Tag: TV reviews (Page 5 of 8)

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

May 16, 2022 / Debra Yeo

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.

Watchable on Crave, Disney Plus May 9 to 15, 2022

May 9, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Hacks (May 12, 11 p.m., Crave)

Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in Season 2 of “Hacks.” PHOTO CREDIT: Karen Ballard/HBO Max

What a relief when a show that you loved in its first season returns for its second and you find out that you still love it.

Such is the case with “Hacks,” the HBO Max comedy about an entitled Las Vegas comedian and the entitled young comedy writer she hires to try to freshen up her act.

When Season 1 ended, Deborah Vance (Emmy winner Jean Smart) had been cut loose from her cushy Las Vegas residency and, with the encouragement of writer Ava (Emmy nominee Hannah Einbinder), was experimenting with a more autobiographical style of comedy, with mixed results.

Season 2 opens where Season 1 left off, with Deborah and Ava flying back from Ava’s father’s funeral with a secret hanging like a Sword of Damocles over Ava’s head: after an argument with Deborah, a drunk and high Ava spilled Deborah’s worst traits in an email to two TV producers looking for dirt for a TV show character.

It’s only a matter of time until the secret comes out and when it does, Deborah doesn’t react the way Ava expects, by firing her.

Deborah’s cross-country tour — and Ava’s role in it — must go on, which is not at all the same as Deborah forgiving and forgetting. The ways in which she punishes Ava are as funny as they are mean-spirited.

But the revelation also means we can get on with the business at hand: Deborah and Ava renegotiating their place in comedy and with each other, two “selfish and cruel” women, in Deborah’s words, for whom the work is everything.

Getting the cards out on the table, unflattering though they may be, means that work can continue in an authentic way. There’s something to be said for examining the shitty parts of yourself, acknowledging them, then using them to your advantage.

Before long, Deborah has a new goal in mind, one that doesn’t involve getting upstaged by the birth of a cow at a state fair, and Ava will be along for the ride.

Speaking of being along for the ride, Carl Clemons-Hopkins returns as Marcus, Deborah’s chief operating officer, whose carefully controlled life starts to unravel in the wake of his breakup with Wilson.

Series co-creator Paul W. Downs (with Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky) is back as Deborah’s and Ava’s hapless agent Jimmy, as is Megan Stalter as his completely inappropriate assistant Kayla.

Kaitlin Olson and Poppy Liu get some brief screen time as Deborah’s daughter DJ and favourite blackjack dealer Kiki.

And Laurie Metcalf steals scenes in a guest role as a tour manager nicknamed Weed.

Short Takes

A kitty gets some TLC from staff at RAPS Animal Hospital in “Pets & Pickers.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Pets & Pickers (May 12, 9 p.m., Discovery)

This show is kind of like the TV equivalent of putting chocolate and peanut butter together, mashing up a couple of popular reality genres: shows about people hunting for treasure in piles of junk and shows about animals. It focuses on the RAPS Animal Hospital in Richmond, B.C. (RAPS stands for Regional Animal Protection Society). Its services include providing free and subsidized care to pet owners who can’t afford the treatment, which is where the picking part comes in. The staff of its RAPS Animal Hospital Thrift Store sort through the donated contents of abandoned storage lockers, hoping for big ticket items to sell, with 100 per cent of the proceeds helping sick animals. It’s standard reality TV fare, but if you like animals and/or thrifting you might enjoy it.

Lexi Underwood and Chosen Jacobs in “Sneakerella.” PHOTO CREDIT: Disney

Sneakerella (May 13, Disney Plus)

Sneaker culture forms the basis of an update of hoary old fairy tale Cinderella. Writers George Gore II, Mindy Stern, Tamara Chestna, David Light and Toronto-born Joseph Raso have turned the mistreated young woman who wins the heart of a prince into a young man living in Queens, New York (the movie was actually shot in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario), with a talent for designing sneakers. But El (Chosen Jacobs, “It”) is kept toiling in the stockroom of his late mother’s shoe store by his stepfather (Bryan Terrell Clark) and selfish stepbrothers (Kolton Stewart and Hayward Leach). After a chance meeting with “sneaker royalty” Kira King (Lexi Underwood, “Little Fires Everywhere”), daughter of a basketball star turned sneaker tycoon, El creates a special pair of kicks to wear to the King company’s charity gala. His talent is the talk of the ballroom and presents Kira with a chance to impress her father and make her mark in the family business. But, you know, the clock strikes midnight, El and best friend Sami (Brantford native Devyn Nekoda) have to run, and Kira is left with one of El’s colourful shoes, lost in his flight. You can probably figure out how it goes from there without any spoilers from me. The movie’s on the saccharine side, with earnest lessons about being yourself and appreciating people for who they are, but it’s colourful and vibrant; the young cast gives it their all; and there are songs (albeit none that really stuck with me) and entertaining dance numbers. And if you’re a Toronto or Stratford theatre fan you’ll enjoy seeing Juan Chioran in the role of Gustavo, the gardener/fairy godfather.

Disney Plus also has the fantasy competition series “The Quest” (May 11), in which eight teenagers are dropped into a fictional world called Everealm and have to work together to defeat an evil sorceress and save the kingdom.

Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat and Jared Keeso in “Shoresy.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Shoresy (May 13, Crave)

If you thought “Letterkenny” was the most idiosyncratic Canadian comedy you’d ever seen, get a load of “Shoresy.” Hatched, like the former, from the brain of Canadian actor Jared Keeso, it transplants the irreverent style honed on “Letterkenny” to an even more Canadian setting: a Northern Ontario hockey rink. The hapless Sudbury Bulldogs senior hockey team is about to fold when potty-mouthed Shoresy (Keeso) — known from his “Letterkenny” appearances for his prolific bowel movements and sexual chirps about other players’ mothers — brings in some ringers to try to keep the team afloat. The new recruits are Quebecers JJ Frankie JJ (Max Bouffard) and Dolo (Jonathan-Ismael Diaby), Newfoundlander Hitch (Terry Ryan) and Six Nations member Goody (Andrew Antsanen), plus three “tough natives” all named Jim (Jordan Nolan, Brandon Nolan, Jon Mirasty) to act as enforcers. I’ll be honest: I was a little worried this show would be all fart noises and crude jokes, but I should have known better than to doubt Keeso. Shoresy is but one part of a funny, quirky ensemble that includes Tasya Teles (“The 100”) as team manager Nat, Keilani Elizabeth Rose and Blair Lamora as Shoresy-baiting sisters Miigwan and Ziigwan, Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat as coach Sanguinet and Ryan McDonell as ex-coach Michaels. Plus, Canadian actors who’ve made names for themselves on other shows both comedic and dramatic make guest appearances, but I don’t want to spoil the fun by naming names. If you’ve developed a taste for F-bombs, fisticuffs and characters whose mouths are foul but hearts are in the right place, give your balls a tug and give “Shoresy” a shot.

Crave via HBO also has the new TV adaptation of the novel “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (May 15, 9 p.m.), written by “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock” mastermind Steven Moffat, and starring Theo James of “Downton Abbey” and “Sanditon” and Rose Leslie of “Game of Thrones” but — all together now — reviews were embargoed.

Odds and Ends

From left, Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson
in “The Kids in the Hall.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Brown/Amazon Studios

The big news for Canadian comedy fans this week is that “The Kids in the Hall” sketch comedy show is back after a 28-year absence. It streams on Prime Video May 13, but reviews are embargoed until May 11.

The key Apple TV Plus debut this week is period drama “The Essex Serpent” (May 13), starring Claire Danes (“Homeland”) as a widow who travels from London to Aldwinter in Essex after hearing a mythical sea creature might be on the loose there, and Tom Hiddleston (“Loki,” “The Night Manager”) as a minister trying to tamp down the superstition. Reviews are under “strict embargo” until the evening of May 12, so I’m not even sure whether I can tell you I liked it. Apple also has Season 2 of sports series “Greatness Code” (May 13).

So Netflix has another crapload of stuff out this week. Only two shows were on my screeners list, Season 2 of “Bling Empire” and “The Lincoln Lawyer,” both out May 13. I watched the latter, but reviews are embargoed so, once again, not sure if I can say whether I liked it. And I’m not kidding about that. Also on tap: Chilean missing person drama “42 Days of Darkness” (May 10); Season 2 of gangster drama “Brotherhood” (May 10); the documentary “Our Father” (May 10); South African revenge drama “Savage Beauty” (May 12); Turkish comedy “The Life and Movies of Ersan Kuneri” (May 13); and Swiss family drama “New Heights” (May 13).

Finally, if you have a taste for the supernatural, APTN Lumi has “Shadow of the Rougarou” (May 9) based on Metis myths of a werewolf-like creature and set in the days before the 1885 North-West Resistance. It stars Morgan Holmstrom and Cody Kearsley, and features dialogue in English, Michif, Cree and Chinook Wawa.

Watchable on Crave, Prime Video May 2 to 8, 2022

May 2, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Staircase (May 5, 9:50 p.m., Crave)

Colin Firth and Toni Collette as Michael and Kathleen Peterson in “The Staircase.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO Max

Such is the imperative to feed the TV machine — an estimated 559 scripted series in 2021 and counting — that the medium has started cannibalizing itself, turning one of its most popular nonfiction forms, the true crime documentary, into drama.

There have been hits (“The Girl From Plainville”) and misses (“Joe vs. Carole”). Now comes “The Staircase,” which revisits the story told in the 2004 documentary of the same name about the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson and subsequent murder conviction of her husband, Michael Peterson.

What makes this HBO Max series mostly work is that it’s as much a family as a crime drama, one that elucidates the human toll when the criminal justice system turns lives inside out and upside down.

Michael, in an excellent performance by Colin Firth, is very much the lead character here as he was in the docuseries, but the miniseries makes space for other members of the family, particularly Kathleen, played by the ever reliable Tony Collette, whom we see in flashback as the warm, energetic but stressed matriarch of an incredibly close blended brood.

The brood, as in real life, splinters after Michael goes on trial for first-degree murder. Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge) changes her mind about Michael’s innocence and sides with Kathleen’s sisters (Rosemarie DeWitt and Maria Dizzia) against him. His sons Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Clayton (Dane DeHaan), and adopted daughters Margaret (Sophie Turner) and Martha (Odessa Young) continue to support him, although not without an emotional cost.

Creator Antonio Campos, who also directed six of the nine episodes, doesn’t draw a conclusion as to Michael’s guilt or innocence. Indeed, in the five episodes made available for review, we see two versions of Kathleen’s death recreated: one in which she does indeed fall down the stairs, as Michael claimed; one in which Michael kills her after an argument over gay porn and emails to other men she discovers on his computer.

You will likely find your own opinion changing from episode to episode and scene to scene, not only as the prosecution (Cullen Moss as DA Jim Hardin and Parker Posey as assistant DA Freda Black) and defence (Michael Stuhlbarg as defence lawyer David Rudolf) lay out their cases but as you ponder what appears to be a close, loving relationship between Michael and Kathleen.

“The Staircase” also portrays the shifting, clashing viewpoints of the makers of the 2004 docuseries, including director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon), editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) and producer Denis Poncet (Frank Feys). And it moves the action forward to 2017, when Michael pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Kathleen’s death while maintaining his innocence (a circumstance known as an Alford plea) and was released from jail for time served, a development also covered by the doc makers in an addendum to their series.

Therein lies the weakness of “The Staircase,” that almost everything we see here has been extensively covered before. At the same time, a dramatization by a skilled cast can give a story resonance in ways a documentary telling can’t. You might feel you know it all, but Firth and his co-stars give you a reason to keep watching.

Short Takes

Giovanni Cirfiera as Capitano Riva and Emilia Fox as Sylvia Fox in “Signora Volpe.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Moris Puccio/AcornTV

Signora Volpe (May 2, Acorn)

It should be no surprise, given its appeal to an older, female demographic, that the Acorn streaming service features a subset of programming that could be described as “female detectives of a certain age.” This latest entry stars 47-year-old Emilia Fox (“Silent Witness”) as former MI6 agent Sylvia Fox (volpe means fox in Italian) who takes a work sabbatical and buys a house in Italy after a visit to her sister (Tara Fitzgerald, “Game of Thrones”) in the Umbrian town of Panicale. Naturally, Sylvia ends up getting drawn into local crimes, which she helps solve with a combination of smarts and nosiness. It doesn’t hurt that she’s caught the eye of handsome police captain Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera). This is escapist fare with an amiable lead, a beautiful setting and mysteries that are interesting but not overly demanding.

John Gallagher Jr., Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele at the 2021 “Spring Awakening” reunion concert. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known (May 3, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

You should watch this one if you’re a fan of the Tony Award-winning 2006 musical “Spring Awakening,” of musical theatre in general or just shows that make you feel feelings. The documentary lets us be flies on the wall as the original cast reunites in 2021 for a one-night-only fundraising concert for the Actors Fund charity. Footage from the concert is interwoven with rehearsal footage, interviews and original performances of the musical’s rock songs. The show by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik was a hit off-Broadway but was bombing on Broadway until its 11 Tony nominations in 2007 (it won eight, including Best Musical), after which it became a pop culture sensation. The cast — with a special emphasis on its two biggest stars, Jonathan Groff (“Hamilton”) and Lea Michele (“Glee”) — recall the joys and hardships of performing in a show that tackled adolescent sexuality, sexual molestation, abortion and suicide while many were still teenagers themselves. It was clearly a profound, life-changing experience, one that feels rewarding to revisit.

Rebecca Romijn as Number One, Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike and Ethan Peck as Spock in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” PHOTO CREDIT: Marni Grossman/Paramount Plus/ViacomCBS

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (May 5, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Crave)

If you’re feeling a little bewildered by all the “Star Trek” spinoffs, know that this is the one that feels the most like the original series. After becoming a fan favourite on “Star Trek: Discovery,” Anson Mount’s Captain Pike is in full command of the starship Enterprise, backed by faces and names you’ll recognize, including Spock (Ethan Peck), Number One, a.k.a. Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). But because this is airing in 2022 and not 1966, there are plenty of regular characters who aren’t white, human males, including Christina Chong as security officer La’an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as pilot Erica Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (whose character appeared in two episodes of the original series), Andre Dae Kim as transporter chief Kyle and Bruce Horak as Aenar engineer Hemmer. The series picks up after the events of Season 2 of “Discovery” when that ship and its crew jumped 930 years into the future but doesn’t dwell on that. “Strange New Worlds” mostly adopts a planet and/or alien of the week format, based on the five episodes that were made available for review. I’m not gonna lie: both “Discovery” and “Picard” became slogs after their first seasons. “Strange New Worlds” has the potential to become the most enjoyable of the new crop of shows if it can balance its earnestness with humour and camaraderie.

Murder victim Beverly Lynn Smith. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Prime Video

The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith (May 6, Prime Video)

Toronto Star reporter Wendy Gillis, one of the interview subjects in this four-part docuseries, nails what makes it compelling when she says, “There’s so much human emotion involved in this story.” It’s impossible not to feel the tragedy of the loss of Beverly Lynn Smith, who was 22 and the mother of a 10-month-old daughter when she was shot in the back of the head in her kitchen in Raglan, Ont., in 1974. The pain of it is still clearly very real for her family all these years later, particularly her twin sister, Barbra Brown. But the series, directed by Nathalie Bibeau (“The Walrus and the Whistleblower”), also devotes time to the main suspect in the case and the controversial tactics used in the police investigation. Having seen just two episodes, I can’t say what conclusion the series reaches, if any, but the case remains unsolved to this day.

Prime Video also has Season 2 of the teen girls stranded after a plane crash series “The Wilds” (May 6).

Odds and Ends

Mike Myers as Ken Scarborough and Richard McCabe as Exalted Pikeman Higgins in “*The Pentaverate*.” PHOTO CREDIT: Zoe Midford/Netflix

The Netflix premiere that’s bound to inspire the most curiosity if you’re a fan of Canadian comedian Mike Myers is “The Pentaverate” (May 5), his six-part series in which he plays multiple roles, including that of a Toronto reporter named Ken Scarborough who’s out to expose a secret society that’s been influencing world events since 1347. I didn’t get a preview so I can’t tell you if this is “Austin Powers” level stuff or another “The Love Guru.” Netflix also has the documentary “Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive” (May 3); Season 4 of “The Circle” (May 4); Season 5 of Spanish prison drama “El Marginal” (May 4); docuseries “Meltdown: Three Mile Island” (May 4); Season 3 of Italian drama “Summertime” (May 4); its first Nigerian original series, “Blood Sisters” (May 5); “Clark” (May 5), about the criminal who inspired the term “Stockholm syndrome”; cute animal series “Wild Babies” (May 5); South Korean drama series “The Sound of Magic” (May 6) and Spanish drama “Welcome to Eden” (May 6), about a party on a remote island that goes bad.

I didn’t get a chance to screen Season 2 episodes of “Tehran” (May 6, Apple TV Plus), the Israeli spy drama about a Mossad agent (Niv Sultan) trying to carry out a dangerous mission in Iran, but I will definitely watch, having been a fan of the first season. Apple also has “The Big Conn” (May 6), a docuseries about a half-a-billion-dollar social security fraud in Kentucky, and “To Mom (and Dad) With Love” (May 6), its latest Peanuts special.

If you were a fan of the Prime Video detective drama “Bosch” you’ll want to follow Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) in “Bosch: Legacy” (May 6, IMDb TV), in which the former LAPD cop is now a private detective working with his former enemy Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers).

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 April 25 to May 1, 2022

April 25, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Ozark (April 29, Netflix)

From left, Skylar Gaertner, Sofia Hublitz, Laura Linney and Jason Bateman in “Ozark” Season 4.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the first part of Season 4 of “Ozark.”

Keep an eye on the women in the final heartbreaking episodes of “Ozark.”

The things they do for love of their families drive the twists and turns that make the show’s last seven episodes such an exhilarating ride.

Keep your eye in particular on Laura Linney, who is stupendous as Wendy Byrde, who we’ve watched over four seasons transform from disgruntled wife, mother and money launderer to ruthless criminal mastermind.

The key question is whether the Byrde family, including Marty (Jason Bateman), daughter Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), can free themselves from doing business with a Mexican drug cartel without getting killed, and resume a non-criminal life back in Chicago.

I won’t answer that question because it would be a major spoiler and I’m not allowed to discuss anything that happens in the series finale.

As Season 4 resumes, the Byrdes are trying to maintain the precarious deal they’ve struck with Javi (Alfonso Herrera), psychotic nephew of jailed cartel leader Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), and medical company CEO Claire Shaw (Katrina Lenk): Javi supplies the raw material for Shaw Medical’s opioids and Claire funds Wendy’s pet project, a family foundation that will give Wendy major political influence.

But everything is threatened by Ruth (Julia Garner), who’s out for revenge against Javi for murdering her cousin Wyatt and his heroin dealer bride Darlene. Ruth’s actions in Episode 8 tip the dominos that fall throughout the remaining six episodes.

There are other complications: Jonah is still furious with Wendy over the cartel hit on her brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey) and refusing to return to the family business; Ruth enlists old enemies of the Byrdes (and familiar faces from past seasons) to make a play for the Missouri Belle casino, imperilling their main means of laundering money for the cartel; a dangerous new player emerges in Omar’s sister and Javi’s mother, Camila (Veronica Falcon); and private detective Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg) is still poking around the Byrdes’ past, this time while investigating the disappearance of Ben.

That last complication brings Wendy’s estranged father, Nathan Davis, to town, a nasty, misogynistic, sanctimonious drunk ably played by Richard Thomas. Nathan is not only bankrolling the search for Ben; he’s threatening Wendy’s relationship with Jonah and Charlotte.

How Wendy responds to that threat allows Linney to do some of her finest acting in the entire series. It also allows a partial rapprochement with Ruth, who knows from horrible fathers, which only makes future developments all the sadder.

In its own twisted way, “Ozark” has always been about family and that continues to drive the plot, whether it’s Ruth trying to avenge a beloved cousin, Camila trying to do right by her son, or Marty and Wendy doing dangerous and morally reprehensible things to keep their children safe.

Those things continue to exact a terrible toll on the people around the Byrdes as well as on Marty’s and Wendy’s psyches. In these last episodes the masks slip: there are still vulnerable human beings behind Wendy’s coldly rational machinations and Marty’s bland efficiency.

It’s a welcome revelation and a reminder of where this all started: with a husband and wife navigating an impossible situation as best they could to keep their family alive. As to where they end up, you’ll have to watch to find out and it’s a wild ride.,

Short Takes

Jon Bernthal, right, as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins in “We Own This City.” PHOTO CREDIT: HBO

We Own This City (April 25, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

When “The Wire” debuted 20 years ago, it posited that the institution of policing, in one American city at least, was broken. Now its creator, David Simon, and his producing partner George Pelecanos are back to tell us nothing has changed. “We Own This City,” based on the book by journalist Justin Fenton, portrays the activities of corrupt officers in Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, who in real life were jailed for stealing cash and drugs, planting evidence and claiming overtime they hadn’t worked. Jon Bernthal stars as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, ringleader of the dirty cops but a hero to the brass for all the arrests his unit racks up — this at a time when many officers were refusing to even get out of their cruisers after charges were laid against the cops involved in the death of Freddie Gray. The series jumps around between showing the corrupt task force members in action between 2003 and 2017; the drug investigation that cracks open the task force case; the FBI investigation of the task force members; the efforts of one ill-fated homicide detective (Jamie Hector of “The Wire” and “Bosch”) to distance himself from his time with the task force; and the ultimately fruitless efforts of a civil rights lawyer from the justice department (Wunmi Mosaku) to have troublesome officers held to account. With all that ground to cover over just six episodes, “We Own This City” is not well suited to those with short attention spans, or a distaste for dense, complicated plotting and dialogue. It also occasionally gives way to speechifying, particularly in the segments involving Treat Williams as a police college instructor decrying the futility of the war on drugs. But it hits home when it turns it focus away from the preening, swaggering cops to the mostly poor and Black citizens hurt by their actions, like the father of three whose wrongful arrest and theft of that week’s pay leads to the loss of his job and a hole he might not be able to dig his way out of.

Sophie Rundle and Suranne Jones in Season 2 of “Gentleman Jack.” PHOTO CREDIT Aimee Spinks/HBO

Gentleman Jack (April 25, 10 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Good news for fans of this period drama based on the life of 19th-century diarist Anne Lister: Suranne Jones brings the same mix of humour and vivacity that made her portrayal of Anne such a delight in Season 1. In fact, the gusto with which Anne approaches her various activities is intensified, whether it’s overseeing renovations at family estate Shibden Hall, getting her coal mining business in order or running interference with the relatives of heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), who are scandalized by the fact she’s about to move in with Lister. Ann and Anne are also navigating their way through some bumps in their unofficial marriage, with Anne pushing for legal changes that will allow them to alter their wills and Ann coming to terms with Lister’s romantic past. I got to speak with Jones, Rundle and “Gentleman Jack” creator Sally Wainwright for the Toronto Star. You can read the story here.

Marilyn Monroe after her wedding to Arthur Miller, right, in “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (April 27, Netflix)

If you stream this documentary expecting a murder mystery involving transcendent but tragic movie star Marilyn Monroe you’ll be disappointed. Irish author Anthony Summers, on whose research the doc is based, has been clear that he doesn’t believe Marilyn was murdered and that she voluntarily ingested the pills that killed her on Aug. 4, 1962; whether it was suicide or a misjudgment of the dose is still open to interpretation. What the doc does explore is a potential coverup the night of her death due to her romantic relationships with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney-General Robert Kennedy. Based on interviews conducted by Summers for his book “Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe” — the audio of which, lip-synced by actors, constitutes the bulk of the film — it’s suggested that Bobby Kennedy visited her home and argued with Marilyn the day she died; that she was still alive when an ambulance got to her Brentwood house and that her body was returned there after she died on the way to hospital, and that members of the FBI scoured the house of any evidence of her connection to the Kennedys before the death was officially reported. The doc also touches briefly on Monroe’s life: a troubled childhood involving sexual abuse, spent in foster homes and an orphanage; her incredible fame and aspirations to be a serious actor; her unhappy marriages to baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. None of this will be new to people who are fans of Monroe, but at the very least it’s a reminder of how much was lost that night in 1962.

Netflix also has comedy special “David Spade: Nothing Personal” (April 26); “Bullsh*t The Game Show” (April 27), hosted by Howie Mandel; and the final episodes of “Grace and Frankie” (April 29).

Elisabeth Moss as Kirby Mazrachi in “Shining Girls.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

Shining Girls (April 29, Apple TV Plus)

If you have no knowledge of the novel on which this series is based, you’ll think at first you’re getting a standard crime drama. Newspaper archivist Kirby (Elisabeth Moss, who also executive produced and directed at least one episode) gets pulled into a murder investigation in 1990s Chicago when it appears the victim has the same cross-shaped cuts on her stomach that Kirby suffered when she was attacked six years before. Working with reporter Dan (Wagner Moura in a sympathetic performance), Kirby discovers multiple potential victims of the same killer whose cases have been ignored by the police. But strange things are happening: Kirby has a cat one moment, a dog the next; her apartment number changes; she lives with her mom Rachel (Amy Brenneman) then suddenly has a husband, photographer Marcus (Chris Chalk). Then we see another woman murdered near the end of Episode 1, but she’s still alive in Episode 3. And there’s a killer (a creepy Jamie Bell) who doesn’t age and appears to be able to predict the future. All is eventually revealed, including the mysterious house that gives the killer his ability to play with time. With its shifting realities, the drama can sometimes feel a little unmoored, but Moss keeps us moving forward and interested in Kirby’s fate. The supporting cast includes Phillipa Soo, Christopher Denham and Moss’s “Handmaid’s Tale” cast mate Madeline Brewer.

Jay Baruchel is host and chief worrywart in the docuseries “We’re All Gonna Die.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

We’re All Gonna Die (April 30, Crave)

If it’s possible to be cheerful while discussing the prospect of humanity’s annihilation then Jay Baruchel is your man. The actor and comedian hosts this six-part docuseries that examines various ways that humans could be wiped off the face of the Earth with humour and a sprinkling of f-bombs (as opposed to nuclear bombs, which are the subject of Episode 2). There are things here to give you pause — paleontologist David Evans’ description in Episode 1 of what happened the day a Manhattan-sized asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs is not for the faint of heart — but the point is made that fear of a thing is sometimes worse than the thing itself. Fearful or not, there’s no harm in giving a listen to what we might be in for. Other episodes deal with pandemics, alien invasion, volcanoes and climate change.

Watchable on Crave, W, Netflix, AMC April 18 to 24, 2022

April 18, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Man Who Fell to Earth (April 24, 10 p.m., Crave)

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Faraday and Naomie Harris as Justin Falls in “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Rico Torres/Showtime

The science fiction in this series sequel to the cult film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” based on the Walter Tevis novel, can feel uncomfortably close to science fact.

It might be difficult for all but the most ardent UFOlogists to imagine beings from other planets walking among us, but when Anthean alien Faraday (Chiwetel Ejiofor) tells his reluctant human collaborator Justin Falls (Naomi Harris) that Earth has until 2030 before temperatures hit extinction level, it doesn’t feel all that far-fetched.

It also feels fitting that the extraterrestrial who represents Earth’s best hope presents as a Black man and his human companion is a Black woman. It’s a smart casting choice that gives a couple of terrific actors a chance to shine and there’s an implicit analogy in the fact that Black American men and women are often treated as aliens in their own country. (Although I’m not sure what it says that Faraday belongs to his planet’s drone or working class and his fellow ET, Thomas Newton, who is white, is an adept or teacher.)

When we first meet Faraday, we see him as the polished imitation of a human he has become, a self-described “tech god Willy Wonka” holding a theatre full of acolytes rapt, before cutting back to his crash landing as a yellow-eyed alien in the oil fields of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

He has answered the summons, 45 years later, sent out by Newton (played by David Bowie in the movie and Bill Nighy in the series). You’ll recall that Newton was originally sent to Earth to find water for his planet but never made it home, having been corrupted and abused by the earthlings he encountered. Now Anthea is on the brink of oblivion and only a few thousand inhabitants remain.

To save his world, and possibly Earth along with it, Faraday needs to access technology that Newton created and he needs to convince Justin, a disgraced former MIT scientist, to help him do it.

Meanwhile, the CIA, led by an agent named Spencer Clay (Jimmi Simpson), knows that someone new has fallen to Earth and is out to capture him.

And there are other complications. Faraday and Halls recruit a risk specialist named Hatch Flood (Rob Delaney) who lays out what would happen if alien technology allowed the world to quit its oil dependency cold turkey: complete chaos essentially.

That’s about as far as things get in the four episodes made available for review. In those episodes, Faraday begins to shift from wide-eyed, water-guzzling alien — his continual thirst is a source of humour along with his early attempts to learn English— to besuited visitor with a dazzling new energy technology to offer, while Justin begins to break free from the self-imposed prison in which she’s put her brilliant mind.

Obviously, TV and film productions about aliens are really about the human condition. “The Man Who Fell to Earth” posits both hope and threat in its initial episodes, which are driven by the charismatic performance of Ejiofor.

There’s also a strong supporting cast, which besides Harris, Nighy, Delaney and Simpson includes Clarke Peters, Kate Mulgrew and Sonya Cassidy.

It remains to be seen how far along the remaining six episodes take Faraday to fulfilling his mission and the series to fulfilling its promise, but it’s off to a good start.

Crave also has the well reviewed Robert Pattinson movie “The Batman” (April 18); the documentary “Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain” (April 20); Season 2 of “The Flight Attendant” (April 21, 9 p.m.) with Cassie (Kaley Cuoco), sober and moonlighting as a civilian CIA asset; “Gaslit” (April 24, 9 p.m., Starz), a look at the Watergate scandal that focuses mainly on John Mitchell (Sean Penn) and his wife Martha (Julia Roberts); Season 3 of hitman comedy “Barry” (April 24, 10 p.m., HBO); and horror comedy “The Baby” (April 24, 10:30 p.m., HBO).

Short Takes

Brooklyn Letexier-Hart and Elle-Maija Tailfeathers in “Night Raiders.”

National Canadian Film Day (April 20, Crave, Super Channel, Hollywood Suite)

Although it’s a speck compared to the Hollywood behemoth to the south, Canada does have a national film industry, and some of the country’s broadcasters and streamers are celebrating it. The selection on Crave ranges from recently acclaimed Indigenous films such as Tracey Deer’s “Beans” and Danis Goulet’s “Night Raiders” to movies from internationally recognized auteurs like David Cronenberg (“Eastern Promises”) and Denis Villeneuve (“Incendies”). Super Channel has films on three of its channels — Fuse, Vault and Heart & Home — ranging from classics like the 1981 comedy “Porky’s” to 2020’s “Jasmine Road,” about a Syrian family taken in by an Alberta rancher, and 2007’s “The Stone Angel,” based on the Margaret Laurence novel about a cantankerous old woman who refuses to go gentle into that good night. Hollywood Suite, meanwhile, is focusing on Indigenous filmmakers with titles like Jeremy Torrie’s “The Corruption of Divine Providence” and “Indian Horse,” based on the Richard Wagamese novel about a residential school survivor. Check with the channels for times and to see the full selection.

Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter and *Chloë Sevigny* as Lynn Roy in “*The Girl From Plainville*.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Dietl/Hulu

The Girl From Plainville (April 21, 9 p.m., W Network/StackTV)

This series is less a crime drama than a tragedy involving two broken young people. Over eight episodes it tells the story of the real-life case involving the suicide of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III, known as Coco to his family, and his 17-year-old girlfriend Michelle Carter, convicted of involuntary manslaughter for sending him texts encouraging him to kill himself. That Michelle sent the texts is not in dispute, but the drama — aided greatly by the excellent performance of Elle Fanning — makes a convincing argument that she was just as troubled as Conrad. Fanning portrays Michelle as a socially awkward, immature teen with no real friends and a tendency to lie or exaggerate to make herself seem interesting, And for a short period following Conrad’s death, Michelle is the centre of attention as the grieving girlfriend, practising a particularly performative type of grief. The show traces how she and Conrad (Colton Ryan) met in Florida while vacationing with their families and developed an intense two-year relationship founded almost entirely on texts, with the pair living about an hour apart in Massachusetts. Both were prescribed medication for their mental health issues; her for eating disorders, him for depression and anxiety after a previous suicide attempt. Would Conrad have eventually killed himself without Michelle egging him on? Impossible to say. His death is clearly a heartbreaking tragedy, both for the loss of his potential and the grief of his family (Chloe Sevigny is also excellent as his mother, Lynn Roy). Only the real Michelle Carter can say why she told Conrad to get back in his carbon monoxide-filled truck in July 2014 after he started to lose his nerve, and she never testified at her trial and has stayed out of the public eye since her release from jail in January 2020. But the drama makes it possible to see Michelle as a troubled human being rather than just a monster.

Alan Doyle gives Griff Rhys Jones a lesson in preparing cod tongue in “Griff’s Canadian Adventure.” PHOTO CREDIT: Blue Ant Media

Griff’s Canadian Adventure (April 21, 8 p.m., BBC First)

Welsh comedian Griff Rhys Jones would be the first to admit he can but scratch the surface in a travel series about “one of the largest slabs of the inhabited world,” but that doesn’t make his attempt to encapsulate Canada in these six episodes less entertaining. Only the first one was made available for review, in which Jones starts his almost 8,000-kilometre journey in Newfoundland, visiting spots like Conception Bay, St. John’s, Petty Harbour and Bell Island. The greatest hits are here — Signal Hill, the Jellybean Row Houses, moose, fish, kitchen parties — but also attractions that might not be top of mind, like the Bell Island iron ore mines, targeted by Hitler’s submarines in the Second World War. Jones is an engaging visitor, with an itinerary that includes Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and British Columbia. (Sorry, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, you didn’t make the cut.) At least he’s focused on Canada rather than “those noisy people in the basement,” as he calls Americans.

Odds and Ends

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in Season 6 of ” Better Call Saul.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

“Better Call Saul” is the show I most wanted to preview this week, but the screener gods were not smiling on me. Nonetheless I have every confidence that the sixth and final season, which debuts April 18 at 9 p.m. on AMC and AMC Plus, is going to be worth the wait.

Another highly anticipated debut this week is Season 2 of “Russian Doll” on Netflix on April 20. The streamer also has the documentary “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch” (April 19); Spanish-language drama “The Marked Heart” (April 20); the Turkish thriller series “Yakamoz S-245” (April 20); the Japanese comedy series “He’s Expecting” (April 21); Season 5 of real estate reality show “Selling Sunset” (April 22); gay coming-of-age series “Heartstopper” (April 22); and French body-swapping drama “The 7 Lives of Lea” (April 22).

I didn’t screen the documentary film “Polar Bear” (April 22, Disney Plus) because reviews were embargoed until the debut, but I imagine it will be both beautiful and heartrending.

Prime Video has “A Very British Scandal” (April 22), companion to the Emmy-winning “A Very English Scandal.” Two-time Emmy winner Claire Foy (“The Crown”) stars as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, who was the subject of a vicious smear campaign during her 1963 divorce from the duke (Paul Bettany).

Apple TV Plus’s offerings this week include the docuseries “They Call Me Magic” (April 22) about basketball great Magic Johnson and “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball” (April 22) about player Makur Maker.

Finally, OMNI TV has “Abroad” (April 24, 8:30 p.m.), a new sketch comedy series starring Filipina comedian Isabel Kanaan.

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, BritBox April 11-17, 2022

April 11, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The First Lady (April 17, 9 p.m., Crave)

Viola Davis as Michelle Obama and O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama, with *Kathleen Garrett*
*as Laura Bush*, in “The First Lady.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Lee Davis/Showtime

“The First Lady” is the kind of show you really want to like. What could be more admirable than shining a light on the women behind the most powerful men in the United States, arguably the world, women who contribute to that power even if their contributions are largely unsung?

And to be sure, there are things to like here, beginning with the fact that three very capable actors, Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson, are portraying Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt, respectively. All three women have clearly brought great care and attention to their roles.

Of the three, Pfeiffer’s performance is the one that seems the least like imitation.

Over the five (of 10) episodes I watched, I was often distracted by how Davis and, to a lesser extent, Anderson held their mouths; the former to sound like Obama; the latter to approximate Roosevelt’s overbite.

There’s also the fact that Betty Ford’s story is such a relatably human one, what with her breast cancer diagnosis and addiction to alcohol and pain pills. Pfeiffer does full justice to both the character’s vulnerabilities and strengths, bringing to life her grace, her warmth, her determination and also her frustration at the burdens of being a political wife. But her marriage to Gerald Ford (played by Aaron Eckhart) is portrayed as a loving partnership.

Alas, warmth isn’t a trait that comes through in the portrait of Obama, aside from depictions of the younger Michelle’s (Jayme Lawson) relationship with her parents. I’m not saying that women have to be warm and fuzzy, but Obama’s default in her interactions with Barack (O-T Fagbenle), his staff and her daughters seems to be stuck on formidable and fierce.

Anderson gives us Roosevelt’s great intelligence and energy, her insecurity about her “plain” appearance, her deep hurt over the discovery that Franklin (Kiefer Sutherland) was having an affair with her secretary, which shifted their marriage from a romantic to a platonic one.

Though it may be hard to see what these three women have in common, the show presents them as sharing a reluctance to be first ladies and pushing back against the expectation that, as such, they would content themselves with ladylike activities like decorating and gardening. It probably should be a shock that kind of sexism has persisted from 1932 through 2008 (and beyond), except it isn’t.

As I said, “The First Lady” is a show you want to like and it’s likeable enough as a standard sort of biopic treatment of three worthy women, but it never reaches the depths of really well done biographical fiction like “The Crown.”

Crave also has Season 4 of the “Things We Do in the Shadows” movie spinoff “Wellington Paranormal” on April 15.

Short Takes

Lucy Boynton, Jonathan Jules, Will Poulter and Joshua James in “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BriBox

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (April 12, BritBox)

Looking for something fun to watch? How about an Agatha Christie mystery in which a handsome young ex-naval officer and his aristocratic female friend try to answer the question of the title: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Those are the last words of a man whom Bobby Jones (Will Poulter, “Dopesick”) tries to help after he finds him dying at the foot of some cliffs in the Welsh seaside town of Marchbolt. It seems to be an open and shut case of accidental death, but then Bobby is poisoned and the photo he saw in the dead man’s pocket doesn’t match the one published in the local paper. He and his childhood friend Lady Frances Derwent (Lucy Boynton), a.k.a. Frankie, concoct a scheme to get inside the English countryside home of a man they suspect of switching the photos and possibly even pushing the victim off the cliffs. Along the way to a solution, there are more dead bodies and an attempt on the life of “Knocker” Beadon (Jonathan Jules), Bobby’s business partner in a used car dealership. The production has the distinction of being written and directed by actor Hugh Laurie, who also plays a small role as the director of a local asylum and a potential villain. Published in 1934, “Evans” is perhaps not one of Christie’s most revered books, but it makes for a lively three-part series with characters who are easy to root for and lovingly rendered period details.

Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller in “Anatomy of a Scandal.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Anatomy of a Scandal (April 15, Netflix)

This series is essentially a potboiler dressed up to look like prestige drama. Coming from prolific producer David E. Kelley and with a cast that includes Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey” and Rupert Friend (whom I so identify with “Homeland” that I kept referring to his character as Peter in my notes), it has style but falls short on substance. Friend plays James Whitehouse, a government minister caught cheating on his wife Sophie (Sienna Miller) with an underling who then accuses him of rape. Dockery plays Kate Woodcroft, the lawyer who prosecutes the rape case. “Scandal” has nothing enlightening to say about sexual assault or the liberties taken by powerful men. In fact, the victim in the rape case, Olivia (Naomi Scott), is a cipher, there mainly so the show can probe James’ and Sophie’s shared past as privileged Oxford students, a past that has relevance to Kate. James and his friend the prime minister (Geoffrey Streatfeild) were part of a nasty group of toffs back then called the Libertines, whose main purpose seemed to be drinking to excess and sexually harassing female students. The group’s activities take on added significance in the somewhat ridiculous ending to the show’s six episodes. By that point, however, you might not give a toss about what happens to James or Sophie.

There is a ton of other Netflix content out this week, including the women’s prison comedy “Hard Cell” (April 12); docuseries “Our Great National Parks” (April 13), narrated by former president Barack Obama; Season 2 of Argentinian comedy series “Almost Happy” (April 13); Brazilian comedy series “Smother-in-Law” (April 13); Spanish series “Heirs to the Land” (April 15) and the Indian crime drama “Mai” (April 15).

Kiernan Shipka in “Swimming With Sharks.” PHOTO CREDIT: Roku/YouTubbe

Swimming With Sharks (April 15, Roku)

This Hollywood drama is like a modern-day “All About Eve” in which the wide-eyed newbie is less interested in undermining the Hollywood star than in worshipping her. Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men,” “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) is Lou, who becomes an intern in the office of studio exec Joyce (Diane Kruger) and soon makes herself indispensable, albeit through sometimes drastic means. It becomes clear that Lou didn’t land in Joyce’s office by accident. It also becomes clear that Lou isn’t who she says she is. Joyce, meanwhile, is experiencing both personal and professional turmoil behind the icy demeanour: she’s battling to get a prestige literary film adaptation made while the racist and misogynist head of the studio (Donald Sutherland in a particularly unsavoury role) keeps a tight hold on the purse strings; and she’s trying to get pregnant with her philandering artist boyfriend (Gerardo Celasco). Meanwhile there’s psychosexual tension building between her and Lou, which culminates in them spending the weekend together at Joyce’s beach house, where Lou indulges a sexual fantasy of Joyce’s. It’s one of a number of lurid scenes that pop up in “Sharks,” some of which seem more like kinky window dressing than integral to the plot. In fact, the series as a whole, based on the 1994 film of the same name, can feel like empty calories. To make a show that posits Hollywood as a cutthroat place full of backstabbers and sycophants is nothing new. Though Shipka makes Lou extremely watchable, her twisted tale doesn’t add anything revelatory to that narrative.

Odds and Ends

Paul Rabliauskas and Darcy Waite in “DJ Burnt Bannock.” PHOTO CREDIT: APTN

You can get a double dose of comedian Paul Rabliauskas this week. The performer from Poplar River First Nation has a comedy special debuting on Crave, “Paul Rabliauskas: Uncle” (April 15), shot during the 2021 Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. He also co-stars in the web series “DJ Burnt Bannock” (April 11, APTN lumi). The comedy stars creator Darcy Waite as would-be DJ Kevin Cardinal, with Rablliauskas as his cousin Allan and Joy Keeper as his Kookum.

Prime Video seems quite bullish on its new neo-western/supernatural mystery “Outer Range” (April 15), which stars Josh Brolin and Canadians Tamara Podemski and Noah Reid of “Schitt’s Creek.” Reviews are embargoed until Wednesday.

I didn’t have time to screen more than one episode of “Roar” (April 15, Apple TV Plus), not enough to give it a fair review.

Sorry, but even if I’d had the time I wouldn’t have screened “The Kardashians” (April 14) on Disney Plus. Disney also has “Scrat Tales” (April 13), animated shorts starring Scrat from the “Ice Age” movies.

Finally, Global and StackTV have the new CBS competition series “Come Dance With Me” (April 15, 8 p.m.), in which young contestants partner with an untrained family member.

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, Hollywood Suite April 4-10, 2022

April 4, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Allegation (April 7, 9 p.m., Hollywood Suite)

Peter Kurth as defence lawyer Richard Schlesinger in “The Allegation.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Screen shot/Hollywood Suite

That some of the world’s worst injustices come from so-called justice systems is surely not a shock to anyone who keeps abreast of current affairs, but the point is made in a particularly eloquent and entertaining way in this German drama.

It’s based on a real 1990s German child abuse case — and will have echoes for anyone who remembers the “satanic panic” cases in California in the 1980s and Saskatchewan in the 1990s — but you needn’t know the antecedents to enjoy this smart and gripping show.

It begins with a doctor in the small town of Ottern examining an unseen six-year-old girl and pronouncing “beyond reasonable medical doubt” that she’s been subjected to chronic sexual abuse. The nurse who takes the photos during the exam texts a friend about it, which sets off a chain-reaction social media frenzy of condemnation for the perpetrator.

Then suddenly we’re in Berlin, in the company of a defence lawyer whose best days appear to be behind him, being woken in the middle of the night to represent a woman accused of killing her husband for the life insurance money.

Peter Kurth, whom you’ll remember if you watched another excellent German drama, “Babylon Berlin,” is masterful as lawyer Richard Schlesinger. He’s a wounded bear of a man whose somewhat slovenly appearance and curmudgeonly demeanour belie a sharp intelligence and keen understanding of human nature.

But mob enforcer Azra (German-Iranian actor Narges Rashidi) is even sharper. Though we first meet her when she’s beating Schlesinger up — a warning over a gambling debt he owes — they become allies and even friends of a sort. She helps him see a small detail that destroys the seemingly open-and-shut case against the accused husband killer and then asks him to defend a man in the child abuse case in Ottern on behalf of an unnamed client.

By the time we revisit it, the case has expanded to 16 children, 26 adults accused of running a child sex ring and public outrage at a fever pitch. Although there’s no corroborating physical evidence and all of the accused have denied the allegations, the statements of the children attesting to the abuse seem like an insurmountable obstacle for the various defence lawyers.

But when Schlesinger digs in, he finds that the investigation was taken away from the local police and handed over to a child psychiatrist with no criminal justice training, overseen by an inexperienced public prosecutor who shares her unshakeable belief that the children are telling the truth.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, but it’s both fascinating and thrilling to watch Schlesinger work the case, tearing holes in what seem like rock solid facts. It’s also worth noting that no matter how convincing his arguments, public belief in the guilt of the accused remains resolute.

Schlesinger tells the child psychiatrist, Ina Reuth (Katharina M. Schubert), that morality has to be separated from the law, which might seem counterintuitive but later appears indisputable in light of the harm done in Ottern.

The plot of this drama turns on very dark perceptions, but there’s also a lightness to it. Schlesinger’s interactions with various secondary characters are funny, whether it’s the exasperated pet store employee who sells him a goldfish, the front desk clerk at his Ottern hotel or the priest who lets him store his files in the monastery’s scriptorium. But the tonal shifts are never jarring.

The best shows, like truth, aren’t black and white, and “The Allegation” is one of these.

Short Takes

Ansel Elgort and Hideaki Ito in “Tokyo Vice.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eros Hoagland/HBO Max

Tokyo Vice (April 7, 11 p.m., Crave)

The first couple of episodes of this much anticipated series seem less about vice than a sort of “an American in Tokyo” tale as U.S. expat Jake (Ansel Elgort) fulfills his dream of becoming the first foreigner to work for a prestigious Japanese newspaper in 1999. All floppy-haired, gung-ho energy, Jake tries to navigate the newsroom’s restrictive rules, where he is dismissively referred to as “gaijin” (foreigner in Japanese), and to ingratiate himself with the vice cops who could help him do more than rewrite police press releases. I suppose it makes sense since the show is based on the memoir of the real Jake Adelstein, about his years on the Tokyo crime beat for the Yomiuri Shinbun daily, but the show didn’t start to jell for me until the third episode. That’s when Jake’s story becomes more intertwined with other characters’, including veteran detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe), American hostess bar employee Samantha (Rachel Keller) and junior Yakuza member Sato (Sho Kasamatsu). Watanabe’s fellow Oscar nominee, Rinko Kikuchi, also co-stars as Jake’s supervisor Eimi. We know from the opening minutes of the series that it’s all leading to a showdown two years later between Jake, Katagiri and the organized crime group over a story they don’t want Jake to write. Non-spoiler alert: Jake lived to tell the tale. Much of the dialogue is in Japanese with subtitles, which shouldn’t be an issue for anyone, although it’s challenging initially to figure out the hierarchy among the Yakuza. And the series benefits from the authenticity of being shot on location in Tokyo. I have to be honest though; maybe it’s just Ansel Elgort overload, having recently watched him in “West Side Story,” but Jake was the least appealing character for me.

Crave also has Season 3 of “A Black Lady Sketch Show” (April 8, 11 p.m., HBO) and the docuseries “The Invisible Pilot” (April 4, 9 p.m., HBO), which plays a bit of a trick on viewers: you think you’re watching the story of a man, Gary Betzner, who inexplicably committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in 1977, and it becomes a completely different story halfway through the first episode.

From left, Joy Delima, Chris Peters and Yari van der Linden in “Dirty Lines.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

Dirty Lines (April 8, Netflix)

There’s a bumper crop of new shows on Netflix this week but — out of those I had access to — I chose to focus on this Dutch dramedy based on the true story of Europe’s first erotic phone line company. It may be hard to believe in the age of on-demand internet porn, but there was a time when people would pay to listen to recordings of sexy stories. “Dirty Lines” is not actually that dirty; it’s more about how its characters navigate their own relationships with sex and other people, including the two brothers behind Teledutch: Frank (Minne Koole), a husband and father-to-be who’s ambivalent about monogamy, and Ramon (Chris Peters), also a married father who’s secretly gay. Our way into the story is Marly (Joy Delima), a young, sexually inexperienced student whose life changes after she’s caught on camera by a news crew while doing a one-off recording for Teledutch. It turns out she’s horrible at play-acting sex but very good at turning sexual fantasies into phone scripts, which gives her a much needed job and boost in confidence. The drama is set in late 1980s Amsterdam against the backdrop of cultural developments like the rise of house music and political ones like the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s not a must-see, more of a nostalgic, gently humorous diversion.

On a much more serious note, Netflix also has the docuseries “Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story” (April 6), which was not available to screen, about the English TV star who raised millions for charity but was found after his death in 2011 to have sexually abused as many as 500 children and adults. April 6 also brings reality series “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move on,” in which commitment-phobes have to decide whether to wed their current partners while playing footsie with other people’s significant others, and “Green Mothers’ Club,” a South Korean drama about the friendships and rivalries between five grade school moms. There are two more docs on April 7, “Return to Space,” about NASA astronauts hitching a ride to the International Space Station with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and series “Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star,” about the slaying of South Africa’s Senzo Meyiwa. Dramas “Queen of the South” (April 7) and “Elite” (April 8) return with fifth seasons. And April 9 brings two more South Korean shows, “My Liberation Notes” and “Our Blues.”

Odds and Ends

From left, Alexander Elliot, Keana Lyn and Rohan Campbell in “The Hardy Boys.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Corus Entertainment

If you enjoyed the first season of the latest adaptation of “The Hardy Boys” novels — and I found it entertaining — you’ll be pleased to know the second season is debuting April 4 at 8 p.m. on YTV and StackTV. Brothers Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe Hardy (Alexander Elliot) are back solving mysteries with friends Callie (Keana Lyn), Chet (Adam Swain), Phil (Cristian Perri) and Biff (Riley O’Donnell). And there’s a new girl in town, Belinda (Krista Nazaire).

Irish mysteries are usually right up my alley so I regret I didn’t have time to screen Acorn’s latest original series, “Harry Wild,” debuting April 4. “Harry” is Harriet, played by veteran English actor Jane Seymour. The retired English professor starts interfering in a murder case being investigated by her police detective son (Kevin Ryan) and enlists the teen who mugged her (Rohan Nedd) as her sidekick.

Apple TV Plus has “Pinecone & Pony” (April 8), a kids’ show based on a book by Canadian author Kate Beaton about a warrior-in-training and her equine best friend.

Prime Video’s new offering this week is the movie “All the Old Knives” (April 8), starring Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton as CIA agents and former lovers who have to root out a mole.

If you’re a fan of American history and/or Ken Burns films, know that his two-part documentary “Benjamin Franklin” debuts on PBS April 4 and 5 at 8 p.m., with Mandy Patinkin providing the voice of Franklin.

Watchable March 28-April 3, 2022

March 28, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Revenge of the Black Best Friend (March 31, CBC Gem)

From left, Daren A. Herbert, Dante Jemmott, Tymika Tafari, Olunike Adeliyi and Victoria Taylor
in “Revenge of the Black Best Friend.” PHOTO CREDIT: Duane Cole/CBC Gem

The saying “It’s funny ’cause it’s true” could be a tag line for this clever and entertaining web series from CBC host and playwright Amanda Parris.

Parris and her writers’ room lampoon the film and TV industry’s very real (and not funny) marginalization of Black actors and creators in a way that will have you nodding your head in recognition while you chuckle.

The series grew from Parris’s own reflections on movies and TV shows she enjoyed when she was younger and her recognition when she rewatched them of how much they minimized the Black characters.

Those productions aren’t name-checked in “Revenge of the Black Best Friend,” but you’ll suss them out anyway, whether it’s 2000 movie “Bring It On” (white cheerleading squad steals Black squad’s cheers); 2009 TV series “Glee” (white character Rachel gets the solos, superior Black singer Mercedes is kept in the background); or 1997 cult TV hit “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (white lead Buffy kicks demon butt while Black slayer Kendra gets killed off after three episodes).

And even if you haven’t seen any of those shows or movies, you have surely seen others just like them.

The conceit of “Revenge” is that a self-help guru, talk show host and author named Dr. Toni Shakur — played by the talented Olunike Adeliyi of “The Porter” (and lots of other stuff if you check her IMDb page) — is out to shake up the “white narrative industrial complex” by helping Black performers get their due.

Or, as she tells one Black actor, in a nod to the (often broken) promises made to lure Black immigrants to Canada in the 1700s and 1800s, “I’m getting you your proverbial 40 acres and a mule.”

The show — which Parris says owes a debt to the 1987 movie satire “Hollywood Shuffle” — is full of that kind of smart, knowing comedy, whether it’s a protester carrying a sign that says “How many ethnicities will you let Rob Schneider play?” or a patronizing white director who boasts that his profile picture is “still a black square.”

As the series progresses — I screened four episodes — it becomes clear that Dr. Toni is not immune to the kind of diminishment she’s helping others battle. Or, to quote another great line, she too is “lost in a sea of caucacity.”

Black actors, naturally, are front and centre in “Revenge,” which also features an all-Black writing and directing team. It seems ridiculous that in 2021 we’re still hedging over whether Black performers can carry a show. But if you have doubts, I suggest you watch “Revenge of the Black Best Friend.”

And while we’re on the subject of giving creators and performers of colour their due, you should also make some time —and with 15-minute episodes we’re not talking a prohibitive amount of time — for web series “Topline” (March 31, CBC Gem) by Filipino writer-director Romeo Candido.

Charismatic actor Cyrena Fiel stars as Filipina teenager Tala. She’s a dutiful daughter with an alter ego, a singer-songwriter named Illisha. When one of the songs that “Illisha” recorded in Tala’s suburban bathroom goes viral, Tala gets invited to join the songwriting team at a Toronto studio. But keeping that secret from her father, who’s getting by on disability benefits and whatever Tala and her sister Gabby earn at their part-time jobs, is clearly setting up some conflict.

Short Takes

Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child in “Julia.” PHOTO CREDIT: Seacia Pavao/HBO Max

Julia (March 31, 10 p.m., Crave)

If you never experienced the real Julia Child, this series from Daniel Goldfarb (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) will give you a sense of why the American cookbook author and TV host was so beloved. That’s mainly down to English actor Sarah Lancashire, who’s beloved herself for shows like “Happy Valley,” “Last Tango in Halifax” and “Coronation Street.” Although she’s a good four inches shorter than the real Child and her voice is pitched higher, it’s the emotional rather than the physical that makes her portrayal such a delight. Lancashire’s Child is warm, charismatic and humble, a woman with a zest for both life and cooking who suffers very relatable self-doubt. The series also benefits from a crackerjack supporting cast, including David Hyde Pierce as Julia’s husband Paul, his “Frasier” castmate Bebe Neuwirth as her best friend Avis, and Brittany Bradford and Fran Kanz as the public television producers responsible for her seminal program “The French Chef.” That TV series started out as a modest, even amateurish, stab at a cooking show on Boston’s PBS outlet in 1962 and spread across the country, lasting until 1973. “Julia” isn’t what you’d call a high-stakes drama, but it does a creditable job of depicting the sexism of the era. I doubt Child would have called herself a feminist but, as “Julia” tells it, she had to run an old boys’ gauntlet to get her show on the air, particularly as a woman who wasn’t conventionally attractive. “Julia” is in some ways as down to earth as its namesake, a good old-fashioned linear TV series, but I found it very easy to watch and enjoy.

Crave also has a couple of documentaries: HBO’s “How to Survive a Pandemic” (March 29, 9 p.m.), about the race to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines; and the Oscar-nominated HBO short “When We Were Bullies” (March 30, 9 p.m.). The latter is a treatise on memory and social responsibility as filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt is reminded of a disturbing incident that happened at his elementary school 50 years before and tries to figure out why it bothers him so much a half-century later.

Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in “Slow Horses.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

Slow Horses (April 1, Apple TV)

The first couple of episodes of this series live up to the slow part of its name. After a pulse-pounding opening in which wet-behind-the-ears MI5 agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) fails to stop a terrorist from blowing up a train station, we’re thrust into so-called Slough House, a purgatory for second-rate and past-their-prime spies led by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), who calls his collection of rejects “M-I-fucking-useless.” Obviously, if River — sent down after his bomb fiasco, which was actually a training exercise — and his new colleagues were really useless we wouldn’t be watching the show, but it takes its time giving us a reason to care about these sad sacks. Once it does, though, it’s a decent enough spy caper, with Jackson and his charges sucked into a a case involving a young Muslim man, Hassan (Antonio Aakeel), kidnapped by a white supremacist group and an MI5 boss (Kristin Scott Thomas) who’s playing with Hassan’s life to score political points. “Horses” doesn’t reinvent the espionage wheel, but you’ll probably want to stick around to see how it all turns out. And you can do worse than to have an actor of Oldman’s calibre on your small screen.

From left, Darren Boyd, Rhianne Barreto, Christopher Walken, Clare Perkins, Gamba Cole
and Stephen Merchant in “The Outlaws.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios

The Outlaws (April 1, Prime Video)

I have to be honest, I didn’t like this show much after the first episode, which seemed an uneasy mix of comedy and drama with characters that were more like caricatures. Luckily, it gets better as we find out more about the very different people thrown together to do community service in Bristol, England, after committing petty crimes. Even insufferable businessman John (Darren Boyd), spouting reactionary, politically incorrect nonsense, starts to seem sympathetic. While trying to atone for their misdemeanours, the team gets drawn into a dangerous criminal mess involving a bag of stolen drug money. It seems a safe bet the misfits will all pull together to get out of the jam. Stephen Merchant, a co-creator with Ricky Gervais of shows like the original “The Office” and “Extras,” co-created this one and also stars as geeky lawyer Gregory. The marquee star is Christopher Walken, playing American draft dodger and forger Frank in his own inimitable manner. And keep an eye out for Jessica Gunning, who’s a hoot as corrections supervisor Diane.

Prime Video also has the space movie “Moonfall” (April 1), starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley of “Game of Thrones” as astronauts who have to save the Earth from colliding with the moon.

Odds and Ends

Disney Plus has yet another Marvel series debuting this week with “Moon Knight” (March 30), starring Oscar Isaac as a former Marine with dissociative identity disorder who gains the powers of an Egyptian moon god, and my apologies for not screening it for you, but I have kind of hit peak Marvel. Ethan Hawke also stars as villain Arthur Harrow. Also on the Disney slate this week, “Death on the Nile” (March 30), a film based on the Agatha Christie novel with Kenneth Branagh, who won an Oscar Sunday night for his screenplay for “Belfast,” both directing and starring as Hercule Poirot.

Netflix offerings this week include “The Bubble” (April 1), a film comedy about the cast and crew of a blockbuster movie sequel shooting the film while in a pandemic bubble. It’s got a big cast of proven comedy stars and Judd Apatow directed. Netflix also has Apollo 10-1/2: A Space Age Childhood (April 1), an animated film from “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater about a space-mad kid growing up in Houston around the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

If you’re into food reality shows, there’s a new competition series coming to Food Network Canada March 28 at at 10 p.m.: “Wall of Chefs” spinoff “Wall of Bakers,” in which amateur bakers battle for $10,000 and bragging rights.

Global TV has the new CBS comedy “How We Roll” (March 31, 9:30 p.m.), starring Pete Holmes as a Midwest father who gets laid off from his factory job and decides to become a professional bowler.

Finally, the Magnolia Network launches in Canada this week. The network, a creation of the popular home reno couple Chip and Joanna Gaines, offers a wide spectrum of lifestyle programming including the Gaines’ own “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” beginning March 30 at 9 p.m. See magnolianetwork.ca for the full slate of programming.

Watchable March 21-27, 2022

March 21, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK NO. 1: Pachinko (March 25, Apple TV Plus)

*Minha Kim* and Lee Min-Ho in “Pachinko.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

In a TV universe full of distractions, “Pachinko” is a show that demands your full attention.

Based on the 2017 novel by Korean-American author Min Jin Lee, it’s an epic on a sweeping scale but also a deeply human story that finds its power in small, intimate moments.

It shifts between 1915 when a girl named Sunja is born in the fishing village of Yeongdo in South Korea and 1989 when that girl’s grandson, an investment banker named Solomon (Jin Ha), returns from America to Osaka, Japan, where his family has settled.

The family’s personal dramas in the intervening years are played out against the colonization of Korea by the Japanese, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. It’s not a period of history that I expect non-Korean North Americans would know much about, but in the series the cruelty of that subjugation is a continuous thread. The Koreans are treated as second-class citizens in their own country and as less than human when they migrate to Japan for jobs.

For Sunja’s family, everything turns on an illicit romance between the teenage Sunja (Minha Kim) and the older Koh Hansu (Lee Min-Ho), a Korean man who has become rich by collaborating with the Japanese. When Sunja becomes pregnant and Hansu is unable to marry her, Sunja and her widowed mother Yangjin (Inji Jeong) face ruin.

The title “Pachinko,” a pinball-like arcade game that originated in Japan, is obviously a metaphor. Players sometimes win despite the fact the machines are rigged to make that more difficult.

In the case of Sunja, poor and uneducated though intelligent and intuitive, that lucky break comes in the form of Korean minister Isak (Steve Sang-Hyun Noh), a stranger in Yeongdo who nearly dies of tuberculosis but is nursed back to health by Yangjin. He offers to marry Sunja and give her baby a name. But the cost of being saved is Sunja leaving behind everything she knows and beginning a hand-to-mouth existence in Osaka with Isak’s unhappy brother Yoseb (Junwoo Han) and his wife Kyunghee (Jung Eun-chae).

I don’t want to give the impression it’s all doom and gloom, though. Love between the characters — familial love, friendship, romantic love, love of self and one’s culture — is woven throughout and uplifts the story.

Three wonderful actors play Sunja at various ages, including Yu-na Jeon as a child and Youn Yuh-jung, who won an Oscar for “Minari,” as an old woman, but Minha Kim is particularly affecting in her portrayal.

Two other things to note. I initially found the show’s jumps back and forth in time off-putting, particularly since it takes a while to tease out the importance of various characters, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

And do make sure you watch the opening credits, in which the lead actors joyously dance to the title song, the Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live for Today.”

SHOW OF THE WEEK NO. 2: Bridgerton (March 25, Netflix)

From left, Charithra Chandran, Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey in Season 2 of “Bridgerton.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Daniel/Netflix

I did not so much binge the eight new episodes of “Bridgerton” as devour them.

After all, we fans of the Chris Van Dusen-created, Shonda Rhimes-produced period romantic drama have been waiting 13 months for the new season, clearly not as long as, say, a “droughtlander” but long enough if you fell in love with the show in December 2020.

All the things that contributed to making the first season so delightful are back — colourful costumes, sumptuous sets, anachronistic music, humour, snappy dialogue, feminist underpinnings — but the most important ingredient is the romance.

Does it live up to the Season 1 wooing between Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page, who true to his word does not appear in the new season)? Yes, absolutely.

This season is all about Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the eldest of the seven Bridgerton siblings, who was left with a heavy burden after his father Edmund died when Anthony was still a teenager.

Alas, that crushing sense of duty has stunted Anthony emotionally. When he decides it’s time to do right as heir and find a wife, he’s not looking for a soul mate so much as checking boxes on a list.

Miss Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), charming, accomplished and pretty, fits the bill, having travelled from Bombay to London to find a husband with her widowed mother, Lady Mary (Shelley Conn), and stepsister Kate (Simone Ashley). She has also been anointed the season’s “diamond” by Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel).

But Kate wants a love match for Edwina and is determined to thwart Anthony. And there’s an even bigger obstacle: it’s clear from their first antagonistic meeting, when Anthony encounters Kate taking a very unladylike, early morning horse ride, that they’re meant to be together.

A big part of what makes this season so delicious is how long we have to wait for true love to bloom. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say that Anthony’s pursuit of Edwina gets very far along, almost to the point of no return. Meanwhile, the passion between him and Kate crackles off the screen with every longing glance and fleeting touch.

Anthony even gets his own Mr. Darcy emerging dripping wet from a pond moment (see “Pride and Prejudice,” 1995) when his unacknowledged ardour for Kate — and her corgi Newton — literally knocks him off his feet. (I have to assume that was Van Dusen’s homage to “P&P” since he told me that 1995 scene inspired his creation of “Bridgerton.”)

Whereas Daphne and Simon were enjoying newlywed sex by Episode 5 of the first season, here we have to wait till Episode 6 just to get a kiss and I’m not mad about that. The anticipation adds to the enjoyment.

Meanwhile, the series is generous with its other characters. We get lots more of the Queen, of Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), of Violet (Ruth Gemmell), Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), of Penelope Featherington, a.k.a. Lady Whistledown (Nicola Coughlan), and her best friend Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie). The marriage-averse Eloise even gets a love interest.

My favourite secondary character development, however, involves Lady Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), something of an avaricious laughing stock in Season 1. This season she gets to demonstrate her intelligence, her survival instincts and her devotion to her daughters.

And that brings me to one more point: love of family is an even bigger theme this season and one that gives the episodes a warmth that undercuts the catty frivolousness of the ton. Kate’s and Anthony’s determination to stifle their longings in the name of duty is motivated by their devotion to their families, no matter how wrongheaded and shortsighted it may be.

Watching “Bridgerton” might feel like a guilty pleasure, but there’s some substance behind the froth.

Short Takes

Sammy Azero and Mo Zeighami in “Tehranto.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Canadian Film Fest

Canadian Film Fest (March 22 to April 2, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)

Ten Canadian-made feature films and 28 shorts make up the third annual edition of this virtual festival. The opener is “Tehranto” by Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Faran Moradi. It’s a love story between Badi (Sammy Azero), who came with his family to Toronto after the Iranian Revolution, and Canadian-born Sharon (Mo Zeighami), whose Iranian parents came to Toronto via Europe. Differences of class — Sharon’s parents are well off while Badi’s father delivers pizza — and culture, between Iranians born there and here, complicate the relationship. See superchannel.ca for the full festival slate. Each movie is preceded by an introduction and a short film.

John Cameron Mitchell as Joe Exotic in “Joe vs. Carole.” PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Taylor/Peacock

Joe vs. Carole (March 23, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

The first question that comes to mind about this Peacock limited series is “Why?” The answer is likely that in March 2020, when the show went into development, it seemed like a good idea since the Netflix docuseries “Tiger King” about Joe Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, and his nemesis Carole Baskin seemed like all anyone could talk about. But two years later, an eight-part dramedy about the feud between the Oklahoma private zoo keeper and the Florida animal rights activist seems like overkill. It’s not that it’s badly done. John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon certainly give the roles of the two combatants their all. Mitchell is particularly captivating as Joe Exotic, disappearing into the part. Unfortunately, you never really lose sight of the fact you’re watching Kate McKinnon play Carole. And the supporting characters, including John Finlay (Sam Keeley), John Reinke (Brian Van Holt) and Travis Maldonado (Nat Wolff), pale in comparison to their real-life counterparts. But if you can’t get enough of the “Tiger King” story have at ‘er.

Alex Mallari Jr. and Rong Fu in “Hello (Again).” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC Gem

Hello (Again) and Homeschooled (March 25, CBC Gem)

The beauty of web series is that, for creators, they offer a more accessible way of getting content in front of eyeballs and, for viewers, they don’t involve a massive time commitment. Of course, “Hello (Again)” comes with a built-in guarantee of interest given that it was co-created by a man who is currently one of the most famous Canadians in the world: Simu Liu, a.k.a. Marvel superhero Shang-Chi. “Hello (Again)” comes from an idea he hatched when he was still on “Kim’s Convenience,” developed with Nathalie Younglai, a writer on “Coroner.” Over nine 10-minute episodes, line cook Jayden (Alex Mallari Jr.) begins and ends a romance with medical resident Avery (Rong Fu) but gets to try to set things right — repeatedly — after an encounter with a child no one else can hear or see. The series offers good-natured humour, quintessential Toronto scenes and a charismatic leading man. “Homeschooled,” created by Karen Knox and Gwenlyn Cumyn, offers delightfully quirky characters, led by home-schooled best friends Greta (Veronika Slowikowska) and Farzanah (Eman Ayaz) as they extol their own “rare creativity and scholastic genius” while reviling the “trads,” i.e. kids who go to regular school.

Odds and Ends

One of the most anticipated debuts of the week is the very long awaited third and final season of Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” (March 24, 10 p.m., FX), which sees Earn (Glover), Van (Zazie Beetz) and Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) accompanying Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) on his tour of Europe. But first, the season opens with an episode about a Black boy (Christopher Farrar) and two white foster mothers that very effectively demonstrates the downsides of white saviourism.

I wasn’t able to get an advance look at it, but “Canada’s Got Talent” is coming to Citytv (March 22, 8 p.m.) and appears to be a chip off the “America’s Got Talent” block, which Canadian viewers gobble up, unlike the version that aired in 2012. “AGT” vet Howie Mandel is one of the judges for the homegrown spinoff along with Lilly Singh, Kardinal Offishall and Trish Stratus. Country singer Lindsay Ell is host.

Crave has French-language crime drama “Une Affaire Criminelle” (“A Criminal Affair”) (March 23) as well as the movie “Moonshot” (March 24), about a couple of college students who head to Mars.

Disney Plus has sci-fi series “Parallels” (March 23), about four teenage friends who are sent into separate timelines by a mysterious event.

Watchable March 14-20, 2022

March 14, 2022 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Sanditon (March 20, 9 p.m., PBS)

Rosie Graham as Alison Heywood, Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood and Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe in “Sanditon” Season 2. PHOTO CREDIT: Joss Barratt/Red Planet

It’s a good time to be a fan of period drama. “The Gilded Age” is still releasing weekly episodes. “Outlander” just came back. “Bridgerton” debuts its second season next week and, this week, we have the second season of “Sanditon.”

(If you’d like to read more on the current period drama renaissance, here’s the feature I wrote about it for the Toronto Star.)

I confess I was slow to appreciate “Sanditon.” As a devoted Jane Austen fan, I was put off by the idea of a show taking liberties with her last, unfinished novel. Turns out I was as wrongheaded as Mr. Darcy underestimating the charms of Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

Set in a beautiful seaside location, “Sanditon” had it all: drama, comedy, tragedy, rich people, villainous people, kind-hearted people, ridiculous people and, of course, romance. Make that thwarted romance since the season ended with smouldering hero Sidney Parker (Theo James) having to give up heroine Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) to marry a rich former flame and save brother Tom Parker (Kris Marshall) from ruin.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that James chose not to return to “Sanditon.” That means Sidney isn’t returning either. I don’t want to spoil things by telling you exactly how the show addresses his exit in Season 2. Let’s just say there is absolutely no chance of Sidney ever coming back, that this is made clear in the opening minutes of the new season and that the manner of his exit will be a plot thread thoughout.

The good news is that Charlotte herself is back in Sanditon, along with the other characters you remember and a few new ones to keep the drama humming along.

Tom Parker’s resort has been rebuilt after the Season 1 fire and spendthrift Tom appears to have turned over a new leaf when it comes to financial responsibility.

Heiress Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke) is still rejecting all efforts to get her married off, organizing a sugar boycott to protest slavery, and secretly mourning the paramour whose gambling debts got her kidnapped and sold to a brute in Season 1.

Esther (Charlotte Spencer), now Lady Babington, has returned to spend the summer with her aunt Lady Denham (Anne Reid) and, though happily married to the absent Lord Babington (Mark Stanley was unable to rejoin the cast this season), is deeply unhappy about her inability to have a child.

Another absent actor is Alexandra Roach, who played the hypochondriac Diana Parker. This is good news because it means her brother Arthur (Turlough Convery) gets to play a much bigger and less ridiculous role.

If you’re worried about the romance this season, don’t be. Charlotte, though still mourning Sidney and leaning toward spinsterhood, has two new suitors: Colonel Lennox (Tom Weston-Jones), leader of the regiment of redcoats who have taken up residence in town; and Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), the stand-offish rich man for whom she works, having taken a job as governess to his troubled daughter and niece.

There’s also a potential romantic interest for Georgiana: artist Charles Lockhart (Alexander Vlahos), a bohemian sort with no interest in society’s boundaries. And Charlotte has brought her sister Alison (Rosie Graham) to Sanditon, who’s smitten with redcoat Captain Carter (Maxim Ays), although we can all see that Captain Fraser (Frank Blake) is the better man for her.

It’s a lot and I haven’t even touched on the return of villains Edward Denham (Jack Fox) and Clara Brereton (Lily Sacofsky), or the enmity between Colonel Lennox and Alexander Colbourne, one of whom may turn out to be a villain.

While it’s been said that period dramas provide an escape to a simpler time, I’m not entirely sure that’s true. Certainly there’s nothing simple about the gender restrictions that Charlotte, Alison and Georgiana have to navigate, something of which Austen would have been all too aware, nor the emotional pain of Esther’s infertility, something any modern want-to-be mother could relate to. The series even touches on gender identity through the character of Leonora Colbourne (Flora Mitchell), a young girl who’s more comfortable dressing as a boy and playing pirate.

But, obviously, the characters’ imperfect humanity is what makes “Sanditon” such a treat to watch.

Short Takes

Evan Rachel Wood with a fellow survivor in “Phoenix Rising.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

Phoenix Rising (March 15, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

If you pay attention to the news, you’re no doubt already familiar with actor Evan Rachel Wood’s accusations of torture, rape and abuse against musician Marilyn Manson. But this two-part documentary makes those allegations feel visceral in a way that merely reading about them cannot. It follows Wood in 2019 as she and other activists campaign for the Phoenix Act, which changed the statute of limitations on domestic violence crimes in California from three to five years (the activists had asked for 10), and culminates on Feb. 1, 2020, the day Wood named Manson as her abuser. Bolstered by video, photos, Wood’s journal entries and the testimony of other survivors, the doc traces the trajectory of the actor’s terrorization from grooming and love-bombing (Wood was just 18 when she met the 37-year-old Manson) to isolation from family and friends, physical and sexual assault, death threats, starvation, sleep deprivation and complete psychological subjugation. But her abuser is not the only one implicated. The doc, directed by Amy Berg (“Deliver Us From Evil,” “The Case Against Adnan Syed”), touches on Wood’s dysfunctional upbringing, during which she was taught that romantic love was sometimes expressed through violence; her sexualization by the media after the teenage-girls-behaving-badly movie “Thirteen”; and a culture in which the abusive acts of famous men are enabled and excused. Wood would have been within her rights to keep her pain and fear to herself; she seems to genuinely want to help other victims by speaking out. It must be noted that Manson denies all allegations of abuse, has not been charged with any crimes and has sued Wood for defamation of character.

Evil by Design: Surviving Nygard (March 17, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

The idea of a rich, powerful man having young women and girls procured for his sexual gratification no doubt sounds very familiar to anyone who followed the Jeffrey Epstein case, but this three-part docuseries is about a case that’s much closer to home, that of former Finnish-Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard. He is currently in jail in Toronto awaiting trial on six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement, although he denies all allegations. He also faces nine counts in New York City. The doc gives voice to victims, former employees, whistleblowers and journalists who covered the case, going as far back as 1996 when the Winnipeg Free Press published a front-page story alleging sexual harassment by Nygard. The question that comes up in the first episode, the only one I was given access to, is why this was allowed to go on for so long, considering there were allegations dating back to the 1970s. Power and money are at least two of the answers. “Evil” may seem like a strong word, but it also seems an apt one when you consider the decades of trauma described by the victims.

CBC Gem also has the docuseries “Real Blackity Talk” (March 18), in which Burundian-Canadian sisters Aiza and Kamana Ntibarikure try to empower other Black women and non-binary people with the help of “Blaxperts” and a lot of positive talk.

Jake Johnson as Doug and Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce in “Minx.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Katrina Marcinowski/ HBO Max

Minx (March 17, 10 p.m., Crave)

Sometimes you just want the TV you watch to be fun, perhaps even a little naughty. “Minx” fits that description. It’s the story of a fictional erotic magazine for women founded in the 1970s in the San Fernando Valley. Think a faux Playgirl, except instead of being created by a man, “Minx” is the pet project of Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond, “Feel Good”), a devoted young feminist who dreams of winning a Pulitzer and being feted by her heroine, Gloria Steinem. But when publishers run the other way from her opus, humourlessly titled “The Matriarchy Awakens,” Joyce throws in her lot with porn publisher Doug (Jake Johnson, “New Girl”), who convinces her she needs to “hide the medicine” of her feminist dogma in some peanut butter — and by peanut butter, he means penises. As Joyce tells the holier than thou councilwoman who’s trying to shut Doug’s entire operation down, “It’s just penises. It’s silly and fun” and the same could be said of “Minx.” Sure, the show touches on serious topics like feminism, misogyny and women taking charge of their own sexuality, but the medicine goes down smoothly and entertainingly. Lovibond and Johnson make earnest Joyce and laidback Doug likeable and multi-dimensional, and the supporting cast is terrific too, including Lennon Parham as Joyce’s open-minded housewife sister Shelly, Jessica Lowe as bimbo with a brain Bambi, Oscar Montoya as photographer Richie, Taylor Zakhar Perez as centrefold Shane and Idara Victor as Doug’s right-hand woman Tina.

Crave also has the graphic novel adaptation “DMZ” (March 17, Crave), executive-produced by Ava DuVernay, which unfortunately I was not able to get to. It stars Rosario Dawson as a medic searching for her son in a future Manhattan, a dangerous demilitarized zone in an America engulfed in civil war.

Also, if you didn’t catch the Oscar-nominated “Dune” by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve in the theatre, it makes its Crave debut on March 18.

Olly Rix as Matthew Aylward and Helen George as Nurse Trixie Franklin in “Call the Midwife.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Nealstreet Productioons

Call the Midwife (March 20, 8 p.m., PBS)

If you haven’t already been following this sentimental drama about midwives in a poor London neighbourhood in the 1950s and ’60s, then this post isn’t for you. If you have, you’ll be relieved to know that Season 11 follows the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle, by which I mean it has the usual mix of gentle humour, beloved characters and medical situations that are sure to cause at least one bout of tears before each episode is through. The season opens at Easter 1967. The dramas range from the inconsequential — in the season premiere, ceiling rot at Nonnatus House drives Nurse Corrigan (Megan Cusack) into Trixie’s room (Helen George) — to the deadly serious: the remains of two newborn babies are found in the building that landlord Matthew (Olly Rix) is having renovated. As always, whether it’s making us laugh or cry, the series’ deep humanity shines through.

PBS also has the thriller “Before We Die” (March 20, 10 p.m.), starring Lesley Sharp (“Scott & Bailey”) as a police detective for whom a murder investigation is particularly personal.

Odds and Ends

It’s often said that people on different sides of an issue don’t know how to talk to each other. Conversation between political opponents is the raison d’être of “Political Blind Date,” which launches its fifth and final season on TVO March 15 at 9 p.m. (also on tvo.org and YouTube). This season, it’s not just politicians batting around issues. For instance, Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton and UNIFOR president Jerry Dias discuss the future of unionism in one episode. Other topics include anti-Black racism, the treatment of military veterans, how Canadian history marginalizes Indigenous people, homelessness and the opioid crisis.

If I’d had a chance to preview anything coming to Netflix this week, “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives” (March 16) would have been it. It tells the strange but true story of former vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis and her downfall after she married a man who claimed he could make her dog immortal. Also on Netflix, the animated “Big Mouth” spinoff “Human Resources” (March 18) and the reality series “Is It Cake?” (March 18), in which cake artists try to fool celebrity judges with baked goods that look like everyday objects.

Apple TV Plus has a show featuring not one, but two Oscar winners, “WeCrashed” (March 18). Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway portray former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and his wife Rebekah. It’s the latest in a string of TV series about dodgy entrepreneurs, including “The Dropout” and “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.” To be honest, I was underwhelmed by what I saw, but since I only watched three of the nine episodes, I didn’t feel I could give it a full and fair review.

Disney Plus has the new series “Life & Beth” (March 18), which stars Amy Schumer (who also created the show, wrote and directed) as a seemingly successful woman who has to come to terms with her past after she gets earth-shattering news.

Global TV has the new reality show “Beyond the Edge” (March 16, 9 p.m., also on StackTV), in which celebrities like former “Bachelor” Colton Underwood, “American Idol” runner-up Lauren Alaina, Real Housewife of New York Eboni K. Williams and former supermodel Paulina Porizkova spend two weeks in the Panamanian jungle to raise money for charity.

CTV and CTV.ca have the concert special “An Audience With Adele,” filmed at London’s Palladium, on March 20 at 9 p.m.

Tag: TV reviews (Page 5 of 8)

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

Watchable on Crave, Disney Plus May 9 to 15, 2022

Watchable on Crave, Prime Video May 2 to 8, 2022

Watchable on Netflix, Crave April 25 to May 1, 2022

Watchable on Crave, W, Netflix, AMC April 18 to 24, 2022

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, BritBox April 11-17, 2022

Watchable on Crave, Netflix, Hollywood Suite April 4-10, 2022

Watchable March 28-April 3, 2022

Watchable March 21-27, 2022

Watchable March 14-20, 2022

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta