Reviews

Netflix’s first Canadian original series has arrived and it’s a winner. North of North is a half-hour comedy series starring Anna Lambe as Siaja, a twenty-six-year-old Inuk woman in the small fictional town of Ice Cove in the province of Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. Siaja is having a bit of an identity crisis and wants desperately to break out of the rut she’s in, starting with her marriage to a self-absorbed husband, who happens to be the most popular guy in town. But breaking away from her husband, who is also the father of her young daughter, won’t be easy, and neither will forging a new life for herself, including getting a job and figuring out what she wants to do with her life and who exactly she is, other than being a wife and mother.

If this all sounds really deep, the best part about North of North is that creators Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Amaquq-Baril sprinkle the meaningful themes so lightly and subtly throughout the eight episodes of the first season that you hardly even notice because you are having such a good time just vibing with these fun people in this amazing place.

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Normally I use this space to recommend a single show, but I found myself recently binging two separate shows that distinguished themselves so similarly that I thought it might be fun to bring them together in a single post and offer my fair readers a choice—and because I guarantee it’s probably the only time these two shows will ever be mentioned in the same article.

We are currently living in a world of sides, of factions. I hate to make anything here political because I personally use TV as a means of escaping the current horrors of the real world, but there are two current fictional shows on now that are such good examples of each side of the current political spectrum, I thought it might be fun to put them up next to each other, recommend them together, both as a way of being wholly inclusive and, honestly, because each one is so ideologically tilted, the only way to feel balanced is to present them together. (Also: I have significant issues with each one, so I didn’t want either one to stand alone, but presenting them as a pair makes it fun and I’ll leave it to you to try one or both, depending on your taste.)

Now, to be clear: neither show is political. Neither show is presented as leaning right or left and neither show is, I assume, intended to be interpreted as a reflected vision of today’s America. But the fact is, there are no two shows that are more opposite from each other, in every possible way, than Shrinking and Landman. Both shows are really good and worthy of your binging. But each show also is far from perfect and may get on your last nerve at some point, but if you are in a couple that can never agree on what to watch, this may be your perfect solution. I promise you: in Shrinking and Landman, there is something for everyone.

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I know, I know, another British detective show. Is it my fault that detective shows are all the Brits seem to make? And is it my fault that they all are so good?

But hear me out, this one is just a little different.

Ludwig is a British detective show, which aired last year in Britain to much acclaim and is now finally available here on Brit Box, but it’s a little different. Ludwig stars popular British comedian David Mitchell as John Taylor, a reclusive puzzlemaker who is asked by his twin brother’s wife Lucy, played by Anna Maxwell Martin, to help when his twin brother goes missing. John’s brother was a police detective, so Lucy thinks the best way to figure out what happened to her husband is to ask John to pretend to be him and see what he can figure out. Of course, as soon as John goes into the police station and passes as his brother, the police detective, he gets pulled into a murder investigation and uses his puzzle-solving skills to solve the case.

So, over the course of the six episodes of the first season, the structure of each episode is relatively formulaic and straightforward: there is a new murder that the fake detective must solve using his real puzzle brain while working with his fake wife to find his missing twin brother. Simple!

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There’s been a lot of hubbub lately about the mass exodus of film and television production from Hollywood. For a town so identified with show business—Hollywood literally defines the term “industry town”—Los Angeles has found itself at quite a crossroads, watching the vast majority of its core jobs being shipped out of town, out of state and even out of country, where it’s cheaper to produce. In a recent viral conversation in a podcast that shed a very sad but true light on the state of the industry at the moment, Adam Scott and Rob Lowe, two former castmates in the television series Parks & Recreation, which shot entirely in Los Angeles back from 2009-2015, lamented the fact that shows don’t film in Hollywood anymore. Lowe, who hosts a game show called The Floor, noted that he films the show in Ireland because it is cheaper to fly 100 people over to Ireland than it is to film on the Fox lot just down the street from where they live in Southern California.

This current state of the business of show is one of the many underlying themes behind the newest Apple TV+ genius show The Studio. Creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg aren’t going to let Hollywood go down without a fight, as not only have they made a show that is clearly and very intentionally filmed entirely in Los Angeles, including on studio lots, but they have made a show that is a love letter to the industry, with all its flaws and foibles, egos and eccentricities, talents and tantrums, in a show electric with satire and yet purring with sentimentality. The Studio is one of the most rewarding experiences available on television and well worth that AppleTV+ subscription you’ve been putting off.

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I’ve been needing to laugh much more than usual lately–probably because the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is airing while we are living it—so I’ve been seeking out the funny in every possible format: sitcoms, talk shows, stand-up specials, whatever it takes. What I wasn’t expecting was belly laughs from a reality show. Now, normally, I despise reality shows (Survivor, Great British Baking Show and Amazing Race are, of course, forgiven because they are, well, forever in the pantheon) but sometimes you just have to go outside your comfort zone and test the waters to see if something off the radar just might be worthwhile.

Raise your hand if you knew that there has been an international reality series airing on Prime since 2016 whose premise is to lock ten comedians in a room, Big Brother-style, for 6 hours and challenge them to make each other laugh. But here’s the rub: if ANYONE laughs, giggles or even smiles, they are out. The last one left wins. That’s it. In most cases, what they win is money, in some cases, it’s just a trophy. But the point is to be the last one without a smile on their face. And, trust me, that is so much funnier than it sounds.

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I had heard great things about a show called We Are Lady Parts back in 2021 but I never bothered to check it out, as it was a Peacock original, and, until Poker Face came along in 2023, I didn’t really take Peacock seriously as a purveyor of decent original content.

Then I forgot all about it because We Are Lady Parts took three years to return for a second season, which finally premiered in May of 2024.

I can tell you one thing, now that I’ve seen this show: if I had seen it back when it premiered in 2021, I would have been LIVID if you had made me wait three years to see more of it.

We Are Lady Parts is A-MAZ-ING. I would ask where it’s been my whole life, but I know: buried on Peacock, the same place it’s been lost in your life, but hopefully now you will discover it as I did and you will be changed forever, as I am.

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After a run of clever comedies and thoughtful dramas, I found myself craving a mindless action series, preferably one about spies rather than cops. My mind instantly went to two series, but I ruled them out right away: The Americans, because it’s not current and I want to save it for when I have literally run out of things to recommend, and Slow Horses, because everyone I know watches it already. So, I was left searching for a good current action series to recommend. Then I realized I was already in the middle of one.

Two years ago, before I started this weekly column, I binged the first season of The Night Agent on Netflix. Yes, there are seemingly a ton of these action/spy/thriller series around, how on earth are you supposed to tell them apart? There’s Reacher, The Recruit, Patriot, Jack Ryan, The Terminal List, Citadel, I could go on and on. So which one is The Night Agent, you ask? No, this isn’t the show where Tom Hiddleston plays an ex-spy having to deal with Hugh Laurie playing an arms dealer…that’s The Night Manager (although that is also a good show, and it’s returning for a second season soon!).

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There is no shortage of new dramas this time of year, so it’s nice when new comedies pop up just when we need them the most. Hulu’s new series Deli Boys is a welcome respite from the seriousness of Emmy season, despite the fact that creator Abdullah Saeed’s show is set against the backdrop of the Philadelphia gangster underworld. Even with a setting as dark, foreboding and, yes, murder and crime-filled as this, Saeed’s fresh take on some familiar tropes makes for one fresh, funny, and thoroughly entertaining new show.

Deli Boys’ story arc will feel quite familiar: head of a mob family dies unexpectedly, leaving his two ill-prepared sons to take the helm. They must navigate the complicated world their father left behind, which includes rivals who want to take over their turf, family members who want to take over the family, with their own lack of experience and, frankly, incompetence, being their biggest obstacles to success. But they slowly figure it out, despite their worst intentions, eventually coming into their own.

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I’m the first to admit that I’m not a Shonda Rhimes person. That’s not to say I wouldn’t enjoy any of the shows that have come out in the past twenty years under the famous writer/producer/showrunner’s name, it’s just that I haven’t been necessarily drawn to any of them. But I’m clearly in the minority–at least for my gender. Among the shows Rhimes is credited with bringing to American audiences are Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and Bridgerton, each one a huge hit, especially with women. Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal were so big, in fact, that Rhimes became the first woman to produce three separate TV dramas to each reach the magic 100- episode milestone, a true achievement, for anyone, not just a woman. Netflix lured Rhimes away from ABC and inked an exclusive multi-year deal with her, and the first series she gave Netflix was none other than Bridgerton, which became a massive hit for the streaming service. But, like her previous shows, Bridgerton still seemed to aim at the same audience (not me).

Well, Netflix is hoping that Rhimes’s second original scripted series, The Residence, will have a wider appeal and, so far, so good, because it’s the first show from “Shondaland” that I actually wanted to check out. And guess what? I love it.

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I’ve found that some of my most delightful discoveries have been the result of recommendations from friends. These are shows that I would never have given a second look to or even knew existed if it hadn’t been for the persistent—nay, annoying—nagging of friends and family members who would insist, “you HAVE to watch this show,” and wouldn’t give up until I did. And, most of the time, I am the one ending up offering up bountiful mea culpas to their wisdom.

Such is the case with the show Resident Alien, a show I had never even heard of until an email from my friend Bob, who ended a correspondence a year or so ago with “Have you seen Resident Alien? I think you’d like it.” When I responded that I hadn’t even heard of it, he reiterated how great it was and that I should give it a try. Knowing how many shows I already had on my list, I humored him by telling him I’d look into it. But I knew I wouldn’t.

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