Watchable Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2021

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Maid (Netflix, Oct. 1)

In a year of TV that has had its share of shows about rich people, “Maid” takes us to the opposite end of the scale.

Alex (Margaret Qualley), the maid of the title, is very far from rich. When she flees her abusive boyfriend with their daughter in the middle of the night, she has nothing to her name but her car, a couple of bags of possessions and $18.

She doesn’t want to go to a domestic violence shelter because boyfriend Sean (Nick Robinson) didn’t punch her, just the wall. But she can’t get access to subsidized housing or daycare without a job, and she can’t go to her interview for a $12-an-hour housekeeping job with her daughter in tow. Her only child care options are her mentally ill mother (played by Qualley’s real mother, Andie MacDowell) and her estranged father, who’s moved on with his new family.

Whatever kindnesses are shown to help Alex start to scramble out of the hole are countered by new setbacks — a car accident, a custody suit by Sean, finding an apartment only to be chased out by mould — and there are unkindnesses, like the disdain of the grocery clerk and other customers over Alex using food stamps, or the rich client (Anika Noni Rose) who won’t pay Alex because she didn’t scrub the lawn furniture to her liking.

Alex perseveres, doing what she must to provide for daughter Maddy and learning to value herself along the way.

The show can be bleak, especially in the first episode, but it’s based on the real life of Stephanie Land, author of the memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive.” I have no doubt there are thousands and thousands of Alexes out there — and I imagine life would be even tougher for destitute single mothers who aren’t attractive, young white women.

At the very least, “Maid” makes you think: about poverty, about domestic violence, about how the situation you’re born into can determine your path in life. And because it treats its characters like people and not caricatures, “Maid” also entertains without feeling didactic.

Netflix also has one of the buzziest shows of the week, the doc “Britney Vs Spears” (Sept. 28), about Spears’ fight to end her conservatorship, which I was not able to review; “Attack of the Hollywood Cliches,” in which Rob Lowe leads a tour of common movie tropes, debuting Sept. 28, plus all episodes of “Seinfeld” starting on Oct. 1.

Short Takes

Citizen Hearst (Sept. 27, 9 p.m., PBS)

The name William Randolph Hearst probably doesn’t mean much to you unless you’ve visited his “castle” in San Simeon, Calif., or you’re a fan of movies like “Citizen Kane” and “Mank,” the recent Oscar nominee about the making of “Citizen Kane.” But this “American Experience” docuseries is a reminder that he was once one of the richest, most powerful men in America and a fascinating bundle of contradictions: a media mogul who built his empire appealing to the working classes but who vehemently opposed political policies that would benefit ordinary working people; a millionaire who turned his nose up at high society; a crusader who fought corporate and political corruption but who also used his newspapers for repulsive causes, including promoting hatred against Asian Americans. Then there was his fascinating private life: the estate he virtually willed into being on a hilltop on the California coast; his unquenchable appetite for collecting art and antiques and other treasures; his decades-long affair with actress Marion Davies, the lady of Hearst Castle while wife Millicent remained in New York. Ambitious, hedonistic, arrogant, domineering but also a visionary in his younger days, Hearst is deserving of the description “larger than life.” “Citizen Hearst” covers it all in its two parts in more detail than I can do justice to here, and is also a captivating look back at the golden age of newspapers.

PBS also has one of my favourites, the period weepie “Call the Midwife,” debuting its 10th season Oct. 3 at 8 p.m., while detective drama “Grantchester” begins its sixth season the same night at 9 p.m.

La Brea (Sept. 28, 10 p.m., CTV)

If CGI disaster footage make your heart beat faster you’ll enjoy at least the opening minutes of “La Brea,” in which a giant sinkhole opens in a Los Angeles street, swallowing vehicles, people and buildings at a breakneck pace — although the sinkhole conveniently pauses long enough for mom Eve (Natalie Zea) to say goodbye to her teenage daughter Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) as Eve clings to the edge of the pavement before dropping into the void. Teenage son Josh (Jack Harris) has also been swallowed up and Izzy reunites with estranged dad Gavin (Eoin Macken), an ex-air force pilot who’s been seeing things since a crash in the desert three years before — a skill that comes in handy when he has visions that indicate his wife and son and all the other disappeared Angelenos are alive in some sort of alternate Los Angeles. And they are indeed alive, or at least some of them are, as are some dangerous prehistoric animals. It feels a bit like “Lost” crossed with “Jurassic Park,” minus the dinosaurs — although I’ve only seen one episode so who knows? Maybe the dinosaurs will show up. Oh and there are shady government operatives who are trying to keep the truth from Gavin and the rest of the world. Of course there are. With its cheesy dialogue, stock character types and hackneyed disaster tropes, “La Brea” feels like a sinkhole for TV show ideas.

CTV also has the third season of its Canadian original sitcom “Jann”, starring Jann Arden, debuting Sept. 27 at 8 p.m.

All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs (Oct. 1, Amazon Prime Video)

I haven’t voluntarily watched a hockey game in at least a decade, but even I found this docuseries look at the Toronto Maple Leafs interesting — enough to binge two of the five episodes before I ran out of time. It also felt a bit like my duty as a Torontonian to watch it. If you live in Toronto you can’t escape knowing about the fortunes of the Leafs, who have possibly the most long-suffering and loyal fans in the NHL. The series is a behind-the-scenes look at the team during the 2020-21 season and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say it ended disastrously, with the Leafs getting bounced out of the first round of the playoffs by their arch-rivals the Montreal Canadiens despite the Leafs being at the top of the North Division. What I found particularly interesting was that the series makes it clear that loss wasn’t a fluke or a turn of bad luck, but the culmination of issues that coach Sheldon Keefe had identified early in the season. The big question, of course, is whether those issues can be fixed this season or whether Leafs fans will once again be disappointed in their longing for the team to end a 54-year Stanley Cup drought.

Odds and Ends

I think it’s fair to say there can be no reconciliation without truth and the commercial-free broadcast “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” (Sept. 30, 8 p.m., CBC, CBC Gem) aims to tell some of that by sharing the stories of Indigenous people affected by Canada’s residential school system, as well as music and ceremonies from across the country. It’s hosted by Inuk singer, songwriter, broadcaster and activist Elisapie.

If you’re a British detective drama fan, the venerable “Midsomer Murders” has the second half of its 22nd season debuting Sept. 27 on AcornTV.

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked 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.