November is full of highly anticipated new shows, as well as an abundance of returning favourites. Clear your schedule, there’s a lot of binge-watching in store.
Harmony Gardens
We’re charmed by this low-fi sitcom starring real-life Canadian comedy couple Debra McGrath (Getting Along Famously) and Colin Mochrie (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), set in gracious retirement living. McGrath is the latest (if unwilling) new arrival welcomed by fellow residents Georgia (Canadian actress and singer Jackie Richardson) and retired professor Mr. Davis (Mochrie). The irreverent ensemble comedy navigates amateur theatricals, miscommunication with adult children and a suspected STI affecting the frisky group. Episodes of the short-form web comedy range from 10 to 15 minutes, offering a quick hit of topical humour.
Where to Watch:Streaming on YouTube and Convos TV starting Nov. 2 (6 episodes)
Ann Droid
In addition to playing Handler in Marvel’sVisionQuest, British comedian Diane Morgan takes on another AI character this season — in this new BBC sitcom that she created. Set a few years in the future, Morgan is Linda, a second-hand humanoid robot. She’s sent to provide personal care for an elderly widow (the indomitable Sue Johnston) who’s taken a fall. Linda is glitchy and not at all state-of-the-art, but as she keeps tabs on her patient’s health, she learns what it takes to be a comforting companion. The show mines tech foibles for deadpan humour while tenderly dealing with topics of aging and loneliness.
Where to Watch:Streaming on CBC Gem starting Nov. 6 (6 episodes)
The Body
A dance-team initiation goes wrong in this compelling coming-of-age psychodrama filmed around Southern Ontario last fall. The legacy of Dario Argento’s iconic 1970s supernaturalSuspiria(by way ofMean Girls) reverberates in this supernatural series about Catholic school girls behaving badly – and experiencing mass hysteria. “I’ve always been interested in the idea of girlhood as a religious experience. This story is definitely my way of putting a playful spin on all the nightmares of my own teenagedom,” sayscreator Quinn Shephard,who describes the series as gritty camp.
Where to Watch:Streaming on Netflix starting Nov. 11 (8 episodes)
12 12 12
This ambitiously high-concept heist drama is based on the premise that a high-asset robbery takes 12 months of planning, 12 hours of execution, and if the criminal is caught, it will happen in the 12-day aftermath. This series’s structure makes the most of those three entwined timelines. Moving the plot forward is a disgraced FBI agent (played byCaptain America’sAnthony Mackie), who pursues a career criminal (The Fall’s Jamie Dornan) across Europe after an elaborate Swiss bank vault raid. Put down the phone, this one’s full of tricks and rewards attentive viewing.
Where to Watch:Streaming on AppleTV starting Nov. 13 (8 episodes)
The Good Daughter
Like their father (Brendan Gleeson), estranged sisters Samantha (Oscar-nominee Rose Byrne) and Charlotte (Meghann Fahy,The White Lotus) both became lawyers. Having survived a brutal, life-altering home invasion as teens, one sister moved away from their community while the other remained. This suspense thriller unravels their traumatic past when, in the present, another tragedy takes place. The Peacock original is based onWill Trentcreator Karin Slaughter’s 2017 bestseller about the entanglements of loyalty, family money, small towns and long-buried cover-ups.
Where to Watch:Streaming on Crave starting Nov. 12 (6 episodes)
The Altruists
Hustlers and scammers continue to fascinate (exhibit A: Canadian Nathan Fielder’s hit newElizabeth Holmes documentary,You Can See Everything). Tipped as “Gen Z’s Bonnie and Clyde,” this true-crime series covers the period leading up to FTX cryptocurrency foundersSam Bankman-Friedand Caroline Ellison’s $36 billion financial felonies. The American entrepreneurs, played by Irish stage actor Anthony Boyle andOzark’s Julia Garner, were convicted of criminal fraud in 2023. “Over the course of the years that our show depicts,” showrunner Graham Moore says of the biographical drama, “Sam and Caroline, with the very best of intentions, talked each other and themselves into committing a number of terrible crimes.” Charting their conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering makes for infuriating entertainment.
Where to Watch:Streaming on Netflix starting Nov. 19 (8 episodes)
Comedy superstar-turned-podcaster Amy Poehler leads a group of young women archaeology students on a remote site in Greece in this series that reunites her withParks & Recreationco-creator, Mike Schur. It’s an outdoorsy workplace comedy, mining gender politics and friction between Gens X and Z and Boomers, and the group is mentored by a British professor played byHouse’s Hugh Laurie. Their discovery of a mysterious artifact unearths more than history in this entertaining adaptation of the 2023 novelExcavations, which was inspired by author Kate Myers’sown excavation experiences.
Where to Watch:Streaming onShowcase/STACKTV starting Nov. 23 (10 episodes)
Blade Runner 2099
Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh leads this atmospheric, neo-noir continuation of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,and takes its cues from the rain-soaked dystopian vision Ridley Scott established 44 years ago in hisgame-changing science-fiction film classicstarring Harrison Ford.This instalment, executive-produced by Scott, isset in Los Angeles 50 years after the events of Denis Villeneuve’sBlade Runner 2049movie sequel (in which Ryan Gosling is the lead replicant/humanoid hunter). The twist in this bleak cyberpunk landscape is that the replicants now dominate humans. Yeoh is Olwen, a replicant nearing the end of her life. Reluctantly partnered with Cora (Hunter Schafer), a fugitive posing as a blade runner, they’re on the trail of a corporate conspiracy.
Where to Watch:Streaming on Prime starting Nov. 26 (8 episodes)
Briefly Noted + Returning Favourites
Newcomer Jaalen Best is Cassius Clay inThe Greatest(Nov. 4, Prime), the first authorized scripted series about the life of Muhammad Ali. AndLetterkennycreator Jared Keeso enlists Jann Arden, Brent Butt and Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger as co-stars in his latest offbeat comedy,I Kill the Bear(Nov. 6, Crave), about a Franco-Ontarian family of animal wranglers. Meanwhile, Crave welcomes back HBO’s 1880s posh period dramaThe Gilded Age(Nov. 1, Crave) for a fourth season; Netflix’sThe Empress, about the Habsburg dynasty, returns for season three; garish ’80s backstabbing is showcased in the second half of season two ofRivals(Nov. 11, Disney+); whileYellowjackets(Nov. 20, Paramount+) welcomes June Squibb, Dulé Hill, Elijah Wood and Molly Ringwald for its final season. Owen Wilson’s golf comedy,Stick,returns for a second round (Nov. 4, AppleTV), as do London spies Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw of the stylishBlack Doves(Nov. 5, Netflix) and the Middle-earth inhabitants ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power(Nov. 11, Prime). The month also sees another season of Kim Kardashian’s widely panned legal seriesAll’s Fair(Nov. 4, Disney+); but with the great Glenn Close co-starring it can’t be all bad. And if you missed it on CBC, new episodes of quirky Canadian comedyNorth of North(Nov. 5, Netflix) transport us to fictional yet stunningIce Cove, Nunavut.
