Zach Shallcross with dates Jess, Gabi, Kaity, Aly, Charity, Greer, Kylie, Anastasia, Ariel, Genevie, Davia and Mercedes before the trouble began. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos but screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. Also Instagram, you never, ever, ever, ever talk about Instagram.
Anastasia found that out on Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor” when she became the second woman to be dispatched so Zach Shallcross can maintain a drama-free zone. (Looks like his luck might run out on that point next week.)
Anastasia’s first sin was getting aggressive on what was supposed to be a chill beach group date after Zach and his harem decamped to the Bahamas – which host Jesse Palmer, the new spokesman for the Bahamas tourism board, tells us is “one of the most beautiful and one of the most romantic places in the entire world.”
And by aggressive, I don’t mean physical, although Anastasia suggested that Kylee was ready to put up her dukes after the two got into a verbal tussle over time with Zach.
Anastasia Keramidas learned that it isn’t always better in the Bahamas.
Basically, Anastasia scooped Zach up for some alone time on the beach during said group date; Kylee got jealous and tried to interrupt; Anastasia asked for more time with Zach; Kylee said, “Please just let me have him, I don’t like to fight but”; Anastasia replied, “I’m definitely not gonna fight you” and then proceeded to tell everyone who would listen that Kylee had been spoiling for fisticuffs.
I mean it feels ridiculous even writing all that out.
Kylee got her revenge at the afterparty when she told Zach that Anastasia had been overheard talking about how many Instagram followers she was going to gain being on “The Bachelor.”
Alert! Alert! Alert! Somebody is not here for the right reasons!
Zach checked the story with Charity, who seems like a pretty straight arrow and had indeed heard Anastasia say that the 14 women who were still around would get at least 50,000 Instagram followers apiece, which doesn’t seem like enough to get excited about, but fine.
Anastasia got a stay of execution at the afterparty, but Zach sent her packing on rose ceremony night right at the beginning of the cocktail party, despite Anastasia protesting her innocence.
This does not seem like a big deal — despite how much it made Kylee cry, go figure — because Anastasia never seemed like more than group date fodder.
What seems more concerning is how many women Zach is getting “excited” about, his new favourite word. I know it’s only Week 4, but he does realize he can only pick one, right?
Let’s see: Zach was excited about Kat after a “very exciting” one-on-one date; he was excited about Kylee; he was excited about Kaity; he was excited about Brooklyn; after chatting with Gabi, he said he was “excited about all the connections I have.” He was also excited about Ariel but, judging from those smooches and the way they were blowing on those conch shells, I think it was a given.
“You didn’t play conch in your school band?” Zach asked, although it came out sounding like “cock.”
“I didn’t, I was a virgin,” Ariel replied.
Ba dump bum.
So what excited Zach about Kat, his first one-on-one of the episode?
First a digression: Kat getting the date card and tactlessly blurting out that she and Zach would be in the water and it would be “very intimate” made Greer cry. And who could blame her? She got the first impression rose, but now Zach seems to have forgotten who she is. My guess is she’s not going to make final four.
Kat Izzo and Zach get “intimate” with sunscreen on a catamaran.
But back to Kat. Zach said Kat looks like a model and “I’m like, I never dated a model.” Also, she has SPFing skills, judging from the time they spent smoothing sunscreen on each other. And she enjoys awkward dancing.
But oh no, what if Kat’s dinnertime confession drove Zach away? Are you ready? She had . . . an unhappy upbringing and left home at one point because of her bad relationship with her mom. That’s it?
Look, I don’t mean to minimize Kat’s obvious pain over this, but when is this show going to stop acting like everybody who didn’t have a perfect childhood needs to be ashamed of it? Sometimes parents suck, it’s not the kids’ fault.
Obviously Zach didn’t banish Kat over this and you’ve got to give the guy credit for being both emotionally intelligent and articulate. “I want to love my person for who they are, not for what they came from,” he said.
Kat got the date rose and copious smooches, but then Zach said that kissing Kat was “like two meteors just perfectly colliding and creating a star,” which makes zero sense. Cue the fireworks.
So we’ve already discussed the group date which, besides Anastasia’s and Kylee’s dust-up, was notable for Gabi’s shellfish allergy.
Since a lot of what was being consumed on the beach was shellfish, Gabi worried that she wouldn’t get noticed by Zach since she couldn’t participate in activities like conch fritter tossing. “I literally can’t kiss Zach because he had shellfish,” she said tearily.
Where is Shanae with a bowl full of shrimp when you need her?
Speaking of conch, the group date rose went to Ariel.
Brooklyn Willie gets the action date on “The Bachelor.”
Zach’s second one-on-one was with Brooklyn and it was a pretty standard driving ATVs and smooching on the beach outing.
Zach said he wanted Brooklyn to open up and he got his wish at dinner, when she told a harrowing story about being in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship for six years with a man just like her father. (Apparently ABC warned viewers that discretion was advised before Brooklyn’s story, although I didn’t see the warning here in Canada.)
“I was a shell of the person I was,” Brooklyn said. “I woke up one day and I was like, no, this can’t define me. I truly believe if I wouldn’t have just woke up and got out I can literally guarantee I would not be sitting here right now.”
Zach told Brooklyn how sorry he was she had gone through that. “You are so fucking tough,” he said. And I think she would have to be to escape the abuse and rebuild her self-esteem the way she apparently has.
After Zach handed over the rose they danced and kissed as an apparently nameless man sang and played guitar.
Then it was rose ceremony time.
Once he’d sent Anastasia home, Zach wasted no time doling out kisses to favourites like Charity and Kat.
Kylee Russell chats up Zach on the group date, before the deluge of tears.
Kylee cried a lot after Anastasia left, initially because she said she didn’t want to be the cause of someone going home — although what did she think was going to happen after she told Zach about the Instagram stuff? — but really because she was afraid she would be collateral damage in the drama.
She wasn’t the only one getting teary. Davia could sense her connection with Zach dwindling. She made a valiant effort to rekindle, but when Zach talked about their “fast, hot connection” in the past tense and gave her a kiss that seemed more polite than passionate, it was clear it was time for Davia to join the “Bachelor in Paradise” talent roster.
Despite Kylee’s carrying on — at one point she told Mercedes she was going to self-eliminate because she couldn’t handle the rose ceremony — she got her damn rose. So did Charity, Kaity, Gabi, Jess, Mercedes, Aly and Greer, leaving Davia and Genevie to go home.
Next week, the chosen 11 head to London with Zach, where Jesse shares “some really bad news” that leaves everybody crying and Jesse saying, “The million dollar question now is what are we gonna do?”
You can watch Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo
SHOW OF THE WEEK: Star Trek: Picard (Feb. 16, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Crave)
Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: Picard.” PHOTO CREDIT: Trae Paatton/Paramount+/CBS Studios Inc.
Jean-Luc himself, Patrick Stewart, says the third season of “Star Trek: Picard” is not a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reunion, which may be so, but adding characters from that beloved show to this “Trek” spinoff gives it a much needed reset.
I watched the first two seasons of this series built around the greatest starship captain ever (sorry, Captain Kirk) mainly out of loyalty to the franchise — I started watching “The Original Series” as a kid in the 1960s — but I’m not going to pretend they were indispensable additions to the canon.
What made Captain Picard so memorable as a character came in relation to the “Next Generation” crew members who served with him on the USS Enterprise-D. Although there were appearances by “Next Gen” originals like Will Riker and Deanna Troi in the first two seasons of “Picard,” he was mainly surrounded by new characters who never really gelled.
Is anybody going to be reminiscing decades from now about Picard’s adventures with Agnes or Rios or Tallinn? Unlikely.
So, yes, it’s good news that Picard is back with Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), Troi (Marina Sirtis) and a facsimile of Data (Brent Spiner) on yet another mission to save Starfleet and the galaxy.
“Voyager” vet Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is also still around and central to the plot.
The bad news is that some of the first two seasons’ sins — hamfisted exposition, clunky dialogue and occasionally gimmicky plotting — persist.
Season 3 opens with Picard getting an encrypted distress call from Crusher, whom he hasn’t spoken to in more than two decades. She and a mysterious passenger (if I tell you anything about him, I think CBS will send someone to my door with a Klingon bat’leth) are under attack just outside Federation space.
Picard enlists a game Riker to ride to Beverly’s rescue, which they do with the help of Seven and a not so game Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), the new commander of Will’s old ship the Titan and the season’s best new character. (Sidney La Forge, daughter of Geordi, played by Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, is no slouch either, while Burton’s real-life daughter Mica plays a small role as Geordi’s daughter Alandra.)
There’s also a new baddie, Vadic, a scenery-chewing Amanda Plummer.
Meanwhile, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) — the only character remaining from Picard’s seasons 1 and 2 crew — is on the planet M’talas Prime trying to figure out who stole deadly weapons from the Daystrom Station, a subplot that doesn’t really get interesting until she teams up with Worf who, in an overstretched gag, is now a meditating, chamomile tea-drinking pacifist.
The first four episodes of Season 3 are devoted to Picard, Riker et al on the Titan extricating themselves from what appears to be a hopeless situation involving Vadic’s relentless pursuit of Crusher’s passenger, a powerful new weapon, a saboteur on board and the deadly energy of the nebula in which the Titan becomes trapped. It’s a lot, but it can’t really be no-win since we know there are six more episodes to go.
This also provides time for Picard, Riker and Crusher to revisit their relationships; for Shaw to earn both our antipathy and our admiration; for Picard to get to know a significant new character with links to his past; and for the Titan crew and its new additions to display typical “Star Trek” can-do, we’re all in this together initiative.
The plot threads really start to come together in episodes 5 and 6 (the only other episodes provided to critics) and we finally get to see most of the returned “Next Generation” characters together in the same room.
There are also Easter eggs and callbacks to shows like “Voyager,” “Deep Space Nine” and even “The Original Series” that I don’t want to spoil by spelling them out.
Bottom line: if you were a “Next Generation” fan you will overlook the series’ flaws for the pleasure of seeing the crew members reunite, even if it’s not a reunion per se.
Short Takes
Coaches Luke Willson, Jen Kish, Waneek Horn-Miller, Donovan Bailey, Gilmore Junio and Clara Hughes on “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
CBC has jumped into the physical competition series game with this show that’s a bit like “The Amazing Race” on steroids — if you stripped out everything on that show but the physical challenges and turned them up to 11. I’m not an aficionado of series like “American Ninja Warrior,” but I was gripped watching the competitors on “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge” tough it out in the first episode — especially when one member of each team had to traverse dangling obstacles underneath a 100-metre-high suspension bridge in Squamish, B.C., not just once but twice. There are six teams of four, each coached by a former athlete — including Olympians Donovan Bailey, Clara Hughes, Jen Kish, Gilmore Junio and Waneek Horn-Miller, and former Super Bowl champion Luke Willson — and competing to win a trip to the Paris Olympics. Over eight weeks, they travel across the country with landmarks like the Whistler Olympic Park ski jumps turned into obstacle courses, racking up points until teams start getting eliminated and only one remains.
CBC and CBC Gem also have Season 2 of the far less arduous but also entertaining competition series “Best in Miniature” (Feb. 19, 7 p.m.) and the doc “Apocalypse B” (Feb. 17, 8 p.m., on “The Nature of Things”) about radical ideas for how to turn down the heat on the planet and potentially curtail the effects of climate change.
A Spy Among Friends (Feb. 17, Prime Video)
This is a miniseries that demands your concentration so if you’re tempted to google the names of the real-life people it portrays, best to hit pause when you do so, otherwise you’ll lose the thread of the intricate plot. It tells the story of Kim Philby (Guy Pearce), a notorious British MI6 agent and Soviet spy who defected to Moscow after he was exposed in 1963. The story is set primarily in ’63 after Philby has fled to Russia. Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis), Philby’s former friend and fellow MI6 agent, is under suspicion since he was tasked with bringing Philby back to London from Beirut when he got away. MI5 agent Lily Thomas (Anna Maxwell Martin, “Line of Duty,” “The Bletchley Circle”) is in charge of questioning Elliott, who is also under surveillance by the CIA. Got all that? Good, because there’s more. The series also flashes back to Elliott’s and Philby’s pasts, including their efforts against the Nazis during the Second World War and their once close friendship. It’s a series built on conversations punctuated by bursts of action. Luckily, the actors doing the talking are excellent ones. Both Pearce and Lewis are Emmy winners for good reason, and Maxwell Martin more than holds her own.
Prime also has a double dose of Cara Delevingne. The English actor plays herself in “Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne” (Feb. 14), in which she travels the world on erotic adventures; and she stars as a fairy opposite Orlando Bloom in the long delayed second season of fantasy series “Carnival Row” (Feb. 17) .
Thunder Bay (Feb. 17, Crave)
In this four-part docuseries, Anishinaabe journalist Ryan McMahon investigates the deaths of Indigenous people in the city of Thunder Bay and links them to the city’s history of anti-Indigenous racism. If you pay attention to the news, you’ll have already heard of cases like the Seven Fallen Feathers — seven Indigenous teenagers who died in unexplained circumstances in Thunder Bay — and Barbara Kentner, an Indigenous woman who died after a white man threw a trailer hitch at her from a moving car and then laughed about it. (Brayden Bushby was sentenced to eight years in jail for manslaughter in the case.) Here’s a sobering thought revealed in the series: a third of all Indigenous hate crimes in Canada are reported in Thunder Bay. Indigenous people interviewed by McMahon in the first episode says it’s routine to have things thrown at them, whether physical objects or “go back to the rez” type insults. The series, based on McMahon’s Canadaland podcast of the same name, explores that racism along with theories about the unexplained deaths and the role police have played in failing to investigate them properly. It’s ugly, shameful stuff.
Crave also has the streaming debut of “The Woman King” (Feb. 17), in which Oscar winner Viola Davis plays the leader of the women warriors who protected the Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa in the 1800s.
Odds and Ends
Billy Crudup as Jack Billings in “Hello Tomorrow!” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
One of the week’s most intriguing debuts is “Hello Tomorrow!” (Feb. 17, Apple TV+), a comedy drama in which Billy Crudup stars as a salesman who hawks real estate on the moon with evangelical flair. It’s one of 10 new shows I recommended after attending the Television Critics Association press tour last month but which I haven’t reviewed because of an embargo. Apple also has a new season of surfing series “Make or Break” (Feb. 17) and the movie “Sharper” starring Julianne Moore (Feb. 17).
The most interesting Netflix release this week is “African Queens” (Feb. 15), a series that is part drama, part documentary that tells the story of female rulers in Africa, beginning with Njinga, a warrior princess in Ndongo in present-day Angola. The series is executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. Netflix also has “Perfect Match” (Feb. 14), a dating series that puts together alumni of various Netflix reality shows; “Full Swing” (Feb. 15), a docuseries about professional golfers; and Season 3 of sitcom “The Upshaws” (Feb. 16).
Disney+ offers the documentary “j-Hope in the Box” (Feb. 17), in which the member of Korean supergroup BTS is profiled as he creates his first solo album.
The PBS Masterpiece Channel, available on Prime Video in Canada, has popular Norwegian series “Acquitted” (Feb. 17), about a businessman who returns to his hometown 20 years after he was acquitted of murdering his high school girlfriend.
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.
Bachelor Zach Shallcross and his dates before the wheels fell off the pool party. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos but screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC
There were two questions to be answered after Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor”: Is Christina Mandrell a mean girl or a misunderstood girl? And did Zach Shallcross and Kaity Biggar jump each other’s bones during their night at the Natural History Museum?
Well, OK, maybe three questions: If the episode’s musical performer is a cousin of the host does that make them a nepo baby? A nepo cuz, at least?
The episode was bookended by some (manufactured) drama and also saw a couple of women crash and burn — luckily not on the skydiving date — but only one of them decided to burn someone else on her way out. More on that later.
First things first: the “Bachelor” producers apparently have so little faith in their ability to keep viewers interested this season that they opened the episode with both gratuitous shower footage of Zach and a FaceTime call with Sean Lowe, although it’s beyond me why you’d want to keep reminding everyone that your show is 1 for 26 (maybe soon 27) when it comes to your stars actually using the platform to find their spouses. (OK, maybe 24 and a half if you count Jason Mesnick and Arie Luyendyk Jr.)
Next it was time for host Jesse Palmer to stoke the hopes of the 17 women who were still around and immediately crush 16 of them by handing out the first one-on-one date card.
ER nurse Kaity was the recipient and got decked out in a slinky green dress so she could . . . walk around a museum looking at dinosaur skeletons and animal dioramas?
The other women, as much as they were all “so happy for you, Kaity,” couldn’t help but notice Zach’s hand resting on her knee when he came to the mansion to pick her up. Little did they know worse was yet to come.
Zach Shallcross and Kaity Biggar commune in the shadow of a dino.
Kaity herself described the museum date as the only romantic thing she had ever done in her life. And I know she’s only 27, but what?
When she told Zach that after seven years of a toxic, on-and-off relationship she just wanted to feel safe and to find “a good man to treat me right,” you kind of wanted to hug her.
This show makes a fetish out of vulnerability, but some of these women truly are vulnerable as hell.
The mood lifted when Zach — who kept whispering as if he was afraid of waking up the fossils — gave Kaity the date rose, then invited her to spend the night with him in a tent next to the elephant display. There were his and hers animal pyjamas and two camp cots, which they pushed together before zipping up the tent.
I guess what happened in the museum stays in the museum, for now anyway, but the other women were rattled when Kaity came home the next morning, still in her PJs, and talked about how romantic the date was.
“Did you get any sleep?” asked Gabi.
“Nope,” Kaity said.
That was the point, of course, to stress out the other contestants thinking Zach got intimate with Kaity. Why else would you put an overnight date in the third episode?
It was back to business as usual, however, with a football group date, the fifth instalment of the so-called “Bachelor Bowl.” It was the Shall-Crushers against the Ball-Zachs and, honestly, the latter should have won for the name alone.
Ariel, Christina, Kylee and Kat of the Ball-Zachs prepare to kick off Bachelor Bowl V.
Despite an ambulance being called when Anastasia took a dive, there were no injuries unless you count Gabi’s pride when she peed her pants a little on national TV.
The Ball-Zachs did indeed win and got to enjoy an after-party with Zach while the Shall-Crushers slinked back to the mansion. Only two things of note happened.
Bailey, one of the women who first met Zach on “After the Final Rose,” decided she needed “validation” from him, but as soon as she told him things were feeling “weird” to her and “regressing a little bit,” he rapidly agreed.
“I’m just not confident there is a future between us,” Zach told her.
“I do feel, like, if we had more time together, like, we could get there,” Bailey responded.
Like, you’re on “The Bachelor,” sweetie. Even the women he really, really likes don’t get enough time.
Bailey’s departure upset the other women and was the beginning of the end for Christina.
Bailey says goodbye to the other women while Christina makes a sad(?) face in the background.
She had already been annoying her teammates by bringing up her one-on-one date. Sin No. 2 was to describe Bailey’s departure as “sad” but “inevitable.” Strike 3 came after Charity got the group date rose. As the other women told Charity how well-deserved it was, Christina blurted out that she was confused as well as mad that it didn’t go to her, punctuated with a “duh,” all of which appeared to make Charity cry.
Christina defended her faux pas as her “trying to be 100,” but Brooklyn and Kat countered that Christina was making things all about her.
Finally Brooklyn shut down the argument with a line that will live in “Bachelor” infamy — or at least in the highlights reel at “Women Tell All” — “Have you ever considered just literally shutting the fuck up?”
So was Christina deliberately trying to intimidate, and being manipulative and calculating, as Brooklyn said?
I don’t think so. She clearly sucked at reading a room, particularly one of exhausted and emotional fellow contestants, and it seems she never heard the expression “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Christina’s final reckoning was still to come. First there was a second one-on-one date to dispense with. If you were surprised it went to health-care strategist Aly, well, join the club.
She put on the wedding jumpsuit that the producers sent over and met Zach, dressed in a groom-like charcoal suit and white, open-necked shirt, next to a wedding bower — and I’m sorry, but these faux wedding dates are as boring as the football ones.
Zach to Aly Jacobs: “Will you jump out of this really scary plane with me?”
At least it wasn’t one of those stupid fake wedding shoots; Aly and Zach got dressed up to parachute out of a plane, because that worked so well for Rachel Kirkconnell on Matt’s season.
But you know, Zach is looking for his best friend — which is becoming the overused, meaningless phrase of the season — and, uh, best friends jump out of planes together?
Zach and Aly emerged unscathed to have dinner at the cool-looking Bradbury Building in downtown L.A. True confessions were on the menu.
Aly told Zach that she liked to be in control of everything to avoid the hurt of her past relationships and that she never put herself first in a relationship before, but she wanted to find “a safe space where I could put myself first but still be fully invested in you.”
Zach seemed down with that or at least down with getting to know the real Aly — it is only Week 3, people — and handed over the date rose.
Griffen Palmer gets to enjoy performing on “The Bachelor,” i.e. having the Bach and his date ignore you.
Then he had a surprise: Griffen Palmer was playing a song called “Second Chances.” Who dat? Why Jesse Palmer’s country singer cousin from Pickering. Look out folks, the Canadians are taking over.
Speaking of Jesse, he showed up at the mansion the next day to announce there would be no rose ceremony cocktail party . . . but there would be a pool party so run and put on those skimpy bikinis girls!
It was all fun and games and clandestine smooches until Brianna, a.k.a. America’s first impression rose winner, decided to tell Zach she was leaving.
No surprise here. It seemed obvious to me from Night 1 there was nothing cooking between Zach and Brianna, which I guess is what happens when you let “America” hand out the roses instead of the Bachelor. Yeah, great idea, Mike Fleiss.
But Brianna had a parting gift for Christina. She told Zach that their “connection didn’t get off the ground because of hard things I’ve been going through in the house” and that she felt intimidated by Christina, who made her cry several times.
Brianna Thorbourne has her exit interview with Zach.
So where is the footage of this intimidation? The only thing we saw, in Week 2, were receipts of Christina giving Brianna a back-handed compliment on the first night, which Brianna interpreted as hurtful.
Look, it’s always tricky when a white woman is accused of making a Black woman feel unsafe, but this reeked of production stoking Brianna’s insecurities and then manipulating her to throw Christina under the bus.
Whatever the case, Zach really wasn’t kidding when he told Brianna he didn’t like drama.
Christina defended herself as best she could, telling Zach her “outgoing and happy and loud” personality was rubbing people the wrong way, but she thought her conflicts with a couple of the other women had been settled and it would be a mistake to believe Brianna’s accusations.
And then she went and cried on the stairs.
Quite honestly, I figured Zach would go through the motions of debating whether to keep Christina and she’d get the final rose, and then we’d have a few more weeks of her pissing off Brooklyn and Kat and Kylee.
But nope, Christina was banished as Zach gave roses to Jess, Gabi, Ariel, Genevie — who showed up at the rose ceremony with a cast on her arm? what?!? — Greer, Kat, Kylee, Davia, Anastasia, Brooklyn and Mercedes.
So who’s gonna be the centre of the drama now? Don’t worry, looks like somebody is getting outed as a social media clout chaser next week.
Sorry, Zach, if you didn’t like drama you should have stayed home.
You can watch Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo
Edited because a reader — yay, I have readers! — emailed to point out that Jason Mesnick wasn’t the only one who married his runner-up.
Micah Stock as Kevin and Mallori Johnson as Dana in “Kindred.” PHOTO CREDIT: Tina Rowden/FX
This miniseries opens with what I can only imagine would seem like twin terrors for Black Americans: a young Black woman is lying in the middle of a room in obvious pain, her back striped with the marks of a whipping, and then, once she’s bathed the wounds and dressed, white police officers come pounding on her door.
The woman is Dana (Mallori Johnson, “WeCrashed”) and, when the show jumps back two days, we learn that she has just moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn with aspirations of becoming a TV writer.
But she hasn’t even unpacked all the boxes in the house she bought after selling her late grandmother’s brownstone when she finds herself being sent back in time some 200 years to a Maryland plantation. The trips continue, lasting seconds, minutes and hours in the present day (2016) but hours, days and weeks in the past.
And Kevin (Micah Stock, “The Right Stuff”), the white waiter whom Dana has just had sex with, accidentally gets sent back with her where they pose as slave and slave owner to fend off the suspicions of plantation owner Thomas Whelin (Ryan Kwanten) and his wife Margaret (Gayle Rankin).
Those are the broad strokes of this time travel drama based on the 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler.
Without getting too spoilery, Dana comes to learn that her travel is tied to the Whelins’ son Rufus (David Alexander Kaplan): whenever Rufus is in danger Dana comes back to save him. Likewise, whenever Dana feels her own life is in danger she returns to her own time, but she has no control over when she comes and goes.
She also encounters a relative of hers (Sheria Irving), thought long dead in the present but who has similarly travelled back in time and become trapped.
But Dana’s attempt to confide about these alarming episodes to her aunt Denise (Eisa Davis) in the present day is interpreted as a sign of mental illness; her almost cartoonishly nosy white neighbours (Louis Cancelmi and Brooke Bloom) keep intrusively demanding to know what’s going on when they hear Dana screaming each time she returns to the present; and Kevin’s sister (Elizabeth Stanley) sends the police to Dana’s door when her brother disappears.
From what I have read, Butler’s book was meant to explore how a modern Black woman would experience slavery and there is certainly some sense of that in this adaptation — as well as a sense of Kevin’s disgust at the dehumanizing of the enslaved by the Whelins and other white people he encounters.
(Some reviewers have taken issue with the romance between Dana and Kevin, who is Dana’s husband in the book but a virtual stranger to her in the series. I, however, can imagine how people trapped in a foreign, hostile situation would gravitate to, and draw comfort from, each other.)
But I had a hard time buying Kwanten, an Australian actor known mainly for his role in “True Blood,” as a fearsome slave owner, at least up until the very end when he perpetrates violence on Dana and threatens the life of Kevin. Not that I’m suggesting “12 Years a Slave”-style brutality would have been preferable, but Dana seems to experience a fair amount of latitude on the plantation, at least until she doesn’t.
Johnson is sympathetic as an alternately confused, angry, terrified and guilt-ridden 20-something woman, the latter since the slaves she encounters can’t escape their reality the way that she can.
Despite the flaws in this adaptation — developed by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“An Octoroon”) — you’ll likely be invested enough in what happens to Dana and Kevin to watch all eight episodes.
The bad news is that the cliff-hangers in the final episode might never get a resolution. FX declined to renew the show for a second season, although Jacobs-Jenkins is said to be shopping it around.
Short Takes
James Nesbitt and Victoria Smurfit in Season 2 of “Bloodlands.” PHOTO CREDIT: Steffan Hill/AcornTV
Bloodlands (Feb. 6, Acorn)
I don’t want to spoil anything for anybody, but if you watched Season 1 of this Northern Irish drama you already know that Detective Chief Inspector Tom Brannick (Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt of “Murphy’s Law” and “The Missing”) is not a good cop. Season 2 ties into Tom’s past sins when a crooked accountant is murdered and found to have connections to a trove of gold that was bound for the IRA but disappeared along with the two men in charge of it, whose skeletal remains turned up at the end of last season. Tom leads the official investigation into the murder while also pursuing a clandestine operation to find the gold with the help of the accountant’s widow, Olivia (Victoria Smurfit, “Ballykissangel,” “Once Upon a Time”). How long can Tom keep all those balls in the air without his clever underlings, Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna) and Billy “Birdy” Bird (Chris Walley, “The Young Offenders”), catching on? Also in the mix is the gold’s American gangster owner (Jonjo O’Neill, “The Fall,” “Bad Sisters”), who turns up in Dunfolan demanding its return. It can be taxing to connect all the dots in this series, but it moves along smartly and compellingly, with some emotional payoff in the latter episodes of the season. The final episode leaves some big questions unanswered, but it seems there’s still a chance for a third season, so we’ll see.
Acorn also has Season 2 of “The Madame Blanc Mysteries” (Feb. 6), the very light but pleasant series about crime-solving antiques dealer Jean White (Sally Lindsay) and her compatriots in the French village of Sainte Victoire.
Mohammad Saud and Salik Rehman treat a black kite in their makeshift animal hospital. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO
All That Breathes (Feb. 7, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)
Beauty can exist in very unlikely places. This documentary finds it in garbage-strewn streets in Delhi, India, where brothers Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, and their co-worker Salik Rehman, rescue and treat injured black kites and other birds. The brothers, who were filmed over three years by doc maker Shaunak Sen, do this at great cost — financial, physical, emotional — and also at the expense of their long-suffering wives and children. Their devotion is writ large in one scene in particular, in which Saud and Salik swim through very cold water to rescue a single kite on a far shore; Nadeem has to wade in himself when they become so exhausted on the way back they feel unable to keep going. The brothers initially treat the birds in a dingy and sometimes flooded basement before an international grant enables them to open a hospital for their Wildlife Rescue organization. Adding to the tension of caring for the thousands of birds — injured by pollution and other human-made causes — is the political unrest and violence taking place in Delhi during filming. Saud, Nadeem and Salik persevere, seemingly unable to stop even if they wanted to. “Delhi is a gaping wound and we’re a tiny Band-Aid on it,” Nadeem says. He adds that “one shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes” hence the title. Indeed, Sen’s camera frequently documents the creatures that share Delhi with its human population, from rats swarming a garbage-covered lot to monkeys, boars, dogs, goats, cows, horses, even invertebrates swarming a murky puddle. As Nadeem says, “Life itself is kinship.” This doc is up for a Best Documentary Oscar and won the Golden Eye prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Lea Thompson and Stacey Farber in “The Spencer Sisters.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media
The Spencer Sisters (Feb. 10, 9 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)
Despite all the sexy, serialized TV out there sucking up buzz and awards, the procedural isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, particularly the mystery procedural. So you can’t fault CTV for getting in on the action with this new series, particularly when the cast includes Lea Thompson, a legend for the “Back to the Future” films, and Stacey Farber, no slouch herself thanks to “Degrassi” and other credits. Here they play a mother and daughter who stumble into a partnership solving crimes. Victoria (Thompson) is a rich and famous mystery writer whose star is waning; Darby (Farber) is an ex-cop forced to move back in with Mom despite the huge chip on her shoulder over Victoria putting career ahead of family in earlier years. I have some quibbles — for example, how perfunctorily the blow-up of Darby’s police career is handled in the first episode — but if you’re looking for something light that won’t overtax your grey matter you could do worse than this. Thompson and Farber certainly seemed to have a hoot making the show together (you can read my Toronto Star interview with them here).
From left, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Ben Willbond, Laurence Rickard, Yani Xander, Simon Farnaby and Martha Howe-Douglas in “Ghosts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC Gem
Ghosts (Feb. 10, CBC Gem)
No, sorry folks, I don’t mean the American remake that has become a hit for CBS. I continue to prefer this British original version about Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and the spirts she learns to co-exist with on the country estate she inherited from a distant relative. This fourth season, based on the two episodes I screened, perhaps doesn’t have as many laugh-out-loud moments as past seasons, but it continues to find sweetness and relatability in the relationship between Alison and the ghosts, and between the spectres themselves. There’s an endearing plot, for instance, in which ever cheerful Georgian lady Kitty (Lolly Adefope) teaches the by-the-books Captain (Ben Willbond) how to stop and smell the roses or, in his case, count the ants. Meanwhile, romantic poet Thomas (Mathew Baynton) develops a fan club among the plague victims in the basement and tries to kick his infatuation with Alison cold turkey; cave man Robin (Laurence Rickard) recognizes an acquaintance in a TV segment; witch-burning victim Mary (Katy Wix) finally reveals some details about her past; and Alison and husband Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) soft-launch a B&B at Button House.
CBC Gem also has the CBC Kids preschool series “Mittens & Pants” (Feb. 6), about best friends Mittens the kitten and Pants the puppy, and their other animal friends.
Odds and Ends
Martin Mull and Gina Rodriguez in “Not Dead Yet.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McCandless/ABC
In keeping with the topic of TV characters who see dead people, ABC is launching sitcom “Not Dead Yet” (Feb. 8, 9:30 p.m., CTV2), in which Gina Rodriguez (“Jane the Virgin”) plays a down-on-her-luck journalist who gets hired at her old paper as an obituary writer and gets an assist from the dead people she writes about, who hang around until she gives them a proper send-off. Also starring Hannah Simone, Lauren Ash, Josh Banday and Rick Glassman, it tends to a schmaltzy “you go girl” tone, but it has its moments. CTV also has Season 2 of reality series “Auntie Jillian” (Feb. 11, 8 p.m.), starring YouTube personality Jillian Danford, husband Warren and grown-up kids Myles and Milan.
I would image the big release for many people on Netflix this week is Season 4 of “You” (Feb. 9), its drama about a serial killer (Penn Badgley). The streamer also has Season 6 of time travel romance “Outlander” (Feb. 6); the doc “Bill Russell: Legend” (Feb. 8) about the civil rights icon; and Season 3 of reality after-show “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” (Feb. 10).
W and StackTV are going all in on romcoms with “The Love Club” (Feb. 10, 8 p.m.), four original movies that will debut on subsequent Fridays about four friends who form a club to keep each other out of romantic crises. Each film follows a different woman on her quest to find love. How much you want to bet they all succeed?
Prime Video’s releases include another romantic film — it is almost Valentine’s Day after all — “Somebody I Used to Know” (Feb. 10), starring Dave Franco and Allison Brie; and the series “One Night Only” (Feb. 10), featuring Francophone comedians PA Méthot, Dominic Paquet, Rachid Badouri and Mariana Mazza.
Paramount+ has the docuseries “Boys in Blue” (Feb. 10), about a high school football team coached by members of the Minneapolis Police Department in the post-George Floyd era.
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.
Rapper Latto and Bachelor Zach Shallcross oversee a “bad bitch”-themed group date. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos but screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC
Where does the “bad bitch” leave off and the “lame bitch” begin?
It seems like a valid question after watching Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor.” And it’s directed at the producers more than the women who are vying to win Zach Shallcross’s heart and/or a bump in their Instagram and TikTok followers.
I’ve got bad news for anyone hoping this episode would rise above the ennui that greeted the season premiere: there were three boring dates on Monday interspersed with several trumped up attempts at drama.
By and large the women who had survived the first rose ceremony seemed to be getting along, notwithstanding some of them comparing notes about whether Zach gave them tongue when they kissed him — nurse Katherine said Zach “likes the big tongue energy” and ewwww.
But obviously collegiality can’t be allowed to continue, not on this show. So a little surprise was cooked up to unsettle the women on the first of two group dates.
On the cringe scale the date was probably about a six or seven. Luckily no one had to sing or write poetry or, heaven forbid, smell anyone’s armpits.
The women — Brianna, Brooklyn, Katherine, Mercedes, Bailey, Davia, Cat, Genevie and Kylee — were driven to what looked like an empty strip club where rapper Latto (currently in the news for selling her panties on eBay) told them she was looking for some “bad bitch energy for Zach.”
So what does bad bitch energy mean in the Bachelor world? Uh, dancing around a bit; putting on funny hats and wigs, and gyrating some; making speeches about a time in their life that they were bad bitches, which the Urban Dictionary tells us is a confident, independent woman. Ironic no? Since “The Bachelor” has a knack for turning women into insecure, hot messes (I see you, Brianna).
Tahzjuan Hawkins, Victoria Fuller and Courtney Robertson with Zach and Latto.
The producers brought in some “bad bitch alumni” allegedly to inspire the group date contestants but mainly because they seem to think we’re all jonesing to see past competitors. So “Bachelor in Paradise” heat hater Tahzjuan Hawkins, “Paradise” villain Victoria Fuller and past “Bachelorette” winner (and skinny dipper) Courtney Robertson showed up to, well, not really do much of anything.
That is, until Tahz crashed the group date after-party, supposedly because she had taken such a shine to Zach — the “full package,” she called him — that she wanted to join the season.
And I’m sorry, but what?
Zach told Tahz he would think about it, a BS manoeuvre to freak the other women out while they waited to hear Zach’s decision. Tahz used that time to insult them, saying it was “painful to watch” some of them earlier in the day and they had missed their opportunity to really connect with Zach.
“You guys aren’t all gonna marry Zach,” Tahz said. Well, honey, you aren’t either.
The producers finally allowed Zach to return and cut Tahz loose. He then gave the group date rose to Katherine for, um, being the best kisser maybe?
That didn’t sit well with Brianna — America’s first impression rose winner — who was in her head about the fact she hadn’t yet got a rose from Zach.
We now know the real evil purpose of that “After the Final Rose” stunt, by the way. You thought it was meant to get viewers invested in the new season; turns out it was a tool to freak out the woman who won it.
Brianna cried in front of Zach and told him she considered going home since she didn’t think he cared if she stayed. He reassured her that he saw something in her and sealed it with a smooch — although considering how many women he was giving his “tongue energy” to, yeah, I’d be worried too.
Christina Mandrell got Zach’s first one-on-one of the season.
Next up was Christina’s one-on-one with Zach and what’s that? Your aunt is a famous country singer, but you’ve never seen a helicopter in person? Whatever.
So to what fabulous destination was the helicopter ferrying them? Zach’s childhood home, you say? A belated birthday party for his mother with 20 of his friends and family? Fine, but can we please stop pretending these early meet-the-family dates have any significance?
Zach’s family seemed nice. Any woman with a pulse and an ability to string words into sentences would have done fine in that milieu.
The real point of the date was for Christina to tell Zach about her five-year-old daughter, Blakely May. We were meant to think this would be a dealbreaker for Zach but, like, ABC, you know we’ve already seen Christina in future episodes in the season promo, right?
So Zach blustered a little about how scary it was and how he didn’t know if he was ready to be a dad, but he gave Christina the rose because she was “showing me signs of someone I really want to spend a long time with.” Ringing endorsement, huh?
Finally, the last group of women — Jess, Charity, Gabi, Aly, Ariel, Greer, Kimberly, Anastasia and Victoria J. — got their date and they got ripped off . There was no daytime activity, at least none that we saw: it was straight to the after-party.
Zach said he wanted to get to know all the women as much as he could, although “get to know” seemed to be a euphemism for smooching them all as much as he could — or at least, that’s how it was edited.
The only in-depth conversation seemed to take place with Jess, who challenged Zach to tell her something only she would know. He confessed that he was born with a condition called pyloric stenosis, which Google tells me is a blockage between the stomach and small intestine, and wasn’t expected to live. That was why he was so close to his mom, Zach said, getting emotional, and why “I feel this crazy sense of, like, purpose; I’m here for a reason.” So don’t pretend you’re surprised that Jess got the date rose.
Gabi Elnicki has her first non-maple syrup conversation with Zach.
The other significant conversation involved Gabi, the Vermont woman who made him drink maple syrup on Night 1, to his evident distaste. It was significant because she had not yet talked to Zach, other than their brief out-of-the-limo interaction, and also because she treated the chat like she was a contestant on “This Is Your Life” instead of “The Bachelor,” word vomiting (her term) as much as she could about herself in a short amount of time.
She also told Zach she wanted to give him a nickname, suggesting Zacharius, Zachy Poo or Zachy, which seemed to go down about as well as the maple syrup. She also didn’t get a kiss, so it seemed Gabi would soon be back to visiting farmers markets and cooking with her mom.
But nice fake-out Bachelor! During the rose ceremony cocktail party, Zach and Gabi talked again. Zach told her she gave him “giddy butterflies in my stomach”; she then gave him peanut butter cups, which they attempted to eat “Lady and the Tramp” style, resulting in a chocolatey peanut butter smooch.
So, with Gabi sorted, it was Brianna’s turn to spiral.
She said she hadn’t slept the night before because of anxiety. But rather than blame Mike Fleiss and his henchpersons for giving her America’s curse of a rose, she focused her unease on Christina, saying Christina made a “mean comment” to her on the first night and “I didn’t realize how much it hurt me until now.”
Brianna, hun, take a breath. Christina’s “mean comment” was actually a compliment. She said, “You look beautiful and I hate you, JK,” which means just kidding. Which producer put this nonsense into your head?
Brianna confronted Christina and said the comment made her feel like “I didn’t know if this was gonna be a safe environment for me, not only to find love but to make friends” and I am really trying to keep my eyes from rolling.
Christina apologized, but Brianna still went to Zach and complained that someone had made her uncomfortable, without naming names. And Zach, who said he doesn’t like drama, didn’t want to know the name, but he also told Brianna she seemed to have “a lot of walls up,” and his conversations with her had felt “very strict and serious” rather than fun. Ouch.
So the moral of the story, ladies: if they offer you a chance to meet the Bachelor on “After the Final Rose,” say no.
Brianna Thorbourne finally gets a rose from Zach instead of America.
Of course, this all meant that Brianna’s was the last name called at the rose ceremony, even though we all knew she was going to get one.
Zach also gave roses to Brooklyn, Genevie, Greer, Aly, Charity, Kaity, Gabi, Ariel, Anastasia, Kylee, Davia, Mercedes and Bailey, so 17 women are still in the hunt.
Alas, Cat went home, so we will be deprived of her wide-eyed facial contortions until “Women Tell All.”
Next week, Zach goes skydiving with someone; there’s a football group date and an overnight date (what, already?) with Kaity at a museum; and the house apparently gangs up on Christina.
You can watch Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo
One thing you’ll notice about this documentary is that it’s mostly Pamela Anderson doing the talking, a contrast with other biographical docs in which a variety of sources weigh in on the person of the hour.
And that is perfectly OK. It’s about time we heard what Pamela thinks about the things that have gone on in her eventful and sometimes painful life.
After a lifetime of being characterized as a pair of boobs and — after the release of the infamous sex tape with ex-husband Tommy Lee — a vagina, she’s earned the chance to have her say.
And talk she does — frankly, matter-of-factly, sometimes punctuated by a still girlish giggle, mostly in interviews from her family home in Ladysmith, B.C. — about her tumultuous upbringing with an alcoholic “bad boy” father and parents who fought constantly, sometimes violently; about being molested by a female babysitter for several years; about being raped at 12 by a 25-year-old man.
The interviews are supplemented by entries from the dozens of journals that Anderson kept throughout her life — read, at her request, by an actor.
As Pamela tells it, she felt ashamed and confused about her body and her sexuality, and posing for Playboy — recruited after her discovery via the Jumbotron at a B.C. Lions football game — allowed her to break free of the cage of that insecurity.
But that act of taking charge was to be weaponized against her.
The doc moves on to subjects that would be familiar from years of tabloid coverage: the many romantic relationships and marriages, “Baywatch,” “Barb Wire” — during the strenuous filming of which she suffered a miscarriage — the sex tape stolen in a safe from her and husband Tommy Lee’s garage and distributed worldwide via the fledgling internet, her activism with PETA and more.
Tommy Lee looms large over the doc, which opens with Pamela somewhat wistfully watching other tapes they made during their marriage (she says she has never watched the sex tape).
“I’ve never loved someone so deeply and by deeply I mean I loved his soul,” says one journal entry.
Despite their divorce after Lee was charged with spousal abuse, one gets the sense that Anderson still loves him or at least loves what the relationship was before it went bad.
“I love being in love and being vulnerable and being giving,” she says at one point.
The other part of her story that looms large in the doc is the sex tape and the unsuccessful battle to keep it off the internet. Anderson describes being deposed in that lawsuit as “complete humiliation” and like being raped again when her Playboy history was used to paint her as a whore who wasn’t deserving of privacy.
“Why do these grown men hate me so much?” was her reaction at the time.
The release of a miniseries about the sex tape, “Pam & Tommy,” brings up the trauma of the events all over again.
Pamela and sons Brandon and Dylan say the tape meant the essential end of her career; she “had to make a career out of the pieces left.” According to Dylan, she has been in debt most of her life.
Mind you, the doc finishes with her making her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in “Chicago” in April 2022 and suggests she isn’t ready to give up just yet.
Nor is it framed as an attempt to garner sympathy.
“I’m not a victim,” Pamela says. “I put myself in crazy situations and survived them. I’m grateful for all the experience I had and I don’t blame anybody for anything.”
All autobiographical documentaries are, by design, self-serving. This one is likely meant to stoke interest in Anderson’s new memoir, “Love, Pamela.” But again, why shouldn’t one of the most exploited women in the world have her say?
As she herself says, “It’s good to get it out at least once or twice in your one words.”
Netflix also has the docuseries “Gunther’s Millions” (Feb. 1), about a German shepherd who inherited millions when his countess owner willed her entire estate to him in 1992, now worth an estimated $400 million (U.S.) and passed down to his heirs; plus the series “Freeridge” (Feb. 2) about four friends trying to reverse a curse; and Indian drama series “Class” (Feb. 3), about three poor students who attend an exclusive Delhi high school where a murder takes place.
Short Takes
Chuck D of Public Enemy in “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BBC Studios
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World (Jan. 31, 9 p.m., PBS/YouTube)
If you define music and other art as, in part, a response to oppression then it makes perfect sense that one of the most explosive and influential musical genres of the 20th century was pioneered by Black Americans. This four-part docuseries, created by rap legend Chuck D and Lorrie Boula (“Rebel Music”), explores hip hop from its roots with DJ Kool Herc in the Bronx in 1973 to present day with the help of groundbreakers like Chuck D, Grandmaster Caz, Ice-T, Abiodun Oyewole, Roxanne Shanté, Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C., Melle Mel and many more . Most importantly, it links the music to the social, political and cultural upheaval that gave rise to it: the persistent and systemic racism, the urban blight, the war on drugs, police brutality and so much more while highlighting the joy and pride that are part of the music, and the Black resilience and creativity that flourished amid the struggles. Law professor Jody Armour says in Episode 2 that “Great art broadens your perspective.” Whether or not you consider hip hop great art, this docuseries will expand your perspective on it and on the ways in which Black Americans have been and continue to be subjugated.
Colin O’Brien and Taylor Schilling in “Dear Edward.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
Dear Edward (Feb. 3, Apple TV+)
“Dear Edward” does a good job of reminding us that the trauma of a deadly disaster radiates far beyond the event itself. Based on the Ann Napolitano novel of the same name, it’s about Edward (Colin O’Brien), a 12-year-old who’s the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his parents, his beloved older brother and some 200 other passengers. It’s also about his aunt Lacey (an excellent Taylor Schilling) who struggles to care for Edward amid the grief she feels for the loss of her older sister, and others who are mourning the plane crash victims. The stories that feature most prominently, at least in the four episodes I screened, involve Dee Dee (Connie Britton), a rich housewife who learns that her late husband has left her his debt as well as evidence of a double life, and Adriana (Anna Uzele), who must decide how best to fulfil the legacy of her congresswoman grandmother. Not surprisingly, the road to healing involves connection with other people, whether it’s Edward bonding with the quirky girl next door, Shay (Eva Ariel Binder); Dee Dee helping a young, pregnant woman, Linda (Amy Forsyth), whose boyfriend was a victim; or Adriana opening her home and her heart to Kojo (Idris Debrand), who lost his sister, and his niece Becks (Khloe Bruno). The series was developed by Jason Katims, creator of “Parenthood” and a writer on “Friday Night Lights” (in which Britton starred), so it’s definitely a tearjerker. It sometimes strays into emotional manipulation and predictability, but the quality of the acting helps to balance occasional heavy-handedness.
Odds and Ends
Evie Macdonald and Elena Liu in Season 2 of “First Day.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
CBC Gem debuts the second season of Australian miniseries “First Day” (Feb. 1), in which transgender teen Hannah (Evie Macdonald) is back at school and feeling more comfortable but also keen to craft an identity as more than just a trans girl.
CBC and CBC Gem also have a number of premieres tied to Black History Month. Among the most intriguing is “Dear Jackie” (Feb. 5, 8 p.m.), a documentary framed as a letter to Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball after a stint in the minor leagues in Montreal, that examines ongoing racial inequality in Montreal and Quebec. There is also the doc “John Lewis: Good Trouble” (Feb. 1, CBC Gem) about civil rights activities John Lewis; Season 2 of variety/sketch comedy show mockumentary “Sherman’s Showcase” (Feb. 1, Gem); another doc, “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” (Feb. 1, Gem), about the legendary Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author; and “Moonlight” (Feb. 3, Gem), the Oscar winning Barry Jenkins movie about a young gay boy growing up in Miami.
Just in time for your pre-Oscars movie binge, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is streaming on Disney+ on Feb. 1. The film has five Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Angela Bassett. Disney+ also has the second season of animated comedy “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” (Feb. 1).
I don’t watch horror movies, but I hear the Canadian-made experimental film “Skinamarink” is a viral and box office hit. It’s on Shudder on Feb. 2.
Finally, if awards shows are your thing, Citytv has “The 65th Annual Grammy Awards” Feb. 5 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.
Zach Shallcross greets the women on Night 1 of Season 27 of “The Bachelor.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos except screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC
The good news is that when the inevitable injury comes during a rough group date this “Bachelor” season there very well might be a nurse around to help with the first aid.
It seems to me we have never seen so many nurses in one cast before. Zach Shallcross kept all four of them around — neonatal nurse Genevie, ER nurse Kaity, registered nurse Katherine and postpartum nurse Kylee — when he handed out his 19 roses on Night 1 of Season 27 (holy hell, we’ve been watching this damn show for 27 seasons?).
Luckily, there were no injuries among the 30 hopefuls during that first all-night cocktail party — unless you count Madison’s wounded pride.
Good lord, but the “business owner” from Fargo, North Dakota, could not stop throwing herself at Zach or taking polite indifference for an answer.
First she dove onto Zach’s lap when she and some of the other women invited themselves onto Christina’s party bus (more on her later). Then Madison spent her one-on-one time wrapping an uncomfortable looking Zach in a scarf, toque and blanket because it’s cold in North Dakota (but not so much in Agoura Hills, Calif., in the fall when the show was filmed).
Since she didn’t get the kiss she was so longing for, Madison interrupted another woman’s time to double dip, making Zach do the Griddy with her — which looked as horrific as it sounds — and finally just grabbing his cheek and forcing a kiss, which went about as well as you would expect.
“The kiss felt wrong,” said Zach. No shit.
The underwhelming “peck” sent Madison into a crying jag. And there was more crying when she didn’t get the first impression rose — it went to Greer, a medical sales rep from Houston who lives in New York.
But Madison was not done humiliating herself. When host Jesse Palmer announced that the cocktail party was over, Madison interrupted his pre-rose ceremony chat with Zach to gauge Zach’s intentions AS IF THEY WEREN’T ALREADY STARING HER IN THE FACE.
Madison after stealing Zach away from Jesse Palmer, but nope, not forcing things.
” I don’t want to force things and I want things to come natural,” she told Zach, which was the opposite of what she’d been doing all night.
Zach let her down as gently as he could. “I’m sorry, I don’t see a future with us, but I still think you’re awesome,” he said as Madison’s smile froze on her face. After a hug, she went sobbing into the sunrise.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the debacle was the subtle shade Zach tossed at Rachel Recchia when, in his voice-over, he said he didn’t get the “honesty and clarity” he was extending to Madison in his “Bachelorette” experience.
So who did Zach vibe with?
Well, Greer, obviously.
Leaving aside the fact she talked about herself in the third person in her intro package — “Greer is bold, Greer doesn’t take shit, Greer is kind” — she bonded with Zach over their parents’ long marriages and their shared love of Houston, where Greer said she wants to end up.
She seems nice enough, although I do not for one second believe she brought Zach a cup of coffee, still hot, all the way from New York.
Greer Blitzer hands Zach a coffee she allegedly brought from New York, a six-hour-plus flight away.
The coffee might not have been hot, but Greer’s kisses obviously were. Zach went in for two extended smooching sessions with her, to the discomfort of the other women, who insisted on watching.
He also puckered up for Bailey, a Nashville executive recruiter whose name he forgot when he met her on “After the Final Rose,” kissing her right out of the limo.
Speaking of limo entrances, none of them were exactly boffo, unless you count pig farmer Mercedes (ABC says she’s actually a non-profit case manager) showing up with an adorable porker named Henry, or content creator Christina, who is definitely trouble, being ferried in on a party bus.
Brianna, the Jersey City entrepreneur who won “America’s first impression rose” in a silly “ATFR” stunt, played the part by showing up in a red dress with roses on it, although she insisted to Zach she was there for his heart, not for the rose. I didn’t exactly feel sparks flying, so we’ll see.
There were definitely sparks with Kaity who, like Zach, lives in Austin. Sure she made an “everything’s bigger in Texas” dick joke, but then she told Zach she felt like “the luckiest girl in the world” sitting next to him, so of course he leaned in for a kiss.
Christina Mandrell accepts a rose from Zach.
At least single mom Christina, whose claim to fame besides her Instagram and TikTok videos is being the niece of country singer Barbara Mandrell, took Zach away from prying eyes for their smooch on the party bus. Unfortunately, that kiss was the only thing they agreed on in a flash-card compatibility questionnaire but, in Zach’s defence, dinosaurs vs. dragons, that’s a really hard call!
We already know Christina will raise some hackles later this season and has copped to being the woman in the promo clip sobbing facedown on some stairs.
Zach also laid some smooches on my favourite contestant so far, Charity, a child and family therapist from Columbus, Georgia, who seems to have a great attitude. There’s already a campaign to make her Bachelorette if she doesn’t get with Zach and I’m there for it.
I would not have picked out e-commerce co-ordinator Jess from Florida as an early kiss recipient. She was really, really nervous and a little awkward although, come to think of it, I guess that was kind of endearing to Zach.
Zach with neonatal nurse Genevie Mayo: not even engaged yet and already playing daddy.
Zach didn’t kiss nurse Genevie, but at least he seemed to get a laugh out of the fake baby she brought for him to diaper.
But was he really having “a blast” with New York dancer Cat, who engaged him in a contest to see who could stuff the most meatballs into their mouth? (Where is Meatball when you need him?) Well, Zach did say that he himself is “fucking weird” and would welcome weirdness in a woman, and with Cat he seems to have got his wish.
And that’s kind of it really. It was a pretty low-key first night. The women seemed mostly supportive of each other. Even Madison’s shenanigans didn’t elicit more than a “what the fuck?” comment from Brooklyn, the rodeo racer from Oklahoma.
But you know, the season is young and there are lots of tears to come, both his and hers.
I was one of the people who was unenthused about Zach as Bachelor, but I’m reserving judgment for now. We’ll see how the season goes.
At least Zach went off script a little. When Jesse asked him if he thought he might have met his wife, Zach hesitated and replied, “My gut instinct is actually telling me that I might have,” so not a yes then.
Let’s be real, he’s likely met his fiancee, best case scenario. Although if Zach really has met his wife, maybe Sean Lowe can take a break from being trotted out as the only successful Bachelor star to date and will never again have to teach another man how to rub his own bare pecs.
The next episode airs Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo
Jason Segel and Harrison Ford in “Shrinking.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+)
Two words: Harrison Ford.
If you have heard about “Shrinking,” it’s a good bet it’s been in relation to this being a rare TV role for the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” star.
And Ford is very good in this comedy (I can’t speak to his other TV role, in “1923,” not having jumped on the “Yellowstone” bandwagon). The 80-year-old brings easy humour and curmudgeonly gravitas to the role of a 70-something senior therapist in a Pasadena, California, practice.
But he doesn’t do it alone: a large part of the appeal of “Shrinking” is the interplay between Ford’s character, Paul, and fellow therapists Jimmy (Jason Segel, who created the show along with Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence of “Ted Lasso”) and Gabby (Jessica Williams, “2 Dope Queens”).
Although I do admit: Ford is a real scene stealer and, in effect, the star of the show.
Segel’s Jimmy is the main character. He is floundering when we first meet him, struggling to deal with the death of his wife and letting his turmoil bleed into his sessions with his patients, whom he starts treating in unorthodox ways.
Jimmy takes a particular interest in Sean (Luke Tennie, “Deadly Class”), a young Afghanistan war vet whose PTSD manifests in violence. But Jimmy has also been avoiding interacting with his teenage daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell, “Generation”), and his best friend, Brian (Michael Urie, “Ugly Betty”), and those chickens are coming home to roost.
(Christa Miller and Ted McGinley round out the main cast as Jimmy’s nosy next door neighbour Liz and her husband Derek.)
Paul and Gabby have personal issues of their own: a health challenge, a fresh divorce, an estranged daughter. It’s a case of therapist heal thyself, but that, as you would expect, is easier said than done.
Mistakes are made, arguments had, feelings hurt, but the characters have each others’ backs. And that’s the point of the show, it appears.
As Paul tells Brian and his fiancé Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) — while he’s high on marijuana gummies at their disaster of an engagement party, mind you — “vulnerable people will always find a way to stay connected.”
It would be unfair to compare this show to “Ted Lasso,” but they do share a seeming belief in the innate goodness of people, even when they’re screwing things up.
What they don’t share is an overarching sense of purpose — in the case of “Lasso,” the fate of the soccer team — connecting the characters and the plots. Tangents appear in “Shrinking” without any discernible reason; for instance, a minor plot about Alice’s dalliance with one of Liz’s sons that seems to be there only to give Segel a chance to show off his pliable facial expressions.
Like “Lasso,” there’s also plenty of quippy dialogue, which stops just short of being cloying because of the likeability of the cast.
Everybody has their own stuff to get through, “Shrinking” tells us: it goes better when you let other people share the burden. Not a groundbreaking revelation but one that’s enjoyable enough to watch play out.
Odds and Ends
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in “Poker Face.” PHOTO CREDIT: Phillip Caruso/Peacock
Another debut that’s bound to get buzz this week is that of “Poker Face,” the Peacock series created, written and directed by Rian Johnson, the Oscar-nominated director of “Knives Out,” “Glass Onion,” “The Last Jedi” and “Looper.” It debuts on Citytv+ on Jan. 26. It stars Natasha Lyonne of “Russian Doll” and “Orange Is the New Black” as Charlie, a woman who’s a human lie detector of sorts and who solves a new crime in every episode. I’ve only seen the pilot, not enough to accurately judge, and reviews are embargoed till Tuesday in any event. And, of course, Citytv has the latest instalment of “The Bachelor” (Jan. 23, 8 p.m.), in which Zach Shallcross, one of Rachel Recchia’s “Bachelorette” rejects, is the one ostensibly looking for love.
CBC has the documentary “Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children” (Jan. 29, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem), in which filmmaker Barri Cohen goes looking for the truth about her half-brothers and uncovers the hell hole that was the Huronia Regional Centre. It’s where thousands of children deemed unfit for society, whether because of intellectual disabilities or other perceived flaws, were institutionalized for more than a century and, according to survivors, endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse. CBC Gem also has “How to Lose Everything: The Series” (Jan. 27), animated short films that explore personal stories of loss, and are written and animated by pairs of Indigenous artists.
With the name Elon Musk seemingly popping up everywhere these days, the docuseries “The Elon Musk Show” (Jan. 23, Paramount+) claims to get to the heart of who he really is by interviewing the people who know him best. Paramount+ also has “Teen Wolf: The Movie” (Jan. 26), a sequel to the werewolf series that reunites the original stars; and “Wolf Pack” (Jan. 26) — do you sense a theme here? — another teenage werewolf story based on the books by Canadian author Edo van Belkom.
The Netflix offerings include the documentary “Black Sunshine Baby” (Jan. 23), about Aisha Chaudhary, the Indian author and motivational speaker who died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2015; new series “Lockwood & Co.” (Jan. 27), about a trio of teenage ghost hunters in London; and “You People” (Jan. 27), a comedy romance film directed by Kenya Barris (“Black-ish”), and written by Barris and star Jonah Hill.
For fans of the series “Willow,” Disney+ has the making-of documentary “Willow: Behind the Magic” (Jan. 25). There’s also the new series “Extraordinary” (Jan. 25), about a young woman who seems to be the only person over 18 who hasn’t developed a superpower; and “Darby and the Dead” (Jan. 27), about a teen who’s able to see ghosts after a near-death experience.
If you’re a fan of Jennifer Lopez rom-coms, Prime Video has “Shotgun Wedding” (Jan. 27), in which she and Josh Duhamel play a couple whose destination wedding is hijacked by criminals. Jennifer Coolidge of “The White Lotus” is one of the co-stars. Prime also has docuseries “Good Rivals” (Jan. 27) about the rivalry between the U.S. and Mexican national soccer teams.
Speaking of sports, Crave’s main offering this week is “Grind Now, Shine Later: The Chris Boucher Story” (Jan. 25) about the former Golden State Warrior who’s now a Toronto Raptor.
Last but not least, AMC+ has yet another David Attenborough-narrated nature docuseries — the man is 96, does he ever rest? — “Frozen Planet II” (Jan. 28), a sequel to “Frozen Planet” in which the cameras return to the Arctic and Antarctic as well as the world’s other coldest regions.
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.
Yes, you read that right, this is a 20-day Watchable list since I will be in California from Jan. 5 to 15, partly to attend the Television Critics Association press tour, and won’t be screening anything until I get back. Herewith, some short takes on some shows I checked out during the past week.
Faith Rodgers, one of the victims of singer R. Kelly. PHOTO CREDIT: Lifetime
Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter (Jan. 2, 9 p.m., Lifetime)
The 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and its 2020 followup, “The Reckoning,” are arguably big reasons why the R&B singer is in jail right now, having been convicted in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking, and in 2022 of child pornography. This final three-episode instalment of the docuseries follows Kelly’s federal trial, and includes fresh interviews with the sexual assault survivors and their families. This is not an easy watch. What these women (and some men) endured was horrific and has forever changed their lives and the lives of their families.
From left, Jessalyn Wanlim, Dani Kind, Enuka Okuma, Sadie Munroe, Sarah McVie and Catherine Reitman in “Workin’ Moms.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Brown/Wolf + Rabbit Entertainment
Workin’ Moms (Jan. 3, 9 p.m., CBC)
It’s the end of the road for Catherine Reitman’s comedy about a group of Toronto mothers who connected in a Mommy and Me class and then, over seven seasons, took us on a funny, relatable ride as they navigated parenthood, careers, friendship and romance. I watched the first two episodes of Season 7 in preparation for interviewing Reitman and cast members Dani Kind, Enuka Okuma, Sarah McVie and Jessalyn Wanlim (you can read the story here) and can attest that the final season sticks to what made the show a global success. I’m not allowed to tell you how last season’s cliffhanger turned out after Anne (Kind) was hit by a car, but I’m sure you can figure it out on your own. This ain’t “Game of Thrones.”
CBC also has new seasons of charming coming-of-age comedy “Son of a Critch” (Jan. 3, 8:30 p.m.); Jonny Harris’s “Still Standing” (Jan. 4, 8 p.m.); Andrew Phung’s family comedy “Run the Burbs” (Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m.); and detective dramedy “Pretty Hard Cases” (Jan. 4, 9 p.m.), with dream team Meredith MacNeill and Adrienne C. Moore.
Iain Glen and Emily Hampshire in “The Rig.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios
The Rig (Jan. 6, Prime Video)
Setting a thriller on an oil rig in the North Sea already guarantees a certain amount of drama. “The Rig” adds a restive crew trapped there by a mysterious fog and a communications breakdown; a series of increasingly bizarre injuries to crew members; and the suggestion there’s an ancient, hostile force at work. The main attraction is the terrific cast, a who’s who of Scottish and British actors alongside Emily Hampshire of “Schitt’s Creek” (you can read my interview with her here), who plays a petrochemical geologist and one of the few women aboard the rig. She gets to play off “Line of Duty” actors Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar, Rochenda Sandall and Richard Pepple, and “Game of Thrones” alum Iain Glen, Mark Addy, Owen Teale and Emun Elliott, plus one truly mammoth co-star: the model of an oil rig built in a Scottish studio.
Prime Video also has the second and final season of “Hunters” (Jan. 13), the Nazi-hunting drama that made a splash in 2020 by giving Al Pacino a rare recurring TV role. Even though his character Meyer Offerman — SPOILER ALERT! — died in Season 1, Pacino is back in flashback. I watched the first new episode, but reviews are embargoed so that’s all I’ll say.
Harry Hamlin and Alexandra Daddario in “Mayfair Witches.” PHOTO CREDIT: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., AMC/AMC+)
Reviews of this series are embargoed until Tuesday, but I’m including it anyway since it’s fair to say yet another TV series based on a beloved trilogy of Anne Rice novels is something of an event. This one stars Alexandra Daddario (“White Lotus”) as Rowan, a neurosurgeon who discovers she has troubling and dangerous powers, and is likely part of a family of witches. Harry Hamlin also stars as Cortland; Cameron Inman (and later Annabeth Gish) as Deirdre; Jack Huston as Lasher and Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien. It remains to be seen if this will be as big a hit as “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire” was for AMC.
Andrea Constand in “The Case Against Cosby.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
The Case Against Cosby (Jan. 8, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
I apologize for recommending two documentaries about sex offenders in one week, but there is definite merit in this film that tells the story of Andrea Constand, the Canadian woman who succeeded in having Bill Cosby convicted of sexual assault. Yes, the conviction was overturned because of an unofficial deal that a district attorney made with Cosby in 2005 that he wouldn’t be prosecuted criminally after admitting in a civil trial that he used Quaaludes to have sex with women, but that’s not the same thing as being found innocent. This doc, directed by Karen Wookey (“Intervention Canada”), also features interviews with other survivors who took part in a trauma retreat with Constand; with her parents and sister; with police, lawyers and journalists involved in the case against Cosby; and with experts in what’s called “counterintuitive victim behaviour,” i.e. the way women behave after they’ve been sexually assaulted by someone they know as opposed to the way we’ve been led to believe they’re supposed to behave.
CBC and CBC Gem also have the docuseries “Stuff the British Stole” (Jan. 6, 8:30 p.m.), based on the podcast about, well, stuff the British have stolen over the centuries from other lands and cultures; the documentary “Last of the Right Whales” (Jan. 6, 9 p.m.) on “The Nature of Things”; and the documentary “Doug and the Slugs and Me” (Jan. 15, 8 p.m.), which is mainly about unlikely 1980s pop star Doug Bennett, directed by his family’s former next-door neighbour, Teresa Alfeld.
In addition, CBC Gem has the Ken Burns docuseries “The U.S. and the Holocaust” (Jan. 13), about America’s failure to rescue more than a fraction of the Jewish refugees trying to escape murder by the Nazis; and the Northern Ireland-set drama “Death and Nightingales” (Jan. 6), which has an intriguing cast in Ann Skelly, Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dornan but is very slow.
From left, Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Rachel Shenton, Anna Madeley and Callum Woodhouse in “All Creatures Great and Small” Season 3. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Playground Entertainment
All Creatures Great and Small (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., PBS/PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel)
This is one of those shows I watch not just out of professional duty but because I really enjoy it. Based on the first two episodes, Season 3 looks to be as delightful as the first two seasons. It opens in 1939 with Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) about to marry farmer’s daughter Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton). Naturally, there are complications — a boisterous bachelor’s party and a herd of cows at risk for disease among them — but the episode title, “Second Time Lucky,” gives a hint of how it turns out. All of the excellent lead cast are back, including Samuel West as irascible head vet Siegfried Farnon, Callum Woodhouse as his somewhat feckless brother Tristan and Anna Madeley as long-suffering housekeeper Mrs. Hall.
PBS also has Season 27 of the U.S. version of “Antiques Roadshow” (Jan. 2, 8 p.m.); and Season 3 of period mystery series “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (Jan. 8, 8 p.m.); PBS also says it will rebroadcast “The U.S. and the Holocaust” beginning Jan. 6 at 9 p.m., although it’s on the WNED schedule Jan. 9 at 9 p.m.
And because I can’t really resist anything to do with Scotland, the birthplace of two of my grandparents, I screened “Wildheart” (Jan. 18, 8 p.m.), a restorative episode of “Nature” about a Scots pine in what’s left of the Caledonian Forest in the highlands that’s almost 500 years old. Did it really grow from a pine cone tossed aside by Mary, Queen of Scots as a child? I don’t see how one could prove that, but it makes for a whimsical start to telling the life story of this tree and the creatures that have surrounded it for centuries.
From left, Chandni, Roop, Kuki, Chandan and Sarab Singh, the stars of “Bollywed.”
Bollywed (Jan. 12, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
If you have ever taken a streetcar along Gerrard Street East in Toronto you have no doubt spotted Chandan Fashion out the window with its distinctive blue and magenta exterior. This docuseries takes viewers inside the shop and the Singh family, who have run the business in Little India for 37 years. As it gained inventory and customers, the shop grew to three storeys, but the first episode makes clear that those floors, as well as the basement, are bursting at the seams as father Kuki brings in more and more merchandise, and kids Chandan and Chandni encourage him to open another location. I suspect that clash of old school business practices vs. modernization will drive the action throughout the series. There’s also a touch of “Say Yes to the Dress” as Chandan helps brides choose their wedding ensembles in the third-floor bridal showroom.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO
The Last of Us (Jan. 15, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)
Reviews of this postapocalyptic drama are embargoed until next week. I don’t think I’m even allowed to tell you whether I like it, so you’ll have to draw your own conclusions from the fact I have singled it out here. It’s based on a video game of the same name about the aftermath of a fungal infection that has wiped out huge swaths of humanity, leaving survivors penned into militaristic quarantine zones. I can at least tell you what I think of the cast, led by Pedro Pascal, a standout in shows like “Narcos,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Mandalorian,” and Bella Ramsey, the enormously talented young actor also seen in “Game of Thrones” and “Catherine Called Birdy.” They play Joel, a hardened survivor, and Ellie, the 14-year-old he is tasked with escorting across the country to a revolutionary group that’s trying to find a cure for the infection. Other cast members include Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge, Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett, Melanie Lynskey and Toronto’s Lamar Johnson.
Crave also has Viking revenge movie “The Northman” (Jan. 6), featuring a super ripped Alexander Skarsgard, which Toronto Star reviewer Peter Howell gave 3.5 out of 4 stars; British crime drama “Without Sin” (Jan. 6); competition series “The Climb” (Jan. 12), in which contestants climb foreboding looking peaks overseen by series creator Jason Momoa; animated Scooby-Doo spinoff “Velma” (Jan. 12), created by and starring Mindy Kaling; and Season 2 of “Your Honor” (Jan. 13), in which Bryan Cranston and Michael Stuhlbarg return as the judge and the mob boss whose lives were upended by a hit-and-run in Season 1.
“Shadowland,” based on an Atlantic magazine investigation of conspiracy theories, debuts Jan. 21. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of History
Shadowland (Jan. 21, 9 p.m., History/STACKTV)
If there’s one thing we all became familiar with over the two years (now into its third) of the COVID-19 pandemic it’s conspiracy theories. This docuseries, based on a series of articles in the Atlantic magazine, takes a deep dive into the subject by having documentary teams interview the holders of these theories about their beliefs. The subjects include a woman in Pennsylvania who has bought so completely into the belief that the world is being controlled by a “deep state” cabal of elites that she risks going to jail for her part in the Jan. 6 riot rather than subject herself to the authority of the court. Other subjects include a Montreal woman, former journalist and rabid anti-vaxxer who has moved to San Francisco with her boyfriend, the so-called “Google whistleblower.” The series is directed by Joe Berlinger, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentarian.
And while we’re on the subject of conspiracy theories, they are also the subject of the first episode of “Truth & Lies,” a docuseries debuting on TVO Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. The series from Emmy nominee Lewis Cohen takes a more historical approach. In the opener, for instance, it draws a line between the “blood libel” conspiracy theory of the 12th century that claimed Jews harvested the blood of Christian children, to the modern claim that Democrats are child pornographers using children for their blood. Other episodes look at war propaganda, scandals, money, religion and influencers.
Also, back to the Corus Entertainment slate, Showcase has “Irreverent” (Jan. 8, 9 p.m.), about a criminal mediator who has to flee Chicago for Australia and pose as a minister; and the latest David E. Kelley series, “The Calling” (Jan. 16, 9 p.m.), about a particularly dedicated NYPD detective. And W Network has the Hallmark series “The Way Home” (Jan. 22, 8 p.m.), which stars Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh and Sadie Laflamme-Snow as three generations of an estranged family and is set, at least in part, in a Canadian farm town.
Odds and Ends
Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman in 1975 in a scene from “The Last Movie Stars.” PHOTO CREDIT: Warner Brothers
I very much wanted to review “The Last Movie Stars,” the docuseries about actors and spouses Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, directed by movie star Ethan Hawke, that got rapturous reviews when it debuted in the U.S. It finally makes its Canadian premiere Jan. 12 on Hollywood Suite, but screeners won’t be available until after I’ve left for California.
Speaking of stars, Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes are certainly that, particularly if you’ve watched “Succession” or any number of British series that they’ve been in. The real-life couple plays British politician John Stonehouse and his wife Barbara in “Stonehouse” (Jan. 17, BritBox). The MP was at the centre of a scandal in the U.K. after faking his own death in 1974. Reviews, unfortunately, are embargoed until next week.
Let’s get to Netflix. I liked the first season of the soapy but charming “Ginny & Georgia,” but there was an embargo on Season 2 episodes, which debut Jan. 5. More (not all) Netflix premieres: documentary “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” (Jan. 4); doc “Mumbai Mafia: Police vs. the Underworld” (Jan. 6); Season 2 of “Vikings: Valhalla” (Jan. 12); tennis documentary “Break Point” (Jan. 13); “That ’70s Show” spinoff “That ’90s Show” (Jan. 19); so-called reality series “Bling Empire: New York” (Jan. 20).
Your Disney+ pick is “If These Walls Could Sing” (Jan. 6), the story of Abbey Road Studios as told by Mary McCartney, daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney. Also, buzzy movie “The Menu” has its streaming debut Jan. 4.
Apple TV+ has docuseries “Super League: The War for Football” (Jan. 13) and by football they mean soccer. It also has the fourth and final season of “Servant” (Jan. 13).
David Attenborough is back with yet another nature documentary, “Dynasties II” (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., BBC Earth), which follows families of elephants, macaques, cheetahs, pumas, meerkats and hyenas.
I don’t usually write up Paramount+ series since they don’t often send me releases, but that seems to be changing. On Jan. 19, the streamer has the Canadian debut of “The Chemistry of Death,” based on two Simon Beckett novels, starring Harry Treadaway (“Penny Dreadful”) as former forensic anthropologist David Hunter.
And finally, the tarnished “Golden Globe Awards” are back and will air Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. on Citytv.
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.
CORRECTION, JAN. 22, 2023: Edited because I accidentally misspelled Murray Bartlett’s last name in the “Last of Us” entry.
I will take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year. Not a lot of new stuff out this week and a lot of what is new I didn’t have screeners for, but the floodgates will open in earnest as January continues.
Short Takes
A scene from “Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series.” PHOTO CREDIT: Super Channel
Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series (Dec. 27, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)
If you’re having a sense of deja vu, yes, I did write about a show connected to the 1972 hockey “Summit Series” between the Russians and Canadians back in September, when I made the CBC docuseries “Summit ’72” my show of the week. This documentary film by Robbie Hart (“I Am Not a Rock Star”) covers some of the same ground — the shocking Game 1 loss to the Soviets, the Canadian fans booing in Vancouver, Phil Esposito’s rousing speech, the Canucks’ underdog status going into the final games, Paul Henderson’s series-winning goal — but it also puts a bigger focus on the geopolitical implications of the games, which is not surprising since it’s based on a book by former diplomat Gary J. Smith, “Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series.” Smith is interviewed along with hockey folks like Wayne Gretzky, Ron Maclean, Harnarayan Singh, Angela James and Daniele Sauvageau (interviews with a handful of the Canadian ’72 players appear to be archival). The doc also includes footage shot in Moscow and fresh interviews with Russian players Vladislav Tretiak, Alexander Yakushev and Boris Mikhailov. The film’s thesis is that the Summit Series changed the game of hockey forever and even changed Canada’s national identity. If that’s true — and having been only 10 when the series was played I can’t vouch for that — then I believe it’s also true that the national identity is in constant flux as Canada grows and diversifies. And I can’t help but wonder whether hockey will play as big a part in the mythology of this country 50 years from now.
Groucho Marx and Dick Cavett on “The Dick Cavett Show” in June 1969. PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Baldwin
Speaking of nostalgia, this episode of the PBS series “American Masters” takes viewers back not just to the 1960s and ’70s when comedian Groucho Marx made seven appearances on his friend Dick Cavett’s talk show, but to the age of vaudeville and early film when Groucho and the other Marx Brothers became famous. Groucho went on to achieve individual fame as the host of TV quiz show “You Bet Your Life.” By the time he started appearing on “Cavett,” he was in his late 70s, but he and Cavett had been friends since meeting at the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman when Groucho was 70 and Cavett 25. Cavett, now 86 — the same age Groucho was when he died in 1977 — says he got “perhaps the last of Groucho’s prime” on his talk show. Whether that translates to modern audiences for whom Groucho’s comedy style will seem old-fashioned remains to be seen, but the story of the friendship between the men is a touching one and it’s clear that Cavett still has nothing but the highest regard for his comedy hero.
PBS also has the concert special “Great Performances: From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2023” (Jan. 1, 8 p.m.), featuring music by Strauss and others conducted by Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst, performances by the Vienna State Ballet and host Hugh Bonneville of “Downton Abbey.”
Odds and Ends
Charlie Cox stars in “Treason.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix
The Netflix series I would have screened had it been available last week is “Treason” (Dec. 26), starring Charlie Cox (“Daredevil”) as an MI6 agent whose future is called into question after he’s reunited with a Russian spy with whom he had a past. Netflix also has Season 5 of “The Circle” (Dec. 28); a Spanish comedy series called “Alpha Males” (Dec. 30); the Noah Baumbach film “White Noise” (Dec. 30) starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig; the special “Best of Stand Up 2022” (Dec. 31); the heist series “Kaleidoscope” (Jan. 1); the Brazilian series “Lady Voyeur” (Jan. 1) and other stuff.
My pick for Crave this week, just based on the description, is “Kingdom of Dreams” (Dec. 30), a docuseries about the global fashion business from the early 1990s to the 2010s. Canadian fashion icon Jeanne Beker is a producer. Crave also has “The Rocky Collection” dropping on Dec. 30, which includes all six films plus the documentary “40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic,” narrated by Sylvester Stallone. Its New Year’s offering is “Lizzo: Live in Concert” (Dec. 31, 8 p.m.).
Speaking of New Year’s, CBC TV and CBC Gem have “Canada’s New Year’s Eve: Countdown to 2023” at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31, hosted by Rick Mercer and featuring music from Chad Price, Devon Cole, James Barker Band, JJ Wilde, Kardinal Offishall, Leela Gilday, OKAY TK, Savannah Ré and Vincent Vallières.
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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