Tag: watchable list (Page 4 of 6)

Watchable Jan. 3 to 9, 2022

January 3, 2022 / Debra Yeo

First off, wishing everyone a safe and comfortable 2022. This week, there are multiple new and returning shows I enjoyed, so I’m listing them in order of premiere date and forgoing the Show of the Week.

Son of a Critch (Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Claire Rankin, Mark Critch, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Colton Gobbo and Malcolm McDowell
in “Son of a Critch.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

Give Mark Critch and Tim McAuliffe credit: they’ve taken an awfully well worn TV trope, the coming-of-age comedy, and given it a charming, quirky spin all its own in the autobiographical “Son of a Critch.”

Based on comedian Critch’s memoir, it follows 12-year-old Mark (British actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, “The Haunting of Bly Manor”) as he grows up in 1980s St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Mark is simultaneously a naif and an old soul, living with his radio reporter dad Mike (Critch), his stay-at-home, full-time gossip mom Mary (Claire Rankin), older brother Mike Jr. (Colton Gobbo) and grandpa Pop (Malcolm McDowell, yes, that Malcolm McDowell).

Cherub-faced Mark listens to Dean Martin, is “asthmatic with fallen arches and no hand-eye co-ordination” and shares a bedroom with his granddad. (“Nothing gets you out of bed faster than being mooned by an octogenarian,” narrator Critch says in one of the show’s laugh-out-loud lines.) So he’s ripe for picking on when he gets bused across town to the Catholic junior high school — although it’s hard to say who’s tougher, the bullies or the nuns. (Petrina Bromley of “Come From Away” plays one of them.)

Newbie actors Sophia Powers and Mark Rivera play Mark’s frenemy Fox, who comes from a family of bullies, and friend Ritche, the only Filipino kid in school and a fellow outcast.

The comedy is sharp but not cruel, and Ainsworth makes a sweetly appealing protagonist. I came into this one a little skeptical but came out a fan.

Run the Burbs (Jan. 5, 8:30 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)

Roman Pesino, Zoriah Wong, Rakhee Morzaria and Andrew Phung in “Run the Burbs.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

If TV comedies were judged just on the likability of their lead actors, Andrew Phung would have a runaway hit on his hands in “Run the Burbs.”

A fan favourite in the dearly departed “Kim’s Convenience,” the Calgary-born Phung has spun his own life experience into this sitcom, co-created with his best friend, Scott Townend. Here, the Vietnamese-Canadian actor is Vietnamese-Canadian suburban dad Andrew Pham.

Whereas the actor is raising young sons in Toronto in real life, the TV dad is stay-at-home nurturer to adolescent, queer daughter Khia (Zoriah Wong) and son Leo (Roman Pesino), while his extremely smart South Asian wife Camille (Rakhee Morzaria) works in HR and is an Instagram chef on the side.

You could call it an aspirational comedy, not in the sense that the Phams are rich or famous, but that we should all be so lucky to have a bond like this family’s. It’s not that the Phams aren’t saccharine sweet, thank goodness, or joined at the hip, but their interactions are shot through with love and respect.

The plots, at least in the two episodes made available for review, stick close to the family’s suburban home: the neighbourhood block party is jeopardized by the local bylaw enforcer (Aurora Browne of “Baroness von Sketch Show”); Andrew and Camille finagle their way into the new neighbours’ pool during a heat wave; Khia has complicated feelings when her former best friend Mannix (Simone Miller) moves back to the ‘hood; Andrew frets when Leo goes to sleep-away camp.

Phung and his team have assembled a capable cast with some comedy ringers, including Ali Hassan, Chris Locke, Samantha Wan and the late Candy Palmater.

I’m rooting for this one.

You can read my Toronto Star interview with Andrew and Scott here.

Women of the Movement (Jan. 6, 8 p.m., Global TV)

Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, in “Women of the Movement.”
PHOTO CREDIT: James Van Evers/ABC

In 1955, Mamie Till Mobley did something that seems unthinkable in Jim Crow-era America: defied authorities in Mississippi to publicly display the mutilated body of her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, murdered by white men in that state because he had dared to smile and whistle at a white woman.

That act of defiance and her subsequent national speaking tour in support of justice for Emmett and other Black Americans are credited with sparking the U.S. Civil Rights movement.

This limited series, part of a planned anthology by Marissa Jo Cerar (“The Fosters,” “The Handmaid’s Tale”), is squarely focused on Mamie, played affectingly by Tony Award-winning theatre actor Adrienne Warren.

Mamie’s grief and determination are the conduit through which the story of Emmett’s murder is told, as well as the subsequent trial, which saw the killers go free after the woman whose encounter with Emmett (Cedric Joe) spurred the lynching lied about it on the stand. The jury never heard the testimony, but the series portrays the lie about a lascivious Emmett putting his hands on Carolyn Bryant (Julia McDermott) as tainting the jury nonetheless, after it circulated through Sumner, Mississippi.

(The doc says in a postscript that Carolyn recanted her story, a claim also made by author Timothy Tyson in 2017, although Carolyn, still alive at 88, has refused to confirm that.)

A charge of kidnapping against Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam in a different county never got prosecuted after two senators leaked a story about Emmett’s father being executed during World War II for allegedly raping two women (author John Edgar Wideman has suggested Louis Till was framed and I have little trouble believing that to be true).

While Mamie is the main focus, the series also portrays the people who helped her through the darkest days of her life, including NAACP members Medgar Evers (Tongayi Chirisa) and Ruby Hurley (Leslie Silva), the Black press, civil rights leader Dr. Theodore Howard (Alex Desert), her mother Alma (Tonya Pinkins), and her boyfriend and later husband Gene Mobley (Ray Fisher). Canadian actor Gil Bellows plays a small but important role as prosecutor Gerald Chatham.

There was never any justice for Emmett, despite the killers admitting the crime in a self-serving Look interview less than a year after the trial. And one could argue, thinking about modern-day lynchings and trials in which the killers of Black people have been set free, that justice is still an elusive target for Black Americans.

“Women of the Movement” tells a powerful story and, I would wager, not a universally known one; the least we can do, like the thousands of people who lined up to see Emmett Till’s body, is not look away.

Global also has a new American medical drama, “Good Sam” (Jan. 5, 10 p.m.), about a young surgeon who’s in competition with her surgeon father.

Short Takes

Laurence Leboeuf, Hamza Haq, Ayisha Issa and Jim Watson in “Transplant.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Bell Media

Transplant (Jan. 3, 10 p.m., CTV and CTV.ca)

Good news for fans of this Canadian medical drama: if you warmed to Dr. Bashir Hamed (Hamza Haq) and his colleagues at Toronto’s fictional York Memorial Hospital last season, you’re going to enjoy catching up with them in Season 2. The show continues to judiciously mix its medical stories with glimpses of the private lives of the doctors. This season, with Dr. Bishop (John Hannah) sidelined by a stroke, they all have to adjust to divisive acting chief of emergency medicine Dr. Novak (Gord Rand). Mags (Laurence Leboeuf) is still struggling with work-life balance; Theo (Jim Watson) is still torn between his job in Toronto and his family in Sudbury; June (Ayisha Issa) is still weighing whether to apply for the chief resident job; Bash is still trying to prove himself in the ER while struggling with PTSD from his experiences in Syria and the return of a woman from his past. The good news is that the friendship between the doctors is growing, which makes the characters that much more endearing. You can read my Toronto Star interview with the main cast here. CTV also has “The Cleaning Lady” (Jan. 3, 9 p.m.), a new American show about a Cambodian doctor who comes to the U.S. for medical treatment for her son but ends up becoming a cleaning lady for the mob, and I haven’t seen it, but I hope it’s better than that description sounds.

Meredith MacNeill and Adrienne C. Moore in “Pretty Hard Cases.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

Pretty Hard Cases (Jan. 5, 9 p.m., CBC)

My favourite team of female detectives is back for a second season. And unlike Season 1, when Samantha (Meredith MacNeill) and Kelly (Adrienne C. Moore) were still skeptical of each other, they’re functioning like a team. Sam even has a nickname for them, Skelly, which doesn’t mean she escapes Kelly’s teasing. This year, besides tackling crime together they’re both grappling with their love lives. Sam’s judgmental mother Judy (Sonja Smits) comes for an unplanned visit, complicating Sam’s budding romance with Naz (Al Mukadam), and Kelly continues to have feelings for Nathan (Daren A. Herbert), but he’s still dating Gabrielle (Sera-Lys McArthur). The season’s main criminal focus involves a primarily Black neighbourhood that Kelly feels is being overpoliced by Guns and Gangs, but a shooting there brings even more pressure and the arrest of a suspect whom Kelly believes is innocent. That’s the serious side; on the fun side, Karen Robinson (“Schitt’s Creek”) continues to be a delight as Unit Commander Shanks, and the world’s least helpful but most entertaining homicide detectives are back in Tricia Black and Miguel Rivas. You can read my Toronto Star interview with Daren A. Herbert here. Also returning to CBC and CBC Gem are “Workin’ Moms” Season 6 (Jan. 4, 9 p.m.); “Still Standing” Season 7 (Jan. 5, 8 p.m.); “Coroner” Season 4 (Jan. 6, 8 p.m.); and “Arctic Vets” Season 2 (Jan. 7, 8:30 p.m.).

Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse) and James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) in “All Creatures Great and Small.” PHOTO CREDIT: Helen Williams/Playground Television

All Creatures Great and Small (Jan. 9, 9 p.m., PBS)

Season 1 of this period drama was my favourite comfort food TV of 2021. That’s not to say this adaptation of the James Herriot books about being a Yorkshire veterinarian is always comfortable. As in real life, some of the animals treated by James (Nicholas Ralph), Siegfried (Samuel West) and Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse) die and the humans who own them face hardships. And as the second season opens in 1938, we know the Second World War is on the horizon. Still, the natural beauty of the Yorkshire setting, the quality of the acting and the attention to detail in the production make this world a pleasure to escape to. This season, James has to decide between staying in Yorkshire or going home to Glasgow to practise there. And, of course, he still has unfinished business with Helen (Rachel Shenton). He’s not the only one dealing with affairs of the heart, as Siegfried, Tristan and even Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley) have admirers.

Odds and Ends

“Sopranos” completists might want to check out the prequel movie “The Many Saints of Newark” (Jan. 7, Crave), starring the late, great James Gandolfini’s son Michael. Also on Crave via HBO are Season 2 of teen drama “Euphoria” (Jan. 9, 9 p.m.) and televangelist comedy “The Righteous Gemstones” (Jan. 9, 10 p.m.).

Netflix has a reality series called “Hype House” (Jan. 7) about “the world’s biggest social media stars.”

Amazon Prime Video has the George Clooney-directed movie “The Tender Bar” (Jan. 7), which sounds like a coming-of-age tearjerker starring Ben Affleck.

If you’re a fan of “A Discovery of Witches,” Season 3 debuts Jan. 8 on Sundance, Shudder and AMC Plus.

CORRECTION, Jan. 5, 2022: Edited to correct the credit on the “Women of the Movement” photo.

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

Watchable Dec. 13 to 19, 2021

December 13, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

And Like Just That . . . (Crave)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

The Larkins (Dec. 13, Acorn)

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

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

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

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

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

Firebite (Dec. 16, AMC Plus)

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EDITED to include the Anne Murray documentary.

Watchable Dec. 6 to 12, 2021

December 6, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Earth (Dec. 8, Disney Plus)

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watchable Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2021

November 29, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

Coming Out Colton (Dec. 3, Netflix)

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watchable Nov. 22 to 28, 2021

November 22, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

True Story (Nov. 24, Netflix)

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

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

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

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

The answer: nothing that deep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watchable Nov. 15 to 21, 2021

November 15, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

But those bits are just small pieces of the whole.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blown Away: Christmas (Nov. 19, Netflix)

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watchable Nov. 8 to 14, 2021

November 8, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, it’s a worthwhile piece of television.

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

Short Takes

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

Shetland (Nov. 9, BritBox)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and verified where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.

Watchable Nov. 1 to 7, 2021

November 1, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

Dalgliesh (Nov. 1, Acorn TV)

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

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

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

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

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

The Fence (Nov. 5, CBC Gem)

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.

Watchable Oct. 25 to 31, 2021

October 25, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

Choices and perspectives, everyone has them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

The Long Call (Oct. 28, BritBox)

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watchable Oct. 18-24, 2021

October 18, 2021 / Debra Yeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Takes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odds and Ends

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

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

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

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

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

Tag: watchable list (Page 4 of 6)

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Watchable Dec. 13 to 19, 2021

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Watchable Nov. 22 to 28, 2021

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Watchable Nov. 8 to 14, 2021

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Watchable Oct. 25 to 31, 2021

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