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Watchable Jan. 17 to 23, 2022

January 17, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Fanny: The Right to Rock (Jan. 17, Crave)

Members of Fanny in a screen grab from “Fanny: The Right to Rock.”

If you missed this documentary when it played the Hot Docs and Inside Out festivals last year — winning a $10,000 Rogers Audience Award at the former — now’s your chance to get in on one of rock and roll’s best kept secrets.

Fanny is the name of an all-female band that emerged in California in the late 1960s, put out five critically acclaimed albums, toured with some of the biggest acts of the day, gained fans in fellow musicians like the late David Bowie then fell off the radar, mainly unremembered and uncelebrated until this film started playing the festival circuit last year.

This doc by Montreal’s Bobbi Jo Hart — scored by Fanny’s own hard driving music — will likely leave you shaking your head at the oversight.

The group — sister guitarists June and Jean Millington and drummer Brie Darling, later drummer Alice de Buhr, keyboardist Nickey Barclay and guitarist Patti Quatro — had a lot of barriers to bust through: June, Jean and Brie were Filipina-American; June and Alice were lesbians; and they were all women trying to get ahead in a man’s world and on their own terms.

Footage of the band’s various concerts and TV show appearances — and photos of Fanny Hill, the house where they hung out with the likes of Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Bonnie Raitt and other musicians — is interspersed with interviews with critics and fellow rockers praising their contributions to the genre.

Fanny was the first all-female rock band signed to a major label, but while other all-female groups like the Go Go’s and the Runaways are getting recognition — the former having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November — Fanny has remained obscure. “Always, the ones that start it, they get fucked,” says Earl Slick, Bowie’s guitarist and Jean’s former husband.

Racism, sexism, personnel changes, lack of income and the physical demands of constant touring and promotion wore them down. By the time the band got its sole chart hit — “Butter Boy” in 1975, inspired by Jean’s romance with Bowie — Fanny had already broken up.

But in 2018, the 60-something Millingtons reunited with Darling as Fanny Walked the Earth — yes, there’s a dinosaur joke in there — to make a new album of the same name.

June quips that now they’re bucking ageism as well as the other isms, but the doc captures their excitement as they record the album and prepare to tour.

And then disaster strikes just a week before the first live show — I won’t tell you what happens, you’ll have to watch for yourself.

Nonetheless, the film ends on an optimistic note.

In Rolling Stone, Bowie called them “one of the most important female bands in American rock (that) has been buried without trace.”

This film is that trace. Regardless of whether Fanny hits the road again — a quest no doubt made much more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic — millions of new fans have discovered their music.

Now, it’s time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to step up and give them their due.

Short Takes

The Skymaster 2469 in its hangar. It disappeared with 44 passengers in January 1950.
PHOTO CREDIT: Red Trillium Films Inc.

Skymaster Down (documentary Channel)

How could a large, four-engine airplane carrying 44 people disappear without a trace? That’s the mystery explored in this documentary by Andrew Gregg, who learned about the tragedy of the Skymaster while in the Yukon in 2018 working on another film. The American C-54 left Anchorage, Alaska, on Jan. 26, 1950, bound for Great Falls, Montana, with eight crew and 36 passengers, mostly U.S. servicemen but including a pregnant woman and her 19-month-old son. The crew checked in with the radio operator in Snag, Yukon, shortly after takeoff and that was the last anyone heard of them. Did the plane sink into Lake Wellesley? Did it crash into a mountain or a glacier? Was it buried beneath ice and snow? The massive, official search lasted a few weeks but never found anything, nor have members of the volunteer Civil Air Search and Rescue Association in the Yukon, who have never stopped looking. By including interviews with family members of people who disappeared, Gregg makes it clear this is more than just a tantalizing puzzle but is still rawly emotional for those whose fathers, uncles and aunt went down with the plane. The doc debuted on the documentary Channel Sunday but will rebroadcast Jan. 18 at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Jan. 23 at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.; and Jan. 28 at 9 p.m. 

Also, on the subject of documentaries, “The Nature of Things” has “In Your Face” (Jan. 21, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem), by Josh Freed, about the science of the so-called human “superpower” of face recognition.

Jason Bateman and Laura Linney in Season 4 of “Ozark.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Of Netflix

Ozark (Jan. 19, Netflix)

I would love to tell you what I think of the first half of Season 4 of “Ozark” since I have watched all seven episodes but, for reasons that remain obscure to me, Netflix has decided to embargo reviews until Tuesday. I think it’s safe to say that if you’ve followed this show about a family that gets sucked into a menacing criminal underworld as money launderers for a drug cartel after they flee Chicago for the Ozarks, you will definitely want to see how the story ends (the final seven episodes will drop at a yet to be announced future date). I also think it’s safe to say that if you’ve watched the trailer for Season 4 you can guess that the Byrdes — Marty (Jason Bateman), Wendy (Laura Linney), Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skyler Gaertner) — have a dangerous path to tread to the freedom they seek. New characters this season include Javi (Alfonso Herrera), nephew of cartel boss Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), and private detective Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg).

Rick Glassman, Sue Ann Pien, Albert Rutecki and Sosie Bacon in “As We See It.”

As We See It (Jan. 21, Prime Video)

Here’s another show I’m not allowed to review because of an embargo. “As We See It” is about three roommates on the autism spectrum, played by actors who are also reportedly on the spectrum. Harrison (Albert Rutecki) has issues with just leaving the apartment building; Violet (Sue Ann Pien) has a job at an Arby’s and a preoccupation with finding a boyfriend; and Jack (Rick Glassman) is a computer programmer who can be blunt to the point of insulting. If you’ve watched the trailer or any of the other series associated with creator Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood,” “About a Boy,” “Away”), you already have an inkling that the show is going for heartwarming. Sosie Bacon (“Mare of Easttown”) plays the roomies’ aide, Mandy.

Odds and Ends

1980s series “Fraggle Rock” gets a reboot in “Back to the Rock.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

I’ve never watched a minute of “Fraggle Rock,” but if you’re a fan of the cave-dwelling Jim Henson puppets, Apple TV Plus has “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” debuting on Jan. 21. The same day, its supernatural thriller “Servant” returns for its third season.

PBS has a couple of shows concerned with animals this week. “Animals With Cameras” (Jan. 19, 8 p.m.) features creatures from bats to koalas going about their business while fitted with cameras, while “Alaskan Dinosaurs” on “Nova” (Jan. 19, 9 p.m.) looks at evidence that dinosaurs lived in the Arctic Circle.

Sticking with the animal theme, Animal Planet has Season 4 of “Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet” (Jan. 21, 10 p.m.), in which  Keri Hudson-Reykdal and her team care for critters in rural Manitoba.

Finally, Crave has Season 6 of “Billions” (Jan. 23, 9 p.m.). The Damian Lewis-less high finance show returns with Paul Giamatti’s Chuck Rhoades battling yet another billionaire, Corey Stoll as Mike Prince.

Watchable Jan. 10 to 16, 2022

January 10, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: After Life (Jan. 14, Netflix)

Tony Way, Diane Morgan and Ricky Gervais in “After Life” Season 3. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

Throughout the first two seasons of “After Life,” Ricky Gervais’s gentle gem of a comedy, the question was whether his character, Tony, could ever recover after the death of his wife, Lisa, from breast cancer.

In this third and final season, Tony seems to have decided to go on living, but it puts the lie to the somewhat ridiculous idea of “closure.” Some losses can’t be gotten over. Maybe it’s enough, as Tony tells his brother-in-law Matt (Tom Basden), just to be content once in a while, but also to recognize you’ll never be able to replace what you had.

Gervais told Deadline in January he was never going to end the series with a “happily ever after” for Tony and he doesn’t, not in the way that a more mainstream comedy might, with Tony moving on into a new relationship.

He still watches videos of Lisa (Kerry Godliman) morning and night and drinks way too much, polishing off a bottle or two of wine every evening with his dog Brandy by his side.

But he also makes even more room in the heart that he hides under his misanthropic facade to care about other people: Matt; Anne (Penelope Wilton), the widow he bonds with as they visit their late spouses’ graves; Emma (Ashley Jensen), the nurse who took care of his late father; Lenny (Tony Way), the photographer Tony works with at the Tambury Gazette; new Gazette employee Coleen (Kath Hughes); even people who’ve annoyed him, like advertising rep Kath (Diane Morgan).

Fictional Tambury is still full of misfits — including sad sack Brian (David Earl), paperboy and aspiring actor James (Ethan Lawrence) and postman Pat (Joe Wilkinson) — who are the source but not the butt of jokes. Gervais, who wrote and directed the entire series, highlights the humanity in characters that the rest of the world would see as losers.

That’s especially true in the final episode, in which we get a glimpse of what might be better times ahead for these flawed but fundamentally decent people.

“After Life” is sentimental without being saccharine and irreverent without being mean, poking fun at the human condition while also making astute observations about life, death and grief, all laced with a generous helping of profanity and bawdy humour.

It makes you laugh, cry, cringe and think deep thoughts, and any show that does all that is worthy of attention.

This week, Netflix also has Season 2 of “Cheer” (Jan. 11); stop-motion special “The House” (Jan. 14) and supernatural drama “Archive 81” (Jan. 14).

Short Takes

Meaghan Rath and Aaron Abrams with their TV kids Logan Nicholson and Mikayla SwamiNathan. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Bell Media

Children Ruin Everything (Jan. 12, 8 p.m., CTV and CTV.ca)

The conceit of this new Canadian comedy — which carries the distinction of being created by Kurt Smeaton, a writer and producer of proven TV properties like “Kim’s Convenience” and “Schitt’s Creek” — is right there in the title. Urban, west-end Toronto parents Astrid (Meaghan Rath, “Being Human”) and James (Aaron Abrams, “Hannibal”) are missing the carefree days before they spawned adorable little hellions Felix (Logan Nicholson) and Viv (Mikayla SwamiNathan). Another complication is that Astrid is supposed to be going back to work to help with the family’s finances but finds herself wanting to have another baby which, when you consider the cost of living in Toronto, takes you into truly fictional territory. The children are cute, if bratty; Rath and Abrams are likeable leads, and I can say after watching three episodes that the show has some laugh-out-loud funny lines. It also benefits from a strong supporting cast, including Nazneen Contractor (“24”) and Dmitry Chepovetsky (“ReGenesis”) as Astrid’s Type-A sister and hipster brother-in-law; Veena Sood (“Corner Gas Animated”) as her helpful but not too helpful mother; Ennis Esmer (“Blindspot”) as James’s bachelor friend and co-worker; and Lisa Codrington (“Letterkenny”) as his child-unfriendly boss.

Denzel Washington as the title character in “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

The Tragedy of Macbeth (Jan. 14, Apple TV Plus)

If you think you know everything there is to know about the Shakespeare play “Macbeth,” about a Scottish general’s decline from glory to ignominy after he decides to seize the crown for himself, I would urge you to watch this version, written and directed by Joel Coen. Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand bring a commanding gravitas to the roles of Macbeth and his scheming wife, due not only to their professional abilities but their ages: Washington is 67, McDormand 64. I’ve always thought of the characters as younger; for me, aging them up adds another layer to the ambition that brings about their downfall, of people determined to grasp power while they still have the chance. The supporting cast includes a well-chosen mix of Americans and Brits, including English actors Bertie Carvel and Alex Hassell as Banquo and Ross, Irishman Brendan Gleeson as Duncan, Americans Corey Hawkins and Moses Ingram as Macduff and Lady Macduff, and American-British actor Kathryn Hunter, truly menacing playing all three witches. The black-and-white film is also visually striking, with its stark sets and dramatic interplay of light and shadow, while the soundscape adds to the sense of doom that permeates the proceedings.

Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan. PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Neumann/Showtime

Ray Donovan: The Movie (Jan. 14, 9 p.m., Crave)

I admit I lost track of “Ray Donovan” the series after Season 5, but I was still game to see how things would end for fixer Ray (Liev Schreiber), his father Mickey (Jon Voight) and the rest of the damaged Donovan family. This movie, a gift to fans after the show was abruptly cancelled in 2020, picks up where Season 7 left off — and this is your spoiler alert if you’re not up to date — with Ray burying the body of the man he murdered, Jim Sullivan, who raped his sister Bridget, which led to her suicide all those years ago. Meanwhile, Ray’s daughter Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) buries her husband Smitty, killed in a shootout between Jim’s son Declan and Ray’s half-brother Daryll (Pooch Hall); and Mickey is on the run with the valuable stock certificates that led to that shootout. Ray follows Mickey to Boston, presumably to kill him, and as he tracks Mickey’s movements he flashes back to the past, to the troubled relationship with his father that has haunted him his entire life. I won’t spoil things by telling you how it turns out, but there is a neat circularity to the way that what happens to Ray as the movie ends echoes teenage Ray’s betrayal of Mickey, which got Mickey sent to jail. There is some hope of healing for the Donovan clan, including brothers Terry (Eddie Marsan) and Bunchy (Dash Mihok), but at the cost of Ray having to fix things once again.

Odds and Ends

Alvin Ailey performing in the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow/Licensed from Harvard (John Lindquist rights)

This week’s “American Masters” (Jan. 11, 9 p.m., PBS) is about Alvin Ailey (1931-1989), namesake of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, still a going concern more than six decades after Ailey founded it. This doc examines not only his life and work as a dancer and choreographer, but his importance as a Black artist bringing Black experience to the stage.

Crave has “Peacemaker” (Jan. 13), the DC Comics “Suicide Squad” spinoff starring John Cena as the title character, a muscle-bound dolt who kills to achieve peace. Superhero series are not generally my thing, but this one benefits from the casting of Danielle Brooks of “Orange Is the New Black” and Rizwan Manji of “Schitt’s Creek”; the CGI eagle sidekick is fun; and, at the very least, you have to watch the cast dance during the opening credits. Crave, via HBO, also has “Somebody Somewhere” (Jan. 16, 10:30 p.m.), starring comedian Bridget Everett, which unfortunately I wasn’t able to screen.

Speaking of superheroes, if you want to check out Oscar winner Chloe Zhao’s swing at the genre, the Marvel movie “Eternals” is on Disney Plus on Jan. 12.

Prime Video, formerly known as Amazon Prime Video, also has a movie debut, the animated sequel “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” on Jan. 14.

Ryan Reynolds fans might want to tune into CBC on Jan. 14 at 9 p.m. when he assumes narration duties from David Suzuki on “The Nature of Things” for an episode that takes a humorous approach to what you can do to “Curb Your Carbon” and fight climate change.

For those of you who like reality shows about cars, History Canada has a new original, “Lost Car Rescue” (Jan. 13, 9 p.m.), in which classic car hunters travel into the wilderness in search of lost pieces of vehicular history.

Super Channel Fuse has Season 3 of “American Gods” (Jan. 16, 10 p.m.), which focuses on Shadow (Ricky Whittle), as well as the British import “The Teacher” (Jan. 16, 9 p.m.), not to be confused with the American miniseries “A Teacher,” although they’re both about female teachers who sleep with their teenage, male students.

Finally, Acorn has Season 2 of “Queens of Mystery” (Jan. 10), about three crime-writing sisters and their detective niece who, duh, solve mysteries. I found the pilot episode charming when I screened it many moons ago, so I’ll put this on my ever expanding list of shows I want to catch up on.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.

Watchable Dec. 13 to 19, 2021

December 13, 2021 /

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 /

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.

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 Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2021

November 29, 2021 /

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 /

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.

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.

Watchable Nov. 15 to 21, 2021

November 15, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Jagged (Nov. 19, Crave)

Alanis Morissette during the “Jagged Little Pill” tour in 1996.
PHOTO CREDIT: Epiphany Music/Alanis Morissette/Courtesy HBO

I can’t pretend to know what Alanis Morissette finds offensive about the documentary “Jagged” beyond her statement that it’s “a reductive take” on her story made by someone with a “salacious agenda,” by which I presume she means director Alison Klayman.

It seems to me every documentary is somewhat reductive. No filmmaker, no matter how well intentioned, can capture all the nuances of another person’s lived experience.

As for “salacious,” that likely refers to Morissette’s headline-making revelation that she experienced “statutory rape” when she was a 15-year-old in the music industry being pursued by older men. There’s also a segment on the speculation around the identity of the man whom Morissette went “down on” in a theatre in her revenge anthem “You Oughta Know.”

But those bits are just small pieces of the whole.

“Jagged,” which is about the making of the blockbuster 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill,” is an admiring take on one woman’s triumph in an industry that didn’t entirely know what to do with her.

If you haven’t listened to the album in a while, this doc will remind you just how good it is.

It’s rather gobsmacking to think Morissette was just 19 when she was dumped by label MCA, which wanted to confine her to the dance pop mould of her early hits, moved to L.A., met producer Glen Ballard and started writing the songs that became “Jagged Little Pill.”

It’s still one of the bestselling albums of all time, having sold more than 33 million copies to date.

There’s plenty of documentation here of just how massive a star Morissette was in the 1990s, including concert footage and backstage video of her and her band, which included future Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Hawkins is among the admirers in the doc — others include filmmaker Kevin Smith and Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson — who extol Morissette’s achievement as well as the doors she kicked open for female singer/songwriters to come.

Ballard recounts how nobody would sign Morissette until Maverick Records, Madonna’s label, and a young A&R guy named Guy Oseary came along. Things started to snowball after L.A. radio station KROQ began playing “You Oughta Know,” the album’s first single, with second single “Hand in My Pocket” cementing Morissette’s fame internationally.

It wasn’t all adulation, of course. The film touches on her pigeonholing by media of the day as an “angry white female,” to quote Rolling Stone’s headline.

If you’ve heard the whole album you know that most of the songs on “Jagged Little Pill” are not angry, but even if they were, so what? Female anger deserves to be expressed and listened to.

Morissette herself says she was writing “not to punish,” but to express feelings and get them “out of my body because I didn’t want to get sick.”

Only Morissette herself can say how successful she was at that endeavour, but the older woman we see in the film seems clear-eyed, self-possessed and confident, a survivor.

I’m sorry she doesn’t like the doc. To me, it’s an interesting look back at a time when a young Canadian woman ruled the music world.

Short Takes

Sally Lindsay as Jean and Steve Edge as Dom in “The Madame Blanc Mysteries.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Cassar/Acorn TV

The Madame Blanc Mysteries (Nov. 15, Acorn TV)

There’s an exoticism to the title of this new Acorn original, but its namesake — Mrs. White in English — is as down to earth as they come. Longtime “Coronation Street” actor (and “Scott & Bailey” co-creator) Sally Lindsay created and stars in the series as an antiques dealer whose husband dies in mysterious circumstances, leaving her virtually penniless and forced to relocate to their one surviving property in the fictional French town of Saint Victoire. Naturally, while trying to untangle the circumstances of her husband’s death, Jean White gets pulled into other mysteries involving both murder and antiques. Her partner in solving crime is local taxi driver and handyman Dom (Steve Edge) and the town is peopled with colourful eccentrics including, most notably, chateau owners Jeremy and Judith Lloyd James (fellow “Corrie” alum Robin Askwith and Sue Holderness of “Only Fools and Horses”). It’s a charming addition to the British detective series canon.

From left, Renee Rapp, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Pauline Chalamet and Amrit Kaur.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jessica Brooks/HBO Max

The Sex Lives of College Girls (Nov. 18, 10 p.m., Crave)

Mindy Kaling continues her campaign for TV world domination with this HBO Max comedy she co-created with Justin Noble, a writer on her Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever.” Once again, the female POV is front and centre, with four young women from extremely different worlds thrown together as roommates at prestigious Essex College. Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is a chill athlete with a senator for a mother and a taste for older men; Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet, sister of Timothee) is an earnest small-town nerd and sexual naif; Leighton (Renee Rapp) is a New York sophisticate with a secret and, initially at least, disdain for her roomies; and Bela (Amrit Kaur) is a former “Indian loser with acne, sweaty armpits and glasses” who’s reinventing herself as a sex-positive, aspiring comedy writer. There’s sex, yes, but it’s much less daring than, say, Netflix’s “Sex Education.” The show’s mainly about four engaging young women learning to love and trust themselves, and lean on each other.

From left, Alexander Rosenberg, Edgar Valentine, Andi Kovel, Cat Burns and Nao Yamamoto
in “Blown Away: Christmas.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2021

Blown Away: Christmas (Nov. 19, Netflix)

If you’re a fan of the glass-blowing competition series “Blown Away,” this Christmas edition will probably jingle your bells. It encompasses just four episodes with five contestants, returnees from the first two seasons of the regular show. The hot shop is all decked out for the holidays, the challenges are Christmas-themed and eliminated contestants have to remove their stockings from the mantel, but otherwise the series hits all the familiar beats. “Queer Eye” design expert Bobby Berk hosts and Canadian glass artist Katherine Gray is back as the resident evaluator. A little blow, blow, blow to go with your ho ho ho.

Also on Netflix is “Cowboy Bebop” (Nov. 19), based on a previous animated show and movie that were themselves adapted from an anime series. It stars John Cho as bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. If you like splashy violence, characters that feel like cartoons rather than people and quips in place of dialogue, enjoy. Me, I’d give it a miss.

Netflix also has “Tiger King 2” on Nov. 17, continuing the sensationalistic story of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin and the other folks who got famous in the first docuseries. It was not provided for critics to screen in advance.

Odds and Ends

Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala in “Star Trek: Discovery.” PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Gibson/CBS

I’d love to tell you about Season 4 of “Star Trek: Discovery,” having watched the first two action-packed episodes, but reviews are embargoed until Nov. 18, the day it debuts on CTV Sci-Fi Channel at 9 p.m.

Reviews are also embargoed for Amazon Prime Video’s big-budget fantasy series “The Wheel of Time” (Nov. 19), based on the novels by Robert Jordan, which stars Rosamund Pike as the leader of a powerful, all-female organization called the Aes Sedai that’s looking for the “Dragon Reborn.”

Yep, another embargo for “Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson” (Nov. 19, 10 p.m., FX), the latest “The New Times Presents” project about Janet Jackson’s famous “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show and the hysteria that followed.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to screen “A Life in Ten Pictures” (Nov. 19, CBC Gem), which examines the lives of famous people with the starting point being photographs of each. The subjects include Freddie Mercury, Elizabeth Taylor, Amy Winehouse, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon and Tupac Shakur.

Hollywood Suite is paying tribute to great Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison, screening a selection of his movies beginning Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. with the comedy “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.” Others airing between Nov. 19 and 21 include “In the Heat of the Night,” “Best Friends,” “A Soldier’s Story,” “Moonstruck” (one of my personal favourites) and “Only You.”

Edited to update my review of “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”

Watchable Nov. 8 to 14, 2021

November 8, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Dopesick (Nov. 12, Disney Plus)

Kaitlyn Dever and Michael Keaton in “Dopesick.” PHOTO CREDIT: Antony Platt/Hulu

If you watched Alex Gibney’s docuseries “The Crime of the Century” earlier this year you’ll already be familiar with the facts about America’s opioid crisis, a staggering tragedy that began with the pushing of OxyContin in the mid-1990s as a pain relief wonder drug.

This miniseries, created by actor, writer and director Danny Strong (“Empire”), dramatizes the Oxy epidemic. The three episodes made available for review range from 1986, when Purdue Pharma first came up with the concept of a new time-release opioid, to 2005, when Virginia prosecutors launched a grand jury investigation of the company.

Strong focuses on seven key characters from different sides of the crisis, some real, some invented: Purdue president and chief Oxy champion Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg); Appalachian doctor Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton); his patient, miner Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever); Purdue sales rep Billy Cutler (Will Poulter); DEA agent Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson); and Department of Justice investigators Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard) and Randy Ramseyer (John Hoogenakker).

Sackler is portrayed as part businessman, part evangelist, pushing employees to sell ever-increasing amounts of “the greatest painkiller in the history of human civilization.”

Purdue sales reps like Cutler relentlessly market Oxy to doctors and pharmacists as a safe drug that’s virtually impossible to abuse while Purdue-bankrolled pain associations spring up around the country to preach the narrative that the real tragedy in America is the under-treatment of pain.

And Finnix just wants to help patients like Betsy, injured in a mining accident, and at first Oxy does that — until it doesn’t and they need ever higher doses to control the pain. Meanwhile, people like Meyer, Mountcastle and Ramseyer attempt the near impossible task of holding Purdue to account.

We already know how the story ends, with addiction, drug-fuelled crime and death — or rather, doesn’t end, since the opioid epidemic is ongoing, fed not just by OxyContin but by drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

It’s an important story to tell but also a complicated one and breaking it down into manageable chunks makes sense, particularly when they’re handled by such a capable group of actors. But sometimes the focus is too diffuse, with episodes jumping back and forth between characters and time periods, diluting the show’s emotional impact.

Still, it’s a worthwhile piece of television.

Disney Plus also has the “Home Alone” movie update “Home Sweet Home Alone,” Olaf the snowman recreating beloved Disney tales in “Olaf Presents” and Season 2 of “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” (all Nov. 12). Plus the blockbuster Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” starring Canada’s Simu Liu, will debut on Disney that day along with a making-of docu-special about “Shang-Chi,” “Marvel Assembled.”

Short Takes

Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) and Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall) are back solving crimes in “Shetland.” PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Mainz/ITV Studios

Shetland (Nov. 9, BritBox)

It’s been a long wait for Season 6 of this Britcrime series set in Scotland’s Shetland Islands and, based on the single episode made available for review, I’d say it was worth the wait. Douglas Henshall is back as quietly resourceful detective Jimmy Perez, backed by colleagues Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) and Sandy (Steven Robertson, an actual native of Shetland). Jimmy faces a challenging case when a local lawyer is shot dead in his home with an unregistered weapon and no witnesses. Potential suspects include a drug abuser who lost a custody battle for her kids, the sister of a murder victim whose killer the lawyer defended and an ex-soldier whose case he refused to touch. Throw in a true crime-obsessed teenager who’s interfering with the case and a hobby photographer whose drone might have captured pictures of the killer, and you’ve got a satisfying puzzle.

A recreation from “Black Liberators WWII.” PHOTO CREDIT: History/Corus Entertainment

Black Liberators WWII (Nov. 11, 9 p.m., History/STACKTV)

Among the more than 1 million Canadian soldiers who fought in World War II were some who did so despite being treated as second-class citizens in the country they were fighting for. But thousands of Black soldiers enlisted anyway and contributed to some of the most important campaigns of the war. This documentary focuses on six of them: Robert “Bud” Jones, John Olbey, Sam Estwick, Calvin Marshall, Welsford Daniels and Owen Rowe, who volunteered to fight for Canada along with other Black Caribbeans. It’s thanks to Rowe’s daughter, Kathy Grant, that we get to hear about the men’s experiences in their own words, since she recorded interviews with them as part of the Black Canadian Veterans Stories of War project. The men are all dead now except for Olbey who, as of this writing, was 99 years old and living in Chatham. The men’s testimonies reinforce the fact that war truly is hell, but it was also a reprieve from the discrimination these Black soldiers experienced at home — and, to Canada’s shame, continued to experience when they returned from battle. But the doc isn’t about that; it’s about what these particular men achieved and, like other veterans, their stories deserve to be told. As Leslie Estwick, daughter of Sam — who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a pioneer in radar technology — puts it, “The history of Canada is the history of everyone in it.”

Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell in “The Shrink Next Door.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV Plus

The Shrink Next Door (Nov. 12, Apple TV Plus)

Apple TV throws its hat into the ring of podcast TV with this series adapted from the Wondery podcast of the same name. Both podcast and show are based on the true story of a man whose life was infiltrated by his psychiatrist for almost three decades, to the point the doctor took over his house and part of his business. In the eight-episode show, of which I screened three, Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell get to flex their acting muscles, with Rudd playing charismatic shrink Dr. Isaac Herschkopf and Ferrell as Martin Markowitz, a successful but insecure business owner who meets Herschkopf when he seeks treatment for panic attacks. Rudd is particularly captivating as we watch him insidiously turn himself into the most important person in Marty’s life. Kathryn Hahn (“WandaVision”) also does great work as the one person who can see through Herschkopf’s demeanour of professional solicitude, Marty’s sister Phyllis.

Juliette Lewis in “Yellowjackets.” PHOTO CREDIT: Showtime/Bell Media

Yellowjackets (Nov. 14, 10 p.m., Crave)

From the opening minutes, when we see a terrified young woman running through woods and tumbling into a death trap, we know the girls of the Yellowjackets New Jersey state champion high school basketball team got up to some very bad things when they were stranded by a plane crash for 19 months. The what, why and how are teased out in flashbacks to 1996 in this Vancouver-shot Showtime series. Meanwhile, in 2021, we follow four of the now middle-aged teammates, played by Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress and Christina Ricci. Part of the fun of the show is watching these women go about their lives knowing their seeming ordinariness belies dark secrets. But the past won’t stay buried. A woman claiming to be a reporter is asking questions, and vaguely threatening postcards arrive, suggesting someone hasn’t forgotten or forgiven what happened in ’96. With these capable actors at the controls — alongside the ones who play their younger selves, Sophie Nelisse, Sophie Thatcher, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Samantha Hanratty — you can buckle in and enjoy the ride.

Odds and Ends

Owl expert Jim Duncan with a Manitoba great grey owl. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

Think back to when the pandemic began and the sudden drop in things like traffic and air flight, and other noisy activities. “Nature’s Big Year,” the Nov. 12 “Nature of Things” broadcast (CBC, CBC Gem, 9 p.m.) explores how that inactivity affected various animal species, from wolves in Bighorn Backcountry in Alberta to loggerhead turtles in Florida to hedgehogs in Nottinghamshire, England, to great grey owls in Balmoral, Manitoba, to blackbirds in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to snow geese on the St. Lawrence River. It’s likely no surprise that the lesser the human activity the better off the animals are.

Amazon Prime Video has a couple that sound worthwhile. The docuseries “Always Jane” follows transgender teen Jane Noury and her supportive family (Nov. 12) while the documentary “Pharma Bro” (Nov. 11) is about Martin Shkreli, the so-called “most hated man in America,” known for raising the price of AIDS drugs 5,500 per cent.

Netflix has Season 2 of “Gentefied,” the well-regarded series about a Mexican-American family in Los Angeles, on Nov. 10.

AMC Plus has the U.K. murder mystery “Ragdoll” (Nov. 11).

Corus Entertainment channels have several offerings, including the special “Adele One Night Only” on Global TV Nov. 14 at 8:30 p.m.; “Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman” (Nov. 14, 9 p.m., History), in which the actor hosts tales of history’s greatest jail breaks; and animated sci-fi series “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” (Nov. 13, midnight, Adult Swim).

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and verified 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 Nov. 1 to 7, 2021

November 1, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Dexter: New Blood (Nov. 7, 10 p.m., Crave)

Jack Alcott and Michael C. Hall behind the scenes on “Dexter: New Blood.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Seacia Pavao/Showtime

Dexter the character and Dexter the show both have things to atone for going into this new version of the serial killer series.

For Dexter Morgan, chastened by memories of the friends and loved ones who became collateral damage in his Miami murder spree, atoning means living an uneventful life in a small, upstate New York town and forswearing killing.

For the producers of “Dexter: New Blood,” it means creating something that lets viewers move beyond that hated Season 8 finale, in which — spoiler alert — Dexter escaped not only justice but a deadly hurricane to ridiculously pop up as a lumberjack in Oregon.

Based on the four (of 10) episodes made available for review, I think fans will be able to forgive and forget, as well as enjoy this new version. (Both Michael C. Hall, who plays Dexter, and Clyde Phillips, the original “Dexter” showrunner and the showrunner of this series, are clear this is not “Season 9” but its own thing.)

The Dexter we meet in Iron Lake, N.Y., is now calling himself Jim Lindsay (obviously a nod to Jeff Lindsay, author of the “Dexter” novels). He lives alone in a cabin in the woods, but he’s not isolated. He’s a well-liked member of the community, working at the local fish and game store, dating the police chief (Julia Jones) and even going line dancing at the local tavern. All in all, he’s a more human Dexter than the one we knew in Miami, willingly connected not only to the people around him but to the natural environment.

He also has his beloved sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) for company. No, she hasn’t been brought back to life after dying in the original series; she’s the embodiment of Dexter’s inner voice, supporting him and castigating him by turns.

One other member of Dexter’s family turns up: his now teenage son Harrison (Jack Alcott, “The Good Lord Bird”). Dexter decides to take a second shot at fatherhood, but it’s a fraught choice, not only because he slips up and lets his Dark Passenger resurface, but because he can’t be sure that Harrison isn’t truly his father’s son.

I don’t want to give anything away, but obviously a key theme here is whether Harrison — who, like Dexter, witnessed the gory murder of his mother as a small child — inherited Dad’s taste for blood.

That’s one of the plot lines that keeps this new series interesting. There’s also the fact that Dexter — who after a decade of not killing isn’t quite the criminal mastermind he used to be — has to work to keep his girlfriend and law enforcement in general off his trail, not to mention the wily father of his victim.

And then there’s the case that haunts Chief Bishop, involving young women who have vanished without a trace, suggesting Dexter may not be the only serial killer operating in the Iron Lake area.

I suspect how these threads resolve themselves will provide a clue as to whether Phillips and company are hoping to turn “New Blood” into a new franchise. Phillips demurred during a Television Critics Association panel when asked if this could be the start of an ongoing series, but he didn’t definitively rule it out, saying it was “a network decision.”

But if all we get are these 10 episodes, at least a wrong has been righted and we’re able to enjoy a beloved character anew.

Short Takes

Bertie Carvel as Adam Dalgliesh in a new version of the P.D. James novels.
PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Barr/Acorn TV

Dalgliesh (Nov. 1, Acorn TV)

If you’re a fan of old-school British murder mysteries, this series will likely appeal. It’s a new adaptation of the P.D. James novels about Metropolitan Police detective, and poet, Adam Dalgliesh. Bertie Carvel (“Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”) is the third British actor to take on the title role on TV, after Roy Marsden (whom James reportedly didn’t fancy as Dalgliesh) and Martin Shaw. I’m not a Dalgliesh expert, but it seems to me that Carvel is a respectable representative, appropriately cerebral and reserved but perceptive and empathetic. Three of the books are dramatized in two-episode chunks: “Shroud for a Nightingale,” “The Black Tower” and “A Taste for Death.”

Lacey (Gabrielle Miller) and Brent (Brent Butt) in the “Corner Gas Animated” series finale.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CTV Comedy Channel

Corner Gas Animated series finale (Nov. 1, 8 p.m., CTV Comedy Channel)

There’s no telling whether the “Corner Gas” franchise will rise again, but it’s the end of the road for this cartoon spinoff of the original comedy after CTV declined to pick it up for a fifth season. While much has been made of the cameo by Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds, his scene with Wanda (Nancy Robertson) is, while entertaining, but a blip in the episode. It’s really about the bonds between the denizens of Dog River, particularly after a devastating fire at the Ruby cafe has Lacey (Gabrielle Miller) considering leaving town and Brent (series creator Brent Butt) forced to step outside his comfort zone if he wants her to stay.

Actor Darianne Ramirez Blanchette outside a replica of the Sham Shui Po POW camp.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of documentary Channel

The Fence (Nov. 5, CBC Gem)

With Halloween behind us, our screens are about to fill with Remembrance Day programming. This Canadian-made documentary by Viveka Melki focuses on the 1,975 Canadian soldiers held prisoner by the Japanese for almost four years following the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. Obviously, World War II veterans are a dwindling resource, so hearing their stories from their own lips is to be valued. Two share their experiences here: George MacDonell of the Royal Rifles of Canada and George Peterson of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, both of whom were held at the Sham Shui Po camp in Hong Kong. They were systematically starved, made to perform hard labour and witnessed horrible atrocities. Peterson was so traumatized by one particular incident that he took it to the grave with him when he died in September at the age of 100. The film also features the testimony of Luba Estes, a Russian woman whose father was held at Sham Shui Po, a replica of which the filmmakers built in Cuba. She, her mother and sister remained in Hong Kong, where they would walk outside the camp fence to catch glimpses of her father, until near starvation drove them to Shanghai in search of food. Hong Kong historian Chi Man Kwong and Japanese professor Yuki Tanaka are the other voices we hear. It’s worth remembering that the Japanese weren’t the only combatants who committed atrocities during the war, but it’s also worth noting that 35 per cent of the Allied soldiers captured by the Japanese died compared to 1 per cent of those captured by the Germans, and that Japan has yet to fully acknowledge its war record. Meanwhile, Estes, who claims in the doc to have no hangups due to her wartime experience, still carries an emergency piece of bread in her purse when she leaves the house.

Odds and Ends

Hailee Steinfeld and Jane Krakowski in Season 3 of “Dickinson.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+

Among the shows I had hoped to review was Season 3 of “Dickinson” (Nov. 5, Apple TV+), Alena Smith’s audaciously modern retelling of the life of poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld). Unfortunately, the first three episodes were missing from Apple’s press site, but I suspect it will be worth watching nonetheless. Apple also has the Tom Hanks movie “Finch” debuting the same day.

I was also unable to screen Season 3 of “Narcos: Mexico” (Nov. 5) due to time constraints, but this final season follows drug dealers Amado Carrillo Fuentes (José María Yazpik) and “El Chapo” Guzman (Alejandro Edda) among others, with Scoot McNairy returning as DEA Agent Walt Breslin. Netflix also has the catfishing movie “Love Hard” and Season 5 of “Big Mouth” on Nov. 5.

Based on the single episode I screened, “One of Us Is Lying” (Nov. 3, 9 p.m., W/StackTV) seems like “Gossip Girl” crossed with a teen murder mystery, with four schoolmates under suspicion after nasty student Simon (Mark McKenna), who was about to reveal their secrets in a blog post, is murdered. W also has “Unidentified With Demi Lovato” (Nov. 7, 11 p.m.), in which the celeb searches for the truth about UFOs.

Amazon Prime Video has a few new titles this week, including “The Alpinist” (Nov. 4), about Canadian solo rock climber Marc-Andre Leclerc; “A Man Named Scott” (Nov. 5), about American rapper and actor Kid Cudi; and “Tampa Baes” (Nov. 5), a reality show about a group of lesbian friends in Florida.

Finally, Hollywood Suite has the TV debut of the Canadian-made Indigenous thriller “The Corruption of Divine Providence” (Nov. 4, 9 p.m.) by Ojibway filmmaker Jeremy Torrie.

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 Oct. 25 to 31, 2021

October 25, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Colin in Black and White (Oct. 29, Netflix)

Colin Kaepernick shares a story of determination and hope in “Colin in Black and White.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

Choices and perspectives, everyone has them.

If you watch this limited series created by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and filmmaker Ava DuVernay, you might reflect on the former and experience a shift in the latter.

Kaepernick became famous even to those of us who don’t follow football after he started protesting police brutality and anti-Black racism by refusing to stand during the U.S. national anthem in the 2016 NFL season.

That Kaepernick was essentially blackballed by the league after his protest seems a clear demonstration of the racism he was highlighting. He has not played professional football since the end of that season.

But “Colin in Black & White,” a hybrid of drama and documentary, only briefly mentions what happened in 2016. It’s mainly about Colin as a high school student in Turlock, Calif. (played by Jaden Michael of “Wonderstruck” and “The Get Down”), about his love of football, about being the biracial child of white adoptive parents (played by Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker), about laying the foundations for the man he would become.

And it’s easy to perceive the subtle and not so subtle racism that young Colin experiences as the groundwork for the adult activist, which is no doubt the point.

Indeed, the narration by the real Kaepernick explicitly ties professional sports and American social systems to white supremacy, including a segment that compares football tryouts of Black players to the sizing up of slaves.

The tone isn’t bitter or combative, mind you; Kaepernick is telling it like it is, touching on everything from the denigration of Black beauty to white appreciation for the so-called “acceptable Negro” of popular TV shows.

Meanwhile, we watch young Colin’s single-minded pursuit of an elusive college football scholarship, despite the fact colleges across the country were falling over themselves to sign him up for baseball, a sport he also excelled at along with basketball.

There’s a poignancy to the fact that though Kaepernick went on to quarterback for the only school that offered him a football scholarship, the University of Nevada, and distinguished himself there and as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, his football career appears to be over.

But my perception at the end of the six episodes was not of failure but of triumph, of not losing hope or dignity despite the harms perpetuated by an oppressive system.

“Trust your power,” Kaepernick tells his younger self. “Love your Blackness. You will know who you are.”

Netflix also has the comedy special “Sex: Unzipped” (Oct. 25), featuring rapper Saweetie and a cast of puppets, comedians and sex experts talking about healthy sex.

Short Takes

The Long Call (Oct. 28, BritBox)

Fans of detective dramas “Vera” and “Shetland” will want to give this series a look. It’s the latest TV adaptation of an Ann Cleeves novel, starring Ben Aldridge (“Pennyworth”) as Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Venn is good at his job and happy in his relationship with husband Jonathan (Declan Bennett), but he bears the scars of being shunned by his very religious parents after he left their evangelical sect. The series opens with Venn mourning his father’s death while not being welcome at the funeral. When a man’s body is found on the beach, the victim turns out to have ties not only to the town’s community centre and a couple of the young women who went there, but to the church that Matthew fled. The cast boasts familiar British faces, including Pearl Mackie (“Doctor Who”) as DC Jen Rafferty; Juliet Stevenson (“Bend It Like Beckham”) as Matthew’s mother; Neil Morrissey (“Line of Duty”) as a businessman with connections to the community centre and Martin Shaw (“George Gently”) as a church leader.

Overlord and the Underwoods (Oct. 29, CBC Gem)

This live-action comedy is intergalactic, but its message about the value of family is definitely down to earth. Arrogant alien Overlord (Troy Feldman) — “destroyer of nebulas, maker of smoothies” — has moved in with the family of his seventh cousin once removed, Flower Underwood (Patrice Goodman), making a nuisance of himself while hiding out from interplanetary bounty hunters. Overlord claims to hate Earth — “except for that television show where the housewives are mean to each other” — and the Underwoods, although it seems obvious that his adopted family will grow on him and vice versa. Mom Flower and dad Jim (Darryl Hinds) seem like trusting souls, ripe for exploitation by Overlord, but son Weaver (Ari Resnick) is on to his tricks. The cast includes Kamaia Fairburn of “Endlings” as sister Willow and Jann Arden as the voice of Overlord’s robot sidekick RO-FL. The series comes from Canadian writer Anthony Q. Farrell (“The Office”) and Ryan Wiesbrock (“Holly Hobbie”). If you’re into gentle, wholesome laughs, this might fit the bill.

CBC Gem also has the two-part documentary “Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street” (Oct. 29), which examines not just the 1921 race riot in which hundreds of Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were killed by white attackers but what was lost when most of the community of Greenwood was razed and the pervasive racism in America that laid the groundwork for the massacre.

The short film “Pigs” also gets its CBC Gem debut (Oct. 28). Written by Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Carly MacIsaac, and directed by Chala Hunter, it dramatizes the frustrations of a Black woman serving food and drinks to a mostly white, privileged clientele at a private party. The cast includes plenty of familiar faces from the Canadian TV and theatre scene, including Karen Robinson (“Schitt’s Creek”), Andrew Moodie, Tony Nappo and Christine Horne.

Odds and Ends

The cast of the new drag reality show “Call Me Mother.” PHOTO CREDIT: OUTtv

There’s a new addition to the genre of drag reality TV, with “Call Me Mother” (Oct. 25, 9 p.m., OUTtv), which has entire drag families competing and drag mothers Miss Peppermint, Crystal and Barbada de Barbades forced to eliminate their own adopted drag children. Farra N Hyte, drag mother of Brooke Lynn Hytes, is judge and choreographer. No screeners were available.

Also unavailable to be screened were episodes of Season 13 of “Doctor Who,” the last season for Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. It returns Oct. 31 at 7:55 p.m. on CTV Sci-Fi Channel with the appropriately titled episode “The Halloween Apocalypse.”

Amazon Prime Video debuts animated comedy “Fairfax” (Oct. 29), which lampoons consumer and influencer culture, among other things.

Apple TV Plus has “Swagger” (Oct. 29), about the world of youth basketball, inspired by the experiences of co-creator and NBA player Kevin Durant.

On PBS, there’s “Nova Universe Revealed” (Oct. 27, 9 p.m.), a co-production with BBC Studios Science Unit that tells the story of the universe using CGI images and archival footage from scientific missions. Photorealistic approximations of the birth of the first star, two galaxies colliding and a super-massive black hole are among the supersized drama promised.

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