Have you noticed that while there are still a lot of new shows being released week by week they’re not always, well, great?
To be fair, I don’t get to watch absolutely everything out there, but more often than not I have found the latest content is fine but not invigorating in the way the best TV often is.
My favourite show of the year has been “Shogun.” When I attended the Television Critics Association press tour a couple of weeks ago in Pasadena, Calif., the TCA (of which I am a member) gave “Shogun” four awards, including best new program and program of the year, which I wrote about here.
But it’s been difficult to find a lot else that lives up to that quality, although I am enjoying Season 3 of House of the Dragon, which I didn’t write about this year. And I was on the “Baby Reindeer” wagon, like a lot of other people.
As for what else I’ve been up to, in my last post I mentioned that I had interviewed Elisabeth Moss about “The Veil” (another one of those shows that was fine, but not earth-shaking). That’s here.
My most enjoyable interview of the year, hands down, was with Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton about Season 3 of “Bridgerton.”
I wrote a preview piece on 10 shows to watch this summer and the fact I included more returning shows than new ones is a reflection of how much production was affected by last year’s actors’ and writers’ strikes.
One of those shows, “My Lady Jane,” was part of a feature I did on the ongoing influence of the Tudor era on TV. If you haven’t seen it yet and you have Prime Video, check it out. It’s a hoot, certainly not historically accurate, but suspend your disbelief and enjoy.
And finally, I wrote about the Emmy nominations and why there are things to be celebrated (two noms for “Reservation Dogs”!) and things to be disappointed out (why only two noms for “Reservation Dogs”?).
I continue to work full-time as an editor at the Star, which is why I’m not posting here much. Even though I delegate some reviews and interviews to other writers, it’s still a lot to do a demanding 35 hours of editing every week and fit in being a TV critic on the side. But I love the work and will continue to do it. Although, apologies to “Bachelorette” fans, I’ve been too busy to watch Jenn Tran’s season.
Next on my plate, I’ll have a feature on the final season of “The Umbrella Academy,” for which I did a set visit last May; an interview with Canadian actor Enrico Colantoni, who co-stars in a Starz show called “English Teacher” (will probably debut on Crave, as far as I can tell); one with Canadian showrunner Michael Grassi, who has graduated from writing on shows like “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and “Riverdale” to creating one called “Brilliant Minds” starring Zachary Quinto (Canadian network still to be announced); a preview of fall TV; a column about the Emmy Awards before they air and probably one after as well; and always more to come.
Yes, it’s been a while. Work (Toronto Star work) has been as all-consuming as usual. There were holidays to get through and another bout of COVID. I’m still watching and thinking and writing about TV as much as ever. Unfortunately, I’m not sharing that here these days.
I watched “The Golden Wedding,” as I’m sure all the other Bachelor followers did. There was so much I loved about it: seeing all the Bachelor alumni who turned up, especially the Golden Bachelor cast members; Susan officiating the wedding; Kathy taking over the red carpet, which is hard to do when you’re standing next to Charity; the bachelorette party and seeing the women getting spicy with the strippers.
I sure hope all the reports that came out about Gerry being a cheap so-and-so to his last girlfriend and arguing with Theresa about a prenup were exaggerations and that the two of them will be genuinely happy. They sure seemed to be at the wedding ceremony. But yeah, not sure how much I trust this franchise, even though they did a great job with “The Golden Bachelor.”
Sounds like “Golden Bachelorette” is a thing, for real, and that runner-up Leslie Fhima will be the lead. I will be really curious to see if Chad Kultgen’s prediction on a recent episode of the Game of Roses podcast comes true, about the end of Bachelor in Paradise. If future seasons suck as much as the last one did I won’t miss it at all. But if that is the case, I suspect that Bachelor in Paradise Canada will also be officially toast and not just on hiatus, which disappoints me.
Unfortunately, I will not be recapping Joey Graziadei’s Bachelor season. My editing and writing schedule at the Star just doesn’t leave time anymore. I will be watching and likely live-tweeting though. I’m @realityeo on Twitter and I would love to tweet with y’all.
As for what else I’ve been up to, I recently wrote a story about a new CBC sitcom called “One More Time.” The creator and lead is a hard-of-hearing standup comedian named D.J. Demers. You can read about it here.
I also wrote a story in December about how some recent period dramas have been unsatisfying, namely “The Gilded Age” and “The Buccaneers.” I hate-watched the latter, to be honest. That story is here.
And just out this Saturday is my list of 12 new shows that I think are worth watching in 2024, which you can find here.
Coming up next week, I have an interview with Hamza Haq about the end of “Transplant,” which airs its series finale on Friday, and I will be writing about the Emmy Awards on Monday night.
I wish you all a happy new year. Try to stay warm and healthy.
So sorry that I haven’t been able to recap The Bachelorette here. It has been an entertaining as well as a fast season, but my Toronto Star duties have kept me too busy to write it up every week. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to clear some time in my schedule for “Bachelor in Paradise” and “The Golden Bachelor.” (How about that Gerry, huh? Did you love him on “Men Tell All”?)
What I have been doing, alongside my full-time editing job, plus writing features here and there (less these days with the writers’ and actors’ strikes), is filing a weekly streaming/binging guide called “The Watch List.”
Once a week might not sound like much work but, of course, I have to watch (or in some cases rewatch) the shows I write about and then create a hopefully cogent and entertaining review.
Since I’ve been barred from posting links to my work on Facebook, I thought I would post them here for anyone who was interested. And if you can find it in your heart and wallet to subscribe to the Star, there is a lot of excellent work being done, including really valuable political and investigative reporting, that goes far beyond my modest contributions.
So this weekend’s Watch List was about “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and “Star Trek: Picard,” which you can find here.
Last week’s covered “The Bear” and “Julia,” both of which I reviewed previously on the Watchable list.
And the week before that was a special Watch List that featured several shows that dealt with class because the entire Saturday section that week was about economic class and how artists and works of art deal with it.
Hope you’re all having a great summer. Until next post . . .
SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (April 14, Prime Video)
Alex Borstein as Susie and Rachel Brosnahan as Midge in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Prime Video and Philippe Antonello
I’m breaking my own rule and making a show I couldn’t review (embargoed till Wednesday) a show of the week, but you like what you like. And I have liked “Mrs. Maisel” very much since I belatedly began watching it after the second season came out.
You have no doubt heard that this fifth season is the final one, which means Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) is focused on getting her career to the next level, after getting told off by Lenny Bruce (the also marvellous Luke Kirby) at the end of Season 4 for wasting opportunities after the Shy Baldwin tour disaster.
Despite having seen the first five new episodes, I can’t tell you how Midge goes about putting things right without breaking the embargo. But if you have seen the trailer, you already know that talk show host Gordon Ford (Reid Scott, “Veep”) is part of the season. And that the character played by Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us”) is back.
And it goes without saying that the regulars who have contributed so much to “Mrs. Maisel” have returned, including Tony Shalhoub (Abe), Marin Hinkle (Rose), Michael Zegen (Joel), Kevin Pollak (Moishe), Caroline Aaron (Shirley) and especially the brilliant Alex Borstein, who plays Midge’s manager, Susie.
The season debuts with three episodes on Friday and then rolls out weekly until the series finale on May 26.
Short Takes
Video footage of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev as seen in “American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing (April 12, Netflix)
Sometimes a true-crime series is gripping even though you already know the outcome (or can easily google it). Such is the case for this one, which documents the hunt for the two men who set off pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 281 others. But first this series from Floyd Russ (“Zion”) and Tiller Russell (“Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer”) establishes what the marathon means to the city of Boston and sets the scene of the picture perfect day when all hell quite literally broke loose five hours into the race. And then, hour by hour, the series paints a detailed picture of the investigation into the terrorist attack, from the chaotic minutes after the two bombs went off to the chaotic minutes and hours after the suspects were tracked to a quiet Watertown neighbourhood four days later. The record includes archival video footage, photos, police radio calls, news coverage and fresh interviews with police and FBI agents, bombing survivors, the man they carjacked, people who knew the bombers and more.
For reality TV fans, Netflix has “Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion” on April 16.
Ava Louise Murchison and Mason Blomberg in “Jane.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
Jane (April 14, Apple TV+)
Apple TV+ has been quite gung ho about promoting this kids’ series and since it’s from a Canadian company, Sinking Ship Entertainment, was shot in Alberta and stars a bunch of Canadians, the least I could do is give it a look. Toronto native Ava Louise Murchison stars as the Jane of the title, an extremely imaginative young girl who wants to follow in the footsteps of her hero Jane Goodall — the scientist and conservationist known for her pioneering work with chimpanzees — and help save animals and the planet. Fittingly, Jane’s companions on her mission are a stuffed chimp named Greybeard, her friend from the next apartment over, David (Mason Blomberg), and that imagination I mentioned. Thus Greybeard comes to life and Jane and David appear to interact with animals like polar bears. Naturally, there are adults who don’t always understand what Jane and David are up to, including her single mother Maria (Tamara Almeida) and her grumpy neighbour (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee of “Kim’s Convenience”). The child stars are sweet without being too cloying and you’ve got to love any show that has Paul Sun-Hyung Lee in it, right? The point, of course, is that children watching the series will learn something about animals and the very serious crisis our planet is in. And real-life experts weigh in, like Canadian underwater explorer Jill Heinerth in the first episode. Surely we can all learn something from the words of Goodall, which the young Jane lives by: “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, can they be saved.”
Apple also has “The Last Thing He Told Me” (April 14), which stars Jennifer Garner of “Alias” renown as a woman who has to solve her husband’s disappearance with the help of her somewhat hostile stepdaughter.
Waco Aftermath (April 14, Paramount+)
I didn’t watch the original “Waco” miniseries in 2018, so I can’t say how this sequel compares, but it features some of the same actors, most notably Michael Shannon as FBI negotiator Gary Noesner. I watched only one episode of this new one, not enough to give it a full review. My first impression was that it jumps around quite a lot, starting with the 1994 federal deposition into the 1993 siege in Waco, Texas, also known as the Waco massacre, in which four ATF agents and 82 members of the Branch Davidian religious group were killed. It also covers the trial of five surviving Branch Davidians, including Clive Doyle (John Hoggenakker); flashes back to 1981 when Vernon Howell (Keean Johnson), who later changed his name to David Koresh, first joined the group at Mount Carmel; and looks at the armed militias that grew in the wake of Waco, including one Timothy McVeigh (Alex Breaux), a.k.a. the Oklahoma City bomber. The series debuts just five days short of the 30th anniversary of the end of the siege.
Paramount also has the South Korean series “Yonder” (April 11), about a man who reunites with his late wife; and the documentary “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” (April 14), which looks at David Johansen, singer with the legendary New York Dolls.
Odds and Ends
Bill Hader in Season 4 of “Barry.” PHOTO CREDIT: Merrick Morton/HBO
I know how beloved the Emmy-winning comedy “Barry” is, so I know the debut of its fourth and final season on April 16 (10 p.m., HBO/Crave) is an event. Alas, I never got caught up on “Barry,” which is sometimes the case when there is just so damn much to watch, so it wouldn’t have been fair for me to review this new season.
Crave also has the much acclaimed Jordan Peele horror film “Nope” (April 14); Season 2 of “Blindspotting” (April 14, 9 p.m., Starz via Crave) and Season 2 of docuseries “100 Foot Wave” (April 16, 8 p.m., HBO via Crave).
Look, I know how hard it can be to get Canadians to give a crap about Canadian TV and movies — although one would hope that’s going out of style a bit now that Canadian productions are getting global acclaim. But if you’d like to cheer on the home team you can watch “The Canadian Screen Awards With Samantha Bee” (April 16, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem) which, as I understand it, will be a sort of hybrid interview/awards show celebrating CSA winners.
The Disney+ offerings this week include Jeremy Renner’s reality show “Rennervations” (April 12), in which he and other celebs rebuild vehicles to benefit communities around the world, for instance, by turning a delivery truck into a mobile water treatment facility. This was no doubt filmed before Renner’s New Year’s snowplow accident. If you are into the Kardashians, which I most decidedly am not, “Til Death Do Us Part Kourtney and Travis” (April 13) features the luxury wedding of one of the kids.
YTV and STACKTV have preteen show “Popularity Papers” (April 10, 6 p.m.) based on the Amy Ignatow books.
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.
I watched only three episodes of this comedy drama, not enough to give it a full review but enough to know that Steven Yeun and Ali Wong are brilliant in it. They’re two strangers who get into a road rage confrontation on what is already a bad day for both of them. He’s Danny, a contractor struggling to make a living and fulfil his dream of bringing his parents back to the United States from Korea; she’s Amy, an entrepreneur with a husband and daughter and a big house in Calabasas but no work-life balance. They are clearly not bad people, but neither can let go of their loathing for the other over the road rage incident so they keep upping the ante of their outrage. But what becomes apparent is that they probably have more in common than they’d be willing to admit as unhappy people trying to tamp down their sadness while putting on a front for the rest of the world. The series was created by Lee Sung Jin and features a largely Asian cast, including Young Mazino as Danny’s younger brother Paul and Joseph Lee as Amy’s husband George. It’s worth noting this is Yeun’s first recurring, live-action TV role since “The Walking Dead” (RIP Glenn).
Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy, Marisa Davila as Jane, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Olivia and Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia in “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eduardo Araquel/Paramount+
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (April 6, Paramount+)
I previewed this show back in January at the Television Critics Association press tour and was so captivated I had planned to write a feature about it, but other stuff got in the way. It’s a prequel to the beloved 1978 movie that starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, set four years before the film, and putting a feminist and LGBTQ-friendly lens on the 1950s. But please don’t think that means it isn’t any fun. From what I saw, and admittedly it wasn’t a lot, the song and dance numbers are wonderful and so is the main cast. Tricia Fukuhara, Marisa Davila, Cheyenne Isabel Wells and Ari Notartomaso play students who all, for one reason or another, run afoul of the rigid cliques and hierarchies of their high school and decide to deal with their ostracization by forming a girl gang.
Paramount also has the movie “80 for Brady” (April 4), which people seemed to go gaga for at the box office.
Schmigadoon! (April 7, Apple TV+)
One of the reasons I enjoyed “Rise of the Pink Ladies” so much is because I love musicals, which is also a reason I loved Season 1 of “Schmigadoon!” The good news is that after sampling a couple of episodes of Season 2 I’m still loving it. Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong are back as Josh and Melissa, only they’re now married. But worn down by the grind of work and infertility, they set out to find Schmigadoon, the magical place where they tested and affirmed their love in Season 1 with the help of musical theatre tropes of the 1950s and ’60s. Instead, however, they find themselves trapped in Schmicago, where the musicals aren’t so sunny (think “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “Sweeney Todd”) and nobody’s offering them any corn puddin’. The same musical theatre vets who made Season 1 really sing (pun intended) are back in new roles. Alan Cumming might break your heart as a cleaver-wielding butcher a la “Sweeney Todd.” Aaron Tveit is a “Hair”-like hippie who takes Josh under his wing. Kristin Chenoweth is wrangling ill-behaved orphans “Annie” style. Dove Cameron is a Sally Bowles-like cabaret singer and Ariana DeBose the joint’s Emcee. Jane Krakowski steals every scene she’s in as a Billy Flynn-like lawyer. And Tituss Burgess is an inspired addition to the cast as a “Pippin”-ish narrator. And that’s not all. But don’t take my word for it, go ahead and watch. You’d pay a heck of a lot more to see all these very talented people on Broadway.
Apple also has “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker” (April 7), a two-part documentary by Alex Gibney about the former tennis great.
Quentin Plair and Kathryn Hahn in “Tiny Beautiful Things.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jessica Brooks/Hulu
Tiny Beautiful Things (April 7, Disney+)
As with “Grease,” I sampled this show in January and haven’t had a chance to screen more episodes since. But Kathryn Hahn who, let’s face it, is good in everything, brings prodigious heart to the role of Clare Pierce, a woman who seems to be screwing up everything in her life — including her job, and her relationships with her husband Danny (Quentin Plair) and daughter Rae (Tanzyn Crawford) — when she takes on the Dear Sugar advice column from a friend. The show is inspired by the book by Cheryl Strayed, who was the real-life Dear Sugar. Other notable performances come from Sarah Pidgeon as the young Clare and Merritt Wever as Clare’s mother.
Disney also has “The Crossover” (April 5), a family-friendly drama about father and son basketball players; and “The Pope: Answers” (April 5), a Spanish special filmed in Rome in which Pope Francis spoke with 10 young adults about subjects like racism, LGBTQ rights and the role of women in the Church.
Odds and Ends
Eric McCormack as Basil Garvey in “Slasher: Ripper.” PHOTO CREDIT: Cole Burston/Shudder
There is some fine Canadian talent in the fifth season of the horror drama “Slasher,” entitled “Slasher: Ripper” (April 6, 9 p.m., Hollywood Suite), including Eric McCormack, Lisa Berry and Thom Allison among others. It’s set in the 19th century but, instead of a killer named Jack, the “Widow” is taking revenge on the rich and powerful with Detective Kenneth Rijkers (Gabriel Darku) trying to stop her.
Super Channel also has “Tehranto” (April 8), a romance movie set in Toronto’s Persian community.
This week’s Prime Video releases include the film “Gangs of Lagos” (April 7), its first African original movie, and the Guy Ritchie flick “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” (April 7), which despite the diminishing returns for Guy Ritchie movies attracted Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza and more to the cast.
Finally, TVO has the documentary “Tripping Train 185” (April 7, 7 p.m.), which takes viewers on a journey from Sudbury through the wilderness of the Canadian Shield on one of North America’s last Budd rail cars. And my apologies to the publicist for not getting to this one.
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.
SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Big Door Prize (March 29, Apple TV+)
Gabrielle Dennis, Chris O’Dowd and Djouliet Amara in “The Big Door Prize.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
Skeptics vs. believers, realists vs. dreamers: the small town of Deerfield is divided between the two when a strange blue machine that looks like a photo booth suddenly appears in the general store, spitting out cards for a couple of quarters that promise to reveal the user’s life potential.
Actually, it’s far from an even split. Most of the town goes gaga for the Morpho — named after and bearing the symbol of a butterfly — and changes their lives accordingly: everything from taking up relatively harmless hobbies to drastic decisions like quitting jobs, ending marriages or jumping willy nilly into new relationships.
Dusty (Chris O’Dowd), the high school history teacher, doesn’t understand the compulsion to alter lives because of words on a blue card but can’t avoid the temptation to get a card of his own. But the result is far from comforting — especially when his wife, Cass (Gabrielle Dennis), reveals a card that suggests a destiny far loftier than Dusty’s.
The machine also brings unease to Dusty and Cass’s daughter, Trina (Djouliet Amara), who has a guilty secret involving her dead boyfriend Kolton, killed in a car crash, whom the rest of the school has canonized as an “angel.” Nor is it of much comfort to Kolton’s twin, Jacob (Sammy Fourlas); to Cass’s mother, Izzy (Crystal Fox), the mayor of the town; or to Father Rueben (Damon Gupton), the high school chaplain.
And what is the Morpho? A magic trick? A scam? Divine intervention? What does cynical bartender Hana (Ally Maki) know about the machine that everyone else doesn’t?
Those questions are never answered, but the machine undergoes a transformation at the end of the 10 episodes that makes it clear a second season is planned.
The questions the Morpho cards raise aren’t ones that you need a machine to help you ask: Who am I? Am I doing what I’m meant to do with my life? How well do I know the people around me? How well do I know myself?
But they’re also questions that are unlikely to get asked when the status quo seems to be working.
Irish immigrant Dusty, for instance, who just turned 40, seems to have the world by the tail when the series starts: a happy marriage, a family, a job he seems to enjoy and to be valued for in a friendly community. But when cracks start to appear in that facade it’s clear they’ve been there for a while and been papered over in the interests of getting on with life.
The Morpho gives people permission to colour outside the lines, whether that’s Principal Pat (Cocoa Brown) buying a Harley and marrying a man she’s known for a week, or storeowner Mr. Johnson (Patrick Kerr) launching a second career as a magician.
But it also brings on sometimes painful self-reflection as when restaurant owner Giorgio (Josh Segarra) acknowledges that he peaked 20 years ago and has been pumping himself up ever since on past glories.
Still, I wouldn’t want to give you the impression this show is a downer. It has moments of genuine humour and of connection between the characters.
O’Dowd and Dennis give a winning portrayal of a couple who geuninely love each other even if they don’t know one another as well as they thought. Segarra is both annoying and endearing as the bombastic Giorgio. And Amara and Fourlas strike the right notes as teenagers who blend heart with snark.
This is series creator David West Read’s first TV project as a writer and producer since the Emmy-winning “Schitt’s Creek.” And it’s one that aims for the brain as well as the heart.
Apple also has the film “Tetris” (March 31), about the popular 1980s video game.
Short Takes
Streams Flow From a River(March 28, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)
A family of Chinese immigrants who run a laundromat manage to reconnect despite shared hurts and hardships. No, I’m not talking about the Oscar-winning “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but about this six-episode web series by Christopher Yip. The queer Chinese-Canadian writer and director made the series with an all-Asian lead cast and writers room, the first digital series to debut as part of the Canadian Film Fest. It follows the Chow family: father Gordon (Simon Sinn), mother Diana (Jane Luk), daughter Loretta (Danielle Ayow) and son Henry (Liam Ma). When Gordon has a stroke, Loretta and Henry return to the small Alberta town where they grew up and helped their parents run a combined liquor store and laundromat. Forced to stay together in the family home when a snowstorm closes highways, they all revisit past conflicts and disappointments before eventually finding a new way to co-exist. The Canadian Film Fest also includes nine feature films and 25 shorts airing on Super Channel Fuse from March 28 to April 1.
The sight of a tiny, premature baby having surgery to push her liver and intestines back into her belly is enough to make your heart flip, but it’s also one of the success stories in this fascinating docuseries from Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz, the same team behind the docuseries “Lenox Hill,” which followed four doctors at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital. Some of those docs are back in this show, which expands to follow staff at Lenox Hill, Lenox Health Greenwich Village, Cohen Children’s Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital, as well as nurses, technicians and paramedics who transport the patients via ambulance and helicopter. The common theme as the series jumps from hospital to hospital, from case to case, is the dedication of these health-care professionals, whether they’re dealing with a 29-year-old opera singer with a huge blood clot in her brain, a 17-year-old boy shot at a party, or a homeless man who had neck surgery and has nowhere to be discharged to. Their jobs have become harder post-pandemic (as they have for medical professionals all over the world): people who stayed away from hospitals during lockdowns are showing up in even worse shape; violence is increasing in the city; already gaping disparities between haves and have-nots are widening. The social issues can’t help but bleed into the exam and operating rooms, but it’s the medical issues that keep you glued to the screen. No matter how graphic the surgeries, how painful the conditions, how sad some of the outcomes, the series is absolutely life-affirming.
Netflix also has “Unstable” (March 30), a comedy series starring father and son Rob and John Owen Lowe as a father and son at a bio research company; South Korean film “Kill Boksoon” (March 31), about a single mother assassin; movie sequel “Murder Mystery 2” (March 31), with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as private eyes; and the WWII film “War Sailor” (April 2).
Odds and Ends
Classic animated series “Raccoons” is returning to TV. PHOTO CREDIT: Corus
The nostalgia factor is high for the return of animated series “Raccoons” after 32 years, debuting March 27 at 3 p.m. on Boomerang. The Canadian show featuring raccoons Bert, Ralph and Melissa; aardvarks Cyril, Cedric and Sophia, and sheepdog Schaeffer first aired in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and has been restored in 4K from the original hand-drawn, cel animation film.
Paramount+ appears to be trying to remake the fashion competition show with “The Fashion Hero: A New Kind of Beautiful” (March 31), which has “diverse” contestants of all ages working in teams to complete “character-building” challenges with coaches and guest mentors. Eventually one will be named the face of an international brand campaign. Paramount also has Season 2 of “Queen of the Universe” (March 31), a musical drag competition show featuring queens from different countries.
Prime Video has “The Power” (March 31), in which teenage girls around the world develop the ability to electrocute people and things at will and, having been a teenage girl once, I find this terrifying.
Sorry to say I didn’t get a chance to screen the third season of “Staged,” debuting on BritBox March 28, but given how funny David Tennant and Michael Sheen were playing versions of themselves in the first season, I’m willing to give it a go.
I had a quick peek at “The Dreamer” (March 30, Viaplay), a period drama inspired by the story of Karen Blixen, the Danish author immortalized in the 1985 movie “Out of Africa.” In the series, Karen (Connie Nielsen) has returned to her mother’s estate after the failure of her coffee plantation in Kenya, the death of her lover, Denys Finch Hatton (Lochlann O’Mearain), and her own suicide attempt.
Hollywood Suite is featuring films about or by women on March 30, including “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “The Witches of Eastwick” and “The Virgin Suicides,” curated by indie director of the moment Chandler Levack of “I Like Movies” fame.
And finally, CTV Life Channel and Crave have the docuseries “Evolving Vegan” (March 30, 8 p.m.), in which actor Mena Massoud (“Aladdin”) explores the vegan food scene in Los Angeles, Austin, Mexico City, Vancouver, Portland and Toronto.
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.
That’s not to say the characters in this drama don’t speak to each other, but its actors also give a master class in the power of looks, gestures and pauses.
Lester (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) is an 11-year-old boy whose mother has died of cancer, leaving him to move in with his uncle Ken (Brian J. Smith) on his farm.
Lester doesn’t have the words to express his bereavement, nor does Ken to bridge the gulf between the two of them, although not for lack of trying. Lester prefers to be alone, whether he’s drawing comics in his room, or running around in a cape and mask imagining he can fly.
Ken, who’s gay, snatches brief solace with a man (Daniel Maslany) he met at the co-op.
Then there’s Lou (Stephen McHattie), a cranky senior who lives alone and who’s staring down dementia. He keeps getting pulled viscerally into his past, when he and his brother Vince (Ryan Bruce) played hockey in Toronto.
Lou’s niece Anne (Molly Parker), a day nurse, tries to help him but has troubles of her own, including an uneasy relationship with her husband, Doug (Rossif Sutherland).
Anne is also an aunt to Lester through his estranged father, Jimmy (Kevin Durand), a former hockey play whose career was ended by a head injury and who now works as a mechanic one town over.
These are ordinary people doing ordinary things, but ones with clear inner depths as well as secrets.
It’s obvious from the three episodes I screened that great care has gone into every aspect of this series from the script written by Lemire and Eilis Kirwan, to the directing (Andrew Cividino), to the magnificent acting and the beautiful cinematography (James Klopko).
To see actors of the calibre of Parker and McHattie practise their craft is something to be savoured, but there is excellent work all around.
This is a quiet, measured show, but one that stays with you. The ordinary, as it happens, can be quite extraordinary.
Episode 1 will have already aired by the time you read this (my fault for forgetting to include it in last week’s Watchable list), but you can catch up on CBC Gem.
CBC Gem also has the tween “Murdoch Mysteries” spinoff “Macy Murdoch” (March 23); the comedy “You’re My Hero” (March 24), about a 20-something with cerebral palsy; and Season 3 of “The New Wave of Standup” (March 24).
Courtney Eaton, Sophie Nelisse and Jasmin Savoy Brown in Season 2 of “Yellowjackets.” PHOTO CREDIT: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
Yellowjackets (March 24, Crave)
The overarching question about “Yellowjackets” is whether this drama about a high school girls’ soccer team turned feral after surviving a plane crash in the wilderness is still the audacious, unsettling, clever show that won raves for Season 1.
The answer is yes; “Yellowjackets” still goes there in Season 2.
Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to tell you much about where “there” is because so many of those details are on a spoiler list released by Showtime.
You will get some answers about topics like Javi’s disappearance, Shauna’s baby, what really happened to adult Travis and the cannibalism, but you won’t get them from me. You’ll have to watch.
The season opens in the mid-’90s with the girls still in the woods two months after Jackie (Ella Purnell) froze to death. Winter has fully set in. They’re cold and hungry, and a rift is developing between those like Van (Liv Hewson), Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and Travis (Kevin Alves) who believe Lottie (Courtney Eaton) has mystical powers, and skeptics like Shauna (Sophie Nelisse), Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown).
In the present, adult Misty (Christina Ricci) is still trying to find the disappeared Nat (Juliette Lewis), whom you’ll recall was kidnapped last season just as she was about to kill herself; the police are sniffing out Shauna’s (Melanie Lynskey, who continues to be a marvel) involvement in the disappearance of artist Adam Martin, whom she killed in Season 1; and Taissa (Tawny Cypress) realizes that she didn’t leave the violent, sleepwalking version of herself behind in the woods when estranged wife Simone alerts her to the bloody dog’s head shrine in their basement.
“Yellowjackets” continues to give us one of the most kickass female acting ensembles on TV, both the older and younger versions, but the adult survivors are separated for the first half of the season, which slows the momentum somewhat in that timeline.
Still, it gives some of the men in the cast more to do.
Shauna and husband Jeff (Warren Kole) become delightful partners in crime, expanded to a family unit when daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) finds out what her mother’s been up to.
And Misty meets her match in Walter (new addition Elijah Wood), a fellow musical theatre-loving citizen detective who helps her find Natalie: “a bored Moriarty looking for his Sherlock.”
When Shauna, Taissa, Nat and Misty are reunited with adult Lottie (Simone Kessell), now the leader of what may or may not be a cult, and adult Van (Lauren Ambrose), the resolutely single manager of a video rental store, the pace promises to pick up in the remaining episodes (six were made available for review).
This season, the series leans more into the idea that something supernatural infiltrated the girls’ consciousness in the woods and that it wasn’t just a case of losing their grip on sanity after 19 months of deprivation. And the grown-up survivors begin to fear that whatever it was has followed them into the present.
Given that creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have planned a five-season arc for the series, we’re likely to get as many questions as answers out of Season 2, but so far it’s still a ride worth taking.
Watching the first episode of this miniseries about the 1993 standoff between federal agents and followers of self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh, what stands out most is the waste of lives on both sides. The three-part series gives a detailed account of the event, which began with a botched ATF raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, over illegal weapons, and ended 51 days later with a fire and the discovery inside of 75 bodies, 25 of them children. The story is told via interviews with eyewitnesses — including law enforcement, media and surviving followers of Koresh — never before seen police and news footage, and recordings. In the 30 years since, blame has been apportioned to both sides — the ATF pressed ahead with the raid despite knowing Koresh had been warned and Koresh reneged on promises to let his followers leave, for example — but it’s a tragedy no matter whose side you’re on.
Netflix also has conspiracy series “The Night Agent” (March 23); and Season 4 of dating show “Love Is Blind” (March 24).
If anyone wonders whether Kiefer Sutherland has still got it, this thriller series suggests the answer is a firm yes. The British-born Canadian actor plays John Weir, an expert in corporate espionage who finds himself the victim of a frame-up for murder after a seemingly perfect job goes very, very wrong. There are twists upon twists as Weir untangles who targeted him and why. The show exemplifies John’s governing principle of “trust no one” since viewers quickly learn that nothing they think they know is as it seems. And that is the fun of it. Sure, the plot requires suspension of disbelief — there’s a scene in which Weir infiltrates a police station, for instance, that utterly defies belief — but the entertainment value makes up for any incongruities. Sutherland, at 56, isn’t quite the action star he used to be — a fact the series winks at with one particular fight scene — but he inhabits the role of the highly intelligent, paranoid, world-weary Weir with aplomb. And despite trusting no one, he finds himself with a couple of helpers, including Meta Golding (“The Hunger Games”) as a lawyer who gets pulled into the plot after a seemingly random meeting with Weir (or was it?) and Charles Dance as a person from Weir’s past. Also along for the ride are Rob Yang (“Succession”) as a U.S. Treasury investigator embroiled in the case; Jason Butler Warner (“Ozark”) as a childhood friend and former partner of Weir’s; and Enid Graham (“Mare of Easttown”) as an FBI agent on Weir’s trail. “Rabbit Hole” makes the argument that a polarized, post-truth world is ripe for exploitation and that power resides with those who control the data. There’s a reason Weir only uses cash and burner phones. Whether that strikes you as plausible fact or pure fiction, there’s enjoyment to be had watching Weir unravel the threads.
Odds and Ends
Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin in Season 4 of “Succession.” PHOTO CREDIT: HBO
Surely, one of the most, if not the most anticipated debut of the week is Season 4 of “Succession” (March 26, 9 p.m., Crave). The last time we saw the highly dysfunctional Roy family, father Logan (Brian Cox) had just pulled the rug out from under his kids Kendall, Shiv and Roman with the help of son-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). I got a look at the first new episode but, since nothing can be written about it until Wednesday, I will just say this: Hell yeah! Crave also has the Canadian documentary “And Still I Sing” by Afghan-Canadian Fazila Amiri (March 21) about two women competing on the TV show “Afghan Star” when the Taliban takes over; and the movie “Clerks III” (March 24, Starz) from Kevin Smith.
Prime Video’s new releases this week include “The Power,” a series about teenage girls around the world suddenly being able to, um, electrocute people?; boxing movie “Perfect Addiction”; and “Reggie,” a documentary about Black baseball star Reggie Jackson. All debut March 24.
Speaking of documentaries, TVO has “First to Stand: The Cases and Causes of Irwin Cotler” (March 21, 9 p.m.), about the former politician and human rights champion.
The main Disney+ offering this week is “Up Here” (March 24), a romantic comedy series set in 1999 New York City, in which the lovers (Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes) express their innermost thoughts in song.
Finally, Showcase and STACKTV have Season 2 of “Bel-Air” (March 20, 9 p.m.), the reimagining of the Will Smith breakout series “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” although it looks like Smith is no longer involved behind the scenes.
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.
Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jason Sudeikis in Season 3 of “Ted Lasso.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
“Ted Lasso” has certainly earned its reputation as one of the sunniest shows on television, but Season 3 reminds us that where there is sun, there’s also cloud.
It opens with Ted (Jason Sudeikis) dejectedly dropping son Henry off at Heathrow for his flight back to the U.S. and then, during phone therapy with Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles), wondering “what the heck I’m still doing here.”
If this does turn out to be the final season of “Ted Lasso,” which has yet to be confirmed, that opening could be the first hint of a series-ending return to the States for Ted.
In the meantime, there’s work to do for AFC Richmond now that the football (soccer) team has climbed back into the Premiere League.
Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is particularly obsessed with winning and proving wrong all the prognosticators who expect Richmond to bottom out, not to mention getting one over on slimy ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) and his top-rated West Ham United.
That team, of course, is coached by “Wonder Kid” Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed), who took a heel turn in Season 2, angrily leaving the Richmond coaching staff and betraying Ted by outing his panic attack to the media. As played by the very capable Mohammed, Nick is not fully at ease with the way he treated Ted but, encouraged by the despicable Rupert, leans into his meanness.
Given Apple’s strictness about not revealing spoilers, I’m guessing I’m not allowed to tell you about the new blood on the Richmond team or what happens when the team starts playing its Premiere rivals.
Nor can I reveal what I know about the most pressing personal issues from last season, including what happens between player-turned-coach Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and girlfriend Keeley (Juno Temple); or between Rebecca and her younger lover, player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh).
When he’s not playing this season, Sam is focused on getting his Nigerian restaurant off the ground while Keeley is trying to get the hang of being her own boss now that her PR firm is up and running.
There’s also a focus in the first four episodes on player Colin Hughes (Billy Harris) while journalist Trent Crimm (James Lance), formerly of the Independent, makes a reappearance.
And, of course, old favourites like Higgins (Jeremy Swift), Jamie (Phil Dunster), Dani (Cristo Fernandez) and Sassy (Ellie Taylor) are still in the mix, while new characters are introduced.
Based on the episodes that were made available for review, this third season is making full use of its ensemble and, with relationships well established, there’s added emotional resonance between the characters.
One suspects that Ted’s unresolved feelings about Nate’s betrayal, and vice versa, will make up a key part of the season, but there’s plenty of plot to go around for the other characters as the trend toward longer episodes continue.
Whether that’s a strength or a weakness as the season continues remains to be seen. But given the skill with which the cast portrays these people and the affection with which viewers like me regard them, I’d guess the former.
Apple also has “Extrapolations” (March 17), a near-future drama about the effects of climate change on everyday lives with an all-star cast that includes Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Kit Harington, Edward Norton, Matthew Rhys, Marion Cotillard, Murray Bartlett and many more.
Zephryn Taitte and Leonie Elliott as Cyril and Lucille Robinson in “Call the Midwife.” PHOTO CREDIT: BBC/Neale Street Productions/Olly Courtenay
Call the Midwife, Sanditon, Marie Antoinette (March 19, 8, 9 and 10 p.m., PBS)
I have grouped these series together because Sunday is a sort of period drama-palooza for those of us who admire this form of television.
First up is “Call the Midwife,” a show I have long enjoyed for the way it handles serious social and medical issues with the sort of gentle touch its midwives lovingly apply to their patients, with dollops of interpersonal drama and humour.
It’s as reliable and enduring as Nonnatus House, home base of the religious and lay nurse-midwives who minister to the economically disadvantaged London district of Poplar. It’s 12 seasons in now and appears to still be going strong.
Case-of-the-week birth stories are the backbone of the series, but this season appears likely to have a particular focus on Jamaican midwife Lucille (Leonie Elliott). Her depression over last season’s miscarriage hasn’t completely lifted as the season begins and is deepened by homesickness and racism as the poisonous anti-immigrant proselytizing of Enoch Powell infiltrates the district and even the delivery room.
There’s also a new nun shaking up the order of things at Nonnatus House, Sister Veronica (Rebecca Gethings), while Trixie (Helen George) plans her wedding to Matthew (Olly Rix).
Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe and Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood in Season 3 of “Sanditon.” PHOTO CREDIT: Joss Barratt/Red Planet
“Sandition,” meanwhile, debuts its third and final season. I know this series based on the last, unfinished novel of Jane Austen isn’t universally adored, particularly by viewers disgruntled over the departure of actor Theo James and, thus, love interest Sidney Parker. Sure, Austen probably intended Charlotte (Rose Williams) and Sidney to end up together, but she didn’t have to contend with an actor who no longer wanted to be on a show.
It opens with Charlotte returning to Sanditon for the grand birthday party of friend Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke), who’s about to come into full possession of her vast fortune. Charlotte is accompanied by farmer fiancé Ralph Starling (Cai Brigden), a man for whom she’s clearly settling after the death of Sidney and her brushoff by Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes).
Colbourne, meanwhile, returns to his estate along with daughter Leo (Flora Mitchell) and niece Augusta (Eloise Webb), only to have his dreams of reuniting with Charlotte dashed at Georgiana’s ball — although I’d stay tuned on that point.
Villain Sir Edward Denham (Jack Fox) is still enduring a punishing course of rehabilitation ordered by his aunt, Lady Denham (Anne Reid), but ever the rake, has spotted another heiress to exploit.
And speaking of villains and heiresses, Georgiana’s duplicitous Season 2 wooer Lockhart (Alexander Vlahos) is back in the picture while Georgiana concocts a “Bridgerton”-like scheme with the help of newcomer Lord Montrose (Edward Davis) to fend off fortune hunters.
It remains to be seen whether Charlotte and Georgiana get their happy endings, which in an Austen novel usually means marrying for love.
Louis Cunningham as Louis XVI and Emilia Schüle as “Marie Antoinette.” PHOTO CREDIT: Caroline Dubois/Capa Drama/Banijay Studios France
Talk of marriage brings us to the final series in the trifecta, “Marie Antoinette.”
It’s a French-British co-production that deals, at least initially, with the early days of the famous French queen (played by Emilia Schüle), who was just a teenager when she was sent from her native Vienna to France to marry the future Louis XVI (Louis Cunningham), himself still an adolescent.
This series leans into the tribulations of the new dauphine, separated from everything she loves in Austria (including her beloved pug), thrust into the petty viciousness of the French court, married to a boy who, as the show tells it, won’t even speak to her let alone have sex with her. (In real life, it took seven years for the young couple to consummate their marriage; not sure how long it takes in the series, not having got that far yet.) That latter point put Marie Antoinette in political danger since the whole point of the marriage was for her to produce a French heir.
The series does, as other critics have pointed out, move slowly and might not suit viewers uninterested in the nitty gritty of French court life. Personally, in the couple of episodes I watched, I appreciated Schüle’s portrayal of a naive teenager at the mercy of people more interested in their own pursuits of power than in a young girl adrift.
Short Takes
U2’s the Edge, left, and Bono, right, with Dave Letterman at the Los Angeles premiere of “Bono & The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming, With Dave Letterman” PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Bono & the Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, With Dave Letterman (March 17, Disney+)
You could argue that U2 is not the musical juggernaut it used to be; that Bono has long been identified more with activism than music; that a show of this nature is inherently self-serving — U2 does have a Las Vegas residency coming up, after all. None of that takes away from the charm of this hybrid interview documentary/travelogue/concert special. Former talk show host Dave Letterman makes the trip to Dublin, his first (what took him so long?), to hang with Bono and the Edge of U2 (Larry Mullen Jr. was off recuperating from surgery, Adam Clayton was making an art film, apparently). Yes, there’s a little bit of mythologizing going on, from Bono and the Edge themselves as well as commentators like photographer Anton Corbijn, journalist Fintan O’Toole, musician Glen Hansard (“Once”), record exec Jimmy Iovine and drag queen Panti Bliss. But the special reminds us that these Dublin lads have been friends and band mates for an astonishing 47 years, since meeting at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, and that their music is inextricably linked to their roots in the Irish capital: from its overwhelming Catholicism to the violent spillover of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” to its transformation into a more peaceful, tolerant, secular place. And speaking of that place, Letterman gets to do some travelling around the city — a locale I personally find delightful and spend time in every year, having extended family there. He even takes a chilly dip at the famous Forty Foot swimming spot, inspiring a new song. The highlight is the music and if you have been or still are a fan of U2 it will bring back potent memories. Bono and the Edge play stripped down versions of hits like “Vertigo,” “Bad,” “Beautiful Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in an intimate concert at the Ambassador Theatre. There’s also past concert footage — including legendary gigs like Red Rocks and the post-Sept. 11 Super Bowl halftime show — and a jam session with local musicians at McDaids pub. It’s all good craic, so it is.
Disney+ also has the film “Boston Strangler” (March 17), starring Keira Knightley as the reporter who connected the 1960s murders and broke the story about the serial killer.
Bob Odenkirk as Hank Devereaux in “Lucky Hank.” PHOTO CREDIT: Sergei Bachlakov/AMC
Lucky Hank (March 19, AMC/AMC+)
First things first, Hank Devereaux is not Saul Goodman, not that he was ever going to be. Bob Odenkirk’s new series is about a college English professor in a working-class Pennsylvania town rather than an Albuquerque con artist turned lawyer whose clients are drug kingpins. It concerns itself with topics like the pettiness and thin skins of academia, on the part of both faculty and students, and the disquietude of a middle-aged man with daddy issues and a sense of unfulfilled potential. Nonetheless, Odenkirk shows that his masterful blending of comedy and drama in “Better Call Saul” was no fluke. As Hank, he brings a lived in authenticity to this flawed man who can’t seem to get out of his own way. In the first of two episodes, the only ones made available for review, Hank is goaded by a student into a rant about the mediocrity of the student’s work and the college that employs him, which leads to a short-lived revolt in his department. In the second, he can barely contain his envy of a former friend whose writing career has gone stratospheric while Hank’s own stalled after one novel. Also excellent is Mireille Enos as Hank’s extremely sensible and patient wife, Lily. She and Odenkirk give a credible portrayal of a comfortable middle-aged marriage. “Office” alum Paul Lieberstein and Aaron Zelman (“Criminal Minds”) developed the series. Look for Canadian Nancy Robertson of “Corner Gas” in a guest role as Hank’s fellow professor Billie.
Odds and Ends
Dominique Fishback stars in “Swarm.” PHOTO CREDIT: Prime Video
To my mind, one of the most anticipated shows this week is “Swarm” (March 17, Prime Video), the horror series from Donald Glover and Janine Nabers starring Dominique Fishback as a darkly obsessed fan of a Beyonce-like singer. Since reviews were embargoed, though, I didn’t screen it. Prime also has “Class of ’07” (March 16) which, like “‘Swarm,” sounds intriguing but is also embargoed. It’s about a group of women trapped at their 10-year high school reunion by a tidal wave and is described as “‘Lord of the Flies’ in cocktail dresses.” Also on Prime “Last Light” (March 17), which marks the return to series TV of “Lost” star Matthew Fox, playing a father separated from his family by a crisis with the world’s oil supply.
CTV takes a page out of the “Virgin River” book with “Sullivan’s Crossing” (March 19, 7 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca), about a woman pulling up stakes for a bucolic location in which she meets an annoying but alluring stranger. B.C.’s Morgan Kohan stars as neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan, who leaves Boston after a professional crisis to take refuge in Sullivan’s Crossing, the Nova Scotia campground run by her estranged father, Sully (Scott Patterson), where she meets Cal (Chad Michael Murray of “One Tree Hill”). The show is based on the book series by “Virgin River” author Robyn Carr and shares an executive producer with “Virgin River” in Roma Roth.
Now the Netflix slate: the doc “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story” (March 15); cutthroat competition series “The Law of the Jungle” (March 15); Season 2 of fantasy series “Shadow and Bone” (March 16); and choreography competition series “Dance 100” (March 17) are among the releases.
Paramount+ has the “The Journey With Andrea Bocelli” (March 14), a docuseries about the popular singer; docuseries “Monster in the Shadows” (March 17), about the 2012 disappearance of Alabama teen Brittney Wood; the Elegance Bratton film “The Inspector” (March 17); and the comedy special “Jinkx Monsoon: Red Head Redemption” (March 17).
Finally, W Network and STACKTV have “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” (March 16, 9 p.m.), which reunites the cast of the 1999 film.
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.
SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Confessions of Frannie Langton (March 8, BritBox)
Karla-Simone Spence and Sophie Cookson in “The Confessions of Frannie Langton.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BritBox
Period dramas are certainly not the overwhelmingly white entertainments they used to be, but it’s still rare to have one led by a Black female character.
So “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” is already atypical in that its focus is Frannie (Karla-Simone Spence), a former slave who becomes a servant to a white aristocrat and his wife in Georgian London when she is handed over to them by her previous owner. (It’s based on the award-winning novel by Sara Collins, who also wrote the show.)
Throw in the fact its plot is driven by a love story between two women and it’s definitely not your average costume drama.
Oh, and did I mention it’s also a murder mystery?
When we first meet Frannie, she’s being dragged out of the bed of her mistress, Marguerite (Sophie Cookson), accused of murdering both the woman and her husband, George Benham (Stephen Campbell Moore).
Did Frannie do it? She says not, but she also can’t remember what she did or didn’t do in her laudanum-induced state. In any event, it’s clear that even if innocent she’ll never get a fair trial in late 1820s London where, despite the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, Black people are still regarded as less than human.
As the series builds to the trial it also teases out Frannie’s story: how she was separated from her mother as a child in Jamaica to live with John Langton (Stephen Mackintosh) and his wife; that she became an assistant to Langton, a sort of plantation Dr. Mengele, experimenting on slaves to prove the superiority of the white race.
Whatever else Frannie might have done, these are the memories that haunt her, and Benham is complicit in them as the person who funded Langton’s work while pretending innocence of what he was really up to.
But Frannie doesn’t see herself as a victim.
“The thing you need to understand is that I’m fed up with people like you deciding who I am or what I am as soon as you take one look at me,” she tells the lawyer representing her at trial, and her character could just as well be talking to the TV audience.
Frannie is intelligent, feisty, forthright and plays the system to her advantage as well as she can in her circumstances. But her Achilles heel is her love for Marguerite, who despite her whiteness has as little control over her circumstances as Frannie does.
The passion between the women is palpable and believable, and never portrayed lasciviously. But Marguerite is not an escape for Frannie; in her own way she’s as heedless of Frannie’s well-being as Benham and Langton, and her disregard hurts Frannie more.
This obliviousness is well portrayed in the story of Olaudah, a four-year-old slave boy whom Benham renames Laddie and gives to Marguerite as a distraction after a miscarriage. The couple eventually discards him and, when they encounter him again as an adult, played by Patrick Martins, he’s seething with resentment of them.
Olaudah has carved a niche for himself in white society as a boxer, as has Sal (the wonderful Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn), who runs a brothel that specializes in BDSM for its white customers and who is Frannie’s most steadfast friend.
Surprisingly, the series is only four episodes long, but it packs a lot into those episodes.
“Bridgerton” may have whetted our appetite for seeing characters of colour in period dramas; “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” satisfies with a portrayal of a Black lead character that is entertaining but also exposes the unsavoury realities behind the lovely period facades.
Shelved (March 6, CTV/CTV.ca)
Lyndie Greenwood, Chris Sandiford, Dakota Ray Hebert and Paul Braunstein in “Shelved.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media
Has there been a workplace comedy set in a library? Not to my memory but, in putting his in a Toronto library branch, creator Anthony Q. Farrell (“The Office,” “Secret Life of Boys”) has certainly hit on a location that’s reflective of the city.
“Shelved” takes place in a Parkdale branch of the fictional Metropolitan Public Library. People who don’t live in Toronto might not know that Parkdale has historically been home to low-income, marginalized communities, but the series quickly establishes that the Jameson branch has far fewer resources than outposts in wealthier neighbourhoods.
Cheerful, ever optimistic branch manager Wendy (Lyndie Greenwood, “Sleepy Hollow”) spends the pilot episode trying to replace Jameson’s computers, an essential resource for its clients that’s been missing for months. A couple of smirking employees drop off hardware even older than what she’s replacing while the oblivious facilities director suggests Jameson patrons bring their laptops and use the Wi-Fi.
Wendy eventually finds a solution thanks to Howard (Chris Sandiford, “What We Do in the Shadows”), who’s on a day transfer from the Midtown branch but soon becomes permanent — to his horror — thus solving another Jameson problem: understaffing.
The main cast is rounded out by Paul Braunstein (“Burden of Truth”) as assistant head Bryce and Dene actor Dakota Ray Hebert (“Run Woman Run”) as Jaq, keeper of the social media accounts and the feminist yin to Bryce’s anti-woke, right-wing yang.
Bryce quips to Howard that there are “a lot less gang fights” at Jameson than at his previous branch, but the vibe here is more sunny ways than mean streets.
Even the homeless patron, Unhoused Wendy (Robin Duke), looks rather well-kempt. She’s one of the few library users who gets a substantial amount of dialogue in the first two episodes, the only ones made available for review.
There’s also Sheila (Taylor Love), who comes in part-time to run the branch’s settlement desk and who quickly becomes a romantic interest for Howard.
Farrell has come up with an interesting concept, one that seems to have less bite and more sweetness than workplace comedies like “The Office.” We’ll see whether Canadian viewers want to take it on a long-term loan or just browse.
Short Takes
Preben Hodneland and Ine Marie Wilmann in “Furia.” PHOTO CREDIT: Boris Laewen
Furia (March 7, Viaplay)
I can already hear the cries of “What, more TV?” when I mention that there’s a new streaming service available in Canada. Described as “the leading producer of Nordic noir,” Viaplay launches here Tuesday and will be available via Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast and other platforms. I was invited to sample the content ahead of the launch and watched a couple of episodes of Norwegian crime drama “Furia.” It starts with a cop from Oslo, Asgeir (Pal Sverre Hagen), moving to the picturesque small town of Vestvik with his seven-year-old daughter, hiding out from a Russian mob boss who wants him dead. But, as any consumer of crime drama knows, small towns aren’t necessarily all that bucolic, even ones with gorgeous mountain backdrops. What starts as the investigation of vandalism and arson at a refugee centre leads to a murder inquiry and the discovery of an alt-right cell in Vestvik that’s part of a larger terrorism plot. Asgeir, who’s apparently really bad at keeping a low profile, gets a little too close to the group as well as to Ragna (Ine Marie Wilmann), who blogs anti-Islam screeds under the pen name Furia. Ragna isn’t who she appears to be, however, and has a history with the Utoya massacre, a real-life attack in which a neo-Nazi killed 77 people, including 67 at a youth summer camp, in 2011. Also, if you watched Steven Van Zandt’s “Lilyhammer” you’ll recognize Fridtjov Saheim as Kjetil, one of the right-wing conspirators.
Athletes rights activist Payoshni Mitra with former middle distance runner Annet Negesa. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of TVO
Category: Woman (March 8, 9 p.m., TVO/TVO.org)
If you’d like to experience some infuriation on International Women’s Day I recommend watching this documentary by Canadian filmmaker and former Olympian Phyllis Ellis. It lays out the long history of invasive gender testing of female athletes deemed too masculine by governing bodies like World Athletics, formerly known as the IAAF. It’s a practice that goes back decades in many sports, but Ellis focuses mainly on 21st-century runners of colour, like Caster Semenya of South Africa, Dutee Chand of India, Margaret Wambui of Kenya and Annet Negesa of Uganda, since the practice disproportionately affects Black and brown women. At the very least, careers have been ruined by the results of testosterone tests that, according to one doctor, are based on bad science. And then there are cases like Negesa’s. She was told she needed surgery to be able to compete so underwent the removal of her gonads as well as a partial clitoridectomy. It’s the kind of stuff you might expect to see fictionalized in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Though she was told she could run again in just a few weeks, she was unable to compete again and sought asylum in Germany since the changes to her body meant her life would be in danger in Uganda. As athletes right activist Payoshni Mitra says, “When you are a man and you do exceptionally well you become a superman. When you are a woman and you do exceptionally well you must be a man.” Semenya lost a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against IAAF regulations that force women with high levels of testerone to reduce those levels to compete in certain events, but she has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
If you’re a fan of dark British crime drama “Luther” and its hero, troubled detective John Luther (Idris Elba), you’re going to watch the Netflix film “Luther: The Fallen Sun” (March 10) no matter what the theatrical reviews say. I know I will. Netflix also has MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (March 8), a docuseries about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 in 2014; Part 2 of the fourth season of “You” (March 9); and competition series “Outlast” (March 10), sort of an Alaskan “Survivor.”
“Perry Mason” is back for a second season (March 6, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave) and, based on the first episode, seems to be off to a promising start. In 1932 Los Angeles, Mason (a reliably good Matthew Rhys) is as restless as ever and, despite a vow to stick to civil law after last season’s Emily Dodson case, he and Della Street (Juliet Rylance) will soon get pulled into a murder case involving the rich son of an oil baron. Crave also has the HBO series “Rain Dogs” (March 6, 10 p.m.), about a working-class single mother and her daughter; and the original series “Disobey” (March 8), about the 1989 Chantale Daigle case, in which her ex-boyfriend sued her to prevent her from having an abortion.
On the subject of competition series, Paramount+ has “The Challenge: World Championship” (March 8), featuring top competitors from the American, British, Australian and Argentinian versions of the series participating in extreme physical activities to win $500,000.
Staying in the reality TV vein, if you’re a fan of “Big Brother Canada,” you probably don’t need me to tell you that Season 11 debuts March 8 at 9 p.m. on Global and STACKTV.
Disney+ has a number of things debuting this week, the most interesting of which for comedy fans is “History of the World: Part II” (Disney Star, March 6), an eight-episode followup to Mel Brooks’ 1981 film “History of the World: Part 1.” Also coming this week, the concert special “Miley Cyrus — Endless Summer Vacation” (March 10); the comedy-drama “UnPrisoned” (March 10), which stars Kerry Washington as a single mother and therapist who takes in her father (Delroy Lindo) when he’s released from jail; and the feel-good film “Chang Can Dunk” (March 10), about an unpopular Asian-American high school student (Bloom Li) who bets the school basketball star he can sink a ball by homecoming.
Prime Video’s latest is “Pendant ce temps en cuisine” (March 10), a docuseries that follows six Quebec chefs.
Acorn has “Holding” (March 6), which stars “Game of Thrones” vet Conleth Hill as a police sergeant in a small Irish town with a murder to solve. Charlene McKenna (“Bloodlands”) and Siobhan McSweeney (Sister Michael in “Derry Girls”) co-star.
With apologies to the publicist, I did not get time to check out “Bug Sex” (March 10, 9 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem), an episode of “The Nature of Things” about the reproductive habits of insects.
Finally, a couple of Oscar-related things. If you’re curious about “To Leslie,” the film that controversially earned Andrea Riseborough a Best Actress nomination, it’s on Super Channel Fuse on March 11. And the 95th Academy Awards themselves air March 12 at 8 p.m. on CTV.
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.
SHOW OF THE WEEK: Plan B (Feb. 27, 9 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
Karine Vanasse as Evelyn and Patrick J. Adams as Philip in “Plan B.” PHOTO CREDIT: Panagiotis Pantazidis/Courtesy of CBC
If the path to true love never runs smooth, the path after one finds that love can be just as rocky, if not more so, as anyone in a long-term relationship knows.
That’s the crux of this drama, a remake of a French-language version that ran for three seasons in Quebec.
We first meet Philip (Patrick J. Adams) and Evelyn (Karine Vanasse) in the first blush of passion after they’re introduced by Evelyn’s brother — and Philip’s business partner — Patrick (Francois Arnaud, “Blindspot”).
Six years later, they’re living together in a house that’s a construction zone, and Evelyn has sidelined her aspirations of being a professional cellist to act as a paralegal for Philip and Patrick’s fledgling law firm, which is trying to land a major contract. Philip is concerned with building a successful life; Evelyn feels unseen and unheard, so she leaves.
When pleading can’t win her back, a drunken Philip takes drastic measures, calling the phone number for Plan B, a service that promises second chances. Next thing you know, he’s being whisked two days into the past by a pair of solemn-faced identical twins in a white van that drives backwards.
So yes, this is a time travel drama, but the supernatural element is not the main point of the show, at least not in the three episodes made available for review.
Philip figures that by going back in time to just before the tense morning that precipitated Evelyn’s departure he can save the relationship. And it seems to work at first but, as any sci-fi aficionado knows, you can’t change future events without consequences. So getting Evelyn to stay has unexpected repercussions, not just on the relationship but on the business and on Philip’s alcoholic brother, Andy (Joshua Close).
That leads to another trip into the past and yet more unforeseen consequences, and it remains to be seen what Philip will salvage out of the growing mess by the end of the first six episodes.
“We plan, God laughs,” the old Yiddish saying goes. And it becomes clear that Philip’s desire to control and fix everything is at the root of his problems.
“Plan B” invites viewers to reflect on the unpredictability of life; on the difficulty of really knowing even the people we’re closest to; and the tendency of human beings to assume a level of control over their circumstances that’s really just an illusion.
Adams and Vanasse are both highly skilled actors (you can read my Toronto Star interview with them here). Toronto-born Adams is probably best known for “Suits,” but I also very much enjoyed him in “The Right Stuff,” in which he played astronaut John Glenn. Quebec actor Vanasse is known for American series “Revenge” and the movie “Polytechnique” but, for me, will forever be intertwined with the Ontario-made detective drama “Cardinal.”
Although Philip and Evelyn are not always sympathetic, Adams and Vanasse make them relatable.
We in English Canada don’t value our homemade TV shows the way Quebecers do, so I’ll be interested to see how this is received amid all the American stuff dominating our schedules.
CBC Gem also has the documentary “Geographies of Solitude” (March 3), about a naturalist and environmentalist who is the only full-time resident of Sable Island in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean; and acclaimed lesbian love story “Carol” (March 3), directed by Todd Haynes, and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
The Reluctant Traveler (Now on Apple TV+)
Eugene Levy in Tokyo with sumo wrestlers Kensho Sawada and Yoshinori Tashiro in “The Reluctant Traveler.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
(I couldn’t review “The Reluctant Traveler” in last week’s post due to an embargo, so here’s what I wrote about it before I remembered that there was an embargo.)
When you think of Hollywood stars — and Eugene Levy, despite his Canadian roots, is arguably a star — you imagine something of a jet-set lifestyle, of flying all over the world in a comfort the rest of us can only dream of.
Levy, known for everything from “SCTV” to “Schitt’s Creek,” from the “American Pie” films to Christopher Guest mockumentaries like “Best in Show,” has undoubtedly experienced a taste of that, but he also describes himself as a genuinely reluctant traveller: someone who doesn’t really like anything that takes him out of his comfort zone.
And yet, here he is as the host and star of “The Reluctant Traveler,” an eight-part series in which Levy visits eight countries and sometimes ventures out of that self-described zone.
To be sure, this isn’t an extreme travel show. The man is 76 years old after all; 75 when he was shooting the series.
The things that make Levy uncomfortable can be as simple as going horseback riding in Utah or taking a night hike through the Costa Rican jungle (I’m with him on that one, spiders and snakes, no thanks!). But he also experiences luxuries few of us can hope to replicate without a TV show budget behind us: stays in sumptuous hotels and meals at exclusive restaurants.
What makes “The Reluctant Traveler” stand out from other travel shows is simply the presence of Eugene Levy. Despite his insistence that he is uncomfortable playing himself on camera (you can read what Levy had to say about the show in my Toronto Star story here), the man is funny when he’s being himself.
“No cars for old men,” he jokes when he has to climb into a very low sports car in Tokyo.
“The sheep ran as soon as they saw me. Did they see a movie they didn’t particularly care for?” he quips as he helps guide Milo corral critters on a Navajo homestead in Utah.
“This is the last time I have five vodkas with a Finn,” he declares before climbing into a frozen Finnish lake, albeit in a flotation suit.
Somebody on Twitter suggested this series was a ripoff of the Ricky Gervais creation “An Idiot Abroad”; someone at a media Q&A thought it was meant to be like “Travel Man,” hosted by British comedian Richard Ayoade.
My impression is that it’s not meant to be an imitation of anything, but that executive producer David Brindley, as he told the Television Critics Association, saw potential during a phone call in which Levy tried to explain why he was the worst choice for a travel show host and ran with it.
Speaking personally, although I’m not a reluctant traveller, I felt a kinship seeing some of the things that make Eugene Levy uncomfortable, like heights (although, for the record, I did not close my eyes at the start of my one and only helicopter ride like he did).
Watching an episode set in Venice made me want to fulfil my long held intention of visiting that city; ditto with the one set in Tokyo, a city I merely took a train into and flew out of during a long ago trip to Japan.
There’s a little something for everyone here: beautiful natural views, lively urban sights, gorgeous hotels, enticing food and attractions on which we get perspectives that the average tourist might not experience.
The most affecting part — and what seemed to touch Levy the most deeply — are the human connections he makes. Whether or not we get a second season of “The Reluctant Traveler,” I suspect those are the memories that he’ll savour when he looks back on the experience.
Short Takes
Hoarders Canada (March 4, 8 p.m., Makeful)
Once you get over the shock and awe of a home so full of stuff that the occupant is essentially unable to live in the house, you see the pain and suffering of the mental disorder behind the hoarding. At least that was my impression based on the two episodes made available for review of this Canadian version of the popular American reality show. Both the episodes deal with just one case, that of Rosella, or Roz, a former public health nurse in Winnipeg whose house is so full that she has nowhere to sit, sleeps on half of a double bed and cooks on a couple of hot plates because her stove is under a mountain of stuff. Oh and she has to turn the water on and off each time she uses her leaking toilet, which seems like a tall order for an 80-year-old, not to mention the tripping and fire hazards, and the poor air quality from mould. But as the cleanup begins, with the help of Roz’s daughters and granddaughters, psychologist Murray Anderson and organizer Kim Diamond, there are times it seems like Roz is beyond help. Then Anderson finds an item amid all the junk that enables him to breach her defensiveness and get her to open up about the emotional toll of her hoarding. What it comes down to for viewers is that humanity, in its many variations, is a fascinating subject for other humans and hoarding certainly fits into that.
I have not yet seen the new episodes of hit “Star Wars” spinoff “The Mandalorian” (March 1, Disney+) but, judging from the trailer, Din Djarin, a.k.a. Mando, is getting introspective about his Mandalorianness and returning to Mandalore to “be forgiven for my transgressions.” And Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda, is right there by his side, which is as it should be. Plus, you know, there’s danger out there in the universe to be handled. Particularly exciting for Canadian fans is that Captain Carson Teva, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee of “Kim’s Convenience,” is back.
Reviews are embargoed for “Daisy Jones & the Six” (March 1, Prime Video), based on the bestselling book about the rise and fall of a world famous 1970s rock band. I think it’s fair to say the series is highly anticipated given the success of the book. Riley Keough (“The Girlfriend Experience”), granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of the recently deceased Lisa Marie Presley, plays Daisy. Sam Claflin (“Peaky Blinders,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”) is Billy Dunne.
The biggest deal on Netflix this week is “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” (March 4, 10 p.m.), a live-streamed standup special by the comedian. Of course, the big question for everyone is whether Rock will address “the Slap,” when Will Smith struck him during last year’s Oscars for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. Netflix also has the U.K. quiz show “Cheat” (March 1), in which contestants are encouraged to do exactly that; Season 2 of “Framed! A Sicilian Murder Mystery” (March 2); Season 2 of love triangle drama “Sex/Life” (March 2); true crime series “Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil” (March 2); Season 2 of Gigi Hadid and Tan France’s “Next in Fashion” (March 3); and South Korean drama “Divorce Attorney Shin” (March 4).
Paramount+ has a treat for fans of Hugh Dillon, the Canadian star of its drama “Mayor of Kingstown.” “Durham County,” a TV show that put the rock star on the map as an actor, debuts on the streamer Feb. 28. It stars Dillon as a homicide detective matching wits with a neighbour and possible serial killer in the first season. It’s worth noting that all three seasons are also on CBC Gem, where you can watch free if you don’t mind some ads.
Crave’s main release this week is the documentary “The Grizzlie Truth” (Feb. 27), which looks at why the Vancouver Grizzlies basketball team only lasted six seasons in Canada before relocating to Memphis.
Speaking of treats, here’s one for BritBox subscribers. The first two seasons of “Staged,”the pandemic comedy in which David Tennant and Michael Sheen played themselves trying to work over Zoom, comes to the streamer March 1. Fair warning: the first season is much better than the second. There’s also a third season, which I have not yet seen, coming to BritBox on March 28.
Fans of HGTV Canada stars Scott McGillivray and Bryan Baeumler will want to know that they’re teaming up for Renovation Resort (March 5, 10 p.m., HGTV), a competition series in which teams of designers and contractors are tasked with renovating cabins at a resort owned by McGillivray.
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.
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