Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
From left to right: Hazel Doupe stars as Marian Price and Lola Petticrew as Dolours Price in Say Nothing.Disney+
Say Nothing, Disney+
The Troubles and their aftermath in Northern Ireland get explored in gut-wrenching detail in this historical drama created by Josh Zetumer, based on the journalist Patrick Radden Keefe’s award-winning 2018 book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. After a set-up that jumps forward and back from 1972 to 1999 to 1957, the limited series – which will end up on many critics’ year-end lists – settles into focus on Dolours Price (Lola Petticrew; later Maxine Peake); she’s a young Catholic woman in west Belfast and daughter of IRA members, whose belief in non-violence comes to end after a peace march is attacked by Protestants wielding cudgels with nails in them. The long timeline introduced early on pays off: Radheyan Simonpillai, who reviewed the show for The Globe, compares it to The Irishman in how it sits with its characters long after central conflicts and interrogates whether any of it was worth it.
Rebecca Ferguson in Silo, which premieres on Nov. 15 on Apple TV+.Rekha Garton/Apple TV+
Silo, Season 2, Apple TV+
There are two TV series out there right now about humans living in silos postapocalypse. If you like your sci-fi to simmer, this Apple TV+ series based on the Wool novels is your best choice. (Fallout, on Prime Video, is more of a shoot-em-up spectacle; after all, it’s based on a video game.) The second season of Silo, created by Justified’s Graham Yost, starts Nov. 15 with a mostly silent episode that shows off how successfully the series can conjure a tense atmosphere with just a crowbar and a piece of rope; no robots or laser guns needed. First-season spoiler alert: It focuses entirely on rebellious engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) off exploring another silo for the first time – one where the majority of the residents, like her, refused to accept leaderships stories about the outside world.
From left to right: Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez and Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro in Emilia Pérez.PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA/Netflix
Emilia Pérez, Netflix
This gonzo trans Mexican drug lord musical from French director Jacques Audiard has been much talked about – positively and less so – since its 11-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón stars as a cartel leader who fakes her death and transitions into a new life in another country as Emilia Pérez – but eventually is compelled to try to atone for her violent past back in Mexico. Along with co-stars Zoe Saldana, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez, Gascón shared the best actress prize at Cannes. For the record, critic Sarah Tai-Black in The Globe and Mail called the divisive movie “shallow and soulless” – and also predicted it would probably win an Oscar.
The small-screen spinoff of Dune is set 10,000 years earlier among a sisterhood who raise young women to be Truthsayers.Attila Szvacsek/Crave
Dune: Prophecy, Crave
Premiering in HBO’s spiciest 9 p.m. Sunday time slot, this small-screen spin-off from the recent films directed by Denis Villeneuve is set 10,000 years earlier among a Sisterhood who raise young women to be lie-detecting Truthsayers to the great feudal families in the sprawling sci-fit universe created by Frank Herbert. Emily Watson stars as Valya Harkonnen, head of the Sisterhood, who’s become convinced by a sandworm-filled vision that one of her own order needs to be in power to prevent some untold disaster from occurring. Behind the scenes of the show, women are already in power: The showrunner is Alison Schapker and executive producer Anna Foerster, a close collaborator of Roland Emmerich‘s, directs many of the episodes. There’s a scene at the end of the first that signals that they’re interested in appealing to viewers who enjoy ghastly, boundary-pushing violence – and not having anyone obvious to root for. So, the Game of Thrones crowd.
The Jackal, (Eddie Redmayne) makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee.Marcell Piti/SKY/Carnival/Supplied
The Day of the Jackal, Showcase/STACKTV
In this new 10-part thriller loosely inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel but set in the present day, a far-right German politician is killed by a sniper firing at him from 3,815 metres away – a new world record. MI6 agent Bianca (Lashana Lynch) is both fascinated and frightened by the assassin’s skill – and gets to work trying to track down who he is. This is not a spoiler alert: It’s Oscar-winning British actor Eddie Redmayne. He gives a whole bunch of phony names and nicknames such as “the Jackal,” but you’ll recognize his handsome mug even before he peels off his first latex mask. Redmayne’s composed performance of a perfectionist killer-for-hire is highly pleasurable; he remains inscrutably stony-faced throughout the pilot until the very last moment when he lets out the tiniest tic of frustration at one corner of his mouth, all the more extremely satisfying for being so slight. Showrunner Ronan Bennett alternates perspective between cat and mouse, delighting in highlighting how similar Bianca and the Jackal are in their disregard for collateral damage. New episodes on Showcase Thursday nights at 9 p.m. and streaming on STACKTV.
