BC Living
How to Support BC Wineries Now
Embark on Culinary Adventures: 5 Must-Try Solo Dining Experiences Around BC
You Gotta Try this in April 2024
4 Tips on Balancing a Nutritious Diet with a Side of Indulgence
Choosing Connection: A BC Family Day Pledge to Prioritize Presence Over Plans
Embracing Plant-Based Living this Veganuary and Beyond
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
Protected: Spring into Fun in Kamloops: The Best Events in the City
Travel Light, Travel Right: Minimalist Packing Tips for Solo Explorers
A Solo Traveller’s Guide to Cozy Accommodations
Arts Club Theatre Company Celebrates 60 Years
Films and TV Series that Inspire Solo Travel
B.C. Adventures: Our picks for April
8 Gadgets and Gear for Your Solo Adventures
A Solo Traveller’s Guide to Souvenir Hunting in BC
Sḵwálwen Botanicals – Changing the Face of Skincare
From a Cold War drama to the return of Roseanne, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week
Some of the top artists in the country are congregating in Vancouver for Canada’s biggest music awards show this week. Watch for performances from Arcade Fire, Arkells and Lights, as well as a special tribute to the late Gord Downie by Dallas Green and Sarah Harmer. Hometown boy Michael Bublé hosts.
While fans will rejoice at the show’s return, they’ll be mourning the loss of Erlich Bachman after breakout star T.J. Miller’s departure from the show. We last glimpsed Erlich visiting an opium den in Tibet with devious billionaire Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), with Belson paying the den’s owner a huge wad of cash to keep him there for five years. Given that Miller won’t be back, Belson’s plan appears to have worked.
The story of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III’s 1973 kidnapping seems to be a hot one this year. First there was the feature film All the Money in the World, which revolved around the same true story but wound up making headlines after Kevin Spacey’s sexual misconduct allegations surfaced and producers replaced him with Christopher Plummer. And now there’s this new 10-part series dedicated to the tale, with several new layers to the famous story ready to uncover thanks to new research undertaken for the series.
Unlike the film, the series paints John Paul Getty III’s kidnapping as something he clearly orchestrated himself in conjunction with the Italian mafia after he fell into massive debt that he couldn’t pay off. As the story goes, his kidnappers eventually turned on him when his grandfather drew out the situation, upset that the multimillion-dollar negotiations weren’t panning out in their favour and that no one seemed to want their teenage captive.
But that’s only where this tale begins. Should the series become a hit with audiences, producers are hoping to tell the story of the wealthy Getty family over the 20th century and throughout several seasons, following their history and exploring how power and money can corrupt.
The great mystery is what is lacking in [the Gettys], creator Simon Beaufoy said of the allure of following such a family. They try to fill the big huge hole in each of their souls with money or sex or drugs—there is passed down this lack of empathy, this complete lack of understanding of human emotion. Donald Sutherland, Brendan Fraser, Hilary Swank and Harris Dickinson star.
A standup comic par excellence, Johnny Carson’s favourite Tonight Show fill-in host and creator of sublime TV series It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show, the death of Garry Shandling left a huge void in the comedy world.
Shandling disciple and longtime friend Judd Apatow pays tribute to his mentor in an exhaustive two-night HBO documentary that takes a deep dive into the life, career and fascinating philosophy, courtesy of Shandling’s voluminous journals, which span his early days breaking into comedy to his later years as a spiritual seeker with a deep curiosity about Buddhism.
Featuring on-camera interviews with Shandling himself, the documentary also includes comments by such friends and contemporaries as James L. Brooks, Jim Carrey, Conan O’Brien, Bob Saget, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and more.
When Garry died, it really affected me deeply, said Apatow during the recent Television Critics Association press tour. I didn’t see it coming at all… When he died, I realized that he was very much almost a parental figure to me, because I met him when I was in my early 20s. But I actually realized that I didn’t know him that well. There was a lot we never talked about. We never talked about his childhood and everything that led to how his personality formed. And when I read through all of his diaries—he had 30 years of diaries—I realized how Garry became Garry, and I also saw what his lifelong goals and struggles were, and it was very emotional and cathartic. It was like looking at a life, you know? And we all try to do our best to evolve and do better and grow, and to see that with Garry was very powerful for me and I thought would inspire other people to just be nicer to each other and to themselves.
At a time when working class families seem underrepresented on American television, Roseanne is returning after an 11-year break, ready to tackle the subjects most of us are afraid to broach even with our nearest and dearest. To those who followed the high-rated sitcom from start to finish, the brazen Illinois family disagreeing about the current political climate is hardly a shocker. What true fans of the show are more curious about is the reversal of one of the long-running series’ most tragic plot points: the death of Dan, played by John Goodman.
Indeed, the final few minutes of the series finale, in 1997, revealed that Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) was writing a book about her family, and had taken some creative license when it came to relaying the stories of Dan, daughters Becky (initially played by Lecy Goranson, then Sarah Chalke in later seasons) and Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and son D.J. (Michael Fishman). Season 10 gets to set the stage anew, filling the audience in on the last decade of the Conner family unit, including Roseanne’s sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf).
Gilbert, who is also executive producing the series this time around, knew it was the right time to bring the Conners back. The working class has been underrepresented in politics on television and this just felt like a wonderful time and opportunity to try to give some people a voice in this country.
With reboots being all the rage, Barr believes the fans will enjoy checking in on this family as much as the cast and producers did.
People have said to me over these 20 years, ‘It’s so great to introduce my kids to the Conner family,’ she says. I think we were friends to a lot of people, if you can be friends on TV. They did let us into their homes and maybe they missed us, and they’re happy to catch up with us again, I hope.
And if people tune in, Barr has high hopes for more Conner adventures. I think it’s fun to check back in with the family that you knew and felt you knew so much about. I don’t know if they’re hungry for it, but I hope they are.
After 12 years of wedded bliss, Lena (Jenna Fischer) and Martin (Oliver Hudson) figured it was all over between them when they got divorced—after all, that’s kind of the whole point of divorce—but that all changed when they decided to continue living together for the sake of their kids. Instead, they’re as close as they ever were, maybe even closer.
Splitting Up Together is based on the Danish series of the same name, and when Fischer read the script, it spoke to her enough to inspire her return to TV for the first time since wrapping up The Office. I really relate to this character, she said during this January’s Television Critics Association press tour. I’m a wife and a mother now, and I feel like I’m going to get to express this whole other part of my personality. While it’s a show about two people who are divorced, I don’t think you have to be divorced to be able to relate to the show. It was just such a rich world, but told so beautifully and warmly.
When The Americans premiered back in 2013, the notion of Russian spies masquerading as a suburban couple during the waning years of the Cold War seemed wildly retro and even a bit far-fetched. Thanks to one crazy election, the world has gone topsy-turvy as America’s president is under investigation for collusion as he praises Russia’s president and disparages the FBI. In the sixth and final season, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have taken their espionage efforts to the next level by training their teen daughter to join them as a Soviet spy.
I have relished this experience. It’s just been such an enjoyable, creative—I love the storytelling of it, said Russell, reflecting on the impending end of the show during an appearance at the recent Television Critics Association press tour. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m happy it’s ending when it is, on such a high note, and while I’m still so excited and interested in the storylines of it. But it’s been a great ride.
The countdown is on. As this buddy-buddy legal drama returns for the back half of season seven, the story begins to arc into a final goodbye for actors Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams. Is a wedding in their characters’ future? We’ll have to tune in to find out.
Things are looking pretty dire for Lucious in this midseason premiere, as an axe-wielding Claudia (Demi Moore) has him chained up in a remote log cabin. Can Cookie come to her on-again, off-again flame’s rescue in time? Judging from this series’ history, we’re going with a hard yes.
As Canadians, we’ve had a front-row seat to Donald Trump’s antics over the years. From his rise as a businessman and hotel mogul to his television series The Apprentice to his current political reign, we’ve often shaken our heads or laughed at the man’s signature orange skin and bad comb-over while marveling at his success. If you’re curious about how the current POTUS fares over the pond, this new four-part British series about the man’s rise is worth a look.
All episodes hit the streaming service this week to offer a unique perspective on how Trump came to be so successful in the first place, and how his unique brand catapulted him to the highest office in America.
