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Watchable the week of January 18, 2021

January 18, 2021 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Flack (Jan. 22, Amazon Prime Video)

From left, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Benson and Lydia Wilson in “Flack.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

This show seems like a throwback to the days when television was ruled by anti-heroes, except it’s women instead of men who are breaking bad.

Robyn (Anna Paquin) is a highly skilled fixer who cleans up messes for various celebrities in London, England. When we meet her she’s in a hotel room with two naked men, one of whom is closeted and famous, and the other of whom isn’t breathing. 

Naturally Robyn saves the day, but it should come as no surprise that, like any good anti-hero, her savvy as a troubleshooter doesn’t extend to her personal life.

Robyn can’t stop lying, either to herself or to the people she’s closest to, including her sister Ruth (Genevieve Angelson), a stay-at-home mom whom Robyn followed from New York to London after their mother died, and her devoted boyfriend Sam (Arinze Kene).

Robyn’s best friend is her co-worker Eve (Lydia Wilson), who uses cynicism and snobbery to keep people from getting too close. Rebecca Benson is wet-behind-the-ears intern Melody, who idolizes Robyn, and Sophie Okonedo is their fearsome boss Caroline, sort of a PR version of Miranda in “The Devil Wears Prada.” Marc Warren is Tom, who is drawn into Robyn’s orbit after meeting her at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. 

The series overall is quite cynical. Some of the fixes that Robyn and the team concoct are preposterous, whether it’s a natural skin care purveyor falsely accusing her husband of abuse to explain the bruises from a facelift or a failing footballer pretending to be gay to get attention and sponsorships, but the underlying message is that everyone can be bought.

Paquin has received lots of attention for the show, her first lead role since the one-season “Bellevue” and “True Blood” before that, but over the first season’s six episodes we merely skim the surface of Robyn’s dysfunction.

The dialogue, written by creator Oliver Lansley and his team, is snappy and sometimes funny. Okonedo, who I’m used to seeing in dramatic roles, gets all the best lines: “It’s like being slowly stung to death by incompetent wasps,” she tells her employees when they’re having trouble closing a case. 

Of course, no one really talks like that. But if you can suspend your disbelief, excuse the moments that are too on the nose and lean into the characters’ naughtiness, “Flack” can be fun. 

Painting With John (Jan. 22, 11 p.m., HBO, Crave)

John Lurie shares his painting and his life in “Painting With John.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO

“Painting With John” was in the works long before the pandemic turned those of us who can work from home into hermits, but it seems fortuitously prescient. It’s just John Lurie — artist, musician, actor, Grammy-nominated composer, cult TV show maker (“Fishing With John”), former New York scenester — painting and talking from his home on a Caribbean island.

We catch glimpses of his assistant, Nesrin Wolf, and his cook, Ann Mary Gludd James, but this is essentially a one-man show. Lurie wrote and directed the series, and we hear his music on the soundtrack along with his voice.

It’s by turns soothing, funny, interesting and weird. Lurie is a compelling storyteller, whether he’s recounting how he almost blew himself up trying to reheat a curry and sat naked, applying aloe vera to his burns, as a shocked neighbour drove by; the lengths he went to, while living in Manhattan, to get a live eel to photograph for the “Voice of Chunk” album cover; or the hideousness and side effects of cancer treatment.

And he deftly wields his wit against others (“Talking into a camera is just wrong and people who can actually do it well, they’re probably sociopaths”) and himself (“I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing”).

“I will teach you things I learned from life as I go,” he says.

It seems a fair bargain.

The episodes are short, the natural scenery is beautiful, watching Lurie paint is almost hypnotic and he’s got lots of life to share.

HBO also has Season 3 of “C.B. Strike,” subtitled “Lethal White,” Jan. 20 at 10 p.m.

If You Missed It … WandaVision (Disney Plus)

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision in “WandaVision.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus

The appeal of this series for me was more in its imitation of the classic sitcoms I grew up with than its connection to the Marvel Universe, into which I have only occasionally dipped a toe.

But the first episode, a riff on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” left me a little disappointed. Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) make a charming pair of suburban newlyweds, but I found it all rather corny and clunky.

It got better in the second and third episodes — reminiscent of “Bewitched,” “The Brady Bunch” and a titch of “The Partridge Family” — as Wanda and Vision began to interact more with their neighbours (including Kathryn Hahn as the brassy Agnes) in an effort to fit in. There’s a nice bit of comedy involving android Vision, his works jammed up by an accidentally swallowed piece of gum, doing a magic show at the town fundraiser and forgetting to hide his superpowers, with witch Wanda having to improvise to make the tricks seem fake.

It becomes clear that Wanda is exerting some type of control over their small-town existence and trying desperately to keep an alternate reality from seeping in, presumably a reality in which Vision is dead, as per “Avengers: Infinity War.”

That’s all likely all old hat for Marvel fans who — if they’ve read the comics and seen the movies — will have an inkling of where the story is going. 

For non-Marvel fans, the fun of “WandaVision” lies in its retro trappings and the performances of Olsen and Bettany.

Odds and Ends

From left, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Eliot Salt, Abigail Cowen, Elisha Applebaum and Precious Mustapha in “Fate: The Winx Saga.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Hession/Netflix

Mean girls, bad boys, outcasts and misunderstood loners: “Fate: The Winx Saga” (Jan. 22, Netflix) has all the usual tropes of angsty high school drama, except the hormones are mixed with magic powers, plus there’s a monster out in the deep, dark woods. Welcome to the Alfea College for Fairies and Magic, the setting for this drama based on Nickelodeon’s “Winx Club” animated series. Abigail Cowen (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) stars as first-year student Bloom and the grown-up cast includes Robert James-Collier of “Downton Abbey.” Netflix also debuts Season 2 of made-in-Canada glass-blowing competition series “Blown Away” and film “The White Tiger,” based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Aravind Adiga, on Jan. 22.

“Political Blind Date” (Jan. 19, 9 p.m., TVO) begins its fourth season of pairing politicians who hold opposing viewpoints to hash out issues of interest to Canadians and, at least while they’re shooting the show, move beyond partisanship. Episode 1 features NDP MPP Sara Singh and Conservative MPP Natalia Kusendova hanging out to discuss hospital overcrowding, health cuts and “hallway medicine,” a topic of even more interest in these COVID-19 times. Future episodes cross party, provincial and even national lines with the mayor of Flint, Mich., meeting the mayor of Huron-Kinloss, Ont., to talk clean water; and an Ontario MPP tete-a-teteing with a Quebec MLA about religious symbols.

If, like me, you’ve watched and rewatched all your British detective favourites in lockdown you’ll be glad to know that Season 2 of “The Bay” is coming to BritBox on Jan. 20. DS Lisa Armstrong (Morven Christie, “Grantchester”) is back with a new murder to solve and a new family to get entangled with.

Watchable the week of December 21, 2020

December 21, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Letterkenny (Dec. 25, Crave)

K. Trevor Wilson, Jared Keeso and Nathan Dales, and friends, in Season 9 of “Letterkenny.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media

Maybe it’s the particular genius of Canadians to make comedies about places in which not much happens. I mean, think about it, “Schitt’s Creek,” our most successful comedy ever based on worldwide acclaim and Emmy Awards won, was set almost entirely in a small, sleepy town and, more often than not, in two motel rooms. Brent Butt and crew spun six seasons out of Dog River in “Corner Gas,” a place where there wasn’t a lot going on. And the “Trailer Park Boys” hatched their hare-brained schemes in a mobile home park.

In “Letterkenny,” the main preoccupations are drinking, fighting, fornicating (or at least talking about it a lot) and, occasionally, chorin’. On paper, it sounds ridiculous. In practice, thanks to the commitment of series creator Jared Keeso and the rest of the cast to their oddball, small-town characters, and the skill with which they navigate the trademark rapid-fire dialogue, it’s pretty brilliant.

Not everything hits the net, of course, if I can use that phrase in keeping with the show’s hockey obsession. The first episode of the new season has one of those big fight set pieces that are so much fun (they remind me a tiny bit of the ones in the old “Batman” show of the 1960s, minus the cartoon “Blam!” and “Kapow!” exclamations and with even cooler music). But the American and Canadian armed forces guys who turn up to help and then hang around shirtless in the bar didn’t really up the comedy quotient for me.

On the other hand, there’s a dialogue in another episode between main characters Wayne (Keeso), Daryl (Nathan Dales), Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) and Katy (Michelle Mylett) about whether whistling sounds can come from parts of the anatomy besides the mouth that had me in stitches.

And you probably won’t want to miss Mark Forward’s master classes in cringe comedy as Coach forces his beer league players, including Jonesy (Andrew Herr) and Reilly (Dylan Playfair), to listen to monologues about his late wife Barb’s erotic skills.

“Letterkenny” also has its sweet moments of caring and camaraderie. Even oversexed bartender Gail (Lisa Codrington) gets a little love this season.

Bridgerton (Dec. 25, Netflix)

Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset, Lord Hastings, and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton
in “Bridgerton.” PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Attention lovers of period drama and star-crossed romance, Shonda Rhimes and her team have a Christmas gift for you.

I’d love to tell you what I think of it, but alas, review coverage is embargoed until Tuesday.

“Bridgerton” is the first original scripted series from Rhimes’ Shondaland as part of her Netflix deal. Created by her “Scandal” protege Chris Van Dusen, it’s based on the “Bridgerton” novels of Julia Quinn, about an aristocratic family in Regency London and their romantic pursuits.

Refreshingly, some of the other aristocrats are played by Black actors, including Rege-Jean Page (“Roots”) as the dashing Lord Hastings, Adjoa Andoh (“Doctor Who”) as Lady Danbury and Golda Rosheuvel (“Silent Witness”) as Queen Charlotte.

Phoebe Dynevor (“Younger”) also stars as Hastings’ romantic interest, Daphne Bridgerton, and Dame Julie Andrews gives voice to Lady Whistledown, the gossip whose scandal sheet keeps all the lords and ladies on their toes.

Soul (Dec. 25, Disney Plus)

Jamie Foxx gives voice to Joe Gardner, the protagonist of the new animated film “Soul.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney/Pixar

This new animated film from Disney and Pete Docter (“Up,” “Inside Out”) could be subtitled “The Meaning of Life.”

For main character Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a music teacher living a fairly mundane life in New York City, there’s only one thing from which he derives meaning: jazz music, which he longs to play professionally at the Half Note club.

He finally gets his shot, asked by a former student to fill in at a gig with legendary saxophone player Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), but Joe is so enraptured after his tryout that he doesn’t pay attention to where he’s walking and steps into an open manhole. Next thing you know, he finds himself minus his body, on a conveyor belt to the Great Beyond.

Joe manages to escape to a more hospitable spiritual realm called the Great Before, where souls — portrayed as child-like, amorphous blue-green blobs — are assigned personalities. But they can’t travel to Earth and into bodies until they find a spark, something that fires their will to live. Mentors, experienced souls stopping in on their way to the Great Beyond, help them do that.

In his desperate scramble to get back to Earth and to his gig, Joe gets mistaken for a mentor and paired with 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who has decided she has no interest in living and has already foiled mentors like Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali and Marie Antoinette.

After they end up in the Zone, a place where lost souls wander, Joe and 22 get help from a hippie mystic named Moonwind (Graham Norton), who leaves his body at regularly scheduled intervals, to get to New York. But the re-entry into Joe’s body doesn’t go quite as planned. I won’t tell you how because that would spoil the fun of a delightful interlude in the film.

Once on Earth, 22 finds delight in almost everything: the taste of pizza, the sound of a trombone, a seedling falling from a tree. Her enthusiasm opens Joe’s eyes to the fact there’s more to life than jazz and that he’s been missing out on a lot because of his obsession.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, although this being Disney you can probably surmise that it’s an uplifting one. It’s a sweet, beautifully animated take on a weighty subject.

Odds and Ends

Yannick Bisson in character as William Murdoch with musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
on the “Murdoch Mysteries” set. PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn TV

If you’re a fan of the long-running Canadian detective series “Murdoch Mysteries,” the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and classical music, the special “A Music Lover’s Guide to Murdoch Mysteries” (Dec. 24, Acorn TV) will be right up your alley. Seven members of the TSO gather on the series’ police office set to play a selection of songs that Murdoch might have listened to in the early 20th century. The selections include Ravel, Brahms, Canadian composer Laura Gertrude Lemon, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Scott Joplin and the beautiful “Blue Danube Waltz” by Strauss, as well as music composed by Robert Carli for the show. “Murdoch” star Yannick Bisson hosts in character and there are clips from the series interspersed with the music.

If you’re a fan of rich people behaving badly and/or manufactured reality show drama, tune into “House of Ho” (Dec. 21, 8 p.m., Super Channel Fuse). The docuseries follows Vietnamese immigrant turned wealthy Houston businessman Binh Ho and wife Hue, his spoiled son Washington, daughter Judy and other relations. Frankly, Binh’s patriarchal attitudes and Washington’s seeming neglect of his wife and kids to go drinking and gambling with clients left a bad taste in my mouth.

If you enjoyed the most recent season of “The Mandalorian,” which ended with that blockbuster finale on Friday, you might enjoy “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian ‘Making of Season 2′” (Dec. 25, Disney Plus).

Watchable the week of Nov. 23, 2020

November 23, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Flight Attendant (Nov. 26, 9 p.m., Crave)

Michiel Huisman and Kaley Cuoco in “The Flight Attendant.” PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Caruso/HBO Max

First things first: Cassie Bowden, the character played by Kaley Cuoco in this drama, is a mess. Her response to any type of stress is to guzzle vodka, or whatever other alcohol is handy, and hook up with random men; and since she wakes up shortly into the first episode with a hangover and a dead body in a Bangkok hotel room she’s under a considerable amount of stress.

So no, Cassie isn’t like Penny, the character Cuoco played on “The Big Bang Theory” for 12 seasons. On the other hand, she’s not unlikeable despite the rampant alcoholism and tendency to let people down.

Cassie’s already unsettled life as a flight attendant is further rattled when Alex (Michiel Huisman of “Game of Thrones”), the rich passenger that Cassie spent a booze-soaked night with, is murdered in the bed they share in an expensive Bangkok hotel. Cassie was so drunk she can’t remember more than flashes of the previous evening and has no idea what happened to Alex. Despite her half-assed efforts to clean up the crime scene and leave without being seen, it isn’t long before she’s on the FBI’s radar as a possible suspect.

Cassie develops her own theories about who might have killed Alex — often through imagined conversations with the dead man — and pursues them in ways that are both reckless and dangerous, which is in keeping with her character.

She has a way of pissing off the people who could help her, including co-workers Megan (Rosie Perez) and Shane (Griffin Matthews); lawyer and best friend Annie (Zosia Mamet) and older brother Davey (T.R. Knight), but that doesn’t mean we’re not rooting for her. 

In fact, as we learn more about Cassie’s troubled past, we want to see her face her demons and get her shit together, as well as clear herself of the crime.

It becomes obvious as the show progresses — I got to see four of the eight episodes — that Alex’s death is tied to some sort of criminal organization and that Cassie is in way over her head, although I suspect she’ll manage to bumble and charm her way out of whatever predicaments arise.

This isn’t gritty, ripped-from-the-headlines crime drama by any means; it’s sometimes funny and even silly, but thanks to Cassie — and Cuoco — it’s a ride I’m willing to take.

Black Narcissus (Nov. 23, 8 p.m., FX)

Gemma Arterton as Sister Clodagh and Alessandro Nivola as Mr. Dean in “Black Narcissus.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Miya Mizuno/FX

If you knew nothing about the novel and Oscar-winning movie that preceded this miniseries, your first thought might be “A group of nuns opening a school in the Himalayas? What’s so interesting about that?”

Truth be told, I haven’t read the Rumer Godden book or seen more than snippets of the 1947 film, but I found this adaptation rather intriguing.

As in the originals, the setting is a remote palace perched on a cliff in the Himalayas that formerly housed a harem and where a young woman took her own life. Whether it’s actually haunted or just imagined so by unstable Sister Ruth (Aisling Franciosi of “The Fall,” who excels at playing troubled young women) is open to interpretation, but it’s creepy enough.

And then there’s all the sexual tension. Sister Clodagh (former Bond girl Gemma Arterton) is determined to be a woman of God, despite her memories of a past liaison, but she is drawn to Mr. Dean (Alessandro Nivola), the Englishman who helps keep the school running, and he to her. Ruth, meanwhile, becomes obsessed with him and, as you can imagine, that’s unlikely to end well.

Ethnically appropriate actors play the roles of the locals, including caretaker Angu (Nila Aalia), student Kanchi (Dipika Kunwar) and the Young General (Chaneil Kular), the nephew of the nuns’ benefactor, the Old General (Kulvinder Ghir). (In the movie, white actors were made up to play Kanchi and the Old General.)

The series — filmed partly in Nepal — is atmospheric and beautifully shot and it’s only three episodes, which is like half an hour in pandemic viewing time.

Plus, it was the last TV role for Diana Rigg, who plays the nuns’ mother superior back in Darjeeling.

Saved By the Bell (Nov. 26, 8 p.m., W Network, Global)

Mario Lopez is one of the returning cast members in the “Saved By the Bell” reboot.
PHOTO CREDIT: NBC/ Corus Entertainment

I’m in the wrong demographic to have watched the original “Saved By the Bell,” the cult high school comedy that aired between 1989 and 1992, so I really can’t tell you if this reboot does the first show justice. It melds old and new by bringing back stars of the original while populating Bayside High School with new students.

The conceit is that Governor Zack (OG star Mark-Paul Gosselaar) has savaged California’s education budget, which means closing underprivileged schools and busing some of those kids to wealthy Bayside.

Zack is still married to Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen) while A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) is now Bayside’s gym teacher and Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) is the guidance counsellor. Reliably funny actor John Michael Higgins (“Best in Show”) joins the cast as principal.

Zack and Jessie both have kids at the school: popular, clueless Mac (Mitchell Hoog) and underachieving athlete Jamie (Belmont Cameli), whose equally privileged pal Lexi is transgender (trans actor Josie Totah).

There’s no meanness between the rich kids and the newbies despite the socio-economic chasm that separates them (smart and ambitious Daisy, for instance, played by Haskiri Velazquez, can’t take advantage of the school apps because she’s still using an old-school brick of a cellphone). It doesn’t take long (I saw just one episode) for the imports to make their mark: Daisy in student government, Aisha (Alycia Pascual-Pena) on the football field and Devante (Dexter Darden) in tryouts for the school musical.

I found the humour goofy and mildly amusing. Whether the reboot succeeds will, I imagine, depend on whether it entertains the original series’ fans.

Black Beauty (Nov. 27, Disney Plus)

Mackenzie Foy as Jo and her equine companion in “Black Beauty.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Graham Bartholomew/Disney

Disney has been expertly manipulating emotions with anthropomorphic animals at least as far back as “Dumbo” in 1941 and “Bambi” in 1942, a tradition upheld by this live-action “Black Beauty” remake.

Like the original 1877 Anna Sewell novel, the film tells the story from the horse’s point of view.

Beauty is now a wild mustang rounded up in present-day America and taken in by a horse sanctuary, where she remains proudly and stubbornly untameable despite the kindness of manager John Manly (Iain Glen of “Game of Thrones”). That is, until John’s orphaned niece Jo arrives (Mackenzie Foy, switching the gender from the 1971 and 1994 film versions) and bonds with the horse.

If you know the book or movie versions you know that the horse’s pleasant existence is upended and it trods a perilous path back to comfort and ease. So it is with this Beauty, a female given voice by Kate Winslet.

After Beauty spends a summer under Jo’s watchful eye leased out to a cartoonishly horrible rich woman (Claire Forlani) and her spoiled daughter (Fern Deacon), the sanctuary is closed and Beauty is sold. She passes from one owner to the next, some kind, some cruel, while Jo vows never to stop looking for her. 

This is a Disney movie, so luckily the horse isn’t subjected to any really dire physical abuse. As for the emotional toll, well, keep a tissue or a hankie handy. Is there a happy ending for Jo and Black Beauty? Do you even have to ask?

Documentary Corner

Shawn Mendes in his Toronto condo with girlfriend Camila Cabello. PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix

The doc that’s bound to grab the most attention this week is “Shawn Mendes: In Wonder” (Nov. 23, Netflix), which is timed to the release of his album “Wonder” on Dec. 4. The 22-year-old Pickering-born superstar comes across as relatively humble and grounded despite his massive fame as the doc, directed by Grant Singer, follows him to dates on last year’s 105-show tour — including his triumphal Toronto show — and into the recording studio. On the human side, we see Mendes hanging out with family, childhood friends and girlfriend Camila Cabello. 

CBC has the timely “The COVID Cruise” (Nov. 27, 9 p.m., “The Nature of Things” and CBC Gem) about how COVID-19 tore through the Diamond Princess cruise ship at the start of the pandemic, directed by Mike Downie (yes, Gord’s brother) and written by David Wells. The dry, air-conditioned atmosphere aboard ship was perfect for the virus and although non-symptomatic passengers were quarantined in their cabins it didn’t stop the spread. All passengers were eventually evacuated after 705 infections and 14 deaths. Yet more than 100 cruise ships embarked after the Diamond Princess outbreak, leading to predictable infections and deaths.

TVO has “Running Wild: The Cats of Cornwall” (Nov. 24, 9 p.m.) by Aaron Hancox. It turns out the Ontario city is the stray cat capital of Canada, which is bad for the cats, not to mention the bird and small animal populations. The doc follows the two local women behind Cattrap, which traps, spays and neuters feral cats, and the Tiny But Mighty Kitten Rescue, as well as other concerned citizens who feed the cats. It’s stressful, never-ending work, which gets a boost when the city council eventually passes a cat control bylaw.

Finally, PBS has “Saving Notre Dame” (Nov. 25, 9 p.m. on “Nova”), which I didn’t get to prescreen but which is about the restoration of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral after last April’s devastating fire.

Odds and Ends

Bobby Cannavale and Melissa McCarthy in “Superintelligence.” PHOTO CREDIT: HBO Max/Bell Media

Crave has the HBO Max movie comedy “Superintelligence” (Nov. 26), starring Melissa McCarthy as an ordinary woman whose TV, phone and microwave start talking back to her, and whose life is taken over by the world’s first superintelligence (James Corden). Bobby Cannavale (“Homecoming,” “Boardwalk Empire”) also stars.

CBC Gem has “Noughts and Crosses” (Nov. 27), a young adult love story starring Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan (“Peaky Blinders”) set in an alternate reality in which Africa has colonized Europe.

Global TV has the “SNL Thanksgiving Special” (Nov. 27, 8 p.m.), featuring a selection of Thanksgiving-themed sketches from the comedy show’s 46 seasons.

BritBox has both seasons of the 1960s sketch comedy “Do Not Adjust Your Set,” starring Monty Pythoners Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, and more.

Watchable the week of Sept. 28, 2020 (updated)

September 28, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK (The Good Lord Bird, Oct. 4, 9 p.m., Crave)

Joshua Caleb Johnson as Onion and Ethan Hawke as John Brown in “The Good Lord Bird.”
PHOTO CREDIT: William Gray/Showtime

When actor Ethan Hawke and author James McBride spoke to the Television Critics Association in January, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were still alive and the Black Lives Matter uprising their deaths propelled hadn’t yet begun — but the continuum on which those killings and others like them sit was on the minds of everyone in that room in Pasadena, Calif.

As Hawke said then, “You can’t tell a story about America and not bump into race.”

“The Good Lord Bird” not only bumps into race but charges into the fray with ferocity, audacity and even glee alongside white abolitionist John Brown, played by Hawke.

Brown, of course, was a real person, the violent activist whose failed campaign to free every enslaved Black person in the United States is credited as the spark that began the Civil War. We see his exploits through the eyes of a fictional character, Henry Shackleford, played by Joshua Caleb Johnson (“Snowfall”), a teenage slave who ends up in Brown’s care when his father dies in a gun fight between pro-slavers in Kansas and Brown’s men.

Hawke, in an Emmy-baiting tour de force, plays Brown as firebrand and fool, hero and blunderer, consumed and sometimes blinded by his belief in the righteousness of his cause, full of compassion for the slaves he seeks to free, ruthless to those who would keep them suppressed.

McBride pointed out back in January that this is not your typical “white saviour story.” Indeed, the series takes the view that while Brown was a hero to many Black people at the time, not every Black person was a convert to his cause. Henry, nicknamed “Onion” by Brown, points out that he was never hungry or cold, or got shot at or saw a person murdered until he left the man who owned him and joined Brown’s ragtag army.

The evil of slavery is presented as a given rather than something that needs to be demonstrated, with the violence done to Blacks by white people mostly implied rather than shown. One hanging scene does more to demonstrate the moral strength of the woman who dies (Sibonia, played by Crystal Lee Brown) than the cruelty of those doing the killing.

McBride said the show, like his book, is meant to be funny and there is subtle humour throughout, starting with the fact that Brown mistakes Henry for a girl, leading him to don a dress and pose as Henrietta. “The Good Lord Bird” pokes fun at Brown himself, whom Onion describes as “nuttier than a squirrel turd.” And revered Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass (played by Daveed Diggs of “Hamilton” fame), is portrayed as a vain, pompous bigamist.

There is tragedy here too, to be sure. Brown was hanged after his doomed raid on the armoury at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, which is the denouement of the seven-episode series.

The bigger tragedy is that despite the fact slavery was officially abolished in the United States in 1965, Black people there and elsewhere are still not free of its prejudices.

Monsterland (Oct. 2, 10 p.m., CTV Drama Channel)

A scene from the new anthology series “Monsterland.” PHOTO CREDIT: Hulu/Bell Media

“Monsterland” delivers food for thought along with its chills, the main thought being whether any of the supernatural creatures it portrays are real or just manifestations of the troubled characters in each episode.

For instance, the impoverished single mother of a difficult child (Kaitlyn Dever, excellent as always) is presented with the tantalizing idea of starting over when a killer (Jonathan Tucker) who steals the identities of his victims wanders into the diner where she works. In another episode, a fisherman (Trieu Tran) turned environmental zealot after being injured in a chemical spill makes his biggest catch of all when he finds an oil-slicked mermaid (Adria Arjona) on the beach. 

And so it goes, with personal and social ills that pose threats as daunting as the monsters that haunt the lead characters.

Each episode tells a new story in a different part of the U.S.

The cast includes familiar faces like Nicole Beharie (“Sleepy Hollow”), Charlie Tahan (“Ozark”), Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”), Taylor Schilling (“Orange Is the New Black”) and Kelly Marie Tran (“Star Wars”).

“You Can’t Ask That” (Oct. 2, CBC Gem)

Maria Bangash, one of the subjects of “You Can’t Ask That.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC

I confess when I first heard about this series, which is based on a successful Australian version in which people with differences of some kind are asked questions that would otherwise be deemed invasive, I thought the whole concept sounded rather rude.

In fact, after screening the first episode of the second season, I can say it’s eye-opening and inspirational.

That episode features people with disabilities like Markham’s Maria Bangash, who has a genetic condition called chromosome 9 deletion. The various subjects, including teens Saoud and Nicola, who have spina bifida; Ella, who has cerebral palsy; Kaleb-Wolf, who has with brittle bone disease; and Owen, who was born with vision and hearing impairment, are more focused on what they can do than what they can’t.

For instance, Owen’s brother Oliver, who was born with missing fingers and a thumb that points in the wrong direction, notes that “it can be hard to hold my hockey stick,” but it clearly doesn’t stop him from playing.

Asked what she would change if she could, Maria replies that she’d change nothing about herself but much about the way society perceives people with disabilities — a goal that could certainly be furthered by watching this series.

Future episodes focus on people with PTSD, deafness, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s disease and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Odds and Ends

Stephen Rea and Francesca Annis as lovers of a certain age in “Flesh and Blood.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of MASTERPIECE

I am truly sorry I didn’t have time to screen the new “Masterpiece” crime thriller “Flesh and Blood” (PBS, Oct. 4, 9 p.m.) given the crackerjack cast. Francesca Annis (“Jane Eyre”) plays a widow who begins a romance with a retired surgeon (Stephen Rea, “The Crying Game”). Imelda Staunton (“Harry Potter,” “A Confession”) is her nosy next-door neighbour and David Bamber (“Rome,” “Pride and Prejudice”) is the detective who investigates when things go awry. PBS also has the political drama “Cobra” (Oct. 4, 10 p.m.) with another stellar cast, including Robert Carlyle (“Once Upon a Time,” “Trainspotting”), Richard Dormer (“Game of Thrones”), Victoria Hamilton (“The Crown”), David Haig (“Penny Dreadful”) and Lucy Cohu (“Ripper Street”).

Good news for fans of classic peak TV: all seven seasons of “Mad Men” are to be available on Amazon Prime Video as of Oct. 1.

Oct. 2 is a busy day for new releases. Netflix has “Emily in Paris,” a fish-out-of-water tale created by Darren Star of “Sex and the City” fame, starring Lily Collins as a young American woman who gets a job with a marketing firm in the City of Light. On Crave, there’s “Kingdom of Silence,” (9 p.m.), a documentary by Rick Rowley about the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi; while HBO has Season 2 of martial arts action series “Warrior” at 11 p.m. There’s also Vol. 2 of the “Savage X Fenty Show,” featuring fashion by Rihanna, on Amazon Prime.

If you like shows about funny people, check out “The Comedy Store” (Oct. 4, 10 p.m., Crave), an ode to the famous L.A. club that has been a training ground for numerous famous comedians, many of whom are featured in this docuseries talking about the good old days.

I had almost forgotten about “The Walking Dead.” Truth be told, it’s been a long time since I thought the show was any good so I tend to hate-watch it more than anything. But if you are a diehard, AMC has the Season 10 finale Oct. 4 at 9 p.m., along with the spinoff “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” the same night at 10 p.m. And you thought zombies were hard to kill.

Finally, Showcase has “Tell Me a Story” (Sept. 30, 10 p.m.), which reimagines classic fairy tales as dark, modern psychological thrillers, starting with “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Hansel and Gretel.”

Watchable the week of Sept. 14, 2020

September 14, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Third Day (Sept. 14, 9 p.m., HBO)

Jude Law and Katherine Waterston in “The Third Day.” PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Ludovic/HBO

This miniseries was co-created by Felix Barrett, founder of Punchdrunk, the theatre company that gave the world the groundbreaking immersive play “Sleep No More,” and there is indeed a touch of the immersive about it.

There’s a hallucinatory quality to what’s onscreen that sometimes makes you feel like you’re losing your grip on reality right along with Sam, played by Jude Law, the married father and small business owner who effectively gets trapped on a very strange island off the British coast.

The other creator is Dennis Kelly, known in the U.K. as the man behind the ultra-violent thriller “Utopia,” with which “The Third Day” shares a use of super-saturated colour, which helps to heighten the sense of unreality.

I’ve seen five of the six episodes — the first three starring Law, the latter starring Naomie Harris (“Moonlight”) — but there’s also a live broadcast to come in between the two parts, described as “an immersive, experiential event,” which obviously nobody has seen yet.

I can tell you that what I have seen is permeated with an unrelenting sense of dread.

Sam ends up on tiny Osea Island when he encounters a troubled young woman from there and drives her home, but circumstances conspire to keep him on the island, not least the fact that the causeway linking it to the mainland is accessible only when the tide is out.

Despite the smiling hospitality of people like the Martins (Paddy Considine and Emily Watson), who run the local pub, there’s a clear sense that Osea is no place for outsiders. Sam catches glimpses of pagan-seeming rituals; there are disembowelled animals strewn about and menacing men in fish-head masks. The longer he stays, the greater the impression that he’s in danger and, also, that there’s no one he can trust. Even his seeming ally, a fellow visitor named Jess (Katherine Waterston), appears to be hiding things.

When Helen (Harris) arrives with her two daughters months after the events involving Sam, there’s not even a pretence of a welcome. The islanders want her gone, but she stubbornly refuses to leave, saying she planned the trip as a birthday surprise for her oldest daughter — although it becomes clear she has an ulterior motive for being there.

The series gets into some quasi-religious mythology that’s a little farfetched, but it works well when it plays up the terror of being stuck in a strange place with no way home.

Ratched (Sept. 18, Netflix)

Sarah Paulson as Mildred Ratched in “Ratched.” PHOTO CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Netflix

Ryan Murphy’s latest project for Netflix, co-created with Evan Romansky, is the origin story of literary and cinema villain Nurse Ratched of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I’m not convinced anyone was clamouring for a look at how the cruel, manipulative character from the 1962 novel and 1975 film became who she was, but here we are.

Don’t look to “Ratched” for nuanced psychological drama; it’s pure melodrama. And like “Hollywood,” the Murphy co-creation that debuted on Netflix in May, it’s more style than substance.

It’s definitely lovely to look at. Mildred Ratched, played by Murphy favourite Sarah Paulson, dresses in colourful period fashions when she’s not in her turquoise nurse’s uniform. And the mental hospital where she connives her way into a job looks more like an elegant hotel than an asylum.

This Nurse Ratched is a rigidly self-controlled, sexually repressed manipulator with a dark past who has a very specific reason for putting herself in the employ of Dr. Hanover (Jon Jon Briones), which I won’t reveal because it would be a spoiler. But she’s not wholly unsympathetic.

The series opens with a gruesome multiple murder by a man (“American Horror Story” alum Finn Wittrock) who comes into Hanover’s and Ratched’s care, and some of the mental hospital’s treatments are barbaric.

Judy Davis co-stars as Ratched’s nemesis, head nurse Betsy Bucket. Vincent D’Onofrio plays the state governor, who uses the mental hospital as a prop for his re-election campaign, and Cynthia Nixon is his assistant, a closeted lesbian.

Sharon Stone also chews some scenery as a very rich woman with a grudge against Dr. Hanover.

Odds and Ends

Jack Dylan Grazer and Jordan Kristine Seamon star in “We Are Who We Are.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Yannis Drakoulidis/HBO

If you’re a fan of Luca Guadagnino’s previous work, especially the Oscar-nominated gay love story “Call Me By Your Name,” then you will likely take to “We Are Who We Are” (Sept. 14, 10 p.m., HBO), a series he co-created and directed about two teenagers exploring their sexual and gender identities on an American air force base in Italy. It stars Jack Dylan Grazer as Fraser, a New York teen who grudgingly comes to Italy with his mother Sarah (Chloe Sevigny), the new commander of the base, and her wife Maggie (Alice Braga). Kid Cudi also co-stars as one of the soldiers under Sarah’s command and the father of Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon), with whom Fraser forms a close friendship.

This week offers three pandemic-tailored awards shows. First up are the TIFF Tribute Awards (Sept. 15, 8 p.m., CTV), which will honour Kate Winslet and Sir Anthony Hopkins among others, with the stars checking in virtually. Next are the Academy of Country Music Awards (Sept. 16, 8 p.m., Global, CBS), hosted by Keith Urban and broadcast live from three venues in Nashville with a live performance by Taylor Swift. Finally, the Primetime Emmy Awards go virtual (Sept. 20, 8 p.m., CTV, ABC) with Jimmy Kimmel hosting from Los Angeles and the rest of the stars appearing via video call-in.

For those of you who love British TV and the work of Sally Wainwright in particular (“Happy Valley,” “Gentleman Jack”), the dramedy “Last Tango in Halifax” is back for a fourth season (Sept. 20, 8 p.m., PBS). Senior citizens Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Ann Reid) have been married seven years when the series resumes, but there are frictions to be overcome. Sarah Lancashire (“Happy Valley”) and Nicola Walker (“Unforgotten”) resume their roles as Celia’s and Alan’s adult daughters.

BritBox has a new show debuting, “Don’t Forget the Driver” (Sept. 15), which was co-created by and stars prolific actor Toby Jones as a put-upon single father who makes a living driving day-trippers on coach excursions from the seaside town of Bognor Regis in England. The series is gently comedic but also deals with deadly serious issues, specifically the worldwide refugee crisis.

Watchable the week of Aug. 31, 2020

August 31, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Sounds (Sept. 3, Acorn TV)

Rachelle Lefevre and Matt Whelan as Maggie and Tom Cabbott in “The Sounds.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC

I sat down last weekend to watch a few episodes of “The Sounds,” just to get a feel for the show, and couldn’t stop until I had binged all eight. The twists just keep coming in this Canadian-New Zealand co-production, set in the latter country’s breathtakingly beautiful Marlborough Sounds area.

The star of the show is Canadian actor Rachelle Lefevre, whom you likely recognize from one of her many TV credits (“Under the Dome,” “Mary Kills People”) or even the “Twilight” films. The series begins and ends with her and she is our main point of reference throughout. She’s Canadian Maggie Cabbott, come to the small New Zealand town of Pelorus to join her Canadian husband Tom (played by New Zealand actor Matt Whelan), to escape his rich, predatory father and open a sustainable fishery. And then Tom disappears while out kayaking and we’re off to the races.

Maggie proves herself to be much more than just a grieving spouse as the series progresses and her secrets (and Tom’s) are laid bare. But the mostly friendly townsfolk of Pelorus also have things to hide, including local police officer Jack McGregor (Australian actor Matt Nable), who becomes Maggie’s main ally as she finds her footing.

Canadian actor Emily Piggford (“The Girlfriend Experience”) co-stars as a tenacious investigator sent to Pelorus by Tom’s family, who suspect Maggie had something to do with his disappearance.

The series is a crime drama and psychological thriller, but also an exploration of relationships. It touches on betrayal, loyalty, the idea of doing bad things for love, the damage wrought by keeping secrets and whether we ever really know the people we’re closest to. But beyond all that, it’s just a compelling watch. And if you don’t catch it on Acorn, you’ll have another chance to see it when it debuts on CBC on Oct. 5.

Away (Sept. 4, Netflix)

Hilary Swank as astronaut Emma Green in “Away.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

Hilary Swank is back — although she never really went away. It’s just that nothing she’s done recently has thrust her into public consciousness the way her Oscar-winning roles in “Million Dollar Baby” and “Boys Don’t Cry” did.

That could change with this big-budget Netflix drama, in which Swank plays astronaut Emma Green, leader of an international mission to Mars. Swank does excellent work portraying a woman who’s reached the pinnacle of her career with all the responsibility that entails, but who is also a wife and mother who’s leaving her family behind for three years. The sacrifice becomes even starker when Emma’s husband, sidelined astronaut Matt Green (the wonderful Josh Charles), has a crisis back home and Emma can only offer encouragement via video chat (a predicament sure to resonate with many people who’ve faced similar conundrums during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of course, Emma isn’t alone on the mission. The capable supporting cast includes Ato Essandoh (“Chicago Med”) as Ghanaian-British crew member Kwesi; Ray Panthaki (“Marcella”) as Indian astronaut Ram; Vivian Wu as Chinese colleague Lu; and Mark Ivanir (“Homeland”) as the thorn in Emma’s side, Russian astronaut Misha.

The show balances the drama of keeping the spacecraft functioning (there’s a spacewalk in an early episode that I found tense as hell, even though I knew there was no way the series would let its lead drift off into space) with the emotional pull of the crew members’ lives back home.

Emma’s family, including daughter Alexis (Talitha Bateman), gets the lion’s share of the attention, but that doesn’t make the other astronauts’ stories any less poignant. There’s a plot line involving Lu and a forbidden relationship that brought me to tears.

It’s the humanity that very much tethers “Away” to Earth.

The Boys (Sept. 4, Amazon Prime Video)

Don’t worry, there will be blood as this tale of vigilantes battling evil superheroes returns for its second season. In fact, cast member Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk) told Global News there would be a “lot more blood” this season. I’m still catching up on all the episodes, but I can confirm the sight of at least one exploding head.

At the end of Season 1, the Boys had uncovered evil corporation Vought’s dirty secret, that the world’s superheroes were not born that way but were nurtured into their superpowers with Compound V. Also, Butcher (Karl Urban) found out that his wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten) was still alive and raising the child she had against her will with corrupt supe Homelander (Antony Starr).

As Season 2 begins, what’s left of the Boys — Hughie (Jack Quaid), MM and Frenchie (Tomer Capon) — are in hiding, along with their superhero friend Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). Butcher is missing and the Boys’ mission to expose the secret of Compound V and destroy the superheroes is stalled — or is it?

There’s a new threat not just to the Boys but to the world, in the form of superterrorists or supervillains. Homelander is riding high on the fact the superheroes have been admitted into the military, but Vought boss Stan Edgar (the fabulous Giancarlo Esposito) slows his roll. And there’s Edgar’s new hand-picked member of the Seven, Stormfront (Aya Cash), to contend with.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Butcher won’t stay missing for long. The show wouldn’t be the same without him.

As always, the darkness of the series is lifted by its moments of comedy. There’s one segment I particularly enjoyed involving the Deep (Chace Crawford), a hallucinogenic drug and his gills.

Odd and Ends

Abubakar Salim and Amanda Collin in “Raised By Wolves.” PHOTO CREDIT: HBO Max/Bell Media

There is lots more to watch this week, most of which I didn’t have time to prescreen. I did get to watch a couple of episodes of “Raised by Wolves” (Sept. 3, Crave), the new sci-fi series executive-produced and partially directed by famed movie-maker Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Gladiator,” “Blade Runner”). It’s set on an alien planet where two androids, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), have escaped a catastrophic war on Earth with implanted human embryos. The androids, who are raising the children to be atheists, have their mission interrupted by a space ark full of highly religious colonists also escaped from Earth, led by Marcus (Travis Fimmel of “Vikings”). The pace is indeed slow, as some critics have complained, but I also found it interesting viewing.

Disney Plus has “Earth to Ned” (Sept. 4), a talk show hosted by two extraterrestrial creatures, Ned and Cornelius, from the Jim Henson Company, which also brought us the Muppets.

If you’re following “The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!” the episode airing Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. on ABC and Citytv is all about the man who’s both a “Bachelor” villain and hero, Nick Viall.

W Network has a couple of offerings, Season 4 of “The Good Fight” (Sept. 3) and the new Marc Cherry dramedy “Why Women Kill” (Sept. 6). Despite the promising title, this is just the same old “Desperate Housewives”-style melodrama dressed up by situating the stories in three different time periods: 1963, 1984 and 2019. It stars Ginnifer Goodwin (“Big Love,” “Once Upon a Time”), Lucy Liu (“Elementary”) and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“The Good Place”).

History also has new shows: “Eating History” (Sept. 2), in which hosts Josh Macuga and Gary Mitchell try out actual samples of historic foods; and “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” (Sept. 6), in which experts search a 512-acre paranormal and UFO hot spot in Utah.

Watchable the week of July 13, 2020

July 13, 2020 /

SHOW OF THE WEEK NO. 1: The Nest (July 13, Acorn TV)

Mirren Mack as Kaya in “The Nest.” PHOTO CREDIT: Studio Lambert and all3media International

The best TV drama paints its pictures in shades of grey with layered, fallible characters, which is exactly what “The Nest” does. The psychological drama plays like a thriller and keeps you guessing from episode to episode who the heroes and villains are.

It begins with Dan and Emily, a wealthy Glasgow couple who’ve tried repeatedly to conceive a child. After Emily almost runs over a troubled teenager named Kaya she comes up with a reckless scheme to have Kaya act as a surrogate. Dan goes along with it because he’d do anything to make Emily happy, but things go off the rails when he discovers a secret from Kaya’s past.

Much of the credit for how absorbing “The Nest” is belongs to the three lead actors. “Line of Duty” favourite Martin Compston plays Dan; and Sophie Rundle, a standout in shows like “Gentleman Jack” and “Peaky Blinders,” is Emily. Mirren Mack is the real revelation as Kaya. Her only other listed credits are a few episodes of “Sex Education,” but she brings much depth to Kaya, who matures from aimless teenager to determined young woman over the five episodes.

No one gets to claim the moral high ground in “The Nest,” which keeps your sympathies shifting from character to character. The most consistent villain is Kaya’s mother, Siobhan, played by Scottish stalwart Shirley Henderson (“Trainspotting,” “Happy Valley”) with simpering loathsomeness.

Nor is anyone untouched by the fallout when Kaya’s secret is revealed, including Dan’s sister (Fiona Bell, “Shetland”) and her family; and Kaya’s social worker (James Harkness, “The Victim”).

“The Nest” offers food for thought, about social inequality and the commodification of fertility; about defining people by their pasts and rushing to judgment. But most importantly, it’s just good entertainment.

SHOW OF THE WEEK NO. 2: Decoys (July 17, CBC Gem)

Brian Paul, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Alice Moran, Rup Magon and David Pelech in “Decoys.”
PHOTO CREDIT: CBC Gem

What “Best in Show” did for dog competitions this web series does for competitive duck carving. 

Like that brilliant Christopher Guest mockumentary film, “Decoys” makes a group of obsessed losers funny by playing their devotion to their craft absolutely straight. And its underlying affection for the characters leavens the mockery with sweetness.

Three months before the Northern Alberta Carving Cup contest, we meet five of the competitors: lonely single girl Mary Jane (Alice Moran), who gives her decoys names and voices; Sikh immigrant Amandeep (Rup Magon), who sees duck-carving as a way to be more Canadian; Donald Sinclair (series creator David Pelech), who’s trying to live up to the reputation of his deceased father, the “Loonatic”; tortured artist Zeke (Keram Malicki-Sanchez), who’s battling “carver’s block”; and old-timer Frank (Brian Paul), who’s bitter that he’s never won despite his mastery of traditional techniques.

Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll and Tracey Hoyt are also spot on as competition organizers Dennis and Barb. So are Kelly Van der Burg and Nelu Handa as Margaret and Simran, the long-suffering partners of Donald and Amandeep, and Brandon Oakes as Rhett, “the original bad boy of Alberta carving.”

Some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny and the ending will leave you with a smile on  your face. And at just six episodes ranging from nine to 15 minutes each you can watch and still have time to carve a duck.

The Secrets That She Keeps (July 16, Sundance Now)

Jessica De Gouw and Laura Carmichael in “The Secrets That She Keeps.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now

Two pregnant women – one a married blogger living in a tony neighbourhood, the other an unmarried supermarket shelf stocker – both with secrets about their pregnancies. The secrets that Agatha (Laura Carmichael of “Downton Abbey”) keeps intertwine her life with that of Meghan (Jessica De Gouw, “Arrow”) in devastating ways. The baby-crazy woman is a well-worn trope and you can easily see the main plot twists coming, but the story hums along over its six episodes. It’s based on a book by Australian crime novelist Michael Robotham.

Cursed (July 17, Netflix)

Katherine Langford as Nimue and Devon Terrell as Arthur in “Cursed.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

I’m not allowed to review this until the day it debuts, but I can tell you it’s a fantasy series, a sort of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table prequel starring Katherine Langford of “13 Reasons Why” as teenage sorceress Nimue, the future Lady of the Lake. It also stars Devon Terrell as young knight Arthur, Gustaf Skarsgard of “Vikings” as sorcerer Merlin and Peter Mullan (“Westword,” “Ozark”) as leader of a band of religious zealots out to destroy fae and other “demons.” It’s based on the illustrated YA novel by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler.

Odds and Ends

A scene from the new Starz series “P-Valley.” PHOTO CREDIT: Starz/Bell Media

“P-Valley” debuted on Starz on Sunday, which means it’s still available on Crave to anyone with the Starz add-on. Alas, I didn’t get to screen this one, a female-centred look at a strip club in the Mississippi Delta, but it’s getting good reviews.

Lifetime has Variety’s Power of Women: Frontline Heroes (July 15, 8 p.m.), which sounds like another “rah rah, we’ll get through the pandemic together” kind of thing, but it does feature some impressive women, including Cate Blanchett, Patti LuPone and Janelle Monae.

The pandemic has brought us one gift, TV cast reunions, and there’s a special episode of “30 Rock” airing on NBC (July 16, 8 p.m.)

If you’re game to give Canadian cinema a shot, Canadian Screen Award winner “The Song of Names,” directed by Francois Girard and starring Tim Roth and Clive Owen, screens on Crave on July 17 at 9 p.m.

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