SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Rescue (Dec. 3, Disney Plus)
“Miracle” is a word that gets overused, but it seems apt for what happened in 2018, when 12 boys and their soccer coach were rescued after 18 days deep inside a flooded cave system in Thailand.
This National Geographic documentary by “Free Solo” filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin plays like a thriller as it tells the story of the rescue operation and underlines just how impossible the mission truly seemed.
It’s also a life-affirming piece of programming that will make you feel good about humanity.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their assistant coach had gone exploring in the 10-kilometre Tham Luang cave system after a soccer game on June 23, 2018, but the monsoon rains that usually started in July came early, flooding the already saturated limestone caves and trapping the group about four kilometres from the entrance.
When Thai Navy SEALs, ill-equipped for diving in those conditions, were unable to locate the boys, British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were brought in. It was they who discovered the group alive on a rock shelf and shared video of them that was seen around the world.
But as Rick says in the doc, “The whole journey back all I was thinking was what on earth are we going to do now?”
In fact, the pair had already rescued four adult pump workers who’d been trapped in a different part of the cave, bringing them out using regulators, and those relatively short dives turned into “an underwater wrestling match” as the men panicked, imperilling both rescuer and rescued. So how on earth would they keep 12 children and one adult calm during two- to three-hour dives?
Rick and John didn’t think it could be done, but other options — including drilling a new cave entrance or leaving the boys there until the monsoons ended in October — seemed just as impossible.
The answer was to anesthetize them and dive them out unconscious, which seemed preposterous to Richard Harris, a fellow diver and anesthetist from Australia called in to do the drugging. He said there were 100 ways that a child could die during the trip.
But with more heavy rains in the forecast and the boys’ oxygen supply dwindling, it was either that or leave all of them to certain death.
If you’re familiar with the news reports of the time you’ll know that all 13 team mates made it out alive, but the doc — which combines actual footage of the operation with re-enacted scenes — makes it clear just how perilous the rescue was and how wrong it could have gone.
Just a few days after the last of the children were saved the cave completely flooded and remained inaccessible for eight months.
And here’s something else that tends to the miraculous: two days before Rick and John found the children, when they were so convinced they were already dead that they were considering flying back to England, a revered monk named Kruba Boonchum visited the site and said the children were alive, that they would escape the cave but that two lives might be sacrificed.
Two lives were: a diver and former Thai SEAL named Saman Kunan died during the mission; another diver named Beirut Pakbara died more than a year later from a blood infection contracted during the rescue.
While the doc focuses heavily on Rick and John and their fellow cave divers, thousands of people played a part in the operation, including almost 5,000 Thais, and military and civilian volunteers from several other nations.
As one of the Thai officials says in the film, “All you need is generosity and a united effort, and you will succeed.”
I had hoped to post an actual review today of the three-part “The Beatles: Get Back,” which debuted on Nov. 25, 26 and 27, but since I didn’t get the screeners till Monday and since I was on vacation last week and since it involved almost eight hours of viewing under very restrictive conditions (like, I had to make sure my computer screen was angled so that no one else could see it; hope cats don’t count), I was able to get through only the first part, which itself was more than two and a half hours. I can tell you that I found it fascinating and poignant, that it gave me a whole new respect for Ringo Starr, and that I do plan to catch up on the other two parts when time permits.
Short Takes
PHOTO CREDIT: Sundance Now
The Pact (Dec. 2, Sundance Now/AMC Plus)
I missed the boat on this miniseries when it debuted on Super Channel Fuse in October (and where you can still catch it on demand), but I’m caught up now. It is in some respects a standard Britcrime series with a murder to be solved, a twisty plot and an ending you likely won’t see coming. What sets it apart is that the drama is intertwined with a tale of female friendship. Anna (Laura Fraser, “Breaking Bad,” “The Loch”), Nancy (Julie Hesmondhalgh, “Coronation Street”), Louie (Eiry Thomas) and Cat (Heledd Gwynn) all work at the local brewery, leading relatively unremarkable lives until the night of the brewery’s centennial party, when they decide to play a prank on their nasty boss (Aneurin Barnard, “Dunkirk,” “The White Queen”). When he turns up dead, the women panic and make a pact to hide what they’ve done, but the situation spins out of their control when the police discover he’s been murdered. The ending, for me, required some suspension of disbelief, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
Coming Out Colton (Dec. 3, Netflix)
Whether or not you were surprised when former “Bachelor” Colton Underwood came out as gay earlier this year, I’d wager you were at least curious about why a gay man would go on a heterosexual reality show to find a wife. The answer, according to this docuseries, is that for a young Catholic man who grew up without gay role models in a small Illinois town, who absorbed the homophobia of locker rooms as a high school, college and then professional football player, the desire to be straight was powerful enough to drive him to pretend to be so on national TV. This six-episode series shows Colton coming out to his family and friends — and to the world via his “Good Morning America” interview — and trying to find himself and his place within the larger gay community. I get why there’s backlash over the series, both because of Colton’s stalking and harassment of ex-girlfriend Cassie Randolph (which he addresses in the show) and because, as a white, cisgender man, he has a platform denied to many other LGBTQ people. And there’s no question his privilege made coming out easier than it might otherwise have been, but it’s also clear that years of self-denial took a toll on him (including a suicide attempt) and that he seems genuinely willing to make amends for past mistakes. It’s also possible his story will help some other scared, closeted kid out there.
Netflix also has Season 3 of “Lost in Space” (Dec. 1). As it opens, the children of the colonists have been separated from their parents for a year since last season’s robot attack on their ship. And the robots are still out there and they’re gunning for Will Robinson (Maxwell Jenkins).
Odds and Ends
CBC Kids and CBC Gem have “Big Blue” (Dec. 4), an animated series that’s meant to “help children understand about the importance of taking care of our planet and each other.” Created by Ghanaian Canadian artist Gyimah Gariba, it follows a submarine crew on underwater adventures, led by Black sister and brother Lettie and Lemo.
The big gun in terms of holiday programming this week is “Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues” (Dec. 3, Apple TV Plus), in which the so-called Queen of Christmas performs her new single “Fall in Love at Christmas” among other songs; hangs with guests like Khalid and Kirk Franklin, and gives an interview alongside her 10-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
Also in the holiday spirit and closer to home is “The Original Santa Claus Parade” (Dec. 4, 7 p.m., CTV, CTV 2, CP24), filmed inside Canada’s Wonderland and featuring guest performances by Ed Sheeran, Carrie Underwood and more.
If you’re in the mood for more Christmas stuff, Crave has the HBO Max animated series “Santa Inc.” (Dec. 2), about an elf (Sarah Silverman) who’s vying to become the first female Santa Claus.
Crave also has the limited U.K. series “Vigil” (Dec. 5), which I didn’t get to screen. It involves a disappeared fishing trawler and a death on a submarine, and it stars Suranne Jones (“Gentleman Jack,” “Scott & Bailey”) and Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones”), and shares a couple of executive producers with Brit hit “Line of Duty.”
Speaking of Britcrime shows, another “Game of Thrones” alumnus, Gemma Whelan, stars in “The Tower” (Dec. 1, BritBox) as a detective investigating the deaths of a veteran cop and teenage girl who fall from the roof of a highrise, and the disappearance of a rookie police officer.
Finally, Amazon Prime Video has “Harlem” (Dec. 3), a comedy about four Black best friends — an anthropology professor, a queer dating-app creator, a fashion designer, and a singer/actress — who live and play in the predominantly Black Manhattan neighbourhood. Unfortunately, reviews were embargoed.
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve cross-checked 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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