Tag: TV reviews (Page 7 of 8)

Watchable Dec. 13 to 19, 2021

December 13, 2021 / Debra Yeo

First things first, this will be my last Watchable list until Jan. 3, 2022, so I’ll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year now. Secondly, I don’t have a show of the week this week but have devoted the most space to reviewing “And Just Like That . . .” which I was unable to do last week as I didn’t yet have the screeners.

And Like Just That . . . (Crave)

Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis in “And Just Like That . . .”
PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

WARNING: If you haven’t yet watched “And Just Like That . . .” stop reading now. There is a major spoiler ahead.

My feeling after watching three of four episodes of this “Sex and the City” reboot is less “it’s great to see these women again” than “why am I seeing these women again?”

It’s not that I have an aversion to characters aging. I would welcome more shows that focus on 50-something women. And there are things that ring true here — like the sense when someone you love dies that you actually knew very little about them, or how marriage can slide into a comfortable but sexless companionship — but there are also things that don’t, like Miranda’s drinking problem and her patronizing cluelessness around her Black law professor Nya (Karen Pittman).

There’s also a sense that characters like that professor, or Charlotte’s Black school parent friend and gender non-conforming daughter, have been shoehorned in just to make the show less white and straight. (The most well-rounded new addition is Sara Ramirez as non-binary podcast host Che, although even she seems less her own person and more a means to advance Carrie’s and Miranda’s storylines.)

This series, like the original, is at its best when it’s focused on the friendship between the main characters, but therein also lies its biggest problem: the absence of Samantha (Kim Cattrall).

To have Samantha move to London after an argument with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) probably seemed kinder than killing her off, but it’s also a betrayal of the character. Would Samantha really have cut all ties not just with Carrie, but also Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), over a professional disagreement? And, I’m sorry, but having her send flowers to a funeral doesn’t solve the problem.

The bigger issue is that you can’t help but feel Samantha’s (and Cattrall’s) absence in every scene between the other three. If there were any doubt that Samantha was the heart and soul of “Sex and the City” it’s now been laid to rest.

And speaking of laying to rest, the show gets its water-cooler moment with the death of Mr. Big (Chris Noth) in the first episode after a particularly vigorous workout on his Peloton bike, a death that seems simultaneously contrived and inevitable. Maybe Noth was too busy with other jobs to stick around for 10 episodes; maybe the writers felt a grieving Carrie would give them more to work with than a happily married one, I don’t know.

But Carrie’s grief sometimes feels less like an honest examination of what it’s like to suddenly lose a spouse and more about showcasing her fashion sense — the tasteful funeral ensemble, the high heels she wears as she soothes herself by walking endlessly around the city — and bringing back characters you might not even remember (Susan Sharon, Natasha).

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the show. I’ll probably even watch all 10 episodes if I have the time. But as I watched the first three, I couldn’t shake the feeling it was trying a little too hard to justify its existence.

“Sex and the City” was landmark, groundbreaking TV, a show that many of us rightfully adore. But the TV landscape is so much different now than it was in 1998. You have to know when to hang up the Manolos.

Short Takes

Pop and Ma Larkin (Bradley Walsh and Joanna Scanlan), right, and their brood in “The Larkins.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Objective Fiction/Genial Productions

The Larkins (Dec. 13, Acorn)

Unless you’re a snotty aristocrat, you’ll probably be charmed by the Larkin family. Ma and Pop (Joanna Scanlan and “Coronation Street” vet Bradley Walsh) and their six kids live on a farm in an uproar of animals and salvage and vast quantities of food but also a huge amount of love. Pop may be a schemer — one does wonder how he acquired so much land and ready cash — but he’s smart and shrewd as well as kind and generous. Alas, their idyllic lifestyle is threatened when vindictive blue blood Alec Norman (Tony Gardner) sics a tax collector on them. But the family launches a charm offensive on tax man Charley (Tok Stephen), with beautiful daughter Mariette (Sabrina Barlett) as their secret weapon. Although this adaptation, like the source novel “The Darling Buds of May,” is set in 1958, the fact that this is 2021 means some period-appropriate updates. Charley is Black, for instance, and neighbour the Brigadier is Indian, and Pop doesn’t pinch or caress every woman he meets, as he does in the book.

Uruguayan Canadian architect Carlos Ott, left, in a scene from “Building Bastille.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Zoot Pictures

Building Bastille (Dec. 14, 9 p.m., TVO)

If someone pitched the story of how an unknown Uruguayan Canadian architect who had never actually built anything before somehow won the commission for a grand new Paris opera house, it might seem too far-fetched for fiction, but that is indeed what happened to Carlos Ott. This doc details the saga: the blind competition he won in 1983 (possibly because the jury thought his design was actually by famed American architect Richard Meier); the fact he almost got sent back home just hours after arriving in Paris because of an expired passport; the team of student architects and Toronto colleagues he quickly rounded up, working day and night to meet a 30-day deadline to submit drawings; the Herculean task of building the world’s most technically advanced opera house; the fact the project was nearly scrapped partway through due to French political rivalries. As one observer says, “This was brain surgery and you’ve never seen a brain before.” But against all odds, the Opera Bastille opened to acclaim on July 14, 1989, the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison that kick-started the French Revolution.

Rob Collins as Tyson in “Firebite.” PHOTO CREDIT: Ian Routledge/AMC Plus

Firebite (Dec. 16, AMC Plus)

Pop culture has given us sparkly vampires, sexy vampires, lovelorn vampires, vampires that make us laugh and ones that spread viruses, to name a few. This Australian import gives us vampires who are symbols of colonialism. Set in the Australian outback, its heroes are a disgruntled Aboriginal teenager and her somewhat shiftless legal guardian. They hunt and kill the “suckers” that live underground in tunnels left behind by white settlers who stripped the land for opals. In a class presentation, for which she’s ridiculed by a white bully, Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) says the original vamps were brought to Oz in the hold of a British ship as part of a deliberate plan to kill off the “Black fellows.” But it’s Indigenous hunters like her and Tyson (Rob Collins) who seem the best chance of keeping the vamps from overrunning the human population, particularly after the vampire king (Callan Mulvey) takes the bus into town (yes, in an example of the show’s humour, new vampires arrive by public transportation). A mix of gory action, laughs, character drama and political message, the show was co-created by Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton.

Odds and Ends

Mahershala Ali with Awkwafina in “Swan Song.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

I didn’t have a chance to screen this, but anything that stars the wonderful Mahershala Ali tends to get a pass from me. In the Apple TV Plus original movie “Swan Song” (Dec. 17), he stars as a husband and father diagnosed with a terminal illness. Glenn Close co-stars.

Given that “Snowbird” is one of the first singles I remember listening to on my parents’ turntable, I would be remiss not to mention “Anne Murray: Full Circle” (Dec. 17, 8 p.m., CBC), a documentary about one of Canada’s most successful female performers.

Can taking off your clothes change your life for the better? “Finding Magic Mike” (Dec. 16, Crave) would like us to think so. This reality competition takes 10 men, chosen from an initial group of 50, and preps them to perform in the “Magic Mike Live” show in Vegas, a spinoff of the movie franchise. One will win a $100,000 prize. They aren’t your typical beefcakes, but the show will do its best to help them get their sexy on.

Among Netflix’s offerings this week are the new real estate porn series “Selling Tampa” (Dec. 15) and Season 2 of “The Witcher” (Dec. 17).

Disney Plus has “Foodtastic” (Dec. 15), in which contestants create edible art by making Disney scenes out of food.

Amazon Prime Video gives us “With Love” (Dec. 17), a family dramedy that follows a pair of Mexican American siblings, one straight, one gay, and their loved ones through holidays, beginning with Christmas.

BritBox has the North American premiere of “Crime” (Dec. 14), a detective drama starring Dougray Scott as a cop with demons (aren’t they all?) investigating the disappearance of a schoolgirl.

EDITED to include the Anne Murray documentary.

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 some shows that I have not watched.

Watchable Dec. 6 to 12, 2021

December 6, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Expanse (Dec. 10, Amazon Prime Video)

From left, Wes Chatham, Steven Strait and Dominique Tipper in “The Expanse” with Nadine Nicole
and Frankie Adams in the background. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Studios

If you’re going to go out, might as well be with a bang than a whimper, which is how “The Expanse” does it in its supposed final season.

There’s been speculation the sci-fi drama could go on were it to find yet another host network — it was rescued by Amazon after Syfy’s cancellation at the end of its third season — but if this six-episode Season 6 is all viewers get, it’s acquitted itself well.

As it begins, we’re dropped into the middle of the war between the Free Navy — the renegade group of Belters led by Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander, rocking a serious man bun) — Earth and Mars.

Earth has found a way to destroy the asteroids with which Inaros has been bombarding the planet, killing millions, but at the expense of keeping its ships pinned down and unable to pursue Marcos.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that situation won’t last and that when the fight comes, the Rocinante is at the heart of it.

Dedicated fans will be gratified to see Holden (Steven Strait), Naomi (Dominique Tipper) and Amos (Wes Chatham) reunited aboard the Roci.

Though Alex is gone — killed off at the end of Season 5 after actor Cas Anvar was accused of sexual misconduct — he’s not forgotten, with his crew mates making it clear that he’s missed.

And that’s kind of important because without the bonds between these characters, “The Expanse” wouldn’t be the show that it is, one that its fans love so passionately they refused to let it die back in 2018.

It’s also a strength of this season that time is taken amid the action to check in with the characters and their relationships. Part of that involves grappling with the guilt they carry, whether it’s Naomi’s over the son she chose to leave with the Free Navy or Clarissa Mao’s (Nadine Nicole) over the many deaths she’s caused.

It’s a point worth making that violence has a spiritual and psychological as well as a physical cost.

“The Expanse” continues to give ample attention and agency to its female characters, not only Naomi and Clarissa but Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams), Camina Drummer (Cara Gee) and the indomitable Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo).

The downside is that, with just six episodes, plot developments really speed along, especially in the finale. There are also some loose ends, including an arc on the planet Laconia that gets a fair bit of attention but not a conclusion, as well as a key character we see abandoning the final battle and flying off solo to parts unknown.

But that’s also good news if “The Expanse” does get more seasons since it provides some built-in starting points. If this is all we get, though, it leaves viewers and the characters they’ve cared so deeply about in a good place.

Short Takes

Olivia Colman as Susan Edwards in “Landscapers” PHOTO CREDIT: Stefania Rosini/HBO

Landscapers (Dec. 6, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

One question nags at you when you begin to watch this miniseries: how could the innocuous-looking, somewhat dotty couple it portrays have murdered her parents, buried them in the backyard, and lived off their pensions and other money for 15 years? I only had time to screen one of the four episodes of “Landscapers,” but I presume that becomes clearer in the other three. Olivia Colman (“Broadchurch,” “The Crown”) and David Thewlis (“Harry Potter,” “Fargo”) play Susan and Christopher Edwards, a real-life British couple serving life sentences for the murders of William and Patricia Wycherley in 1998. This isn’t the kind of crime procedural we’re used to seeing. It blends scenes of the Edwards, broke and living in France as the series opens, and of the Nottingham detectives who are on their trail with fantasy sequences involving actor Gary Cooper, with whom Susan is obsessed, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the miniseries production. In real life, the couple spent most of the money they stole from her parents on memorabilia of Cooper and other Hollywood stars. As played by Colman, Susan seems to have a tenuous grasp on reality but an unshakeable bond with devoted husband Christopher, which makes this a love story as well as a crime one.

Actor Will Smith observes swimming sea cucumber from a sub deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
PHOTO CREDIT: National Geographic for Disney Plus

Welcome to Earth (Dec. 8, Disney Plus)

There is a whole subgenre of TV shows about the wonders of the planet, but this one has something the rest don’t have: charismatic actor Will Smith as a guide. Smith, who’s got to be one of the most popular actors in the world, joins explorers on a tour of what Disney calls “some of the most thrilling spectacles on the planet.” In the first episode, which I screened, that involves climbing into a tiny submarine and plunging more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean — marine biologist Diva Amon says fewer people have been to the bottom of the ocean than have gone into space. Smith gets to see wondrous bioluminescent creatures as the sub hovers a few inches above the sea bed. And yes, it would be terrifying to know the only thing protecting you from death at the bottom of the ocean is about six inches of plastic. The episode breaks off from Smith’s adventure to profile other wonders that can only be seen in the dark, including a moonbow over the Iquazu Falls in Brazil. But as fascinating as those other sights are, I suspect viewers will be most engaged when Smith is onscreen. The show doesn’t have an overt environmental message, at least not in the episode I saw, but it’s impossible to watch this sort of program and not think of the threat to the Earth and everything on it posed by climate change.

Odds and Ends

Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis in “And Just Like That. . .”
PHOTO CREDIT: HBO Max via Bell Media

I’m not gonna lie, “And Just Like That. . .” (Dec. 9, Crave) is the show I’m most curious about this week. As a devoted “Sex and the City” viewer I want to know if this sequel measures up, especially with the absence of Kim Cattrall. I didn’t get an advance look, however, so I’ll just have to wait and see.

Crave also has the premiere of “1 Queen 5 Queers” (Dec. 9), which stars “Canada’s Drag Race” judge Brooke Lynn Hytes, leading panel discussions on sex, relationships, pop culture and other issues of interest to the LGBTQ community.

Global TV has a sneak peek episode of “Abbott Elementary” (Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.), an ABC mockumentary comedy about teachers in a Philadelphia grade school.

YouTube has the third instalment of “Bear Witness, Take Action” (Dec. 6, 7, 8), a series of short films made from the perspective of Black creators and hosted by Common and Keke Palmer.

Netflix’s offerings include the animation-live action hybrid comedy “Saturday Morning All Star Hits” (Dec. 10) starring Kyle Mooney of “Saturday Night Live” in a parody of 1980s and ’90s Saturday morning TV; “Voir” (Dec. 6), a series of visual essays celebrating cinema; the reality series “Twentysomethings: Austin” (Dec. 10); the comedy special “Nicole Byer: BBW (Big Beautiful Weirdo)” (Dec. 6) and a whack of other stuff.

If you like fish-out-of-water and/or redemption comedies, Acorn has the series “Under the Vines” (Dec. 6), in which a man bequeaths a failing New Zealand vineyard to his stepdaughter, a broke Australian socialite (Rebecca Gibney), and his nephew, a disgraced British lawyer (Charles Edwards, “The Crown”). Naturally, they make the illogical decision to give it a go.

Watchable Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2021

November 29, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Rescue (Dec. 3, Disney Plus)

Cave divers in a scene from documentary “The Rescue.” PHOTO CREDIT: National Geographic

“Miracle” is a word that gets overused, but it seems apt for what happened in 2018, when 12 boys and their soccer coach were rescued after 18 days deep inside a flooded cave system in Thailand.

This National Geographic documentary by “Free Solo” filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin plays like a thriller as it tells the story of the rescue operation and underlines just how impossible the mission truly seemed.

It’s also a life-affirming piece of programming that will make you feel good about humanity.

The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their assistant coach had gone exploring in the 10-kilometre Tham Luang cave system after a soccer game on June 23, 2018, but the monsoon rains that usually started in July came early, flooding the already saturated limestone caves and trapping the group about four kilometres from the entrance.

When Thai Navy SEALs, ill-equipped for diving in those conditions, were unable to locate the boys, British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were brought in. It was they who discovered the group alive on a rock shelf and shared video of them that was seen around the world.

But as Rick says in the doc, “The whole journey back all I was thinking was what on earth are we going to do now?”

In fact, the pair had already rescued four adult pump workers who’d been trapped in a different part of the cave, bringing them out using regulators, and those relatively short dives turned into “an underwater wrestling match” as the men panicked, imperilling both rescuer and rescued. So how on earth would they keep 12 children and one adult calm during two- to three-hour dives?

Rick and John didn’t think it could be done, but other options — including drilling a new cave entrance or leaving the boys there until the monsoons ended in October — seemed just as impossible.

The answer was to anesthetize them and dive them out unconscious, which seemed preposterous to Richard Harris, a fellow diver and anesthetist from Australia called in to do the drugging. He said there were 100 ways that a child could die during the trip.

But with more heavy rains in the forecast and the boys’ oxygen supply dwindling, it was either that or leave all of them to certain death.

If you’re familiar with the news reports of the time you’ll know that all 13 team mates made it out alive, but the doc — which combines actual footage of the operation with re-enacted scenes — makes it clear just how perilous the rescue was and how wrong it could have gone.

Just a few days after the last of the children were saved the cave completely flooded and remained inaccessible for eight months.

And here’s something else that tends to the miraculous: two days before Rick and John found the children, when they were so convinced they were already dead that they were considering flying back to England, a revered monk named Kruba Boonchum visited the site and said the children were alive, that they would escape the cave but that two lives might be sacrificed.

Two lives were: a diver and former Thai SEAL named Saman Kunan died during the mission; another diver named Beirut Pakbara died more than a year later from a blood infection contracted during the rescue.

While the doc focuses heavily on Rick and John and their fellow cave divers, thousands of people played a part in the operation, including almost 5,000 Thais, and military and civilian volunteers from several other nations.

As one of the Thai officials says in the film, “All you need is generosity and a united effort, and you will succeed.”

I had hoped to post an actual review today of the three-part “The Beatles: Get Back,” which debuted on Nov. 25, 26 and 27, but since I didn’t get the screeners till Monday and since I was on vacation last week and since it involved almost eight hours of viewing under very restrictive conditions (like, I had to make sure my computer screen was angled so that no one else could see it; hope cats don’t count), I was able to get through only the first part, which itself was more than two and a half hours. I can tell you that I found it fascinating and poignant, that it gave me a whole new respect for Ringo Starr, and that I do plan to catch up on the other two parts when time permits.

Short Takes

*Laura Fraser*, *Eiry Thomas*, *Julie Hesmondhalgh* and Heledd Gwynn in “The Pact.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now

The Pact (Dec. 2, Sundance Now/AMC Plus)

I missed the boat on this miniseries when it debuted on Super Channel Fuse in October (and where you can still catch it on demand), but I’m caught up now. It is in some respects a standard Britcrime series with a murder to be solved, a twisty plot and an ending you likely won’t see coming. What sets it apart is that the drama is intertwined with a tale of female friendship. Anna (Laura Fraser, “Breaking Bad,” “The Loch”), Nancy (Julie Hesmondhalgh, “Coronation Street”), Louie (Eiry Thomas) and Cat (Heledd Gwynn) all work at the local brewery, leading relatively unremarkable lives until the night of the brewery’s centennial party, when they decide to play a prank on their nasty boss (Aneurin Barnard, “Dunkirk,” “The White Queen”). When he turns up dead, the women panic and make a pact to hide what they’ve done, but the situation spins out of their control when the police discover he’s been murdered. The ending, for me, required some suspension of disbelief, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

Colton Underwood in a screen grab from the trailer for “Coming Out Colton.”

Coming Out Colton (Dec. 3, Netflix)

Whether or not you were surprised when former “Bachelor” Colton Underwood came out as gay earlier this year, I’d wager you were at least curious about why a gay man would go on a heterosexual reality show to find a wife. The answer, according to this docuseries, is that for a young Catholic man who grew up without gay role models in a small Illinois town, who absorbed the homophobia of locker rooms as a high school, college and then professional football player, the desire to be straight was powerful enough to drive him to pretend to be so on national TV. This six-episode series shows Colton coming out to his family and friends — and to the world via his “Good Morning America” interview — and trying to find himself and his place within the larger gay community. I get why there’s backlash over the series, both because of Colton’s stalking and harassment of ex-girlfriend Cassie Randolph (which he addresses in the show) and because, as a white, cisgender man, he has a platform denied to many other LGBTQ people. And there’s no question his privilege made coming out easier than it might otherwise have been, but it’s also clear that years of self-denial took a toll on him (including a suicide attempt) and that he seems genuinely willing to make amends for past mistakes. It’s also possible his story will help some other scared, closeted kid out there.

Netflix also has Season 3 of “Lost in Space” (Dec. 1). As it opens, the children of the colonists have been separated from their parents for a year since last season’s robot attack on their ship. And the robots are still out there and they’re gunning for Will Robinson (Maxwell Jenkins).

Odds and Ends

The submarine crew of animated children’s series “Big Blue.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

CBC Kids and CBC Gem have “Big Blue” (Dec. 4), an animated series that’s meant to “help children understand about the importance of taking care of our planet and each other.” Created by Ghanaian Canadian artist Gyimah Gariba, it follows a submarine crew on underwater adventures, led by Black sister and brother Lettie and Lemo.

The big gun in terms of holiday programming this week is “Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues” (Dec. 3, Apple TV Plus), in which the so-called Queen of Christmas performs her new single “Fall in Love at Christmas” among other songs; hangs with guests like Khalid and Kirk Franklin, and gives an interview alongside her 10-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe.

Also in the holiday spirit and closer to home is “The Original Santa Claus Parade” (Dec. 4, 7 p.m., CTV, CTV 2, CP24), filmed inside Canada’s Wonderland and featuring guest performances by Ed Sheeran, Carrie Underwood and more.

If you’re in the mood for more Christmas stuff, Crave has the HBO Max animated series “Santa Inc.” (Dec. 2), about an elf (Sarah Silverman) who’s vying to become the first female Santa Claus.

Crave also has the limited U.K. series “Vigil” (Dec. 5), which I didn’t get to screen. It involves a disappeared fishing trawler and a death on a submarine, and it stars Suranne Jones (“Gentleman Jack,” “Scott & Bailey”) and Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones”), and shares a couple of executive producers with Brit hit “Line of Duty.”

Speaking of Britcrime shows, another “Game of Thrones” alumnus, Gemma Whelan, stars in “The Tower” (Dec. 1, BritBox) as a detective investigating the deaths of a veteran cop and teenage girl who fall from the roof of a highrise, and the disappearance of a rookie police officer.

Finally, Amazon Prime Video has “Harlem” (Dec. 3), a comedy about four Black best friends — an anthropology professor, a queer dating-app creator, a fashion designer, and a singer/actress — who live and play in the predominantly Black Manhattan neighbourhood. Unfortunately, reviews were embargoed.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve cross-checked 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 Nov. 22 to 28, 2021

November 22, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Magic Shadows, Elwy Yost: A Life in Movies (Nov. 27, 8 p.m., TVO and TVO.org)

Late TV host Elwy Yost with son Graham Yost at the 1994 premiere of “Speed,” which Graham wrote. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of TVO

Everyone who’s not a baby boomer (or older) will have to forgive me while I indulge in some nostalgia this week. Between this and my recommendation, sight unseen, of the Disney Beatles documentary (which probably would have been my pick of the week had I seen it), I realize I’m dating myself.

But if you ever spent a Saturday night watching a genial, bespectacled man introduce screenings of classic films, alongside his own interviews with the people who made them, this documentary will be a welcome trip down memory lane.

Directed by Karen Shopsowitz, it comes 10 years after Elwy Yost left us and 22 years after he stopped hosting “Saturday Night at the Movies.”

It may be hard to imagine in the era of on-demand everything, but the show was must-see TV for anyone interested in movies. And though the interviews here are with Canadian fans of Elwy’s — including filmmaker Ron Mann, Greg Godovitz of rock ban Goddo, “Degrassi” creator Linda Schuyler and Elwy’s sons, Christopher and writer-producer Graham — appreciation spread beyond this country’s borders.

The doc reveals a man who was not only smitten with movies, a passion that he made contagious on “Saturday Night” and his other series, “Magic Shadows,” but who was a beloved husband, father and co-worker.

And if this tribute piques your interest, head on over to the Retrontario YouTube channel, where you can watch a few of Elwy’s interviews with Hollywood greats, including legendary director John Huston and beloved comedian John Candy.

True Story (Nov. 24, Netflix)

Wesley Snipes and Kevin Hart in “True Story.” PHOTO CREDIT: Adam Rose/Netflix

The logline for this miniseries says “one of the world’s most famous comedians is forced to answer the question of how far he’ll go to protect what he has.”

The answer is very far, but I’m not allowed to tell you what that means since the answers are considered spoilers.

The question for me: what is the show saying beyond the plot twists that see comedian Kid, played by Kevin Hart, make an escalating series of bad decisions after an initial bad decision in a hotel room after a boozy night out?

The answer: nothing that deep.

It’s not that famous comedian Hart does a bad job as a dramatic actor, but I can’t get a handle on who Kid is beneath the surface, i.e. rich and famous. Thus the choices he makes seem less like potentially soul-shattering, desperate measures and more just the cost of keeping his multi-billion-dollar career intact.

Wesley Snipes fares a little better as brother Carlton, who has to tamp down his resentment while doing Kid’s bidding, lest the largesse that keeps him afloat gets cut off.

I only watched four of the seven episodes, but I gather the series gets even twistier before it’s through.

Netflix also has Season 2 “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” (Nov. 23); Season 4 of real estate reality show “Selling Sunset” (Nov. 24); Season 5 of animated comedy “F Is for Family” (Nov. 25); new anime series “Super Crooks” (Nov. 25); and “School of Chocolate” (Nov. 26), in which Amaury Guichon tries to do for chocolatiers what “The Great British Baking Show” did for bakers, but without the stakes (nobody gets sent home) and not as much of the charm.

The Beatles: Get Back (Nov. 25, Disney Plus)

Beatles Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison play a rooftop concert in 1969 in footage from “The Beatles: Get Back.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd.

I’m breaking a rule here in writing up a TV series that I haven’t yet seen — aside from the trailers and sneak peeks that are out there.

The screeners for this three-part extravaganza (which I’ve read runs almost eight hours in total) aren’t being made available till Monday and, even then, reviews are embargoed until Thursday when it debuts.

But when an Oscar-winning filmmaker like Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings”) creates a documentary out of unseen footage of one of the biggest bands in the world it seems to me it’s worthy of attention.

Whether you think the Beatles were one of the greatest rock bands ever (and personally, I’m not a diehard fan), the 60-some hours of footage shot in January 1969, of the Beatles writing and recording 14 new songs, and giving their final live performance on a rooftop in London, represent music history in the making.

Note that the other two parts of the doc debut Nov. 26 and 27.

Disney Plus also has its latest Marvel superhero series “Hawkeye” (Nov. 24), which I didn’t screen (and probably just as well because I hear through the grapevine that the conditions to do were alarmingly prohibitive); the documentary “Becoming Cousteau” (Nov. 24) about famous underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau (his 1960s-’70s TV series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” is another blast from my past); and the animated sitcom “Solar Opposites” (Nov. 22).

Odds and Ends

Iain Glen of “Game of Thrones” and Kim Engelbrecht in “Reyka.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy CBC Gem

South African drama “Reyka” (Nov. 26, CBC Gem) isn’t your standard detective series in that the titular lead (Kim Engelbrecht) was kidnapped as a child and has a somewhat unsettling relationship with her jailed abductor, played by Iain Glen, Jorah Mormont on “Game of Thrones.” She also has a child she struggles to raise while investigating the murders of six women left to rot in a sugar cane field.

CBC Gem also has “On the Spectrum” (Nov. 26), an Israeli dramedy about three roommates on the autism spectrum, and “Write Around the World” (Nov. 26), in which British actor Richard E. Grant travels to France, Spain and Italy following in the footsteps of great authors.

HBO and Crave have a few things I didn’t get a chance to preview, including the docuseries “Black and Missing” (Nov. 23, 8 p.m., HBO) about a foundation of the same name that highlights the cases of missing Black girls and women in America. There’s also another instalment in HBO’s “Music Box” series, “DMX: Don’t Try to Understand” (Nov. 26, Crave), about a year in the life of rapper Earl “DMX” Simmons, who died in April at the age of 50. Plus Season 2 of HBO’s “How to With John Wilson” debuts Nov. 26 at 10 p.m. And if it’s not too early for holiday fare, you can check out “8-Bit Christmas” (Nov. 24, Crave), a new family comedy set in 1980s Chicago, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Steve Zahn, and directed by Canadian Michael Dowse (“Goon”).

Speaking of Christmas, Apple TV Plus has the documentary “‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas” (Nov. 26), about a Christmas-loving man in Idaho whose neighbours threatened to sue him over his holiday light show.

Amazon Prime Video has the documentary “Burning” (Nov. 24) about the devastating Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020; the docuseries “The Curse of Von Dutch” (Nov. 26) about the rise and fall of the company behind those trucker hats; and Season 3 of assassin drama “Hanna” (Nov. 24).

And finally, if you’re into shows set in high school, the “Saved by the Bell” reboot returns for its second season Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. on W.

Watchable Oct. 18-24, 2021

October 18, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Wakefield (Oct. 18, 9 p.m., Crave)

Nik (Rudi Dharmalingam) comforts a patient in “Wakefield.” PHOTO CREDIT: Screen grab

Things are often not what they seem in this psychological dramedy from Australia.

For instance, when we first meet psychiatric nurse Nik (British actor Rudi Dharmalingam), he’s standing on the edge of a cliff in the stunningly beautiful Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Is he about to jump? That would be a logical assumption in a series whose main concern is mental illness, but as we watch we discover a more prosaic, even comedic reason for Nik’s presence on the cliff, which involves the Dexys Midnight Runners song “Come On Eileen.”

That’s not to say that Nik doesn’t have his issues, as does everyone at Wakefield hospital, patient and staff alike.

Nik is extremely gifted at his job, able to get through to the patients in a way that no one else can, but there’s trauma bubbling beneath the surface involving his absent mother. Flashbacks suggest that mental illness has marred his own family history.

Other complications include the fact that his ex-fiancee, psychiatrist Kareena Wells (Geraldine Hakewill of “Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries”), also works at Wakefield and Nik clearly isn’t over her (nor, it seems, is she over him, despite her marriage to another man). And then there’s Linda (Mandy McElhinney), the acting nurse manager, who’ll do whatever she must to hang on to the job, even if it means blackening Nik’s reputation.

Woven through Nik’s personal story are the stories of individual patients. Some get better and check out after an episode or two; some are so ill there seems little likelihood of them ever leaving Wakefield, such as the catatonically depressed Omar (Richie Miller) or Tessa (Bessie Holland), a compulsive hoarder who doesn’t see the point in living anymore.

What comes through most strongly in all these threads is a sense of shared humanity. Wellness is a continuum that everyone is on rather than a sharply defined state of being as Nik’s and the others’ journeys make clear.

I also recommend “Oscar Peterson: Black + White” by prolific documentary maker Barry Avrich, making its world streaming premiere on Crave on Oct. 22. Unfortunately, I missed my chance to screen it (totally me dropping the ball), but movie critic Peter Howell recommended it in the Toronto Star when it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as a portrait of a “a career that redefined jazz piano, helped give civil rights a soundtrack (‘Hymn to Freedom’), and made (Peterson) a hero and influence to the likes of Quincy Jones, Jon Batiste and even Billy Joel.” It seems to me we don’t celebrates our heroes enough in Canada. Here’s a chance to appreciate one of them.

Crave also has Season 2 of the uplifting and heartfelt “We’re Here” (Oct. 18, 9 p.m.), in which “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hare and Shangela visit small towns in America to help their chosen drag kids put on a show and become more themselves in the process. And the fifth and final season of Issa Rae’s “Insecure” debuts Oct. 24.

Short Takes

Martin Clunes as Colin Sutton in “Manhunt: The Night Stalker.” PHOTO CREDIT: Neil Genower/AcornTV

Manhunt: The Night Stalker (Oct. 18, Acorn)

If you like detective dramas that focus more on the painstaking work of solving murders than lurid true crime cliches you’ll like “Manhunt: The Night Stalker.” Martin Clunes (“Doc Martin”) returns as the fictional version of real-life DCI Colin Sutton, who was called in to help with the case of the Night Stalker, a burglar and rapist who had been operating with impunity in East London for 17 years. His victims were mostly frail elderly women and sometimes men, and the series conveys the deep trauma of the attacks on the victims and their families, as well as the psychological toll of the hunt on Sutton and other officers.

Eve, Brandy, Naturi Naughton and Nadine Velazquez in “Queens.” PHOTO CREDIT: Kim Simms/ABC

Queens (Oct. 19, 10 p.m.)

Yes, 2021 has given us two shows about women of a certain age reuniting to reclaim their music careers. Whereas the Tina Fey-produced “Girls5eva” plays its 1990s girl group reunion for laughs, “Queens” leans into the drama — and sometimes the melodrama. The other major difference is that Girls5eva are a pop group; the Nasty Bitches are a hip-hop quartet. And with rapper Eve, and R&B singers Brandy Norwood and Naturi Naughton in the cast, and Swiss Beatz as the executive music producer, these women aren’t just faking it. Eve plays under-appreciated mother of five Brianna; Naughton is pastor’s wife and conflicted Christian Jill; Norwood is struggling folk singer Naomi, mother to an estranged daughter; and Nadine Velazquez (“My Name Is Earl”) rounds out the cast as disgraced TV host Valeria. Throw in Taylor Sele as manager E-Roc, whom Valeria and Naomi both lust after, and Pepi Sonuga as rapper Lil Muffin, whom the older women take under their wing, and let the female empowerment flow.

Deafblind activist Helen Keller in 1905. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of PBS

Becoming Helen Keller (Oct. 19, 9 p.m., PBS)

I sometimes wish Canada’s public broadcaster had a biography series like “American Masters,” with its exploration of luminaries, both immigrant and native-born, from all facets of American life. I never come away from an episode without learning something new. In this case, the pitifully little I knew about Helen Keller came from the 1962 movie “The Miracle Worker,” which dramatized teacher Annie Sullivan’s early instruction of Helen, who lost her hearing and sight at age one and a half. “Becoming Helen Keller” details her relationship with Annie, who taught her to read, write and communicate, and lived with her for more than 50 years, but it also fills in the blanks of Helen’s very full life as an adult. Among the many things I didn’t know: she graduated with honours from Radcliffe College, then the female equivalent of Harvard; she was a friend of Mark Twain; her books were burned by the Nazis; she was once declared one of the 10 most dangerous women in America for her social and political views; she and Annie once had a vaudeville act. Until her death in 1968, Keller advocated not only for the deaf, blind and others with disabilities, but for workers’ rights, women’s rights and the rights of Black citizens, and was America’s first goodwill ambassador. The doc also highlights her imperfections, including her brief flirtation with eugenics, none of which cancels out the good she did.

Also note that PBS has the Halloween cartoon classic “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Roman Lapshin with some of Vladimir Dvorkin’s paintings. PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

Portrayal (Oct. 24, 9 p.m., documentary Channel)

This doc by Billie Mintz is like a family history crossed with a crime drama and a thriller. Toronto’s Roman Lapshin sets out to uncover a family secret and get justice for his late grandfather, an unknown Russian Jewish painter named Vladimir Dvorkin. In 1990, as a newly arrived immigrant in Tel Aviv, Vladimir met a man at a market who offered to pay him to produce paintings, mostly portraits. That man, Oz Almog, then passed off the paintings as his own, even displaying them in an international exhibition called “Him Too??” There seems little doubt that the paintings are Vladimir’s, since he took video in his home of the portraits that later turned up in Almog’s exhibition. But when a terrified Roman finally works up the courage to confront Oz in Serbia, where he keeps the paintings, Oz says Vladimir was merely his assistant. So is Oz a thief or just an employer who enabled Vladimir’s family to pay their bills? Even Roman can’t decide.

Speaking of family secrets, CBC Gem has the Irish drama “Smother” (Oct. 22), about the uncomfortable revelations that are stirred up after a man is found dead at the foot of a cliff the day after his wife’s birthday party.

Odds and Ends

Shamier Anderson in “Invasion.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Apple TV Plus

I’d love to tell you about the big budget sci-fi show “Invasion” (Oct. 22, Apple TV Plus), but reviews are embargoed until Thursday. However, I’ll have an interview with star Shamier Anderson in Saturday’s Toronto Star and online at thestar.com.

Netflix has got a few new things this week, including the Gwyneth Paltrow-branded “Sex, Love & goop” (Oct. 21), which is ostensibly about helping couples have better sex lives; the animated “Adventure Beast” (Oct. 22), about a zoologist, his niece and his assistant exploring the world and saving animals; and Season 2 of supernatural comic book series “Locke & Key” (Oct. 22).

Yep, another season of “The Bachelorette” is about to begin (Oct. 19, 8 p.m., Citytv) starring the lovely Michelle Young. I’ll be recapping it here so check for posts on Wednesdays.

If you liked all those movies about a killer doll, the series “Chucky” begins (Oct. 19, 10 p.m., Showcase), with Brad Dourif (who will forever be Doc Cochran from “Deadwood” to me) as the voice of the terrifying toy.

Watchable Oct. 11-17, 2021

October 11, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Succession (Oct. 17, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy in Season 3 of “Succession.” PHOTO CREDIT: David M. Russell/HBO

In the opening seconds of Season 3 of “Succession,” as media mogul Logan Roy and his minions helicopter back from the yacht vacation ruined after son Kendall went rogue, I could imagine the accompanying violin strains being replaced by “The Ride of the Valkyries,” “Apocalypse Now” style.

Logan (Brian Cox) isn’t about to destroy a North Vietnamese village — although I imagine he would if it boosted his ego or his bottom line, and he could get away with it — but as he roars later at underling Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), “This is war!”

Of course, the Roy family has always been at a type of war as Logan plays the kids — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) — against each other, but this season the wounds they inflict seem especially vicious.

Kendall is the immediate target since, at the end of Season 2, he used the news conference at which he was supposed to take the fall for the sex assault and murder scandal plaguing the company to instead implicate his father.

Kendall seems to have irrevocably cast himself out of the family while posing as a woke defender of the women exploited by Waystar Royco’s cruise line, although obviously it’s as much about power, ego and impressing Daddy as it ever was.

And just as obviously, it doesn’t take long for his siblings to at least consider the idea of backing Kendall while trying to gauge whether the wounds inflicted on Logan are enough to take him down this time.

There’s an early scene between Shiv and Roman that perfectly demonstrates the mental calculations each character is always running to maximize their self-interest.

As they watch media coverage of Kendall’s bombshell, Roman asks Shiv what she’s thinking.

“I’m thinking that we just need to back Dad right now and I can’t believe anyone would think anything else,” she replies. Then she adds, whispering, “But what am I actually thinking? Well, I’m thinking, is he toast?” to which Roman responds, “I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be thinking: Is he toast?” as Shiv smiles.

HBO has asked critics not to reveal spoilers so I won’t tell you where everyone lands as the jockeying for power continues — and having seen only seven of the nine episodes, I don’t know how it ends — but some deep wounds are inflicted, not only by Logan but by the kids on each other.

Despite its concerns with power, money, politics, media and corporate arrogance, “Succession” has always been a show about family and, particularly, the damage done by an abusive, emotionally unavailable parent, a theme that Season 3 really brings to the fore.

The show’s brilliance — besides the smart scripts, the excellent acting and directing, and the fact it’s thrilling even when it’s just people in a room talking to each other — is that it makes us care about the fates of its conniving, damaged characters despite how loathsome they are.

But it’s Shiv who earns my particular sympathy this season, at least part of the time, as it becomes increasingly clear she’ll never wield real power in the company because of her gender.

The patriarchy is firmly in charge, but one suspects that even if Logan were out of the picture the rot at the core of the family would continue to spread. There is no happy ending imaginable for the Roy clan, who all seem miserable all of the time — with the possible exception of Greg (Nicholas Braun), who continues to offer some comic relief along with Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).

But this misery is well worth our company. This new season of “Succession” is as addictively watchable as the first two.

Short Takes

A re-enactment of the haunting of the Perron family from the docuseries “Bathsheba.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of T+E

Bathsheba (Oct. 11, 9 p.m., T+E)

Whether you believe in the paranormal or you just like a good ghost story, this two-part series is scary enough to spook you. I don’t mind telling you the back of my neck prickled as I sat in my home alone after watching the first episode. It’s about the true story behind the 2013 movie “The Conjuring,” which blamed the haunting of a centuries-old Rhode Island farmhouse on a 19th-century woman named Bathsheba Sherman. It turns out the rumours about Bathsheba being a witch who killed her children are a bunch of hooey, which doesn’t help explain the frightening things that happened to the Perron family when they moved into the 1700s Richardson Arnold House in 1971, including apparitions, voices in the night and even physical injuries. Whatever it was, it still moves four of the five Perron daughters to tears all these years later. The docuseries includes the usual mix of re-enactments with witness and expert interviews, led by Indigenous paranormal investigator Erin Goodpipe, who visits the house to try to communicate with its spiritual residents. Incidentally, the house is currently up for sale by the current owners, who also claim to have experienced strange phenomena while living there.

“Bathsheba” is appropriately part of T+E’s Creep Week, which ends Oct. 17 and includes the debut of “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life” (Oct. 15, 10 p.m.), a series in which the horror filmmaker gives us not just tales of things that go bump in the night but the fallout in the lives of the people who experienced them.

Comedians Daniel Woodrow and Keith Pedro with host Ennis Esmer, centre, on “Roast Battle Canada.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Roast Battle Canada (Oct. 11, 10:30 p.m., CTV Comedy Channel)

In this competition show based on an American original and a Quebec spinoff, Canadian comedians insult each other in a way that’s hopefully funny enough to be declared the winner by an expert panel that includes K. Trevor Wilson of “Letterkenny,” Sabrina Jalees and superstar Russell Peters. I’m not gonna lie, the judges and host Ennis Esmer were sometimes funnier than the comics onstage in the debut episode, although the competitors did get in some laugh-out-loud zingers. And it perhaps goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, this is not stuff you want to be watching with your kids or any easily offended member of your household.

Canada’s Drag Race (Oct. 14, 9 p.m., Crave)

Yes bitch, Canada’s version of the wildly successful “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is back for its sophomore season. The 12 queens competing are not so Toronto-centric this year, with four queens from Quebec, four from Vancouver, one from Ottawa and the show’s first Calgary queen in Stephanie Prince, who’s already looking like a formidable competitor as well as a potential villain. There’s also an assortment of body types and ethnicities among the cast. Canada’s most famous drag queen, Brooke Lynn Hytes, is back to lead the judging panel alongside stylist Brad Goreski, actor Amanda Brugel and TV personality Traci Melchor. Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg, daughter of David, is guest judge in the season premiere. Time to get to werk.

Crave also has Season 2 of the Cape Cod crime and drugs drama “Hightown” on Oct 17.

The Great Canadian Baking Show (Oct. 17, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Ready, set, just try to watch this without running to your kitchen to find a pastry to stuff in your mouth. Ten new amateur bakers from across Canada compete for bragging rights with the often impressive results judged by pastry chef Bruno Feldeisen and pie expert Kyla Kennaley. Comedians Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis have managed to evade the revolving host door to return for a second season of taste-testing, encouraging and uttering the words “Ready, set, bake!”

CBC also has “A Suitable Boy” (Oct. 17, 9 p.m.), the BBC adaptation of the 1993 Vikram Seth novel about a young Hindu woman’s search for love among three potential suitors. It’s a bit overstuffed, but beautifully shot and capably acted.

Odds and Ends

So many screeners, so little time: I didn’t get a chance to check out “Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol,” debuting Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. on Showcase, but if adaptations of Brown’s Robert Langdon novels are your thing you might want to watch this. Ashley Zukerman (“A Teacher,” “Succession”) stars as Langdon.

Showcase also has Season 4 of “The Sinner” Oct. 13 at 10 p.m.

Netflix brings you Season 2 of the popular “The Baby-Sitters Club” on Oct. 11 and Season 3 of “You” on Oct. 15.

This week, Disney Plus has “Just Beyond” (Oct. 13), a YA horror series featuring supernatural phenomena inspired by the graphic novels by R.L. Stine.

Finally, if you’re a fan of British period drama and/or nostalgia, know that a remastered version of the 1981 miniseries “Brideshead Revisited,” starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, drops on BritBox on Oct. 12.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked 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.

Watchable Sept. 20 to 26, 2021

September 20, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Born Bad (Sept. 25, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

There’s been a lot of attention paid recently to the abuses perpetrated on Indigenous children in Canada’s residential schools, and rightfully so. This doc shines light on another group of children victimized by the state: the thousands who were sent to Ontario training schools as far back as the 1930s but mainly from 1953 to 1984.

The “schools” were meant for so-called “delinquent” kids who couldn’t be managed by their parents or other institutions. But the doc by Marc de Guerre (“Who’s Sorry Now?” “Why Men Cheat”) makes clear these were essentially jails for children as young as 8 and, in many cases, no crime had been committed. Children could be incarcerated for things like skipping school or, according to a former psychologist who tried to help kids at a training school in Bowmanville, something as trivial as chewing gum in church.

“The purpose of a training school shall be to provide the boys or girls therein with a mental, moral, physical and vocational education, training and employment,” says a line from the Ontario Training Schools Act of 1950.

In fact, what they got was brutality and intimidation from so-called teachers who weren’t properly trained or supervised, as well as from other inmates.

Wendy Herrell, a survivor of the Kawartha Lakes Training School in Lindsay, Ont., calls it “a beautiful hunting ground . . . What better place to work when you’re a pedophile?”

Another survivor, Rick Brown, who attended the Brookside Training School in Cobourg when he was 10, recounts how a teacher hit him so hard his eardrums burst.

Thomas Lavoie, who was also at Brookside from the ages of 11 to 15, was raped by another boy whom the guards had groomed to keep the other kids in line.

“Back then, adults could do anything they wanted to kids,” says Wendy. There was no one to tell about the violence and even if there was, “You think they’re gonna believe a bad kid?” says Shelly Richardson, another Brookside survivor.

Three of the four survivors interviewed came from grossly troubled homes where they endured physical, psychological or sexual abuse, and/or alcoholic parents. That they ended up stealing, skipping school and otherwise acting out is no surprise. But that they ended up in places where, in the words of psychologist Don Weitz, “the government of Ontario was assaulting children and calling it training” was a hideous abuse of power.

There is a class action lawsuit against the government seeking $600 million to be divided among up to 20,000 survivors. The case is expected to go to trial in 2023.

Obviously money can’t take away the pain of the abuse — we get a taste of it from the survivors interviewed in the doc and those are the ones who are traumatized but coping — but I hope they get every penny they’re asking for.

The Big Leap (Sept. 21, 10 p.m., CTV)

Simone Recasner and Ser’Darius Blain in “The Big Leap.” PHOTO CREDIT: Sandy Morris/FOX

This Fox series had me at “reality dance show.”

I have long been a devotee of “So You Think You Can Dance” so was intrigued by the fact “The Big Leap’s” comedy drama plays out against a TV dance competition.

That’s where the similarities end, though. The dance show in “Leap” is far more cutthroat and manipulative than anything I ever witnessed on a “SYTYCD” set. Also, not all of the fictional competitors are, strictly speaking, dancers.

The objective is to whip the chosen ones into shape for a gender-blind performance of “Swan Lake,” but also to exploit whatever crises and insecurities they’re experiencing for audience entertainment.

Scott Foley (“Scandal,” “Felicity”) plays Nick, the Machiavellian producer in charge of that task. Kevin Daniels (“Modern Family”) plays a sympathetic judge and Mallory Jansen (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) is the scary, mean one.

The main contestants Nick’s looking to exploit include Gabby (Simone Recasner), who left her dance ambitions behind when she got pregnant in high school and is battling body image issues; Julia (Teri Polo, “The Fosters”), a former ballet dancer whose marriage is falling apart and who’s freaked out about aging; and Mike (Jon Rudnitsky, “Saturday Night Live”), a non-dancer who lost his factory job and his wife, and is hoping to win the latter back through the show.

This isn’t high concept television. It’s pretty easy to guess, for instance, that Gabby — who’s in a triangle involving disgraced former football player Reggie (Ser’Darius Blain) and nasty, skinny ballroom dancer Brittney (Anna Grace Barlow) — will at some point get a chance to eclipse Brittney onstage. Or that Mike will eventually get romantic with executive Paula (Piper Perabo) despite his laser focus on his ex-wife. Or that Nick will probably turn out to be not as much of a jerk as he seems. And I’m spitballing here because I’ve only seen two episodes.

Still, you want to root for the show’s lovable losers to redeem themselves, especially Gabby, who shows an admirable determination not to let anyone else define her. And you do get to see some actual dancing, especially with ringers like Ray Cham Jr. in the cast.

The Wonder Years (Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m., CTV)

Dule Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Elisha Wiliams and Laura Kariuki in “The Wonder Years.”
PHOTO CREDIT: ABC

This remake of the 1988 sitcom about a middle class family in the late ’60s and early ’70s has the task of presenting a feel-good slice of nostalgia while not shying away from the racial reality of a Black family in 1960s America.

Based on the episode I saw, the only one available for review, “The Wonder Years” manages to walk that line.

When it begins in 1968 Montgomery, Alabama, the now adult narrator (voiced by Don Cheadle) says that his parents taught him “how to handle yourself around cops” and notes that the country is facing a presidential election that creates a racial divide, but Dean (Elisha Williams) has more universal concerns the year he turns 12: how to get the girl he likes to like him, how to avoid the school bully, how to look cool despite his glasses.

Dean and his best friend Cory (Amari O’Neil) don’t even notice when a couple of white kids at their recently desegregated school back away from the water fountain after Cory takes a drink.

Dean’s family — musician and music professor dad Bill (Dule Hill), accountant mom Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh) and university-bound sister Kim (Laura Kariuki) —lives in a comfortable Black neighbourhood. Bill doesn’t see a reason to mix with white folks so is reluctant to grant Dean’s request to play baseball against a white team that includes his Jewish friend Brad (Julian Lerner).

The game seems like a prime scenario for small-scale racial conflict, but it’s not the white kids who impede Dean’s playing but the rivalry between his dad and the Black coach (Allen Maldonado). And then a real-life tragedy interrupts the game and unites the Black participants in grief.

“It felt like the world around us had changed forever,” says Dean, but “the world on the inside hadn’t.”

It remains to be seen if “The Wonder Years” can maintain that balance between its outside and inside worlds, but the cast certainly seems up to it.

CTV also has “Our Kind of People” debuting Sept. 21 at 9 p.m., a dramedy about a single mom (Yaya DaCosta) trying to break into a wealthy Black enclave in Martha’s Vineyard, as well as singing competition “Alter Ego” (Sept. 22, 10 p.m.) and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (Sept. 26, 8 p.m.). Crave has Season 2 of “The L Word: Generation Q” (Sept. 20, 9 p.m.), Season 3 of “Doom Patrol” (Sept. 23, 9:30 p.m.) and the Starz crime drama “BMF” (Sept. 26).

Midnight Mass (Sept. 24, Netflix)

Zach Gilford and Hamish Linklater in “Midnight Mass.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eike Schroter/Netflix

What is it that makes islands the perfect setting for horror TV and movies? Probably the sense of not being able to easily escape, which was certainly the case in HBO’s creepy “The Third Day.”

In this series from Mike Flanagan, the creator of Netflix horror hits “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” tiny Crockett Island is the scene of the supernatural goings-on.

The locals don’t seem as threatening as the ones in “The Third Day,” but there’s still an undercurrent of unease as native son Riley (Zach Gilford, “Friday Night Lights”) returns home after spending four years in jail for driving drunk and killing someone.

But Riley’s discomfort at being back in this insular place and his regrets over what he’s done are the least of his worries. The real trouble starts when aged parish priest Monsignor Pruitt fails to return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and, in his place, appears Father Paul (Hamish Linklater, “Legion”).

You don’t need to be an expert in the genre to know there’s something off about the new priest. Riley, town doctor Sarah (Annabeth Gish, “The Haunting of Hill House”) and Muslim sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli, “The Haunting of Bly Manor”) seem like the only people who are skeptical after Father Paul performs an apparent miracle during Sunday mass. The church is suddenly packed with acolytes and others start noticing physical changes in themselves — although one of those changes is devastating for Riley’s love interest, expectant mom Erin (Kate Siegel).

Town meanie and devout Catholic Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan, “Grey’s Anatomy”) is fully on board, even after she discovers the secret behind the miracle.

In this case, the angel as well as the devil is in the details. I don’t want to spoil the reveal of the creature that’s hiding in the shadows of Crockett Island, but it puts a different spin on the idea of divine intervention as well as the extremes of faith.

The series is steeped in the rituals of the Catholic Church, with plenty of scenes that take place during mass and episodes named after books of the Bible. It’s hard to tell if Catholic-raised Flanagan is demonstrating reverence for the religion or the opposite, considering that the higher power to which Father Paul appeals seems more evil than benevolent.

“Midnight Mass” gets off to a slow start — it isn’t until episode 4 that the horror really ramps up — but it draws you in nonetheless.

Netflix also has Season 2 of “Love on the Spectrum” (Sept. 20); “Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan” (Sept. 22), about a serial rapist diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder; and Season 4 of “Dear White People” (Sept. 22).

Odds and Ends

Alison (Charlotte Ritchie, left) and Mike (Keill Smith-Bynoe, right) and their mansion full of spirits
are back for Season 2 of “Ghosts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

If you’re looking for something fun to watch that’s not overly demanding of either time or brain cells, I recommend “Ghosts.” CBC Gem has Season 2 debuting Sept. 24 (with episodes running about a half-hour you can easily catch up on Season 1 there if you haven’t already). Alison and Mike (Charlotte Ritchie and Keill Smith-Bynoe) are still stuck in their haunted money pit of an inherited mansion. The normal and paranormal roomies have learned to co-exist, but the ghosts aren’t much help as Mike and Alison struggle to make enough money to maintain the house.

CBC Gem also has Season 2 of homemade web series “The Next Stop” on Sept. 24.

Hollywood Suite has “Relentless: The Kevin Porter Story” (Sept. 21) about the Ontario firefighter and paramedic who pursued a professional hockey career in his 40s.

Global TV has Season 41 — yes, 41! — of reality TV granddaddy “Survivor” (Sept. 22, 8 p.m.) and, if you think about it, the show is really the ultimate survivor. It also has the new spinoff “NCIS: Hawai’i” (Sept. 26, 9 p.m.), featuring the franchise’s first female special agent in charge (Vanessa Lachey).

You can also catch “Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 3” Sept 24 on Amazon Prime Video, featuring the latest fashion collection from superstar Rihanna.

Watchable Sept. 6 to 12, 2021

September 6, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Reservation Dogs (Now on Disney Plus Star)

Lane Factor as Cheese, Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear and Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan in “Reservation Dogs.” PHOTO CREDIT: Shane Brown/FX

“Reservation Dogs” is its own unique thing and also utterly universal.

The proudly Indigenous comedy is about four friends — Bear (Canadian Oji-Cree actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Canadian Mohawk actor Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis of Alberta’s Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation) and Cheese (Lane Factor, a Creek-Seminole and Caddo actor from Oklahoma) — living on the rez in rural Oklahoma, plotting to escape to California.

That specificity, the fact that every writer, director and cast regular on the show is Indigenous, and the humorous matter-of-factness with which the series presents its Indigeneity make it groundbreaking. But Bear, Elora, Willie and Cheese could also be any bored teenagers anywhere — Indigenous or otherwise — yearning for something more without knowing what they actually want.

When we first meet them, the foursome are stealing a delivery truck full of spicy potato chips. Despite the ease with which they accomplish this, these are no hardened criminals. The theft — along with the other petty crimes they’ve been committing around the village — are a means to an end: fattening up their running-away fund.

They are mourning their friend Daniel, who’s been dead a year and whose dream it was to get to California. But Bear, Willie and Cheese all seem less keen on the plan than Elora.

Also complicating things is that another gang of teens is out to get them, the self-named Indian Mafia, which is problematic since the Reservation Dogs aren’t even really a gang and aren’t particularly tough.

In one of the funnier episodes, they visit Elora’s reclusive uncle, a notorious bar brawler in his younger days, to try to get tips on how to fight but end up driving him all over town trying to sell his skunky homegrown marijuana.

During a Television Critics Association panel, the cast members and creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi emphasized that Indigenous communities everywhere are full of humour. That humour, as expressed in “Dogs,” is subtle and situational, and the four leads deliver it with aplomb, especially neophyte actor Alexis, but even the minor characters have impact here.

That includes Lil Mike and Funny Bone, whom people will recognize from “America’s Got Talent,” as bike-riding, rapping twins Mose and Mekko; Kirk Fox (“Parks and Recreation”) as Kenny Boy, movie-loving meth dealer and receiver of stolen goods; Zahn McClarnon (“Fargo,” “Westworld”) as laid-back tribal cop Big; and Dallas Goldtooth as the ghost of a warrior from the Battle of Little Bighorn — except that he didn’t actually fight because, as he was charging Custer, his horse tripped on a gopher hole, rolled over and squashed him.

Goldtooth’s Spirit character is a particularly funny poke at the stereotypes that “Reservation Dogs” is trying to lay to rest and also a reminder that the supernatural often co-exists with the so-called normal in Indigenous entertainment.

It’s not defined whether Spirit is real or a figment of Bear’s imagination, and the same goes for the deer woman (played by Canadian Mohawk actor Kaniehtiio Horn) that Big remembers from his childhood and the Sasquatch-like Tall Man that Willie Jack’s father sees in the woods. And it doesn’t really matter; they are part of the characters’ reality.

Painful things are also part of that reality. It’s implied but not stated outright, at least not in the six episodes I screened, that Daniel killed himself. Elora lost her mother when she was three. Bear is being raised by his mother (Canadian Indigenous actor Sarah Podemski) since the rapper dad he idolizes can’t be bothered to even visit. Yet the teens are nurtured by family, friends and the larger community.

Anyway, the pain isn’t the point here, which is very much the point of “Reservation Dogs.” The “Dogs” and everyone else they know are not one thing, but many things, just like any other human being.

Impeachment: American Crime Story (Sept. 7, FX)

Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp and Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky
in “*Impeachment: American Crime Story*.” PHOTO CREDIT: Tina Thorpe/FX

It seems from what the producers have said to the media that a large part of the purpose of this drama is to try to change the way the women who were part of the Bill Clinton impeachment scandal are perceived.

They might stand a chance with Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones, but Linda Tripp? Good luck with that.

Sarah Paulson, nearly unrecognizable in the role in prosthetics and a “fat suit,” seemed defensive of Tripp during a Television Critics Association panel, bristling at a reporter’s comment that Tripp was unlikeable. But Tripp does seem unlikeable from the get-go in this 10-episode series: petty, judgmental, vindictive, self-important — and that’s before she gets anywhere near Lewinsky.

I suppose you could argue that Tripp’s decision to tape Lewinsky’s phone calls about her affair with Clinton and to turn those tapes over to independent counsel Ken Starr — whose report led to a vote to impeach Clinton in 1998 — was motivated by her respect for the institution of government and her anger over Clinton’s treatment of Lewinsky. But it also reeks of a desire to insert herself into the drama and make herself seem important. After all, she started taping the calls — as “Impeachment” tells it — at the instigation of literary agent Lucianne Goldberg (the ever reliable Margo Martindale) as material for a tell-all book she was hoping to write.

However you feel about her, Tripp is a key part of the action in “Impeachment,” at least the four episodes I had time to watch.

And what of Lewinsky, who was a producer and consultant on the show, even vetting some of the scripts?

It’s easy to shake our heads at Lewinsky’s choices. She comes off here as a bright but naive 20-something, head over heels in love with the president, blind initially to the fact that she was being used — as if the leader of the most powerful country in the world would trade his political might for sporadic, tawdry encounters in a private office. But it’s arguable she would have got a fairer hearing if Clinton’s dalliance with an intern, and its enormous imbalance of power, had come out during the #MeToo era instead of when it did.

And then there’s Paula Jones, portrayed by Annaleigh Ashford, who seems the most sympathetic of the three: a rube who got manipulated by right-wing ghouls like Susan Carpenter-McMillan (Judith Light) into a battle she couldn’t win, collateral damage in the Republicans’ vendetta against the Clintons.

If nothing else, the series is a feast for those who appreciate good acting, including Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton, Cobie Smulders as Ann Coulter and Clive Owen as Bill Clinton, although I’d say his is the least convincing portrayal.

The series doesn’t have the same crackle as “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” but I found it watchable nonetheless.

Short Takes

Priyanka during her Season 1 “Canada’s Drag Race” victory. PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Canada’s Drag Race Anniversary Extravaganza (Sept. 6, 9 p.m., Crave)

This 90-minute special is meant to whet our appetites for Season 2 of “Canada’s Drag Race.” Presided over by Season 1 champion Priyanka, it’s mostly a strut down memory lane and a catch-up with the first season cast, most of them in studio aside from Rita Baga, Kiara and Kyne on video link. There’s also a meet-and-greet with new judges Brad Goreski, Traci Melchor and Amanda Brugel, and music videos from Tynomi Banks, BOA and Priyanka. It’s not all glitter and grins, with BOA calling out Priyanka for not returning her texts, and Scarlett BoBo and Ilona Verley talking about their broken friendship. Mind you, this must have been shot before Ilona went public slamming “Drag Race” producers for not letting them talk about their trans identity on the show.

Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in “Scenes From a Marriage.” PHOTO CREDIT: JoJo Whilden/HBO

Scenes From a Marriage (Sept. 12, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Look, I won’t bore you by bemoaning what a crazy week I had last week; just know that I didn’t get to watch as many screeners as I needed to, which means I got through only one episode of this drama, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergmann’s 1973 miniseries about a couple’s marriage falling apart. First impressions: Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac are excellent as the central couple, as you’d expect, and it seems like a thoughtfully made, thought-provoking drama, but it wouldn’t be fair to say more without having seen more.

Crave also has Showtime’s “American Rust” (Sept. 12, 10 p.m.), which looks intriguing in the trailer and has a cast led by Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney.

Odds and Ends

Jenn Colella and the cast of the “Come From Away” movie. PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

The filmed version of the theatre musical “Come From Away” debuts on Apple TV Plus on Sept. 10, just ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The musical is about how residents in Gander and other Newfoundland towns took care of the more than 6,500 “plane people” who were stranded there when the attacks led to U.S. airspace being closed. Unfortunately, reviews are embargoed until Tuesday.

Showcase has “Dr. Death” (Sept. 12, 9 p.m.), starring Canadian Joshua Jackson as the real-life Texas doctor who left his spinal surgery patients maimed or dead.

Fans of the drama “Lucifer” will be pleased to know Season 6 is coming to Netflix on Sept. 10. That same day, Netflix has “Metal Shop Masters,” a competition series for metal artists. Personally, I couldn’t be bothered with “Countdown Inspiration4 Mission to Space” (Sept. 6), which is meant to culminate with the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 rocket, with an all-civilian crew orbiting Earth, but if you’re a fan of billionaires like Elon Musk fiddling in space while the Earth burns, have at ‘er. There’s also the documentary “Untold: Breaking Point” (Sept. 7), about American tennis player Mardy Fish’s mental health challenges.

Disney Plus has “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” (Sept. 8), in which the plot line about a teenage doctor (Neil Patrick Harris in the 1989 original) has been updated with a female, mixed race lead, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, and the action moved to Hawaii.

Amazon’s main debut this week is the movie “Voyeurs” (Sept. 10), which has Sydney Sweeney of “The White Lotus” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and Justice Smith (“The Get Down”) as a young couple who get more than they bargained for when they spy on their sexy neighbours across the way (Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo). This was shot and set in Montreal.

There’s a “Days of Our Lives” spinoff series, “Beyond Salem,” on StackTV on Sept. 6.

Stop-motion comedy “Robot Chicken” is back for its 11th season Sept. 6 at midnight on Adult Swim.

If you have an appetite for new food shows, Mary Berg is back on TV with “Mary Makes It Easy” Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. on CTV Life Channel, followed by 8:30 p.m. by “Up the Dish” with Carolyn Sandler.

Watchable Aug. 30-Sept 5, 2021

August 30, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Only Murders in the Building (Aug. 31, Disney Plus)

Neighbours Mabel, Oliver and Charles (Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin)
in “Only Murders in the Building.” PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu)

You’d already have most viewers at “Steve Martin and Martin Short in a TV comedy together,” but throw in Selena Gomez as a sarcastic third wheel, a grand old New York apartment building as a setting and an actual mystery to be solved, and you have the delightful “Only Murders in the Building.”

The septuagenarians and their 30-something neighbour form an unlikely trio when a fire alarm drives them out of their Beaux-Arts building and into a bar where they discover their shared passion for a certain true crime podcast.

Charles (Martin) is an actor who’s coasting on his fame from a decades-old detective drama. Oliver (Short) is an off-off-off-off-off Broadway director who’s still gunning for Great White Way glory. Mabel (Gomez) is an aspiring interior designer from a humble Long Island neighbourhood who’s staying in her aunt’s apartment.

When the young man they all saw in the elevator just an hour before turns up dead in his ninth-floor apartment, the “true crime nuts” band together to figure out who killed him, turning their hunt into a podcast at the urging of Oliver with the name “Only Murders in the Building” — as in they’ll only investigate crimes that happen in their building.

All three are personally and professionally adrift for various reasons and the podcast gives them a sense of purpose and the connection they’ve been missing. The fronts they’ve all put up — Charles’s reserve, Oliver’s preening and Mabel’s ironic detachment — start to crumble as they begin to care about each other. And we begin to care right along with them.

Martin and Short, having appeared together in beloved films like “Three Amigos” and “Father of the Bride,” as well as their 2018 Netflix comedy special, have their characters and their prickly relationship down pat, but Gomez holds her own against the two legends.

She even gets some of the best lines. When Oliver explains that he keeps his door unlocked to be neighbourly, Mabel quips, “A murderer probably lives in the building, but I guess old white guys are only afraid of colon cancer and societal change.”

As the trio follows clues to what looks like a viable solution to the mystery, they get a skeptical police detective (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) on side, but a twist at the end of Episode 8 — which is as far as I was given access to — makes it clear the killer is still on the loose and our amateur criminologists are at risk.

The 10-episode series was created by Martin and Brooklyn-born actor and screenwriter John Hoffman (“Grace and Frankie”), with Dan Fogelman (“This Is Us”) executive-producing.

The supporting cast is also nothing to sneeze at, including some real-life New York habitués like Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan and Michael Cyril Creighton. Sting appears as himself and there’s another cameo by a high-profile comedy star that I’m not allowed to tell you about.

“Only Murders in the Building” is appealing as a buddy comedy a trois, and as a gentle satire of both New Yorkers and the true crime genre, and at its best when Martin, Short and Gomez are all onscreen, leading us down an entertaining rabbit hole.

Disney Plus also has “The D’Amelio Show” (Sept. 3) about TikTok stars Dixie and Charli D’Amelio and their family.

What We Do in the Shadows (Sept. 2, 10 p.m., FX)

Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), *Colin Robinson* (Mark Proksch), *Nandor* (Kayvan Novak) and *Guillermo* (Harvey Guillén) in “What We Do in the Shadows.” PHOTO CREDIT: Russ Martin/FX

Vampires, they’re just like us.

Or, at least, the vampires of this Emmy-nominated comedy are human-like enough in the foibles that creator Jemaine Clement and his writers mine for laughs, which is obviously the main appeal of the show.

As Season 3 begins, housemates Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) have a dilemma: what to do with human familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who saved their lives at the end of Season 2 by slaying the dozens of vampires who were about to execute them but has now been exposed as a vampire killer.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Guillermo survives and even gets a promotion of sorts as the Staten Island blood suckers become default rulers of the Vampiric Council for the Eastern Seaboard, seeing as how Guillermo killed off the old ones.

Nandor and Nadja each hope to grab power for themselves — and Nadja, who’s having a smidgen of a feminist awakening, is pleased to become a “working woman” — although Nandor is beginning to wonder if there’s more to eternal life than “mindless killing and bloodlust.” Energy vampire Colin Robinson — who, in a welcome development, has become a more equal member of the household — wants to know where he came from as he turns 100. And Laszlo? He’s keen to explore’s the world’s oldest and largest collection of pornography in the Vampiric Council library.

So no, not everyone is feeling reflective.

I can’t say that the four episodes I was able to review were uniformly hilarious but, three seasons in, I’m invested enough to enjoy watching the world’s least cool vampires and their wannabe companion muddle through.

Wellington Paranormal (Sept. 3, Crave)

Mike Minogue, Maaka Pohatu and Karen O’Leary star “Wellington Paranormal.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Stan Alley/The CW

If the absurdity of “What We Do in the Shadows” tickles your funny bone, you should enjoy this show, which Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi created as a spinoff of the movie version of “Shadows.”

Lead “Wellington Paranormal” actors Mike Minogue and Karen O’Leary appeared in the film, credited only as “Policeman” and “Policewoman.” Here, they’re the main event as Officer Minogue and Officer O’Leary, put in charge of the newly formed Wellington police paranormal unit.

Minogue considers them the New Zealand version of Mulder and Scully of “The X-Files” — if Mulder and Scully had a habit of routinely overlooking clues.

I’ve only seen the first season — all three seasons to date will be on Crave, while a fourth season is reportedly in post-production — in which Minogue and O’Leary investigate demons, aliens, ghosts, werewolves, vampires and zombies, but it seems the supernatural selection expands in the subsequent instalments.

A particular highlight of the show is their true believer boss, Sgt. Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), who sets up the secret unit in a tiny office hidden behind shelves. The deadpan earnestness with which all three handle investigations and the low-budget nature of the operation, including the sometimes ridiculous looking creatures, is all part of the charm.

Short Takes

Bitchin’: The Sound and the Fury of Rick James (Sept. 3, Crave)

If your only knowledge of funk musician Rick James is the song “Super Freak” and his 1990s assault convictions, you’ll learn some things in this documentary. There’s no question that James, born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. in Buffalo in 1948, had a very dark, misogynistic side, fuelled by rampant cocaine and other drug use, but the doc also makes the case for his unique contribution to Black American music via the “punk funk” style he pioneered. His musical output went way behind “Super Freak,” including the triple platinum album “Street Songs,” but author David Ritz notes that fame “will chew you up and spit you out” if you’re not emotionally well grounded. It caught up with James in 2004 when he died at the age of 56 with nine drugs in his system.

Crave also has the movie “Promising Young Woman,” which won Emerald Fennell (“The Crown”) an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, dropping on Sept. 3 and the mid-Season 5 premiere of Billions on Sept. 5.

Odds and Ends

Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Cabello in “Cinderella.” PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Raphael/Amazon

Camila Cabello is the star attraction in a musical remake of “Cinderella” (Sept. 3, Amazon Prime Video), which also stars Billy Porter of “Pose,” who gets bigger billing than the Prince (Nicholas Galitzine) as Fab G, a genderless fairy godparent.

The 2017 documentary “Metric: Dreams So Real” makes its broadcast premiere on Hollywood Suite (Sept. 2, 9 p.m.), capturing a 2016 concert by the Toronto band and kicking off a month of musical programming on the pay TV channel.

Netflix has the documentary series “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror” (Sept. 1), which examines what led to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and how they changed history; Part 5, Volume 1 of the Spanish hit “Money Heist” (Sept. 3); the animated series “Q-Force” (Sept. 2) about an intelligence squad of LGBTQ geniuses; Season 3 of social media reality competition “The Circle” (Sept. 2) and the new series “Sparking Joy” (Aug. 31) if you’re not all Marie Kondo’ed out.

PBS “Masterpiece” has the four-part series “Guilt” (Sept. 5, 9 p.m.), about two Scottish brothers played by two Scottish actors, Mark Bonnar (“Line of Duty,” “Quiz”) and Jamie Sives (“Frontier,” “Game of Thrones”), who kill someone in a hit-and-run and try to cover it up.

On BritBox, the popular detective drama “Vera,” starring Brenda Blethyn, returns for its 11th season on Sept. 1.

Watchable Aug. 16 to 22, 2021

August 16, 2021 / Debra Yeo

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Nine Perfect Strangers (Aug. 20, Amazon Prime Video)

Nicole Kidman as Masha in “Nine Perfect Strangers.” PHOTO CREDIT: Vince Valitutti/Hulu

On the face of it, the Tranquillum House wellness retreat exudes comfort, luxury and exclusivity, but from the moment its nine guests arrive for their 10-day stay there are hints they’re in for more than bliss.

They’re under surveillance, for one thing. And the smiling staff members pleasantly but firmly insist they surrender their cellphones and submit to having blood drawn. There’s even a hint of menace in the way the blades of the blender pulp the fruit that goes into their individually tailored smoothies.

Ethereal guru Masha — Nicole Kidman in long golden locks, flowing pastel clothes and steely blue gaze — makes it clear that they’re not there to be pampered. “This is Tranquillum. I mean to fuck with all of you,” she says.

The guests include bereaved mother Heather (Australian actor Asher Keddie), her husband Napoleon (Michael Shannon) and their daughter Zoe (Grace Van Patten); romance novelist Francis (Melissa McCarthy), ex-pro football player Tony (Bobby Cannavale), newly rich couple Ben (Melvin Gregg) and Jessica (Samara Weaving), divorced mother Carmel (Regina Hall) and cynical journalist Lars (Luke Evans).

They’ve all been hand-picked by Masha for their traumas, which include an assortment of relationship issues, professional crises, insecurities, drug addiction and unresolved guilt over others’ deaths.

Despite the sometimes uncomfortable activities they engage in (digging their own graves, a day of eating nothing but what they can forage), defences come down, the guests warm to each other and they start to feel incrementally better. But Masha doesn’t think they’re getting to the heart of their pain fast enough and institutes a new treatment protocol over the objections of counsellor Delilah (Tiffany Boone), one that poses psychic if not physical dangers.

Masha isn’t being truthful about her own trauma, either, even though she shares with the guests that she was once a corporate CEO who died after being shot in the chest and was brought back to life by Yao (Filipino-Canadian actor Manny Jacinto), a former paramedic who is now her right-hand man at Tranquillum.

What viewers will realize — although Masha is blind to it — is that she’s still addicted to power, but rather than wielding it in the business world she’s playing god with the lives of the people who’ve entrusted her to make them better.

Having seen only six of the eight episodes, I don’t know whether she causes any of her charges lasting harm or how the death threats that Masha is simultaneously receiving play out.

Like the treatment being meted out at Tranquillum, “Nine Perfect Strangers” is itself imperfect. Some of the stories — the Instagram influencer who’s insecure about her looks, the discarded wife who resents anyone younger and prettier —are a little too on the nose.

But there are also plot twists and surprises, at least for those who haven’t read the Liane Moriarty novel. There’s also a lot to be said for watching actors of this calibre play together.

In a TV universe that often offers up junk food, “Nine Perfect Strangers” is more of a high-end meal, even if it leaves you still a bit hungry.

In the Same Breath (Aug. 18, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Health-care workers during a celebration of China’s victory over COVID-19.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

It’s impossible to know for sure whether lives would have been saved if Chinese authorities had been more open with their own citizens and the rest of the world about the pneumonia-like illness being seen in Wuhan as early as December 2019.

We all know now that mystery illness was COVID-19, which to date has killed more than 4 million people worldwide.

But as Nanfu Wang admits in her documentary, even though she had seen, and archived, Chinese social media posts about overloaded hospitals and people dying in the streets, she believed American officials who said the virus didn’t pose a threat in the U.S. and scoffed when her mother, back in her hometown east of Wuhan, urged her to wear a mask outdoors.

This doc is critical of both Chinese and American authorities for downplaying COVID and, indeed, punishing those who spoke out about it — “I have lived under authoritarianism and I have lived in a society that calls itself free,” says Wang, who now calls New York home. “In both systems, ordinary people become casualties of their leaders’ pursuit of power.”

For me, the film is most striking when it’s sharing human stories, captured with the help of camera people in Wuhan: a father in tears at the bedside of his adult son, who’s unable to do much more than blink; the woman who ran a medical clinic near the infamous wet market and whose husband, having caught the virus from patients, was turned away by four hospitals after they saw CT scans of his lungs; the son and husband who have to decide on the spot whether to take their loved one back home or let her die in the street when paramedics are unable to find a hospital with room for her.

Some of the most eye-opening images, at least for those of us without exposure to Chinese media, are of news anchors parroting the same government-approved script about the lack of COVID dangers, or of health-care workers at rallies celebrating China’s victory over the virus, waving flags and singing patriotic songs about the motherland. The doc contrasts those images with footage from inside the hospitals of those workers breaking down in tears, exposing the reality glossed over by the upbeat, state-sanctioned propaganda about China’s “Angels in White.”

That, and Wang’s interviews with sad and angry nurses in New York, reaffirm there’s a secondary pandemic of trauma among front-line workers, one that will only worsen as those same workers deal with the fourth wave of COVID surging around the world.

I don’t know that any lessons will be learned from this documentary — Wang includes footage of anti-mask, -lockdown and -vaccine protests across the U.S. and we know they’re still happening even as the Delta variant rages and politicians refuse to do what’s necessary to protect their citizens — but it’s worth watching nonethless.

The Chair (Aug. 20, Netflix)

Sandra Oh, Nana Mensah and Holland Taylor in “The Chair.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eliza Morse/Netflix

I have a lot of time for Sandra Oh in whatever role she’s in and she delivers a reliably smart and sympathetic performance as Ji-Yoon Kim, a Korean-American professor who’s just become the first female and the first person of colour to chair the English department at fictional Pembroke University.

Created by actor Amanda Peet and screenwriter Annie Wyman, who’s also a lecturer at Stanford University, “The Chair” portrays Ji-Yoon as struggling with the things you’d expect a career woman to struggle with while balancing a demanding job with family. In Ji-Yoon’s case, ethnicity adds another layer as she’s a 40-something single mother to an adopted Mexican-American daughter she’s raising with the help of her father Habi, played by Ji-yong Lee, who speaks only Korean.

And of course, Ji-Yoon’s is not just any job. As chair, she has to worry about faculty egos, budgets, and keeping the dean (David Morse) and the donors happy, not to mention the students, a sometimes fickle, fractious lot. (There’s a cameo I won’t spoil for you by a well-known TV actor who’s parachuted in give the university’s marquee lecture because he’ll put “butts in seats.”)

“The Chair” touches on issues like academic freedom, conflict between traditional and modern teaching, sexism and racism in hiring and promotion, campus protest and social media censure, although not in a deep way.

The senior male professors (Bob Balaban and Ron Crawford), who are at the top of the dean’s hit list because they cost the most and attract the fewest students, are portrayed as fuddy duddies. Balaban’s character, in particular, is threatened by Yaz (Nana Mensah), a young Black female professor who teaches a popular course called “Sex and the Novel” and lets her students use rap and spoken-word poetry to interpret “Moby-Dick.”

Holland Taylor plays an equally senior professor named Joan and steals scenes as she fights against indignities like being relegated to a tiny office next to the basement gym and crudely targeted by a male student on Rate My Professors.

I didn’t love the fact that Ji-Yoon expends considerable energy trying to rescue the job of fellow professor and love interest Bill (Jay Duplass) after he does something boneheaded in the classroom that gets immortalized on YouTube. Sure, Bill is a widower and a nice guy who cooks her dinner and helps with her daughter, but he also behaves like an irresponsible man-child and I feel like we’ve had enough of those on television.

Just as Ji-Yoon doesn’t quite manage to revolutionize the Pembroke English department, “The Chair” isn’t going to revolutionize your TV-viewing experience, but at six half-hour episodes you can watch it in less time than it would take to write an essay.

Chapelwaite (Aug. 22, 10 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel/CTV.ca)

Adrien Brody with Ian Ho, Jennifer Ens and Sirena Gulamgaus in “Chapelwaite.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Reardon/Epix

If you like classic horror stories and you are a patient viewer, you will find things to entertain you in “Chapelwaite,” the latest Stephen King adaptation to hit screens, inspired by the short story “Jerusalem’s Lot.”

Certain elements of the original are intact here, including the creepy ancestral home that gives the show its name; a possible family curse; a mysterious, ancient book; hostile townspeople; undead folks and an obsession with worms.

But adaptors Jason and Peter Filardi have changed and expanded the story. Charles Boone, played by Oscar winner Adrien Brody, is now a widowed father of three and former captain of a whaling ship. Instead of a manservant, his confidante is a woman named Rebecca, played by Emily Hampshire of “Schitt’s Creek,” an aspiring writer and governess to his children. And there are plenty of side plots and new characters.

The town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine, to which Charles brings the two daughters and son he had with his late Polynesian wife, is a hotbed of superstition and racism. The townspeople blame the Boone family for the disease that is killing some of their children, shun Charles’s offspring for not being white, and reject his plans to expand the sawmill he inherited and bring shipbuilding to the town.

Since the series was filmed in Halifax, the cast is loaded with Canadians, including Eric Peterson (“Corner Gas”) as Charles’s chief antagonist; Gord Rand (“Orphan Black”) as the sympathetic town minister; Julian Richings (“Todd and the Book of Pure Evil”) as Charles’s Uncle Phillip; Steven McCarthy (“The Expanse”) as his cousin Stephen and newcomer Devante Senior as Able, a Black sawmill employee who’s the only worker to stand by Charles.

But all the extra faces and scenes mean the show can plod when it’s not sticking to the gothic horror plot, which it brings to life in moody, foreboding fashion.

The most successful new characters are the children, Honour (Jennifer Ens), Tane (Ian Ho) and especially sensitive middle child Loa. Toronto’s Sirena Gulamgaus, who also stars in “Transplant,” plays the part with depth beyond her years.

Hampshire, who’s second to Brody in the credits, brings energy and charm to Rebecca, but the character seems to have been parachuted in from a more modern show, with a way of speaking and behaving that doesn’t fit the 1850s time period.

Still, if you have a taste for atmospheric, supernatural horror stories you might be able to overlook “Chapelwaite’s” shortcomings.

Odds and Ends

The show that is a summer highlight for most “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” fans, “Bachelor in Paradise,” returns for its seventh season after sitting it out last summer due to the pandemic. It debuts Aug. 16 at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

A show that I think has been trudging on for far too long, “The Walking Dead,” debuts its 11th and final season on AMC Aug. 22 at 9 p.m. Oh sure, I’ll probably hate-watch it just to see how things end.

Disney Plus has “Growing Up Animal” on Aug. 18, which features lots and lots of baby animals, so how can you go wrong?

This post has been edited to tweak my review of “Nine Perfect Strangers.”

Tag: TV reviews (Page 7 of 8)

Watchable Dec. 13 to 19, 2021

Watchable Dec. 6 to 12, 2021

Watchable Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2021

Watchable Nov. 22 to 28, 2021

Watchable Oct. 18-24, 2021

Watchable Oct. 11-17, 2021

Watchable Sept. 20 to 26, 2021

Watchable Sept. 6 to 12, 2021

Watchable Aug. 30-Sept 5, 2021

Watchable Aug. 16 to 22, 2021

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta