TV to raise and lower your stress-hormone levels

Is it just my Instagram feed that is flooded with prescriptions for how to stem the flood of stress hormones in these trying times? Consult a real professional and take care of yourselves out there. Like social media, TV is not letting up, however. The upcoming 25th (yes!) anniversary of 9/11 is accompanied by a slew of network and streaming programming, including 9/11: United We Stand — 25 Years Later on ABC tonight. As for fictional programming, here are a few harrowing highlights, with a couple of comedies thrown in for an attempt at balance.

●The Runner (movie premières Wednesday, Sept. 2, on Prime Video)

High-profile London lawyer and devoted mom Maia Marten (Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman) thinks her biggest challenge on this day is a big day in court. The problems and the stakes escalate immeasurably after a phone call interrupts her morning run. The title is apt, as this thriller has the heroine racing to meet one demand after another. Failure risks the lives of her near and dear and many more. Go!

● Mayday (movie premières Friday, Sept. 4, on Apple TV)

The year is 1987, four years before the collapse of the Soviet Union brings an end to the Cold War. The secret (of course) mission assigned to U.S. navy pilot Lieut. Troy (Assassin) Kelly (Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool) has failed spectacularly — like eject-and-crashland-on-branchy-trees-in-Soviet-winter, well-behind-enemy-lines kind of failed. Help arrives in the form of a heavily bearded ex-KGB agent named Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh, Death on the Nile). Fortunately, the KGB is no longer in his heart and he is a devoted Americanophile (cue Neil Diamond’s earworm hit America; you’re welcome). Eventually as devoted to each other as they are to bickering, Ustinov and Kelly limp, punch, detonate, jump and run their way to safety.

●Dang! (adult animated series premières Tuesday, Sept. 8, on Netflix)

Well, I don’t know how to process this. A new animated series looks at the aloof but high-achieving eldest sibling swooping in on the middle and youngest siblings and making their lives a living hell. As an eldest, high-achieving sibling, I protest the harshness. But the stickler in me — and my two younger brothers — requires me to admit, it is 100 per cent accurate. And this New York City-based dark comedy looks very, very funny. Damn it.

● Stavros Halkias: Uncle Stav (comedy special premières Tuesday, Sept. 8, on Netlix) and Jo Koy: Blue in the Face (comedy special premières Tuesday, Sept. 15 on Netflix)

When life gives you lemons, make a whisky sour with Crown Royal and maple syrup and laugh yourself happy with two new comedy specials. In Uncle Stav, the actor Halkias — who you can also see in cinemas as a kitchen stalwart in the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony — tries to make the case for being both a dirtbag and a role model. Solid life goals right there. Koy’s Blue in the Face was filmed in California in January, five months after his Just Being Koy tour stopped in Winnipeg last summer. This time, he gets worked up about, among other things, a dental crisis, his dog’s people skills and his veteran stepdad. Remember to breathe, Mr. Koy.

● Last Seen (series premieres Wednesday, Sept. 9, on Apple TV)

Oooof. If child-in-peril is a tough sell maybe give this a pass, although it looks plenty good for those with tolerance. Adapted from Ryan David Jahn’s book, The Dispatcher, this Australian thriller is the story of an ex-police detective (Patrick Brammell, Colin from Accounts) whose life fell apart after his young daughter, Maggie, went missing. Now downgraded to working as an emergency dispatcher, he takes a call from a sobbing youth so distraught she thinks her name might be Mags? The action and anxiety ramp up quickly. Has he found his daughter or will his life collapse more fully?

As is increasingly the case in this world of media mergers and cross-border rights squabbles, broadcast details are subject to change. All questions, comments and suggestions gratefully accepted at denise.duguay @winnipegfreepress.com