Author: Debra Yeo (Page 25 of 29)

Watchable the week of Oct. 26, 2020 (updated)

October 26, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Anything for Jackson (Oct. 28, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)

Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings star in “Anything for Jackson.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Super Channel Fuse

I’m not a horror aficionado, but anything starring notable Canadian actors tends to get my attention. The fun in this case is watching a kindly older couple perpetrate evil deeds to bring their beloved grandson, Jackson, back from the dead.

Dr. Henry Walsh (played by Julian Richings, who’s British although he’s worked in Canada for decades) and his wife Audrey (Sheila McCarthy, “Umbrella Academy,” “Little Mosque”) have the perfect plan involving kidnapping a pregnant woman and an ancient book of spells. And did I mention that they’re satanists, who attend meetings in the local library and community centre, complete with snacks?

Victim Shannon (Konstantina Mantelos), one of Henry’s patients, couldn’t have a nicer pair of abductors, which doesn’t lessen her zeal to get free, although Audrey assures her that there’s no chance of that since they’ve thought of every contingency.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans. Henry says the wrong thing to a police detective (Lanette Ware) searching for Shannon, who then insists on coming to the house. And then there’s the guy who plows their snow (Yannick Bisson of “Murdoch Mysteries”), who won’t take no for an answer when Henry tries to send him away. And after their initial spell unleashes a houseful of tormented spirits, Henry and Audrey are forced to call in a fellow satanist (Josh Cruddas) and that’s when things really get messy.

I would call this a horror black comedy rather than a hardcore horror flick although it does have gore and the apparitions, particularly the one dubbed the “suffocating ghost” (Troy James), are suitably creepy. It was written by Keith Cooper, known for his visual effects work on films like “Poseidon” and “Fantastic Four,” and directed by Justin G. Dyck.

It’s the kickoff movie for the annual Blood in the Snow film festival, which is being held virtually this year on Super Channel Fuse from Oct. 28 to Nov. 7. The fest includes the Oct. 31 debut of “Hail to the Deadites,” a documentary tribute by Steve Villeneuve to “The Evil Dead,” its fans and horror in general, featuring an interview with genre superstar Bruce Campbell. See bloodinthesnow.ca for the full lineup.

“Anything for Jackson” will be available on Super Channel on Demand beginning Nov. 1

Truth Seekers (Oct. 30, Amazon)

Emma D’Arcy, Nick Frost and Samson Kayo in “Truth Seekers.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Prime Video

Given the reunion of actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in this horror comedy series, one would be tempted to think it would do for ghosts what “Shaun of the Dead” did for zombies. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly funny or scary.

Frost plays widowed internet repair technician Gus, who lives with his cranky dad (Malcolm McDowell) and dabbles in paranormal investigation with a sparsely followed YouTube channel.

He and his new work colleague, Elton (Samson Kayo), stumble onto hauntings on the job and meet the third member of their gang, Astrid (Emma D’Arcy), after she stows away in their van while trying to escape several malevolent ghosts.

Alas, the ghosts don’t get up to much other than lurking and the odd tepid jump scare. After the spirits are tidily dealt with — including Astrid’s mother, who burned to death in front of her eyes, which elicits no hint of grief from Astrid — the plot veers off into a plan by famous author Peter Toynbee (Julian Barratt) to steal people’s souls using nanotechnology, or at least I think that’s what it’s about.

There’s also a side plot involving Elton’s agoraphobic, cosplay-loving sister Helen (Susan Wokoma), while Pegg pops up occasionally as Gus’s boss in an atrocious hairpiece.

Exhumed: A History of Zombies (Oct. 30, 10 p.m., PBS)

George A Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” is among
the pop culture treatments explored in “Exhumed: A History of Zombies.”

Just in time for Halloween comes a show about how zombies took over the world, or at least pop culture.

Although this doc touches on entertainments like “Night of the Living Dead,” “Shaun of the Dead,” “World War Z” and “The Walking Dead,” it’s more of a historic than a pop culture take, which is not to say it’s uninteresting. You might not have known, for instance, that in the vodou (as opposed to voodoo) religion of 17th-century Haiti, zombies were a response to slavery and colonization.

Or that Hollywood’s earliest depictions of zombies had as much to do with fear of voodoo, Black culture and foreigners as with monsters. Or have pondered what George A Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” has to say about race, even if unconsciously, while Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” parallels early mythology about Haitians having their souls stolen, according to the doc’s talking heads.

As host and “monster expert” Emily Zarka says, “Monster history is human history.”

Citizen Bio (Oct. 30, Crave) and Moonless Oasis (Oct. 30, CBC Gem)

The late Aaron Traywick, seen in the documentary “Citizen Bio.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Showtime.

I have grouped these documentaries together because they both feature what’s known as “citizen science.”

The subject of “Citizen Bio” is biohackers, defined here as people looking for alternative ways to treat diseases and prolong human life, outside the established medical framework.

In particular, “Citizen Bio” focuses on Aaron Traywick, a controversial hacker who claimed to have found “cures” for AIDS and herpes, and who was found dead at the age of 28 floating in a sensory deprivation tank.

Traywick claimed to want to make his vaccines cheaply available to the general public but, in the doc, friends and colleagues raise doubts about the altruism of his motives as well as the integrity of his experiments.

At the same time, the doc makes clear that biohacking is a thriving field of research, despite its fringe, anarchist associations and the lack of sanction from bodies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and one that could yield benefits for humanity.

For instance, Gabriel Licina, one of the biohackers who worked with Traywick, is trying to develop a plastic-eating fungus that could help clean up the world’s oceans.

The Showtime doc was produced by Canadian Graeme Manson, the creator of “Orphan Black,” and directed by Canadian Trish Dolman.

In “Moonless Oasis,” directed by Nate Slaco, we’re introduced to dedicated volunteers who protect glass sponge reefs in British Columbia’s Howe Sound: by mapping and documenting the existence of the prehistoric life forms during dives, as well as keeping watch for fishers who threaten the reefs by dropping traps in prohibited areas.

It’s clearly a painstaking pursuit but one the citizen scientists feel is necessary to keep the reefs alive. As one of the doc subjects says, “It’s an ecosystem that survived from the Jurassic period.”

Note: This entry was edited to add “Moonless Oasis” after I was able to confirm the air date.

Roadkill (Nov. 1, 9 p.m., PBS)

Iain De Caestecker and Hugh Laurie in “Roadkill.” PHOTO CREDIT: Steffan Hill/The Forge

This British drama about a scheming politician who claims to be a man of the people arrives just two days before the U.S. election, but if you’re looking for a straightforward tale of a corrupt self-promoter getting his comeuppance you’re not in the right place.

Not to give away any spoilers, but this four-parter doesn’t end the way you might expect when you first meet Peter Laurence, a Conservative cabinet minister with secrets to match his ambitions.

It’s probably best then, not to watch “Roadkill” looking for deeper meaning — there’s certainly nothing deep about the sleazy politician trope — but as a showcase for some of the excellent acting that Brits are known for.

Hugh Laurie, who proved he gives good villain in “The Night Manager,” plays Laurence, a mid-level minister from humble roots who claims to value “freedom” over ideology. When we first meet him he’s just won a libel case against a journalist (played by Irish actor Sarah Greene of “Dublin Murders” and “Normal People”) unable to prove that Laurence was in Washington getting paid to help U.S. interests infiltrate Britain’s National Health Service, as her newspaper claimed.

That doesn’t mean Laurence is home free. Some of the people he trusts with his secrets, including his special adviser (Iain De Caestecker) and his driver (Emma Cunniffe), work against him, not always deliberately. The skeletons in his closet include a mistress (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and an illegitimate daughter (Shalom Brune-Franklin), while new evidence turns up in the lobbying case. And the prime minister (the always excellent Helen McCrory) is fully briefed on Peter’s dirty laundry thanks to her ruthless chief of staff (Olivia Vinall).

The show, written by celebrated playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Hare, has received some bad reviews in the U.K. for being too left-leaning. It paints a post-Brexit Conservative party as beholden to weapons manufacturers; the prison system as a cheaply run warehouse for the convicted because “the British like locking people up”; and investigative journalism as being at the mercy of rich, aristocratic media owners.

But it touches only briefly on these concerns, nor does it sketch its characters in any particular depth but, then again, it is only four episodes.

It’s mainly Laurie’s show, as we watch the charismatic Peter slither his way up the ladder, leaving human wreckage in his wake.

Odds and Ends

The Child, a.k.a. “Baby Yoda,” and the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Chapter 2 of “The Mandalorian.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM

Let’s be honest, you’ll want to watch Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” arriving Oct. 30 on Disney Plus, no matter what I say about it. Unfortunately I can’t say much since the screener has yet to arrive in my inbox. But I’m chomping at the bit to see where Jon Favreau and the team take Mando and Baby Yoda this season just like everyone else.

If you’re in the mood for something weepy, “This Is Us” returns to CTV and NBC for a fifth season on Oct 27 at 9 p.m. with the Pearson siblings celebrating their 40th birthdays.

If you’re in the mood for something inspiring, check out “Not Done: Women Remaking America” (Oct. 27, 8 p.m., PBS), which chronicles the groundswell of women’s activism that began in 2016 (yes, the year you know who was elected) with interviews with folks like feminist icon Gloria Steinem; Me Too founder Tarana Burke; Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network; Time’s Up co-founders America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Shonda Rhimes and Tina Tchen; and more.

Speaking of Black Lives Matter, there is sure to be activism mixed in with the accolades and music when the “BET Hip Hop Awards” air Oct. 27 (BET, 9 p.m.). DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion and Drake top the nominations list while 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Quavo and Jhene Aiko are among the performers.

Sundance has “The Dakota Entrapment Tapes” (Oct. 27), which was a Hot Docs selection earlier this year, about the investigation into the 2014 disappearance and death of a North Dakota college student who had been coerced into becoming an informant for a secret police task force.

On Netflix, you can travel along with Phil Rosenthal in a fourth season of “Somebody Feed Phil” (Oct. 30) as eats his way around the world with his aw-shucks charm and humour. Just be warned, the pre-pandemic scenes in the first episode of crowds in Rio de Janeiro might make you a little queasy.

Finally, if you’re used to decking your screen with Hallmark holiday movies, W Network kicks off the “Countdown to Christmas” on Oct. 31 at 9 p.m., with premieres every Saturday and Sunday beginning with “Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses.” Yep, that’s what it’s called.

On ‘The Bachelorette,’ all is bare in love and dodgeball

October 21, 2020 / Debra Yeo

*Clare and the “red team” after a game of strip dodgeball on Tuesday’s “The Bachelorette.”*
You should see what the losers were wearing. *PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC*

Welcome to “The Bachelorette,” the “naked edition.” If you want to be with Clare prepare to get bare: either your feelings or, in the immortal words of Demar, your “man goodies.”

Yep, it was that kind of night.

We started with Clare getting touchy feely with the fellows on a group date, segued to a one-on-one that was more of a therapy session and ended with another group date that must have used up a full season’s supply of ass-covering black bars.

Regardless of what happens with Dale Moss — don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about him — Clare Crawley is definitely blazing her own trail through her “Bachelorette” journey. I’m not sure we’ve seen a Bachelorette who cuts to the chase as quickly as she does.

When self-described “Italian stallion” Brandon couldn’t give Clare a reason for wanting to be with her other than “You’re so beautiful” Clare speedily gave him the boot. When she had to coax the guys on the first group date into asking for one-on-one time, she told them straight up, “You guys all want to hang out with each other you can do that and I can go home and go to bed.”

When Canadian dude Blake Moynes broke the rules (again!) by stealing alone time he wasn’t entitled to, Clare rewarded him with an early rose.

No doubt, we’ll soon see Blake disappointed along with everybody else as Clare and Dale get closer, but she at least made an effort with some of the other men, judging by this episode.

Things kicked off with a kind of cheesy group date about “love language.” Clearly, with everybody in quarantine at La Quinta Resort, we’re not going to see the wide-ranging and varied dates of the BP (before pandemic) era. So we had Riley, Jordan, Yosef, Ivan, Ben, Bennett, the two Zachs and Dale having to make lovey-dovey speeches to Clare, “Romeo and Juliet”-style, as she looked out a fake window.

Dale’s was the longest. To sum up, he told Clare he was committed to giving her everything he had, physically and emotionally. He started to make good on the physical part in an exercise in which Clare was blindfolded and each of the men, also blindfolded, had to touch her while the other dudes watched.

In theory, this was about regaining the touch that everyone had been deprived of in the COVID-19 pandemic; in reality, it was about stirring up jealousy as the men watched other guys getting handsy with Clare, none more so than Dale.

Clare and Dale get touchy-feely during the first group date. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Dale got to do a little more touching, and kissing, at the date cocktail party during which Clare confessed to Dale that her feelings for him scared her. But he didn’t get the date rose. It went to New York lawyer Riley, who also shared smooches with Clare and a “prom” slow dance (did somebody on production tip him off that Clare never went to her high school prom or what?).

The date also exposed a condescending attitude on Yosef’s part toward Clare. When Clare told the men they had hurt her feelings by not stepping up for alone time, Yosef — claiming to speak for all of them, which pissed Riley off — told her, “You’re crazy to think that we didn’t all come here for you.”

That doesn’t sound like love language to me.

On the one-on-one date, meanwhile, the language sounded more like therapy than love speak.

Clare warned former pro footballer Jason they would be sharing deep parts of themselves, which had Jason terrified. Clare, or more likely somebody on the production team, had discerned that Jason was using his sense of humour to compensate for a dark past, so during their evening together Clare and Jason did a little primal scream therapy, read inspirational letters to their younger selves, and busted slates covered in negative words that other people had used to describe them.

Clare, doing her best imitation of a therapist, got Jason to admit to witnessing unspecified painful things in his childhood, which he had kept hidden by pushing other people away and hooking up with multiple women — all of which Clare insisted didn’t scare her.

In one final bit of exorcism, Clare burned the dress she wore during the “Bachelor” finale in which she told Juan Pablo Galavis to get stuffed. It remains to be seen whether other garments will follow on other therapy dates, perhaps a “Bachelor in Paradise” bikini or a “Bachelor Winter Games” parka.

And then came the final group date, a.k.a. “Clare’s Extreme Dodgeball Bash,” a.k.a. “strip dodgeball.”

Because it wasn’t humiliating enough for the “blue team” of Blake, Kenny, Brendan, Garin and Demar to lose every game of dodgeball to the “red team” (Eazy, Brandon, Joe, Jay and Chasen) — thus forfeiting extra time with Clare — they had to walk back to their suite starkers or very nearly so. A couple of the guys kept their jock straps on; the rest just covered their bits with their hands.

“She might see my man goodies tonight,” Demar said prophetically before the game started. That she did and a few others besides. The date card said she wanted a man with some balls: I guess she wanted proof.

Blake Moynes during the dodgeball game, before he lost all his kit. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Anyway, Blake — belying the myth of the polite Canadian — got dressed, combed his beard and wandered over to where Clare was partying with the winners, interrupting Jay right in the middle of a scintillating story about wanting to open his own gym.

Clare let him hang out for a few minutes — despite Jay and the rest of the red team returning to stare him down — and told him she appreciated him coming but did some dodging of her own when Blake tried to kiss her.

The date rose went to Chasen, with whom Clare bonded over the fact they were both considered losers in high school.

We never got through the rose ceremony, probably because the inevitable blow-up with Yosef is being saved for next week. Yosef told the other men the strip dodgeball game was “classless” and that he was going to let Clare know his thoughts — because no doubt she’s just dying to hear them, as are we all.

We saw Blake get his rose and the kiss he’d been denied the night before, and then Clare pulled Dale away so they could talk and do some hot and heavy smooching; like, seriously, she looked like she wanted to devour him.

Next week, Yosef tells Clare he’s “ashamed to be associated” with her and it looks like resentment over Clare’s relationship with Dale will start to build.

“The Bachelorette” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? Come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Oct. 19, 2020

October 19, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Undoing (Oct. 25, 9 p.m., HBO)

Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman as Jonathan and Grace Fraser in “The Undoing.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Niko Tavernise/HBO

If you can’t get enough of Nicole Kidman on television this drama will be right up your alley. “The Undoing,” which reunites Kidman with creator David E. Kelley, is mainly a showcase for Kidman’s talents. And unlike their other show together, “Big Little Lies,” the Oscar winner doesn’t have to share top billing with other powerhouse women.

She plays another well-to-do wife, psychologist Grace Fraser. Grace seems to live a charmed life with husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant), a pediatric oncologist, and son Henry (Noah Jupe), but you just know it’s about to get turned upside down, especially when Grace meets an unsettling young woman named Elena (Italian actor Matilda De Angelis) in the first episode.

Elena ends up brutally murdered in her art studio, Jonathan goes missing and life as Grace knows it unravels.

Based on the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, “The Undoing” is one of those shows that keeps you guessing from episode to episode. I’ve seen five of the six instalments and I really have no idea how it’s going to end.

Other talent includes Canadian actor Donald Sutherland as Grace’s father (he has a scene involving the dressing down of his grandson’s private school principal that you really don’t want to miss), Noma Dumezweni as a tough-as-nails lawyer, Ismael Cruz Cordova as Elena’s bereaved husband and Edgar Ramirez as a persistent police detective. Emmy winner Susanne Bier (“The Night Manager”) directs.

The settings and the cinematography are beautiful. Kidman looks like a Pre-Raphaelite vision as she traverses Manhattan with her flowing red curls and long, velvet coats.

“The Undoing” is not perfect by any means — we get very little sense, for instance, of who Elena was other than a murder victim who might have been disturbed — but it’s definitely watchable.

Darkness: Those Who Kill (Oct. 19, Acorn)

Natalie Madueño, Kenneth M. Christensen in “Darkness: Those Who Kill.” PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn TV

Whatever the state of pandemic TV production, there seems to be no danger of running out of psychological crime thrillers, what with other countries’ output to draw on.

This Danish series has familiar elements: young female victims (a depressing commonality of many crime dramas), a male killer, a driven male detective who, in this case, teams up with a female criminal profiler.

After detective Jan Michelsen (Kenneth M. Christensen) and profiler Louise Bergstein (Natalie Madueno) link a decade-old disappearance and murder with the kidnappings of two other young women in a town near Copenhagen they try to get inside the suspect’s head (Mads Riisom) in the hope of finding at least one of the victims alive.

Elsewhere, the series has been compared to Welsh crime drama “Hidden.” It also put me slightly in mind of “The Fall,” in that we know who the killer is early on.

Be warned that the show lives up to its title; in the two episodes I screened there was a brutal rape scene.

The Queen’s Gambit (Oct. 23, Netflix)

Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in “The Queen’s Gambit.” PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Bray/Netflix

Given the resemblance of this seven-episode series to a biopic I at first thought perhaps it was based on a real person but, silly me, there were no elite female chess players in the 1950s and ’60s. In fact, I have read that a woman didn’t break into the top 10 until 2005, more than two decades after the publication of the Walter Tevis novel on which this show is based.

The fictional heroine here is Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy (“Peaky Blinders,” “The Dark Crystal”), a child chess prodigy who discovers her talent while living in an orphanage, which is where she also develops an addiction to the tranquilizers given to the girls to control their moods.

To be fair, I got access to the screeners just this morning and only had time to watch one episode, so I can’t pass judgment on the series as a whole. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it seems like a fairly straightforward biographical tale with the twist that the troubled genius is female.

The series was created by Oscar nominee Scott Frank (“Logan”) with Allan Scott. Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov was involved as a consultant to keep the chess scenes as authentic as possible.

Netflix also has Season 2 of “Unsolved Mysteries” debuting Oct. 19 and Season 3 of David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” on Oct. 21.

Year of the Goat (Oct. 24, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

One of the animal stars of “Year of the Goat.” PHOTO CREDIT: Markham Street Films

Couldn’t you use something warm and fuzzy to take the edge off a stressful year? This documentary, airing on “CBC Docs POV,” gives you an up close and personal look at goats and the people who love them.

Filmmakers Michael McNamara and Aaron Hancox (“Catwalk: Tales From the Catshow Circuit”) spent a year embedded with several Ontario farm families and their critters in the run-up to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the “Super Bowl of agricultural fairs,” where their animals were part of the dairy show competition.

Yes, there’s lot of footage of cute, cuddly animals but also a look at the hard work involved in caring for them, with a special emphasis on the farm children’s devotion to their charges.

One thing comes through loud and clear: these animals are well loved, poop and all.

Odds and Ends

Devery Jacobs in “Rhymes for Young Ghouls.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jan Thijs

As a partner in the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, which runs online Oct. 20 to 25, Crave has introduced an Indigenous Stories collection of films. The titles on offer include two from filmmaker Jeff Barnaby: zombie horror flick “Blood Quantum” and “Rhymes for Young Ghouls,” which stars Devery Jacobs (“American Gods,” “The Order”). There are also inspirational story “The Grizzlies,” the debut of “Trickster” co-star Anna Lambe; “Falls Around Her,” starring Tantoo Cardinal; “Maliglutit” (“Searchers”) by Inuk filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq; Oscar winner “Jojo Rabbit” by Taika Waititi and more.

If you’re in the mood for some reality TV, “Battle of the Blades” debuts its sixth season on CBC Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. — one week late after the earlier premiere was scrapped when a member of the production team tested positive for COVID-19. CTV2 has Season 19 of “The Voice” (Oct. 19, 8 p.m.).

If you like country music and/or pandemic entertainment, you can check out how country star Brett Kissel brought live music back to Canada in a physically distanced way in the documentary “Brett Kissel: Live at the Drive-In” (Oct. 21, 8 p.m., CTV2). On the same night, CTV has new episodes of “The Conners” at 7:30 p.m.

Showcase has the new comedy series from Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Funny or Die, “No Activity” (Oct. 25, 10 p.m.), which according to the show blurb “celebrates the mundane.”

Disney Plus has something for “Frozen” completists with “Once Upon a Snowman” (Oct. 23), which reveals the “untold origins” of Olaf, the snowman from the blockbuster animated movies.

Finally, science and/or space geeks might enjoy “Touching the Asteroid” on “Nova” (Oct. 21, 9 p.m., PBS), about the seven-year mission of spaceship Osiris Rex to collect pieces of the Bennu asteroid 200 million miles from Earth and potentially unlock secrets of the origins of our solar system.

On a quarantine ‘Bachelorette’ Clare Crawley’s already smitten

October 14, 2020 / Debra Yeo

Clare Crawley waits to meet the men on Night 1 of “The Bachelorette.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Welcome to the Bachelorette Bubble where you’ll get a swab up your nose and, if you’re lucky, a rose on your lapel.

Or is that unlucky — considering that any man not named Dale Moss appears to have zero chance with the oldest Bachelorette in franchise history (and yes, apparently we have to be reminded of that over and over and over again).

One thing that producers couldn’t keep quarantined at La Quinta Resort in California were all the stories about Clare Crawley walking out partway through the season to get with Dale, with “Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise” fave Tayshia Adams replacing her as Bachelorette.

No, ABC hasn’t admitted that’s what’s going to happen — and if you thought they would on Night 1, what are you, new? — but it certainly was strongly hinted at in the promos.

And don’t forget Clare’s reaction after she first met Dale, a 31-year-old former pro football player. Seeming shaken, puffing out her breath after Dale left her to go inside, she said, “I definitely feel like I just met my husband” — a pronouncement startling enough to bring host Chris Harrison over from wherever he hangs out as the limos empty of men to tell Clare that no one had ever said that at this stage before. But hey, here comes another limo, so snap out of it.

Clare Crawley with Dale Moss on Night 1 of “The Bachelorette,” the man she pegged
as her future husband. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Clare did her duty, chatting with as many of the men as she could manage before handing out 23 roses.

An early theme of the proceedings seemed to be congratulating Clare for being 39 years old — gasp — and still trying to bag herself a man instead of, you know, admitting her old maidenhood and retreating to a solitary life with her two dogs.

In the video call in which Harrison told Clare she’d been chosen as the Bachelorette he said that since she hadn’t given up on herself, “we feel it would be appropriate if we didn’t give up on you.”

Um, you don’t say.

We were reminded of Clare’s Bachelor history, including being runner-up on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season (ick) and a couple of unsuccessful forays on “Bachelor in Paradise.” Curiously, “Bachelor Winter Games,” after which she actually ended up engaged, however briefly, to Canadian food dude Benoit Beausejour-Savard, got left out entirely. Is that because Clare doesn’t consider Benoit one of the “jerks” from her past?

In a conversation in which Harrison dutifully pushed Clare’s buttons, getting her teary-eyed talking about her late father, Clare declared, “I’m here and I haven’t given up on love and I never will. Just by showing up it shows I still want it and I still deserve it,” as if that was actually a question.

It was time to bring on the 31 men. Instead of the usual “getting to know you” packages filmed in some of the standouts’ hometowns, we got footage of them in quarantine at La Quinta, some of it self-taped. Think solo chess games, jumping on the bed, bubble baths and masks, both the coronavirus and cosmetic kind (well, OK, only one guy applied a cosmetic mask). And I don’t know about you, but seeing those big guys’ eyes water after their COVID-19 tests (they had to take more than one to be cleared to meet Clare) made me hope I never have to take one myself.

I won’t bore you with all the men’s names because, let’s be honest, you’ll have forgotten most of them by the time the season ends.

Besides Dale, one of the interesting ones was Blake Moynes, a 29-year-old wildlife manager from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He broke the show’s rules (which is funny because rules get broken all the time if it adds to the drama) by contacting Clare during the quarantine. “It meant everything to me,” said Clare, tearing up, adding that she was struggling because her mother, who’s in a care home with Alzheimer’s, had just fallen and broken her nose.

Clare with Canadian competitor Blake Moynes. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Blake was rewarded with the first kiss (or at least, that’s how it was edited) but then watched in disappointment as Clare spirited away Dale to give him the first impression rose — and an even smoochier kiss.

Speaking of drama, West Virginia lawyer Tyler C. ratted out medical device salesman Yosef Aborady for allegedly creeping on some woman that Tyler knew on Instagram, but Clare believed Yosef when he said there was no substance to the accusation and sent Tyler home.

Clare mediates between Tyler C. and Yosef. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Sounds like Clare might regret that since the word online is that Yosef said some nasty things to her that got him kicked out ahead of a future rose ceremony. We’ll see. To me, the single dad reeked of smarminess and cockiness, which you’d think somebody with all Clare’s experience would suss out right away.

Another potential villain was Bennett, who went to Harvard and said that when you tell people that, it’s described as dropping the “H-bomb.” No, really, he said that. He showed up to meet Clare in a Rolls-Royce and a tux with a white scarf draped around his neck.

Another guy wore a straitjacket, because he’d gone “a little crazy” waiting to meet Clare. There was a knight — in shining armour, get it? Someone wore a fake pregnancy belly in homage to Clare’s “Bachelor” entrance. Someone else wore a T-shirt with a photo of Clare’s dogs, which was good enough to earn a rose without any one-on-one time. There was a dude in a parachute because he’d “fallen” for her and another in a plastic bubble.

I’ll tell you what the men didn’t wear a lot of was ties and socks, lots of fellows baring their ankles. The best dressed had to be sports marketing agent Eazy in his salmon suit, although I couldn’t help but notice when he made his entrance by bursting through a poster that read “Your Future Husband” he seemed to smile at the camera before he smiled at Clare.

Anyway, hold those thoughts. It sounds like in just a few short weeks, the drama is going to be all about Clare blowing up “The Bachelorette,” as Harrison put it. Stay tuned.

“The Bachelorette” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Citytv. Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? Come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Watchable the week of Oct. 12, 2020

October 12, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Star Trek: Discovery (Oct. 15, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel)

David Ajala as Book and Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham in “Star Trek: Discovery.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Lilja J–nsd–ttir /CBS/©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc.

Season 3 of “Discovery” is going where no other show in the “Star Trek” franchise has gone before, boldly or otherwise, 930 years into the future, which means we’re now in the 32nd century instead of the 23rd.

You may recall that at the end of the second season — in a convoluted plot that I have to confess I had a hard time wrapping my brain around — Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), in a special “red angel” suit, had to jump into the future through a wormhole with the Discovery following behind, because otherwise the evil AI entity known as Control would use information accessible on the Discovery to wipe out the galaxy. Phew.

In the new season, the jump has been made. I won’t tell you where they land or in what order or about the new alien species and technology they encounter, because that would be spoilers.

I also won’t tell you what I think of the three episodes I’ve seen so far, because reviews are embargoed until the day the new season debuts. I’ll just tell you what Sonequa and Mary Wiseman, who plays Tilly, had to say when I interviewed them in January.

“Having to acclimate to this future is going to be a challenge for everyone,” Sonequa said. “And a big part of our journey in Season 3 is figuring out where we are. What is the state of affairs in this future now? What does science look like? How has technology advanced even further?”

She also said the season doesn’t “leave any stone unturned” in dealing with the emotional changes members of the crew experience.

Mary said relationships among the crew have become heightened “when you jump 930 years in the future and everyone you’ve ever known is long, long passed away. Those relationships are imbued with a greater power and it raises the stakes on a storytelling perspective.”

You can read my full interview with Sonequa and Mary here.

If you’ve been following “Discovery” news online, you already know about the new cast additions this season, including Book, played by David Ajala; Adira, a nonbinary character played by nonbinary actor Blu del Barrio; and Gray, a transgender character played by trans actor Ian Alexander.

Howie Mandel: But, Enough About Me (Oct. 12, 9 p.m., CTV)

Howie Mandel is seen in “Deal or No Deal.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Daly/CNBC

Contrary to what you might expect from a showbiz documentary, there’s a fair amount of humility to be found in this film about Toronto-born comedian, actor and TV host Howie Mandel.

Mandel delights in revisiting his old haunts in Toronto, including Northview Heights Secondary School, the former location of Yuk Yuk’s comedy club and the North York synagogue where he got married, and he unironically describes getting a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame as the pinnacle of his career.

He also candidly discusses the highs of that career (playing the Comedy Store, doing “The Tonight Show” 21 times, “St. Elsewhere,” “Deal or No Deal”) and the lows (getting kicked off “The Tonight Show” and all his offers drying up after the cancellation of his shortlived daytime talk show).

Mandel, now an “America’s Got Talent” judge, also talks candidly about his struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, anxiety and ADHD.

Throughout the doc, directed by Barry Avrich, you get the sense of someone who’s simply delighted to still be working. Mandel, who calls his family his legacy, says what’s important is that “me and the people I’ve had the responsibility of raising are nice,” which sounds very Canadian indeed.

And since we’re talking about Canadians and comedy, the CTV Comedy Channel has the third season of “Corner Gas Animated” (Oct. 12, 9 p.m.) bringing you more of the style of humour that Brent Butt and crew perfected in six seasons of “Corner Gas.” In the first episode, Davis (Lorne Cardinal) has to plan a last-minute epic birthday party for Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and you can guess how well that goes.

Des (Oct. 15, Sundance Now)

David Tennant as serial killer Dennis Nilsen in “Des.” PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now

If you’re a David Tennant fan (and how could you not be? “Broadchurch,” “Good Omens,” “Jessica Jones,” “Doctor Who,” “Blackpool,” etc.) check him out playing real-life Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, a.k.a Des, in this true-crime drama.

Nilsen — whom Tennant looks creepily alike in costume — was convicted of six counts of murder in 1983, although he confessed to killing 15 young men whom he had brought back to his London apartment.

The series is based on the book “Killing for Company” by Brian Masters, who’s played by Jason Watkins in the show. The fascination for Masters — and likely for viewers too — is how ordinary Nilsen seemed. The series portrays him as so beloved by his office mates that they refused to let police search his office without a warrant since they couldn’t fathom him being a killer.

In the first episode, a young man reports encountering Dennis three years before he was caught and escaping when Dennis tried to strangle him. His story at the time was dismissed by police as “a lovers’ tiff.” It put me in mind of Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur, who was arrested but not charged in 2016 after a man said McArthur tried to strangle him. Almost three years later, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight murders.

Enslaved (Oct. 17, 9 p.m., documentary; Oct. 18, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Samuel L. Jackson in the docuseries “Enslaved.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

This Canadian-U.K. co-production presents a new take on the shameful history of the slave trade by focusing not on the ships that successfully carried captured Africans to countries like Brazil, England, the United States and Cuba, but the ones that were lost on the journey.

The first episode focuses on a Spanish slave ship called the Guerrero that sank off the Florida Reef in a battle with a British ship charged with stopping illegal slave vessels. Forty-one enslaved Africans went down with the Guerrero. The groups Diving With a Purpose and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers collaborate with marine archeologist Corey Malcom to find what’s left of the Guerrero underwater by tracking the iron objects that the crew of its adversary, the Nimble, threw overboard to avoid grounding on the reef.

“This is a grave site. I’m humbled,” says diver Alannah Vellacott after finding an artifact that appears to have come from the Guerrero.

Meanwhile, American actor Samuel L. Jackson, an executive producer of “Enslaved,” goes on a very personal journey, to connect with his enslaved ancestors by visiting a Benga village in Gabon, West Africa. In a ceremony that is usually closed to outsiders, Jackson is reunited with his tribe.

The six-part series, directed by long-time documentary-maker Simcha Jacobovici, makes it clear that slavery is part of the present as well as the past. Each episode focuses on a search for a sunken slave vessel, a personal journey by Jackson, and a historical investigation by Jacobovici and journalist Afua Hirsch.

Odds and ends

Amalia Yoo as Leila Zimmer in “Grand Army.” PHOTO CREDIT: Marni Grossman/Netflix

There’s so much more stuff coming up this week. We’ll start with Netflix, which has “Grand Army” debuting Oct. 16. It’s a social, sexual, political coming-of-age story set in a racially diverse Brooklyn high school and focusing on five students in particular. It was shot in Toronto, which I sometimes found distracting because some of the landmarks were so obviously not Brooklyn, but that’s just me. There’s also “Social Distance” on Oct. 15. The title pretty much sums it up since it was created, cast and produced in quarantine and is about people dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that will be very familiar to viewers. One of the episodes I screened, for instance, was about a woman teaching her college students remotely, whose mother is about to be locked down in her nursing home and whose support worker has to supervise her daughter via webcam since she can’t get child care.

The critically acclaimed reboot of “One Day at a Time,” which stars Justina Machado and Rita Moreno, and has updated the white single mother and family of the original to a Cuban American clan, comes to network TV, with its fourth season beginning Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. on Global.

Disney Plus has the movie tearjerker “Clouds” (Oct. 16), which is based on the true story of Zach Sobiech, an American teen who died of cancer in 2013. A song he recorded and posted on YouTube, called “Clouds,” went viral before his death and is still racking up views, while a fund in his name continues to raise money for osteosarcoma research. Fin Argus stars as Zach. Disney Plus also has the wildlife series “Meet the Chimps” (Oct. 16), shot in the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana.

If you’re in the mood for documentaries, CBC has “The Killing of Phillip Boudreau” (Oct. 17, 8 p.m. on “CBC Docs POV”), about the 2013 slaying in a small Nova Scotia community of Boudreau, who was known for poaching lobster from the local fishermen. He was shot and drowned by another boat crew, a crime that still divides the town. TVO has “Margin of Error” (Oct. 17, 9 p.m.), which looks at political polling and, in particular, an Ottawa startup whose artificial intelligence, nicknamed Polly, seems to do a better job than traditional pollsters of predicting elections.

I enjoyed it so much when I saw it during the Toronto International Film Festival that I have to recommend the Spike Lee film “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” which airs on HBO Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.

Finally — deep breath — Season 2 of the middle school cringe comedy “PEN15” begins on CBC Gem on Oct. 16. And PBS has “The Trouble With Maggie Cole” (Oct. 18, 8 p.m.), starring beloved British comedian Dawn French.

Watchable the week of Oct. 5, 2020 (updated)

October 5, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK 1: Trickster (Oct. 7, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Joel Oulette as Jared and Anna Lambe as Sarah in “Trickster.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

Of all the many elements that go into making a successful TV show, casting is arguably one of the most important.

The cast is our proxy, the people we have to follow wherever the characters lead, so there’s a lot riding on getting it right. The casting team for “Trickster,” led by Jon Commerford and Rene Haynes, did a bang-up job, especially with series lead Joel Oulette.

Just 17 when he played teenage protagonist Jared, Oulette had only a few supporting roles to his name when he took on the starring role in “Trickster” — but you’d never know it from the skilful way he elicits our empathy and our interest.

Jared is an ordinary teen in Kitimat, B.C. with some extraordinary burdens. He juggles the usual stressors like school, part-time work, friends and a new romance, but also supports his parents financially and emotionally: mother Maggie (Crystle Lightning), a hard-partying hellraiser who hears voices, and father Phil (Craig Lauzon), a recovering opioid addict who has a child on the way with his new partner.

That might sound dysfunctional, but Jared has a loving relationship with both his folks. His real troubles arise outside the family unit: from his mother’s drug dealer boyfriend (Joel Thomas Hynes), the swaggering stranger who tries to insinuate himself into his life (Kalani Queypo) and the strange things Jared starts seeing.

“Trickster” fits into a continuum of supernatural teen-focused dramas, everything from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to “Teen Wolf” and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” but the mythology explored here comes from Indigenous traditions, particularly of the Haisla Nation of northern B.C.

Indigenous viewers might appreciate seeing their stories reflected onscreen while non-Indigenous ones might learn something; in both cases, they can expect to be entertained.

You can read my interview with the cast and series co-creator Michelle Latimer here.

SHOW OF THE WEEK 2: Departure (Oct. 8, 10 p.m., Global TV)

Rebecca Liddiard in “Departure.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Global TV

You can’t watch “Departure” and not marvel at the sight of maskless people packed into a passenger jet with not an empty middle seat in sight. I myself have not been on a plane since January and don’t expect to be on one for a good long while thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But you should watch “Departure” not because it’s a reminder of the before time but because it’s a well-made, suspenseful drama with a fantastic cast.

Canadian legend Christopher Plummer, still a force to be reckoned with at 90, and excellent British actor Archie Panjabi head the team, but there are plenty of other Canadian names who deserve to be on your radar, among them Kris Holden-Ried, Rebecca Liddiard, Allan Hawco, Mark Rendall, Tamara Duarte and Evan Buliung (whom I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live onstage at the Stratford Festival and elsewhere). And don’t forget Brits like Shazad Latif (“Star Trek: Discovery”), Peter Mensah and Claire Forlani.

The six-part series is about what happens after a plane carrying 256 passengers and crew disappears over the Atlantic Ocean on its way from New York to London. The crash is but a small part of the first episode, plus brief flashbacks throughout. The drama comes from watching a team of investigators led by Panjabi’s and Holden-Ried’s characters figure out what brought the plane down, something that kept me as engaged as any detective drama in the two episodes I’ve seen so far.

There’s also a mystery involving one of the passengers for the team to solve, but I won’t say what because that would be a spoiler.

You can read my interview with Plummer, Panjabi and series creator Vincent Shiao here.

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace (Oct. 8, 8 p.m., CBC) and Company Town (Oct. 10, 8 p.m., CBC)

A scene from the documentary “There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

I’ve grouped these two “CBC Docs POV” documentaries together because they both deal with the consequences of capitalism and the loss of valued ways of life.

In “There’s No Place,” Lulu Wei uses her debut film to examine the loss of Honest Ed’s discount store and the adjacent Mirvish Village after the buildings at Bloor and Bathurst Streets were sold by David Mirvish to Vancouver developer Westbank Corp. for rental units. Mirvish and Westbank aren’t portrayed as villains here, but the story of gentrification disrupting communities is a familiar one in Toronto. The overwhelming feeling as the onetime discount mecca crumbles is not just the loss of an affordable place to shop, affordable housing for tenants like Lulu and her partner, and affordable work spaces for artists like Gabor Mezei in Mirvish Village, but of the loss of a very piece of the city’s soul.

In “Company Town,” the way of life at stake is Oshawa’s century-plus history of automaking as General Motors decides to close its assembly plant in the city, with direct layoffs for more than 2,000 workers and thousands more jobs threatened in supply companies.

The blame is laid squarely on corporate greed, but there’s anger to spare for Unifor president Jerry Dias after the best the union could get out of GM was a promise to save 300 jobs by turning the Oshawa factory into a stamping plant.

The lasting impression from this doc by Peter Findlay is of the human cost of such decisions.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (Oct. 9, Netflix)

Victoria Pedretti and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in “The Haunting of Bly Manor.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eike Schroter/Netflix

If you like a good old-fashioned, things-that-go-bump-in-the-night ghost story then turn down the lights and settle in for Season 2 of the “Haunting” anthology series. This one is based on several horror stories by 19th-century author Henry James, particularly his 1898 tale “The Turn of the Screw.”

The action has been updated to 1987 when perky American teacher Dani (Victoria Pedretti, “The Haunting of Hill House”) takes a job as au pair to a couple of odd, orphaned children in the English countryside (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Amelie Bea Smith).

Clearly there are otherworldly presences lurking in the mansion, but Dani is also haunted by something creepy from her own past and there’s the mystery of what happened to the children’s former governess (Tahirah Sharif).

It’s scary good fun, though not so spooky that it will have you jumping out of your skin at every turn, and with enough dramatic heft to keep you moving on to the next episode.

The Right Stuff (Oct. 9, Disney Plus)

From left, Micah Stock, Jake McDorman, Aaron Staton, Michael Trotter, Patrick J. Adams, Colin O’Donoghue and James Laffery in “The Right Stuff.” PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

You might have noticed there’s a space race on TV these days. On the heels of recent space exploration dramas like “For All Mankind” (Apple TV Plus) and “Away” (Netflix) comes this show based on the 1979 Tom Wolfe novel (previously turned into a well-regarded 1983 movie).

It’s the story of the seven men selected as the United States’ first astronauts and, more narrowly, the rivalry between two of them, Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

As portrayed by Jake McDorman (“Limitless”) and Toronto-born Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”), Shepard is an emotionally repressed, fiercely competitive womanizer while Glenn is a teetotalling, politically aware self-promoter, both keenly ambitious to become the first American in space.

The series is a bit of a throwback in its “Mad Men”-esque portrayal of some of the astronauts’ hard-drinking, skirt-chasing antics. The women in the plot mostly exist to stand by their men. Eloise Mumford gets the most fully realized arc as Trudy Cooper, wife of astronaut Gordo Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue) and an aspiring space pilot in her own right.

That being said, it’s an engrossing character study of the men involved and a skilful portrait of a particular period of time, when America was in the grip of space fever and astronauts were the new celebrities.

Odds and Ends

From left, Aurora Browne, Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen of “Baroness von Sketch Show.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Roundstone PR

The first ladies of Canadian sketch comedy return for the fifth and final season of “Baroness von Sketch Show” (Oct. 6, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem). Expect the usual mix of silliness and satire. Highlights of the first episode, which I screened, include a post-breakup extraction team and female Mafioso discussing “shooting” etiquette.

CBC also has a new adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” (Oct. 7, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem) set in contemporary Britain and France that benefits from the present-day setting, which ups the relatability. Lea Drucker, Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern and Daisy Edgar-Jones star.

Also new to CBC Gem is “Detectorists” (Oct. 9), a British comedy that had very good reviews on its home turf about two blokes who spend their days metal detecting for buried treasure. It was created by and stars Mackenzie Crook (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) alongside Toby Jones (“The Hunger Games”).

Here’s another one that I didn’t get to screen: “neXt” (Oct. 6, 9 p.m., Global TV). It’s a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence turned deadly and just looking at the trailer makes me kind of glad I never got an Alexa. It’s from “24” producer Manny Coto and stars John Slattery (“Mad Men”) and Fernanda Andrade.

Watchable the week of Sept. 28, 2020 (updated)

September 28, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK (The Good Lord Bird, Oct. 4, 9 p.m., Crave)

Joshua Caleb Johnson as Onion and Ethan Hawke as John Brown in “The Good Lord Bird.”
PHOTO CREDIT: William Gray/Showtime

When actor Ethan Hawke and author James McBride spoke to the Television Critics Association in January, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were still alive and the Black Lives Matter uprising their deaths propelled hadn’t yet begun — but the continuum on which those killings and others like them sit was on the minds of everyone in that room in Pasadena, Calif.

As Hawke said then, “You can’t tell a story about America and not bump into race.”

“The Good Lord Bird” not only bumps into race but charges into the fray with ferocity, audacity and even glee alongside white abolitionist John Brown, played by Hawke.

Brown, of course, was a real person, the violent activist whose failed campaign to free every enslaved Black person in the United States is credited as the spark that began the Civil War. We see his exploits through the eyes of a fictional character, Henry Shackleford, played by Joshua Caleb Johnson (“Snowfall”), a teenage slave who ends up in Brown’s care when his father dies in a gun fight between pro-slavers in Kansas and Brown’s men.

Hawke, in an Emmy-baiting tour de force, plays Brown as firebrand and fool, hero and blunderer, consumed and sometimes blinded by his belief in the righteousness of his cause, full of compassion for the slaves he seeks to free, ruthless to those who would keep them suppressed.

McBride pointed out back in January that this is not your typical “white saviour story.” Indeed, the series takes the view that while Brown was a hero to many Black people at the time, not every Black person was a convert to his cause. Henry, nicknamed “Onion” by Brown, points out that he was never hungry or cold, or got shot at or saw a person murdered until he left the man who owned him and joined Brown’s ragtag army.

The evil of slavery is presented as a given rather than something that needs to be demonstrated, with the violence done to Blacks by white people mostly implied rather than shown. One hanging scene does more to demonstrate the moral strength of the woman who dies (Sibonia, played by Crystal Lee Brown) than the cruelty of those doing the killing.

McBride said the show, like his book, is meant to be funny and there is subtle humour throughout, starting with the fact that Brown mistakes Henry for a girl, leading him to don a dress and pose as Henrietta. “The Good Lord Bird” pokes fun at Brown himself, whom Onion describes as “nuttier than a squirrel turd.” And revered Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass (played by Daveed Diggs of “Hamilton” fame), is portrayed as a vain, pompous bigamist.

There is tragedy here too, to be sure. Brown was hanged after his doomed raid on the armoury at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, which is the denouement of the seven-episode series.

The bigger tragedy is that despite the fact slavery was officially abolished in the United States in 1965, Black people there and elsewhere are still not free of its prejudices.

Monsterland (Oct. 2, 10 p.m., CTV Drama Channel)

A scene from the new anthology series “Monsterland.” PHOTO CREDIT: Hulu/Bell Media

“Monsterland” delivers food for thought along with its chills, the main thought being whether any of the supernatural creatures it portrays are real or just manifestations of the troubled characters in each episode.

For instance, the impoverished single mother of a difficult child (Kaitlyn Dever, excellent as always) is presented with the tantalizing idea of starting over when a killer (Jonathan Tucker) who steals the identities of his victims wanders into the diner where she works. In another episode, a fisherman (Trieu Tran) turned environmental zealot after being injured in a chemical spill makes his biggest catch of all when he finds an oil-slicked mermaid (Adria Arjona) on the beach.

And so it goes, with personal and social ills that pose threats as daunting as the monsters that haunt the lead characters.

Each episode tells a new story in a different part of the U.S.

The cast includes familiar faces like Nicole Beharie (“Sleepy Hollow”), Charlie Tahan (“Ozark”), Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”), Taylor Schilling (“Orange Is the New Black”) and Kelly Marie Tran (“Star Wars”).

“You Can’t Ask That” (Oct. 2, CBC Gem)

Maria Bangash, one of the subjects of “You Can’t Ask That.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

I confess when I first heard about this series, which is based on a successful Australian version in which people with differences of some kind are asked questions that would otherwise be deemed invasive, I thought the whole concept sounded rather rude.

In fact, after screening the first episode of the second season, I can say it’s eye-opening and inspirational.

That episode features people with disabilities like Markham’s Maria Bangash, who has a genetic condition called chromosome 9 deletion. The various subjects, including teens Saoud and Nicola, who have spina bifida; Ella, who has cerebral palsy; Kaleb-Wolf, who has with brittle bone disease; and Owen, who was born with vision and hearing impairment, are more focused on what they can do than what they can’t.

For instance, Owen’s brother Oliver, who was born with missing fingers and a thumb that points in the wrong direction, notes that “it can be hard to hold my hockey stick,” but it clearly doesn’t stop him from playing.

Asked what she would change if she could, Maria replies that she’d change nothing about herself but much about the way society perceives people with disabilities — a goal that could certainly be furthered by watching this series.

Future episodes focus on people with PTSD, deafness, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s disease and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Odds and Ends

Stephen Rea and Francesca Annis as lovers of a certain age in “Flesh and Blood.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of MASTERPIECE

I am truly sorry I didn’t have time to screen the new “Masterpiece” crime thriller “Flesh and Blood” (PBS, Oct. 4, 9 p.m.) given the crackerjack cast. Francesca Annis (“Jane Eyre”) plays a widow who begins a romance with a retired surgeon (Stephen Rea, “The Crying Game”). Imelda Staunton (“Harry Potter,” “A Confession”) is her nosy next-door neighbour and David Bamber (“Rome,” “Pride and Prejudice”) is the detective who investigates when things go awry. PBS also has the political drama “Cobra” (Oct. 4, 10 p.m.) with another stellar cast, including Robert Carlyle (“Once Upon a Time,” “Trainspotting”), Richard Dormer (“Game of Thrones”), Victoria Hamilton (“The Crown”), David Haig (“Penny Dreadful”) and Lucy Cohu (“Ripper Street”).

Good news for fans of classic peak TV: all seven seasons of “Mad Men” are to be available on Amazon Prime Video as of Oct. 1.

Oct. 2 is a busy day for new releases. Netflix has “Emily in Paris,” a fish-out-of-water tale created by Darren Star of “Sex and the City” fame, starring Lily Collins as a young American woman who gets a job with a marketing firm in the City of Light. On Crave, there’s “Kingdom of Silence,” (9 p.m.), a documentary by Rick Rowley about the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi; while HBO has Season 2 of martial arts action series “Warrior” at 11 p.m. There’s also Vol. 2 of the “Savage X Fenty Show,” featuring fashion by Rihanna, on Amazon Prime.

If you like shows about funny people, check out “The Comedy Store” (Oct. 4, 10 p.m., Crave), an ode to the famous L.A. club that has been a training ground for numerous famous comedians, many of whom are featured in this docuseries talking about the good old days.

I had almost forgotten about “The Walking Dead.” Truth be told, it’s been a long time since I thought the show was any good so I tend to hate-watch it more than anything. But if you are a diehard, AMC has the Season 10 finale Oct. 4 at 9 p.m., along with the spinoff “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” the same night at 10 p.m. And you thought zombies were hard to kill.

Finally, Showcase has “Tell Me a Story” (Sept. 30, 10 p.m.), which reimagines classic fairy tales as dark, modern psychological thrillers, starting with “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Hansel and Gretel.”

Watchable the week of Sept. 21, 2020

September 21, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Fargo (Sept. 27, 10 p.m., FX)

Chris Rock anchors the cast of “Fargo” Season 4 as Loy Cannon. PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Morris/FX

“You play the hand you’re dealt,” says the “Rabbi” (Ben Whishaw), one of the vivid ensemble of characters in the fourth season of Noah Hawley’s “Fargo.” Here, the hand is a gorgeously shot tale of two crime syndicates fighting for control of the underworld in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1950.

This season is unlikely to appease critics who found Season 3 too diffuse in the way it spread its characters around, but there’s a lot to be said for these characters and the actors who play them.

Chris Rock anchors the cast as Loy Cannon, boss of a Black criminal gang trying to maintain an uneasy peace with the local Mafia, led by Josto Fadda (Jason Schwartzman). Loy is well aware of what white America thinks of him and determined to snatch his share of riches in spite of it. “I will do whatever it takes to win,” he says.

The Italians see themselves as higher up the food chain because of the colour of their skin, but Josto is fighting on two fronts: against Loy’s gang and against his own brother, Gaetano (Italian actor Salvatore Esposito), who’s fresh off the boat from Second World War-ravaged Italy and thirsty for blood.

Other characters weave in and out of the main plot, including twisted nurse Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley, turning her Irish brogue into a credible Minnesota accent); brainy teenager Ethelrida Pearl Smutney (E’myri Crutchfield), who has a white father (Andrew Bird) and a Black mother (Anji White); Zelmare (Karen Aldridge) and Swanee (Kelsey Asbille), a pair of lesbian, ex-con outlaws; Mormon U.S. Marshal “Deafy” Wickware (Timothy Olyphant) and twitchy detective Odis Weff (Jack Huston).

So yes, there’s a lot to take in and some of the story threads seem less relevant to the main plot than others.

In part, it’s a story about the hollowness of the so-called American dream and about who gets to pursue it. It’s also about power and family and loyalty and the illusion of control. You can do your best to exercise control, as Loy and Josto do, but you can’t dictate what hands you get dealt.

Filthy Rich (Sept. 21, 9 p.m. CTV)

Gerald McRaney, Aubrey Dollar and Kim Cattrall in “Filthy Rich.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Markfield/FOX.

If you’re looking for nuanced character development and plot lines with gravitas, don’t look here. If you’re looking for a soap opera that mixes sex, greed and religion, and boasts a formidable leading lady, you’re in the right place.

This dramedy created by Tate Taylor, who wrote the screenplay for “The Help,” is primarily a vehicle for Kim Cattrall to strut her stuff as Margaret Monreaux, the matriarch of a, yes, filthy rich family of televangelists. Things start to go to hell, if you’ll pardon the expression, when the plane carrying her husband, Eugene (Gerald McRaney), crashes while he’s being entertained by a couple of prostitutes, no less, and his will reveals the existence of three illegitimate children.

That sets the scene for a battle of wills between Margaret and one of those kids, Ginger Sweet (Melia Kreiling, “Tyrant”), who runs a porn website and is determined to squeeze as much as she can from Margaret and her multi-billion-dollar empire.

There are plenty of side plots involving Margaret’s disgruntled children (Corey Cott and Aubrey Dollar), stepsons Antonio (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) and Jason (Mark L. Young), the slick but slimy Reverend Paul (Aaron Lazar) and a group of shady investors who want a stake in Margaret’s newest moneymaking venture, a shopping club that peddles Christian values along with the soap and toilet paper.

Utopia (Sept. 25, Amazon)

From left, Ian Byrd, Desmin Borges, Jessica Rothe and Ashleigh LaThrop in “Utopia.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

It’s hard at times to tell the heroes and villains apart in “Utopia,” a remake of a dark British thriller of the same name.

There’s plenty of killing in the eight-part series, not to mention a little torture, and it’s not just the obvious bad guys snuffing out lives. Luckily, the viewers have several proxies to guide them through the mayhem, a group of comic book nerds who get swept into a conspiracy involving a deadly virus and a plot to save the world.

It starts with the discovery of an unpublished graphic novel called “Utopia,” the sequel to a cult comic called “Dystopia,” which appeared to predict the existence of several real-world viruses.

Utopia obsessives Becky (Ashleigh LaThrop), Ian (Dan Byrd), Samantha (Jessica Rothe), Wilson Wilson (Desmin Borges) and Grant (Javon Walton) travel to a Comic-Con-like convention in Cleveland aiming to get their hands on the book, only to discover that it’s also being sought by a very dangerous and ruthless group of people.

The nerds team up with real-life comic book character Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane) to unravel the clues contained in Utopia’s pages and try to puzzle out what dangers the villain known as Mr. Rabbit has in store for the world.

Occasionally, diving into the Utopia mythology can feel a bit like going down a rabbit hole, but the series is fast-paced, the twists are compelling and the pieces eventually click into place.

It was created by Gillian Flynn, known for novels-turned-screenplays like “Gone Girl” and “Sharp Objects.” And Dennis Kelly, who created the original “Utopia,” is a writer and executive producer on this one.

John Cusack is the name star, in his first regular role in a TV series, playing scientist Dr. Kevin Christie. Rainn Wilson (“The Office”) also stars as virologist Dr. Michael Stearns.

“Utopia” has a definite dystopian bent along with a misanthropic heroine in Jessica Hyde, but its humanity manages to break through, sometimes in places you’d least expect it.

Odds and Ends

Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BritBox

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan in possession of a BritBox subscription must be in want of a remastered version of “Pride and Prejudice.” If you’re a fan of that novel, Austen’s best in my opinion, then I’m preaching to the choir with my bastardization of one of her most famous lines. I’m also a massive fan of the 1995 BBC adaptation of the book, which made international stars of Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as quintessential Austen couple Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. The digitally restored version of the miniseries debuts on BritBox Sept. 25 in honour of the 25th anniversary.
BritBox also has a remastered version of “Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime” debuting Sept. 22.

Jann Arden is back for the second season of her sitcom “Jann” (Sept. 21, 8 p.m., CTV). If you loved the TV version of Jann in all her narcissism and self-deprecation in Season 1, then you’ll be down with Season 2. You can read my Toronto Star interview with Jann here.

HBO has “Agents of Chaos” (Sept. 23, 9 p.m.), a new two-part documentary by Oscar winner Alex Gibney (“Going Clear”) about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and ongoing efforts to disrupt democracy, surely a vital topic with a new presidential election coming up.

Staying with the political theme, Crave has the Showtime two-parter “The Comey Rule” (Sept. 27, 9 p.m.), based on the book “A Higher Loyalty” by former FBI director James Comey. The series dramatizes Comey’s take on the election of Donald Trump (played by Brendan Gleeson), the role that Russia played in that election and the events leading up to Comey’s firing by Trump, with Comey played by well known Trump critic Jeff Daniels.

If you like true crime documentaries, “A Wilderness of Error” is worth checking out (Sept. 25, 8 p.m., FX). Produced by Jason Blum and Marc Smerling (“The Jinx”) and written by acclaimed documentary maker Errol Morris (“Fog of War”), it involves the shocking 1970 murder in Fort Bragg, N.C., of a pregnant woman and two little girls, allegedly by their husband and father, army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, who continues to maintain his innocence.

Finally, Apple TV Plus has “Tehran” (Sept. 25), an espionage thriller about a Mossad agent who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in the Iranian capital. It stars Israeli actress Niv Sultan and was co-created by Moshe Zonder, known for the Netflix series “Fauda.”

Watchable the week of Sept. 14, 2020

September 14, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Third Day (Sept. 14, 9 p.m., HBO)

Jude Law and Katherine Waterston in “The Third Day.” PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Ludovic/HBO

This miniseries was co-created by Felix Barrett, founder of Punchdrunk, the theatre company that gave the world the groundbreaking immersive play “Sleep No More,” and there is indeed a touch of the immersive about it.

There’s a hallucinatory quality to what’s onscreen that sometimes makes you feel like you’re losing your grip on reality right along with Sam, played by Jude Law, the married father and small business owner who effectively gets trapped on a very strange island off the British coast.

The other creator is Dennis Kelly, known in the U.K. as the man behind the ultra-violent thriller “Utopia,” with which “The Third Day” shares a use of super-saturated colour, which helps to heighten the sense of unreality.

I’ve seen five of the six episodes — the first three starring Law, the latter starring Naomie Harris (“Moonlight”) — but there’s also a live broadcast to come in between the two parts, described as “an immersive, experiential event,” which obviously nobody has seen yet.

I can tell you that what I have seen is permeated with an unrelenting sense of dread.

Sam ends up on tiny Osea Island when he encounters a troubled young woman from there and drives her home, but circumstances conspire to keep him on the island, not least the fact that the causeway linking it to the mainland is accessible only when the tide is out.

Despite the smiling hospitality of people like the Martins (Paddy Considine and Emily Watson), who run the local pub, there’s a clear sense that Osea is no place for outsiders. Sam catches glimpses of pagan-seeming rituals; there are disembowelled animals strewn about and menacing men in fish-head masks. The longer he stays, the greater the impression that he’s in danger and, also, that there’s no one he can trust. Even his seeming ally, a fellow visitor named Jess (Katherine Waterston), appears to be hiding things.

When Helen (Harris) arrives with her two daughters months after the events involving Sam, there’s not even a pretence of a welcome. The islanders want her gone, but she stubbornly refuses to leave, saying she planned the trip as a birthday surprise for her oldest daughter — although it becomes clear she has an ulterior motive for being there.

The series gets into some quasi-religious mythology that’s a little farfetched, but it works well when it plays up the terror of being stuck in a strange place with no way home.

Ratched (Sept. 18, Netflix)

Sarah Paulson as Mildred Ratched in “Ratched.” PHOTO CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Netflix

Ryan Murphy’s latest project for Netflix, co-created with Evan Romansky, is the origin story of literary and cinema villain Nurse Ratched of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I’m not convinced anyone was clamouring for a look at how the cruel, manipulative character from the 1962 novel and 1975 film became who she was, but here we are.

Don’t look to “Ratched” for nuanced psychological drama; it’s pure melodrama. And like “Hollywood,” the Murphy co-creation that debuted on Netflix in May, it’s more style than substance.

It’s definitely lovely to look at. Mildred Ratched, played by Murphy favourite Sarah Paulson, dresses in colourful period fashions when she’s not in her turquoise nurse’s uniform. And the mental hospital where she connives her way into a job looks more like an elegant hotel than an asylum.

This Nurse Ratched is a rigidly self-controlled, sexually repressed manipulator with a dark past who has a very specific reason for putting herself in the employ of Dr. Hanover (Jon Jon Briones), which I won’t reveal because it would be a spoiler. But she’s not wholly unsympathetic.

The series opens with a gruesome multiple murder by a man (“American Horror Story” alum Finn Wittrock) who comes into Hanover’s and Ratched’s care, and some of the mental hospital’s treatments are barbaric.

Judy Davis co-stars as Ratched’s nemesis, head nurse Betsy Bucket. Vincent D’Onofrio plays the state governor, who uses the mental hospital as a prop for his re-election campaign, and Cynthia Nixon is his assistant, a closeted lesbian.

Sharon Stone also chews some scenery as a very rich woman with a grudge against Dr. Hanover.

Odds and Ends

Jack Dylan Grazer and Jordan Kristine Seamon star in “We Are Who We Are.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Yannis Drakoulidis/HBO

If you’re a fan of Luca Guadagnino’s previous work, especially the Oscar-nominated gay love story “Call Me By Your Name,” then you will likely take to “We Are Who We Are” (Sept. 14, 10 p.m., HBO), a series he co-created and directed about two teenagers exploring their sexual and gender identities on an American air force base in Italy. It stars Jack Dylan Grazer as Fraser, a New York teen who grudgingly comes to Italy with his mother Sarah (Chloe Sevigny), the new commander of the base, and her wife Maggie (Alice Braga). Kid Cudi also co-stars as one of the soldiers under Sarah’s command and the father of Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon), with whom Fraser forms a close friendship.

This week offers three pandemic-tailored awards shows. First up are the TIFF Tribute Awards (Sept. 15, 8 p.m., CTV), which will honour Kate Winslet and Sir Anthony Hopkins among others, with the stars checking in virtually. Next are the Academy of Country Music Awards (Sept. 16, 8 p.m., Global, CBS), hosted by Keith Urban and broadcast live from three venues in Nashville with a live performance by Taylor Swift. Finally, the Primetime Emmy Awards go virtual (Sept. 20, 8 p.m., CTV, ABC) with Jimmy Kimmel hosting from Los Angeles and the rest of the stars appearing via video call-in.

For those of you who love British TV and the work of Sally Wainwright in particular (“Happy Valley,” “Gentleman Jack”), the dramedy “Last Tango in Halifax” is back for a fourth season (Sept. 20, 8 p.m., PBS). Senior citizens Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Ann Reid) have been married seven years when the series resumes, but there are frictions to be overcome. Sarah Lancashire (“Happy Valley”) and Nicola Walker (“Unforgotten”) resume their roles as Celia’s and Alan’s adult daughters.

BritBox has a new show debuting, “Don’t Forget the Driver” (Sept. 15), which was co-created by and stars prolific actor Toby Jones as a put-upon single father who makes a living driving day-trippers on coach excursions from the seaside town of Bognor Regis in England. The series is gently comedic but also deals with deadly serious issues, specifically the worldwide refugee crisis.

Watchable the week of Sept. 7, 2020

September 7, 2020 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Van der Valk (Sept. 13, PBS)

Maimie McCoy as Lucienne Hassell and Marc Warren as Piet Van der Valk in “Van der Valk.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Company Pictures/all3media international

It’s not like the smart but surly male detective who doesn’t suffer fools is anything new. They’ve been popping up in pop culture at least as far back as Sherlock Holmes, but there’s a reason they persist: people enjoy reading about them and watching them.

Piet Van der Valk is the creation of British author Nicolas Freeling, who published the first novel in the series in 1962. This isn’t the first TV adaptation, either: Barry Foster played the Dutch detective on British TV in the 1970s and again in the early ’90s.

This version, a British-German co-production, gives the lead to Marc Warren, an English actor whose face you’re sure to recognize for appearances in everything from “Oliver Twist” to “Band of Brothers” to “The Good Wife.” He’s backed by more Brits, including Maimie McCoy (“DCI Banks,” “A Confession”), Elliot Barnes-Worrell (“Jericho”), Luke Allen-Gale and Emma Fielding.

The action has been updated to present-day Amsterdam. In fact, the opening scene is a pulse-pounding bike chase along one of the main canals. So, like “The Sounds,” which I wrote about last week, “Van der Valk” gives you the chance to do some armchair travelling.

It doesn’t reinvent the wheel of detective drama, but it does give it a fresh spin, with plots involving far-right populist politics, drug harm-reduction clinics, art galleries, eco-fashion, even religious erotica.

A second season is already planned, pandemic permitting.

The Duchess (Sept. 11, Netflix)

Katherine Ryan and Katy Byrne in “The Duchess.” PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Ridgway/Netflix

My natural inclination is to support this comedy, given that it was written by and stars a Canadian, Katherine Ryan, an expat who’s made quite a name for herself in Britain.

But I nearly turned it off in the first few minutes after Ryan’s character, also named Katherine, launched a tasteless, over-the-top verbal attack on another mother whose daughter is making life difficult for Katherine’s daughter Olive (Katy Byrne) at school.

I have nothing against transgressive females. I adored “Fleabag” just like everyone else, but “The Duchess” lacks that series’ cleverness and winking self-awareness. And though Katherine’s outlandish outfits put me in mind of Patsy and Edina from “Absolutely Fabulous,” the jokes here are nowhere near as sharp.

Still, I stuck with it and warmed a little to Katherine and her relationship with Olive. The plot involves the single mother’s attempts to conceive a sibling for her beloved daughter. She has an adoring dentist boyfriend (Steen Raskopoulos), to whom she’s unwilling to commit, and an ex, a washed-up boy band singer (Rory Keenan), whom she actively hates.

There’s certainly a concept to be mined here in the idea of a single, relationship-shy mom eager to expand her family, but it would work better if the jokes were made to serve the material more cohesively.

Coastal Elites (Sept. 12, 8 p.m., HBO)

Dan Levy plays a gay actor in the TV movie “Coastal Elites.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

Whether you enjoy this TV movie, a series of monologues between 13 and 24 minutes long, probably depends a lot on whether you’re one of the elites referenced in the title — or at least sympathetic to a certain liberal, urban world view.

Filmed under quarantine and written by playwright Paul Rudnick, the film boasts a formidable cast: Bette Midler, Dan Levy of “Schitt’s Creek,” Issa Rae (“Insecure”), Sarah Paulson (“American Horror Story”) and Kaitlyn Dever (“Unbelievable”). Each actor speaks to an unseen person on the other side of the camera and the performances reflect on two current crises: the presidency of Donald Trump and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Midler delivers the most pointed Trump critique as a New York Times-loving, Public Theater-subscribing, Norwegian detective-watching, Jewish liberal New Yorker who’s arrested after a confrontation with a man in a Starbucks wearing a MAGA hat.

Levy, as an out, gay actor confiding in a therapist, touches on the anti-gay agenda of Vice-President Mike Pence in a monologue that skewers Hollywood hypocrisy toward gay performers; Rae, playing a rich Black businesswoman, recounts an unsettlingly close encounter with Ivanka Trump, a.k.a. “The Blonde Cloud”; Paulson, as an internet meditation coach, describes her failed attempt to quarantine with her family of Trump supporters in Wisconsin.

Dever, whose monologue as a nurse in a New York hospital in the early days of COVID is the most naturalistic and the most heartrending, never mentions Trump directly as she shares her grief over the death of a patient she became particularly close to. Rather, his connection to the devastation that the pandemic wrought in that city is implied.

Odds and Ends

Alden Ehrenreich as John the Savage in “Brave New World.” PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Schofield/Peacock

Peacock’s “Brave New World,” an adaptation of the dystopian Aldous Huxley novel, makes its Canadian debut Sept. 13 at 9 p.m. on Showcase. It stars Jessica Brown Findlay (“Downton Abbey”) as Lenina, a woman from New London, where every aspect of life is tightly controlled, and Alden Ehrenreich (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) as John, who comes from the so-called Savage Lands.

Showcase also has a couple of British comedies on tap: “Intelligence” (Sept. 13, 9 p.m.), which stars David Schwimmer of “Friends” as an American National Security agent assigned to a U.K. cybercrime bureau; and “Hitmen” (Sept. 13, 10:30 p.m.), in which English comedy team Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc play misfit killers for hire.

PBS has the documentary “Human Nature” (Sept. 9, 8 p.m.) on “Nova,” about the perils and promise of CRISPR DNA editing technology.

And if you’re a fan of designing twins Jonathan and Drew Scott, a.k.a. the Property Brothers, there’s a new season of “Brother vs. Brother” on HGTV, Sept. 13 at 9 p.m.

Author: Debra Yeo (Page 25 of 29)

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