Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Feb. 22, Netflix)
It feels to me like true crime series have been on a downward trajectory since early entries like “Making a Murderer” and “The Jinx.” This show set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina doesn’t quite meet that high standard, but neither is it bait-and-switch nonsense like “The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.” It starts out as the story of the death of teenager Mallory Beach in 2019, who was killed when Paul Murdaugh, scion of a family of big-shot lawyers in Hampton County, drunkenly drove a boat into a bridge piling in the Beaufort River. As the other people who were in the boat tell it, in very detailed interviews about the crash and its aftermath, the powerful Murdaughs did everything possible to keep it from being pinned on Paul. He was eventually charged with boating under the influence and the Murdaugh family’s fortunes seemed to spiral from there. Paul’s charges still hadn’t gone to trial when Paul and his mother, Maggie, were shot to death on one of the Murdaughs’ vast properties in 2021. The doc explores that case, which is still before the courts (I’m not giving spoilers, but you can easily google who was charged), as well as two other deaths rumoured to be linked to the Murdaughs. And there’s more: drug addiction, theft, insurance fraud, money laundering, even a staged shooting. As in many of these types of series, you won’t get definitive answers on everything, but there’s food for thought about the harms that can arise when privilege is allowed to run amok.
Netflix also has Season 3 of teen mystery series “Outer Banks” (Feb. 23); Season 2 of kids’ comedy “That Girl Lay Lay” (Feb. 23); and Season 5 of docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” (Feb. 24).
Black Snow (Feb. 23, AMC+)
This Australian series has some of the hallmarks of your typical murder mystery: a dead teenage girl, a troubled lead detective, a small town guarding its secrets. What makes it different is that the series weaves the Australian history of “blackbirding” — luring or forcing Pacific Islanders to the country to do hard labour for low wages — into the criminal case. Isabel Baker (Talijah Blackman-Corowa) was murdered in 1994 after leaving her high school prom in her small town in Queensland. The opening of a time capsule 25 years later, in which Isabel placed a letter accusing members of the community of being “predators” who might kill her, leads to the reopening of the cold case, led by detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel, “Vikings”) from Brisbane. Isabel comes from a South Sea Islander family whose great-great-grandfather was kidnapped in Vanuatu and brought to Queensland to work in the sugar cane fields (the series title comes from the black ash from the sugar factory that sometimes falls like snow). As Cormack investigates, sometimes butting heads with and sometimes teaming up with Hazel (Jemmason Power), Isabel’s sister, various potential suspects are revealed: Isabel’s white best friend Chloe and her father, Steve, who owns the town’s sugar plantation and exploits his migrant workers; her white boyfriend Anton, who was cheating on her with fellow student Tasha; nerdy outsider Hector, who was obsessed with Isabel; Tasha’s brother Billy, who did Steve’s dirty work; Ezekiel, a migrant worker in the country illegally, even her own father, Pastor Joe, who disapproved of her relationship with Anton. As he investigates, Cormack becomes convinced Isabel’s murder is tied to the disappearance of two of Ezekiel’s cousins, who were also in Australia illegally. The plot can meander when it pulls its focus from Isabel’s slaying, and some loose ends are left untied, but it’s compelling enough to watch all six episodes. Fimmel brings typical intensity to his role as Cormack while Power and Blackman-Corowa, both newcomers to acting and both of South Sea Islander heritage, give depth to Hazel and Isabel. It’s particularly welcome that we get to see Isabel, in numerous flashbacks to 1994, as a fully realized person and not just a murder victim.
Eugene Levy in Tokyo with sumo wrestlers Kensho Sawada and Yoshinori Tashiro in “The Reluctant Traveler.” PHOTO CREDIT: APPLE TV PLUS
The Reluctant Traveler (Feb. 24, Apple TV+)
This would have been my show of the week except that Apple TV+ has decided to embargo reviews until Feb. 23 and strictly embargo them to boot. So I can’t tell you what I think of the show; I can only tell you what to expect. Canadian actor and comedian Eugene Levy, known for everything from “SCTV” to “Schitt’s Creek,” from the “American Pie” films to Christopher Guest mockumentaries like “Best in Show,” is the host and star here as he travels to eight countries experiencing everything from dog-sledding in Finland to hiking the jungle at night in Costa Rica to plying the canals of Venice to feeding rhinos in South Africa to stargazing on Navajo territory in Utah. The twist is that Levy is a self-described reluctant traveller who says he usually doesn’t like venturing out of his comfort zone (you can read what Levy had to say about the show in my Toronto Star story here).
Apple also has the “thriller” series “Liaison” (Feb. 24), starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel. She plays a British intelligence agent; he plays a French defence contractor in a plot that has something to do with Syrian hackers and cyber-attacks on the U.K. Quite honestly, I got interrupted three-quarters of the way through the first episode and had no interest in finishing it, so make of that what you will.
Push (Feb. 24, 8:30 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
This docuseries shot in Alberta showcases a group of friends known as the “Wheelie Peeps” since they all use wheelchairs or other mobility devices. The ringleader is vibrant Benveet “Bean” Gill, founder of the ReYu Recovery Centre for people with spinal cord injuries, who as the series opens is marking her 10th rebirthday: the anniversary of her paralysis. We’re also introduced, among others, to Brian, who’s celebrating his first relationship anniversary with Victoria; Natasha, who’s about to give birth; and Brittney and Ricardo, who organize a protest when the Alberta government cuts funding for catheter tubes, forcing them and other people with lower body paralysis to “pay to pee.” The series is clearly meant to present its subjects as people living their lives who just happen to be disabled. As Bean says, “We’re just a bunch of people on wheels figuring things out.”
Odds and Ends
Christoph Waltz as Regus Patoff in “The Consultant.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios
Prime Video’s main release this week is “The Consultant” (Feb. 24), a comedy (a dark one I presume) starring Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as a consultant brought into a struggling gaming company who seems to have a murderous way of doing business. Prime also has the movie “Die Hart” (Feb. 24), in which Kevin Hart stars as a fictional Kevin Hart who wants to be an action star.
Fans of the British-French crime dramedy “Death in Paradise” are no doubt stoked about the spinoff series “Beyond Paradise” (Feb. 23, BritBox), in which detective Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall, “Sanditon,” “Love Actually”) has left the island of Saint Marie to solve crimes in Devon, with Martha (Sally Bretton) by his side.
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: Star Trek: Picard (Feb. 16, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Crave)
Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: Picard.” PHOTO CREDIT: Trae Paatton/Paramount+/CBS Studios Inc.
Jean-Luc himself, Patrick Stewart, says the third season of “Star Trek: Picard” is not a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reunion, which may be so, but adding characters from that beloved show to this “Trek” spinoff gives it a much needed reset.
I watched the first two seasons of this series built around the greatest starship captain ever (sorry, Captain Kirk) mainly out of loyalty to the franchise — I started watching “The Original Series” as a kid in the 1960s — but I’m not going to pretend they were indispensable additions to the canon.
What made Captain Picard so memorable as a character came in relation to the “Next Generation” crew members who served with him on the USS Enterprise-D. Although there were appearances by “Next Gen” originals like Will Riker and Deanna Troi in the first two seasons of “Picard,” he was mainly surrounded by new characters who never really gelled.
Is anybody going to be reminiscing decades from now about Picard’s adventures with Agnes or Rios or Tallinn? Unlikely.
So, yes, it’s good news that Picard is back with Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), Troi (Marina Sirtis) and a facsimile of Data (Brent Spiner) on yet another mission to save Starfleet and the galaxy.
“Voyager” vet Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is also still around and central to the plot.
The bad news is that some of the first two seasons’ sins — hamfisted exposition, clunky dialogue and occasionally gimmicky plotting — persist.
Season 3 opens with Picard getting an encrypted distress call from Crusher, whom he hasn’t spoken to in more than two decades. She and a mysterious passenger (if I tell you anything about him, I think CBS will send someone to my door with a Klingon bat’leth) are under attack just outside Federation space.
Picard enlists a game Riker to ride to Beverly’s rescue, which they do with the help of Seven and a not so game Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), the new commander of Will’s old ship the Titan and the season’s best new character. (Sidney La Forge, daughter of Geordi, played by Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, is no slouch either, while Burton’s real-life daughter Mica plays a small role as Geordi’s daughter Alandra.)
There’s also a new baddie, Vadic, a scenery-chewing Amanda Plummer.
Meanwhile, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) — the only character remaining from Picard’s seasons 1 and 2 crew — is on the planet M’talas Prime trying to figure out who stole deadly weapons from the Daystrom Station, a subplot that doesn’t really get interesting until she teams up with Worf who, in an overstretched gag, is now a meditating, chamomile tea-drinking pacifist.
The first four episodes of Season 3 are devoted to Picard, Riker et al on the Titan extricating themselves from what appears to be a hopeless situation involving Vadic’s relentless pursuit of Crusher’s passenger, a powerful new weapon, a saboteur on board and the deadly energy of the nebula in which the Titan becomes trapped. It’s a lot, but it can’t really be no-win since we know there are six more episodes to go.
This also provides time for Picard, Riker and Crusher to revisit their relationships; for Shaw to earn both our antipathy and our admiration; for Picard to get to know a significant new character with links to his past; and for the Titan crew and its new additions to display typical “Star Trek” can-do, we’re all in this together initiative.
The plot threads really start to come together in episodes 5 and 6 (the only other episodes provided to critics) and we finally get to see most of the returned “Next Generation” characters together in the same room.
There are also Easter eggs and callbacks to shows like “Voyager,” “Deep Space Nine” and even “The Original Series” that I don’t want to spoil by spelling them out.
Bottom line: if you were a “Next Generation” fan you will overlook the series’ flaws for the pleasure of seeing the crew members reunite, even if it’s not a reunion per se.
Short Takes
Coaches Luke Willson, Jen Kish, Waneek Horn-Miller, Donovan Bailey, Gilmore Junio and Clara Hughes on “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
CBC has jumped into the physical competition series game with this show that’s a bit like “The Amazing Race” on steroids — if you stripped out everything on that show but the physical challenges and turned them up to 11. I’m not an aficionado of series like “American Ninja Warrior,” but I was gripped watching the competitors on “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge” tough it out in the first episode — especially when one member of each team had to traverse dangling obstacles underneath a 100-metre-high suspension bridge in Squamish, B.C., not just once but twice. There are six teams of four, each coached by a former athlete — including Olympians Donovan Bailey, Clara Hughes, Jen Kish, Gilmore Junio and Waneek Horn-Miller, and former Super Bowl champion Luke Willson — and competing to win a trip to the Paris Olympics. Over eight weeks, they travel across the country with landmarks like the Whistler Olympic Park ski jumps turned into obstacle courses, racking up points until teams start getting eliminated and only one remains.
CBC and CBC Gem also have Season 2 of the far less arduous but also entertaining competition series “Best in Miniature” (Feb. 19, 7 p.m.) and the doc “Apocalypse B” (Feb. 17, 8 p.m., on “The Nature of Things”) about radical ideas for how to turn down the heat on the planet and potentially curtail the effects of climate change.
A Spy Among Friends (Feb. 17, Prime Video)
This is a miniseries that demands your concentration so if you’re tempted to google the names of the real-life people it portrays, best to hit pause when you do so, otherwise you’ll lose the thread of the intricate plot. It tells the story of Kim Philby (Guy Pearce), a notorious British MI6 agent and Soviet spy who defected to Moscow after he was exposed in 1963. The story is set primarily in ’63 after Philby has fled to Russia. Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis), Philby’s former friend and fellow MI6 agent, is under suspicion since he was tasked with bringing Philby back to London from Beirut when he got away. MI5 agent Lily Thomas (Anna Maxwell Martin, “Line of Duty,” “The Bletchley Circle”) is in charge of questioning Elliott, who is also under surveillance by the CIA. Got all that? Good, because there’s more. The series also flashes back to Elliott’s and Philby’s pasts, including their efforts against the Nazis during the Second World War and their once close friendship. It’s a series built on conversations punctuated by bursts of action. Luckily, the actors doing the talking are excellent ones. Both Pearce and Lewis are Emmy winners for good reason, and Maxwell Martin more than holds her own.
Prime also has a double dose of Cara Delevingne. The English actor plays herself in “Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne” (Feb. 14), in which she travels the world on erotic adventures; and she stars as a fairy opposite Orlando Bloom in the long delayed second season of fantasy series “Carnival Row” (Feb. 17) .
Thunder Bay (Feb. 17, Crave)
In this four-part docuseries, Anishinaabe journalist Ryan McMahon investigates the deaths of Indigenous people in the city of Thunder Bay and links them to the city’s history of anti-Indigenous racism. If you pay attention to the news, you’ll have already heard of cases like the Seven Fallen Feathers — seven Indigenous teenagers who died in unexplained circumstances in Thunder Bay — and Barbara Kentner, an Indigenous woman who died after a white man threw a trailer hitch at her from a moving car and then laughed about it. (Brayden Bushby was sentenced to eight years in jail for manslaughter in the case.) Here’s a sobering thought revealed in the series: a third of all Indigenous hate crimes in Canada are reported in Thunder Bay. Indigenous people interviewed by McMahon in the first episode says it’s routine to have things thrown at them, whether physical objects or “go back to the rez” type insults. The series, based on McMahon’s Canadaland podcast of the same name, explores that racism along with theories about the unexplained deaths and the role police have played in failing to investigate them properly. It’s ugly, shameful stuff.
Crave also has the streaming debut of “The Woman King” (Feb. 17), in which Oscar winner Viola Davis plays the leader of the women warriors who protected the Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa in the 1800s.
Odds and Ends
Billy Crudup as Jack Billings in “Hello Tomorrow!” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
One of the week’s most intriguing debuts is “Hello Tomorrow!” (Feb. 17, Apple TV+), a comedy drama in which Billy Crudup stars as a salesman who hawks real estate on the moon with evangelical flair. It’s one of 10 new shows I recommended after attending the Television Critics Association press tour last month but which I haven’t reviewed because of an embargo. Apple also has a new season of surfing series “Make or Break” (Feb. 17) and the movie “Sharper” starring Julianne Moore (Feb. 17).
The most interesting Netflix release this week is “African Queens” (Feb. 15), a series that is part drama, part documentary that tells the story of female rulers in Africa, beginning with Njinga, a warrior princess in Ndongo in present-day Angola. The series is executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. Netflix also has “Perfect Match” (Feb. 14), a dating series that puts together alumni of various Netflix reality shows; “Full Swing” (Feb. 15), a docuseries about professional golfers; and Season 3 of sitcom “The Upshaws” (Feb. 16).
Disney+ offers the documentary “j-Hope in the Box” (Feb. 17), in which the member of Korean supergroup BTS is profiled as he creates his first solo album.
The PBS Masterpiece Channel, available on Prime Video in Canada, has popular Norwegian series “Acquitted” (Feb. 17), about a businessman who returns to his hometown 20 years after he was acquitted of murdering his high school girlfriend.
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.
Micah Stock as Kevin and Mallori Johnson as Dana in “Kindred.” PHOTO CREDIT: Tina Rowden/FX
This miniseries opens with what I can only imagine would seem like twin terrors for Black Americans: a young Black woman is lying in the middle of a room in obvious pain, her back striped with the marks of a whipping, and then, once she’s bathed the wounds and dressed, white police officers come pounding on her door.
The woman is Dana (Mallori Johnson, “WeCrashed”) and, when the show jumps back two days, we learn that she has just moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn with aspirations of becoming a TV writer.
But she hasn’t even unpacked all the boxes in the house she bought after selling her late grandmother’s brownstone when she finds herself being sent back in time some 200 years to a Maryland plantation. The trips continue, lasting seconds, minutes and hours in the present day (2016) but hours, days and weeks in the past.
And Kevin (Micah Stock, “The Right Stuff”), the white waiter whom Dana has just had sex with, accidentally gets sent back with her where they pose as slave and slave owner to fend off the suspicions of plantation owner Thomas Whelin (Ryan Kwanten) and his wife Margaret (Gayle Rankin).
Those are the broad strokes of this time travel drama based on the 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler.
Without getting too spoilery, Dana comes to learn that her travel is tied to the Whelins’ son Rufus (David Alexander Kaplan): whenever Rufus is in danger Dana comes back to save him. Likewise, whenever Dana feels her own life is in danger she returns to her own time, but she has no control over when she comes and goes.
She also encounters a relative of hers (Sheria Irving), thought long dead in the present but who has similarly travelled back in time and become trapped.
But Dana’s attempt to confide about these alarming episodes to her aunt Denise (Eisa Davis) in the present day is interpreted as a sign of mental illness; her almost cartoonishly nosy white neighbours (Louis Cancelmi and Brooke Bloom) keep intrusively demanding to know what’s going on when they hear Dana screaming each time she returns to the present; and Kevin’s sister (Elizabeth Stanley) sends the police to Dana’s door when her brother disappears.
From what I have read, Butler’s book was meant to explore how a modern Black woman would experience slavery and there is certainly some sense of that in this adaptation — as well as a sense of Kevin’s disgust at the dehumanizing of the enslaved by the Whelins and other white people he encounters.
(Some reviewers have taken issue with the romance between Dana and Kevin, who is Dana’s husband in the book but a virtual stranger to her in the series. I, however, can imagine how people trapped in a foreign, hostile situation would gravitate to, and draw comfort from, each other.)
But I had a hard time buying Kwanten, an Australian actor known mainly for his role in “True Blood,” as a fearsome slave owner, at least up until the very end when he perpetrates violence on Dana and threatens the life of Kevin. Not that I’m suggesting “12 Years a Slave”-style brutality would have been preferable, but Dana seems to experience a fair amount of latitude on the plantation, at least until she doesn’t.
Johnson is sympathetic as an alternately confused, angry, terrified and guilt-ridden 20-something woman, the latter since the slaves she encounters can’t escape their reality the way that she can.
Despite the flaws in this adaptation — developed by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“An Octoroon”) — you’ll likely be invested enough in what happens to Dana and Kevin to watch all eight episodes.
The bad news is that the cliff-hangers in the final episode might never get a resolution. FX declined to renew the show for a second season, although Jacobs-Jenkins is said to be shopping it around.
Short Takes
James Nesbitt and Victoria Smurfit in Season 2 of “Bloodlands.” PHOTO CREDIT: Steffan Hill/AcornTV
Bloodlands (Feb. 6, Acorn)
I don’t want to spoil anything for anybody, but if you watched Season 1 of this Northern Irish drama you already know that Detective Chief Inspector Tom Brannick (Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt of “Murphy’s Law” and “The Missing”) is not a good cop. Season 2 ties into Tom’s past sins when a crooked accountant is murdered and found to have connections to a trove of gold that was bound for the IRA but disappeared along with the two men in charge of it, whose skeletal remains turned up at the end of last season. Tom leads the official investigation into the murder while also pursuing a clandestine operation to find the gold with the help of the accountant’s widow, Olivia (Victoria Smurfit, “Ballykissangel,” “Once Upon a Time”). How long can Tom keep all those balls in the air without his clever underlings, Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna) and Billy “Birdy” Bird (Chris Walley, “The Young Offenders”), catching on? Also in the mix is the gold’s American gangster owner (Jonjo O’Neill, “The Fall,” “Bad Sisters”), who turns up in Dunfolan demanding its return. It can be taxing to connect all the dots in this series, but it moves along smartly and compellingly, with some emotional payoff in the latter episodes of the season. The final episode leaves some big questions unanswered, but it seems there’s still a chance for a third season, so we’ll see.
Acorn also has Season 2 of “The Madame Blanc Mysteries” (Feb. 6), the very light but pleasant series about crime-solving antiques dealer Jean White (Sally Lindsay) and her compatriots in the French village of Sainte Victoire.
Mohammad Saud and Salik Rehman treat a black kite in their makeshift animal hospital. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO
All That Breathes (Feb. 7, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)
Beauty can exist in very unlikely places. This documentary finds it in garbage-strewn streets in Delhi, India, where brothers Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, and their co-worker Salik Rehman, rescue and treat injured black kites and other birds. The brothers, who were filmed over three years by doc maker Shaunak Sen, do this at great cost — financial, physical, emotional — and also at the expense of their long-suffering wives and children. Their devotion is writ large in one scene in particular, in which Saud and Salik swim through very cold water to rescue a single kite on a far shore; Nadeem has to wade in himself when they become so exhausted on the way back they feel unable to keep going. The brothers initially treat the birds in a dingy and sometimes flooded basement before an international grant enables them to open a hospital for their Wildlife Rescue organization. Adding to the tension of caring for the thousands of birds — injured by pollution and other human-made causes — is the political unrest and violence taking place in Delhi during filming. Saud, Nadeem and Salik persevere, seemingly unable to stop even if they wanted to. “Delhi is a gaping wound and we’re a tiny Band-Aid on it,” Nadeem says. He adds that “one shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes” hence the title. Indeed, Sen’s camera frequently documents the creatures that share Delhi with its human population, from rats swarming a garbage-covered lot to monkeys, boars, dogs, goats, cows, horses, even invertebrates swarming a murky puddle. As Nadeem says, “Life itself is kinship.” This doc is up for a Best Documentary Oscar and won the Golden Eye prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Lea Thompson and Stacey Farber in “The Spencer Sisters.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media
The Spencer Sisters (Feb. 10, 9 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca)
Despite all the sexy, serialized TV out there sucking up buzz and awards, the procedural isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, particularly the mystery procedural. So you can’t fault CTV for getting in on the action with this new series, particularly when the cast includes Lea Thompson, a legend for the “Back to the Future” films, and Stacey Farber, no slouch herself thanks to “Degrassi” and other credits. Here they play a mother and daughter who stumble into a partnership solving crimes. Victoria (Thompson) is a rich and famous mystery writer whose star is waning; Darby (Farber) is an ex-cop forced to move back in with Mom despite the huge chip on her shoulder over Victoria putting career ahead of family in earlier years. I have some quibbles — for example, how perfunctorily the blow-up of Darby’s police career is handled in the first episode — but if you’re looking for something light that won’t overtax your grey matter you could do worse than this. Thompson and Farber certainly seemed to have a hoot making the show together (you can read my Toronto Star interview with them here).
From left, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Ben Willbond, Laurence Rickard, Yani Xander, Simon Farnaby and Martha Howe-Douglas in “Ghosts.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CBC Gem
Ghosts (Feb. 10, CBC Gem)
No, sorry folks, I don’t mean the American remake that has become a hit for CBS. I continue to prefer this British original version about Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and the spirts she learns to co-exist with on the country estate she inherited from a distant relative. This fourth season, based on the two episodes I screened, perhaps doesn’t have as many laugh-out-loud moments as past seasons, but it continues to find sweetness and relatability in the relationship between Alison and the ghosts, and between the spectres themselves. There’s an endearing plot, for instance, in which ever cheerful Georgian lady Kitty (Lolly Adefope) teaches the by-the-books Captain (Ben Willbond) how to stop and smell the roses or, in his case, count the ants. Meanwhile, romantic poet Thomas (Mathew Baynton) develops a fan club among the plague victims in the basement and tries to kick his infatuation with Alison cold turkey; cave man Robin (Laurence Rickard) recognizes an acquaintance in a TV segment; witch-burning victim Mary (Katy Wix) finally reveals some details about her past; and Alison and husband Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) soft-launch a B&B at Button House.
CBC Gem also has the CBC Kids preschool series “Mittens & Pants” (Feb. 6), about best friends Mittens the kitten and Pants the puppy, and their other animal friends.
Odds and Ends
Martin Mull and Gina Rodriguez in “Not Dead Yet.” PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McCandless/ABC
In keeping with the topic of TV characters who see dead people, ABC is launching sitcom “Not Dead Yet” (Feb. 8, 9:30 p.m., CTV2), in which Gina Rodriguez (“Jane the Virgin”) plays a down-on-her-luck journalist who gets hired at her old paper as an obituary writer and gets an assist from the dead people she writes about, who hang around until she gives them a proper send-off. Also starring Hannah Simone, Lauren Ash, Josh Banday and Rick Glassman, it tends to a schmaltzy “you go girl” tone, but it has its moments. CTV also has Season 2 of reality series “Auntie Jillian” (Feb. 11, 8 p.m.), starring YouTube personality Jillian Danford, husband Warren and grown-up kids Myles and Milan.
I would image the big release for many people on Netflix this week is Season 4 of “You” (Feb. 9), its drama about a serial killer (Penn Badgley). The streamer also has Season 6 of time travel romance “Outlander” (Feb. 6); the doc “Bill Russell: Legend” (Feb. 8) about the civil rights icon; and Season 3 of reality after-show “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” (Feb. 10).
W and StackTV are going all in on romcoms with “The Love Club” (Feb. 10, 8 p.m.), four original movies that will debut on subsequent Fridays about four friends who form a club to keep each other out of romantic crises. Each film follows a different woman on her quest to find love. How much you want to bet they all succeed?
Prime Video’s releases include another romantic film — it is almost Valentine’s Day after all — “Somebody I Used to Know” (Feb. 10), starring Dave Franco and Allison Brie; and the series “One Night Only” (Feb. 10), featuring Francophone comedians PA Méthot, Dominic Paquet, Rachid Badouri and Mariana Mazza.
Paramount+ has the docuseries “Boys in Blue” (Feb. 10), about a high school football team coached by members of the Minneapolis Police Department in the post-George Floyd era.
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.
One thing you’ll notice about this documentary is that it’s mostly Pamela Anderson doing the talking, a contrast with other biographical docs in which a variety of sources weigh in on the person of the hour.
And that is perfectly OK. It’s about time we heard what Pamela thinks about the things that have gone on in her eventful and sometimes painful life.
After a lifetime of being characterized as a pair of boobs and — after the release of the infamous sex tape with ex-husband Tommy Lee — a vagina, she’s earned the chance to have her say.
And talk she does — frankly, matter-of-factly, sometimes punctuated by a still girlish giggle, mostly in interviews from her family home in Ladysmith, B.C. — about her tumultuous upbringing with an alcoholic “bad boy” father and parents who fought constantly, sometimes violently; about being molested by a female babysitter for several years; about being raped at 12 by a 25-year-old man.
The interviews are supplemented by entries from the dozens of journals that Anderson kept throughout her life — read, at her request, by an actor.
As Pamela tells it, she felt ashamed and confused about her body and her sexuality, and posing for Playboy — recruited after her discovery via the Jumbotron at a B.C. Lions football game — allowed her to break free of the cage of that insecurity.
But that act of taking charge was to be weaponized against her.
The doc moves on to subjects that would be familiar from years of tabloid coverage: the many romantic relationships and marriages, “Baywatch,” “Barb Wire” — during the strenuous filming of which she suffered a miscarriage — the sex tape stolen in a safe from her and husband Tommy Lee’s garage and distributed worldwide via the fledgling internet, her activism with PETA and more.
Tommy Lee looms large over the doc, which opens with Pamela somewhat wistfully watching other tapes they made during their marriage (she says she has never watched the sex tape).
“I’ve never loved someone so deeply and by deeply I mean I loved his soul,” says one journal entry.
Despite their divorce after Lee was charged with spousal abuse, one gets the sense that Anderson still loves him or at least loves what the relationship was before it went bad.
“I love being in love and being vulnerable and being giving,” she says at one point.
The other part of her story that looms large in the doc is the sex tape and the unsuccessful battle to keep it off the internet. Anderson describes being deposed in that lawsuit as “complete humiliation” and like being raped again when her Playboy history was used to paint her as a whore who wasn’t deserving of privacy.
“Why do these grown men hate me so much?” was her reaction at the time.
The release of a miniseries about the sex tape, “Pam & Tommy,” brings up the trauma of the events all over again.
Pamela and sons Brandon and Dylan say the tape meant the essential end of her career; she “had to make a career out of the pieces left.” According to Dylan, she has been in debt most of her life.
Mind you, the doc finishes with her making her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in “Chicago” in April 2022 and suggests she isn’t ready to give up just yet.
Nor is it framed as an attempt to garner sympathy.
“I’m not a victim,” Pamela says. “I put myself in crazy situations and survived them. I’m grateful for all the experience I had and I don’t blame anybody for anything.”
All autobiographical documentaries are, by design, self-serving. This one is likely meant to stoke interest in Anderson’s new memoir, “Love, Pamela.” But again, why shouldn’t one of the most exploited women in the world have her say?
As she herself says, “It’s good to get it out at least once or twice in your one words.”
Netflix also has the docuseries “Gunther’s Millions” (Feb. 1), about a German shepherd who inherited millions when his countess owner willed her entire estate to him in 1992, now worth an estimated $400 million (U.S.) and passed down to his heirs; plus the series “Freeridge” (Feb. 2) about four friends trying to reverse a curse; and Indian drama series “Class” (Feb. 3), about three poor students who attend an exclusive Delhi high school where a murder takes place.
Short Takes
Chuck D of Public Enemy in “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of BBC Studios
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World (Jan. 31, 9 p.m., PBS/YouTube)
If you define music and other art as, in part, a response to oppression then it makes perfect sense that one of the most explosive and influential musical genres of the 20th century was pioneered by Black Americans. This four-part docuseries, created by rap legend Chuck D and Lorrie Boula (“Rebel Music”), explores hip hop from its roots with DJ Kool Herc in the Bronx in 1973 to present day with the help of groundbreakers like Chuck D, Grandmaster Caz, Ice-T, Abiodun Oyewole, Roxanne Shanté, Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C., Melle Mel and many more . Most importantly, it links the music to the social, political and cultural upheaval that gave rise to it: the persistent and systemic racism, the urban blight, the war on drugs, police brutality and so much more while highlighting the joy and pride that are part of the music, and the Black resilience and creativity that flourished amid the struggles. Law professor Jody Armour says in Episode 2 that “Great art broadens your perspective.” Whether or not you consider hip hop great art, this docuseries will expand your perspective on it and on the ways in which Black Americans have been and continue to be subjugated.
Colin O’Brien and Taylor Schilling in “Dear Edward.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+
Dear Edward (Feb. 3, Apple TV+)
“Dear Edward” does a good job of reminding us that the trauma of a deadly disaster radiates far beyond the event itself. Based on the Ann Napolitano novel of the same name, it’s about Edward (Colin O’Brien), a 12-year-old who’s the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his parents, his beloved older brother and some 200 other passengers. It’s also about his aunt Lacey (an excellent Taylor Schilling) who struggles to care for Edward amid the grief she feels for the loss of her older sister, and others who are mourning the plane crash victims. The stories that feature most prominently, at least in the four episodes I screened, involve Dee Dee (Connie Britton), a rich housewife who learns that her late husband has left her his debt as well as evidence of a double life, and Adriana (Anna Uzele), who must decide how best to fulfil the legacy of her congresswoman grandmother. Not surprisingly, the road to healing involves connection with other people, whether it’s Edward bonding with the quirky girl next door, Shay (Eva Ariel Binder); Dee Dee helping a young, pregnant woman, Linda (Amy Forsyth), whose boyfriend was a victim; or Adriana opening her home and her heart to Kojo (Idris Debrand), who lost his sister, and his niece Becks (Khloe Bruno). The series was developed by Jason Katims, creator of “Parenthood” and a writer on “Friday Night Lights” (in which Britton starred), so it’s definitely a tearjerker. It sometimes strays into emotional manipulation and predictability, but the quality of the acting helps to balance occasional heavy-handedness.
Odds and Ends
Evie Macdonald and Elena Liu in Season 2 of “First Day.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
CBC Gem debuts the second season of Australian miniseries “First Day” (Feb. 1), in which transgender teen Hannah (Evie Macdonald) is back at school and feeling more comfortable but also keen to craft an identity as more than just a trans girl.
CBC and CBC Gem also have a number of premieres tied to Black History Month. Among the most intriguing is “Dear Jackie” (Feb. 5, 8 p.m.), a documentary framed as a letter to Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball after a stint in the minor leagues in Montreal, that examines ongoing racial inequality in Montreal and Quebec. There is also the doc “John Lewis: Good Trouble” (Feb. 1, CBC Gem) about civil rights activities John Lewis; Season 2 of variety/sketch comedy show mockumentary “Sherman’s Showcase” (Feb. 1, Gem); another doc, “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” (Feb. 1, Gem), about the legendary Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author; and “Moonlight” (Feb. 3, Gem), the Oscar winning Barry Jenkins movie about a young gay boy growing up in Miami.
Just in time for your pre-Oscars movie binge, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is streaming on Disney+ on Feb. 1. The film has five Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Angela Bassett. Disney+ also has the second season of animated comedy “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” (Feb. 1).
I don’t watch horror movies, but I hear the Canadian-made experimental film “Skinamarink” is a viral and box office hit. It’s on Shudder on Feb. 2.
Finally, if awards shows are your thing, Citytv has “The 65th Annual Grammy Awards” Feb. 5 at 8 p.m.
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.
Jason Segel and Harrison Ford in “Shrinking.” PHOTO CREDIT: Apple TV+)
Two words: Harrison Ford.
If you have heard about “Shrinking,” it’s a good bet it’s been in relation to this being a rare TV role for the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” star.
And Ford is very good in this comedy (I can’t speak to his other TV role, in “1923,” not having jumped on the “Yellowstone” bandwagon). The 80-year-old brings easy humour and curmudgeonly gravitas to the role of a 70-something senior therapist in a Pasadena, California, practice.
But he doesn’t do it alone: a large part of the appeal of “Shrinking” is the interplay between Ford’s character, Paul, and fellow therapists Jimmy (Jason Segel, who created the show along with Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence of “Ted Lasso”) and Gabby (Jessica Williams, “2 Dope Queens”).
Although I do admit: Ford is a real scene stealer and, in effect, the star of the show.
Segel’s Jimmy is the main character. He is floundering when we first meet him, struggling to deal with the death of his wife and letting his turmoil bleed into his sessions with his patients, whom he starts treating in unorthodox ways.
Jimmy takes a particular interest in Sean (Luke Tennie, “Deadly Class”), a young Afghanistan war vet whose PTSD manifests in violence. But Jimmy has also been avoiding interacting with his teenage daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell, “Generation”), and his best friend, Brian (Michael Urie, “Ugly Betty”), and those chickens are coming home to roost.
(Christa Miller and Ted McGinley round out the main cast as Jimmy’s nosy next door neighbour Liz and her husband Derek.)
Paul and Gabby have personal issues of their own: a health challenge, a fresh divorce, an estranged daughter. It’s a case of therapist heal thyself, but that, as you would expect, is easier said than done.
Mistakes are made, arguments had, feelings hurt, but the characters have each others’ backs. And that’s the point of the show, it appears.
As Paul tells Brian and his fiancé Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) — while he’s high on marijuana gummies at their disaster of an engagement party, mind you — “vulnerable people will always find a way to stay connected.”
It would be unfair to compare this show to “Ted Lasso,” but they do share a seeming belief in the innate goodness of people, even when they’re screwing things up.
What they don’t share is an overarching sense of purpose — in the case of “Lasso,” the fate of the soccer team — connecting the characters and the plots. Tangents appear in “Shrinking” without any discernible reason; for instance, a minor plot about Alice’s dalliance with one of Liz’s sons that seems to be there only to give Segel a chance to show off his pliable facial expressions.
Like “Lasso,” there’s also plenty of quippy dialogue, which stops just short of being cloying because of the likeability of the cast.
Everybody has their own stuff to get through, “Shrinking” tells us: it goes better when you let other people share the burden. Not a groundbreaking revelation but one that’s enjoyable enough to watch play out.
Odds and Ends
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in “Poker Face.” PHOTO CREDIT: Phillip Caruso/Peacock
Another debut that’s bound to get buzz this week is that of “Poker Face,” the Peacock series created, written and directed by Rian Johnson, the Oscar-nominated director of “Knives Out,” “Glass Onion,” “The Last Jedi” and “Looper.” It debuts on Citytv+ on Jan. 26. It stars Natasha Lyonne of “Russian Doll” and “Orange Is the New Black” as Charlie, a woman who’s a human lie detector of sorts and who solves a new crime in every episode. I’ve only seen the pilot, not enough to accurately judge, and reviews are embargoed till Tuesday in any event. And, of course, Citytv has the latest instalment of “The Bachelor” (Jan. 23, 8 p.m.), in which Zach Shallcross, one of Rachel Recchia’s “Bachelorette” rejects, is the one ostensibly looking for love.
CBC has the documentary “Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children” (Jan. 29, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem), in which filmmaker Barri Cohen goes looking for the truth about her half-brothers and uncovers the hell hole that was the Huronia Regional Centre. It’s where thousands of children deemed unfit for society, whether because of intellectual disabilities or other perceived flaws, were institutionalized for more than a century and, according to survivors, endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse. CBC Gem also has “How to Lose Everything: The Series” (Jan. 27), animated short films that explore personal stories of loss, and are written and animated by pairs of Indigenous artists.
With the name Elon Musk seemingly popping up everywhere these days, the docuseries “The Elon Musk Show” (Jan. 23, Paramount+) claims to get to the heart of who he really is by interviewing the people who know him best. Paramount+ also has “Teen Wolf: The Movie” (Jan. 26), a sequel to the werewolf series that reunites the original stars; and “Wolf Pack” (Jan. 26) — do you sense a theme here? — another teenage werewolf story based on the books by Canadian author Edo van Belkom.
The Netflix offerings include the documentary “Black Sunshine Baby” (Jan. 23), about Aisha Chaudhary, the Indian author and motivational speaker who died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2015; new series “Lockwood & Co.” (Jan. 27), about a trio of teenage ghost hunters in London; and “You People” (Jan. 27), a comedy romance film directed by Kenya Barris (“Black-ish”), and written by Barris and star Jonah Hill.
For fans of the series “Willow,” Disney+ has the making-of documentary “Willow: Behind the Magic” (Jan. 25). There’s also the new series “Extraordinary” (Jan. 25), about a young woman who seems to be the only person over 18 who hasn’t developed a superpower; and “Darby and the Dead” (Jan. 27), about a teen who’s able to see ghosts after a near-death experience.
If you’re a fan of Jennifer Lopez rom-coms, Prime Video has “Shotgun Wedding” (Jan. 27), in which she and Josh Duhamel play a couple whose destination wedding is hijacked by criminals. Jennifer Coolidge of “The White Lotus” is one of the co-stars. Prime also has docuseries “Good Rivals” (Jan. 27) about the rivalry between the U.S. and Mexican national soccer teams.
Speaking of sports, Crave’s main offering this week is “Grind Now, Shine Later: The Chris Boucher Story” (Jan. 25) about the former Golden State Warrior who’s now a Toronto Raptor.
Last but not least, AMC+ has yet another David Attenborough-narrated nature docuseries — the man is 96, does he ever rest? — “Frozen Planet II” (Jan. 28), a sequel to “Frozen Planet” in which the cameras return to the Arctic and Antarctic as well as the world’s other coldest regions.
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.
Yes, you read that right, this is a 20-day Watchable list since I will be in California from Jan. 5 to 15, partly to attend the Television Critics Association press tour, and won’t be screening anything until I get back. Herewith, some short takes on some shows I checked out during the past week.
Faith Rodgers, one of the victims of singer R. Kelly. PHOTO CREDIT: Lifetime
Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter (Jan. 2, 9 p.m., Lifetime)
The 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and its 2020 followup, “The Reckoning,” are arguably big reasons why the R&B singer is in jail right now, having been convicted in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking, and in 2022 of child pornography. This final three-episode instalment of the docuseries follows Kelly’s federal trial, and includes fresh interviews with the sexual assault survivors and their families. This is not an easy watch. What these women (and some men) endured was horrific and has forever changed their lives and the lives of their families.
From left, Jessalyn Wanlim, Dani Kind, Enuka Okuma, Sadie Munroe, Sarah McVie and Catherine Reitman in “Workin’ Moms.” PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Brown/Wolf + Rabbit Entertainment
Workin’ Moms (Jan. 3, 9 p.m., CBC)
It’s the end of the road for Catherine Reitman’s comedy about a group of Toronto mothers who connected in a Mommy and Me class and then, over seven seasons, took us on a funny, relatable ride as they navigated parenthood, careers, friendship and romance. I watched the first two episodes of Season 7 in preparation for interviewing Reitman and cast members Dani Kind, Enuka Okuma, Sarah McVie and Jessalyn Wanlim (you can read the story here) and can attest that the final season sticks to what made the show a global success. I’m not allowed to tell you how last season’s cliffhanger turned out after Anne (Kind) was hit by a car, but I’m sure you can figure it out on your own. This ain’t “Game of Thrones.”
CBC also has new seasons of charming coming-of-age comedy “Son of a Critch” (Jan. 3, 8:30 p.m.); Jonny Harris’s “Still Standing” (Jan. 4, 8 p.m.); Andrew Phung’s family comedy “Run the Burbs” (Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m.); and detective dramedy “Pretty Hard Cases” (Jan. 4, 9 p.m.), with dream team Meredith MacNeill and Adrienne C. Moore.
Iain Glen and Emily Hampshire in “The Rig.” PHOTO CREDIT: Amazon Studios
The Rig (Jan. 6, Prime Video)
Setting a thriller on an oil rig in the North Sea already guarantees a certain amount of drama. “The Rig” adds a restive crew trapped there by a mysterious fog and a communications breakdown; a series of increasingly bizarre injuries to crew members; and the suggestion there’s an ancient, hostile force at work. The main attraction is the terrific cast, a who’s who of Scottish and British actors alongside Emily Hampshire of “Schitt’s Creek” (you can read my interview with her here), who plays a petrochemical geologist and one of the few women aboard the rig. She gets to play off “Line of Duty” actors Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar, Rochenda Sandall and Richard Pepple, and “Game of Thrones” alum Iain Glen, Mark Addy, Owen Teale and Emun Elliott, plus one truly mammoth co-star: the model of an oil rig built in a Scottish studio.
Prime Video also has the second and final season of “Hunters” (Jan. 13), the Nazi-hunting drama that made a splash in 2020 by giving Al Pacino a rare recurring TV role. Even though his character Meyer Offerman — SPOILER ALERT! — died in Season 1, Pacino is back in flashback. I watched the first new episode, but reviews are embargoed so that’s all I’ll say.
Harry Hamlin and Alexandra Daddario in “Mayfair Witches.” PHOTO CREDIT: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., AMC/AMC+)
Reviews of this series are embargoed until Tuesday, but I’m including it anyway since it’s fair to say yet another TV series based on a beloved trilogy of Anne Rice novels is something of an event. This one stars Alexandra Daddario (“White Lotus”) as Rowan, a neurosurgeon who discovers she has troubling and dangerous powers, and is likely part of a family of witches. Harry Hamlin also stars as Cortland; Cameron Inman (and later Annabeth Gish) as Deirdre; Jack Huston as Lasher and Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien. It remains to be seen if this will be as big a hit as “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire” was for AMC.
Andrea Constand in “The Case Against Cosby.” PHOTO CREDIT: CBC
The Case Against Cosby (Jan. 8, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
I apologize for recommending two documentaries about sex offenders in one week, but there is definite merit in this film that tells the story of Andrea Constand, the Canadian woman who succeeded in having Bill Cosby convicted of sexual assault. Yes, the conviction was overturned because of an unofficial deal that a district attorney made with Cosby in 2005 that he wouldn’t be prosecuted criminally after admitting in a civil trial that he used Quaaludes to have sex with women, but that’s not the same thing as being found innocent. This doc, directed by Karen Wookey (“Intervention Canada”), also features interviews with other survivors who took part in a trauma retreat with Constand; with her parents and sister; with police, lawyers and journalists involved in the case against Cosby; and with experts in what’s called “counterintuitive victim behaviour,” i.e. the way women behave after they’ve been sexually assaulted by someone they know as opposed to the way we’ve been led to believe they’re supposed to behave.
CBC and CBC Gem also have the docuseries “Stuff the British Stole” (Jan. 6, 8:30 p.m.), based on the podcast about, well, stuff the British have stolen over the centuries from other lands and cultures; the documentary “Last of the Right Whales” (Jan. 6, 9 p.m.) on “The Nature of Things”; and the documentary “Doug and the Slugs and Me” (Jan. 15, 8 p.m.), which is mainly about unlikely 1980s pop star Doug Bennett, directed by his family’s former next-door neighbour, Teresa Alfeld.
In addition, CBC Gem has the Ken Burns docuseries “The U.S. and the Holocaust” (Jan. 13), about America’s failure to rescue more than a fraction of the Jewish refugees trying to escape murder by the Nazis; and the Northern Ireland-set drama “Death and Nightingales” (Jan. 6), which has an intriguing cast in Ann Skelly, Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dornan but is very slow.
From left, Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Rachel Shenton, Anna Madeley and Callum Woodhouse in “All Creatures Great and Small” Season 3. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Playground Entertainment
All Creatures Great and Small (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., PBS/PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel)
This is one of those shows I watch not just out of professional duty but because I really enjoy it. Based on the first two episodes, Season 3 looks to be as delightful as the first two seasons. It opens in 1939 with Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) about to marry farmer’s daughter Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton). Naturally, there are complications — a boisterous bachelor’s party and a herd of cows at risk for disease among them — but the episode title, “Second Time Lucky,” gives a hint of how it turns out. All of the excellent lead cast are back, including Samuel West as irascible head vet Siegfried Farnon, Callum Woodhouse as his somewhat feckless brother Tristan and Anna Madeley as long-suffering housekeeper Mrs. Hall.
PBS also has Season 27 of the U.S. version of “Antiques Roadshow” (Jan. 2, 8 p.m.); and Season 3 of period mystery series “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (Jan. 8, 8 p.m.); PBS also says it will rebroadcast “The U.S. and the Holocaust” beginning Jan. 6 at 9 p.m., although it’s on the WNED schedule Jan. 9 at 9 p.m.
And because I can’t really resist anything to do with Scotland, the birthplace of two of my grandparents, I screened “Wildheart” (Jan. 18, 8 p.m.), a restorative episode of “Nature” about a Scots pine in what’s left of the Caledonian Forest in the highlands that’s almost 500 years old. Did it really grow from a pine cone tossed aside by Mary, Queen of Scots as a child? I don’t see how one could prove that, but it makes for a whimsical start to telling the life story of this tree and the creatures that have surrounded it for centuries.
From left, Chandni, Roop, Kuki, Chandan and Sarab Singh, the stars of “Bollywed.”
Bollywed (Jan. 12, 8 p.m., CBC/CBC Gem)
If you have ever taken a streetcar along Gerrard Street East in Toronto you have no doubt spotted Chandan Fashion out the window with its distinctive blue and magenta exterior. This docuseries takes viewers inside the shop and the Singh family, who have run the business in Little India for 37 years. As it gained inventory and customers, the shop grew to three storeys, but the first episode makes clear that those floors, as well as the basement, are bursting at the seams as father Kuki brings in more and more merchandise, and kids Chandan and Chandni encourage him to open another location. I suspect that clash of old school business practices vs. modernization will drive the action throughout the series. There’s also a touch of “Say Yes to the Dress” as Chandan helps brides choose their wedding ensembles in the third-floor bridal showroom.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of HBO
The Last of Us (Jan. 15, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)
Reviews of this postapocalyptic drama are embargoed until next week. I don’t think I’m even allowed to tell you whether I like it, so you’ll have to draw your own conclusions from the fact I have singled it out here. It’s based on a video game of the same name about the aftermath of a fungal infection that has wiped out huge swaths of humanity, leaving survivors penned into militaristic quarantine zones. I can at least tell you what I think of the cast, led by Pedro Pascal, a standout in shows like “Narcos,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Mandalorian,” and Bella Ramsey, the enormously talented young actor also seen in “Game of Thrones” and “Catherine Called Birdy.” They play Joel, a hardened survivor, and Ellie, the 14-year-old he is tasked with escorting across the country to a revolutionary group that’s trying to find a cure for the infection. Other cast members include Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge, Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett, Melanie Lynskey and Toronto’s Lamar Johnson.
Crave also has Viking revenge movie “The Northman” (Jan. 6), featuring a super ripped Alexander Skarsgard, which Toronto Star reviewer Peter Howell gave 3.5 out of 4 stars; British crime drama “Without Sin” (Jan. 6); competition series “The Climb” (Jan. 12), in which contestants climb foreboding looking peaks overseen by series creator Jason Momoa; animated Scooby-Doo spinoff “Velma” (Jan. 12), created by and starring Mindy Kaling; and Season 2 of “Your Honor” (Jan. 13), in which Bryan Cranston and Michael Stuhlbarg return as the judge and the mob boss whose lives were upended by a hit-and-run in Season 1.
“Shadowland,” based on an Atlantic magazine investigation of conspiracy theories, debuts Jan. 21. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of History
Shadowland (Jan. 21, 9 p.m., History/STACKTV)
If there’s one thing we all became familiar with over the two years (now into its third) of the COVID-19 pandemic it’s conspiracy theories. This docuseries, based on a series of articles in the Atlantic magazine, takes a deep dive into the subject by having documentary teams interview the holders of these theories about their beliefs. The subjects include a woman in Pennsylvania who has bought so completely into the belief that the world is being controlled by a “deep state” cabal of elites that she risks going to jail for her part in the Jan. 6 riot rather than subject herself to the authority of the court. Other subjects include a Montreal woman, former journalist and rabid anti-vaxxer who has moved to San Francisco with her boyfriend, the so-called “Google whistleblower.” The series is directed by Joe Berlinger, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentarian.
And while we’re on the subject of conspiracy theories, they are also the subject of the first episode of “Truth & Lies,” a docuseries debuting on TVO Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. The series from Emmy nominee Lewis Cohen takes a more historical approach. In the opener, for instance, it draws a line between the “blood libel” conspiracy theory of the 12th century that claimed Jews harvested the blood of Christian children, to the modern claim that Democrats are child pornographers using children for their blood. Other episodes look at war propaganda, scandals, money, religion and influencers.
Also, back to the Corus Entertainment slate, Showcase has “Irreverent” (Jan. 8, 9 p.m.), about a criminal mediator who has to flee Chicago for Australia and pose as a minister; and the latest David E. Kelley series, “The Calling” (Jan. 16, 9 p.m.), about a particularly dedicated NYPD detective. And W Network has the Hallmark series “The Way Home” (Jan. 22, 8 p.m.), which stars Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh and Sadie Laflamme-Snow as three generations of an estranged family and is set, at least in part, in a Canadian farm town.
Odds and Ends
Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman in 1975 in a scene from “The Last Movie Stars.” PHOTO CREDIT: Warner Brothers
I very much wanted to review “The Last Movie Stars,” the docuseries about actors and spouses Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, directed by movie star Ethan Hawke, that got rapturous reviews when it debuted in the U.S. It finally makes its Canadian premiere Jan. 12 on Hollywood Suite, but screeners won’t be available until after I’ve left for California.
Speaking of stars, Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes are certainly that, particularly if you’ve watched “Succession” or any number of British series that they’ve been in. The real-life couple plays British politician John Stonehouse and his wife Barbara in “Stonehouse” (Jan. 17, BritBox). The MP was at the centre of a scandal in the U.K. after faking his own death in 1974. Reviews, unfortunately, are embargoed until next week.
Let’s get to Netflix. I liked the first season of the soapy but charming “Ginny & Georgia,” but there was an embargo on Season 2 episodes, which debut Jan. 5. More (not all) Netflix premieres: documentary “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” (Jan. 4); doc “Mumbai Mafia: Police vs. the Underworld” (Jan. 6); Season 2 of “Vikings: Valhalla” (Jan. 12); tennis documentary “Break Point” (Jan. 13); “That ’70s Show” spinoff “That ’90s Show” (Jan. 19); so-called reality series “Bling Empire: New York” (Jan. 20).
Your Disney+ pick is “If These Walls Could Sing” (Jan. 6), the story of Abbey Road Studios as told by Mary McCartney, daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney. Also, buzzy movie “The Menu” has its streaming debut Jan. 4.
Apple TV+ has docuseries “Super League: The War for Football” (Jan. 13) and by football they mean soccer. It also has the fourth and final season of “Servant” (Jan. 13).
David Attenborough is back with yet another nature documentary, “Dynasties II” (Jan. 8, 9 p.m., BBC Earth), which follows families of elephants, macaques, cheetahs, pumas, meerkats and hyenas.
I don’t usually write up Paramount+ series since they don’t often send me releases, but that seems to be changing. On Jan. 19, the streamer has the Canadian debut of “The Chemistry of Death,” based on two Simon Beckett novels, starring Harry Treadaway (“Penny Dreadful”) as former forensic anthropologist David Hunter.
And finally, the tarnished “Golden Globe Awards” are back and will air Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. on Citytv.
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.
CORRECTION, JAN. 22, 2023: Edited because I accidentally misspelled Murray Bartlett’s last name in the “Last of Us” entry.
I will take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year. Not a lot of new stuff out this week and a lot of what is new I didn’t have screeners for, but the floodgates will open in earnest as January continues.
Short Takes
A scene from “Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series.” PHOTO CREDIT: Super Channel
Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series (Dec. 27, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse)
If you’re having a sense of deja vu, yes, I did write about a show connected to the 1972 hockey “Summit Series” between the Russians and Canadians back in September, when I made the CBC docuseries “Summit ’72” my show of the week. This documentary film by Robbie Hart (“I Am Not a Rock Star”) covers some of the same ground — the shocking Game 1 loss to the Soviets, the Canadian fans booing in Vancouver, Phil Esposito’s rousing speech, the Canucks’ underdog status going into the final games, Paul Henderson’s series-winning goal — but it also puts a bigger focus on the geopolitical implications of the games, which is not surprising since it’s based on a book by former diplomat Gary J. Smith, “Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series.” Smith is interviewed along with hockey folks like Wayne Gretzky, Ron Maclean, Harnarayan Singh, Angela James and Daniele Sauvageau (interviews with a handful of the Canadian ’72 players appear to be archival). The doc also includes footage shot in Moscow and fresh interviews with Russian players Vladislav Tretiak, Alexander Yakushev and Boris Mikhailov. The film’s thesis is that the Summit Series changed the game of hockey forever and even changed Canada’s national identity. If that’s true — and having been only 10 when the series was played I can’t vouch for that — then I believe it’s also true that the national identity is in constant flux as Canada grows and diversifies. And I can’t help but wonder whether hockey will play as big a part in the mythology of this country 50 years from now.
Groucho Marx and Dick Cavett on “The Dick Cavett Show” in June 1969. PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Baldwin
Speaking of nostalgia, this episode of the PBS series “American Masters” takes viewers back not just to the 1960s and ’70s when comedian Groucho Marx made seven appearances on his friend Dick Cavett’s talk show, but to the age of vaudeville and early film when Groucho and the other Marx Brothers became famous. Groucho went on to achieve individual fame as the host of TV quiz show “You Bet Your Life.” By the time he started appearing on “Cavett,” he was in his late 70s, but he and Cavett had been friends since meeting at the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman when Groucho was 70 and Cavett 25. Cavett, now 86 — the same age Groucho was when he died in 1977 — says he got “perhaps the last of Groucho’s prime” on his talk show. Whether that translates to modern audiences for whom Groucho’s comedy style will seem old-fashioned remains to be seen, but the story of the friendship between the men is a touching one and it’s clear that Cavett still has nothing but the highest regard for his comedy hero.
PBS also has the concert special “Great Performances: From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2023” (Jan. 1, 8 p.m.), featuring music by Strauss and others conducted by Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst, performances by the Vienna State Ballet and host Hugh Bonneville of “Downton Abbey.”
Odds and Ends
Charlie Cox stars in “Treason.” PHOTO CREDIT: Netflix
The Netflix series I would have screened had it been available last week is “Treason” (Dec. 26), starring Charlie Cox (“Daredevil”) as an MI6 agent whose future is called into question after he’s reunited with a Russian spy with whom he had a past. Netflix also has Season 5 of “The Circle” (Dec. 28); a Spanish comedy series called “Alpha Males” (Dec. 30); the Noah Baumbach film “White Noise” (Dec. 30) starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig; the special “Best of Stand Up 2022” (Dec. 31); the heist series “Kaleidoscope” (Jan. 1); the Brazilian series “Lady Voyeur” (Jan. 1) and other stuff.
My pick for Crave this week, just based on the description, is “Kingdom of Dreams” (Dec. 30), a docuseries about the global fashion business from the early 1990s to the 2010s. Canadian fashion icon Jeanne Beker is a producer. Crave also has “The Rocky Collection” dropping on Dec. 30, which includes all six films plus the documentary “40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic,” narrated by Sylvester Stallone. Its New Year’s offering is “Lizzo: Live in Concert” (Dec. 31, 8 p.m.).
Speaking of New Year’s, CBC TV and CBC Gem have “Canada’s New Year’s Eve: Countdown to 2023” at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31, hosted by Rick Mercer and featuring music from Chad Price, Devon Cole, James Barker Band, JJ Wilde, Kardinal Offishall, Leela Gilday, OKAY TK, Savannah Ré and Vincent Vallières.
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: Call the Midwife Holiday Special (Dec. 25, 9 p.m., PBS)
Leonie Elliott, Helen George and Megan Cusack in the “Call the Midwife Holiday Special.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Neal Street Productions and BBC Studios
If you want to feel good about the human race at this time of year I can think of few things more likely to engender that sentiment than the annual “Call the Midwife Holiday Special.”
Is it unbashedly sentimental? In spades, but that doesn’t mean it’s Pollyanna-ish.
Truth be told, I resisted watching the show for some years, despite it being a favourite of my late mother-in-law’s. Alas, by the time I had succumbed to its charms, it was too late to share that appreciation with her. But I shall share it with you.
Essentially, the British series is about a group of midwives — both nuns and laywomen — working out of a convent in an impoverished area of East London. It begins in 1957. Season 11, released earlier this year on PBS, advanced the time period to 1967.
(In Canada, you can catch up on previous seasons on BritBox and CBC Gem, which starts streaming Season 11 on Dec. 22.)
Obviously the show deals with subjects historically pigeonholed as women’s issues, including pregnancy and childbirth, infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, maternal mortality, birth control, sexual assault and lack of access to safe abortions. But it also deals with general social ills: poverty, mental illness, spousal violence, alcoholism, racism, homophobia, gentrification, and medical ignorance and prejudice, to name just some. (A quibble: I suspect in real 1960s London, Jamaican nurse Lucille would have been subject to a lot more racism than the show portrays.)
This year’s Christmas special reintroduces Rhoda and Bernie Mullucks (Liz White and Chris Reilly), who had a thalidomide baby in Season 5 (thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women to fight nausea in the 1950s and early ’60s, and was found to cause birth defects).
Rhoda is pregnant with her fourth child, fearful that her new baby will also have disabilities, and dreading having to divide her attention between an infant and daughter Susan, who was born with deformed arms and legs. Susan is being discriminated against at school because of her disability, and Bernie is spending his free time at the pub rather than deal with his worries for the new baby and his guilt over Susan’s condition.
Another plot line involves a young, pregnant woman just released from jail who’s subjected to total indifference by the welfare official supposedly there to help her and is kicked out of her rooming house when she goes into labour.
If you’re familiar with past iterations of the “Call the Midwife Holiday Special,” you probably suspect both these situations will be resolved with happy endings, although that’s not always the case in the series.
The episode’s feel-good plot involves a Christmas talent show organized by handyman Fred (Cliff Parisi) and wife Violet (Annabelle Apsion) to help mitigate the after-effects of Season 11’s fatal train crash.
Besides Day 1 character Fred, the special also checks in with originals Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter), Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt), Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann, the real-life husband of series creator Heidi Thomas), Shelagh Turner (Laura Main) and Nurse Trixie (Helen George).
Trixie and Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) undergo some significant plot developments, but Nurse Lucille (Leonie Elliott) and husband Cyril (Zephryn Taitte), Nurse Nancy (Megan Cusack), Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett), receptionist Millicent (Georgie Glen), Fred’s cousin Reggie (Daniel Laurie), the Turners’ son Timothy (Max Macmillan) and Trixie’s rich boyfriend, Matthew (Olly Rix), also figure in the action.
One of the beauties of “Call the Midwife” is that its revolving cast of characters doesn’t lessen enjoyment of the show. Sure, you miss people who have left the series, but the new characters fit easily into the ebb and flow of life in Poplar, and it seems we’re in for more additions when Season 12 debuts in 2023.
In the meantime, there’s this holiday special with the show’s usual mix of comedy and drama, sorrow and joy, and an abundance of kindness. Enjoy and keep the tissues handy.
Short Takes
The Flagmakers (Dec. 21, Disney+)
For the immigrants and refugees who work at Eder Flag in Oak Park, Wisconsin, sewing and shipping five million American flags a year is part of their American dream. They’ve come from countries like Serbia, Iraq, Bosnia, Puerto Rico, Tanzania, Mexico, fleeing war and other hardships, or just seeking better lives for themselves and their families. They toil alongside native-born Americans like SugarRay and Barb, a Trump supporter who nonetheless forms seemingly genuine connections with her diverse co-workers. Sewing manager Radica, who left Serbia with her husband after her house was bombed, believes every flag created at Eder has a soul, but she also feels betrayed when the Stars and Stripes are brandished during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, even used as a weapon against a police officer. SugarRay, meanwhile, is trying to reconcile the country he loves with the country where fellow Black man George Floyd was murdered. “When you start to learn more about how this country was built for Black and brown people it really doesn’t kind of include you,” he says. And Ali, who fled war in Iraq with his wife and children, initially believes life in America is beautiful, a belief that is challenged when he’s hit and knocked unconscious while shopping at Walmart with his family. Radica theorizes that while America isn’t perfect, that’s its beauty, but she also ends up moving back to Serbia. The work at Eder, meanwhile, goes on. This doc, which runs just 36 minutes, was co-directed by Sharon Liese and Oscar winner Cynthia Wade.
Disney also has the streaming debut of “Strange World” (Dec. 23), the animated film starring the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union and Dennis Quaid.
Things get tense between Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) and Stewart (Tyler Johnston) as Wayne (Jared Keeso) steps in during the Season 11 premiere of “Letterkenny.” PHOTO CREDIT: Bell Media
Letterkenny (Dec. 25, Crave)
On the surface, “Letterkenny” would seem to be merely a clever and sometimes strange comedy in which the jokes fly at the speed of light. However, there are decidedly serious things going on under the surface, which is how a group discussion about the merits of various types of potato chips in the Season 11 premiere is really about topics like loneliness, racism, familial love and friendship. And underneath all of that, always, is a love of Canada. Only one episode of the new season was made available for review, but the synopsis put out by Crave says the new episodes will also encompass “lost dogs, an influencer invasion, Skid business, a mystery at the church bake sale, unwanted guests at beer league and the Degens stirring up trouble.” Bottom line, if you’re already a fan of Jared Keeso’s ode to his small-town Ontario upbringing, expect more of what you love.
I apologize to all the “Emily in Paris” fans, but I was unable to get through the first episode of the first season when it debuted, such was my revulsion. And while I have considered going back for a reassessment given its continuing popularity I just haven’t had the time, so I’m no use to you at all as Season 3 debuts on Netflix on Dec. 21. Also dropping on Netflix this week: drama series “Trolley” (Dec. 19), about a congressman’s wife and family secrets; Season 4 of the docuseries “I Am a Killer” (Dec. 21); Season 2 of Japanese sci-fi drama “Alice in Borderland”; the streaming debut of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (Dec. 23); the streaming debut of “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” (Dec. 25); Brazilian comedy series “Time Hustler” (Dec. 25), in which a man is hit on the head and wakes up in 1927, where he’s mistaken for a famous bandit; and prequel series “The Witcher: Blood Origin” (Dec. 25), starring Michelle Yeoh and Lenny Henry (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”).
This just in: if you’re Team William and Kate or you just want to study their faces for signs of how they really feel about “Harry & Meghan,” BritBox will have “Royal Carols: Together at Christmas,” the special hosted by the new Princess of Wales, on Dec. 24. It’s dedicated to the late Queen Elizabeth II and, naturally, William, King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla were in attendance.
Anybody who has Paramount+ will no doubt want to watch box office megahit “Top Gun: Maverick” when it starts streaming Dec. 22.
Prime Video’s big debut this week is the third season of “Jack Ryan” (Dec. 21), starring John Krasinski as the titular action hero.
Apple TV+ has the animated short film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” (Dec. 25), based on the Charlie Mackesy book. And Apple is also making the classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas” available free between Dec. 22 and 25.
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.
Sorry folks, it’s another week without a show of the week, mainly because I spent my limited screening hours watching eight episodes of “Kindred” before realizing it’s debuting only on Hulu this week, which we don’t get in Canada. Onwards . . .
Short Takes
Rebuilding Notre Dame (Dec. 14, 9 p.m., PBS)
Notre-Dame de Paris before the 2019 fire that almost destroyed it. PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Lawrence/Alamy Stock Photo
I know exactly where I was the moment I fell in love with Paris: atop one of the towers of Notre-Dame, gazing out at the city on a perfect blue-sky day, surrounded by some of the cathedral’s famous gargoyles. Certainly anyone who loves that city and has spent time in that ancient church was stricken when fire destroyed its roof and threatened the entire 850-year-old structure in April 2019. I returned on a recent visit; the plaza in front of the church was swarmed with people, but the building was off limits, surrounded by construction hoarding. This episode of “Nova” explains what’s going on behind the hoarding as hundreds of workers toil to rebuild the cathedral exactly as it was before the fire in time for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. It’s a mammoth, painstaking task but one that promises to reveal a splendour that hasn’t been seen since the 13th century. This is an uplifting documentary and an interesting one for anyone with a love of history, architecture and/or the City of Light.
PBS has told me repeatedly that “American Masters: The Adventures of Saul Bellow” — about the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author — is debuting Dec. 12 at 8 p.m.,, but it’s not in the online listings for Buffalo’s WNED, so make of that what you will.
Margarita Levieva and David Tennant in “Litvinenko.” PHOTO CREDIT: ITVX/Sundance Now
Litvinenko (Dec. 16, AMC+/Sundance Now)
If you’ve seen any advertising for this four-episode drama, you have likely seen the face of a bald-headed David Tennant, looking very ill in a hospital bed. In fact, Tennant is in only the first episode playing late Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko and, despite my enduring love of David Tennant, I have to say he is not overly convincing in the role apart from getting the hospital look right. The series is really about what happened after Litvinenko died in 2006 from ingesting Polonium-210 at a London hotel: about the police investigation that pointed the finger at two Russian assassins and the public inquiry that concluded the killing was likely approved by President Vladimir Putin himself — just as Litvinenko claimed on his death bed. The show is a pretty standard police procedural — aside from the fact the detectives get to interview the murder victim — but it’s loaded with very good actors whom you’ll know if you watch any British TV. Mark Bonnar (“Line of Duty,” “Shetland,” “Guilt”) and Neil Maskell (“Humans,” “Utopia”) play cops; Stephen Campbell Moore (“War of the Worlds,” “Titanic”) is a lawyer who pushes for a public inquiry; and Russian-American Margarita Levieva (“The Deuce”) is Litvinenko’s widow, Marina. At the very least the timing is interesting, providing another view of just what a murderous thug Putin is as he continues to try to destroy Ukraine.
Odds and Ends
David Letterman with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix
It’s another jam-packed week for Netflix content. I know I’ll be watching the next three episodes of the docuseries “Harry & Meghan” (Dec. 15) — you can read my review of the first three for the Toronto Star here — and there will be huge interest in “My Next Guest With David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy” (Dec. 12), for which Letterman went to Kyiv, Ukraine, to meet with the Ukrainian president and Man of the Year. Also on my radar, “Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery” (Dec. 15), in which star Will Arnett’s friend and “SmartLess” podcast co-host Jason Bateman gets to improv his way through solving the slaying of Kris Kringle alongside Maya Rudolph. Then there’s the second season of “Last Chance U: Basketball” (Dec. 13); Polish 1970s-set drama series “Glitter” (Dec. 14); docuseries “Don’t Pick Up the Phone” (Dec. 14), about scammers who talked fast-food managers into strip-searching their employees; documentary “Kangaroo Valley” (Dec. 14), about a baby kangaroo trying to survive in the Outback; action drama “The Recruit” (Dec. 16), in which teen heartthrob Noah Centineo gets to play a grown-up CIA lawyer; Norwegian miniseries “A Storm for Christmas” (Dec. 16), about travellers stranded at the Oslo airport; the Alejandro G. Inarritu film “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” (Dec. 16); and documentary “The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari” (Dec. 16), about a New Zealand eruption in 2019.
Disney’s main offering this week is the series “National Treasure: Edge of History” (Dec. 14), a followup to the movie franchise with a new Latina heroine, Jess Valenzuela (Lisette Olivera). It also has the critically acclaimed movie starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin” (Dec. 14).
If you’re not choking on baking shows yet, CTV has the new series “Cross Country Cake Off” (Dec. 15, 9 p.m.), starring Mary Berg and Andrew Han.
Finally, specialty channel Love Nature has the Africa-set docuseries “Chasing the Rains” (Dec. 18, 8 p.m.), narrated by Adjoa Andoh, a.k.a. Lady Danbury of “Bridgerton.”
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.
There is no Show of the Week this week. The spirit was willing, the screener selection weak.
Short Takes
Idina Menzel in concert in “Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?” PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Maldin/Walkman Productions Inc.
Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage? (Dec. 9, Disney+)
Those of us who aren’t famous tend to think of it as a constant in the lives of those who are: you get famous, you’ve got it made. This documentary about singer and actor Idina Menzel reminds us that it’s more of a roller coaster with highs and lows. Menzel, a New York native, first hit it big in 1996 with “Rent,” but it was another seven years before she got her next big break, creating the Tony-winning role of Elphaba in “Wicked,” and then another decade before she was catapulted to even higher heights with the song “Let It Go” and the movie “Frozen.” This doc follows Menzel on a 2018 concert tour culminating in her dream gig of playing Madison Square Garden. It balances concert footage with archival film of her performing in high school musicals, and at weddings and bar mitzvahs, with personal moments: interacting with her father, husband and son, Walker, and undergoing ultimately unsuccessful IVF treatments. If you don’t know much about Menzel — or Adele Dazeem, as she was dubbed in a memorable moment at the 2014 Oscars — this doc is a reminder of her hits and of the glorious voice underlying them all.
Disney+ also has “Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again” (Dec. 9), an animated sequel to the live action “Night at the Museum” films; the star-stuffed comedy caper film “Amsterdam” (Dec. 7); animated series “Alice’s Wonderland Bakery” (Dec. 7) and Season 2 of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” (Dec. 7).
Yannick Bisson and Cory Lee in “Baking All the Way.” PHOTO CREDIT: Vortex Media
Baking All the Way (Dec. 10, 8 p.m., Super Channel Heart & Home)
I am not a fan of holiday rom-coms, but I make allowances for Canadian offerings like this one. Sure, it’s set in Chicago and Wisconsin, but it was made in Ontario with a Canadian cast, led by “Murdoch Mysteries” star Yannick Bisson, who also directs. Bisson is Kris Thompson, widowed owner of a small-town bakery that’s being pummelled by an outpost of a corporate baked goods franchise. He also has the requisite precocious daughter (Bianca Sas) and wisecracking mother (Jayne Eastwood). Things start to turn around when cookbook author Julia Wilson (Cory Lee) comes to town because she wants to include Kris’s gingerbread recipe in her new book — it reminds her of the cookies she used to bake every Christmas Eve with her late mother. Colin Mochrie and wife Debra McGrath co-star as friendly B&B owners who take Julia under their wings. Baking and romance ensue, naturally. Let’s be honest, this is as saccharine as the treats Kris and Julia create to turn his business around, but such is the nature of Christmas movies. And if you get through it without raiding your kitchen for something sweet you’re a better person than me.
Also, if you are a Jayne Eastwood fan, I’m told she guest stars in “A Pink & Green Christmas” (Dec. 8, Bell Fibe TV1), the holiday episode of the comedy about a women’s prison in Hamilton.
Odds and Ends
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in “Harry & Meghan.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The big Netflix release this week is “Harry & Meghan,” an explosive new docuseries about the royal runaways that drops on Dec. 8. I have only seen the trailer, like everyone else, but if you thought the Oprah Winfrey interview put the monarchy in a bad light, hoo boy, I think this will probably have royal knickers in a twist when it’s released.
Netflix also has “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (Dec. 9), the Oscar-winning director’s stop-motion, animated vision of the classic story, in which the wooden boy (Gregory Mann) is brought to life by a bereaved father (David Bradley) in Italy in the 1930s. It boasts a stacked voice cast, with Ewan McGregor, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard and more. Also releasing on Netflix, the Mexican coming-of-age series “The Most Beautiful Flower” (Dec. 7); Spanish gay rom-com series “Smiley” (Dec. 7); the documentary “The Elephant Whisperers” (Dec. 8), about a couple in India who devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant; doc “In Broad Daylight: The Narvarte Case” (Dec. 8), about a corruption and murder case in Mexico; and lots of other stuff.
I wasn’t able to get a look in time for today’s post at Jann Arden’s Christmas special, “Jann: Alone for the Holidays” (Dec. 9, 9 p.m., CTV/CTV.ca), in which Arden’s sitcom character finds herself with just her assistant Trey (Tenaj Williams) for company at Christmas. The special includes Arden performing holiday standards, and guest appearances by Michael Buble and Bryan Adams.
Also in the Bell Media family, Crave via HBO has the third season of “His Dark Materials” (Dec. 5, 9 p.m.); the docuseries “Unveiled: Surviving La Luz Del Mundo” (Dec. 6, 9 p.m.), about a sex abuse scandal at a Christian church; and Season 2 of “Random Acts of Flyness” (Dec. 9, 9 p.m.). Also on Crave, Season 4 of “Doom Patrol” (Dec. 8, 9 p.m.); the Jennifer Lopez rom-com “Marry Me” (Dec. 9); and supernatural crime series “The Rising” (Dec. 11), in which a dead woman in purgatory has to find her killer.
Apple TV+ has the Will Smith comeback film “Emancipation” (Dec. 9), which was not offered for review, at least not on Apple’s press site. Antoine Fuqua directed the movie, in which Smith plays a runaway slave. Apple also has Season 2 of “Little America” (Dec. 9), the first episode of which was directed by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, who has firsthand knowledge of the immigrant experience.
Prime Video has British World War II series “SAS: Rogue Heroes” (Dec. 9), starring Connor Swindells (“Sex Education”), Jack O’Connell (“Godless”), Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”) and Dominic West (“The Crown”).
CBC Gem has comedy series “Avoidance” (Dec. 5), starring Romesh Ranganathan (“Cinderella”); Season 2 of “The History of Comedy” (Dec. 8) and the New Zealand comedy series “Kid Sister” (Dec. 9), about a young Jewish woman facing family pressure in Auckland.
Finally, if you’re a fan of “As Time Goes By,” the long-running British sitcom that starred Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, BritBox has the “As Time Goes By Reunion Special” on Dec. 6.
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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