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Tag: Flack Season 2

Watchable the week of June 14, 2021

SHOW OF THE WEEK (Kevin Can F**k Himself, June 20, 9 p.m., AMC)

From left, Brian Howe, Annie Murphy, Alex Bonifer, Eric Petersen and Mary Hollis Inboden
in “Kevin Can F**k Himself.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jojo Whilden/AMC

Toxic masculinity can come with a laugh track and a punch line.

That’s one of the takeaways from “Kevin Can F**k Himself,” an inventive new dramedy starring Annie Murphy in her first post-“Schitt’s Creek” role.

Murphy is Allison McRoberts, sitcom wife. She’s married to Kevin (Eric Petersen, “Kirstie”), a man child who’s more interested in beer and sports memorabilia than in anything his wife has to say.

In the parts of the series shot in brightly lit, multi-camera sitcom style, Allison is the butt of the jokes, trying unsuccessfully to rein in Kevin’s juvenile behaviour — which is abetted by his dim bulb best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer), his father Pete (Brian Howe) and Neil’s sister Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) — while keeping the fresh beers and the scrambled eggs and hot dogs coming.

When the show switches into single camera mode we see the cost of Kevin’s selfishness. After 10 years of marriage, Allison feels like she has nothing to show for her life and that everything that was hers has been systematically taken away by Kevin, revealing an insidiousness to his pranks and his punch-line putdowns.

But Allison isn’t just mad; she plans to get her life back, hatching a deadly serious scheme of her own.

When Allison isn’t being minimized by Kevin’s buffoonery she comes across as intelligent and resourceful, which makes you wonder what she saw in Kevin all those years ago.

And in playing the role, Murphy, who gained fame as the ditzy Alexis on “Schitt’s Creek,” proves she’s not a one-trick pony.

Just as interesting as Allison’s journey from resignation to revenge is neighbour Patty’s transformation. She starts out being one of the boys, scoffing at Allison right along with them while denying the disappointment of her own dead-end life. By the end of the fourth episode, the only ones provided to critics for review, she’s become Allison’s friend and co-conspirator.

I’m curious to see, in the final four instalments, just how far Allison and Patty will go, and also how audiences will react given the show’s very unflattering portrait of male entitlement.

On the other hand, after a decade or two of Don Drapers and Tony Sopranos and Walter Whites, why shouldn’t we cheer when a woman gets mad as hell and decides she’s not going to take it anymore?

Penguin Town (June 16, Netflix)

A pair of African penguins on the hunt for a nesting site
in Simon’s Town, South Africa, in “Penguin Town.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

We’re all used to earnest nature documentaries that seek to inspire our empathy by showing us the majesty of the animals that share our planet. Those are worthy programs, but there’s something to be said for treating members of one of the most beloved of bird species like reality TV stars.

“Penguin Town” anthropomorphizes the heck out of a particular group of African penguins spending their summer (our winter) in Simon’s Town, South Africa, but that doesn’t distract from the knowledge that these creatures are endangered. Arguably, the viewer’s sympathies are even more engaged by the series’ focus on specific birds, who are given names and storylines.

Narrator Patton Oswalt tells us that these penguins, also known as jackass penguins for their distinctive braying cry, arrive in Simon’s Town every November to mate and have babies: activities that are essential given that “if they get it wrong they face extinction.”

The birds are inherently comical as they waddle around town in their tuxedo-like plumage. The comedy is enhanced by the narration as we follow several couples, the middle-aged Bougainvilleas, the newlywed Culverts and “aristocrats” Lord and Lady Courtyard (named after the spots where they make their nests); a misfit named Junior and a group of disaffected singles called the Car Park Gang.

But there’s also tragedy to be found: a mother penguin who disappears while out catching fish for her chicks, possibly eaten by a Cape fur seal, or eggs that are swept away by the rushing waters of a storm.

The dangers are many, the quest to survive and reproduce daunting — Oswalt tells us one of every three chicks born here won’t live to adulthood — but that just makes the successes feel all the more important.

And the birds have some help from the “giants,” as humans are dubbed in “Penguin Town,” thanks to the work of SANCCOB, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. If you’d like to help too you can adopt a penguin here.

Netflix also has Season 2 of zombie apocalypse drama “Black Summer” (June 17) and Season 4 of Spanish teen drama “Elite” (June 18).

Catching Up

From left, Rebecca Benson, Anna Paquin and Lydia Wilson in “Flack” Season 2.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Studios

I wasn’t allowed to share a review of “Flack” (Amazon Prime Video) last week because of an embargo, but I can tell you that I like this second season better than the first, which I found overly cynical despite the hits of humour. The female PR fixers that we met in Season 1 are still doing deals for monstrous celebrity clients and Robyn (Anna Paquin) is still spinning dangerously out of control in her personal life, but in Season 2 we learn something about the women’s backgrounds, which makes them more relatable. Sam Neill guest stars as the ex-husband of imperious boss Caroline (Sophie Okonedo) and Martha Plimpton as Robyn’s suicidal mother. We also meet the mother of Eve (Lydia Wilson) and the parents of Melody (Rebecca Benson). The professional world these women inhabit is still a sordid one, but now I see them more as canny survivors than as predators.

You can read my interview with Paquin and her husband Stephen Moyer, who directed two episodes of “Flack,” here.

Another show I couldn’t talk about was “Loki,” now on Disney Plus. Tom Hiddleston is reliably entertaining as the arrogant God of Mischief, and he and Owen Wilson, playing a civil servant at the Time Variance Authority, mesh well when they’re onscreen together. After the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” Loki gets scooped up by the TVA and is about to be sentenced for crimes against the “sacred timeline” when Wilson’s Mobius convinces the powers that be to lend him Loki for a mission. Variants of the god are wreaking havoc on the timeline and Mobius wants Loki to help him stop them. Naturally, with Loki involved, things don’t go quite as planned. The series will probably appeal most to viewers who are up on their Marvel lore.

Short Takes

Colin Sutton was a detective chief inspector with London’s Metropolitan Police. PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn

The Real Manhunter (June 14, Acorn TV)

I quite enjoyed the Acorn drama “Manhunt,” in which Martin Clunes played a fictional version of Colin Sutton, the real-life detective who solved a 2004 murder in London’s Twickenham neighbourhood and caught a serial killer in the process. If you liked how that miniseries showed the methodical way that Sutton and his team cracked the crime, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this companion series about Sutton and eight of his cases. The murder of Amelie Delagrange in Twickenham Green is covered in the second episode. The first — and the longest at almost two hours — details perhaps Sutton’s most famous case, the capture of a serial burglar and rapist known as the Night Stalker who terrorized senior citizens in Southeast London between 1992 and 2009.

Odds and Ends

“Rick and Morty” are back for Season 5. PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

Adult Swim has Season 5 of animated comedy “Rick and Morty” (June 20, 11 p.m.) with sociopathic Rick (series co-creator Justin Roiland) dragging grandson Morty (also voiced by Roiland) and the rest of his family along on dangerous intergalactic adventures.

Family Channel has the new competition series “Baketopia” (June 14, 7:30 p.m.), hosted by YouTube star Rosanna Pansino, in which the competitors are tasked with creating Instagram-worthy desserts.

It’s finale time for Season 4 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” (June 16, Crave) and since past season finales have traditionally brought big, cliffhanger twists it’s anybody’s guess what this season ender will bring.

NOTE: The dates and times listed here reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible against broadcast and streaming schedules, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.

Watchable the week of June 7, 2021

SHOW OF THE WEEK: We Are Lady Parts (June 9, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

Lucie Shorthouse as Momtaz, Juliette Motamed as Ayesha, Anjana Vasan as Amina, Faith Omole as Bisma, Sarah Kameela Impey as Saira in “We Are Lady Parts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Saima Khalid/Peacock)

There are plenty of reasons to watch “We Are Lady Parts,” among them its feminist underpinnings and the fact it treats its Muslim protagonists as individuals rather than stereotypes, but the most persuasive reason I can give is that it’s so much fun.

It’s also smart, witty and coherent with characters that are written like real human beings instead of caricatures, and plotting that feels rewarding even when we can see where it’s going. 

And then there’s the music that the all-female band of the title plays, an assemblage of searing punk songs that series creator Nida Manzoor wrote with her siblings.

Our way into the story is through its narrator, Amina (Anjana Vasan), a PhD student in microbiology living in London’s Whitechapel district, whose main concern is to find a husband — contrary to the advice of her parents, who don’t understand her hurry. (Mom Seema suggests she look for a spouse who can fulfil her “feminine requirements, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.”)

It’s Amina’s man myopia that brings her into the orbit of Lady Parts when she swoons over the drummer’s brother, Ahsan (Zaqi Ismail), and his “lustrous facial hair indicating virility while maintaining boy-next-door adorableness with eyebrows you could hang onto” as he hands out flyers for a band audition.

The fact that accomplished guitarist Amina refuses to play in public, since it induces vomiting or diarrhea, is no obstacle for bull-headed lead singer Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), who’s determined to bring Amina into the fold — over the objections of drummer Ayesha (Juliette Motamed), bassist Bisma (Faith Omole) and manager Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse).

Amina’s own objections go beyond rogue bodily functions to the fact playing in a band could interfere with her matrimonial quest, particularly one whose songs have names like “Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me” and “Voldemort Under My Head Scarf.”

But I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say a girl’s gotta rock, and Amina and Lady Parts do so to thrilling effect. 

(As an aside, the women singing along to the Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” in Ayesha’s VW Golf is the best rocking-out-in-a-car scene since “Wayne’s World” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”)

The members of Lady Parts play loud music and swear and make dick jokes; they also pray and, except for Saira, wear head scarves. And you’ve never seen a woman on TV in a niqab like the constantly vaping, joint-smoking Momtaz, who sells women’s undies when she’s not trying to get Lady Parts gigs.

Saira, meanwhile, who works in a butcher shop, is estranged from her family and in a casual relationship with her boyfriend; Bisma is an aspiring cartoonist (her series is about women who get homicidal on their periods) who’s happily married with a daughter; and perpetually angry Uber driver Ayesha is still exploring her sexuality.

The point is that there’s more than one way to be a Muslim woman, or just a woman for that matter.

Saira says Lady Parts’ music isn’t about getting famous but about “representation.” The series has that in spades, but it’s also just really good television that’s worth your time.

Short Takes

Joel Jackson as Detective James Steed and Geraldine Hakewill as Peregrine Fisher in “Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Finter/AcornTV

Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (June 7, Acorn)

I was initially skeptical of this Australian spinoff because of my devotion to the original “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” about an unconventional female private detective in 1920s Melbourne; I couldn’t imagine anything else comparing. Luckily, I discovered that “Ms. Fisher” is its own delightful thing, with free spirit Peregrine Fisher (Geraldine Hakewill), niece of Phryne, solving her own cases with her own band of endearing sidekicks, her own policeman love interest and oodles of 1960s fashions to ogle. In Season 2, Peregrine tackles new murder investigations while navigating modern womanhood in a patriarchal society and her feelings for Detective James Steed (Joel Jackson).

Toronto’s Afrim Pristine is the host of “Cheese: A Love Story.” PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

Cheese: A Love Story (June 9, 8 p.m., Food Network Canada/StackTV)

This Corus original docuseries falls into the category of shows you should never watch on an empty stomach. In it, Afrim Pristine, owner of Toronto’s Cheese Boutique and the world’s youngest maitre fromager, travels Canada and the world, learning about and sampling various cheeses. He starts with Switzerland, where he delves into the making of Gruyere, raclette and Emmental, and samples the dishes at a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants. The cheese made with coal might not get your mouth watering, but I’ll wager you’ll be searching your cupboards for your old fondue pot. Future episodes include visits to France, Greece, Toronto, Quebec and British Columbia. 

Marine Vacth as Louise in “Moloch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Guillaume Van Laethem/Sundance Now

Moloch (June 10, Sundance Now)

Set in an unnamed seaside town in France, this thriller is a blend of crime, psychological and horror drama. Citizens start spontaneously combusting, flummoxing the police and intriguing newbie journalist Louise (Marine Vacth), who gets drawn into the story in dangerous ways. Also in the mix are psychiatrist Gabriel (Olivier Gourmet) and two of his patients: Jimmy (Marc Zinga), a deeply religious bus driver, and Stella (Alice Verset), a young girl whose life is severely circumscribed by an incurable skin disease. Moloch is the name of an ancient deity that’s found written wherever a death has occurred, so that’s your warning that you’ll have to suspend your disbelief at the series’ conclusion.

Odds and Ends

Anna Paquin as Robyn in Season 2 of “Flack.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios

“Flack,” Amazon’s drama about women behaving badly in the public relations industry, returns on June 11. Reviews are embargoed, but I can tell you Anna Paquin is back as Robyn, the fixer extraordinaire whose personal life is a disaster, alongside quip machine Eve (Lydia Wilson), sweetly ambitious Melody (Rebecca Benson) and icy boss Caroline (Sophie Okonedo). Guest stars this season include Sam Neill, Daniel Dae Kim, Martha Plimpton and Jane Horrocks (Bubble on “Absolutely Fabulous”). Paquin’s husband, Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”), directed two episodes.

The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series debuts with “Loki” on Disney Plus (June 9). Tom Hiddleston leads a cast that includes Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. The series is set after the events of “Avengers: Endgame” and, yes, reviews are embargoed.

Netflix has the second part of the hit French drama “Lupin” (June 11), with Omar Sy as master criminal Assane Diop, who’s modelled himself after literary gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. Since Season 1 ended with both Assane and his son Raoul (Etan Simon) in peril, fans will no doubt welcome the show back, although I’m sure Assane will find a way out of both predicaments.

How time flies. “The Bachelorette” returns June 7 at 8 p.m. on Citytv (and ABC), the first of two seasons this year, this one starring Katie Thurston (with Michelle Young’s to air in the fall). Will the producers have learned anything after the recent disastrous season of “The Bachelor”? I wouldn’t bet on it.

If you’d like to brush up on your history of the American gay rights movement during Pride Month, check out “Equal” on Hollywood Suite (June 7, 9 p.m.), which profiles unsung heroes of the movement using a combination of archival interviews and re-enactments starring Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, Shannon Purser, Samira Wiley and other mostly gay or bisexual actors. Billy Porter of “Pose” narrates.

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