Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stars on screen
Baby boom:
Move over, “Doctor Who.” Make way, “Top Gear.” Outta the way, “Downton Abbey.” There’s another British import that’s been making waves on this side of the pond, and it’s finally back for another season.
“Call the Midwife” returns Sunday, April 2, on PBS, and the new season features some big changes for the women of Nonnatus House, including a new face in the show’s ensemble roster.
Dame Harriet Walter (“The Crown”) joins the period drama’s cast as Sister Ursula, a harsh and authoritative woman who has been put in charge of the nuns and midwives of Nonnatus House, which is a convent that caters to the needs of mothers and mothersto-be in London’s impoverished Poplar district. She joins an established cast that includes Jenny Agutter (“The Avengers,” 2012), Judy Parfitt (“Dolores Claiborne,” 1995), Stephen McGann (“Emmerdale Farm”), Charlotte Ritchie (“Fresh Meat”), Helen George (“Strictly Come Dancing”) and Emerald Fennell (“The Danish Girl,” 2015).
“Call the Midwife’s” ongoing story is set in the middle decades of the 20th century, a period of dramatic change for both medicine and childbirth. This season, the characters are still feeling the shockwaves from some of the biggest advances — and setbacks — in medicine that transpired last season.
The harsh side effects of the drug thalidomide, which was being prescribed to mothers-to-be with severe morning sickness, continue to shock the midwife community, even as “the pill” forces many to grapple with moral questions it raises for them and their faith.
In one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, access to health care has always been a luxury, even with the advent of the U.K.’s National Health Service. With the midwives of Nonnatus House on hand, though, infants and their mums are in good hands.
“Call the Midwife” returns for a sixth season Sunday, April 2, on PBS.
Dream on:
Who would have thought that TV’s deadliest spy could get even stranger? With seven seasons behind it and three to go, “Archer’s” eighth season is getting weird.
The critically acclaimed FX animated comedy moves to sister network FXX this season, and that’s not the only big change associated with its Wednesday, April 5, premiere. In a bizarre twist, the aptly subtitled “Dreamland” season takes place entirely within Sterling Archer’s (H. Jon Benjamin, “Bob’s Burgers”) mind.
After last season ended on a is-heor-isn’t-he cliffhanger, where audiences were left wondering whether Sterling was alive or dead, “Dreamland” seems to at least answer that dangling question; he’s alive but comatose, with all the characters that “Archer” fans have come to love transplanted into a 1940s film-noir inside the spy’s head.
Weird? You bet. But “Archer” is a show that’s never been afraid of taking risks. Aisha Tyler (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”), Judy Greer (“Jurassic World,” 2015), Chris Parnell (“Suburgatory”), Amber Nash (“Frisky Dingo”), Jessica Walter (“Arrested Development”), Adam Reed (“Sealab 2021”) and Lucky Yates (“Frisky Dingo”) all star as Sterling’s friend and colleagues (and, in Walter’s case, both boss and mother).
Over the show’s run, the eclectic gang, which started for the first few seasons as the employees of a private spy agency, has operated a drug cartel, launched a country music career, returned to the spy business and started a private investigation agency.
Even with the announcement that its 10th season will be its last, “Archer” still has a lot of life in it.
Its out-of-this-world (literally) eighth season gets underway Wednesday,April 5, on FXX.