Little Voice (July 10, Apple TV Plus)

Brittany O’Grady as Bess King in “Little Voice.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

The music hooks you early in this half-hour drama, that and the engaging performance of theatre and screen actor Brittany O’Grady, who is both relatably ordinary and luminously extraordinary as singer-songwriter Bess King.

Bess is a talented 20-something who, when we first meet her, is virtually paralyzed with self-doubt. She’s working multiple jobs — dog walker, music teacher, nursing home entertainer, bartender — scribbling song lyrics in a notebook every chance she gets and writing music on her portable keyboard in a rented storage locker, but unwilling to share those songs with anybody.

The series is inspired by the life of singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and shares a name with her breakthrough 2007 album. She and her “Waitress” collaborator Jessie Nelson created the show, with TV and movie mega-producer J.J. Abrams on board as executive producer.

Obviously, with a creative team like that, music is front and centre. Bareilles wrote original songs for Bess to sing, which she does beautifully, but the series shines a light on other talented musicians who get to cameo as buskers and performers at the bar where Bess works. 

The series also has theatre DNA, which seems only right given the New York City setting. Some of the cast have serious stage credentials, especially Chuck Cooper, who plays Bess’s washed-up musician father. And her autistic brother Louie (autistic actor Kevin Valdez) is a Broadway savant, not to mention a scene stealer.

Other cast include Phillip Johnson Richardson as Bess’s close friend and bar co-worker turned manager, Benny; Shalini Bathina as her roommate Prisha, a fellow musician and closeted lesbian; Sean Teale (“Reign”) as the videographer with whom Bess falls in love, despite his live-in girlfriend; and Colton Ryan as rival love interest Samuel, who’s Bess’s guitarist.

Canadian actor Luke Kirby, whose work I will always take the opportunity to promote, has a small role as a predatory studio producer.

The city itself, in all its lively pre-COVID-19 glory, is also a character here.

It’s not groundbreaking television, but it is watchable. It’s like a catchy song that gets stuck in your head and keeps you humming the tune.

If you missed it: Trigonometry (CBC Gem)

Thalissa Teixeira as Gemma, Ariane Labed as Ray and Gary Carr as Kieran in “Trigonometry.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

My thanks to fellow TV writer John Doyle from the Globe and Mail for reminding me about this series, which kind of got lost in the shuffle of a very busy week last week.

I have watched enough of it to know it’s well worth your time.

It’s about a polyamorous relationship between cafe owner Gemma (Thalissa Teixeira), her paramedic boyfriend Kieran (Gary Carr) and their synchronized swimmer tenant Ray (Ariane Labed). But it’s not played for laughs or titillation; the actors do a wonderful job of conveying the attraction between these three people as an entirely organic and relatably human thing.