SHOW OF THE WEEK: Essex County (Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBC/CBC Gem)
If there was ever a TV series that exemplified how much meaning can be extracted from the moments between words, it’s “Essex County.”
That’s perhaps fitting since it’s an adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s “Essex County” graphic novels, which a reviewer writing on the Pointe-Claire Public Library Blog called an “extraordinary portrayal of silence.”
That’s not to say the characters in this drama don’t speak to each other, but its actors also give a master class in the power of looks, gestures and pauses.
Lester (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) is an 11-year-old boy whose mother has died of cancer, leaving him to move in with his uncle Ken (Brian J. Smith) on his farm.
Lester doesn’t have the words to express his bereavement, nor does Ken to bridge the gulf between the two of them, although not for lack of trying. Lester prefers to be alone, whether he’s drawing comics in his room, or running around in a cape and mask imagining he can fly.
Ken, who’s gay, snatches brief solace with a man (Daniel Maslany) he met at the co-op.
Then there’s Lou (Stephen McHattie), a cranky senior who lives alone and who’s staring down dementia. He keeps getting pulled viscerally into his past, when he and his brother Vince (Ryan Bruce) played hockey in Toronto.
Lou’s niece Anne (Molly Parker), a day nurse, tries to help him but has troubles of her own, including an uneasy relationship with her husband, Doug (Rossif Sutherland).
Anne is also an aunt to Lester through his estranged father, Jimmy (Kevin Durand), a former hockey play whose career was ended by a head injury and who now works as a mechanic one town over.
These are ordinary people doing ordinary things, but ones with clear inner depths as well as secrets.
It’s obvious from the three episodes I screened that great care has gone into every aspect of this series from the script written by Lemire and Eilis Kirwan, to the directing (Andrew Cividino), to the magnificent acting and the beautiful cinematography (James Klopko).
To see actors of the calibre of Parker and McHattie practise their craft is something to be savoured, but there is excellent work all around.
This is a quiet, measured show, but one that stays with you. The ordinary, as it happens, can be quite extraordinary.
Episode 1 will have already aired by the time you read this (my fault for forgetting to include it in last week’s Watchable list), but you can catch up on CBC Gem.
CBC Gem also has the tween “Murdoch Mysteries” spinoff “Macy Murdoch” (March 23); the comedy “You’re My Hero” (March 24), about a 20-something with cerebral palsy; and Season 3 of “The New Wave of Standup” (March 24).
PHOTO CREDIT: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
Yellowjackets (March 24, Crave)
The overarching question about “Yellowjackets” is whether this drama about a high school girls’ soccer team turned feral after surviving a plane crash in the wilderness is still the audacious, unsettling, clever show that won raves for Season 1.
The answer is yes; “Yellowjackets” still goes there in Season 2.
Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to tell you much about where “there” is because so many of those details are on a spoiler list released by Showtime.
You will get some answers about topics like Javi’s disappearance, Shauna’s baby, what really happened to adult Travis and the cannibalism, but you won’t get them from me. You’ll have to watch.
The season opens in the mid-’90s with the girls still in the woods two months after Jackie (Ella Purnell) froze to death. Winter has fully set in. They’re cold and hungry, and a rift is developing between those like Van (Liv Hewson), Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and Travis (Kevin Alves) who believe Lottie (Courtney Eaton) has mystical powers, and skeptics like Shauna (Sophie Nelisse), Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown).
In the present, adult Misty (Christina Ricci) is still trying to find the disappeared Nat (Juliette Lewis), whom you’ll recall was kidnapped last season just as she was about to kill herself; the police are sniffing out Shauna’s (Melanie Lynskey, who continues to be a marvel) involvement in the disappearance of artist Adam Martin, whom she killed in Season 1; and Taissa (Tawny Cypress) realizes that she didn’t leave the violent, sleepwalking version of herself behind in the woods when estranged wife Simone alerts her to the bloody dog’s head shrine in their basement.
“Yellowjackets” continues to give us one of the most kickass female acting ensembles on TV, both the older and younger versions, but the adult survivors are separated for the first half of the season, which slows the momentum somewhat in that timeline.
Still, it gives some of the men in the cast more to do.
Shauna and husband Jeff (Warren Kole) become delightful partners in crime, expanded to a family unit when daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) finds out what her mother’s been up to.
And Misty meets her match in Walter (new addition Elijah Wood), a fellow musical theatre-loving citizen detective who helps her find Natalie: “a bored Moriarty looking for his Sherlock.”
When Shauna, Taissa, Nat and Misty are reunited with adult Lottie (Simone Kessell), now the leader of what may or may not be a cult, and adult Van (Lauren Ambrose), the resolutely single manager of a video rental store, the pace promises to pick up in the remaining episodes (six were made available for review).
This season, the series leans more into the idea that something supernatural infiltrated the girls’ consciousness in the woods and that it wasn’t just a case of losing their grip on sanity after 19 months of deprivation. And the grown-up survivors begin to fear that whatever it was has followed them into the present.
Given that creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have planned a five-season arc for the series, we’re likely to get as many questions as answers out of Season 2, but so far it’s still a ride worth taking.
Short Takes
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Waco: American Apocalypse (March 22, Netflix)
Watching the first episode of this miniseries about the 1993 standoff between federal agents and followers of self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh, what stands out most is the waste of lives on both sides. The three-part series gives a detailed account of the event, which began with a botched ATF raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, over illegal weapons, and ended 51 days later with a fire and the discovery inside of 75 bodies, 25 of them children. The story is told via interviews with eyewitnesses — including law enforcement, media and surviving followers of Koresh — never before seen police and news footage, and recordings. In the 30 years since, blame has been apportioned to both sides — the ATF pressed ahead with the raid despite knowing Koresh had been warned and Koresh reneged on promises to let his followers leave, for example — but it’s a tragedy no matter whose side you’re on.
Netflix also has conspiracy series “The Night Agent” (March 23); and Season 4 of dating show “Love Is Blind” (March 24).
PHOTO CREDIT: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ © 2022 Viacom International Inc.
Rabbit Hole (March 26, Paramount+)
If anyone wonders whether Kiefer Sutherland has still got it, this thriller series suggests the answer is a firm yes. The British-born Canadian actor plays John Weir, an expert in corporate espionage who finds himself the victim of a frame-up for murder after a seemingly perfect job goes very, very wrong. There are twists upon twists as Weir untangles who targeted him and why. The show exemplifies John’s governing principle of “trust no one” since viewers quickly learn that nothing they think they know is as it seems. And that is the fun of it. Sure, the plot requires suspension of disbelief — there’s a scene in which Weir infiltrates a police station, for instance, that utterly defies belief — but the entertainment value makes up for any incongruities. Sutherland, at 56, isn’t quite the action star he used to be — a fact the series winks at with one particular fight scene — but he inhabits the role of the highly intelligent, paranoid, world-weary Weir with aplomb. And despite trusting no one, he finds himself with a couple of helpers, including Meta Golding (“The Hunger Games”) as a lawyer who gets pulled into the plot after a seemingly random meeting with Weir (or was it?) and Charles Dance as a person from Weir’s past. Also along for the ride are Rob Yang (“Succession”) as a U.S. Treasury investigator embroiled in the case; Jason Butler Warner (“Ozark”) as a childhood friend and former partner of Weir’s; and Enid Graham (“Mare of Easttown”) as an FBI agent on Weir’s trail. “Rabbit Hole” makes the argument that a polarized, post-truth world is ripe for exploitation and that power resides with those who control the data. There’s a reason Weir only uses cash and burner phones. Whether that strikes you as plausible fact or pure fiction, there’s enjoyment to be had watching Weir unravel the threads.
Odds and Ends
Surely, one of the most, if not the most anticipated debut of the week is Season 4 of “Succession” (March 26, 9 p.m., Crave). The last time we saw the highly dysfunctional Roy family, father Logan (Brian Cox) had just pulled the rug out from under his kids Kendall, Shiv and Roman with the help of son-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). I got a look at the first new episode but, since nothing can be written about it until Wednesday, I will just say this: Hell yeah! Crave also has the Canadian documentary “And Still I Sing” by Afghan-Canadian Fazila Amiri (March 21) about two women competing on the TV show “Afghan Star” when the Taliban takes over; and the movie “Clerks III” (March 24, Starz) from Kevin Smith.
Prime Video’s new releases this week include “The Power,” a series about teenage girls around the world suddenly being able to, um, electrocute people?; boxing movie “Perfect Addiction”; and “Reggie,” a documentary about Black baseball star Reggie Jackson. All debut March 24.
Speaking of documentaries, TVO has “First to Stand: The Cases and Causes of Irwin Cotler” (March 21, 9 p.m.), about the former politician and human rights champion.
The main Disney+ offering this week is “Up Here” (March 24), a romantic comedy series set in 1999 New York City, in which the lovers (Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes) express their innermost thoughts in song.
Finally, Showcase and STACKTV have Season 2 of “Bel-Air” (March 20, 9 p.m.), the reimagining of the Will Smith breakout series “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” although it looks like Smith is no longer involved behind the scenes.
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.
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