What to watch: The Diplomat returns to Netflix; Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas kicks off
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Season 3 of The Diplomat premieres on Netflix this week.Netflix/Supplied
The Diplomat, Netflix
Season 3 picks up right after the surprise, geopolitics-shaking death that ended Season 2 – a plot twist that proves tough for Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, and her meddling husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), to negotiate. The state of their union is the focus of early episodes and the opportunity for some beautifully acted tragicomic scenes from their marriage. Among Season 3’s other pleasures is a West Wing reunion of Allison Janney, who has been playing vice-president Grace Penn, and Bradley Whitford, introduced as her husband, Todd. The Diplomat shares a lot of juice with that Aaron Sorkin series – both feature smart, fast-paced, policy-rich dialogue – but has much more pulp (and about 70 per cent less sanctimony).
More streaming recommendations from The Globe
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Jason Clarke in The Last Frontier, streaming on Apple TV+.Bertrand Calmeau/Apple+/Supplied
The Last Frontier, Apple TV+
What if you crossed Con Air with Come From Away? This unfolding Apple TV+ series (new episodes Friday) imagines a federal prison transport plane crashing near a small town in Alaska. Local U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke) assembles the townspeople to welcome these unexpected visiting psychopaths with decidedly unopen arms (rat-a-tat-tat).
Unfortunately, creators Jon Bokenkamp (The Blacklist) and Richard D’Ovidio have gilded the lily of what could be a fun northern Western by introducing espionage elements: One of the imprisoned passengers is a duplicitous (or is that triplicitous?) superspy on a campaign to destabilize and destroy the American government (too late, buddy!). Thus, CIA agent Sidney Scofield (Sarah Snook-alike Haley Bennett) is dispatched to the Arctic to pout about in chilly corridors for a few episodes until the double crosses kick off.
There’s another fine action sequence in a stunning snowy landscape in The Last Frontier’s third episode this week; the show was made mostly in and around Montreal – and reliable Canadian actors (Prince Amponsah, Gray Powell, Martin Roach) contribute in secondary roles. It’s too bad the underwhelming overall arc is just the latest proof that “10-episode thriller” is an oxymoron.
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Hyprov: Improv under Hypnosis lands on CBC Gem Oct. 17.Aaron Cobb/CBC Gem/Supplied
Hyprov, CBC Gem
Whose Line Is It Anyway? has proved a reliable and affordable format to bring the energy of improv comedy from the stage to the small screen since 1988. This fall is the first since 2013 without new episodes British or American, however, so Canadian WLIA? veteran Colin Mochrie is free (or been released from a noncompete clause) to make something else up on the spot on TV. For the past decade, Mochrie has been touring around with a Toronto hypnotist named Asad Mecci with a live show called Hyprov – and an edited recording of a recent gig at the Regent Theatre in Oshawa, Ont., lands on CBC Gem Oct. 17. Audience members are brought on stage, hypnotized by Mecci and then, under his influence, perform scenes with Mochrie.
This might look fake, or feel like sitting in on a first-level class at Second City, if the production wasn’t studded with short interviews with the volunteers and their families where they talk about the experience afterwards. The special makes one big mistake, though: It ruins several funny moments by showing them in an opening montage where Mecci and Mochrie explain the self-explanatory concept. Start watching at the two-minute-and-three-second mark to avoid these spoilers and increase your snickers.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Crave
As spooky season hurtles toward its Halloween climax, Bell Media adds this family-friendly stop-motion classic from British filmmaker Nick Park and the Aardman Animations studio to its streaming service on Oct. 17. The first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film – now celebrating its 20th anniversary – sees their Plasticine village’s pumpkins come under attack from the local rabbit population in the lead up to the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. One of Wallace’s inventions then goes awry leading to the creation of a monster bunny that he and dog-pal Gromit must capture before others kill it. “Parodying the camera angles and lighting of such classic 1930s horror thrillers as Frankenstein and King Kong, Park and his team, already exceptional at pun-stuffed, relentlessly inventive scenarios, have fashioned an entertaining 85-minute feature-length W&G adventure,” Globe and Mail critic Liam Lacey wrote in his original three-and-a-half star review. “Savour the movie as both a 24-carrot comedy and a tail to remember.”
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Hallmark’s newest Christmas-themed TV movie, A Royal Montana Christmas, comes out on Oct. 18.Photo illustration by Hallmark/Supplied
Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas, W Network/STACKTV
Some viewers apparently wish to skip over slayings and go straight to sleigh rides in terms of seasonal entertainment. For them, Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas begins on Oct. 17 – though in Canada, confusingly, this airs on the W Network (and streams on STACKTV).
After a Friday rerun of Seasons Greetings from Cherry Lane, the first new TV movie comes out Saturday: A Royal Montana Christmas, in which Princess Victoria of Zelarnia (a fictional country that sounds like a portmanteau of the last and first names of the Ukrainian president and American first lady) finds love and the true meaning of something at the Peaceful Pines Ranch in Montana. Of course, it was shot in British Columbia; most of the self-aware schlock Hallmark produces is made somewhere in Canada. Of particular note in the coming six-week Santa onslaught: Christmas Above the Clouds (Nov. 8), which will give viewers a glimpse of the type of gigs Veronika Slowikowska got before she was cast on Saturday Night Live.
