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Tag: Netflix (Page 2 of 3)

Watchable on CBC, CTV, Netflix Sept. 19 to 25, 2022

September 19, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Lido TV (Sept. 23, CBC Gem)

Lido Pimienta in her variety show “Lido TV.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

Think of “Lido TV” as a heaping spoonful of sugar helping creator and star Lido Pimienta get her medicine down.

It’s a described as a variety show, although it also has the outward appearance of a children’s show with its colourful sets and costumes and puppets, but that whimsy belies a serious mission: to share information and stimulate discussion about social and political ills and systems of oppression.

The first episode, for instance, deals with colonialism. There are conversations on the subject between Lido and puppets Sunnyflower (Ali Eisner), Tomato (Sarah Ashby) and Tomàto (Adam Francis Proulx); a mini-documentary shot in Pimienta’s hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, about the expropriation of Indigenous music; and a sketch in which virtue-signalling white people compete on a reality show to be named “Canada’s Top Land Acknowledger,” among other segments.

It’s not angry or strident — in fact, it’s often funny — but the point is very clearly made.

The other three episodes I screened dealt with beauty standards, hate and feminism, all combining chats with the puppets; mini-docs shot in Barranquilla; guest stars (Nelly Furtado, Bear Witness from the Halluci Nation and members of Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, for example); and wittily biting sketches.

Think: a woman agreeing to be turned into a vampire only if she can forever keep her blond dye job, fake boobs and Brazilian butt lift; or a hate shopping network on which you can buy “a genuine Indigenous friend” who’ll shield you from criticisms of racism and “pairs well with stolen land.”

Pimienta, a Polaris Prize-winning, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and visual artist, has walked the talk as a self-described Black, brown and Indigenous immigrant to Canada, as have her writers Tim Fontaine, who is Anishinaabe, and Sarah Hagi, who is Black and Muslim.

And with “Lido TV,” this energetic and ambitious creator is just getting started; she sees films as the next frontier (you can read my Toronto Star interview with her here).

Variety is the spice of life, the old saying goes, and there’s certainly nothing bland about Pimienta’s version of a variety show.

Short Takes

From left, Logan Nicholson, Meaghan Rath, Aaron Abrams and Mikayla SwamiNathan
in “Children Ruin Everything.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Children Ruin Everything (Sept. 19, 8 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)

I’m a big believer in celebrating Canadian shows that manage to hold Canadians’ attention amid the onslaught of content from the U.S., and this show is one of them. As it returns for its second season, James (Aaron Abrams) and Astrid (Meaghan Rath) have upped the ante by having a third child, baby Andrew, and the season opener does an entertaining job of poking fun at their sleep deprivation. Astrid has gone back to work, to discover that her new boss is a hipster bro and she’s now the oldest one in her office, and James is yearning to move out of the city, even though it would mean severing ties to the last remnants of his and Astrid’s child-free life. Supporting cast members Ennis Esmer, Nazneen Contractor, Dmitry Chepovetsky and Lisa Codrington are all back, adding to the amusement.

Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville, Calum Worthy and Judy Greer in “Reboot.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Desmond/Hulu

Reboot (Sept. 20, Disney+)

This comedy from “Modern Family” co-creator Steve Levitan has its moments. It lampoons the TV industry via the phenomenon of reboots. A cheesy early 2000s comedy about a step-family called “Step Right Up” is getting what’s supposed to be an edgy, cable-worthy update for Hulu from writer Hannah (Rachel Bloom of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) — until original showrunner Gordon (Paul Reiser) muscles his way back in with his corny jokes. But cast members Reed (Keegan-Michael Key), Bree (Judy Greer), Clay (Johnny Knoxville) and Zack (Calum Worthy) really need the gig, having all seen their careers tank since leaving the original show. They’re joined by reality TV star Timberly (Alyah Chanelle Scott), who can’t act but has a built-in audience of 20-somethings. And a real-life family drama involving Hannah and Gordon forms the backdrop of the new show. It’s not exactly comedy gold but, like I said, it has its moments.

Disney also has the “Star Wars” spinoff “Andor” (Sept. 21), starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor from the movie “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (reviews are embargoed for this one); the new season of “Dancing With the Stars” (Sept. 19); and Season 2 of “The Kardashians” (Sept. 22).

Alexis Haines (formerly Neiers) and Nicholas Prugo in “The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (Sept. 21, Netflix)

I went into this docuseries expecting it to be a trashy waste of time but have to admit I found it fascinating. It tells the story of the teenagers who burgled the homes of celebrities like Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan in 2008 and 2009, making away with millions of dollars in designer clothing, jewelry, cash and other items. As ringleader Nick Prugo tells it, he and best friend Rachel Lee started out robbing unlocked cars in rich L.A. neighbourhoods and got addicted to the lifestyle that the proceeds of their crimes funded. When they ran out of neighbourhoods to hit and, hence, money they moved on to bigger game: celebrities’ homes, using a website that listed stars’ addresses, Google Maps and gossip sites that reported on celebs’ every move to pick their targets. It’s astonishing how easy it was to gain access to the homes of the famous, whether through unlocked doors or open windows or, in the case of Hilton — whose home Prugo and Lee hit several times, “like our personal ATM” — a key left under a mat. Given that and the excess of stuff inside these houses it’s tempting to see the Bling Ring crimes as essentially victimless, but I can tell you from personal experience having your home burgled feels like a violation no matter who you are. Patridge and Lohan, for instance, were unable to live in their houses again after the burglaries and, in some cases, treasured family heirlooms were among the loot taken. Patridge recounts hiding in a closet, terrified, thinking the robbers were still in the house upon coming home to discover the burglary. Prugo and Alexis Neiers — who, despite being portrayed as a ringleader in the thefts, took part in only one robbery — claim to regret the crimes but seem to also want to blame burgeoning social media culture and its glorification of conspicuous consumption for their downfall. Ironically, one of the reasons they and their co-defendants got off with so little and, in some cases no, jail time was because a detective compromised himself by acting as a paid consultant on Sofia Coppola’s “Bling Ring” movie. It truly was, as deputy district attorney Christine Kee says, like “a fucked up L.A. Greek tragedy.”

Netflix also has the comedy special “Patton Oswalt: We All Scream” (Sept. 20); reality series “Designing Miami” (Sept. 21); “A Jazzman’s Blues” (Sept. 22), a rare foray into film drama by Tyler Perry; and “Thai Cave Rescue” (Sept. 22), a dramatization of the 2018 rescue of 12 soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.

From left, Jim Watson, Laurence Leboeuf, Hamza Haq and Ayisha Issa in Season 3 of “Transplant.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Transplant (Sept. 23, 10 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)

This Canadian medical drama doesn’t reinvent the wheel, aside from the fact that its lead doctor, Bashir Hamed (two-time Canadian Screen Award winner Hamza Haq), is a Syrian refugee who gets a second chance to practise medicine. But given the hold that medical shows continue to exert on audiences it doesn’t really have to. The main thing is that it has a talented cast, including Canadian Screen Award winner Laurence Leboeuf as Mags, Ayisha Issa as June and Jim Watson as Theo, who make us care about the characters. As Season 2 opens, Mags has transferred out of the ER to cardiology; June is still trying to figure out her path as a surgeon while grappling with having her half sister living in her home; and Theo is struggling with the after-effects of last season’s plane crash, which saw him spend nine (mainly unseen) days alone in the woods of Northern Ontario. And of course, there are medical cases of the week to keep the docs engaged. I suspect what a lot of viewers will want to know is what’s going on between Bash and Mags, but I’m not telling. You’ll have to watch.

Odds and Ends

If you’re a fan of a certain Canadian canine TV star, the good news is that there’ll be even more Rex (a.k.a. German shepherd Diesel vom Burgimwald) in the fifth season of “Hudson & Rex,” returning to Citytv Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. Rex’s humans will also return, including most notably detective Charlie Hudson (John Reardon) and forensic scientist Sarah Truong (Mayko Nguyen), and new cast member Bridget Wareham as a forensic pathologist.

Your best bet on Apple TV+ is “Sidney” (Sept. 23), the documentary about Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Reginald Hudlin. It features the reflections of the rightfully celebrated man himself, who died in January at the age of 94.

I don’t usually talk up American sitcoms in this space, but I do when they’re funny, like Abbott Elementary. The mockumentary comedy about a group of public school teachers in Philadelphia begins its sophomore season (Sept. 21, 10 p.m., Global TV) coming off three Emmy wins, including Outstanding Writing for creator Quinta Brunson.

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.

Watchable on FX, Crave, CBC Gem Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, 2022

August 29, 2022 /

Please note: My show of the week is “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” which debuts on Prime Video on Sept. 2, but reviews are embargoed until Wednesday morning, when I will be out of town on an overnight trip. I will post a review here either later this week or next Monday.

The Patient (Aug. 30, Disney Plus)

Steve Carell as Dr. Alan Strauss and Domhnall Gleeson as Sam Fortner in “The Patient.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Suzanne Tenner/FX

The series is called “The Patient,” but it’s the doctor who’s the star.

Steve Carell gives a wonderfully nuanced and sympathetic performance as a psychiatrist being held prisoner by a serial killer in this drama from Joel Fields and Joseph Weisberg, showrunner and creator, respectively, of “The Americans.”

It’s clear from the moment that “Gene” (Domhnall Gleeson, “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter”) shows up at Dr. Alan Strauss’s home office that something is off about him. From behind purple sunglasses, Gene gives a superficial account of his father’s violent abuse and the fact it has fucked him up.

When Alan says they have to go deeper to make real progress, Gene unilaterally decides on an exclusive course of treatment by kidnapping Alan and confining him to a dingy room in the basement of the home he shares with his mother Candace (Linda Emond), convinced that the doctor can cure him of his homicidal urges.

Obviously, Sam, which is Gene’s real name, is grossly bastardizing the therapeutic process, but we are rooting for Alan, hoping against hope he can connect with whatever shred of conscience Sam possesses. To fail to do so implies he’ll end up like the rest of Sam’s mostly nameless and faceless victims, his possessions inside Sam’s box of prosaic trophies.

Gleeson also does very good work as Sam, although he has less to dig into than Carell. The series doesn’t elucidate Sam’s psychopathy beyond his father’s violence and references to him being an odd kid. We know he’s good at his job as a restaurant inspector, loves food and Kenny Chesney, was married once and indulges in daily extra-large Dunkin’ Donuts coffees. But we skim the surface of his psyche.

Our emotional foothold comes through Alan, who’s grieving the recent death of his wife Beth (Laura Niemi, “This Is Us”), a cantor at a Reform Jewish synagogue, and his rift with his son Ezra (Andrew Leeds, “Barry”), whose adoption of Orthodox Judaism angered both his parents.

Alan is not physically mistreated in his captivity beyond the injury of being chained to the floor but — though Sam is mostly courteous and apologetic — the horror is palpable of being confined by a murderous, emotionally unstable captor with only words to use in your defence.

We explore Alan’s fear and confusion and despair and resolve through nightmares and flashbacks and imaginary sessions with his own therapist Charlie (David Alan Grier, “The Carmichael Show”).

These forays into Alan’s mind break up his two-hander scenes with Sam, while Candace, Sam’s ex Mary (Emily Davis), a few of his co-workers and a couple of his victims also figure in the action. (The series benefits from half-hour instalments that keep the show’s talkiness palatable.)

But it’s Alan who commands our attention and our empathy, and in whose fate we’re most invested.

Short Takes

Franz Linda and Tom Wlaschiha return in Season 3 of “Das Boot.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC Gem

Das Boot (Sept. 1, CBC Gem)

The first two seasons of this World War II drama were stealthy, kind of like the submarine of the title, in the way they hooked you on the tale of individuals on opposite sides of the conflict in Nazi-occupied France. Season 3, set in 1943, relocates the action to Germany and Britain. In the former, a push is on to build and crew new U-boats to destroy Allied supply lines; in Britain, the navy is refitting its own ships in a bid to destroy those U-boats. Our key characters initially are German engineer Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda), who played a seminal role in the turmoil aboard U-boat 612 in Season 2; British commander Jack Swinburne (Ray Stevenson), who is fixated on wiping out as many submarines as possible after his son’s supply convoy is torpedoed by one; and German investigator Hagen Forster (Tom Wlaschiha of “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things”), who’s sent to Lisbon to try to discover who killed a Gestapo spy there. Trust me, there will be plenty more plot threads to follow as the season continues, both on land and sea, with U-949 about to go into service with a young, inexperienced commander and criminals among the crew. I would recommend catching up on seasons 1 and 2 on Gem before you dive into this one since that will deepen your appreciation of returning characters like Ehrenberg and Forster.

CBC Gem also has the original YA comedy “Fakes” (Sept. 1) about two best friends in Vancouver (Emilija Baranac and Jennifer Tong) who build one of the largest fake ID operations in North America; and Season 2 of charming YA period drama “Malory Towers” (Sept. 1) about the adventures of the inmates at a British girls’ boarding school after WWII. You can also check out Season 1 of the Canadian YA series “The Next Step” (Sept. 2), which is set at an elite dance school.

McEnroe (Sept. 2, Crave)

For those old enough to remember John McEnroe before he was the narrator of “Never Have I Ever,” this documentary is a nostalgia trip to a time when tennis giants walked the Earth, McEnroe among them. The documentary by Barney Douglas revisits the glory days of the late 1970s and early ’80s when McEnroe was ranked first in the world and played greats like Vitas Gerulaitis, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors. It also recounts the not so great parts of his life and career, including the on-court tantrums that made McEnroe an enfant terrible, his turbulent marriage to actor Tatum O’Neal amid drug use and infidelity, his failings as a father to the children from his first marriage and his difficult relationship with his own dad. McEnroe gives his own perspective on all of it, while walking the streets of New York City over a single night. Current wife, singer Patty Smyth weighs in as do his kids, and friends and colleagues like Borg, former women’s No. 1 player Billie Jean King and even Rolling Stone Keith Richards.

Crave also has Season 2 of “1 Queen 5 Queers” (Sept. 1), in which drag royalty Brooke Lynn Hytes moderates unfiltered conversations about queer life and culture.

Odds and Ends

Cast members socialize in “Dated & Related.” PHOTO CREDIT: Ana Blumenkron/Netflix

We have another dump of content of dubious quality from Netflix, led by the “reality” series “Dated & Related” (Sept. 2), in which pairs of over-endowed, under-dressed siblings travel to France ostensibly to find love — and cash — while their brothers or sisters look on. Reviews are embargoed, but I doubt I’d have anything to say that would make you want to watch it. Then there’s the movie “Fenced In” (Sept. 1), a comedy about a man who has to endure loud neighbours; the comedy special “Liss Pereira: Adulting” (Sept. 1); the rom-com “Love in the Villa” (Sept. 1), which if nothing else will let you hear Tom Hopper of “Umbrella Academy” use his native British accent; French series “Off the Hook” (Sept. 1), in which roommates decide to abandon their phones and other devices; yet another real estate series, “Buy My House” (Sept. 2), in which Americans try to get real estate investors to purchase their properties; limited series “Devil in Ohio” (Sept. 2),ß about a young girl taken in by a psychiatrist (Emily Deschanel) after she escapes a cult who — surprise! — turns out to be a cuckoo in the nest; Season 2 of “Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives” (Sept. 2); Turkish movie “The Festival of Troubadours” (Sept. 2); witchy Spanish YA series “You’re Nothing Special” (Sept. 2); and the South Korean series “Little Women” (Sept. 3), based on the Louisa May Alcott novel.

I would have screened “The Midwich Cuckoos” (Sept. 1, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV), an adaptation of the 1957 sci-fi novel about all the women in a British town mysteriously becoming pregnant, if only because it stars Keeley Hawes of “Spooks,” “Line of Duty,” “Bodyguard” and much more.

AMC+ has animated sci-fi series “Pantheon” (Sept. 1), about a bullied teen who receives messages from the consciousness of her dead father (Daniel Dae Kim).

Finally, if you’re a “Rick and Morty” fan, the much hyped Season 6 of the animated comedy debuts on Adult Swim and StackTV Sept. 4 at 11 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.

Watchable on Crave, AMC+ and Netflix Aug. 22 to 28, 2022

August 22, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK 1: House of the Dragon (Now on HBO/Crave with new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m.)

Matt Smith, Emily Carey and Milly Alcock in “House of the Dragon.” PHOTO CREDIT: Ollie Upton/HBO

If you long for a certain brand of backstabbing betrayal and political discord, stomach-churning violence and frank sex, the “Game of Thrones” prequel is here. But it’s not rival families jockeying for power, but members of one family turning on each other in this story about the ancestors of Dragon Queen Daenerys Targaryen.

As “House of the Dragon” begins, things start out well enough for King Viserys I, an amiable but weak-willed monarch played appealingly by Paddy Considine. He was chosen as king over a cousin who had a better claim to the Iron Throne but was discounted because she was a woman, Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best).

But there is peace in the kingdom, Viserys has a queen he loves, who he’s certain is about to bear him a son, and a daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), who seems content to play second fiddle to an infant. Yet childbirth is the battlefield of women, as mother Aemma (Sian Brooke) reminds Rhaenyra, and a shattering loss leaves Viserys without his longed for heir.

By tradition, Daemon, the violent, impulsive and vain brother of the king (played with sinister panache by Matt Smith), would inherit the throne, but he finally exceeds the forbearance of Viserys when he mockingly toasts the king’s dead son while partying in a brothel, which leads Viserys to name Rhaenyra as heir — despite the prejudices against women on the throne.

If you’ve read up on Targaryen family history or you just have an appreciation for foreshadowing, you’ll know this can’t end well.

The six episodes that were made available for review trace the fallout of that decision.

Also jockeying for position are the hand of the king, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), and Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, read my interview with him here), husband of spurned Queen That Never Was Rhaenys. Both men use their daughters to try to solidify their power by offering them as new wives to Viserys, though one is just 12 and the other, Rhaenyra’s best friend Alicent (Emily Carey), is 15. I know that sort of thing was actually done in the times that inspired George R.R. Martin’s novels, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable.

And while we’re on the subject of creepy couplings, incest among the Targaryens is apparently still on the table in “House of the Dragon.” Jon Snow doing it with his Aunt Daenerys was not a highlight of “Game of Thrones” for me, but at least they were consenting adults. Daemon taking his 15-year-old niece to a “pleasure palace” is considerably ickier.

This spinoff appears to be trying to give its female characters more of a voice although women still get the short end of the stick in the Seven Kingdoms. I suppose if Rhaenyra doesn’t end up power-mad, scorching the streets of King’s Landing with her dragon, that will be an improvement.

Speaking of dragons, they are a regular feature here and the CGI is passable, but just as Targaryen rulers can’t depend too much on their dragons, as Viserys warns Rhaenyra, a TV series can’t either.

“House of the Dragon” has a lot going for it. It’s handsomely shot and expertly acted, and great care obviously went into the production.

But a lot has happened in the world since “Thrones” signed off in 2019, so one question becomes whether the brutality inherent in the “Thrones” universe is as palatable now in a war-weary, pandemic-pooped and politically fragile milieu.

Heads, limbs and other body parts are lopped off when Daemon and his City Watch go on a rampage; fights between knights end with skulls getting caved in; and there’s a childbirth scene bloody enough to make women of child-bearing age book tubal ligations.

What’s more glaring are the things that “Thrones” had that “Dragon” does not, chiefly humour and variety. There is no Tyrion Lannister here for comic relief, for instance. And the action is mostly confined to King’s Landing and Dragonstone, with some brief forays to places like Pentos, Harrenhal and the Stepstones, where Daemon and Corlys combine to quash a rebellion of the Free Cities.

It’s not that characters like Rhaenyra and Daemon aren’t of interest, but the glorious — as well as the sometimes maddening — thing about “Game of Thrones” was how widely it ranged within Westeros and beyond, and how many plots and people it presented for our regard.

It remains to be seen whether the travails of one family in a small part of the vast Seven Kingdoms is enough to hold viewers’ attention in an even more competitive TV landscape.

Annie Murphy as Allison and Mary Hollis Inboden as Patty in “Kevin Can F**k Himself.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Clark/Stalwart Productions/AMC

SHOW OF THE WEEK 2: Kevin Can F**k Himself (Aug. 22, 9 p.m., AMC/AMC+)

If you worried where Season 2 of “Kevin Can F**k Himself” would go, with Allison’s (Annie Murphy) plot to kill her husband Kevin (Eric Petersen) foiled and exposed to his best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer), you can exhale.

Season 2 brings a satisfying, if dark, conclusion to this tale of the behind-the-scenes torment of a sitcom wife.

It begins where Season 1 left off, with Neil on the floor of Allison’s kitchen, which is where his sister Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) put him after he tried to strangle Allison. He’s still threatening to tell about the murder plot, though, which brings another blow to the head and an abduction.

That chain of events causes trauma for all three characters, puts a dent in Allison’s and Patty’s friendship, and sees Neil spending more time in the single-camera dramatic universe of “Kevin Can F**k Himself.” He tries to resume his position as the faithful sidekick in Kevin’s brightly lit, laugh-tracked, multi-cam world, but he has seen behind the curtain of his own and Kevin’s dysfunction, and that knowledge won’t stay buried.

Alison, meanwhile, knows that she can’t murder Kevin, not least because his bid for public office has brought him temporary fame after a ridiculous campaign ad goes viral.

If she can’t kill Kevin, what about herself? She hatches a new scheme to fake her own death, into which she draws to varying degrees Patty, her former lover Sam (Raymond Lee) and her aunt Diane (Jamie Denbo). But, as is usual for Allison, the more she tries to fix things the more they go awry.

What is gratifying is that Allison, like Neil, gains greater self-awareness, a realization that not everything that’s gone wrong in her life is Kevin’s fault and that she can be selfish in her own right, particularly when it comes to Patty.

That’s not to say that Kevin gets any less reprehensible. He continues to sow chaos for everyone in his orbit while pursuing his own gratification. Allison even begins to use Kevin’s talent for getting himself out of jams to her advantage, telling Sam that after 15 years of Kevin taking from her she’s starting to get something back.

But when Patty’s police officer girlfriend Tammy (Candice Coke) begins to unravel Patty’s part in the murder-for-hire scheme, Allison takes drastic action to keep her friend safe.

Along the way, she gains the confidence to do what she should have done from the beginning rather than plotting murder. I won’t tell you how it ends, but Kevin is torn from his sitcom cocoon — finally — by Allison’s honesty. And when the chips fall, Patty is still by Allison’s side.

It turns out “Kevin Can F**k Himself” was a love story all along, just not one that had anything to do with matrimony.

Odds and Ends

Mohammed Amer, right, created and stars in ” Mo.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Sorry folks, I’m still not up to full screening speed yet, so I don’t have any short takes this week. As usual, Netflix has a plethora of new offerings. The one that seemed of most interest to me was “Mo” (Aug. 24), a semi-autobiographical comedy in which comedian Mohammed Amer stars as a Kuwait-born Palestinian refugee in Houston, hustling to make a living while seeking asylum for himself, his mother and brother. Also on the menu: the prank comedy “Chad & JT Go Deep” (Aug. 23); kids’ show “Lost Ollie” (Aug. 24); luxury real estate reality series “Selling the OC” (Aug. 24); legal drama “Partner Track” (Aug. 26), starring Arden Cho as a young New York City lawyer; gearhead docuseries “Drive Hard: The Maloof Way” (Aug. 26) about the racing, stunt-driving Maloof family; and the film “Me Time” (Aug. 26), a dads on a wild weekend comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and the ubiquitous Kevin Hart.

I had every intention of screening “The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe” (Aug. 23, Britbox), a new true crime drama about a man who faked his own death with the connivance of his wife. It stars the excellent Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”) and Monica Dolan (“Vanity Fair”). And it’s just four episodes, so get binging.

There’s been buzz around the docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” (Aug. 24, 10 p.m., FX), about actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buying a football club in the scrappy Welsh town of Wrexham. The “Ted Lasso” comparisons are inevitable, but I have to say it looks pretty darn heartwarming in the trailer. FX also has Season 13 of animated comedy “Archer” (Aug. 24, 10 p.m., FXX) and new animated comedy “Little Demon” (Aug. 25, 10 p.m., FXX), starring Danny DeVito as the voice of Satan and his real-life daughter, Lucy DeVito, as the devil’s offspring.

Mike Tyson has made his feelings clear about the bio-series “Mike” (Aug. 25, Disney+ Star) — hint, he’s not happy — but I guess you can make your own judgment about the miniseries starring Trevante Rhodes as the heavyweight champion.

Apple TV+ has the third and final season of “See” (Aug. 26), starring Jason Momoa as a warrior and father in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has lost the sense of sight.

Finally, if you’re partial to Sylvester Stallone and/or aging superheroes, Prime Video has the film “Samaritan” (Aug. 26), in which Sly stars as a superhero who has to come out of retirement to save the world again. Of course he does.

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.

Edited because, duh, I mixed up Arden Cho’s name with her character name.

Watchable on Disney, Prime Video, Netflix Aug. 1 to 7, 2022

August 1, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Bear (Aug. 3, Disney+)

From left, Jeremy Allen White, Lionel Boyce and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “The Bear.”
PHOTO CREDIT: FX

First things first, if the behind-the-scenes operation of a restaurant is as chaotic as in the fictional Original Beef of Chicagoland in “The Bear,” it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to open one.

But it’s to viewers’ advantage that sandwich shop Original Beef is up and running. If you’ll forgive the bad food pun, there’s a lot to chew in this story about a hot shot young chef (Jeremy Allen White, “Shameless”) who returns to Chicago to take over the restaurant he was willed by his dead brother.

When Carmy Berzatto takes on Beef, it has a tired menu, an inefficient kitchen and recalcitrant staff who resist the changes he wants to make, especially his so-called “cousin” Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “Girls”), an aggressive loudmouth who was the best friend of Carmy’s brother, Michael (Jon Bernthal).

Michael was a drug addict who committed suicide and has left a pile of debt behind, including hundreds of thousands owed to his Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt). Carmy could wipe out the debt by selling to Jimmy, but against all odds he wants to keep the place and fix it up.

New employee Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, “Big Mouth”), an ambitious young woman who has her own ideas about how to run things, tries to help Carmy whip the kitchen into shape, which adds to the tensions among the staff, particularly with long-time employee Tina (Liza Colon-Sayas) and with Richie.

And Carmy, on top of everything else, is still processing his grief about Michael’s death, particularly since they were estranged for a couple of years before the suicide. He also has a tenuous relationship with his sister Natalie (Abby Elliott), who’s partly on the hook for the restaurant’s unpaid back taxes.

Add in mundane screw-ups like incorrect orders from suppliers, kitchen accidents, a bad rating from the board of health, an exploding toilet and a power failure, and it’s a wonder anyone’s getting fed.

Series creator Christopher Storer told Esquire he saw the chaos of a restaurant kitchen firsthand when he spent a couple of days as a line cook, but there was also a lot of research done and the show has a secret weapon in Canadian chef Matty Matheson, a co-producer who also plays the Beef’s resident handyman, Neil Fak.

If it seems like a restaurant kitchen is an unlikely setting for drama, I can tell you the show is fast, intense and never boring, and some of its most dramatic scenes take place in that cramped space .

In particular, in Episode 7, part of which was filmed in one continuous shot, something as ordinary as a restaurant review kicks off a nightmare of a shift in which many harsh words are exchanged, two people quit and another is accidentally stabbed.

But there is a resolution — a little too neat of one, but one that points the way to the already greenlit Season 2 — and the team pulls together.

Cooking is life for people like Carmy, Sydney and aspiring pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce).

For those of us who would rather just enjoy the end result, a show like “The Bear” makes it entertaining to see how the sausage is made.

Paper Girls (Prime Video)

From left, Fina Strazza, Sofia Rosinsky, Riley Lai Nelet and Camryn Jones in “Paper Girls.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios

(Note: I don’t normally include shows that have already debuted on the Watchable list, but I missed out on reviewing “Paper Girls” last week because of an embargo.)

There’s been an inevitable linking of “Paper Girls” with Netflix juggernaut “Stranger Things,” but aside from the fact both start in the 1980s with bike-riding preteen protagonists confronted by supernatural forces, they’re not anything alike.

The girls of the title — 12-year-olds Erin (Riley Lai Nelet), Tiffany (Camryn Jones), KJ (Fina Strazza) and Mac (Sofia Rosinsky) — are battling humans, not monsters, albeit ones that possess advanced technology and can jump through time. And our heroines, despite their youth, shed their innocence more quickly than the Hawkins gang of “Stranger Things” and in ways that feel truer to real life.

In the early hours of Nov. 1, 1988, the girls are on their paper routes when they band together to avoid Hell Day hooligans and finish their deliveries. But it looks like nobody in this part of Stony Stream, Ohio, is getting their paper on time, because Erin is jumped by a couple of men in black who steal the walkie talkie that Tiffany lent her and the quartet gives chase.

That pursuit kicks off a series of events that puts them smack in the middle of a fire fight between two groups of time travellers known as the Old Watch and the Standard Time Fighters, or STF.

The walkie thieves save the girls’ lives but at the cost of them travelling 31 years into the future. They spend the rest of the eight episodes trying to get back to 1988, while avoiding an Old Watch assassin (Adina Porter) who is hunting them, with the help of an STF member named Larry (Nate Corddry) and older versions of Erin (Ali Wong) and Tiffany (Sekai Abeni).

That last wrinkle adds depth to “Paper Girls.” Each of them learns disappointing or confusing things about their futures and the people they become. Youthful optimism runs smack into the compromises that adult life demands and the girls don’t take it gracefully.

But they’re 12, so why would we expect them to?

The time-travel plot line is fine if not always well explained. It’s the performances of the show’s young and relatively unknown stars that elevate the material.

These girls have layers that are sympathetically and thoughtfully excavated, whether it’s KJ, who’s from a wealthy Jewish family, glimpsing a sexuality she doesn’t even know how to name; Tiffany, who is African-American, fighting to preserve her vision of what success means; Chinese-American Erin coming to terms with fractures in a once close family; or Mac, who lives in the rough part of town, realizing she might never escape the violent blight of her upbringing.

The girls straddle the line between childhood and young adulthood. One moment they’re eluding Old Watch travellers after seeing people they know die; the next they’re trying to figure out how a tampon works after Erin gets her period.

They start out as near strangers and end up friends, and it feels both earned and rewarding.

There is one other way that “Paper Girls” is like “Stranger Things”: it’s at its best when its young characters come together to grapple with whatever is plaguing them, whether it’s warring time travellers or the pain of growing up too fast.

Short Takes

Concert-goers dance as what’s left of Woodstock ’99 burns in “Trainwreck.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 (Aug. 3, Netflix)

The title of this three-part docuseries is appropriate because, as with the proverbial train wreck, it’s hard to look away as it documents this disaster of a music festival day by day and hour by hour. If it all seems familiar, it might be because HBO’s “Music Box” series also covered the chaos in the doc “Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage” last summer. The Reader’s Digest version is this: what was supposed to be a three-day sequel to the blissed out hippie vibe of the 1969 Woodstock festival turned into a sort of “Lord of the Flies” nightmare of anger and violence that culminated in a riot on the final night. “Trainwreck” (whose original title was “Clusterf**k,” also very appropriate) is long on details of the mayhem but short on explanations. Promoters Michael Lang and John Scher; musician Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit; untrained security guards; aggressive, young men in the crowd: all get fingered for some part of the blame. Scher, in particular, still seems determined to deflect any responsibility for what happened and still seems to blame the women who got raped at the festival for their own misfortune. As far as I can tell, the die for the catastrophe was cast the minute it was decided the festival would be more about squeezing participants for every possible dollar than keeping them comfortable and safe. And as I said in my review of “Peace, Love, and Rage,” “One does wonder what geniuses thought packing 220,000 or so people onto a largely asphalt surface in searing July heat was a good idea.” This series makes no mention of the one (and only one, surprisingly) death from the festival: that of David DeRosia due to hyperthermia from overheating. But it does provide a cross-section of voices, including Lang (who died three months after he was interviewed), Scher, event staff, musicians, reporters, MTV personalities who covered it live and concert-goers, a couple of whom say they’d do it all over again despite the fear they felt that weekend. Lucky for them and for us, there will never be another Woodstock.

Netflix also has the rom-com “Wedding Season” (Aug. 4) and, of far more interest, “The Sandman” (Aug. 5), based on the comic book series by Neil Gaiman about what happens to the Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge) and the world after he is imprisoned for a century. Reviews for this one are embargoed until release.

Odds and Ends

CBC and CBC Gem have “FreeUp! Emancipation Day” (Aug. 1, 8 p.m.), celebrating the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire, including Canada, on Aug. 1, 1834. The two-hour show includes a special about Emancipation Day celebrations across Canada, talks about what emancipation means, and performances by Jully Black, TiKA and Measha Brueggergosman. CBC Gem also has Season 2 of the Quebec series “C’est comme ca que je t’aime” (Aug. 1) and reality sitcom “Bobby & Harriet Get Married” (Aug. 5) in which a real-life couple, Brit Harriet Kemsley and Canadian Bobby Mair, play heightened versions of themselves.

Crave has the second season of workplace drama “Industry” (Aug. 1) about young traders in London, England. And if you missed Guillermo del Toro’s latest Toronto-shot, Oscar-nominated movie, “Nightmare Alley” comes to Crave Aug. 5.

Speaking of movies, “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear” is on Disney+ Aug. 3.

Apple TV+ has the animated film “Luck” (Aug. 5) and Season 2 of “The Snoopy Show.”

Finally, Prime Video has another film, “Thirteen Lives” (Aug. 5), a fictionalized account directed by Ron Howard of the rescue of young members of a soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand. I’m sorry I missed the chance to screen this one because the Disney+ doc about the event (“The Rescue”) was fascinating. Also new to Prime Video is Season 2 of “The Outlaws” (Aug. 5), about ne-er-do-wells banding together while doing community service in London.

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, Prime Video July 25 to 31, 2022

July 25, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: City on a Hill (July 29, Crave)

Kevin Bacon as Jackie Rohr and Aldis Hodge as DeCourcy Ward in “City on a Hill.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Francisco Roman/SHOWTIME

Jackie Rohr is a bastard: a corrupt ex-FBI agent, a murderer, a booze- and drug-abusing philanderer, someone who’ll throw just about anyone under the bus to save his own skin. There’s no good reason to root for him and yet the character, as played by Kevin Bacon, compels you to watch him.

As Season 3 of this Boston-set crime drama opens, Jackie — having quit the FBI last season rather than be fired — is tending bar and burning through his emergency funds when his old FBI mentor offers him a private security job at $2,000 a week, which would be a real windfall in 1993.

But it soon becomes clear that his rich boss, Sinclair Dryden (Corbin Bernsen), is doing reprehensible things, which means Jackie has to decide whether to take the high road or keep his mouth shut for the money.

The other star of the series, Jackie’s sometime nemesis, sometime collaborator DeCourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge), who is as moral as Jackie is bent, has a shot at becoming Suffolk County district attorney if he gets his boss some high profile wins. But he resists quickly prosecuting the case of an alleged police killer when it becomes clear the young Black man was likely set up.

Both Jackie’s and DeCourcy’s wives are dealing with their own trauma: Jenny Rohr (Jill Hennessy) from sexual abuse at the hands of her estranged father and Siobhan Quays (Lauren E. Banks) from being shot last season and having a miscarriage.

Jenny finds new purpose volunteering at a community centre, where she re-establishes contact with Irish priest Diarmuid Doyle (Mark Ryder), which angers Jackie. And Siobhan, who has quit her law firm to work with the American Civil Liberties Union, goes up against the powerful forces behind the Big Dig megaproject when a worker is injured on the job.

This season also gives Boston police officer Chris Caysen (Matthew Del Negro) way more to do, helping root out corruption within the force.

The series is reminiscent of “The Wire” in its focus on the rot within the political and justice systems, although it doesn’t have that series’ finesse. There’s also a little “Homicide: Life on the Street” DNA, with Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson executive-producing both shows. (Boston boosters Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are also EPs on “Hill.”)

“City on a Hill” doesn’t tread new ground in the genre, but if you’ve already seen seasons 1 and 2 — and I’d recommend doing so before digging into Season 3 — you’ll want to keep following its characters, particularly the reprehensible but irresistible Jackie.

As Siobhan’s therapist says, “Most of life falls into grey areas,” which is certainly the case in “City on a Hill.”

Crave also has the spinoff “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” (July 28), in which a new set of teenagers is tormented by someone who goes by the initial “A”; and the comedy special “Dave Merheje: I Love You Habibi” (July 29).

Short Takes

Charlotte Law, a mother who fought to take down the Is Anyone Up? porn site after her daughter
was victimized, in “The Most Hated Man on the Internet.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix © 2022

The Most Hated Man on the Internet (July 27, Netflix)

I’ll be honest, I watched this docuseries because the Netflix releases that I most wanted to review were embargoed, but I only got through two of the three episodes. I was so thoroughly disgusted by Hunter Moore, the “man” of the title, who started a repository of internet evil in 2010 known as IsAnyoneUp.com, that’s all I could stomach. Sure, the series is meant to be about the victims and the people who brought Moore down, chiefly Charlotte Law — a mother whose daughter’s topless photos were hacked and displayed on the “revenge porn” site — but it also devotes time to the nastiness spewed by Moore and his degenerate cult of followers. Do we need this show to remind us that crap posted on the internet can ruin people’s lives to the point of making them want to kill themselves? I’m not sure we do but, if you disagree, “The Most Hated Man on the Internet” is there for the watching.

Netflix also has “Keep Breathing” (July 28), the British Columbia-filmed drama about a lawyer (Melissa Barrera) who has to fend for herself when a small plane crashes in the wilderness; “Uncoupled” (July 29), the Neil Patrick Harris comedy about a gay real estate agent whose life is upended when his partner leaves him; the docuseries “Street Food: USA” (July 26); the third season of “Dream Home Makeover” (July 27); Season 4 of car-flipping show “Car Masters: Rust to Riches” (July 27) and rom-com “Purple Hearts” (July 29).

Odds and Ends

Fina Strazza, Sofia Rosinsky, Riley Lai Nelet and Camryn Jones in ” Paper Girls.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Anjali Pinto/Amazon Studios

“Paper Girls,” the sci-fi drama about four 12-year-olds who get caught in a war between time travellers while out delivering papers in 1988, would have likely been my show of the week had reviews not been embargoed until July 29, the day it debuts on Prime Video.

Apple TV+ has “Surface” (July 29), which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a woman trying to rebuild her life after a suicide attempt, and “Amber Brown” (July 29), based on the Paula Danziger books, about a young girl using art and music to cope with her parents’ divorce.

Disney+ has Season 3 of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” (July 27); and “Light & Magic” (July 27), a behind-the-scenes look at  Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects arm of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’s Lucasfilm,

Before he was Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek,” Patrick Stewart was a science professor who helped the British government solve dangerous cases in “Eleventh Hour,” which comes to BritBox on July 26.

Finally, if you’re a fan of Gordie Lucius’s daffy science show “Frick, I Love Nature,” CBC Gem has a bonus episode on July 27 about animals that live in the Arctic.

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.

Watchable on Netflix, Crave, Prime Video July 18-24, 2022

July 18, 2022 /

There is no show of the week this week, partly because I didn’t have that much to screen and partly because I didn’t have much time to screen what I did have.

Short Takes

From left, Trenton Quiocho, Rob Stern, evaluator Katherine Gray, John Moran, Claire Kelly, Maddy Hughes, Dan Friday, host Nick Uhas, Brenna Baker, Minhi England, John Sharvin and Grace Whiteside
in Season 3 of “Blown Away.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Blown Away (July 22, Netflix)

Reality competition series are a dime a dozen these days, but this Canadian-made entry has managed to stand out and accumulate a loyal following. Fans are in for more of what they love in the third season as a new group of 10 contestants competes in the Hamilton hot shop for a chance at $60,000 in prizes. They’re a delightfully diverse group, each with their own unique reasons for their devotion to the art of blowing glass. There’s something almost hypnotic about watching the pieces take shape although, at the same time, it looks frenetic, sweaty and extremely difficult, especially given the time constraints for each challenge. And part of the fun is not knowing who’ll come out on top week to week since victory does not alway go to the most experienced glass blowers or those with the most high profile reputations. Former “Big Brother” contestant Nick Uhas returns as genial host and Canadian glass artist Katherine Gray as resident evaluator with a rotating cast of guest judges.

Netflix also has Season 4 of “Virgin River” on July 20, a bandwagon I confess I have yet to jump on; and action movie “The Gray Man” (July 22), which was unavailable to screen. Blow-em-up and shoot-em-up films are not generally to my taste, although I might have watched this one just to see what else “Duke of Hastings” Rege-Jean Page can do.

Dougray Scott as detective Ray Lennox in “Crime.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC Gem

Crime (July 22, CBC Gem)

This is a fairly standard crime drama, complete with young adolescent girl kidnapped and murdered, but with the added distinction of being set in one of my favourite cities, Edinburgh, and being the maiden TV effort of Irvine Welsh, the author whose “Trainspotting” novel was turned into a seminal film by Danny Boyle. Several well-worn tropes are found here: the tortured lead detective (although Ray Lennox, played by Dougray Scott, is more tortured than most); the clever serial killer who’s eluded the police for years; the bureaucratic boss (Ken Stott) who wants the case tied up fast, to hell with the evidence. That being said, Scott does some decent work as Lennox, who’s battling not only an alcohol addiction but trauma from his own past that’s stirred up by the case. Joanna Vanderham (“The Paradise,” “Warrior”) holds her own as a young detective partnered with Ray and Jamie Sives (“Frontier,” “Guilt”) stands out as an uncouth, bigoted, sexist cop investigating a murder of his own. If this seems familiar, it’s because the BritBox original first debuted on that streamer in December.

CBC Gem also has the British real estate reality series “Extraordinary Extensions” (July 18) and the Canadian broadcast premiere of the Charles Officer film “Akilla’s Escape” on July 23 at 9 p.m., also on CBC TV.

Odds and Ends

KaMillion and Aida Osman in “Rap Sh!t.” PHOTO CREDIT: Alicia Vera/HBO Max

Sisters are trying to do it for themselves in “Rap Sh!t” (July 21, 10 p.m., Crave). The comedy from Issa Rae (“Insecure”) follows two high school friends who decide to form a rap duo, and try to rise above the sexism and misogyny of the rap music industry. I only watched one episode, not enough to give it a fair review. Crave and CTV also have Season 4 of “Love Island USA” (July 19, 9 p.m.), with episodes every Tuesday to Friday and Sunday, and who the hell has that kind of time?

Prime Video’s premiere of the week is “Anything’s Possible” (July 22), the feature film directing debut of Billy Porter of “Pose.” It’s a high school romance in which one half of the couple is a transgender girl, played by trans actor Eva Reign.

Apple TV Plus offerings include Season 3 of parenting comedy “Trying” (July 22) and “Best Foot Forward” (July22), which follows Josh (Logan Marmino), an engaging youngster with a prosthetic leg, as he switches from home-schooling to public school in Grade 7. It’s based on the true story of paralympic athlete Josh Sundquist.

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.

Watchable on Apple, AMC+, CBC, Netflix July 4 to 10, 2022

July 4, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Black Bird (July 8, Apple TV+)

Paul Walter Hauser and Taron Egerton in “Black Bird.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+

It’s not the crime scenes that are the most chilling in the miniseries “Black Bird”; it’s the moments when murderer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) is describing to fellow prisoner Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) what he’s done.

There’s one scene in particular in the fifth episode that is harrowing.

Jimmy, a charismatic cocaine dealer who’s cut a deal with the FBI to reduce his sentence in exchange for getting information from Larry about his victims, has finally got the cagey, paranoid killer to open up. As they sit across a table from each other in the prison woodworking shop, the camera jumps back and forth between their faces: Larry’s as he matter-of-factly recounts raping, beating and strangling a teenage girl; Jimmy’s as he listens and struggles to disguise his growing horror.

Later, when they return to their separate cells, Jimmy sobs quietly into his hands.

The stellar work of Hauser (“Cobra Kai,” “Richard Jewell”) and Egerton (“Kingsman,” “Rocketman”) is more than enough to recommend “Black Bird,” but it’s not the only reason.

Ray Liotta, who died at age 67 shortly after shooting wrapped on “Black Bird,” gives a performance that is in some ways the heart of the series. He plays Big Jim Keene, Jimmy’s father, an ex-cop whose love for Jimmy is never in doubt even when his actions put Jimmy in danger.

There’s a poignancy to the fact that Liotta’s character is in ill health; one wonders how much of Big Jim’s frailty was also Liotta’s with scenes in which you can see his hands shaking. But the acting is still top notch, fiercely and deeply emotional.

The bond between father and son explains why Jimmy takes the deal in the first place, which involves moving from a minimum-security institution where he’s well-liked and comfortable to a maximum security prison specializing in the criminally insane where his life might be in danger.

We go into the show knowing that Jimmy will survive since the series is based on the real James Keene’s memoir, “In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption,” but that doesn’t make the prison scenes any less tense, especially after a guard outs Jimmy as a snitch.

The jail footage is intercut with scenes of the investigation into Larry’s crimes — in which both Greg Kinnear as detective Brian Miller and Sepideh Moafi as FBI agent Lauren McCauley also give excellent performances — and flashbacks to Larry’s and Jimmy’s childhoods.

These suggest that both men grew up with negligent fathers and indifferent mothers, although only Larry — a harmless weirdo to the cops in his hometown of Wabash, Indiana, who loved fixing up old vans and civil war re-enactments — turned into a killer.

In any event, the series doesn’t go too deeply into the why of Larry’s crimes — and in real life, he has never been convicted of murder, although he’s serving a life sentence for kidnapping. It’s about the cat and mouse game between Keene and Hall and is at its most gripping when Hauser and Egerton are onscreen together.

Short Takes

Emma McDonald as Bella Sway in “Moonhaven.” PHOTO CREDIT: Szymon Lazewski/AMC

Moonhaven (July 7, AMC+)

I preface this by letting you know I’ve watched only two episodes of this six-episode sci-fi series, so consider this more of a first impression than a full review. The premise is that Earth is dying (that part is clearly not entirely fiction), but there’s a plan to save the planet and all its people via a revolutionary new form of machine learning that’s been developed in a colony on the moon. But “the bridge,” the name given for the imminent transfer by a giant corporation of tech and colonists back to Earth, is threatened by a couple of murders in the Garden of Eden-like colony, which might be part of a larger plot to sabotage the mission. Caught up in all of this is an earther named Bella Sway (Emma McDonald), a pilot and smuggler whose half-sister was the first murder victim and who witnesses the murder of the second. She teams up with a moon detective named Paul (played by Dominic Monaghan of “Lost” and “Lord of the Rings”) to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Monaghan is charismatic in the role and McDonald starts to grow on you once her character lightens up on the cynicism, but you have to wade through some hokeyness to get to the meat of the matter. The colonists come off as cultists, wandering around in colourful robes singing and dancing, and speaking in a stilted combination of very old-fashioned language and made-up words. If you can get past the new-agey trappings there might be a decent show under there. Joe Manganiello also stars.

Reel Black: Our Film Stories (July 8, CBC Gem; July 9, 8 p.m., CBC)

Got 20 minutes to spare? Then watch this documentary for a bit of a history lesson about Black filmmaking in Canada. It includes interviews with filmmakers Claire Prieto, Clement Virgo, Christene Browne,  Karen Chapman, Karen King and Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, some of whom have been making documentaries and feature films for decades. But even with that wealth of experience, barriers remain thanks to ingrained racism in the screen industry. Yet the doc also imparts a sense of hope, highlighting a new generation of artists such as Ajahnis Charley and Christian Anderson, part of a mentorship program through the OYA Media Group. As Ajahnis points out, it’s not just about getting more Black faces onscreen and behind the camera, but more Black crews, writers, producers and executives. “I want more slices or let’s make a new, better pie,” he says.

From left, Praneet Akilla, Morgan Holmstrom, Ace (Aason) Nadjiwon, Natasha Calis
and Mercedes Morris in “SkyMed.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

SkyMed (July 10, 9 p.m., CBC, CBC Gem)

If you like your medical dramas with liberal helpings of romantic entanglements this might be the show for you. The drama follows a group of young, attractive pilots and nurses providing medical care in northern Manitoba. Their ministrations are mostly provided in the back of a plane, which means they have to be fearless and quick on their feet. Back on the ground, the crews share a house, which means partying and hooking up are also on the agenda. But apart from the medical and relationship emergencies, the series — inspired by creator Julie Puckrin’s nurse sister and pilot brother-in-law, who met while serving on an airborne medical crew —also casts an eye on the racism and health care barriers faced by patients in remote Indigenous communities. And the natural scenery is a hell of a lot better than anything you’ll see on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

CBC and CBC Gem also have Season 2 of the sand-sculpting competition series “Race Against the Tide” (July 10, 8:30 p.m.). Gem has “Sorry for Your Loss” (July 4), which stars Elizabeth Olsen of “WandaVision” fame as a widow dealing with the loss of her husband; Season 3 of British comedy “Stath Lets Flats” (July 8) and Season 12 of “The Great British Baking Show” (July 10, 7 p.m., also on CBC TV).

Odds and Ends

Lana Condor as Erika in “Boo, Bitch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Voake/Netflix

Netflix’s offerings this week include “Boo, Bitch” (July 8), which stars Lana Condor of “To All the Boys” fame as a high school senior who uses her death to catch up on all the life she missed when she was trying not to get noticed. It has the usual high school tropes and is intermittently entertaining but doesn’t resemble any ghost story I’ve ever seen in the two episodes I watched. There’s also reality series “How to Build a Sex Room” (July 8), in which designer Melanie Rose, yes, helps couples build hanky panky spaces in their homes. True crime doc “Girl in the Picture” and rom-com “Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between” both debut July 6, and animated comedy “The Sea Beast” is out July 8.

I don’t watch much reality TV anymore, despite my handle, but I do make time for “The Amazing Race Canada,” which returns July 5 at 9 p.m. on CTV after a three-year absence due to the pandemic.

BBC Earth has the latest David Attenborough nature show, “The Green Planet” (July 6, 9 p.m.), which explores “the hidden life of plants,” including maple trees in northern Ontario and lodgepole pines in British Columbia.

The big PBS offering this week is “The Great Muslim American Road Trip” (July 5, 10 p.m.), featuring rapper Mona Haydar and husband Sebastian Robins travelling Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, and visiting Muslim communities and people along the way.

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.

Watchable on FX, Prime Video, PBS, Netflix June 13 to 19, 2022

June 13, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Old Man (June 16, 10 p.m., FX)

Jeff Bridges with canine co-stars Dave and Carol in “The Old Man.” PHOTO CREDIT: Prashant Gupta/FX

By all means, watch “The Old Man” to see a couple of esteemed senior actors who are still masters of their craft, but if you’re looking for a fresh take on the spy/action drama you won’t find it here.

Much of the enjoyment comes from seeing Jeff Bridges transform in the first episode from a crotchety widower who can’t sleep through the night without having to pee several times into a fugitive ex-CIA agent who can still engage in hand-to-hand combat with men many decades younger.

The other big star is John Lithgow as FBI boss Harold Harper. He’s helping hunt down former colleague Dan Chase (Bridges) after the latter kills an agent who tracked him to his Vermont home and goes rogue, although Harper has his own reasons for hoping Chase never gets found. 

Why are the FBI and the CIA suddenly so interested in Chase? It has to do with an Afghan warlord named Faraz Hamzad who was betrayed by Chase three decades earlier, when Chase was in Afghanistan helping Faraz fight Soviet invaders, against the orders of his CIA superiors.

Why Chase was so interested in helping this particular warlord rout the Soviets to the detriment of his career is pretty murky. It’s also unclear why American intelligence services would be so keen on helping Hamzad enact revenge against a U.S. citizen and former colleague, at least in the four episodes made available for review.

Also along for the ride are Amy Brenneman as a love interest for Dan, who gets drawn into his flight from the feds on a rather flimsy pretext, and Alia Shawkat as an FBI protege of Harold’s. Israeli actors Hiam Abbass and Leem Lubany play older and younger versions of Dan’s beloved wife, Abbey, who dies of Huntington’s disease five years before the series begins.

But it’s the male characters who are very much driving the plot, with a concomitant body count. Apparently the only solutions available to Dan and his pursuers are violent ones.

The series, based on the novel by Thomas Perry, seems to want to say weighty things about the differences between heroes and villains, as evidenced by the speechifying dialogue, but characters’ motivations are not overly clear or nuanced.

There are some strenuous fight scenes — if Bridges shot any of those after he returned to set from battling both cancer and COVID-19, then wow — and each episode offers up a big twist, although I suspect you’ll see most if not all of them coming.

It’s a shame that Bridges, 72, and Lithgow, 76, don’t get to share scenes beyond a phone call in the first four episodes, although future episodes will feature at least one face-to-face meeting.

Overall, “The Old Man” is lesser than the sum of its parts, but Bridges and Lithgow are pretty terrific as two of those parts.

Short Takes

Jordan Gavaris and Madison Shamoun in “The Lake.” PHOTO CREDIT: Peter H. Stranks/Amazon Studios

The Lake (June 17, Prime Video)

I only had time to screen one episode of this Amazon Canadian original, but I found it amusing and charming. It stars Jordan Gavaris (“Orphan Black”) as Justin, a gay man spending the summer with Billie (Madison Shamoun), the daughter he gave up for adoption after high school. He rents a cottage on the lake where his family spent all their summers before he had a falling out with his dad and left for Australia. To add to the awkward stew of painful memories, Billie not wanting to be there and Justin getting a crash course in parenting a teenager, he learns that the family cottage wasn’t sold as he believed but rather willed to his stepsister Maisy-May (Julia Stiles) by his father. So Justin starts scheming to get it back. The Northern Ontario-shot series also stars Terry Chen (“The Expanse,” “Jessica Jones”) as Maisy-May’s husband, Victor, and Jared Scott as their son, Killian.

Prime Video also has “The Summer I Turned Pretty” (June 17), a coming-of-age series from “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” author Jenny Han.

Natascha McElhone as proprietor Bella Ainsworth in “Hotel Portofino.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Eagle Eye Drama

Hotel Portofino (June 19, 8 p.m., PBS/PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel)

The latest Masterpiece period drama takes us to the Italian Riviera in 1926 where
English expat Bella Ainsworth (Natascha McElhone, “Californication,” “Designated Survivor”) is running a charming hotel that caters mostly to other Brits, alongside her widowed daughter Alice (Olivia Morris) and spendthrift husband Cecil (Mark Umbers). The guests include demanding matriarch Lady Latchmere (the always wonderful Anna Chancellor) and her niece Melissa (Imogen King); Italian Count Albani (Daniele Pecci) and his son Roberto (Lorenzo Richelmy); American art dealer Jack Turner (Adam James) and his “wife” Claudine (Lily Frazer); medical student Anish Sangupta (Assad Zaman), who saved the life of Bella’s still traumatized son Lucian (Oliver Dench) in the First World War; faltering tennis pro Pelham Wingfield (Dominic Tighe) and his unhappy wife Lizzie (Bethane Cullinane); and snobby Julia Drummond-Ward (Lucy Akhurst), who’s there to marry her wallflower daughter Rose (Claude Scott-Mitchell) off to Lucian. I doubt it’s a spoiler to say there are romantic complications, particularly after new employee Constance (Louisa Binder) arrives from the north of England, but there are also political ones, with local Fascists ready to do violence to anyone who doesn’t support Mussolini and corrupt police supervisor Danioni (Pasquale Esposito) looking to line his pockets at Bella’s expense. Throw in art theft, marital discord, illicit liaisons both gay and straight, and there’s a little drama to liven up the beach excursions and glasses of Limoncello on the terrace. The setting is breathtakingly beautiful (although it was mainly shot in Croatia rather than Italy) and the characters, although not deeply sketched, grew beyond mere types in the four episodes I watched. In short, I’d recommend checking in.

Also, I’m thrilled to report that Season 8 of “Endeavour,” the prequel to beloved detective drama “Inspector Morse,” is finally here, debuting June 19 at 9 p.m. on PBS.

Odds and Ends

From left, Paula Pell, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Sara Bareilles in Season 2 of “Girls5eva.” PHOTO CREDIT: Heidi Gutman/Peacock

With apologies, it’s a light week for the Watchable list. I was on vacation last week and out of town so I did very little screening and some of what I wanted to watch wasn’t available, including the second season of musical comedy “Girls5eva” (June 16, 9 p.m., W Network/StackTV).

This week’s Netflix offerings include the anthology series “Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet” (June 15), about the ways in which technology and crime intersect; the series “God’s Favorite Idiot” (June 15), in which creator Ben Falcone stars as a tech support worker who becomes a divine messenger, with Melissa McCarthy as his girlfriend; reality series “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend” (June 15); and the movie “Spiderhead” (June 17), starring Miles Teller and Chris Hemsworth.

Disney+ has Season 3 of the series “Love, Victor” (June 15), with gay teen Victor (Michael Cimino) sorting out his relationship issues and what he wants to do after high school.

Apple TV+ offers the film “Cha Cha Real Smooth” (June 17), which stars creator Cooper Raiff as a bar mitzvah host who strikes up a friendship with a mother (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter (Vanessa Burghardt).

Finally, CTV Comedy Channel has Season 2 of the comedy series “Roast Battle Canada” (June 13, 10:30 p.m.) with judges Russell Peters, K. Trevor Wilson and Sabrina Jalees, and host Ennis Esmer.

Watchable on Disney, StackTV, Netflix May 30 to June 5, 2022

May 30, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Pistol (May 31, Disney+)

From left, Anson Boon as Johnny Rotten, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Toby Wallace as Steve Jones
and Jacob Slater as Paul Cook in “Pistol.” PHOTO CREDIT: Rebecca Brenneman/FX

How you feel about the Sex Pistols probably depends to some extent on how old you were when the U.K. punks burst onto the music scene. I was 15 when they released the single “God Save the Queen” and, while I didn’t fully grasp the anti-establishment roots of the music, I appreciated the safety pin-adorned punk rock style, just the thing to allow a good Catholic girl to flirt with non-conformity.

This miniseries based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir “Lonely Boy: Tales of a Sex Pistol” takes us to the band’s roots at the forefront of a musical revolution. And dare I say, although it doesn’t shy away from Jones’ own troubled history or the band’s notorious ending tainted by drugs and death, it also makes those early days of punk seem like a helluva lot of fun.

Jones (Toby Wallace) is our way into the show, although all the band members get screen time, as does manager Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), his partner, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley), and a young Chrissie Hynde (Sydney Chandler), Jones’ sometime romantic interest.

The top-notch cast also includes Anson Boon (“1917”), who’s particularly compelling as Johnny Rotten, Jacob Slater as drummer Paul Cook, Christian Lees as original bassist Glen Matlock, who was replaced by the doomed Sid Vicious (Louis Partridge), Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen and Maisie Williams of “Game of Thrones” as punk fashion icon Jordan (the real Jordan, a.k.a. Pamela Rooke, died in April).

(There’s a particularly entertaining scene in which Jordan, on her way to her job at McLaren’s and Westwood’s Sex boutique, commutes wearing a see-through coat and no bra, completely unconcerned by the outraged glares of the women and lascivious stares of the men on the train.)

Creator Craig Pearce (“Moulin Rouge!” and the upcoming “Elvis”) and director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting” and Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire”) attempt to ground the story of the band in the unrest of the times, so episodes are sprinkled with real footage of Britain in the 1970s, contrasting the monarchy and bowler-hatted toffs with the blue collar masses.

When Jones, Cook, Matlock and guitarist Wally Nightingale (Dylan Llewellyn of “Derry Girls”) are trying to decide on a look for their pre-Pistols band, the Swankers, Cook says they should dress like what they are: “four broke working class kids who can’t play for shit.”

We first meet Jones stealing equipment from a David Bowie gig at the Hammersmith Odeon (in real life, he reportedly stole it from a truck behind the venue, not the actual stage). A chronic thief, homeless, nearly illiterate, scarred by the verbal and sexual abuse of his stepfather, in the estimation of the manipulative McLaren, Jones has nothing to live for but his band.

McLaren sets about shaping the group, which is renamed the Sex Pistols, to fulfil his and Westwood’s dream of fomenting a revolution against the class-based stodginess of British society. So Nightingale is out and McLaren recruits live wire John Lydon, nicknamed Johnny Rotten for his bad teeth, to sing. As the series tells it, McLaren later pressures Jones to fire Matlock so he can bring in Lydon’s friend John Ritchie, nicknamed Sid Vicious after a nasty hamster. He can’t play, but he has the right punk rock look and a tendency toward self-destruction.

If you’re at all familiar with the Sex Pistols, you’ll be familiar with the band’s arc, including the infamy of their profanity-laced interview on “The Grundy Show”; being dropped by two record labels; the banning of No. 1 single “God Save the Queen” in the U.K.; the boat cruise/concert on the Thames that ended with Malcolm and Vivienne and others getting arrested; the disastrous U.S. tour that led to the band’s breakup; the subsequent filming of McLaren’s vanity project “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”; the arrest of Vicious for the murder of his girlfriend, Spungen, and his subsequent death by heroin overdose.

The sadness of Sid’s and Nancy’s deaths notwithstanding, the tragic bits aren’t what stuck with me after watching all six episodes; it was the initial excitement of the music.

Thank goodness Lydon wasn’t successful in his bid to prohibit “Pistol” from using the band’s songs. The young cast do their own playing and singing, and Doyle shot performances in one take, which brings fresh energy to tracks like “Bodies,” “God Save the Queen” and “Anarchy in the U.K.”

“Pistol” isn’t flawless. Boyle’s hyperkinetic directing style can be distracting. And one suspects the real punk scene was a lot messier, more sharp-edged and less attractive than what comes across onscreen.

With Jones as lead character, we learn little about the more famous members of the group, Rotten and Vicious, let alone Cook, Matlock and poor Wally Nightingale, who was more influential in the pre-Pistol days than the show lets on.

Each episode starts with a disclaimer that it’s “inspired” by true events so it’s clearly an approximation, a bit like me putting on fake leather and safety pins in high school.

And Boyle and Pearce give the story an unlikely happy ending of sorts, with Jones and Lydon burying the hatchet after Sid’s death, and a flashback to a feel-good Christmas Day benefit concert the band played for the children of striking firefighters in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

But all that being said, it’s still an entertaining look back at a band that continues to be influential despite lasting for just two and a half years.

Short Takes

Emmy Rossum as the title character in “Angelyne.” PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Vosmikova/Peacock

Angelyne (June 1, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

Who is Angelyne? That’s the question posed in this Peacock miniseries about a real Hollywood legend, a blond, one-named bombshell who essentially became famous for being famous. Angelyne’s path to notoriety came through the provocative billboards of her that appeared all over Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s. There were several albums; film, TV and music video appearances; a foray into art via self-portraits; sales of merchandise and tours; even a run for California governor. Now in her 70s, she can apparently still be seen driving around town in one of her pink Corvettes. But who is the woman behind the blond hair, tight dresses and Barbie doll figure, which star and executive producer Emmy Rossum endured hours in the makeup chair to portray? This five-part series doesn’t give us any answers beyond facts already revealed in a 2017 Hollywood Reporter article: a Polish-born child of Holocaust survivors who cut ties with her past when she reinvented herself. The miniseries presents fictionalized versions of influential people in her life: her ex-husband (Michael Angarano), her fan club manager (Hamish Linklater), her boyfriend from the punk band Baby Blue (Philip Ettinger), the entrepreneur who financed her first billboards (Martin Freeman), the reporter who revealed her story (Alex Karpovsky), the student who tried to make a documentary about her (Lukas Gage). It’s an impressive roster of talent, led by Rossum, who disappears into the role, but it doesn’t get us any closer to the why of Angelyne. Given the preference of the real woman to remain a mystery — she told the Guardian newspaper in an interview she’s an alien “sitting on top of a pink cloud, sending inspiration to the world” — that probably suits her just fine. But it keeps the series from being elucidating as well as entertaining.

Odds and Ends

Norm Macdonald in the 2018 series “Norm Macdonald Has a Show.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eddy Chen/Netflix

The title of Norm Macdonald’s posthumous comedy special, “Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special” (May 30), is of course a complete misnomer. Getting a last hour of standup from the beloved Canadian comedian, who died last September of cancer at the age of 61, is extremely special. Like his illness, Macdonald kept the program, filmed in his living room during the pandemic, a secret. And we will all discover what it contains together since screeners weren’t made available beforehand, but his producing partner told the Hollywood Reporter the material is fantastic. The Netflix show also includes tributes from other comedians filmed during the Netflix Is a Joke festival.

CBC Gem has a couple of imports for you to check out: Australian comedy “Preppers” (June 1), about an Aboriginal woman who joins a community of people prepping for the apocalypse; and Irish dramedy “The Dry” (June 3), about a woman whose newfound sobriety is tested when she moves back to Dublin.

I’m sorry, fans of “The Boys,” which returns to Prime Video for its third season June 3, but I didn’t watch the screeners on purpose because I just don’t love the show, despite the fact it’s made in Toronto. But for those of you who do, enjoy. Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) are reportedly going to get up to more mayhem after they learn about an anti-superhero weapon and start a war.

Apple TV has Season 2 of “Physical” (June 3), which sees aerobics instructor hero Sheila (Rose Byrne) struggling to expand her fitness empire.

If you enjoyed the HBO Max series “Julia” — and I certainly did — you might want to check out CNN’s documentary, also called “Julia” (May 30, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.), about celebrity chef Julia Child. It repeats June 4 at 9 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.

This post has been edited to add additional thoughts I had after a second watch of “Pistol.”

Watchable on Prime Video, Crave, Netflix May 16-22, 2022

May 16, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Night Sky (May 20, Prime Video)

J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek in “Night Sky.” PHOTO CREDIT: Chuck Hodes/Amazon Studios

The pleasure of watching “Night Sky” comes as much from excavating the layers of its well played characters as the mysterious extraterrestrial portal buried in its lead couple’s backyard.

In fact, there are few answers to be had in this sci-fi drama — yet, anyway, it’s clearly begging for a second season — and I’m forbidden from sharing the answers we do get thanks to a long list of “do not reveals” from Amazon.

It’s a good thing then that the people at the heart of the story are so compelling to watch.

Married 70-somethings Franklin and Irene York (Oscar winners J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek) are living a seemingly mundane life in Farnsworth, Illinois. But hidden beneath their garden shed is a portal that transports them to another planet.

Over and over again, for 20-odd years, Frank and Irene have ventured along the passageway hidden beneath a trap door in the shed to sit and stare through a window at the beautiful and deserted planet — it’s too dangerous to venture outside the chamber.

But Frank is starting to tire of the routine whereas Irene hungers to know more about the other world. When she ventures to the portal without Frank one night, a young man suddenly appears, physically ill and covered in blood.

Over Frank’s objections, Irene installs him in their late son’s bedroom, nurses him back to health and begins to form a bond with him, testing her relationship with Franklin.

Added to the mix is their granddaughter Denise (Kiah McKirnan), who’s worried about her grandparents and suspicious of the stranger posing as their caregiver, whose name is Jude (Chai Hansen); and nosy neighbour Byron (Adam Bartley), who wants to know what Frank and Irene have been doing in the garden shed in the middle of the night. And then there are the dangerous people who are hunting for Jude, or so he tells Irene.

There’s also a parallel plot set in Argentina involving llama farmer Stella (Argentinian actor Julieta Zylberberg) and her teenage daughter Toni (Rocio Hernandez). Their story eventually intersects with Frank’s, Irene’s and Jude’s, but I’m afraid I’m not allowed to tell you how.

The main thing to know is that you will care about the central trio and you will want to watch all eight episodes to find out what happens to them.

Simmons and Spacek do a masterful job of portraying the deep, abiding love between Franklin and Irene, but it’s an imperfect love, just like in a real-life marriage, one complicated by the suicide of their son, which happened around the same time they found the portal.

Hansen, a Thai-Australian actor, holds his own against the two titans, making Jude sympathetic even though we’re not sure he can be trusted.

Even Byron, at first glance a mere busybody and thorn in Franklin’s side, turns out to have some levels to him.

Building sci-fi mythology can be tricky. The season ends with several cliffhangers, and it remains to be seen if writers Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly can make the resolutions as satisfying as the human storytelling, assuming they get more episodes.

In the meantime, “Night Sky” will likely bring pleasure to those for whom the journey is as important as the destination.

Short Takes

Alison Oliver and Joe Alwyn in “Conversations With Friends.” PHOTO CREDIT: Enda Bowe/Hulu

Conversations With Friends (May 16, Prime Video)

Your enjoyment of “Conversations With Friends,” the latest adaptation of a Sally Rooney novel, will depend in part on your tolerance for awkward characters who lack communication skills. Main protagonist Frances (newcomer Alison Oliver) is a Dublin university student and spoken word poet who, under the influence of ex-girlfriend turned best friend Bobbi (Sasha Lane, “American Honey,” “Utopia”), gets pulled into the orbit of 30-something author Melissa (Jemima Kirke, “Girls”) and her actor husband Nick (Joe Alwyn, “The Favourite”). Awkwardness attracts, and Frances and the also conversationally challenged Nick begin an affair while the outspoken Bobbi, a New York import, is attracted to the more extroverted Melissa. The entanglement has implications not only for the marriage but for Frances’s and Bobbi’s friendship. As you’ll know if you’ve watched the much lauded “Normal People,” these kinds of complications aren’t tied up in neat linear bows in a Rooney adaptation. But Nick and Alison are no Connell and Marianne; there’s less of an emotional pull to this coupling. It’s also hard to see what makes Bobbi so indispensable to Frances given that she’s not particularly nice to her. That being said, the cast makes the most of what they’ve been given to work with, and Oliver’s expressive face helps us decipher what the often silent Frances is thinking.

Prime Video also has Season 2 of the dark comedy “Made for Love,” starring Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen and Ray Romano; French-made Cold War romance drama “Totems”; and the documentary “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks,” all on May 20.

Ryan and Kiki survey the house full of detritus they’ve just bought on “Hoarder House Flippers.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Screen grab/HGTV

Hoarder House Flippers (May 19, 8 p.m., HGTV)

I’m no real estate TV aficionado, but this Canadian show appears to up the ante on the renovation genre by featuring properties so full of junk it’s hard to tell where the renos need to begin. But that can mean an extra frisson of appreciation once the garbage-strewn rooms are transformed. In the episode I screened, married couple Ryan and Kiki tackled a filthy bungalow in Springbrook, Ontario (the dead mouse in a kitchen drawer was a particularly nice touch). Other episodes feature Quebec brothers Mactar, Issa and Khadim, and Manitobans Heather and Nathan. I’m not sure where future instalments will take the house flippers, but it’s probably a good thing they stayed out of Toronto, where real estate is something of a dirty word, for at least the first one.

George Carlin as seen in “George Carlin’s American Dream.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of George Carlin’s Estate/HBO

George Carlin’s American Dream (May 20, 8 p.m., HBO/Crave)

The jokes that George Carlin tells as this documentary opens, about Americans’ obsession with their rights and talent for warmongering, among other things, sound so relevant to the present day that you might have to remind yourself that the comedian died in 2008. And that’s partly the point of this two-part film, directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, that Carlin was in some ways a comedian ahead of his time. The doc delves deeply into the life and career of a man considered one of the greatest standups of all time, and it doesn’t leave out the bad parts: his dysfunctional upbringing, his cocaine use, his wife’s alcoholism, the career slumps. Even if you were already a fan, you might learn some new things and develop a new appreciation for a man who was as funny as he was — and is — politically and culturally relevant.

Crave also has the documentary “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”; the Sesame Street shows “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck” and “Elmo’s World”; and Season 7 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.” all on May 20.

Odds and Ends

Emma and James in “Love on the Spectrum U.S.” PHOTO CREDIT: David Scott Holloway/Netflix

I can’t blame lack of screeners for my lack of Netflix reviews this week, just lack of time. Once again, the streamer has a lot of stuff coming out, including “Love on the Spectrum U.S.” (May 18), the American remake of the heartwarming Australian docuseries about people on the autism spectrum navigating dating and relationships. Also debuting: Season 2 of Japanese reality series “The Future Diary” (May 17); the Korean documentary “Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror” (May 18); Season 3 of Mexican crime drama “Who Killed Sara?” (May 18); comedy docuseries “The G Word With Adam Conover” (May 19); Season 2 of Spanish reality series “Insiders” (May 19); true-crime doc “The Photographer: Murder in Pinamar” (May 19); Season 3 of animated anthology series “Love, Death & Robots” (May 20); and Spanish revenge drama “Wrong Side of the Tracks” (May 20).

Apple TV Plus has the bilingual thriller series “Now and Then” (May 20), shot in English and Spanish, about the aftermath of a celebratory weekend that left one of a group of college friends dead.

Finally, Super Channel Fuse has the original series “Forgotten Frontlines” (May 16, 8 p.m.), about lesser known stories of World War II. The first episode covers the same topic as the Netflix movie “Operation Mincemeat,” when a corpse was floated off the coast of southern Spain to convince the Germans that the Allies planned to invade Greece instead of their real target, Sicily.

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