Watchable March 28-April 3, 2022

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Revenge of the Black Best Friend (March 31, CBC Gem)

The saying “It’s funny ’cause it’s true” could be a tag line for this clever and entertaining web series from CBC host and playwright Amanda Parris.

Parris and her writers’ room lampoon the film and TV industry’s very real (and not funny) marginalization of Black actors and creators in a way that will have you nodding your head in recognition while you chuckle.

The series grew from Parris’s own reflections on movies and TV shows she enjoyed when she was younger and her recognition when she rewatched them of how much they minimized the Black characters.

Those productions aren’t name-checked in “Revenge of the Black Best Friend,” but you’ll suss them out anyway, whether it’s 2000 movie “Bring It On” (white cheerleading squad steals Black squad’s cheers); 2009 TV series “Glee” (white character Rachel gets the solos, superior Black singer Mercedes is kept in the background); or 1997 cult TV hit “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (white lead Buffy kicks demon butt while Black slayer Kendra gets killed off after three episodes).

And even if you haven’t seen any of those shows or movies, you have surely seen others just like them.

The conceit of “Revenge” is that a self-help guru, talk show host and author named Dr. Toni Shakur — played by the talented Olunike Adeliyi of “The Porter” (and lots of other stuff if you check her IMDb page) — is out to shake up the “white narrative industrial complex” by helping Black performers get their due.

Or, as she tells one Black actor, in a nod to the (often broken) promises made to lure Black immigrants to Canada in the 1700s and 1800s, “I’m getting you your proverbial 40 acres and a mule.”

The show — which Parris says owes a debt to the 1987 movie satire “Hollywood Shuffle” — is full of that kind of smart, knowing comedy, whether it’s a protester carrying a sign that says “How many ethnicities will you let Rob Schneider play?” or a patronizing white director who boasts that his profile picture is “still a black square.”

As the series progresses — I screened four episodes — it becomes clear that Dr. Toni is not immune to the kind of diminishment she’s helping others battle. Or, to quote another great line, she too is “lost in a sea of caucacity.”

Black actors, naturally, are front and centre in “Revenge,” which also features an all-Black writing and directing team. It seems ridiculous that in 2021 we’re still hedging over whether Black performers can carry a show. But if you have doubts, I suggest you watch “Revenge of the Black Best Friend.”

And while we’re on the subject of giving creators and performers of colour their due, you should also make some time —and with 15-minute episodes we’re not talking a prohibitive amount of time — for web series “Topline” (March 31, CBC Gem) by Filipino writer-director Romeo Candido.

Charismatic actor Cyrena Fiel stars as Filipina teenager Tala. She’s a dutiful daughter with an alter ego, a singer-songwriter named Illisha. When one of the songs that “Illisha” recorded in Tala’s suburban bathroom goes viral, Tala gets invited to join the songwriting team at a Toronto studio. But keeping that secret from her father, who’s getting by on disability benefits and whatever Tala and her sister Gabby earn at their part-time jobs, is clearly setting up some conflict.

Short Takes

Julia (March 31, 10 p.m., Crave)

If you never experienced the real Julia Child, this series from Daniel Goldfarb (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) will give you a sense of why the American cookbook author and TV host was so beloved. That’s mainly down to English actor Sarah Lancashire, who’s beloved herself for shows like “Happy Valley,” “Last Tango in Halifax” and “Coronation Street.” Although she’s a good four inches shorter than the real Child and her voice is pitched higher, it’s the emotional rather than the physical that makes her portrayal such a delight. Lancashire’s Child is warm, charismatic and humble, a woman with a zest for both life and cooking who suffers very relatable self-doubt. The series also benefits from a crackerjack supporting cast, including David Hyde Pierce as Julia’s husband Paul, his “Frasier” castmate Bebe Neuwirth as her best friend Avis, and Brittany Bradford and Fran Kanz as the public television producers responsible for her seminal program “The French Chef.” That TV series started out as a modest, even amateurish, stab at a cooking show on Boston’s PBS outlet in 1962 and spread across the country, lasting until 1973. “Julia” isn’t what you’d call a high-stakes drama, but it does a creditable job of depicting the sexism of the era. I doubt Child would have called herself a feminist but, as “Julia” tells it, she had to run an old boys’ gauntlet to get her show on the air, particularly as a woman who wasn’t conventionally attractive. “Julia” is in some ways as down to earth as its namesake, a good old-fashioned linear TV series, but I found it very easy to watch and enjoy.

Crave also has a couple of documentaries: HBO’s “How to Survive a Pandemic” (March 29, 9 p.m.), about the race to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines; and the Oscar-nominated HBO short “When We Were Bullies” (March 30, 9 p.m.). The latter is a treatise on memory and social responsibility as filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt is reminded of a disturbing incident that happened at his elementary school 50 years before and tries to figure out why it bothers him so much a half-century later.

Slow Horses (April 1, Apple TV)

The first couple of episodes of this series live up to the slow part of its name. After a pulse-pounding opening in which wet-behind-the-ears MI5 agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) fails to stop a terrorist from blowing up a train station, we’re thrust into so-called Slough House, a purgatory for second-rate and past-their-prime spies led by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), who calls his collection of rejects “M-I-fucking-useless.” Obviously, if River — sent down after his bomb fiasco, which was actually a training exercise — and his new colleagues were really useless we wouldn’t be watching the show, but it takes its time giving us a reason to care about these sad sacks. Once it does, though, it’s a decent enough spy caper, with Jackson and his charges sucked into a a case involving a young Muslim man, Hassan (Antonio Aakeel), kidnapped by a white supremacist group and an MI5 boss (Kristin Scott Thomas) who’s playing with Hassan’s life to score political points. “Horses” doesn’t reinvent the espionage wheel, but you’ll probably want to stick around to see how it all turns out. And you can do worse than to have an actor of Oldman’s calibre on your small screen.

The Outlaws (April 1, Prime Video)

I have to be honest, I didn’t like this show much after the first episode, which seemed an uneasy mix of comedy and drama with characters that were more like caricatures. Luckily, it gets better as we find out more about the very different people thrown together to do community service in Bristol, England, after committing petty crimes. Even insufferable businessman John (Darren Boyd), spouting reactionary, politically incorrect nonsense, starts to seem sympathetic. While trying to atone for their misdemeanours, the team gets drawn into a dangerous criminal mess involving a bag of stolen drug money. It seems a safe bet the misfits will all pull together to get out of the jam. Stephen Merchant, a co-creator with Ricky Gervais of shows like the original “The Office” and “Extras,” co-created this one and also stars as geeky lawyer Gregory. The marquee star is Christopher Walken, playing American draft dodger and forger Frank in his own inimitable manner. And keep an eye out for Jessica Gunning, who’s a hoot as corrections supervisor Diane.

Prime Video also has the space movie “Moonfall” (April 1), starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley of “Game of Thrones” as astronauts who have to save the Earth from colliding with the moon.

Odds and Ends

Disney Plus has yet another Marvel series debuting this week with “Moon Knight” (March 30), starring Oscar Isaac as a former Marine with dissociative identity disorder who gains the powers of an Egyptian moon god, and my apologies for not screening it for you, but I have kind of hit peak Marvel. Ethan Hawke also stars as villain Arthur Harrow. Also on the Disney slate this week, “Death on the Nile” (March 30), a film based on the Agatha Christie novel with Kenneth Branagh, who won an Oscar Sunday night for his screenplay for “Belfast,” both directing and starring as Hercule Poirot.

Netflix offerings this week include “The Bubble” (April 1), a film comedy about the cast and crew of a blockbuster movie sequel shooting the film while in a pandemic bubble. It’s got a big cast of proven comedy stars and Judd Apatow directed. Netflix also has Apollo 10-1/2: A Space Age Childhood (April 1), an animated film from “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater about a space-mad kid growing up in Houston around the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

If you’re into food reality shows, there’s a new competition series coming to Food Network Canada March 28 at at 10 p.m.: “Wall of Chefs” spinoff “Wall of Bakers,” in which amateur bakers battle for $10,000 and bragging rights.

Global TV has the new CBS comedy “How We Roll” (March 31, 9:30 p.m.), starring Pete Holmes as a Midwest father who gets laid off from his factory job and decides to become a professional bowler.

Finally, the Magnolia Network launches in Canada this week. The network, a creation of the popular home reno couple Chip and Joanna Gaines, offers a wide spectrum of lifestyle programming including the Gaines’ own “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” beginning March 30 at 9 p.m. See magnolianetwork.ca for the full slate of programming.

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.