TV

Movies

Apple TV Jake Johnson (left) plays a tennis player on the outs who begrudgingly takes up pickleball in the Ben Stiller-produced The Dink.

TV lineup promises pugilism, pickleball and partying

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2026

Soccer seems to be here to stay. There’s been barely a minute to recover from the 2026 World Cup final. Big smiles are still lingering after last week’s news that Winnipeg has been awarded the Northern Super League’s seventh franchise, starting in 2027. And because it’s not real if it’s not adapted for TV, there are but two weeks to go before the much anticipated return of Ted Lasso, with Jason Sudeikis’s title character now coaching a women’s soccer team in Season 4 (Aug. 5 on Apple TV). Rolling with that sports theme but venturing to other (occasionally murdery) arenas, here are a few suggestions for some brand new non-soccer programming.

● They Fight (movie streaming now on Disney+/Hulu)

This drama, set in Washington, D.C., concerns an ex-con who is drowning in doubt, from within and without, but trying to find his fight. The boxing gym beckons and it’s no spoiler to say he finally responds and learns that the best way to help yourself is to help others first. As they say in the trailer, “lock in!” Andre Holland (Selma) plays our hero alongside fellow acting heavyweights Samira Wiley (The Walking Dead) and Wendell Pierce (Elsbeth).

● The Dink (movie premières Friday, July 24 on Apple TV)

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Opinion

Eric Zachanowich / Netflix From left: Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts) and Laura Ingalls (Alice Halsey) become friends on the new Little House on the Prairie.

Reimagined Little House still shot through with the truth

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Preview

Reimagined Little House still shot through with the truth

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Saturday, Jul. 18, 2026

In 1974, NBC had to issue a press release explaining why Michael Landon, starring as Charles (Pa) Ingalls on the new show Little House on the Prairie, didn’t have a beard.

Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books, on which the series was based, objected to Landon’s clean-shaven face. The real Charles Ingalls famously had a beard (a wild one, at that), and Pa certainly has a beard on the page, as illustrated by Garth Williams.

My point is: Lauraheads have always had their bugbears when it comes to adaptations.

Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie, which dropped on July 9, is no exception. Among the criticisms I have seen: Mary (Skywalker Hughes) isn’t blond. Jack the dog isn’t a bulldog. Laura (Alice Halsey) wouldn’t have a slingshot and she wouldn’t wear a boy’s hat. And she wouldn’t have an Osage pal named Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts).

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Saturday, Jul. 18, 2026

TV

Supplied by Amazing Race Canada The Regnier brothers (Sebastien, bottom, and Sacha) came out of their Amazing Race Canada experience closer than ever.

Brotherly bond boosts local Amazing Race competitors

Grace Penner 7 minute read Preview

Brotherly bond boosts local Amazing Race competitors

Grace Penner 7 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

Sacha has a feeling and Sébastien has a plan — together they’ll work it out.

Winnipeg brothers and best friends Sébastien and Sacha Régnier have added “teammates” to their list of achievements as The Amazing Race Canada launches its 12th season with the siblings on board.

The reality series, which kicks off this year on Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, follows 10 pairs of competitors in a global race, vying for a prize of $250,000 and a trip around the world.

Both Sébastien and Sacha grew up playing sports, so they’re natural competitors.

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Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

Movies

Eric Zachanowich / Netflix The new Little House on the Prairie features (from left) Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls, Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls, Luke Bracey as Charles Ingalls, and Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls.

Little house, big female energy and golf drama

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Preview

Little house, big female energy and golf drama

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

From its earliest black-and-white flickers to today’s kaleidoscope of small-screen streaming options, television has offered many pleasures.

This new handful of new viewing recommendations dances nicely along that spectrum, from a period drama with a much needed modern perspective, a weekend of she-raging, a couple of spy thrillers and golf as a path to true grace (and a few gut-laughs). Onward!

●Little House on the Prairie (series premières Thursday on Netflix)

Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books, a new Winnipeg-shot adaptation moves beyond the 1974-83 sentimental TV adventures of the Ingalls family homesteading in the 19th-century American Midwest. The new effort promises to be not only grittier but also narratively broader, expanding beyond the story of the family planting roots in “free land.” Says the show’s Osage Nation consultant Julie O’Keefe, “If you’re going to tell the story, then you need to tell both sides.” The series has already been renewed for a second season. For more on the series, check out Randall King’s recent preview.

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Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

TV

Apple TV Matthew Rhys is Mayor Tom, who just wants to protect the town of Widow’s Bay from a curse he doesn’t believe in.

Why Widow’s Bay feels like the perfect show for our current moment

Scott Montgomery 6 minute read Preview

Why Widow’s Bay feels like the perfect show for our current moment

Scott Montgomery 6 minute read Saturday, Jul. 4, 2026

Do you ever get the feeling that the world around you is being shaped by events totally beyond your control?

Is it even possible not to have that feeling these days?

If you count yourself among the number who feel powerless in the face of contemporary reality, fret not, because there is a show that understands that feeling perfectly.

That show is Widow’s Bay. If you haven’t heard of it, ask around. It’s all but guaranteed that someone you know loves it. In fact, try as you might, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who’s experienced the show’s well-balanced blend of horror, comedy and pathos who isn’t a fan. And for good reason.

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Saturday, Jul. 4, 2026

Movies

Netflix Likei it or not, Louis C.K. is back with a new comedy special.

Cutting comedy, frilly diversions

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Preview

Cutting comedy, frilly diversions

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2026

Do not go gentle into that good small-screen summer. There are difficult decisions to be made, philosophically and narratively, and intense Bear-ish drama to be endured.

In between, Mary, Larry and Elle will provide some relief. Well, mostly relief.

●Ryan Hamilton: This Just Hit Me (comedy special premières Tuesday, June 23, on Netflix) and Louis C.K.: Ridiculous (premières Tuesday, June 30, on Netflix)

Happy Face (2017) was tall Idaho-born comic Ryan Hamilton’s first Netflix special. He concentrated his considerable dryly delivered comedy on his perpetually affable, slightly surprised expression. Very funny but uncomfortably self-lacerating at times. That same year, a much more urgent kind of discomfort surfaced when comic Louis C.K. admitted to sexual misconduct after five women publicly accused him. Now both performers have new comedy specials this month. Hamilton’s new special riffs on getting hit by a bus. C.K.’s, recorded last fall, talks about getting older and putting his dad in a home. Tragedy + time = comedy has never been truer, or more challenging to discerning viewers.

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Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2026

TV

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Since launching Coal and Canary in 2014, Amanda Buhse has met scores of scores of fellow entrepreneurs.

Upcoming production spotlights Winnipeg artisans

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Preview

Upcoming production spotlights Winnipeg artisans

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Saturday, Jun. 13, 2026

Think Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but for Winnipeg artisans instead of U.S. eateries.

That was Amanda Buhse’s pitch to Rogers. Television executives approved.

Now Buhse, whose Coal and Canary candles have landed in Hollywood swag bags and Manitoba markets, is hitting the road with a camera.

She aims to produce an eight-episode series called Made in Winnipeg. It will air on Rogers TV this fall, by current timelines.

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Saturday, Jun. 13, 2026

Movies

Apple TV Colin Farrell and Laura Donnelly finally return in Sugar, two years after a cliffhanger left fans with some big questions.

Love, music and the return of a weird noir

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Preview

Love, music and the return of a weird noir

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Jun. 9, 2026

There really is no excuse for staying indoors, except for streaming these five viewing suggestions.

● It’s Not Like That (series now streaming on Prime Video)

Religion is never not a volatile subject, but faith or belief or whatever word is preferred can/should be a different, more personal matter. Yet it is so seldom factored into small-screen storylines. Netflix’s Nobody Wants This (back for a third season in July) — a rom-com about a rabbi (Adam Brody) and a non-believer (Kristen Bell) — proved that with less preaching and more personal faith, audiences would respond.

Now, producers Ian Deitchman and Kristin Robinson (Parenthood) have delivered a new story about a widowed minister (Scott Foley of Scandal) and his wife’s best friend (Erinn Hayes from The Goldbergs). Their families still do everything together, which dovetails humorously and pointedly into their processing of grief and will-they-won’t-they intimacy. The children’s characters are also well developed, one of them observing about their elders: “I love how they get to start over and we’re supposed to pick up where they left off like nothing happened.” Buy tissues and enjoy!

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Tuesday, Jun. 9, 2026

Opinion

Fans line up in the rain outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York on Thursday, ahead of the final episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” (Ted Shaffrey / The Associated Press files)

Colbert exits late night on defiantly joyful note

Brad Oswald 6 minute read Preview

Colbert exits late night on defiantly joyful note

Brad Oswald 6 minute read Sunday, May. 24, 2026

Well, hello there … remember me? I’m the guy who used to be the guy who got paid to watch television and then write about it in these pages. I’ve been gone for a while — I left the TV beat about a decade ago and, after spending the last six years of my career as editor of the Free Press’s perspectives/political commentary pages, retired in 2022.

I still love watching TV, and am reminded every day, as I flip through the channels, sample what’s new on the streaming services and generally peruse the pop-culture landscape, what a unique privilege it was to draw a paycheque for doing what most people do for fun, and at a cost. As good gigs go, being the Free Press’s TV critic was most definitely one of the best.

And last week’s news cycle included an event that converged the two subject areas that defined my Free Press years — entertainment and politics — in a way that prompted me ask Arts & Life editor Jill Wilson to let me dust off the ol’ Watching TV logo and offer a few thoughts.

I’m speaking, of course, about the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which aired last Thursday, bringing a defiantly joyful end to one of TV’s late-night institutions after an 11-year run with the former Colbert Report star as its host (the show’s creator and original host, David Letterman, retired in 2015 after 22 years at its helm).

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Sunday, May. 24, 2026

Movies

Apple TV Tatiana Maslany stars in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, premièring May 20.

TV that brings you home, whether you like it or not

Denise Duguay 5 minute read Preview

TV that brings you home, whether you like it or not

Denise Duguay 5 minute read Tuesday, May. 12, 2026

Escape is the theme of this edition of new-TV recommendations? Can you escape home? Or once decamped, can you ever return home? The first selection is the wisest of all, admitting that when pain and loss make their inevitable appearance, the only true path forward is through.

● Marty, Life Is Short (documentary premieres Tuesday, May 12, on Netflix)

Netflix is going ahead with director Lawrence Kasdan’s documentary celebrating the life of Martin Short, despite the recent death by suicide of the comic’s daughter. (The film was completed before her death.) Could definitely be seen as insensitive, or worse exploitive. Or, drawing from Short’s own playbook, that it’s not only OK but necessary for this show to go on. Before, during and after the time the Canadian-born comic actor was honing his skills on SCTV, Saturday Night Live, Only Murders in the Building and comedy tours with and without pal Steve Martin, Short has been impressively frank about the early deaths of his parents, his brother, his wife and recently friends and colleagues Catherine O’Hara and Rob Reiner. “Those kinds of situations are horrible,” he told The Guardian a few years ago, “but I think that you are either empowered by them or you become a victim of them.” This life and film lesson is yet another reason to be grateful for Martin Short.

● Dutton Ranch (series premières with two of nine episodes Friday, May 15, on Paramount+)

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Tuesday, May. 12, 2026

TV

Courtesy of CBC Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira cohosts the new show Must Love Dogs with his partner, realtor and rescue influencer Alex Blumberg.

To the rescue

Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Preview

To the rescue

Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Monday, Apr. 20, 2026

Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira and realtor/rescue influencer Alex Blumberg may be the charismatic couple at the heart of Must Love Dogs, a new half-hour docuseries steaming on CBC Gem, but the stars of the show are the dogs they rescue.

Especially a sweet pup named Stella, who will no doubt be an early fan favourite.

“She’s a special dog. Her rescue was actually very easy in the grand scheme of rescues because she basically just came right into my arms and we picked her up and put her in the car,” Blumberg says.

While it was an easy rescue, it was on a hard, big day. Some 40 dogs were rescued, and there weren’t enough people to foster them.

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Monday, Apr. 20, 2026

Movies

Apple TV Elle Fanning plays a glittery self-employed mom in Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

New series offer comfort of escapist fare

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Preview

New series offer comfort of escapist fare

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2026

A new lineup of recommended viewing leans heavily toward escapism. Except for the latest from Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd, from which some further escapism might be welcome. Onward!

● Trevor Noah: Joy in the Trenches (comedy special premières today, Tuesday, April 14, on Netflix)

Everyone could use a laugh right now and Trevor Noah is the comic for the job. Kind comedy with great, smart, muscular pokes at the bear of dread. Such as pondering what would be Martin Luther King Jr.’s new dream. Also featured will be, according to the publicity bumph, an “unexpected social media beef” and “a therapist’s truth bomb.” Cue applause.

● Margo’s Got Money Troubles (series premières on Wednesday, April 15, Apple TV)

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Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2026

Opinion

WARRICK PAGE / HBO Max Charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa, right) suffers burnout in medical drama The Pitt.

Gimme a break with supporting burnout culture

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Preview

Gimme a break with supporting burnout culture

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

There are many things HBO’s hit medical drama, The Pitt, does very well, and one of those things is capturing burnout.

It’s in the small details, such as the specific ways in which burned-out workers joke about needing a break. “Throw me in jail; I could use the vacation,” quips nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa).

It’s in the big ones, too, such as Dr. Robby’s (Noah Wyle) increasingly brusque treatment of his staff, the sabbatical he keeps threatening to take, how he feels the entire emergency department rests on his shoulders alone and how he takes great offence when it is suggested that running the ED is a two-doc job by Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), who will be running the show while he’s away.

Burnout in medicine is a well-known and well-documented problem. It’s gruelling and often thankless work. Ask any nurse who has been spit on, sworn at or threatened in the space of a shift. (The Pitt addresses this, too.)

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Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

Movies

Spencer Pazer / Netflix Dan Levy returns to comedy in Big Mistakes.

Narco nannies, sharks and other TV dangers

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Preview

Narco nannies, sharks and other TV dangers

Denise Duguay 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

Anticipation has value, but it requires familiarity. Those viewers in that camp are already counting the days to the likes of the next Margaret Atwood-inspired feminist dystopia, The Testaments, which premières the first three of eight episodes on April 8, on Disney+. Fans of the Vermont-born singer-songwriter are already primed for the documentary-concert combo Noah Kahan: Out of Body, premièring on Netflix on April 13.

But this list of viewing suggestions is more targeted to the series and movies that are less well telegraphed, or more easily overlooked (hidden?) in the streaming-app menus. And so, behold five series and movies you might be less likely to already know about, but should give a try.

●Dear Killer Nannies (series premières with all eight episodes Wednesday, April 1, on Disney+)

Child care is an important consideration for every family. Despite being a violent Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar is no exception. His son Juan Pablo Escobar’s memoir is the basis for this new series, which centres the story of young Juampi, the hitman caregivers assigned by papa Pablo (John Leguizamo) and Juampi’s struggle over whether — and how — to accept or reject the family legacy.

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Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

Movies

Daniel Boczarski / Getty Images files Director BenDavid Grabinski frequented the Handsome Daughter while in Winnipeg.

Film director calls Winnipeg a ‘chill’ place to shoot

Randall King 5 minute read Preview

Film director calls Winnipeg a ‘chill’ place to shoot

Randall King 5 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

The action-comedy Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (now streaming on Disney+) stars Vince Vaughn as Nick, a gangster who employs time travel to right a personal wrong.

So it’s only fair to ask the film’s director, BenDavid Grabinski, to step back into 2024, when he worked on the film in Winnipeg from May to October.

Winnipeg wasn’t a particular culture shock for Grabinski, by the way. Though he is based in Los Angeles, he was born in Nebraska and spent his formative years, ages 16 to 23, in Iowa, so he was familiar with a Prairie landscape.

“I gotta tell you, I had a really good time in Winnipeg,” says Grabinski, 43, during a Zoom interview Thursday. “I shot 42 nights in a row, so I didn’t get to have that much of a life.

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Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

Movies

Merit photo Jeff Newman (left) is the director of Athens: Birth of Democracy, co-produced by Winnipeg’s Merit Motion Pictures for CBC’s Nature of Things.

Tracing the roots of democracy to today’s fragmentation

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Preview

Tracing the roots of democracy to today’s fragmentation

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Thursday, Mar. 26, 2026

People sometimes joke that we would be no worse off if we picked someone at random from the phone book to rule the country.

Well, the ancient Greeks tried something just like that with their “kleroterion,” a slab of stone and primitive machine used by the Athenians to choose citizens for public office.

Near the end of Athens: Birth of Democracy, co-produced by Winnipeg’s Merit Motion Pictures for CBC’s Nature of Things, host Anthony Morgan and a group of students give this contraption a whirl under the blazing Athenian sun.

Students applaud as they’re randomly chosen by the machine’s system of dice. In reality, Athenians often grumbled at this rude imposition of civic duty.

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Thursday, Mar. 26, 2026

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