Tag: Queer Eye

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Quiz (May 31, 10 p.m., AMC)

I’m a sucker for anything with Matthew Macfadyen in it (see “Ripper Street,” “Howards End,” “Succession” and lots more). Here he plays English army major Charles Ingram, who’s accused along with his wife and another man of cheating on the TV game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Macfadyen is joined by other notable U.K. actors, including Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) as wife Diana, Michael Sheen (“Masters of Sex”) as “Millionaire” host Chris Tarrant , Helen McCrory (“Peaky Blinders”) as the Ingrams’ lawyer, Elliot Levey (“Silent Witness”) as “Millionaire” creator David Briggs and Mark Bonnar (“Line of Duty”) as producer Paul Smith.

The case, in both real life and on the series, turned on the idea that Diana Ingram and another aspiring contestant who was in the studio audience, Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson), used coughing to point Charles toward the correct answers as he played his way to the $1 million-pound prize.

The three-part series is both an absorbing courtroom drama and a pop-culture primer. It takes us through the creation of “Millionaire” for the ITV network in 1998 and how a subsection of the British population became obsessed with the show.

If you don’t know the outcome of the actual case I won’t spoil it for you, but you will likely find yourself conflicted about the couple’s innocence or guilt.

Parasite (June 2, 7:30 p.m., Crave)

This South Korean movie by celebrated director Bong Joon Ho became the first foreign-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar earlier this year. But I’m recommending it for another reason, because it’s entertaining from start to finish with plot twists I can almost guarantee you won’t see coming.

I won’t give anything away beyond saying it’s about a family of impoverished grifters in Seoul who ingratiate themselves with a rich family. Trust me when I say you will find yourself rooting for the swindlers.

This airing is part of the “Stay at Home Cinema” program from the Toronto International Film Festival and Crave. Before the movie, you can go to tiff.net at 7 p.m. for a livestreamed chat between TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey; Sharon Choi, an aspiring director who was Bong’s interpreter during his four trips to the Oscars stage in February, and Tom Quinn, co-founder of the film’s North American distributor, NEON.

And if you’re willing to check out some homegrown award winners, “Antigone,” which just won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Film, is airing June 5 at 7 p.m. on Crave as part of “Quebec Cinema Month.” I confess I haven’t seen this one, but the Toronto Star’s former movie critic Peter Howell highly recommends it.

One more movie option: Hollywood Suite is showing award-winning films all summer in a program it calls “The Best of the Best.” It kicks off June 1 to 7 with Oscar Best Picture winners, including “Patton,” “Moonlight,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “All About Eve,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “The Hurt Locker” and “Out of Africa.”

Trackers (June 5, 11:30 p.m., HBO)

I suspect the pandemic-mandated halt in TV production is going to mean even more international programs on North American networks and streamers as supplies of domestic shows dry up. If they’re of the calibre of this South African-made drama, that’s fine with me.

“Trackers” is based on a 2011 novel by South African author Deon Meyer and was adapted for TV by Meyer, Brit Robert Thorogood (“Death in Paradise”) and a team of South African writers.

There are many strands to this thriller, including terrorism, diamond smuggling, black market animal importation, Cape Town gangsters, and investigations by the CIA and the South African intelligence service. The plot lines unspool and intertwine skilfully and suspensefully, without anyone hammering you over the head with exposition. And the series is populated with interesting characters of varied ethnicities (dialogue is subtitled in both Afrikaans and English) and locations in and around Cape Town that are unfamiliar to North American eyes.

Shoot to Marry (June 6, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)

This documentary is the closing night movie of the Canadian Film Festival and won an Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival in January. Toronto director Steve Markle (“Camp Hollywood”) set out to heal his broken heart, after his girlfriend of four and a half years rejected his proposal, by filming interesting women – and potentially finding a new love among his subjects. No spoilers here, but Markle did indeed meet some interesting women, among them delightfully quirky hat maker Heidi Lee (above), a sex club owner, a professional cuddler, a heart transplant recipient, a fire spinner, a butcher, a wrestler, a lumberjack, a dominatrix, a tattoo artist and more. The doc is by turns funny, cringe-worthy, heartwarming and illuminating.

Odds and Ends

I have really enjoyed this season of “Killing Eve” and, in particular, the work of Jodie Comer as assassin Villanelle. Season 3 concludes May 31 at 10 p.m. on CTV Drama Channel. Two other series are also wrapping their seasons on the main CTV channel on May 31: “I Do, Redo” at 7 p.m. and “Mary’s Kitchen Crush” at 7:30 p.m.

A number of series are beginning their seasons this week, including “Fuller House: The Farewell Season” June 2 on Netflix; Season 4 of “13 Reasons Why” and Season 5 of “Queer Eye,” both June 5 on Netflix; and Season 5 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars” on Crave June 5 at 9:30 p.m.

Finally, Canadians are getting in on the celebrity commencement ceremony trend with “We Celebrate: Class of 2020” (June 6 at 8 p.m. on CTV and everywhere CTV content can be found). Among those shouting out all the students who won’t be getting real-life graduations due to COVID-19 are talk-show host Lilly Singh; a whack of musicians including Alessia Cara, Shawn Mendes, Selena Gomez, Joe Jonas, Arkells, Meghan Trainor and more; athletes like Penny Oleksiak and P.K. Subban; actors like Jacob Tremblay and Natalie Portman; even Muppets Miss Piggy and Gonzo.