Canadian-shot shows you can stream this long weekend
As Canada celebrates another turn around the sun, how about turning to our red-hot Tv/film business for some homegrown entertainment? The Canadian Tv/film production industry is bringing in close to $10 billion annually and can claim job creation numbers in the 250,000 zone. So, let’s celebrate our country and creatives by spending time during the Canada Day long weekend streaming some series that were shot right here in Canada. Here are 10 (there are many!) to get you started:
1. THE BOYS Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Amazon Prime
Toronto The multiple Emmy-nominated series should have you at its IMDB description: “A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.” Come on, isn’t it about time someone kicked around the ridiculous reverence toward comic book heroes? The Eric Kripke-created show does that with a firm hand, while also throwing in some healthy disdain for politics and unfettered capitalism. While some heady topics abound, this series is action on steroids and violence-adverse viewers need not apply.
2. HANDMAID’S TALE Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Crave
Toronto It’s safe to say fans of the show know this stunning series, based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, is beginning to look terrifyingly accurate. Yes, we’re looking at you, America. Set in fictional Gilead, women suffer due to the state’s policy of owning and controlling those who can bear children. Starring the pitch-perfect Elizabeth Moss as Offred, a handmaid that ain’t going to take it anymore, this dystopic, landmark story is equal parts cautionary tale and stunning entertainment.
3. SCHMIGADOON! Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Apple TV
Vancouver
Laugh, sing, repeat. That’s basically what you can expect from this six-part musical comedy. Schmigadoon! is, as the name suggests, a takeoff of the classic 1940s Lerner and Loewe Broadway show Brigadoon, but in a contemporary setting. This time out, a couple (Cecily Strong, Keegan-michael Key) in a rut go a-wandering and come across a bridge that leads them onto a soundstage packed with singing stars like Christen Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Aaron Tveit, Jane Krakowski and more. If you need more than that, consider the whole thing is directed by the great and hilarious and B.C. transplant Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black, The Tick, and A Series of Unfortunate Events).
4. THE LAKE Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Amazon Prime
North Bay, Ont.
This new cottage-country comedy focuses on the reconnection of a nervous dad and a determined, attitude-packed daughter, who was the result of a high school hookup. While the sweetish reunion plays out, so does a good solid dose of dysfunctional family competition as the dad has to do battle with an awful stepsister over the ownership of the family cottage. This is the first scripted Canadian Amazon Original series.
5. SHORESY Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Crave
Sudbury, Ont.
This sixpart Letterkenny spinoff is so offside it’s pretty much icing. Created and starring Jared Keeso, the series focuses on a senior men’s hockey team and its No. 1 goon and chirper in chief Shoresy (Keeso). It’s often spit-take worthy and demands that its audience can literally take an f’ing joke. Yes, Shoresy is not for the easily offended. While the talk is trashy, the sentiment is all about community — after all, everyone knows “hockey brings people together.”
6. THE KIDS IN THE HALL Where you can watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Amazon Prime
Toronto Easily one of the biggest streaming stories of the year was the return of everyone’s favourite punk comedians and sketch artists, the Kids in the Hall. Dave Foley, Bruce Mcculloch, Kevin Mcdonald, Mark Mc-kinney and Scott Thompson are back on the small screen (yes, that’s relative) with eight new episodes. While revival projects are usually cringeworthy and cynical (follow the money), this one shows these kids have aged well.
7. SORT OF Where to watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Gem
CBC Toronto This refreshing, smart, funny, sweet and important — it won a Peabody Award, for goodness sakes — sitcom follows the story of Sabi (Bilal Baig, who is also co-creator of the show), a non-binary millennial nanny/bartender who is trying to keep it all together while figuring out how to navigate complicated relationships including being the child of Pakistani immigrants and the caregiver to the kids of a professional couple who themselves need some looking after.
8. REACHER Where to watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
Amazon Toronto If you forget about Tom Cruise and his Reacher franchise and focus on the novels, you will get some action-packed enjoyment out of this series. For those unaware of novelist Lee Child’s wandering hero, the story centres around Reacher, played here by Alan Ritchson, a crackerjack, veteran military police investigator who is falsely accused of murder after he leaves the MPS and becomes a civilian. Yes, there are secrets and yes, there are big time action sequences.
Prime
9. THE PORTER Where to watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
CBC Winnipeg Though filmed in Winnipeg, this lush and beautifully shot series is mostly set in Montreal’s St. Antoine neighbourhood. It has a perfect mixture of great stories and must-know history — in this case, the story the early 20th-century world of Black train employees and their families in Montreal and Chicago. Those porters battled racism and huge barriers to go on to form the powerful Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, Black-led labour union. A co-production with CBC and BET, the series is packed with Canadian talent.
Gem
10. MOONSHINE Where to watch it: Where it’s shot: What it’s about:
CBC Gem
Nova Scotia
Imagine a kind of summer camp for adults that is run by a family of lunatics, addicts, philanderers and just general screwups, and you’ve got life at the Moonshine Resort on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Shot at an actual working south shore resort, the series is packed with conflict and classic rock. Think Succession, but instead of billions of dollars and corporate control, the resort’s Finley-cullen siblings are fighting over old boats and a bar that has seen better days.