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Tag: watchable list (Page 2 of 6)

Watchable on Crave, FX, StackTV, Netflix July 11-17, 2022

July 11, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Rehearsal (July 15, 11 p.m., HBO/Crave)

Nathan Fielder in the New York bar meticulously recreated on set for a scenario in “The Rehearsal.”
PHOTO CREDIT: HBO

It struck me after watching all six episodes of “The Rehearsal” that an alternative title might be “A Fool’s Errand,” since the idea that variables in a life event can be controlled by repeated rehearsal of the event is inherently preposterous, which is clearly the point here.

But I suppose it also works if you think of Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder as a fool in the sense of a person employed by royalty or other aristocratic households to entertain.

In this case, HBO is the one paying the bills and I’m thinking they must have been enormous.

In the first episode, for instance, Fielder has an entire Brooklyn bar recreated in a studio in meticulous detail, right down to the balloon stuck in a corner of the ceiling. All this so that a man who’s been lying to his trivia teammates for years about the master’s degree he doesn’t have can rehearse coming clean to the teammate he thinks most likely to react badly to the lie.

Fielder also rehearses his own interactions with the subject, using a look-alike actor and a replica of the man’s apartment — secretly digitally mapped during a fake visit by the gas company.

It’s a staggering amount of preparation for something so relatively mundane, and the awkwardness between Nathan and his subject shows that the rehearsal hasn’t really done the trick.

Likewise, the real-life meeting between the man and his teammate doesn’t go as it did in the 13 rehearsals; I won’t spoil things by telling you how it turns out.

Nevertheless, Fielder persists and his next rehearsal is a doozy: a 44-year-old woman named Angela is considering whether she wants to have a baby. So Fielder moves her into a house in rural Oregon where she parents a fake child named Adam, who’s meant to grow from infant to 18 years over two months.

Adam, of course, is really a series of child actors. It’s a trip watching crew members quietly sneak a replacement baby through a window into a crib to conform to Oregon’s child labour laws while simultaneously maintaining the seamlessness of the illusion.

Touches like that emphasize the falsity of the whole endeavour. Crew members “plant” store-bought vegetables in the garden — Angela’s idea of playing house includes living off the land — and she maintains a fake business selling fake skin-care products that a fake mail carrier picks up to fake ship.

Fielder, meanwhile, manipulates his subjects every step of the way, not just the ordinary people he aims to help with these rehearsals, but the actors he’s hired to stage the scenarios.

The trivia player compares Fielder to Willy Wonka, an analogy that seems to disturb Fielder — or does it? It’s difficult to distinguish Nathan the person from Nathan the character, which I’m sure is by design.

Mind you, after he gets more deeply involved in the fake parenting rehearsal — the network has asked media not to reveal how — things seem to get very real.

There appears to be genuine conflict between Angela, who is aggressively Christian, and Nathan, who is Jewish, on the subject of religion. Nathan’s attempts to rehearse his way into a detente with Angela, with an actor playing her, get uncomfortably nasty.

And there are heartbreaking side effects on one of the youngsters playing Adam at age 6. Fielder seems genuinely stricken by the development. Are those real tears in his eyes when he visits the child and his mother? Or is it just another part of the spoof?

With Fielder, it’s hard to say. As he himself says, “How do you ever know you truly understand someone?” The short answer is that you don’t.

“The Rehearsal” is billed as a comedy but, like Fielder himself, the show’s true nature is hard to pin down. Poking through the absurdity is a sense of melancholy, that no matter what bridges we strive to build in life there will always be some detail we get wrong and real connection will elude us.

Short Takes

Kayvan Novak as Nandor and Harvey Guillén as Guillermo in “What We Do in the Shadows.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Russ Martin/FX

What We Do in the Shadows (July 12, 10 p.m., FX)

The TV world’s most entertainingly dysfunctional vampire household is back, but it’s not quite business as usual in Season 4 of the comedy. For one thing, their Staten Island house is falling apart given that Laszlo (Matt Berry) couldn’t be bothered to maintain it while Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Nandor (Kayvan Novak) were off on a year of adventures. (Look for cameos amid the decrepitude by one of Toronto’s better known creatures, the raccoon.) Laszlo was too busy raising the thing that crawled out of dead Colin Robinson’s chest at the end of last season — and props to the special effects crew for doing such a great job of putting Mark Proksch’s head on various child bodies. Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) is back as well, having survived two trans-Atlantic sea voyages in a crate with nothing but Oreos and Pedialyte for sustenance. But his plan to finally stop catering to the vampires is derailed when Nandor announces he’s getting married — to a yet unknown bride — and asks Guillermo to be his best man. And Nadja is determined to open a vampire nightclub in the vampiric council headquarters to the alarm of the Guide (Kristen Schaal). If you already love this incorrigible group of undead narcissists and their human caretaker, you’re in for more of what you love. And if you don’t, the seasons and episodes are short, so go ahead and catch up.

Felix Scholkmann takes part in a Swiss LSD study in “How to Change Your Mind.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

How to Change Your Mind (July 12, Netflix)

If I can shamelessly paraphrase American LSD proponent Timothy Leary, why not turn on, tune in and drop your preconceptions with this docuseries about psychedelic drugs? Based on the book by Michael Pollan, who also narrates the series, it considers the potential benefits of demonized substances like, yes, LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA (ecstasy) and mescaline. In the 1950s, for instance, Pollan tells us there was much promising research into LSD and other psychedelics that got buried when the United States under Richard Nixon began its war on drugs, a destructive and counterproductive campaign that continues to this day. It was the Swiss who jumped back into LSD research more than three decades later and now the drug is being studied as a possible antidote to depression, anxiety and pain, while people in the U.S. are doing their own experimentation with microdosing. Pollan proposes that psychedelics offer a way to penetrate the mystery of consciousness itself. No one’s telling you to go out and drop acid — the show includes a disclaimer that it’s meant as entertainment not medical advice — but it offers at the very least a drug-free opportunity for some mind expansion.

Netflix also has the comedy special “Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks” (July 12), the horror series “Resident Evil” (July 14) and the animated series “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight” (July 14). And while I hear the Jane Austen purists are up in arms over the new movie version of “Persuasion” (July 15), starring Dakota Johnson, this Austen devotee will reserve judgment until she’s seen it for herself.

Theo (Mark Rendall) and Kendra (Archie Panjabi) on the scene of a train crash in “Departure.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Stranks/Shaftesbury/Deadpan Pictures

Departure (July 13, 9 p.m., Global TV/StackTV)

Buckle up for another season of this fast-paced series in which a crew of intrepid investigators solve transportation accidents with all the intensity of a true crime drama. Last season it was a plane crash over the Atlantic; this season an automated high-speed train has derailed between Toronto and Chicago. Kendra Malley (Archie Panjabi, “The Good Wife”) once again leads the probe. Some of the plot devices are well worn, such as the suspicious FBI agent (Karen LeBlanc) who won’t share information, but you tend to get swept along with the speed of the show. Panjabi is still magnetic as Kendra, ably backed by senior investigators Dom (Kris Holden-Ried) and Theo (Mark Rendall). And ex-boss Howard (the magnificent Christopher Plummer) is still helping from the sidelines, although he’s only ever seen on phone calls, with Plummer shooting all his scenes at his home in Connecticut, completing them before his death in February 2021. Welcome newcomers to the cast include Kelly McCormack as a new investigator, Donal Logue as a helpful local sheriff and Irish actor Jason O’Mara as an FBI prisoner who escapes the crash.

Odds and Ends

Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler and Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill in “Better Call Saul.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

I would have loved to get an advance look at the final episodes of “Better Call Saul,” but the fact I didn’t hasn’t diminished my enthusiasm for this masterful “Breaking Bad” spinoff, which concludes its sixth and final season beginning July 11 at 9 p.m. on AMC.

We “Bachelor” franchise fans are suckers for punishment, so of course we’ll watch “The Bachelorette” when Season 19 debuts July 11 at 8 p.m. on Citytv. One of the few good things to come out of the shit show that was Clayton Echard’s “Bachelor” season was the friendship between Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia, who are sharing the season as dual Bachelorettes. With 32 suitors to start out with, it’s going to be a lot.

Fans of Canadian fabulousness will want to check out the Season 3 premiere of “Canada’s Drag Race” (July 14, 9 p.m., Crave). There are 12 new artists competing to be Canada’s Drag Superstar; Brooke Lynn Hytes, Traci Melchor and Brad Goreski are back as judges; and the guest judges include legends like Carole Pope, JIMBO and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo. Crave also has the documentary “Julia” (July 11, 9 p.m.) for those who want to check out the real Julia Child.

Finally, you can catch “Forever Summer: Hamptons” (July 15, Prime Video) if you want to watch rich kids and townies mixing it up on the beach in the exclusive Long Island vacation destination.

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

Watchable on Apple, AMC+, CBC, Netflix July 4 to 10, 2022

July 4, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Black Bird (July 8, Apple TV+)

Paul Walter Hauser and Taron Egerton in “Black Bird.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+

It’s not the crime scenes that are the most chilling in the miniseries “Black Bird”; it’s the moments when murderer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) is describing to fellow prisoner Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) what he’s done.

There’s one scene in particular in the fifth episode that is harrowing.

Jimmy, a charismatic cocaine dealer who’s cut a deal with the FBI to reduce his sentence in exchange for getting information from Larry about his victims, has finally got the cagey, paranoid killer to open up. As they sit across a table from each other in the prison woodworking shop, the camera jumps back and forth between their faces: Larry’s as he matter-of-factly recounts raping, beating and strangling a teenage girl; Jimmy’s as he listens and struggles to disguise his growing horror.

Later, when they return to their separate cells, Jimmy sobs quietly into his hands.

The stellar work of Hauser (“Cobra Kai,” “Richard Jewell”) and Egerton (“Kingsman,” “Rocketman”) is more than enough to recommend “Black Bird,” but it’s not the only reason.

Ray Liotta, who died at age 67 shortly after shooting wrapped on “Black Bird,” gives a performance that is in some ways the heart of the series. He plays Big Jim Keene, Jimmy’s father, an ex-cop whose love for Jimmy is never in doubt even when his actions put Jimmy in danger.

There’s a poignancy to the fact that Liotta’s character is in ill health; one wonders how much of Big Jim’s frailty was also Liotta’s with scenes in which you can see his hands shaking. But the acting is still top notch, fiercely and deeply emotional.

The bond between father and son explains why Jimmy takes the deal in the first place, which involves moving from a minimum-security institution where he’s well-liked and comfortable to a maximum security prison specializing in the criminally insane where his life might be in danger.

We go into the show knowing that Jimmy will survive since the series is based on the real James Keene’s memoir, “In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption,” but that doesn’t make the prison scenes any less tense, especially after a guard outs Jimmy as a snitch.

The jail footage is intercut with scenes of the investigation into Larry’s crimes — in which both Greg Kinnear as detective Brian Miller and Sepideh Moafi as FBI agent Lauren McCauley also give excellent performances — and flashbacks to Larry’s and Jimmy’s childhoods.

These suggest that both men grew up with negligent fathers and indifferent mothers, although only Larry — a harmless weirdo to the cops in his hometown of Wabash, Indiana, who loved fixing up old vans and civil war re-enactments — turned into a killer.

In any event, the series doesn’t go too deeply into the why of Larry’s crimes — and in real life, he has never been convicted of murder, although he’s serving a life sentence for kidnapping. It’s about the cat and mouse game between Keene and Hall and is at its most gripping when Hauser and Egerton are onscreen together.

Short Takes

Emma McDonald as Bella Sway in “Moonhaven.” PHOTO CREDIT: Szymon Lazewski/AMC

Moonhaven (July 7, AMC+)

I preface this by letting you know I’ve watched only two episodes of this six-episode sci-fi series, so consider this more of a first impression than a full review. The premise is that Earth is dying (that part is clearly not entirely fiction), but there’s a plan to save the planet and all its people via a revolutionary new form of machine learning that’s been developed in a colony on the moon. But “the bridge,” the name given for the imminent transfer by a giant corporation of tech and colonists back to Earth, is threatened by a couple of murders in the Garden of Eden-like colony, which might be part of a larger plot to sabotage the mission. Caught up in all of this is an earther named Bella Sway (Emma McDonald), a pilot and smuggler whose half-sister was the first murder victim and who witnesses the murder of the second. She teams up with a moon detective named Paul (played by Dominic Monaghan of “Lost” and “Lord of the Rings”) to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Monaghan is charismatic in the role and McDonald starts to grow on you once her character lightens up on the cynicism, but you have to wade through some hokeyness to get to the meat of the matter. The colonists come off as cultists, wandering around in colourful robes singing and dancing, and speaking in a stilted combination of very old-fashioned language and made-up words. If you can get past the new-agey trappings there might be a decent show under there. Joe Manganiello also stars.

Reel Black: Our Film Stories (July 8, CBC Gem; July 9, 8 p.m., CBC)

Got 20 minutes to spare? Then watch this documentary for a bit of a history lesson about Black filmmaking in Canada. It includes interviews with filmmakers Claire Prieto, Clement Virgo, Christene Browne,  Karen Chapman, Karen King and Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, some of whom have been making documentaries and feature films for decades. But even with that wealth of experience, barriers remain thanks to ingrained racism in the screen industry. Yet the doc also imparts a sense of hope, highlighting a new generation of artists such as Ajahnis Charley and Christian Anderson, part of a mentorship program through the OYA Media Group. As Ajahnis points out, it’s not just about getting more Black faces onscreen and behind the camera, but more Black crews, writers, producers and executives. “I want more slices or let’s make a new, better pie,” he says.

From left, Praneet Akilla, Morgan Holmstrom, Ace (Aason) Nadjiwon, Natasha Calis
and Mercedes Morris in “SkyMed.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

SkyMed (July 10, 9 p.m., CBC, CBC Gem)

If you like your medical dramas with liberal helpings of romantic entanglements this might be the show for you. The drama follows a group of young, attractive pilots and nurses providing medical care in northern Manitoba. Their ministrations are mostly provided in the back of a plane, which means they have to be fearless and quick on their feet. Back on the ground, the crews share a house, which means partying and hooking up are also on the agenda. But apart from the medical and relationship emergencies, the series — inspired by creator Julie Puckrin’s nurse sister and pilot brother-in-law, who met while serving on an airborne medical crew —also casts an eye on the racism and health care barriers faced by patients in remote Indigenous communities. And the natural scenery is a hell of a lot better than anything you’ll see on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

CBC and CBC Gem also have Season 2 of the sand-sculpting competition series “Race Against the Tide” (July 10, 8:30 p.m.). Gem has “Sorry for Your Loss” (July 4), which stars Elizabeth Olsen of “WandaVision” fame as a widow dealing with the loss of her husband; Season 3 of British comedy “Stath Lets Flats” (July 8) and Season 12 of “The Great British Baking Show” (July 10, 7 p.m., also on CBC TV).

Odds and Ends

Lana Condor as Erika in “Boo, Bitch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Voake/Netflix

Netflix’s offerings this week include “Boo, Bitch” (July 8), which stars Lana Condor of “To All the Boys” fame as a high school senior who uses her death to catch up on all the life she missed when she was trying not to get noticed. It has the usual high school tropes and is intermittently entertaining but doesn’t resemble any ghost story I’ve ever seen in the two episodes I watched. There’s also reality series “How to Build a Sex Room” (July 8), in which designer Melanie Rose, yes, helps couples build hanky panky spaces in their homes. True crime doc “Girl in the Picture” and rom-com “Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between” both debut July 6, and animated comedy “The Sea Beast” is out July 8.

I don’t watch much reality TV anymore, despite my handle, but I do make time for “The Amazing Race Canada,” which returns July 5 at 9 p.m. on CTV after a three-year absence due to the pandemic.

BBC Earth has the latest David Attenborough nature show, “The Green Planet” (July 6, 9 p.m.), which explores “the hidden life of plants,” including maple trees in northern Ontario and lodgepole pines in British Columbia.

The big PBS offering this week is “The Great Muslim American Road Trip” (July 5, 10 p.m.), featuring rapper Mona Haydar and husband Sebastian Robins travelling Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, and visiting Muslim communities and people along the way.

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

Watchable on Netflix, StackTV, OUTtv June 20 to 26, 2022

June 20, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Umbrella Academy (June 22, Netflix)

From left, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Elliot Page, David Castañeda, Aidan Gallagher and Robert Sheehan
in Season 3 of “The Umbrella Academy.” PHOTO CREDIT: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

One of the things I’ve always liked about “The Umbrella Academy” is that its stepsibling protagonists are more superhuman than superhero.

Sure, saving the world is pretty nifty, but it’s the human flaws and foibles in these six characters (seven including dead brother Ben, played by Justin H. Min) that have kept me watching. So the good news is that, despite being embroiled in yet another apocalyptic scenario in Season 3, the brothers and one sister of “The Umbrella Academy” (more on that later) are still very much a screwed-up family of misfits who happen to have superpowers.

In fact, this season ramps up the emotional stakes for our characters who, as the episodes begin, are just back from their near-death experience in 1963 and missing the people they left behind in that timeline. And, as we saw in the Season 2 finale, their home is no longer their home and Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) is no longer their father, having adopted a different group of seven superpowered children named the Sparrow Academy.

Unfortunately, the Sparrows aren’t there to do much more than be antagonists to the Umbrellas for the first few episodes — the season opener includes both an entertaining dance-off and an epic fight in which the Umbrellas get their asses handed to them — and to bring back Ben.

Aside from Ben and sister Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), the six Sparrow brothers and sisters, and one cube, are mostly presented as personality-free villains. While the Umbrellas’ ghost version of Ben finally passed on to the afterlife in Season 2, the Sparrows’ Ben is very much alive but a real asshole.

Speaking of assholes, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) undergoes a character transformation I really didn’t like. After leaving her beloved husband Ray (Yusuf Gatewood) in the 1960s, Allison learns that the daughter for whom she returned to the present is no longer part of her timeline. Her grief turns her into a gratuitously violent monster who focuses most of her rage on her brother Viktor, formerly her sister Vanya.

Yes, “The Umbrella Academy” acknowledges the coming out of Canadian actor Elliot Page as a transgender man by having Viktor undergo his own transition into his true self, which is handled with class and grace.

Viktor’s story arc is one of the most satisfying things about the new season as the angry, abused sibling of seasons past becomes a force for good, trying to make amends for the lives he’s taken.

The other star of the season is Tom Hopper, who displays a radiant sweetness and deep humanity as his character, Luther, finds love.

Diego (David Castaneda) reunites with Lila (Ritu Arya), who brings a visitor from her time travels, a kid named Stan (Javon “Wanna” Walton); Klaus (Robert Sheehan) manages to bond with Reginald, although it involves a typically abusive manipulation on Reggie’s part; Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) is as amusing as always as he wearily tries to save the world all over again.

It seems the Umbrella Academy has triggered something called the “Grandfather Paradox” and there’s a menacing ball of light called a Kugelblitz in the basement of the academy that is dissolving the world piece by piece.

There’s also a secret mission that Reggie is bent on fulfilling, called Oblivion, one that caused him to part ways in the Sparrow timeline with his chimpanzee assistant Pogo (Adam Godley), whom Five tracks down.

There’s also a callback to Harlan, the kid that Viktor accidentally imbued with superpowers in Season 2, that plays into Viktor’s reclamation, Allison’s villainization and the world-threatening time paradox.

It’s a rollicking sometimes silly season with the standard blend of quirky comedy, darkness (and this season, it sometimes goes really dark) and a killer soundtrack.

For me, the show is always at its best when the Umbrella Academy gets to be a family, which it does in some cathartic ways here, but they never get to stay a family for long. So, after a frenetic finale involving an evil plan of Reggie’s, the timeline is reset — Season 4 has reportedly already got a green light — and it seems as though the stepsiblings will scatter once again.

Netflix has a lot of other stuff debuting this week, including the made-in-Toronto film “The Man From Toronto” (June 24), starring Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson, and the docuseries “The Future Of” (June 21), a look at technological innovations that could change human life, while “Money Heist” fans will want to check out the spinoff “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” on June 24.

Short Takes

Drag queen BeBe Zahara Benet in “Being BeBe.”

Being BeBe (June 21, OUTtv.com; June 22, 9 p.m., OUTtv)

It’s easy to get swept up in the glamorous artifice of drag and forget that it’s a hard, and not always lucrative, way to make a living. The documentary “Being BeBe,” which highlights 15 years in the life of drag artist BeBe Zahara Benet, is clear-eyed about this reality. It show’s BeBe’s successes — winning the first “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2009, creating her show “Creature” in 2012, doing “Drag Race All Stars” in 2018, touring “Nubia” in 2020 with other Black “Drag Race” alumni — but also the low points, like having to move back to Minneapolis from Brooklyn when the stage show “Reveal” fails to make money. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the lowest as it left BeBe, real name Marshall Ngwa, unemployed just when he was expecting a breakout year career-wise. But Ngwa, interviewed by friend and filmmaker Emily Branham, is philosophical about the setback: he has had to hustle before to make a living; he will do so again. He also has the advantage of a loving, supportive family, not something to be taken for granted coming from Cameroon in Central Africa. Branham juxtaposes footage of BeBe, who refuses to categorize his sexuality, with interviews with young queer men and women still living in Cameroon, shunned by their families and at risk of violence, even murder, in a country in which homosexuality is prohibited by law and even ordering the wrong drink can result in a jail sentence. In that context, that BeBe can choose to make a career out of drag is a triumph apart from any financial and artistic rewards. “Drag Race” has gone some way to humanizing drag artists for the viewing public; “Being BeBe” gives us a more intimate look at one of its stars.

Jesse James Keitel as Ruthie and Devin Way as Brodie in “Queer as Folk.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Alyssa Moran/Peacock

Queer as Folk (June 26, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

How do you reimagine “Queer as Folk,” the groundbreaking, sexually frank 1999 TV series about a group of gay men in Manchester? If you’re Canadian creator Stephen Dunn, you move it to vibrant New Orleans, expand its gaze to include non-white, transgender, non-binary and disabled characters, make the sex even more in your face and have your characters transformed by a tragedy. It’s no spoiler to say that the first episode of the new series includes a nightclub shooting inspired by the real-life slaughter at the Pulse bar in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 people died. The body count is mercifully lower in the show, which to its credit doesn’t dwell on the violence but on how its characters process it. And if you think that means just anger and sadness, think again. Lead character Brodie (Devin Way), for instance, decides the best way to honour a dead friend is to throw a big-ass party, turning ex-boyfriend Noah’s (Johnny Sibilly) spacious home into a makeshift nightclub he names Ghost Fag. Other key characters include Mingus (Fin Argus), a high school student and aspiring drag queen; Devin’s brother Julian (Ryan O’Connell), who has cerebral palsy; and his best friend Ruthie (Jesse James Keitel), a trans woman who’s just become a parent with her non-binary partner Shar (CG). Eric Graise adds snarky wit as Marvin, a bilateral amputee in a wheelchair; Armand Fields is wise drag mama Bussy; and ringers Kim Cattrall and Juliette Lewis play Brodie’s adoptive mother, Brenda, and Mingus’s mother, Judy. Yes, that’s a lot of characters, all with very distinctive arcs, and the show can be messy as it shifts from storyline to storyline, but these characters also really grow on you, at least in the four episodes I viewed. They can be selfish and self-defeating at times, but they represent a spectrum of queerness that’s so much more expansive than this series’ predecessor.

Odds and Ends

A couple of British detective series that I have personally enjoyed are back with new seasons. Season 3 of “Hidden” (June 20, Acorn) sees Welsh detectives Cadi John (Sian-Reese Williams) and Owen Vaughan (Sion Alun Davies) investigating two brothers after a body is found in a river. On BritBox, “Grace” returns for a second season on June 21, with Roy Grace (John Simm) and Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell) investigating several different murders from their home base of Brighton.

Apple TV+ has the comedy “Loot” (June 24), starring Maya Rudolph as a spurned wife who decides to try to use her billions for good.

Prime Video has “Chloe” (June 24), about a young woman’s obsession with a former friend she stalks on Instagram.

HBO and Crave have the true crime series “Mind Over Murder” (June 20, 10 p.m.) about six people convicted of killing a grandmother in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1985 and later exonerated by DNA evidence.

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

Watchable on Disney, Apple, Netflix June 6 to 12, 2022

June 6, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Under the Banner of Heaven (June 8, Disney+)

Wyatt Russell as Dan Lafferty and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Brenda Lafferty
in “Under the Banner of Heaven.” PHOTO CREDIT: Michelle Faye/FX.

The bloody murder of a young woman and her 15-month-old daughter would be horrific in any context, but this miniseries is particularly chilling in its depiction of religious men turned fundamentalist zealots and killers.

“Under the Banner of Heaven” is based on the book of the same name by Jon Krakauer about the real-life 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty, wife of the youngest brother in a prominent Salt Lake City Mormon family, and her daughter Erica. But it’s more than just a crime procedural — and a particularly gripping one at that — it’s also about the sexism inherent in the Mormon faith (and pretty much every other organized religion); a suppressed history of violence in the early days of Mormonism; a loss of faith, as personified by the show’s fictional lead detective; and the fracturing of a family.

It was created by Dustin Lance Black (“Milk,” “Big Love,” “When We Rise”), who is himself a lapsed Mormon.

When Brenda and Erica are found dead inside their home, suspicion immediately falls on husband Allen (Billy Howle), but Mormon detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) and his Native American partner Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) follow the evidence to a more insidious conclusion: that Brenda was targeted for running afoul of two of Allen’s brothers and their newly fundamentalist beliefs.

At the same time, Jeb is urged by Allen to probe the untold history of their faith — in particular, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when more than 100 members of a wagon train were slaughtered by Mormon settlers in southern Utah, who tried to blame the attack on Paiute tribesmen — which has Jeb questioning whether the founders of the religion on which his entire life has been built were following God or their own selfish desires.

The show has an embarrassment of riches in its cast, including Wyatt Russell and Sam Worthington as brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty. Russell is especially effective as Dan, who becomes increasingly unhinged as he progresses from tax scofflaw to a believer in a literal interpretation of original Mormon texts, to the point that he wants to “marry” his two teenage stepdaughters. Ron, meanwhile, goes from successful entrepreneur and local politician to someone who believes he’s a conduit for revelations that come directly from God.

Fortunately, Brenda, played by the always excellent Daisy Edgar-Jones, gets to be more than just a murder victim in the series. She’s portrayed as a loving, intelligent woman who believes in her church but is unwilling to blindly follow its more repressive patriarchal strictures.

You’ll also notice some Canadian actors in the cast, not surprising since the show was shot in Calgary, including Christopher Heyerdahl as the Lafferty family patriarch. Stratford Festival veterans Tom Rooney, Graham Abbey and Evan Buliung also appear, the first two as Mormon bishops, the latter as historical figure Major John D. Lee.

People often use the word “evil” when describing particularly heinous crimes, which plays into the idea of people’s lives being dictated by forces outside themselves. In “Under the Banner of Heaven,” the worst acts, even those committed in the name of a warped idea of God, are all too human.

Disney+ also has the new series “Ms. Marvel” (June 8), starring Canadian actor Iman Vellani as TV’s first Muslim superhero. I didn’t get to screen this one, but everybody and their brother is going to be writing about it, so you probably won’t miss my take.

Short Takes

Wrenn Schmidt and Joel Kinnaman in Season 3 of “For All Mankind.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+

For All Mankind (June 10, Apple TV+)

The question going into Season 3 of space drama “For All Mankind” was whether the series could keep up the momentum established by its superior second season and excellent season finale (if you watched it, spoiler alert, I bet you can still conjure up an image of Gordo and Tracy running across the surface of the moon wrapped in duct tape). Based on the three episodes I’ve screened so far, it’s off to a good start, beginning with a season premiere whose ending will have you on the edge of your seat. The series began in 1969 with the Soviets beating the Americans to the moon. Season 3 opens in the early ’90s, with both the U.S. and Russia planning missions to Mars in 1996. When a third player, a private company led by Kenyan-American visionary Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), announces it’s heading to Mars in ’94, NASA and the Russian space agency scramble to move up their timelines. The three-way race also brings plenty of interpersonal complications. Astronauts Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) are competing to head NASA’s mission; Ed’s ex-wife Karen (Shantel VanSanten) has joined Dev’s Helios after an aborted foray into space tourism; Johnson Space Centre director Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) is still butting heads with former astronaut Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger), who’s in charge of choosing the Mars mission commander; Gordo’s and Tracy’s son Danny (Casey W. Johnson) and Ed’s and Karen’s adopted daughter Kelly (Cynthy Wu) are also in the mix as Mars crew members. And Margo’s long-distance flirtation with Soviet engineer Sergei (Piotr Adamczyk) brings complications of its own. As always with this series, there are many threads to follow but, with all three missions to Mars lifting off by the end of Episode 3, there’s a promise of lots of juicy, action-packed drama to come.

Zahn McClarnon stars in “Dark Winds.” PHOTO CREDIT: AMC Networks

Dark Winds (June 12, 9 p.m., AMC/AMC+)

You’re sure to have seen Zahn McClarnon’s face before, whether in “Fargo,” “Westworld,” even “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” but here he’s the star of the show as Navajo police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. And he gets this adaptation of the Tony Hillerman “Leaphorn & Chee” books — which I sincerely hope is just the first of several seasons to come — off to a great start. The Lakota and Irish American actor is paired with Hualapai actor Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee, while Edmonton-born Jessica Matten, who’s of Metis-Cree descent, makes a welcome third lead as fellow officer Bernadette Manuelito. The six-episode series is mostly set on Navajo land in New Mexico, which is almost a character in its own right. It’s 1971 and Chee has been parachuted in as Leaphorn’s new deputy. Leaphorn is out to solve the murder of two Dine people, an old man and a 19-year-old girl, but it’s not a priority for the white FBI agent (Noah Emmerich) who’s taken over the file and is more interested in a bank heist that took place in the nearby city of Gallup. The twists and turns of the criminal investigation — and trust me, it’s plenty twisty — are interwoven with glimpses of Indigenous traditions and superstitions; of Joe’s family life; of Chee’s and Manuelito’s painful pasts; of the racism that colonialism has made a fact of life for Indigenous populations the world over. The series, which was created by Chickasaw producer Graham Roland and had a mostly Indigenous cast, crew and creative team, has Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin as executive producers. But it’s the relatability and chemistry of the characters that leaves you wanting more.

Odds and Ends

Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in Season 6 of “Peaky Blinders.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

We are big “Peaky Blinders” fans in my household so I’m particularly keen to see the sixth and final season of the period gangster drama, which comes to Netflix June 10, and would have made time for it had screeners been available. I have avoided all spoilers coming out of the U.K., where it already aired, but it’s a safe bet the Shelby family will go out with a violent bang. Sadly, Helen McCrory, who masterfully played Aunt Polly Gray and died last year of cancer, was unable to shoot the final episodes.

So much TV, too little time to take it all in and that means I didn’t get to screen the series “Irma Vep” (June 6, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave), which stars Alicia Vikander as an American actor who comes to Paris to star in a remake of the French silent film classic “Les Vampires.” HBO also has a documentary that sounds interesting, “The Janes” (June 8, 9 p.m.), about an underground network of women who helped to provide access to abortions in Chicago before the now threatened Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. And on June 12 at 10 p.m., the latest attempt to make history young and sexy debuts on Starz/Crave with “Becoming Elizabeth,” about the teenage years of Queen Elizabeth I (Alicia von Rittberg).

Netflix has lots of comedy specials this week, including “Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill” (June 6); the series “That’s My Time With David Letterman” (June 7); “Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration” (June 9); “Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute” (June 10); and “Amy Schumer’s Parental Advisory” (June 11). And seeing as I was talking about Mormon fundamentalism earlier, there’s also a documentary about Warren Jeffs, president of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey” (June 8).

Speaking of comedy, Prime Video has “Backstage With Katherine Ryan” (June 9), in which the Canadian-Irish comedian offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a comedy special.

CBC Gem has the Icelandic serial killer drama “Black Sands” (June 10); “Check It” (June 10), an American documentary about bullied gay and transgender youth who formed their own criminal gang; and “Small Town Pride” (June 10), another doc, this one about the challenges of being queer in a small town, which follows subjects in Alberta, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories as they prepare for Pride celebrations.

Finally, Hollywood Suite has the German miniseries “Faking Hitler” (June 9, 9 p.m.), about the 1980s scandal involving the publication by Stern magazine of diaries purported to have been written by Adolf Hitler.

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

Watchable on Disney, StackTV, Netflix May 30 to June 5, 2022

May 30, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Pistol (May 31, Disney+)

From left, Anson Boon as Johnny Rotten, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Toby Wallace as Steve Jones
and Jacob Slater as Paul Cook in “Pistol.” PHOTO CREDIT: Rebecca Brenneman/FX

How you feel about the Sex Pistols probably depends to some extent on how old you were when the U.K. punks burst onto the music scene. I was 15 when they released the single “God Save the Queen” and, while I didn’t fully grasp the anti-establishment roots of the music, I appreciated the safety pin-adorned punk rock style, just the thing to allow a good Catholic girl to flirt with non-conformity.

This miniseries based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir “Lonely Boy: Tales of a Sex Pistol” takes us to the band’s roots at the forefront of a musical revolution. And dare I say, although it doesn’t shy away from Jones’ own troubled history or the band’s notorious ending tainted by drugs and death, it also makes those early days of punk seem like a helluva lot of fun.

Jones (Toby Wallace) is our way into the show, although all the band members get screen time, as does manager Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), his partner, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley), and a young Chrissie Hynde (Sydney Chandler), Jones’ sometime romantic interest.

The top-notch cast also includes Anson Boon (“1917”), who’s particularly compelling as Johnny Rotten, Jacob Slater as drummer Paul Cook, Christian Lees as original bassist Glen Matlock, who was replaced by the doomed Sid Vicious (Louis Partridge), Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen and Maisie Williams of “Game of Thrones” as punk fashion icon Jordan (the real Jordan, a.k.a. Pamela Rooke, died in April).

(There’s a particularly entertaining scene in which Jordan, on her way to her job at McLaren’s and Westwood’s Sex boutique, commutes wearing a see-through coat and no bra, completely unconcerned by the outraged glares of the women and lascivious stares of the men on the train.)

Creator Craig Pearce (“Moulin Rouge!” and the upcoming “Elvis”) and director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting” and Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire”) attempt to ground the story of the band in the unrest of the times, so episodes are sprinkled with real footage of Britain in the 1970s, contrasting the monarchy and bowler-hatted toffs with the blue collar masses.

When Jones, Cook, Matlock and guitarist Wally Nightingale (Dylan Llewellyn of “Derry Girls”) are trying to decide on a look for their pre-Pistols band, the Swankers, Cook says they should dress like what they are: “four broke working class kids who can’t play for shit.”

We first meet Jones stealing equipment from a David Bowie gig at the Hammersmith Odeon (in real life, he reportedly stole it from a truck behind the venue, not the actual stage). A chronic thief, homeless, nearly illiterate, scarred by the verbal and sexual abuse of his stepfather, in the estimation of the manipulative McLaren, Jones has nothing to live for but his band.

McLaren sets about shaping the group, which is renamed the Sex Pistols, to fulfil his and Westwood’s dream of fomenting a revolution against the class-based stodginess of British society. So Nightingale is out and McLaren recruits live wire John Lydon, nicknamed Johnny Rotten for his bad teeth, to sing. As the series tells it, McLaren later pressures Jones to fire Matlock so he can bring in Lydon’s friend John Ritchie, nicknamed Sid Vicious after a nasty hamster. He can’t play, but he has the right punk rock look and a tendency toward self-destruction.

If you’re at all familiar with the Sex Pistols, you’ll be familiar with the band’s arc, including the infamy of their profanity-laced interview on “The Grundy Show”; being dropped by two record labels; the banning of No. 1 single “God Save the Queen” in the U.K.; the boat cruise/concert on the Thames that ended with Malcolm and Vivienne and others getting arrested; the disastrous U.S. tour that led to the band’s breakup; the subsequent filming of McLaren’s vanity project “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”; the arrest of Vicious for the murder of his girlfriend, Spungen, and his subsequent death by heroin overdose.

The sadness of Sid’s and Nancy’s deaths notwithstanding, the tragic bits aren’t what stuck with me after watching all six episodes; it was the initial excitement of the music.

Thank goodness Lydon wasn’t successful in his bid to prohibit “Pistol” from using the band’s songs. The young cast do their own playing and singing, and Doyle shot performances in one take, which brings fresh energy to tracks like “Bodies,” “God Save the Queen” and “Anarchy in the U.K.”

“Pistol” isn’t flawless. Boyle’s hyperkinetic directing style can be distracting. And one suspects the real punk scene was a lot messier, more sharp-edged and less attractive than what comes across onscreen.

With Jones as lead character, we learn little about the more famous members of the group, Rotten and Vicious, let alone Cook, Matlock and poor Wally Nightingale, who was more influential in the pre-Pistol days than the show lets on.

Each episode starts with a disclaimer that it’s “inspired” by true events so it’s clearly an approximation, a bit like me putting on fake leather and safety pins in high school.

And Boyle and Pearce give the story an unlikely happy ending of sorts, with Jones and Lydon burying the hatchet after Sid’s death, and a flashback to a feel-good Christmas Day benefit concert the band played for the children of striking firefighters in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

But all that being said, it’s still an entertaining look back at a band that continues to be influential despite lasting for just two and a half years.

Short Takes

Emmy Rossum as the title character in “Angelyne.” PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Vosmikova/Peacock

Angelyne (June 1, 9 p.m., Showcase/StackTV)

Who is Angelyne? That’s the question posed in this Peacock miniseries about a real Hollywood legend, a blond, one-named bombshell who essentially became famous for being famous. Angelyne’s path to notoriety came through the provocative billboards of her that appeared all over Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s. There were several albums; film, TV and music video appearances; a foray into art via self-portraits; sales of merchandise and tours; even a run for California governor. Now in her 70s, she can apparently still be seen driving around town in one of her pink Corvettes. But who is the woman behind the blond hair, tight dresses and Barbie doll figure, which star and executive producer Emmy Rossum endured hours in the makeup chair to portray? This five-part series doesn’t give us any answers beyond facts already revealed in a 2017 Hollywood Reporter article: a Polish-born child of Holocaust survivors who cut ties with her past when she reinvented herself. The miniseries presents fictionalized versions of influential people in her life: her ex-husband (Michael Angarano), her fan club manager (Hamish Linklater), her boyfriend from the punk band Baby Blue (Philip Ettinger), the entrepreneur who financed her first billboards (Martin Freeman), the reporter who revealed her story (Alex Karpovsky), the student who tried to make a documentary about her (Lukas Gage). It’s an impressive roster of talent, led by Rossum, who disappears into the role, but it doesn’t get us any closer to the why of Angelyne. Given the preference of the real woman to remain a mystery — she told the Guardian newspaper in an interview she’s an alien “sitting on top of a pink cloud, sending inspiration to the world” — that probably suits her just fine. But it keeps the series from being elucidating as well as entertaining.

Odds and Ends

Norm Macdonald in the 2018 series “Norm Macdonald Has a Show.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eddy Chen/Netflix

The title of Norm Macdonald’s posthumous comedy special, “Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special” (May 30), is of course a complete misnomer. Getting a last hour of standup from the beloved Canadian comedian, who died last September of cancer at the age of 61, is extremely special. Like his illness, Macdonald kept the program, filmed in his living room during the pandemic, a secret. And we will all discover what it contains together since screeners weren’t made available beforehand, but his producing partner told the Hollywood Reporter the material is fantastic. The Netflix show also includes tributes from other comedians filmed during the Netflix Is a Joke festival.

CBC Gem has a couple of imports for you to check out: Australian comedy “Preppers” (June 1), about an Aboriginal woman who joins a community of people prepping for the apocalypse; and Irish dramedy “The Dry” (June 3), about a woman whose newfound sobriety is tested when she moves back to Dublin.

I’m sorry, fans of “The Boys,” which returns to Prime Video for its third season June 3, but I didn’t watch the screeners on purpose because I just don’t love the show, despite the fact it’s made in Toronto. But for those of you who do, enjoy. Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) are reportedly going to get up to more mayhem after they learn about an anti-superhero weapon and start a war.

Apple TV has Season 2 of “Physical” (June 3), which sees aerobics instructor hero Sheila (Rose Byrne) struggling to expand her fitness empire.

If you enjoyed the HBO Max series “Julia” — and I certainly did — you might want to check out CNN’s documentary, also called “Julia” (May 30, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.), about celebrity chef Julia Child. It repeats June 4 at 9 p.m.

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.

This post has been edited to add additional thoughts I had after a second watch of “Pistol.”

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

May 16, 2022 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Night Sky (May 20, Prime Video)

J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek in “Night Sky.” PHOTO CREDIT: Chuck Hodes/Amazon Studios

The pleasure of watching “Night Sky” comes as much from excavating the layers of its well played characters as the mysterious extraterrestrial portal buried in its lead couple’s backyard.

In fact, there are few answers to be had in this sci-fi drama — yet, anyway, it’s clearly begging for a second season — and I’m forbidden from sharing the answers we do get thanks to a long list of “do not reveals” from Amazon.

It’s a good thing then that the people at the heart of the story are so compelling to watch.

Married 70-somethings Franklin and Irene York (Oscar winners J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek) are living a seemingly mundane life in Farnsworth, Illinois. But hidden beneath their garden shed is a portal that transports them to another planet.

Over and over again, for 20-odd years, Frank and Irene have ventured along the passageway hidden beneath a trap door in the shed to sit and stare through a window at the beautiful and deserted planet — it’s too dangerous to venture outside the chamber.

But Frank is starting to tire of the routine whereas Irene hungers to know more about the other world. When she ventures to the portal without Frank one night, a young man suddenly appears, physically ill and covered in blood.

Over Frank’s objections, Irene installs him in their late son’s bedroom, nurses him back to health and begins to form a bond with him, testing her relationship with Franklin.

Added to the mix is their granddaughter Denise (Kiah McKirnan), who’s worried about her grandparents and suspicious of the stranger posing as their caregiver, whose name is Jude (Chai Hansen); and nosy neighbour Byron (Adam Bartley), who wants to know what Frank and Irene have been doing in the garden shed in the middle of the night. And then there are the dangerous people who are hunting for Jude, or so he tells Irene.

There’s also a parallel plot set in Argentina involving llama farmer Stella (Argentinian actor Julieta Zylberberg) and her teenage daughter Toni (Rocio Hernandez). Their story eventually intersects with Frank’s, Irene’s and Jude’s, but I’m afraid I’m not allowed to tell you how.

The main thing to know is that you will care about the central trio and you will want to watch all eight episodes to find out what happens to them.

Simmons and Spacek do a masterful job of portraying the deep, abiding love between Franklin and Irene, but it’s an imperfect love, just like in a real-life marriage, one complicated by the suicide of their son, which happened around the same time they found the portal.

Hansen, a Thai-Australian actor, holds his own against the two titans, making Jude sympathetic even though we’re not sure he can be trusted.

Even Byron, at first glance a mere busybody and thorn in Franklin’s side, turns out to have some levels to him.

Building sci-fi mythology can be tricky. The season ends with several cliffhangers, and it remains to be seen if writers Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly can make the resolutions as satisfying as the human storytelling, assuming they get more episodes.

In the meantime, “Night Sky” will likely bring pleasure to those for whom the journey is as important as the destination.

Short Takes

Alison Oliver and Joe Alwyn in “Conversations With Friends.” PHOTO CREDIT: Enda Bowe/Hulu

Conversations With Friends (May 16, Prime Video)

Your enjoyment of “Conversations With Friends,” the latest adaptation of a Sally Rooney novel, will depend in part on your tolerance for awkward characters who lack communication skills. Main protagonist Frances (newcomer Alison Oliver) is a Dublin university student and spoken word poet who, under the influence of ex-girlfriend turned best friend Bobbi (Sasha Lane, “American Honey,” “Utopia”), gets pulled into the orbit of 30-something author Melissa (Jemima Kirke, “Girls”) and her actor husband Nick (Joe Alwyn, “The Favourite”). Awkwardness attracts, and Frances and the also conversationally challenged Nick begin an affair while the outspoken Bobbi, a New York import, is attracted to the more extroverted Melissa. The entanglement has implications not only for the marriage but for Frances’s and Bobbi’s friendship. As you’ll know if you’ve watched the much lauded “Normal People,” these kinds of complications aren’t tied up in neat linear bows in a Rooney adaptation. But Nick and Alison are no Connell and Marianne; there’s less of an emotional pull to this coupling. It’s also hard to see what makes Bobbi so indispensable to Frances given that she’s not particularly nice to her. That being said, the cast makes the most of what they’ve been given to work with, and Oliver’s expressive face helps us decipher what the often silent Frances is thinking.

Prime Video also has Season 2 of the dark comedy “Made for Love,” starring Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen and Ray Romano; French-made Cold War romance drama “Totems”; and the documentary “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks,” all on May 20.

Ryan and Kiki survey the house full of detritus they’ve just bought on “Hoarder House Flippers.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Screen grab/HGTV

Hoarder House Flippers (May 19, 8 p.m., HGTV)

I’m no real estate TV aficionado, but this Canadian show appears to up the ante on the renovation genre by featuring properties so full of junk it’s hard to tell where the renos need to begin. But that can mean an extra frisson of appreciation once the garbage-strewn rooms are transformed. In the episode I screened, married couple Ryan and Kiki tackled a filthy bungalow in Springbrook, Ontario (the dead mouse in a kitchen drawer was a particularly nice touch). Other episodes feature Quebec brothers Mactar, Issa and Khadim, and Manitobans Heather and Nathan. I’m not sure where future instalments will take the house flippers, but it’s probably a good thing they stayed out of Toronto, where real estate is something of a dirty word, for at least the first one.

George Carlin as seen in “George Carlin’s American Dream.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of George Carlin’s Estate/HBO

George Carlin’s American Dream (May 20, 8 p.m., HBO/Crave)

The jokes that George Carlin tells as this documentary opens, about Americans’ obsession with their rights and talent for warmongering, among other things, sound so relevant to the present day that you might have to remind yourself that the comedian died in 2008. And that’s partly the point of this two-part film, directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, that Carlin was in some ways a comedian ahead of his time. The doc delves deeply into the life and career of a man considered one of the greatest standups of all time, and it doesn’t leave out the bad parts: his dysfunctional upbringing, his cocaine use, his wife’s alcoholism, the career slumps. Even if you were already a fan, you might learn some new things and develop a new appreciation for a man who was as funny as he was — and is — politically and culturally relevant.

Crave also has the documentary “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”; the Sesame Street shows “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck” and “Elmo’s World”; and Season 7 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.” all on May 20.

Odds and Ends

Emma and James in “Love on the Spectrum U.S.” PHOTO CREDIT: David Scott Holloway/Netflix

I can’t blame lack of screeners for my lack of Netflix reviews this week, just lack of time. Once again, the streamer has a lot of stuff coming out, including “Love on the Spectrum U.S.” (May 18), the American remake of the heartwarming Australian docuseries about people on the autism spectrum navigating dating and relationships. Also debuting: Season 2 of Japanese reality series “The Future Diary” (May 17); the Korean documentary “Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror” (May 18); Season 3 of Mexican crime drama “Who Killed Sara?” (May 18); comedy docuseries “The G Word With Adam Conover” (May 19); Season 2 of Spanish reality series “Insiders” (May 19); true-crime doc “The Photographer: Murder in Pinamar” (May 19); Season 3 of animated anthology series “Love, Death & Robots” (May 20); and Spanish revenge drama “Wrong Side of the Tracks” (May 20).

Apple TV Plus has the bilingual thriller series “Now and Then” (May 20), shot in English and Spanish, about the aftermath of a celebratory weekend that left one of a group of college friends dead.

Finally, Super Channel Fuse has the original series “Forgotten Frontlines” (May 16, 8 p.m.), about lesser known stories of World War II. The first episode covers the same topic as the Netflix movie “Operation Mincemeat,” when a corpse was floated off the coast of southern Spain to convince the Germans that the Allies planned to invade Greece instead of their real target, Sicily.

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

April 18, 2022 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 11, 2022 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

Anatomy of a Scandal (April 15, Netflix)

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

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

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

Swimming With Sharks (April 15, Roku)

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 March 28-April 3, 2022

March 28, 2022 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

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

Slow Horses (April 1, Apple TV)

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

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

The Outlaws (April 1, Prime Video)

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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 March 21-27, 2022

March 21, 2022 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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