I will take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year. Not a lot of new stuff out this week and a lot of what is new I didn’t have screeners for, but the floodgates will open in earnest as January continues.
Short Takes
A scene from “Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series.” PHOTO CREDIT: Super Channel
Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series (Dec. 27, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)
If you’re having a sense of deja vu, yes, I did write about a show connected to the 1972 hockey “Summit Series” between the Russians and Canadians back in September, when I made the CBC docuseries “Summit ’72” my show of the week. This documentary film by Robbie Hart (“I Am Not a Rock Star”) covers some of the same ground — the shocking Game 1 loss to the Soviets, the Canadian fans booing in Vancouver, Phil Esposito’s rousing speech, the Canucks’ underdog status going into the final games, Paul Henderson’s series-winning goal — but it also puts a bigger focus on the geopolitical implications of the games, which is not surprising since it’s based on a book by former diplomat Gary J. Smith, “Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series.” Smith is interviewed along with hockey folks like Wayne Gretzky, Ron Maclean, Harnarayan Singh, Angela James and Daniele Sauvageau (interviews with a handful of the Canadian ’72 players appear to be archival). The doc also includes footage shot in Moscow and fresh interviews with Russian players Vladislav Tretiak, Alexander Yakushev and Boris Mikhailov. The film’s thesis is that the Summit Series changed the game of hockey forever and even changed Canada’s national identity. If that’s true — and having been only 10 when the series was played I can’t vouch for that — then I believe it’s also true that the national identity is in constant flux as Canada grows and diversifies. And I can’t help but wonder whether hockey will play as big a part in the mythology of this country 50 years from now.
Groucho Marx and Dick Cavett on “The Dick Cavett Show” in June 1969. PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Baldwin
Speaking of nostalgia, this episode of the PBS series “American Masters” takes viewers back not just to the 1960s and ’70s when comedian Groucho Marx made seven appearances on his friend Dick Cavett’s talk show, but to the age of vaudeville and early film when Groucho and the other Marx Brothers became famous. Groucho went on to achieve individual fame as the host of TV quiz show “You Bet Your Life.” By the time he started appearing on “Cavett,” he was in his late 70s, but he and Cavett had been friends since meeting at the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman when Groucho was 70 and Cavett 25. Cavett, now 86 — the same age Groucho was when he died in 1977 — says he got “perhaps the last of Groucho’s prime” on his talk show. Whether that translates to modern audiences for whom Groucho’s comedy style will seem old-fashioned remains to be seen, but the story of the friendship between the men is a touching one and it’s clear that Cavett still has nothing but the highest regard for his comedy hero.
PBS also has the concert special “Great Performances: From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2023” (Jan. 1, 8 p.m.), featuring music by Strauss and others conducted by Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst, performances by the Vienna State Ballet and host Hugh Bonneville of “Downton Abbey.”
Odds and Ends
Charlie Cox stars in “Treason.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix
The Netflix series I would have screened had it been available last week is “Treason” (Dec. 26), starring Charlie Cox (“Daredevil”) as an MI6 agent whose future is called into question after he’s reunited with a Russian spy with whom he had a past. Netflix also has Season 5 of “The Circle” (Dec. 28); a Spanish comedy series called “Alpha Males” (Dec. 30); the Noah Baumbach film “White Noise” (Dec. 30) starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig; the special “Best of Stand Up 2022” (Dec. 31); the heist series “Kaleidoscope” (Jan. 1); the Brazilian series “Lady Voyeur” (Jan. 1) and other stuff.
My pick for Crave this week, just based on the description, is “Kingdom of Dreams” (Dec. 30), a docuseries about the global fashion business from the early 1990s to the 2010s. Canadian fashion icon Jeanne Beker is a producer. Crave also has “The Rocky Collection” dropping on Dec. 30, which includes all six films plus the documentary “40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic,” narrated by Sylvester Stallone. Its New Year’s offering is “Lizzo: Live in Concert” (Dec. 31, 8 p.m.).
Speaking of New Year’s, CBC TV and CBC Gem have “Canada’s New Year’s Eve: Countdown to 2023” at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31, hosted by Rick Mercer and featuring music from Chad Price, Devon Cole, James Barker Band, JJ Wilde, Kardinal Offishall, Leela Gilday, OKAY TK, Savannah Ré and Vincent Vallières.
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.
SHOW OF THE WEEK: Summit ’72 (Sept. 14, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
The aftermath of Team Canada’s series-winning goal in 1972. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame
The death of Queen Elizabeth II last week inspired news articles dissecting the Canadian identity vis-a-vis the monarchy. For an examination of another traditional aspect of the Canadian identity there’s this docuseries about the eight-game “Summit Series” in September 1972 between the Soviet national hockey team and a Canadian team made up of NHL players.
If you know nothing about it or your memories are getting fuzzy, this four-part show revisits the series game by game, with plenty of interviews to fill in the context of what the contest meant to both the Canadians and the Russians. It was seen not just as a string of hockey games, but as a test of national pride and of capitalism vs. communism.
(The whole thing is definitely fuzzy to me. I have vague recollections, as a 10-year-old, of a TV being wheeled into the school gym and the eruption when Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in the final game.)
Episode 1 lays out the, as it turned out, unfounded arrogance on the Canadian side, the belief that hockey was a Canadian game and that our players were going to wipe the ice with the Soviets. Even the Russian players were intimidated at first, according to Soviet team member Boris Mikhailov, who recalls sweat running down his back as he and his teammates gathered on the blue line for the first game.
But despite the Canadians coming out “like hungry animals who hadn’t eaten in weeks,” according to Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the Russians stunned them — and much of the country — with a 7-3 victory in that game at the Montreal Forum on Sept. 2, 1972.
It turns out the Canadian players, who had spent much of training camp drinking and having fun, were ill-matched against the discipline of Soviet training and teamwork. Legendary hockey commentator Howie Meeker described them as “fat and lazy, physically and mentally.”
The Canucks knew they were in trouble, which I suppose just adds to the mythology of their victory in the final three games of the series.
Part of the fun of watching the TV series — at least the two episodes made available for review — is being reminded of what Canada looked like back then, as the games moved from Montreal to Toronto to Winnipeg to Vancouver. There’s even an old Labatt 50 commercial in the middle of the first episode. So odd to see those stubby brown beer bottles again.
And yes, the series does address the Canadian fans booing the Canadian players in Vancouver and Phil Esposito’s impassioned reaction to that. He’s among the Summit Series players interviewed, both Canadians and Russians, including Ken Dryden, Bob Clarke and lots more.
Canada has changed hugely since 1972. I’m not even certain hockey holds the same stranglehold on the national imagination that it did back then. But that doesn’t mean there’s no value in looking back to a time when the Summit Series gave millions of people something to cheer about.
CBC Gem has the standup series “Comedy Night With Rick Mercer” (Sept. 13, 9 p.m., also on CBC TV); “The History of Comedy” (Sept. 16), which explores the art form in archival footage and interviews with everyone from Carol Burnett to Jimmy Kimmel; Season 3 of family dramedy “Casual” (Sept. 14); and the documentary “Burnout: The Truth About Work” (Sept. 16), about the perils of overwork and what to do about it.
“Monarch” is so soapy you can practically see the bubbles on your screen, which would be fine if it was also really good. But this drama about a feuding country music family promises more than it delivers. Let’s start with the first shortcoming, the much-vaunted starring role of Oscar winner Susan Sarandon as matriarch Dottie Roman who, for reasons I can’t get into, is really more of a guest star than a lead. It’s Dottie’s kids — “Queen of Country” heir apparent Nicky (Anna Friel), her sidelined sister Gigi (Beth Ditto) and business-savvy brother Luke (Joshua Sasse) — who are the real stars of the show, with real-life country singer Trace Adkins providing backup as their father, Albie. We’re supposed to believe that the Romans are the “monarchs” of the country music scene, although we have to take that on faith since there’s precious little in the way of back story. The actors certainly can sing (Ditto has a particularly appealing voice), but the concert scenes in the first three episodes (the only ones I watched) don’t make a convincing case for these folks being country superstars. As well, most of what they sing are covers of well-known songs with some originals sprinkled in. Friel and Ditto are very good, but these characters don’t exactly go deep. With hokey dialogue, heavy-handed musical cues and twists you can see coming a mile away, “Monarch” is a by-the-numbers tale of a lying, cheating, scheming family that supposedly will stop at nothing to stay on top, including murder, apparently. If you’re a country fan you might groove on cameos from stars like Tanya Tucker and Shania Twain, though.
Also under the Corus umbrella, Showcase has the new series “Tom Swift” (Sept. 13, 8 p.m.), about a rich chum of Nancy Drew’s; and W Network has “Vampire Academy” (Sept. 18, 9 p.m.) about two best friends at vampire school.
Elisabeth Moss as June in Season 5 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” PHOTO CREDIT: Hulu
The Handmaid’s Tale (Sept. 14, Prime Video)
I don’t normally include shows in this section that I have not screened — and I did not get advance access to Season 5 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” — but it’s a show I will continue to watch to the end, even when it bothers me. And the end of Season 4 did bother me — spoiler alert if you’re not caught up — when June (Elisabeth Moss) and her fellow former handmaids savagely beat Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) to death with the connivance of Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) and Nick (Max Minghella). I realize it’s just a TV show, but I’m still wrestling with my distaste for seeing June sink to the level of those who enslaved her while, at the same time, feeling like I should support the character’s need for revenge. In any event, that act of violence is obviously going to have repercussions this season for everyone involved, and will put the enmity between June and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), the commander’s widow, centre stage. It looks like June and husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are even going back into Gilead.
Prime Video also has “The Grand Tour Presents: A Scandi Flick” (Sept. 16), in which Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May head to the Scandinavian Arctic Circle for Season 5 of the driving show.
A German policeman checks the IDs of Jewish people in the Krakow ghetto in Poland, circa 1941. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of National Archives in Krakow
The U.S. and the Holocaust (Sept. 18, 8 p.m., PBS)
This latest exhaustive documentary series from Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein examines the failure of the United States to aid more than a fraction of the Jewish refugees desperately trying to escape Hitler and the Holocaust before and during the Second World War. (Canada, for the record, did even worse than the U.S. or any other Western country, taking in just 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1947, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.) The episode I watched (there are three of two hours apiece, with the others airing Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m.) painstakingly lays out the political and social situation in the U.S. and elsewhere, with the rise of the discredited theory of eugenics, positing that only people of supposedly superior gene pools should be allowed to breed, and anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment in the wake of the Great War and the Great Depression. It also traces the rise of Hitler in Germany, and his and his party’s stealthy and systematic demonization and dehumanization of Jewish people. If this all seems too far removed from the present to be bothered about, I urge you to go to a Holocaust museum someday and look at the photos of people killed in the Nazi death camps or the countless possessions they left behind. In fact, what struck me as most chilling about “The U.S. and the Holocaust” were the echoes of the political climate of the 1930s in the world of today, including the anti-immigration sentiment, the rise of anti-Semitism and other kinds of racial bigotry, and the fact that another madman is currently trying to expand his empire with an invasion of Ukraine, with limited interference from the rest of the world.
Odds and Ends
Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega in Season 2 of “Los Espookys.” PHOTO CREDIT: Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO
I have not yet got into the HBO comedy “Los Espookys,” which given what I’ve read about it seems like a failing on my part but, if you’re already a fan, Season 2 debuts Sept. 16 at 11 p.m. on HBO and Crave.
I will definitely be watching when Season 7 of “Shetland” debuts Sept. 13 on BritBox. It’s always a treat to see Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall) and his sidekick Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) solve crimes in the northernmost part of Scotland.
I’m behind on “Atlanta,” but Season 4, which is also the final season, debuts Sept. 15 at 10 p.m. on FX.
Netflix, as usual, has several offerings, including yet another true crime docuseries, “Sins of Our Mother” (Sept. 14), about a woman who is charged alongside her husband with killing two of her children; Season 2 of the YA series about a supernatural boarding school, “Fate: The Winx Saga” (Sept. 16); Season 2 of the reunion show “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” (Sept. 16); and the movie “Do Revenge” (Sept. 16), about teenagers fighting back against bullies.
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.
Recent Comments