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The American Revolution’s first episode airs on PBS on Sunday.1870…1936/PBS
The American Revolution, PBS
In the lead up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this new 12-hour documentary series from Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt explores how the Thirteen Colonies came to rise up and form the United States of America – and to what extent the real reasons for their rebellion matched the rhetoric in the document the founding fathers put their John Hancocks on.
The first episode, airing on PBS Sunday, elegantly explores all the contradictions of the colonists – how the democracy of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and a desire to take their lands inspired them, and why the idea of liberty would be top of mind for people in a society of enslavement.
With the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this may be your last opportunity to see the Burns technique applied to American history – all that panning and zooming across images, maps and documents. Canadians who donate to PBS and have access to PBS Passport can stream all episodes immediately.
The Seduction, Crave
Les Liaisons dangereuses, French writer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century epistolary novel about scandalous seduction, has been much adapted for stage and screen in versions both set in its original pre-Revolutionary period and adapted to more contemporary cruel-intentioned times.
Now, HBO has commissioned this new French series, which keeps the setting of the novel but ages down its central anti-heroine.
Billed as The Seduction in English, it’s simply called Merteuil in French – and, indeed, the first episode landing on Crave in Canada this Sunday functions as a Cruella-esque prequel, exploring how Isabelle de Merteuil (Anamaria Vartolomei) became the sexual schemer known as the Marquise de Merteuil. Her backstory is that she herself is the victim of a fake marriage to her eventual accomplice, the Vicomte de Valmont (Vincent Lacoste, all pursed lips); Madame de Rosemonde (Diane Kruger) takes pity – and, under her tutelage, Merteuil plots her revenge.
Jessica Palud is at the helm of this very director-driven series; she previously directed the intense Vartolomei in Being Maria, a film about Maria Schneider’s experience shooting Last Tango in Paris.
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The first episode of The Seduction lands on Crave in Canada this Sunday.caroline dubois/HBO/Crave
Nepobaby, CBC Gem
Shortly after buying her first apartment with her fiancé and landing deep in debt, Oslo physiotherapist Emma (Vivild Falk Berg) discovers that she is the secret fifth child of a recently deceased client – and an equal-part heir to his shipping fortune. Though the rags-to-riches premise is far from original, this Norwegian half-hour dramedy now on Gem stands out by leaning into the reality of the destabilizing situation; when Emma meets her wealthy siblings, they initially offer to buy her out of the business. The rejection and shame of the moment are accentuated, with emotional punch prioritized over punchlines.
A Scandinavian Succession this is not – the satire is subtler, reflecting a social democracy where wealth is less ostentatiously displayed. The Norwegian cast is excellent across board and justly won an ensemble award at the Canneseries festival in France this past spring.
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Vivild Falk Berg plays Emma in Nepobaby.CBC Gem/Supplied
Landman, Paramount+
Billy Bob Thornton gave such a juicy performance as Tommy Norris, a jaded on-the-ground fixer for an independent oil company called M-Tex, in the first season of this well-plotted Taylor Sheridan series that it was possible to overlook it shortcomings – namely the crassly caricatured supporting female characters. Season 2 begins with an improvement in that area as Cami, Demi Moore’s character, takes over M-Tex after the death of her husband (so long, Jon Hamm); she gets some of those let-me-tell-you-how-it-is speeches that enliven the show between sumptuous shots of West Texas oilfields. A weighty addition to the cast is Sam Elliott as Tommy’s ornery aging father – but you still have to clench your teeth to make it through the scenes featuring Tommy’s horny harridan of a wife and pornified teen daughter.
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Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris and Ali Larter as Angela Norris in Landman.Emerson Miller/Supplied
Cardinal, Netflix
The four seasons of this crime drama (2017-2020) based on the John Cardinal novels by Giles Blunt have long been available on Crave – but were added this month to Netflix Canada, too, where they’ve found enough new audience to jump into the country’s top 10. Billy Campbell huskily whispers his way through the lead role of a troubled cop named Cardinal in the fictional Northern Ontario town of Algonquin Bay; his partner, Lise Delorme, is played with a more francophone flavour of understatement by Karine Vanasse.
With inspired casting of the supporting characters (including stage greats Deborah Hay and Stephen Ouimette), each six-episode season was in conversation with the Nordic noir genre but distinctly ours in its mix of English, French and Indigenous characters. The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle called the first season “landmark Canadian TV”– and, while he wasn’t as huge a fan of the second one, he “highly, highly recommended” the third and found the fourth “unmissable.”
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Billy Campbell in Cardinal.The Canadian Press
