Matthew Goode in a scene from Dept Q.Netflix
Dept Q, Netflix
This new Netflix thriller from The Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank relocates the action of Danish crime novelist Jussi Adler-Olsen’s book series across the North Sea to Edinburgh, Scotland. Upon returning to work after nearly dying in a shooting, a misanthropist detective named Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) is reassigned to – that is, put out of sight in – a dank basement room to head up a new cold-case department. The first file he settles on reopening is the mysterious disappearance of an equally curmudgeonly Crown prosecutor (Chloe Pirrie) four years earlier – and is full of addictive twists and turns.
As a ragtag unit of rejects coalesces around Carl and his superiority complex, Dept Q reveals that its own gambit is to be Netflix’s answer to Apple TV+’s popular Slow Horses. It’s got some of the same appeal, but is missing the key ingredient of a likably disagreeable lead: Goode’s unmodulated performance can be as annoying to viewers as his character is to those on screen around him. The nine-episode mystery could also have learned from Slow Horses, which never goes over six episodes, by moving more quickly.
Fra Fee, left, and Sion Daniel Young in a scene from Lost Boys and Fairies.Simon Ridgway/Supplied
Lost Boys and Fairies, BritBox
After abandoning my screeners of a highly hokey new police procedural set in Wales that lands on BritBox this week (Death Valley; best avoided), I made it up to the Welsh by, instead, catching up on this emotionally expansive three-episode miniseries by playwright Daf James about a gay couple in Cardiff adopting a child. The journey of Welsh performance artist Gabriel (Sion Daniel Young) and Northern Irish accountant Andy (Fra Fee) toward parenthood is studded by setbacks both comic and tragic – and the occasional cabaret number.
The bureaucratic details of the pair’s trajectory toward adopting in Wales are fascinating, while the deeply honest writing and a nuanced performance from Young as a father-to-be conflicted by the concept of fatherhood will have you reaching for a hankie every few minutes. One unnecessary twist aside, this is a gorgeous show about how having children can bring the best and the worst, or both, out of humans. (Gwyneth Keyworth, who has the misfortune of starring in Death Valley, is heartbreaking in a key role near the end.)
Adélie penguins in a scene from Animal Pride: Nature’s Coming Out Story.CBC GEM
Animal Pride: Nature’s Coming Out Story, CBC Gem
Naturalist Connel Bradwell is the charming host of this stylish The Nature of Things doc seeking to complicate our ideas about the biological imperative in the natural world. The strange sex lives of slugs, the multiple mating types of mushrooms and the cohort parenting strategies of urban raccoons are used as examples to prove the thesis of drag queen/urban ecologist Batty Banks a.k.a. Jaylen Bastos: “Honey, nature is so queer.”
Bradwell’s exploration of the century-old suppression of a paper in which the same-sex behaviours of Adélie penguins were observed is used as an example of how homophobia in the human world has given us a warped view of the natural world – though it could equally be a reminder of the dangers of any kind of anthropomorphization. In the end, however, the word “queer” turns out to be used simply as a synonym for biodiversity in all its splendour.
Sarah Jessica Parker, left, and Sarita Choudhury in a scene from And Just Like That…Craig Blankenhorn/HBO / Crave
And Just Like That…, Crave
HBO’s Sex and the City sequel series returns for a third season on Sunday night – and has finally settled into its own comfortable quirkiness now that it’s got that Kim Cattrall cameo out of the way. “I’m a big girl in the big city with a big house to furnish,” says rich widow and erstwhile writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), who has taken up residence in a Manhattan mini-mansion with only a cat as companion. (She’s on a perplexing five-year hiatus with her new-old beau, Aidan.)
Very New York things happen: Miranda meets Rosie O’Donnell (playing a hick from Dunnottar, Man.,) in a lesbian bar; Charlotte’s daughter Lily lusts after a ballet dancer at Lincoln Centre; and everyone gathers to listen to Hamilton star Christopher Jackson (who plays the husband of Lisa, Carrie’s newish pal) sing at a fundraiser at the Red Rooster in Harlem. What else could viewers ask for? Carrie wearing a giant Strawberry Shortcake hat for no reason? Done.
Canadian Screen Award statue.George Pimentel/Supplied
Canadian Screen Awards, CBC Gem
Patriotic film buffs and television viewers across the country are in the final stages of planning their annual Canadian Screen Awards party – printing out ballots, stocking up on Hawkins Cheezies and perfecting signature cocktails such as Guy Maddin-hattens and Rosemary Bartinis. Or is that just my household? In any case, following four non-televised CSA galas, the final one streams on CBC Gem on Sunday night (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) and viewers can find out in real-time the winners of major categories such as best motion picture, best drama and best comedy series.
Lisa Gilroy, a Canadian comedian who recently co-starred in the American police procedural spoofing series Interior Chinatown, hosts – so hopefully she will have some good gags at the expense of nominee Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Kiefer Sutherland will be on hand to honour his late father, Donald, as part of an in memoriam segment.
