Comment on ‘Oh, Canada’ Review: Paul Schrader Separates the Art From the Artist in Prismatic Portrait of a Dying Director

Quantity, not quality, defined the Peak TV era, an original-content bonanza that began when streaming services started making their own shows in the mid-2010s and was on the wane by the time Americans emerged from pandemic isolation. But the flurry of production inevitably facilitated some deeply strange—and often great—projects. Netflix let cult comedian Maria Bamford make Lady Dynamite, a surreal journey into her mental illness.

Even beyond the sparkling interior quality that marks a true movie star, actors are paid to play characters, not just buffed and polished versions of themselves. When we talk about “likable” actors, we’re responding to a performer’s ability to translate certain qualities onscreen. Our job as viewers is to be alive to their expressiveness, to the beauty of their features whether classical or quirky, to the way they swagger, slouch, or dance.

Hulu’s wonderful new dramedy Queenie opens with an overhead, medium close-up shot that puts viewers face-to-face with the show’s namesake heroine. Twenty-five-year-old Queenie Jenkins is staring at the ceiling, her braids spread out on a white pillow, a tangle of necklaces grazing her clavicle, and an expression of idle bemusement twisting her features.

Pat Sajak is about to put a new wheel into motion. Because after 41 seasons, the 77-year-old is hosting his last episode of Wheel of Fortune June 7. And if you're wondering how Pat feels about

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“This is a true story.” That’s what’s displayed over a black screen at the start of Netflix’s hit stalker series Baby Reindeer. It’s also the opening of a defamation complaint against the streamer, alleging the five-word phrase to be “the biggest lie in television history.” Baby Reindeer, which premiered on Netflix on April 11, is based on the experiences of Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, depicting a character named Donny—played by Gadd, who wrote the show and the one-man stage production it is adapted from—being stalked by an older Scottish woman named Martha, portrayed by Jessica Gunning. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Within days of Baby Reindeer airing, online sleuths identified the so-called “real Martha” as 58-year-old Scottish woman Fiona Harvey.