Tag: LOL: Last One Laughing Canada

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Severance (Feb. 18, Apple TV Plus)

The term “workplace thriller” seems like an oxymoron, but there are indeed thrills to be had in this series about a mysterious company whose employees undergo brain surgery to divide their work and personal lives.

The first question that comes to mind is why anyone would want to undergo such a radical procedure. In the case of main character Mark (Adam Scott), it’s to minimize the pain of his wife’s death, a loss that left him unable to do his previous job as a history professor.

When we first meet Mark (Adam Scott), he’s crying in the parking lot of Lumon Corporation. By the time he has taken the elevator down to the macro-data refinement or MDR department, he’s wondering why he has a crumpled tissue in his pocket and whether the fact he’s sniffling means he’s getting a cold.

The controversial “severance” procedure, which involves implanting a chip into its subjects’ brains, means that employees have no memories of their personal lives when they’re at work and none of their work lives when they’re at home. The split selves are designated “innies” and “outies” by the company.

It isn’t explicitly stated why this would be considered desirable by the corporation — a corporation that doesn’t appear to make anything of tangible use to the outside world — but clearly the idea is to produce compliant workers, unfettered by the emotional entanglements of their home lives.

But humans have a way of pushing against boundaries.

The trouble starts with new employee Helly (Britt Lower), who refuses to go passively to her assignment in MDR when she awakens after her severance procedure. When her request to resign is denied she comes up with ever more drastic ploys to escape what she calls hell, to the point that Mark — the new department chief since his friend Petey (Yul Vazquez) suddenly disappeared — begins to question Lumon’s methods.

The rebellion spreads, even to by-the-book veteran Irv (John Turturro) and ultra-competitive Dylan (Zach Cherry), whose main interest is in racking up company perks.

Irv begins to stray after a chance meeting with Burt (Christopher Walken), the chief of the optics and design department. Their shared appreciation for the company art — paintings featuring founder Kier Eagan — grows into something deeper.

Deterrents like the psychological punishment of the “break room” and a new security door — installed on the orders of coldly forbidding boss Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and her henchmen — can’t keep Mark and his co-workers from wandering the long, white halls in search of information and companionship.

Directors Ben Stiller, who also executive produces, and Aoife McArdle do an excellent job of rendering the sleek, sterile and vaguely threatening environment inside Lumon, contrasting it with the outside world, which is bleak in its own ways.

Eventually, outer life begins to contaminate inner life and vice versa, whether it’s a forbidden book left in the conference room or Petey turning up in the non-Lumon world.

Then Dylan makes an inadvertent discovery, a way that his co-workers’ “innies” might be able to glimpse their “outie” selves. The MDR team comes up with a risky plan whose execution produces the thrills I mentioned previously. It yields some answers but also raises even more questions — ones that will presumably be answered in Season 2.

Despite its sci-fi trappings, “Severance” is a very human story.

Lumon’s attempt to play god can’t squelch human curiosity or the need for connection; the drive to know yourself and others. Likewise, our desire to know more about these characters propels us through the series.

Apple also has the docuseries “Lincoln’s Dilemma” (Feb. 18), which aims to give a more nuanced portrait of the American president and his position on ending slavery.

Short Takes

Bel-Air (Feb. 14, 9 p.m., Showcase and StackTV)

This reboot of beloved 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” puts dramatic meat on the bones of a street-wise West Philly kid moving in with his wealthy relatives in the posh Los Angeles neighbourhood. The “one little fight” that got Will (played by Jabari Banks here) packed off to Bel-Air is now a beef with a gang member that sees Will point a gun and get arrested. When his mother sends him to live with his Aunt Viv (Cassandra Freeman) and Uncle Phillip (Adrian Holmes), it’s because his life is being threatened, a threat that continues to hang over him and his best friend back home. Cousin Carlton (Olly Sholotan) is Will’s enemy in this show, at least in the three episodes available for review. A popular lacrosse player who snorts Xanax to control his anxiety, Carlton’s dominance of his snobby, majority white high school is threatened not only by Will’s prowess on the basketball court but his pursuit of Carlton’s ex Lisa (Simone Joy Jones), which brings the cousins to physical blows. There’s a lot more: Phillip is still a lawyer but is now running to be elected district attorney; Viv is an art school teacher who gave up her promising art career for her family; Hilary (Coco Jones) is an influencer and aspiring chef whose disinterest in a traditional job rankles her mother. There’s also younger sister Ashley (Akira Akbar); house manager Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola) and jack-of-all-trades Jazz (Jordan L. Jones), who meets Will driving him from the airport. The show’s mix of soap opera-worthy plot lines with serious themes relating to Black identity works if you’re not looking for anything too deep or nuanced.

Into the Dark (Feb. 14, 9 p.m., Hollywood Suite)

This anthology film series carries the imprimatur of Blumhouse Television, whose movie arm is known for hits like “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge.” The conceit here is that the horror films are all linked to holidays. Fittingly, the Valentine’s Day kickoff features two instalments ostensibly tied to romance, “Down” and “My Valentine.” In “Down,” which I screened, two office workers (Natalie Martinez and Matt Lauria) are trapped in an elevator in an empty building on Valentine’s weekend. But the ordeal turns deadly beyond the deprivation of being stuck without food and water in a small space.

LOL: Last One Laughing Canada (Feb. 18, Prime Video)

For its first Canadian reality series, Amazon’s Prime Video has chosen a spinoff of its own international hit. The “Last One Laughing” franchise is a bit like a comedic version of “Big Brother,” with 10 comedians put in a room for six hours with cameras catching their every utterance. The goal is to crack up their fellow comics while remaining straight-faced themselves. Whoever wins gets bragging rights and $100,000 for the charity of their choice. This first Canadian season boasts an embarrassment of riches. Jay Baruchel hosts while the competitors include standups Deborah DiGiovanni and Brandon Ash-Mohammed, TV stars Andrew Phung of “Kim’s Convenience,” K. Trevor Wilson of “Letterkenny,” Caroline Rhea of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” and Mae Martin of “Feel Good”; Quebec YouTube celeb Jon Lajoie: and revered veterans Colin Mochrie, Tom Green and “Kid in the Hall” Dave Foley. The fun, besides having that much Canadian comedy talent in one room, is in seeing who cracks first. If a comedian laughs or even smiles, Baruchel hits them with a yellow card; a second infraction gets them bounced from the contest. I’m not gonna lie, the first episode got off to a slow start, but then the cast started to hit their stride. I have never laughed so hard at the sight of someone making grilled cheese sandwiches. One note: if you’re offended by profanity, just know this is loaded with f-bombs.

Prime Video also has Season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Feb. 18), a show I love and would have loved to review if not for an embargo.

Odds and Ends

The docuseries “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” (Feb. 16, Netflix) spans 20 years in the life and career of Kanye West, now known as Ye. Directed by Chike Ozah and Clarence “Coodie” Simmons, it got mostly favourable reviews when it premiered at Sundance in January. Screeners weren’t provided by Netflix. Netflix also has Season 2 of reality series “Swap Shop” (Feb. 16) and Season 2 of Steve Carell comedy “Space Force” (Feb. 18).

If you’d like to see the work of Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee, who died Christmas Day, before he got famous for titles like “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Big Little Lies” and “Sharp Objects,” CBC Gem has his 2011 romance “Cafe de Flore” screening on Feb. 14.

Sundance Now has a new season of Nick Hornby’s anthology series “State of the Union” (Feb. 14). This time, veteran actors Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson star as a couple trying to save their 30-year marriage. Stephen Frears returns to direct.

New to Disney Plus this week are the animated special “The Wonderful Winter of Mickey Mouse” (Feb. 18) and “Marvel Studios: Assembled — The Making of ‘Eternals'” (Feb. 16).

Crave has Season 2 of possibly the chillest unscripted series in the world, “Painting With John” (Feb. 18, 11 p.m., HBO/Crave), in which artist, musician, actor and director John Lurie paints and talks, sharing lessons from his estimable life.

This post was edited to tweak my review of “Bel-Air.”

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.