s just leave them the hell alone and let them get on with their lives.

And that’s it. I don’t have anything that I feel like writing about Zach, beyond that he was the boring, predictable choice for the next Bachelor. I was Team Ethan or Team Aven — well, I was before I knew Aven was going to try to rekindle things with Rachel. Although he might not really be trying to rekindle things with Rachel. That might just be producer nonsense. And we do know that she’s on “Bachelor in Paradise” because we saw her in the promo, so maybe she hooked up with someone there?

Speaking of “Bachelor in Paradise,” although I am eager to watch along with you all, I won’t be doing any recaps until mid-October. I am going on my first real vacation since 2019 and will be in a different time zone as of the middle of next week, so I won’t even be tweeting with y’all on show nights.

But if you’re planning to watch,  Citytv will have the first episode next Tuesday at 8 p.m. And as always, you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable on CBC, CTV, Netflix Sept. 19 to 25, 2022

September 19, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Lido TV (Sept. 23, CBC Gem)

Lido Pimienta in her variety show “Lido TV.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

Think of “Lido TV” as a heaping spoonful of sugar helping creator and star Lido Pimienta get her medicine down.

It’s a described as a variety show, although it also has the outward appearance of a children’s show with its colourful sets and costumes and puppets, but that whimsy belies a serious mission: to share information and stimulate discussion about social and political ills and systems of oppression.

The first episode, for instance, deals with colonialism. There are conversations on the subject between Lido and puppets Sunnyflower (Ali Eisner), Tomato (Sarah Ashby) and Tomàto (Adam Francis Proulx); a mini-documentary shot in Pimienta’s hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, about the expropriation of Indigenous music; and a sketch in which virtue-signalling white people compete on a reality show to be named “Canada’s Top Land Acknowledger,” among other segments.

It’s not angry or strident — in fact, it’s often funny — but the point is very clearly made.

The other three episodes I screened dealt with beauty standards, hate and feminism, all combining chats with the puppets; mini-docs shot in Barranquilla; guest stars (Nelly Furtado, Bear Witness from the Halluci Nation and members of Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, for example); and wittily biting sketches.

Think: a woman agreeing to be turned into a vampire only if she can forever keep her blond dye job, fake boobs and Brazilian butt lift; or a hate shopping network on which you can buy “a genuine Indigenous friend” who’ll shield you from criticisms of racism and “pairs well with stolen land.”

Pimienta, a Polaris Prize-winning, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and visual artist, has walked the talk as a self-described Black, brown and Indigenous immigrant to Canada, as have her writers Tim Fontaine, who is Anishinaabe, and Sarah Hagi, who is Black and Muslim.

And with “Lido TV,” this energetic and ambitious creator is just getting started; she sees films as the next frontier (you can read my Toronto Star interview with her here).

Variety is the spice of life, the old saying goes, and there’s certainly nothing bland about Pimienta’s version of a variety show.

Short Takes

From left, Logan Nicholson, Meaghan Rath, Aaron Abrams and Mikayla SwamiNathan
in “Children Ruin Everything.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Children Ruin Everything (Sept. 19, 8 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)

I’m a big believer in celebrating Canadian shows that manage to hold Canadians’ attention amid the onslaught of content from the U.S., and this show is one of them. As it returns for its second season, James (Aaron Abrams) and Astrid (Meaghan Rath) have upped the ante by having a third child, baby Andrew, and the season opener does an entertaining job of poking fun at their sleep deprivation. Astrid has gone back to work, to discover that her new boss is a hipster bro and she’s now the oldest one in her office, and James is yearning to move out of the city, even though it would mean severing ties to the last remnants of his and Astrid’s child-free life. Supporting cast members Ennis Esmer, Nazneen Contractor, Dmitry Chepovetsky and Lisa Codrington are all back, adding to the amusement.

Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville, Calum Worthy and Judy Greer in “Reboot.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Desmond/Hulu

Reboot (Sept. 20, Disney+)

This comedy from “Modern Family” co-creator Steve Levitan has its moments. It lampoons the TV industry via the phenomenon of reboots. A cheesy early 2000s comedy about a step-family called “Step Right Up” is getting what’s supposed to be an edgy, cable-worthy update for Hulu from writer Hannah (Rachel Bloom of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) — until original showrunner Gordon (Paul Reiser) muscles his way back in with his corny jokes. But cast members Reed (Keegan-Michael Key), Bree (Judy Greer), Clay (Johnny Knoxville) and Zack (Calum Worthy) really need the gig, having all seen their careers tank since leaving the original show. They’re joined by reality TV star Timberly (Alyah Chanelle Scott), who can’t act but has a built-in audience of 20-somethings. And a real-life family drama involving Hannah and Gordon forms the backdrop of the new show. It’s not exactly comedy gold but, like I said, it has its moments.

Disney also has the “Star Wars” spinoff “Andor” (Sept. 21), starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor from the movie “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (reviews are embargoed for this one); the new season of “Dancing With the Stars” (Sept. 19); and Season 2 of “The Kardashians” (Sept. 22).

Alexis Haines (formerly Neiers) and Nicholas Prugo in “The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (Sept. 21, Netflix)

I went into this docuseries expecting it to be a trashy waste of time but have to admit I found it fascinating. It tells the story of the teenagers who burgled the homes of celebrities like Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan in 2008 and 2009, making away with millions of dollars in designer clothing, jewelry, cash and other items. As ringleader Nick Prugo tells it, he and best friend Rachel Lee started out robbing unlocked cars in rich L.A. neighbourhoods and got addicted to the lifestyle that the proceeds of their crimes funded. When they ran out of neighbourhoods to hit and, hence, money they moved on to bigger game: celebrities’ homes, using a website that listed stars’ addresses, Google Maps and gossip sites that reported on celebs’ every move to pick their targets. It’s astonishing how easy it was to gain access to the homes of the famous, whether through unlocked doors or open windows or, in the case of Hilton — whose home Prugo and Lee hit several times, “like our personal ATM” — a key left under a mat. Given that and the excess of stuff inside these houses it’s tempting to see the Bling Ring crimes as essentially victimless, but I can tell you from personal experience having your home burgled feels like a violation no matter who you are. Patridge and Lohan, for instance, were unable to live in their houses again after the burglaries and, in some cases, treasured family heirlooms were among the loot taken. Patridge recounts hiding in a closet, terrified, thinking the robbers were still in the house upon coming home to discover the burglary. Prugo and Alexis Neiers — who, despite being portrayed as a ringleader in the thefts, took part in only one robbery — claim to regret the crimes but seem to also want to blame burgeoning social media culture and its glorification of conspicuous consumption for their downfall. Ironically, one of the reasons they and their co-defendants got off with so little and, in some cases no, jail time was because a detective compromised himself by acting as a paid consultant on Sofia Coppola’s “Bling Ring” movie. It truly was, as deputy district attorney Christine Kee says, like “a fucked up L.A. Greek tragedy.”

Netflix also has the comedy special “Patton Oswalt: We All Scream” (Sept. 20); reality series “Designing Miami” (Sept. 21); “A Jazzman’s Blues” (Sept. 22), a rare foray into film drama by Tyler Perry; and “Thai Cave Rescue” (Sept. 22), a dramatization of the 2018 rescue of 12 soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.

From left, Jim Watson, Laurence Leboeuf, Hamza Haq and Ayisha Issa in Season 3 of “Transplant.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Transplant (Sept. 23, 10 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)

This Canadian medical drama doesn’t reinvent the wheel, aside from the fact that its lead doctor, Bashir Hamed (two-time Canadian Screen Award winner Hamza Haq), is a Syrian refugee who gets a second chance to practise medicine. But given the hold that medical shows continue to exert on audiences it doesn’t really have to. The main thing is that it has a talented cast, including Canadian Screen Award winner Laurence Leboeuf as Mags, Ayisha Issa as June and Jim Watson as Theo, who make us care about the characters. As Season 2 opens, Mags has transferred out of the ER to cardiology; June is still trying to figure out her path as a surgeon while grappling with having her half sister living in her home; and Theo is struggling with the after-effects of last season’s plane crash, which saw him spend nine (mainly unseen) days alone in the woods of Northern Ontario. And of course, there are medical cases of the week to keep the docs engaged. I suspect what a lot of viewers will want to know is what’s going on between Bash and Mags, but I’m not telling. You’ll have to watch.

Odds and Ends

If you’re a fan of a certain Canadian canine TV star, the good news is that there’ll be even more Rex (a.k.a. German shepherd Diesel vom Burgimwald) in the fifth season of “Hudson & Rex,” returning to Citytv Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. Rex’s humans will also return, including most notably detective Charlie Hudson (John Reardon) and forensic scientist Sarah Truong (Mayko Nguyen), and new cast member Bridget Wareham as a forensic pathologist.

Your best bet on Apple TV+ is “Sidney” (Sept. 23), the documentary about Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Reginald Hudlin. It features the reflections of the rightfully celebrated man himself, who died in January at the age of 94.

I don’t usually talk up American sitcoms in this space, but I do when they’re funny, like Abbott Elementary. The mockumentary comedy about a group of public school teachers in Philadelphia begins its sophomore season (Sept. 21, 10 p.m., Global TV) coming off three Emmy wins, including Outstanding Writing for creator Quinta Brunson.

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. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.

Proposals for Rachel and Gabby look iffy on ‘The Bachelorette’

September 14, 2022 /
Host Jesse Palmer, Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey on Part 1 of “The Bachelorette” finale.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Did ABC just get lucky or did they stack the cast of “The Bachelorette” with men who have no idea how the show works?

As the first of two interminable parts of the season finale ended, Rachel had broken up with both Zach and Aven, and there appeared to be trouble ahead with Tino, at least if the promo of Rachel saying, “You’re lying straight to my face” is anything to go by.

And Gabby’s last man standing, Erich, had just told her he was looking forward to “dating” her after the show was over.

It’s not like this is an unreasonable position to take in the real world, but “The Bachelorette” is not the real world. The expectation is that it ends in an engagement, which is why Rachel dumped Aven’s ass and why Gabby was in tears after Erich said he wasn’t ready to propose.

There is a valid debate to be had about whether the show’s format — and the ridiculous expectations it places on its participants — needs to be blown up, a topic I’ll leave for another post.

But Gabby and Rachel weren’t the only ones feeling like they’d been led on. We were promised a finale “so emotional, so dramatic and so controversial that it will have all of America stunned” and we have yet to see anything that justifies that hyperbole. Just because Jesse Palmer kept using the words “shocking” and “emotional” during the frequent — too frequent — segments with the live studio audience doesn’t make it so.

So here’s what did happen during the parts of the episode that were actually about the show and not Jesse asking Rachel and Gabby all kinds of time-wasting, obvious questions.

We rejoined Rachel’s rose ceremony from last week, where Zach had just asked her to step outside.

Zach reiterated what he’d already told Jesse about something being “off” with Rachel in the fantasy suite. And yes, something was off because Rachel wasn’t in love with Zach, although she didn’t use those exact words.

I gather Rachel got a lot of Twitter backlash over the situation on Tuesday night and I don’t intend to pile on. But I am a tad confused: Rachel had already told Gabby she wasn’t “there” with Zach but took him to fantasy suites anyway because she was “trying to find that missing piece.”

But if you’ve got two other men hanging around that you already know you’re more into, how is one overnight conversation going to change anything with the third guy?

In the SUV that carried him away from the Vidanta resort in the Maya Riviera, Zach tearfully questioned if Rachel’s feelings for him had been an act all along.

Rachel and Zach Shallcross bury the hatchet with Jesse watching.

He was more conciliatory when he and Rachel reunited onstage with Jesse, apologizing for making her feel like he was calling out her character. And she apologized to him, assuring him she really did care about him and it wasn’t an act.

Bottom line: we’re never going to know what was said between the two of them in that fantasy suite. Zach and Rachel hugged and made up, and wished each other well and we’ll have to settle for that.

Next up, we saw Rachel take Aven to meet her dad, Big Tony, her mom, Mary Anne, and her best friends Nate and Sam. And it seemed to be going great.

Rachel was glowing, in her mom’s words. Even Big Tony seemed mollified. And then Nate and Sam asked Aven the million-dollar question: Are you ready to get engaged? Not so much, it turned out.

I am not going to rehash the long painful conversations that Rachel and Aven had, first right after they left her family and then in his suite on their final date.

Once again, it was kind of confusing. Aven said he was ready to get engaged; he just wasn’t ready to do it in five days or whenever Proposal Day was. So then, you’re not really ready?

“I just want to make sure it’s 100 per cent right for both of us right now and at this moment in time,” Aven told Rachel.

Makes perfect sense in the real world. At that point, Aven wasn’t even “in” love with Rachel, just falling in love. The rub was that he apparently told Rachel in the fantasy suite that he was ready to get on one knee. Aven didn’t deny that, explaining that he “might have been caught up a little bit in some of it.”

What does that mean, Rachel asked and we wanted to know? Was it a case of telling the woman you’re about to have sex with what she wants to hear?

We still didn’t get a real answer when Jesse asked Aven during his live sitdown with Rachel what had changed. But Aven apologized and said he wished he’d told Rachel where he was at before sharing it with her friends. And what else can be said?

Yes, the breakup was emotional. Stunningly, controversially emotional? Nah, we’ve seen worse.

And besides, Rachel still had Tino, right? Right?

She didn’t exactly seem thrilled as she prepared to introduce Tino to her family, but she pasted a smile on her face and Tino, though obviously nervous as hell, was the epitome of the earnest suitor, assuring Big Tony, “I’m gonna make your daughter happy forever.”

If Tino got grilled by Sam and Nate we didn’t see it. But there are still several disconnects here. We went from Rachel’s restrained enthusiasm for Tino after the family visit to hearing her call him the man of her dreams in the promo for next week’s real finale — played over music that sounded like a leftover from the score for “The Exorcist” — to the two of them arguing, with Rachel calling him a liar and Tino exclaiming, “There’s no way this works out.”

How do we get from that to Rachel and Gabby in their proposal dresses on their proposal platforms waiting for Tino and Erich to, uh, propose?

Yes, about Erich, we saw him meet Gabby’s family, although the only thing worth noting about that encounter is that sweet, sweet Grandpa John, who called Erich “a keeper,” had another one of those heartfelt emotional encounters with Gabby that give us life as we slog our way to the end.

The trouble didn’t emerge until Erich’s final date with Gabby when, despite affirming that he loved Gabby and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he also told her: “I want to date you in the real world. Having an engagement before that happens is not how things usually go.”

Well, no, of course not, but as I’ve already pointed out we’re not in the real world. You’d think that however many weeks of being stuck on a cruise ship with a bunch of other dudes who were all dating the same woman and having cameras recording his every interaction with Gabby would have impressed that on Erich.

Whatever Erich or Tino might think, Gabby and Rachel came into this mess with the lure of engagements at the end of it and, no matter how unrealistic that might seem to the men, that’s what they want and what the franchise demands.

There’s a reason some of the “Bachelorette” couples who have made it to matrimony were engaged for years after they left the show — six years for JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers. Sure they were technically engaged, but they took the time they needed to jell as couples before following up.

So fellas, suck it up, put a Neil Lane ring on it and work the rest of it out when the cameras are off.

We’ll find out next week whether that happens and whether the ending will indeed “leave all of Bachelor Nation speechless.” Colour me skeptical.

You can watch next Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and then, thankfully, this frustrating season will be over. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable on CBC Gem, Prime Video, StackTV Sept. 12-18, 2022

September 12, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Summit ’72 (Sept. 14, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)

The aftermath of Team Canada’s series-winning goal in 1972.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame

The death of Queen Elizabeth II last week inspired news articles dissecting the Canadian identity vis-a-vis the monarchy. For an examination of another traditional aspect of the Canadian identity there’s this docuseries about the eight-game “Summit Series” in September 1972 between the Soviet national hockey team and a Canadian team made up of NHL players.

If you know nothing about it or your memories are getting fuzzy, this four-part show revisits the series game by game, with plenty of interviews to fill in the context of what the contest meant to both the Canadians and the Russians. It was seen not just as a string of hockey games, but as a test of national pride and of capitalism vs. communism.

(The whole thing is definitely fuzzy to me. I have vague recollections, as a 10-year-old, of a TV being wheeled into the school gym and the eruption when Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in the final game.)

Episode 1 lays out the, as it turned out, unfounded arrogance on the Canadian side, the belief that hockey was a Canadian game and that our players were going to wipe the ice with the Soviets. Even the Russian players were intimidated at first, according to Soviet team member Boris Mikhailov, who recalls sweat running down his back as he and his teammates gathered on the blue line for the first game.

But despite the Canadians coming out “like hungry animals who hadn’t eaten in weeks,” according to Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the Russians stunned them — and much of the country — with a 7-3 victory in that game at the Montreal Forum on Sept. 2, 1972.

It turns out the Canadian players, who had spent much of training camp drinking and having fun, were ill-matched against the discipline of Soviet training and teamwork. Legendary hockey commentator Howie Meeker described them as “fat and lazy, physically and mentally.”

The Canucks knew they were in trouble, which I suppose just adds to the mythology of their victory in the final three games of the series.

Part of the fun of watching the TV series — at least the two episodes made available for review — is being reminded of what Canada looked like back then, as the games moved from Montreal to Toronto to Winnipeg to Vancouver. There’s even an old Labatt 50 commercial in the middle of the first episode. So odd to see those stubby brown beer bottles again.

And yes, the series does address the Canadian fans booing the Canadian players in Vancouver and Phil Esposito’s impassioned reaction to that. He’s among the Summit Series players interviewed, both Canadians and Russians, including Ken Dryden, Bob Clarke and lots more.

Canada has changed hugely since 1972. I’m not even certain hockey holds the same stranglehold on the national imagination that it did back then. But that doesn’t mean there’s no value in looking back to a time when the Summit Series gave millions of people something to cheer about.

CBC Gem has the standup series “Comedy Night With Rick Mercer” (Sept. 13, 9 p.m., also on CBC TV); “The History of Comedy” (Sept. 16), which explores the art form in archival footage and interviews with everyone from Carol Burnett to Jimmy Kimmel; Season 3 of family dramedy “Casual” (Sept. 14); and the documentary “Burnout: The Truth About Work” (Sept. 16), about the perils of overwork and what to do about it.

Short Takes

Anna Friel and Susan Sarandon in “Monarch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Fox © 2022 FoxMedia LLC.

Monarch (Sept. 14, 9 p.m., Global/StackTV)

“Monarch” is so soapy you can practically see the bubbles on your screen, which would be fine if it was also really good. But this drama about a feuding country music family promises more than it delivers. Let’s start with the first shortcoming, the much-vaunted starring role of Oscar winner Susan Sarandon as matriarch Dottie Roman who, for reasons I can’t get into, is really more of a guest star than a lead. It’s Dottie’s kids — “Queen of Country” heir apparent Nicky (Anna Friel), her sidelined sister Gigi (Beth Ditto) and business-savvy brother Luke (Joshua Sasse) — who are the real stars of the show, with real-life country singer Trace Adkins providing backup as their father, Albie. We’re supposed to believe that the Romans are the “monarchs” of the country music scene, although we have to take that on faith since there’s precious little in the way of back story. The actors certainly can sing (Ditto has a particularly appealing voice), but the concert scenes in the first three episodes (the only ones I watched) don’t make a convincing case for these folks being country superstars. As well, most of what they sing are covers of well-known songs with some originals sprinkled in. Friel and Ditto are very good, but these characters don’t exactly go deep. With hokey dialogue, heavy-handed musical cues and twists you can see coming a mile away, “Monarch” is a by-the-numbers tale of a lying, cheating, scheming family that supposedly will stop at nothing to stay on top, including murder, apparently. If you’re a country fan you might groove on cameos from stars like Tanya Tucker and Shania Twain, though.

Also under the Corus umbrella, Showcase has the new series “Tom Swift” (Sept. 13, 8 p.m.), about a rich chum of Nancy Drew’s; and W Network has “Vampire Academy” (Sept. 18, 9 p.m.) about two best friends at vampire school.

Elisabeth Moss as June in Season 5 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” PHOTO CREDIT: Hulu

The Handmaid’s Tale (Sept. 14, Prime Video)

I don’t normally include shows in this section that I have not screened — and I did not get advance access to Season 5 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” — but it’s a show I will continue to watch to the end, even when it bothers me. And the end of Season 4 did bother me — spoiler alert if you’re not caught up — when June (Elisabeth Moss) and her fellow former handmaids savagely beat Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) to death with the connivance of Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) and Nick (Max Minghella). I realize it’s just a TV show, but I’m still wrestling with my distaste for seeing June sink to the level of those who enslaved her while, at the same time, feeling like I should support the character’s need for revenge. In any event, that act of violence is obviously going to have repercussions this season for everyone involved, and will put the enmity between June and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), the commander’s widow, centre stage. It looks like June and husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are even going back into Gilead.

Prime Video also has “The Grand Tour Presents: A Scandi Flick” (Sept. 16), in which Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May head to the Scandinavian Arctic Circle for Season 5 of the driving show.

A German policeman checks the IDs of Jewish people in the Krakow ghetto in Poland, circa 1941. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of National Archives in Krakow

The U.S. and the Holocaust (Sept. 18, 8 p.m., PBS)

This latest exhaustive documentary series from Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein examines the failure of the United States to aid more than a fraction of the Jewish refugees desperately trying to escape Hitler and the Holocaust before and during the Second World War. (Canada, for the record, did even worse than the U.S. or any other Western country, taking in just 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1947, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.) The episode I watched (there are three of two hours apiece, with the others airing Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m.) painstakingly lays out the political and social situation in the U.S. and elsewhere, with the rise of the discredited theory of eugenics, positing that only people of supposedly superior gene pools should be allowed to breed, and anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment in the wake of the Great War and the Great Depression. It also traces the rise of Hitler in Germany, and his and his party’s stealthy and systematic demonization and dehumanization of Jewish people. If this all seems too far removed from the present to be bothered about, I urge you to go to a Holocaust museum someday and look at the photos of people killed in the Nazi death camps or the countless possessions they left behind. In fact, what struck me as most chilling about “The U.S. and the Holocaust” were the echoes of the political climate of the 1930s in the world of today, including the anti-immigration sentiment, the rise of anti-Semitism and other kinds of racial bigotry, and the fact that another madman is currently trying to expand his empire with an invasion of Ukraine, with limited interference from the rest of the world.

Odds and Ends

Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega in Season 2 of “Los Espookys.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

I have not yet got into the HBO comedy “Los Espookys,” which given what I’ve read about it seems like a failing on my part but, if you’re already a fan, Season 2 debuts Sept. 16 at 11 p.m. on HBO and Crave.

I will definitely be watching when Season 7 of “Shetland” debuts Sept. 13 on BritBox. It’s always a treat to see Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall) and his sidekick Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) solve crimes in the northernmost part of Scotland.

I’m behind on “Atlanta,” but Season 4, which is also the final season, debuts Sept. 15 at 10 p.m. on FX.

Netflix, as usual, has several offerings, including yet another true crime docuseries, “Sins of Our Mother” (Sept. 14), about a woman who is charged alongside her husband with killing two of her children; Season 2 of the YA series about a supernatural boarding school, “Fate: The Winx Saga” (Sept. 16); Season 2 of the reunion show “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” (Sept. 16); and the movie “Do Revenge” (Sept. 16), about teenagers fighting back against bullies.

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. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.

More pain in the fantasy suites as Bachelorette doom awaits

September 7, 2022 /
“Bachelorette” stars Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia. The smiles might be deceiving.
PHOTO CREDIT: Gizelle Hernandez/ABC

Is this chaos what happens when you give people — well, OK, men — choices?

The men of “The Bachelorette” were given a choice of two women and now some of them are choosing to blow up the order of things.

Oh, trust me, I know how ridiculous it is to expect people to get engaged after mere weeks of acquaintance under the most unnatural of circumstances, but this is what we expect from “The Bachelorette.”

I’m not even going to broach the conditioning involved in being this invested in the heteronormative, gender role-reinforcing spectacle of a man getting down on one knee, but this is what we demand as Bachelorette fans: the catharsis of crying happy tears as people who didn’t even know each other eight weeks before pledge their undying love with a hunk of crystallized carbon. Sure, they’ll probably break up soon, but we’ll always have Mexico or wherever the hell they are.

Except host Jesse Palmer has raised the spectre of Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia being denied their hard-fought happily-ever-afters. So shocking is what we’re supposedly going to see next week that he had to take a few minutes to gird us at the end of the episode while standing in an empty studio.

“You will all bear witness to the crazy controversy that’s about to ensue,” he said. “So take some time, get yourselves ready and prepare yourselves for the most shocking finale of all time.”

Good lord, what is going on?!?

Well, let’s take stock. Monday night, we watched Gabby cut Johnny loose since he wasn’t ready to get engaged and Jason bailed on her Tuesday night. Not only did he not want to propose; he didn’t want Gabby in any capacity. But Erich was still there and, after he and Gabby professed their love for each other, it seemed like one happy ending had come early. But wait, was that Erich in the promo saying he didn’t want to get engaged either?

And what of Rachel’s men? As she went into the rose ceremony Tuesday it seemed that Zach was about to get the heave ho after a troubling fantasy suite date. But Tino was the clear front-runner anyway, except the promo showed Tino saying he wanted out, Rachel arguing with Aven and an unseen somebody being accused of going back on their word.

Maybe it won’t be so shocking after all, especially since it seemed clear from Night 1 that this season was never truly about giving Rachel and Gabby romantic redemption.

Buckle up, I guess.

Tuesday’s episode began with Gabby’s date with Jason. Despite all the fun and games of tennis and splashing around the pool together, we knew that Jason had a bomb to drop at dinner and drop it he did.

Not only was he not ready to get engaged, he wasn’t even sure he could see a future with Gabby outside the “bubble” of the show. But still, Jason dangled the possibility of a “serious relationship” once the cameras were banished from their lives. So Gabby threw caution to the wind and took him to the fantasy suite.

The unslept-in bed told the story. There was no fantasy in the suite, just conversation that went nowhere and Jason deciding there was no chance for him and Gabby. She at least nominally got to send him home and to tell him, “I truly just want you to realize I’ve been led on.”

And she was. It seems mighty suspect, given Jason’s discomfort with the process from the get-go and his ambivalence about getting serious with Gabby during his hometown, that he’d wait until almost the very end to share these doubts. But wait he did.

Jason claimed he finally got “clarity”; Gabby got her heart broken.

“What is it about me that’s so hard to love?” she sobbed.

Speaking of clarity, maybe we’ll get some next week about what went on between Rachel and Zach.

They went from a lovey-dovey day in some Mexican town — hats! mariachi! Day of the Dead figurines! cricket snacks! — to Zach showing up teary-eyed at Jesse’s door the morning after.

According to Zach, he and Rachel were like two strangers once the cameras were off and Rachel seemed to put on a front, stridently suggesting that Zach’s age — he was 25 to her 26, although he seems older to me — meant he wasn’t ready to commit.

It’s tempting to think Rachel was looking for an excuse to push Zach away without actually dumping him. She did tell Gabby, after all, that she wasn’t “there” with Zach despite claiming in her date voice-over that she was falling in love with him.

But we didn’t get Rachel’s side of the story so we don’t really know. Zach had just pulled her away from the rose ceremony to talk when Jesse cut in with his warning about Bachelorette Armageddon.

Meanwhile, Gabby had cancelled her own rose ceremony and gone to Erich’s suite, where he was wondering if he’d blown his chance with her after his freakout about her maybe sleeping with other men.

Naw.

“You have taught me it’s OK to feel safe and wanted and loved in maybe a way that I haven’t and you’re the only one left,” Gabby told Erich. “I do know that I love you.”

Awwwww. The warm, sappy feelings engendered were almost as good as a proposal. Gabby declared Erich “the love of my life,” a love that will apparently be put to the test next week.

You won’t be able to watch it Tuesday on Citytv, but you can tune into ABC at 8 p.m. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

The fantasy becomes a nightmare for Gabby on The Bachelorette

September 6, 2022 /
Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey toast to the fantasy suite dates to come.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos screen grabs

After watching Monday’s fantasy suites episode of “The Bachelorette” — excuse me, the first of two fantasy suites episodes — it’s hard to see how we’ll end up with a “shocking ending nobody is gonna see coming,” as per host Jesse Palmer.

Let’s start with Rachel.

She told Gabby within the first minutes of the episode that she wasn’t “there” with Zach and presumably will share that information with him on tomorrow night’s date. She told Aven she was falling in love with him but was already exchanging “I love you’s” with Tino — his parents’ hostility notwithstanding — so it would take one hell of a twist for her not to end up engaged to Tino.

(Mind you, the conspiracy theorist in me can imagine the producers flying Papa Joe to Mexico to slow Tino’s roll.)

As for Gabby, well, Johnny was clearly there for a good time, not a long time, and left sans fantasy suite. And Jason, who hadn’t had his date yet, told Jesse what he already told his mother during hometowns, that he wasn’t ready to get engaged. That would seem to leave Erich as the last man standing — assuming he gets over his jealousy about Gabby’s other overnight dates. And if Jason tells Gabby sooner rather than later that he’s “not quite” falling for her, there won’t be any other overnights for Erich to obsess over.

But I know, I know: this is “The Bachelorette” we’re talking about, and the editing can make black look white and up seem down, so I suppose anything’s possible.

In the meantime, as we slog our way to the finish, let’s recap.

First off, Gabby and Rachel reunited in the Riviera Maya for some Champagne and girl talk. The main point of this, besides reminding everyone which men were still hanging around, was to allow them to bring up the week on Clayton Echard’s season when “everything went haywire,” in Rachel’s words.

“I never want to make anyone else feel the way that we did,” Gabby said.

“We get to rewrite what this week means and make it into something positive,” Rachel said.

But does anyone ever get to rewrite fantasy suite week? I don’t see how, unless they refuse to play the stupid “I’m falling for three men/women at the same time” game.

Gabby had the first date, with Erich.

Erich Schwer helps Gabby psych up to jump off a “lovers’ leap.” The sign says: “Love gives you wings.”

I can only assume Erich really is (or was) into Gabby since he left his dying father behind to be with her in Mexico.

They certainly seemed very close as they cavorted and smooched at a “lovers’ leap,” so much so that Gabby told Erich, “I wish I could crawl inside you” and what the hell does that even mean?

He told her later over an uneaten charcuterie board that he loved her and she repeated what she said at hometowns, that she was falling in love with him. Then they headed off to the fantasy suite — and can we please stop pretending the fantasy suite cards are a surprise? — to “really feel each other’s love,” in Gabby’s words.

The next morning came one of the longest goodbyes in fantasy suite memory as Erich lingered, conflicted about the idea of Gabby spending the night with other men. Gabby seemed conflicted too, about whether she wanted to be engaged to Erich, although she did say in her voice-over she thought she was in love with him.

Next up was Rachel’s date with Aven and it was a perfectly generic overnight date.

Aven Jones and Rachel chill on a yacht.

There was a yacht with a hot tub; there was Champagne and smooching; there was talk about how much Rachel and Aven had grown on their journey. And I’m sorry, I like Aven, but it all felt kind of rote to me.

Rachel and Gabby had made much ado about how they didn’t want to carelessly throw around the word “love” like Clayton had. But Rachel told Aven that, knowing how much the word meant to him, she was comfortable telling him she was falling in love with him too.

It was the only overnight on Monday’s episode in which we actually saw the couple in bed together the next morning; clothed, but still.

“It’s definitely really important to explore your physical connection and Aven is the full package — the full package,” Rachel said with a twinkle in her eye, laughing.

Can’t wait for Tino’s parents to watch that.

And speaking of Tino, his date was next up. We already knew how hard he was jonesing to see Rachel since we’d been subjected to footage of sad Tino saying how gut-wrenching it was to have to wait around, knowing his girl might be sleeping with other men.

He even got a special visit from Jesse so he could moan about it some more and also so Jesse could bring up the hometown from hell with Tino’s parents. Since there was so little suspense in Monday’s episode, we had to be led to believe that Tino’s hometown was so scarring for Rachel that she might not be able to get past it.

Rachel on her date with her potential Mr. Forever, Tino Franco.

And listen, it’s not that I’m saying that hometown wasn’t awful. Tino’s folks totally disrespected Rachel, especially his father. But I also expected exactly what happened to happen: which was that after Tino told her that he loved her (once again circumventing conversation about his parents’ rudeness) and she said it back — so much for not throwing the word around — Rachel bought into his assurance that his family would come to love her too.

I’m not personally convinced they will, but perhaps that’s a topic for “After the Final Rose.”

In the meantime, we didn’t even get to see Rachel’s and Tino’s morning after because we had to rush onto a boat ride with Johnny and Gabby.

Gabby clearly thought Johnny was hot, fine, but I was somewhat mystified by her assertion she could see a life with Johnny after the show. I don’t think anyone else could, including Johnny.

Whereas other men were talking about being or falling in love, Johnny said, “Gabby is the dopest girl I think I’ve ever hung with.” That says it all right there.

Johnny DePhillipo gives it to Gabby straight: no engagement for him, not on this show anyway.

When Gabby told Johnny straight up she was ready to get engaged, Johnny replied that was “a hard thing to think about,” even though he claimed he could see himself falling in love with her. But with proposal day just a week or two off, Johnny sensibly told the truth about not being ready and Gabby just as sensibly walked away without taking him to the fantasy suite.

(There are spoilers out there, not that I was looking for them, about Johnny coupling up with someone else on “Bachelor in Paradise.” Apparently ABC even ran a “Paradise” promo with Johnny in it before we’d watched him break up with Gabby. Nice timing that.)

Gabby consoled herself with the thought that Erich and Jason were both ready for an engagement and . . . uh oh.

There was Jesse, like a harbinger of doom, paying a call on Jason.

“Do you feel like you’re falling in love with Gabby?” Jesse asked.

“I would say I’m not quite there just yet. I would say I have strong feelings toward Gabby,” Jason replied.

Sorry, son, but you don’t pass go on this show with mere strong feelings.

Jason Alabaster gives Jesse Palmer the goods about his inability to commit to Gabby.

It probably goes without saying but no, Jason could not see himself at the point of engagement in just two weeks.

But hey, Gabby still had Erich and . . . uh oh.

As Gabby was back in her suite, still brooding about Johnny, there was a knock and a note at her door: “I need to see you, I’ll be waiting on the bridge,” with no signature.

But what was initially an affectionate reunion with Erich ended with Gabby in tears, feeling ambushed.

Referring to the night they had just spent together, Erich said, “I’m now sitting here picturing the girl that I’m in love with doing that with somebody else. That kind of crushes me . . . I’m having a really hard time.”

“We talked about this off camera,” Gabby said tearfully. “Like, I feel like we were able to have an honest conversation about it in fantasy suites. So you brought me here to tell me it again.”

Erich insisted he hadn’t, but it went downhill from there. The episode ended with Gabby walking away from Erich, questioning whether Erich was her guy after all, and the “To be continued” chyron on the screen.

So where will it all end up? Who knows? Since we’ve seen promo footage of both Rachel and Gabby on proposal day, somebody must stick around to put a ring on it . . . or not.

It appears that Rachel will “blindside” Zach on tomorrow’s episode with her lack of fully developed feelings for him; ditto Jason with Gabby and that Gabby might skip the rose ceremony. Beyond that, I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t read spoilers.

You can watch Fantasy Suites Part 2 Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC. I don’t know when Citytv will air it. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable on Disney, Prime Video, Crave Sept. 5 to 11, 2022

September 5, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Reservation Dogs (Sept. 7, Disney+)

From left, Paulina Alexis, D’Pharaoh Woo-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Devery Jacobs
and Elva Guerra in Season 2 of “Reservation Dogs.” PHOTO CREDIT: Shane Brown/FX.

If I had to choose one word to describe Season 2 of “Reservation Dogs,” it would be “reconciliation” — but not in a “truth and” kind of way, although some truths are revealed. Rather, its characters begin to come to terms with hurts they have endured — or handed out — as the season progresses.

As it opens, our diehard quartet of friends on the rez is still splintered. Last season, Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs) ditched the other three to drive to California with their enemy Jackie (Elva Guerra), which leaves Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) unmoored and bitter.

Willie Jack (the hilarious Paulina Alexis) figures that the curse she put on Jackie is to blame for the group’s troubles and sets out to reverse it with the help of Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer) and his frenemy Bucky (Wes Studi). Shit-talking and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'” are involved.

The affable Cheese (Lane Factor), meanwhile, is spending more time with his weed-growing Uncle Charley, which has consequences in a later episode.

Even their shrine to their dead friend Daniel has been destroyed to make way for a megachurch for white people.

The fact that Elora and Jackie have escaped Oklahoma’s Indian Territory doesn’t mean they are any freer than Bear, Willie or Cheese — particularly of grief over the suicides of Daniel and Jackie’s unnamed brother.

Meanwhile, the girls face dangers on the road. The words “missing and murdered Indigenous women” are never uttered, but they’re top of mind after encounters with a sleazeball who picks them up hitchhiking when their car breaks down and a pickup truck full of shotgun-toting crackers who chase Elora and Jackie when they try to steal another vehicle.

The genius of the show — aside from the fact it’s funny as hell — is the subtle way it tackles the ills that have befallen Indigenous communities after centuries of colonialism. Its humorous approach means you’re still laughing when you feel the sharp end of the stick. And fun is poked at Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.

For instance, the Indigi-hipster facilitators at a colonization symposium the teens are forced to attend — MissM8tri@rch and Augusto Firekeeper — acknowledge not only the tribes that have safeguarded the land, but Neanderthals, dinosaurs, star people and their reptilian relatives.

With Elora and Jackie back in town — forced to abandon their cursed trip by the death of Elora’s grandmother — the symposium allows some baby steps toward reconciliation with Bear, Willie and Cheese, although progress is just as quickly undone.

It takes a crisis involving Cheese to bring the five of them together in an episode that made me fall even more in love with Cheese and with Factor’s acting.

And the kids aren’t the only ones with reconciling to do. Bear’s mom Rita (Sarah Podemski) and her cousin Teenie (her real-life sister Tamara Podemski) have beefs to resolve when they attend an Indian Health Services conference; and in a hilarious and heartfelt episode, tribal officer Big (Zahn McClarnon) wrestles with the part he played in the death of Elora’s mother, Cookie.

There are so many gems this season. I haven’t even touched on things like spirit William Knifeman (Dallas Goldtooth) dispensing wisdom from a Porta Potty; Dr. Kang being initiated into “snagging” at the IHS conference (“Wear socks, medicine comes up through your feet”); or Marc Maron as a group home counsellor whose oddball back-story I won’t spoil by disclosing it here.

Just know that after screening eight of the season’s 10 episodes I’m even more enamoured of this wonderful show.

Disney also has several premieres on Sept. 8, so-called Disney+ Day, including the live action and CGI remake of “Pinocchio” (reviews are embargoed till the day it releases); Brie Larson’s coming-of-age docuseries “Growing Up”; animated series “Cars on the Road”; and nature docuseries “Epic Adventures With Bertie Gregory.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Now on Prime Video)

Robert Aramayo and Morfydd Clark as Elron and Galadriel. PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

I don’t recall whether it was Patrick McKay or J.D. Payne who advised watching this grand series on the largest screen possible, but he was absolutely correct. I first saw the first two episodes in a screening room in a Toronto hotel and was blown away by them.

They seemed slightly less grand when I watched them again on my computer monitor, which doesn’t mean my enthusiasm was extinguished.

With apologies to co-creator McKay — who, at a virtual Television Critics Association panel, tried to differentiate “The Rings of Power” from other fantasy series, including “Game of Thrones” — this is the first TV show that has really reminded me of “Thrones” in its scope and ambition, including its geographic reach, its myriad plot lines and characters.

It’s also the most cinematic TV series I can recall seeing. Considering the money that Amazon has reportedly splashed out on this, it damn well should be.

It’s beautifully, expansively shot, from the golden glades of the elves’ Lindon to the cosy encampments of the Harfoot to the rough-hewn villages of men in the mountainous Southlands to the vast cave palace of the dwarves in Khazad-dum, and that’s just a small sampling of the places the show takes us and will take us as its first season rolls out.

Add in the lovingly detailed sets and costumes, the CGI, the dramatic score by Bear McCreary, and it’s a visual and aural feast.

But what struck me most after that initial screening was an appreciation for the characters.

Morfydd Clark is compelling as a younger version of the elf Galadriel, even when she’s being pigheaded and foolhardy in her quest to find and destroy Sauron. Robert Aramayo seems to exude the golden light of Lindon as the kind-hearted half-elf Elrond. The harfoot, including notables Markella Kavenagh, Dylan Smith, Lenny Henry and Megan Richards, are the most endearing of the characters. Elf prince Durin (Owain Arthur) and wife Disa (Sophia Nomvete) give us a portrait of a enviably loving marriage. And then there’s the brooding Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and his forbidden human love, healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), among the standouts in the first two episodes.

I can’t speak to how the show stacks up to the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I never watched them, being something of a snob about fantasy adaptations until I got sucked in by “Game of Thrones.”

It’s too soon to judge whether “The Rings of Power,” which reportedly has a five-season commitment, will bring Amazon the bang for its considerable bucks that it’s seeking, but I’m suitably captivated and intrigued by what I’ve seen so far.

Short Takes

Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici in “The Serpent Queen.” PHOTO CREDIT: Starz

The Serpent Queen (Sept. 11, Star on Crave)

If you’re a historical purist avert your eyes from “The Serpent Queen.” If you like your history with a little protofeminist revisionism and cheeky fourth wall-breaking then step right up. Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (“Sweet and Lowdown,” “In America”) portrays Catherine de Medici (or de’ Medici), an orphaned Italian noblewoman who became queen of France and mother of three French kings in the 16th century. The series plays up Catherine’s reputation for ruthlessness — hence the series title — while purporting to explain her actions (“Tell me what you would have done differently” is the tag line). The conceit is that an adult Catherine (Morton) is telling her new maid Rahima (Sennia Nanua) the story of how she came to the French court as a 14-year-old (played by Liv Hill) to marry Henry (Alex Heath), second son of the king of France (Colm Meaney). As troubles pile up — including the death of her uncle the pope (Charles Dance), the shortchanging of her dowry, her inability to provide an heir and her husband’s besottedness with his older mistress, Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier) — Catherine finds ways to thwart her enemies. Sure, the series takes liberties with the facts, but the three episodes I watched were very entertaining.

William Jackson Harper as Noah and Cristin Milioti as Emma in “The Resort.” PHOTO CREDIT: Peacock

The Resort (Sept. 11, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

You have to suspend a lot of disbelief in this series about an American couple who take an anniversary trip to a Mexican resort and stumble on a mystery involving a pair of 20-something tourists who disappeared from a different resort 15 years before. William Jackson Harper (“The Good Place,” “The Underground Railroad”) and Cristin Milioti (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Made for Love”) play Noah and Emma, whose 10-year marriage appears to be in a precarious state by the time they arrive at Bahia del Paraiso. They begin to rekindle their relationship after Emma tumbles off an ATV in the jungle and conveniently finds a phone that belonged to Sam (Skyler Gisondo), the young man who vanished from the now derelict Oceana Vista resort. Noah and Emma start unravelling the mystery of what happened to Sam and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden) and how it might connect to the wealthy Frias family, despite suggestions they’re putting themselves in danger. “The Resort” appears to have pretensions to be a commentary on time and love, and how the past relates to the present, but based on the two episodes I watched, it’s mostly just about a couple of bored, booze-swilling tourists having an adventure.

Odds and Ends

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Amy Schumer and Chelsea Clinton in “Gutsy.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+

I screened only one episode of “Gutsy” (Sept. 9, Apple TV+), the docuseries based on “The Book of Gutsy Women” by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. That’s not enough to do a proper review, but you won’t find me complaining about any show that puts a spotlight on women who are making a mark in an increasingly hostile world.

Speaking of gutsy woman, fictional lawyer Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) struggles with a deteriorating political reality in the sixth and final season of “The Good Fight” (Sept. 8, 9 p.m., W Network/StackTV).

Netflix has way more stuff than I care to list here, but a sampling includes South Korean drama “Once Upon a Small Town” (Sept. 5), about a big city doctor who strikes up a romance with a policewoman after reluctantly moving to the countryside; another “Untold” documentary, “The Race of the Century” (Sept. 6), about the 1983 America’s Cup contest; food series “Chef’s Table: Pizza” (Sept. 7); true crime doc “Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer” (Sept. 7); and Season 5 of “Cobra Kai” (Sept. 9).

Finally, Acorn has a new mystery series with a woman of a certain age in the lead (and I am always down with that, being of a certain age myself). In “Recipes for Love and Murder” (Sept. 5), Maria Doyle Kennedy (“Outlander,” “Orphan Black”) is a recipe and advice columnist investigating a killing in a small South African town with the help of a rookie journalist (Kylie Fisher) and a reluctant police detective (Tony Kgoroge).

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. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.

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