Turn And Smile

Turn and Smile Prime Time, August 31: Clueless, Elle

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:01:56 GMT

Welcome back, Sofa Taters!

Starting next month, our TV reviews will be all-Canadian, too. We’ll be seeing how this works, so please let us know what you think.

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OPENING REVIEW

Clueless

“Ordinary Girl” by China Forbes

| 🇺🇸 | TV-G | ABC/ UPN |

Clueless, the TV series, is a sequel to Clueless, the movie, which in turn was loosely based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel, “Emma,” so by the transitive property, the TV show was based on “Emma.”

Math is fun.

At its heart, Clueless is about doing good in the world and for others and combating expectations and stereotypes. Cher and her friends are all “of a type,” and the actors’ performances lean very heavily into audience expectations, but their personalities and behaviour end up surprising us.

The theme song, “Ordinary Girl” by American singer/ songwriter and Pink Martini band member China Forbes, is a perfect encapsulation of the dichotomy of the moral foundation of the series and social expectations of the characters based only on their aesthetics. The lyrics, written by Charlotte Caffey (of The Go-Go’s fame) and Anna Waronker (lead singer of That Dog), paint a subject composed of contradictions. The “she” in question is framed as being both the pinnacle of aesthetic perfection and maximally generous and kind. Like any song, the listener brings a lot to its interpretation, but it seems to go out of the way to visually depict Cher and her friends one way, but also describe them in a way that seems to contradict and subvert audience expectations.

In this sense, Clueless is a feminist masterpiece from these first moments. Especially during the 1990s when the movie and series aired, there were social and political forces at play that attempted to divide women and girls. There was a notion in the culture that if you weren’t a “certain kind” of woman, you couldn’t be supportive of women or you couldn’t be kind, or even intelligent. Clueless fought against these messages through its setting and aesthetic and juxtapositioning expectations and assumptions with complex characters and the plot. The theme song, a catchy girl power pop anthem in its own right, expertly sets this up as well.

Subverting expectations is so punk rock, and punk is for pastel-laden girly-girls, too.

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SEASON REVIEW

Elle

Season 1

| 🇺🇸 | TV-14 | Prime Video |

Season 1 of the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle focuses on series protagonist Elle Woods in high school before getting to law school. Unfortunately, her father, a plastic surgeon, gets into a little hot water, forcing the Woods clan to relocate far north to Seattle, Washington. Here, Elle’s selfish materialism is aggressively confronted by her new classmates’ grunge aesthetic, punk social consciousness, and moral activism.

Cher Horowitz, the main character from the Clueless franchise, and Elle Woods are both, in reality, subversive feminist punk icons because they prove that these movements are for everyone. There is no “right way” to be a woman. Both shows, but Elle most especially, frame their main character in a way that forces the audience to conceptualize her as a hyper-feminine spoiled little girl and then reveals her to have actual values aligned with movements and subcultures that at first seem incongruent with their values.

Elle even serves as a criticism of the Seattle counter-culture scene as it shows Elle’s new peers as guilty of the same conformity, tactlessness, and selfishness that Elle herself is accused of. Not to say that she wasn’t guilty of these things to begin with. If anything, her classmates are both a foil to, and reflection of, her character through the season. They teach her the importance of advocacy, and she teaches them tact.

However, through everything, the only true individual and the only true non-conformist is Elle Woods herself. She has a unique and personal style and doesn’t change it to fit in. Everyone else conforms to a unified sense of style. Even characters like Kimberly, who dress in a hyperfeminine way, change clothes at school. Yet Elle dresses how she wants even when bullies target her with sexist insults.

Elle is a masterpiece series about defiant and rugged individualism, and doing what’s right with grace, resilience, and tact. It’s also the best argument since 1996 against tribalism.

🍁 Canadian perspective 🍁

We’ve found a real-world comparison point for the story of Elle’s first season.

The SCOTUS confirmation of everyone’s favourite aging goblin, Clarence Thompson.

In the 1990s during third-wave feminism in the United States, Anita Hill, her testimony, and her experience became something of a rallying point for American women and feminists fighting for equality. The case itself also exemplified the way that the corrupt abused people and systems to hurt people and advance their careers. Which also is revealed to be the plot of Elle.

So what was the big issue being rallied around in Canada?

Female circumcision, otherwise known as female genital mutilation (FGM). Namely, the fight was to recognize it as a form of persecution or abuse, and the activism was actually super successful.

At the time, a mother fled her country with her daughter to avoid her girl getting FGM done to her. In Canada, there is a list of qualifying conditions or experiences that grant a person refugee status. It’s a very nuanced issue, but for our purposes you just need to know that you don’t get to claim refugee status just because a bad and violent thing happened to you in a specific country. There is a list. And before 1994, “my daughter will have her labia forcibly burned off” wasn’t on the list. Canadian feminist activists changed that.

So what might a very Canadian version of this series look like?

Elle would be from the city of West Vancouver. It’s a city known for millionaires and mansions. Property value higher than your retirement fund. A lot of it is still the same, except now her family is moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba or London, Ontario. It’s still for the same reason. She still has the same issues fitting in. Her values are what they started as.

Except now Liz isn’t actually registered as a student and lives outside of the school district’s catchment area. It turns out that at the school she is registered at, she’s experiencing very intense bullying, but because the bullying isn’t physical violence and because it’s more subtle and invisible, the school can’t do anything about it, and the district can’t sign off on an acceptable reason for her transfer.

Eventually Elle would help her new friends advocate for Liz at a school board meeting and eventually convince the superintendent to recognize the harassment and bullying Liz experienced as a form of violence or persecution and get her status.

Instead of the late great James Van Der Beek, we have to insist on a different Dawson’s Creek cast member: Joshua Jackson. He’s Canadian.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Monday, August 31

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:01:16 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s the first all-Canadian TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week! This is a special edition so we can start fresh in September, but we will resume the regular Sunday schedule on September 6th.

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far!

If you’re interested in a weekly TV guide with shows available internationally, Turn And Smile’s own Mason will be publishing an international TV guide weekly for September through the end of December on his Substack, Asleep On TV.

Mason is… ”woke,” so he’s set up a section of the above newsletter just for the TV guide called The Weekly Lineup, named after what surfers do when they’re waiting to catch the gnarly waves because his TV guide is your guide to channel surfing!! (Get it????)

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September or Unknown 2026 Release

I Kill the Bear

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | Unknown Rating | Crave |

Jared Keeso is quickly becoming the Canadian Ryan Murphy and Tyler Sheridan rolled into one. The Letterkenny and Shorsey co-creator brings this new comedy about a family of movie bear wranglers to Canada. Reportedly, the family will be working on their last film set after a one hundred-year tenure in the industry for reasons we will have to tune in to find out. Unfortunately, all we know is that it’s supposed to debut at some point in 2026, but the release date has not been announced.

Sigil

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | Unknown Rating | Crave |

Series co-creator Devery Jacobs has some Canadian TV bona fides, but the most notable gig of theirs from Canada is as a writer on the popular series Reservation Dogs. Their most notable part, however, was in the Disney+ Marvel series What if…? playing Kahhori. Sigil is a change of pace. It’s a horror-themed fantasy show that blends animation and live action. If it sounds like it’s going to be a trippy kaleidoscope, that’s because at least one of the Wachowski sisters is involved.

North of North

| 🇨🇦 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | APTN+/ APTN/ (CBC/ CBC Gem/ Netflix) |

Season 2 of this wildly popular series about an Inuk woman living in a northern community in Nunavut returns to Netflix this week. Reportedly, the second season not only returned to Nunavut to film, but also filmed in Toronto. Will Siaja spend some time in the big city this season? Only one way to find out. Just so you know, First North of North is debuting on APTN+, the premium streaming arm of APTN. Next week it’s coming to CBC, APTN, and CBC Gem. Sometime after that- we don’t know when- it hits Netflix again.

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September or Unknown 2026 Release

Home Town Takeover Canada

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HGTV/ CityTV+ |

Communities all across the Great White North have been spending months pitching their town or city to HGTV to get their project on this Canadian version of the popular renovation and revitalization series. We’re really going to be in for a treat as Canadian DIY hosts Sarah and Bryan Baeumler get shown around picturesque locations like Port Alberni, British Columbia and get to take over from Erin and Ben Napier. Expect to see it sometime this fall.

Métis Foodies

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | APTN |

Two lifelong friends, and also Aunties, Suzanne and Paulette travel across the Canadian prairies and Alberta, trying to connect with members of their Métis Foodies Facebook group.

Etalk/ Etalk Daily

| 🇨🇦 | Season 25 | Unknowable Episodes | Daily | Unknown Rating | CTV/ Crave |

Ben Mulroney is a former Prime Minister’s son, and in Canada he also has the most punchable face. In terms of Canadian dynasties, in the case of the Mulroney, the apple fell very, very far from the tree because Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister, is hailed as one of the greatest leaders we’ve had the great pleasure to have, but his son seems to consider it his job to shake his fist angrily at clouds on social media. That’s not his job, though. His actual job is as a host of Etalk, Canada’s original entertainment industry news show. Yet it seems his passion is attacking windmills.

Hudson & Rex

| 🇨🇦 | Season 9 | 12 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | CityTV |

Actor John Reardon (the Hudson in Hudson & Rex) had to step away from the series early in Season 7 to get treatment for throat cancer. He finished his treatment and was ready to come back for Season 8 with a clean bill of health. There was no reason he couldn’t come back. But still, for reasons unknown to the world, CityTV decided to replace him anyway. Fan backlash was immediate and intense. Canadians signed petitions. Now Reardon is back. Hudson & Rex the series is a police procedural dramady much like Turner & Hooch, but was actually based on an Austrian/ Italian series called Inspector Rex, which itself inspired several other international versions following the same premise of a police detective working with a dog because he doesn’t like people. The dog who played Rex in Hudson & Rex, a very good boy named Diesel vom Burgimwald, also got cancer during Season 7 and unexpectedly died. But Diesel vom Burgimwald has multiple living relatives, including siblings and nephews, that have stepped in to play Rex.

Family Feud Canada

| 🇨🇦 | Season 8 | 64 Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | CBC/ CBC Gem |

Host Gerry Dee might be the closest thing Canada has to “Canadian Steve Harvey,” and we might be biased on the subject, but we feel that there’s an argument to be made that Dee is the funnier host of Family Feud. The premise of this game show is the same as its American counterpart in that producers conduct opinion surveys with ordinary people and contestants have to guess the top answers among 100 people. The difference is that Family Feud Canada uses Canadians. And the host is funnier.

The Fifth Estate

| 🇨🇦 | Season 52 | 17 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | CBC/ CBC Gem |

The United States has Dateline, 20/20, and 60 Minutes, but Canada has The Fifth Estate. The name “Fifth Estate” comes from the more classical “estates” (or neo-classical, maybe). The first estate is traditionally considered the clergy, the second was the nobility, the third is the common people, and the fourth estate is the mainstream press and mainstream journalism. The fifth estate (the concept) grew out of counterculture movements and primarily referred to non-traditional, informal, or “outsider” journalism starting around the 1960s. Since then, the fifth estate has become associated with zine writers (remember zines??), bloggers, vloggers, video essayists, and journalism done online or on TV. Media theorists have argued that the fifth estate is better able to hold the fourth estate accountable. This long-running series is a news magazine program similar to Dateline, 20/20, and 60 Minutes.

Marketplace

| 🇨🇦 | Season 54 | 16 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | CBC/ CBC Gem |

CBC’s Marketplace is a long-running consumer advocacy news magazine program. It reports on issues related to safety, testing, and related issues.

The Price Is Right Tonight

| 🇨🇦 | Season 2 | 24 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | CityTV |

Mason once saw Howie Mandel perform live, and so it is with great love and personal experience that we describe him as a Canadian eccentric. Mandel, however, lives full time in the United States, so when he is filming this game show where contestants guess current prices for luxury, household, and basic goods, he tends to stay in a high-end Toronto area hotel.

The Traitors Canada

| 🇨🇦 | Season 4 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | CTV/ Crave |

The great thing about hiring a French-Canadian host for a reality TV game show is that you don’t have to hire a different host for the French version of the show. The Traitors Canada is the English version of the game where host Karine Vanasse welcomes contestants to a castle to live and work together to collectively win a prize. However, there are traitors among them who are looking to sabotage the group and claim the prize for themselves. Vanasse is also the host of Les Traîtres, which is the same show but in French. Les Traîtres just concluded its third season last summer.

Squamish Medium

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | APTN Languages (APTN) |

Near the start of the month, APTN is debuting Squamish Medium in Cree, one of the many indigenous languages still spoken in Canada. Later, APTN will debut the show in English as well. This is a reality TV series following Swampy Cree member Danielle Searancke, who is a spiritual medium and an end-of-life doula who claims to help people connect with the spirits of those they have lost. The James Randi Educational Foundation, started by Canadian-American magician and skeptic James Randi, has a cash prize for Mediums and psychics who pass standardized scientific scrutiny. They have not yet been able to award it to anyone, because they have all either failed or refused to participate. We don’t know if Searancke has had the opportunity, but we are eager to see her try.

Unsettled Spirits

| 🇨🇦 | Season 1 | 13 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | APTN/ APTN Languages |

APTN is debuting this reality TV series following a team of Indigenous paranormal investigators who combine ancestral knowledge with modern technology to find out why some spirits remain… unsettled.

Ghost Hunters of the Grand River

| 🇨🇦 | Season 5 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | APTN |

A group of Six Nations ghost hunters who search for evidence of the paranormal in haunted places.

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We especially want to thank…

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Turn And Smile, and its agents may benefit from your interaction with links and buttons in this newsletter, as well as from purchases made through associated subscriptions or other commerce. Turn And Smile is a subsidiary of Stick Horse Marketing LTD. All rights reserved.

Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, August 23

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:01:16 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far!

This is the end of our countdown! On August 31st, we will be publishing our first all-Canadian TV guide. All of the shows will be Canadian. All of the TV networks will be Canadian. And without any commentary, we will be trying this new format out until the end of the year.

If you still want the regular international TV guide, you can either complain in the comments, or will be publishing one in his very woke newsletter, Asleep On TV.

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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August 24th to August 31st

Leanne

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Netflix |

The producer and TV show creator Chuck Lorre has been on a roll lately, giving people shows they never asked for and don’t want. His career is dotted with very good, well-remembered shows like Grace Under Fire with troubled comedian Brett Butler, and Dharma and Greg with Jenna Elfman and the ever-antagonistic Thomas Gibson. But for the past ten or fifteen years, TV shows from Lorre have been… milquetoast at best. Leanne Morgan, the series star and co-creator, is normally an incredible comic talent. Any comedy special or showcase featuring her is a laugh-out-loud treat and a better way to spend an hour, and the rest of the cast, including her ex-husband, played by Canadian funnyman and Who’s Line is it Anyway? alum Ryan Styles, and Leanne’s sister, played by Third Rock From the Sun alum and sitcom veteran Kristen Johnston, are also remarkable comic talents in their own right. On paper, Leanne sounds like it should be very funny, but the issue seems to be that Chuck Lorre has lost his spine. He used to shine a humanizing light on addiction and broken families at a time when single, middle- or lower-class mothers were being called lazy and neglectful. Shows about divorce in and of themselves are no longer innovative or humanizing. What we need is Chuck Lorre to do what he did for single alcoholics for Cybil Shepard.

Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

The jury’s still out about an interconnected Tyler Perry cinematic universe, but while we work out how Beauty in Black connects to Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Beauty in Black returns to continue the story of a former stripper who becomes connected to a cosmetics brand involved in trafficking.

Dark Matter

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV |

If you aren’t going to immediately tune out the second you see that this is a sci-fi adventure involving multiversal action, this might be the show for you. The series follows someone who has to fight through alternate realities to get back to their family and save them from the biggest threat the multiverse has ever seen: another version of the main character.

All the Truth in My Lies/ Toda la verdad de mis mentiras

| 🇪🇸 | Miniseries | 5 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

It is a universal truth that the best test for the longevity of a relationship is taking a trip together. Especially a road trip. This miniseries from Spain proves that in its story about friends travelling to a bachelorette party where all their secrets finally come out.

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August 24th to August 31st

Jeopardy! Masters

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 9 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | ABC |

The popular trivia game show where contestants ask the question after being given the answer returns. This version picks previous Jeopardy! champions to compete against each other.

Big Break x Good Gold/ The Big Break

| 🇺🇸 | Season 24 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Golf Channel |

The Big Break is a reality TV competition from the Golf Channel where aspiring professional golfers get an exception to participate in professional golf tournaments. The series has been off the air for quite some time, and due, to that this season is technically a revival.

Totally ’90s House

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HGTV |

Aging 90s stars, including Jaleel White (Steve Urkel), Mellissa Joan Hart (Clarissa and Sabrina), Matthew Lawrence (Jack Hunter from Boy Meets World), and Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner), come together to compete in this new 90s themed home renovation show. Much like every other 90s kid who will be watching this show, we will be carefully watching Jaleel White with bated breath, hoping that, if he makes a mistake of any magnitude, he looks directly into the camera, smirks, and asks, “Did I do that?”

Adults

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | FXX |

Last year, Adults Season 1 was the funniest thing to premiere that year. Often described as “the Gen Z(ed) Friends,” the series follows a group of college grads and friends still navigating their 20s in post-pandemic New York City as roommates and friends with hilarity and misadventures galore.

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TV History and Trivia

[TEXT]

We especially want to thank…

Mason’s mom

Larissa’s mom

Larissa’s husband, Jordan

Mason’s uncles

Turn And Smile, and its agents may benefit from your interaction with links and buttons in this newsletter, as well as from purchases made through associated subscriptions or other commerce. Turn And Smile is a subsidiary of Stick Horse Marketing LTD. All rights reserved.

Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, August 16

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:00:57 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far!

Three of four until we restart in September with an all-Canadian TV guide! The new TV will be all Canadian-produced shows, not only shows available in Canada.

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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We thank you for all you can do to support us.

🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: The comical drunk, John A. Macdonald

In the USA, President Ulysses S. Grant has a reputation for being a sloppy drunk and was known to often spill his beverages on his lap.

In Canada, our first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald (who was in power at the same time as Grant), has a reputation for being the kind of drunk that makes everyone else reconsider their own relationship with alcohol. It was… concerning.

The context you need for this is that circa 1867 it was normal to be a professional adult and drink during your workday. Most of Parliament, for example, were drinking wine and spirits while doing paperwork. The Parliament building, for example, was built specifically with so-called “blind pigs” for drinking. If you were a lawyer around this time, you would be having scotch with lunch, and scotch at 2:00, and then go to a pub for some more scotch at the end of your day.

In this social climate, the level at which our first PM drank concerned everyone.

It was so bad that if he were Prime Minister today, he would rank somewhere between a national disgrace and a national embarrassment. Much more than Premier Scott Moe’s driving record embarrasses Saskatchewan.

Like all experienced problem drinkers, John A. Macdonald was also very talented at deflecting and lying. During a debate while running for office in a by-election, he threw up, and when his debate opponent pointed out that this grown man was throwing up on stage, Macdonald wiped his mouth and said he wasn’t throwing up because he was drunk, but because he was so sick of listening to the other guy.

Macdonald would even go on multi-day benders where he would totally disappear. You might think this is a problem for the leader of the government of a whole country. You would be right. He was frequently not around to do his job because he was out drinking.

If you look up pictures of him, you will notice there are a lot of pictures of him sitting. The reason is that he was usually so drunk that he couldn’t stand up without falling over.

Macdonald’s drink of choice was vodka or gin, and he drank it from a water glass in the House of Commons so that others would assume it was water.

In 1866, before he was Prime Minister, Macdonald was the leader of national defence during the Fenian raids when Irish American Civil War veterans invaded Canada (British North America at the time) as a means to pressure England to get out of Ireland. He chose this moment, when the country was actively defending itself from invasion and counting on him to command various militias to go on a bender. As telegrams and letters came into his office, each one went unanswered. When he was found, he had passed out on his floor.

There is so much to be ashamed of that we don’t even have to address his explicit racism.

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August 17th to August 23rd

Average Joe

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Paramount+ |

It sounds like the more compelling version of a Tyler Perry show, except Tyler Perry has nothing to do with it. Average Joe is about an average plumber named Joe (very creative title) who finds out that his recently dead father lived a double life and stole millions from the kind of people you shouldn’t steal from. Now all these very bad people assume that Joe knows where their money is, and now he must uproot his friends and family to keep them alive.

Outer Banks

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Fans of this series, which first came to us during the pandemic (good times), might find this season bittersweet because Season 5 will be the conclusion of the show. The creators of the series are on record saying they’ve always envisioned a five-season story arc. On top of that, the young cast have revealed they prefer to end naturally on their own instead of extending it indefinitely. The show is a globetrotting adventure about working-class “Pogues” facing off against wealthy “Kooks” after a death.

Blood Sacrifice/ Blodsoffer

| 🇸🇪 | Season 1 | 5 Episodes | Unknown Schedule |Unknown Rating | Netflix |

Blood Sacrifice has had an interesting journey which actually starts in Britain. Screenwriter George Kay, known for the series Lupin and Criminal: UK, originally wrote the five-episode season for the UK market. Somehow (we couldn’t begin to speculate how), it was acquired by Sweden and rewritten for a Swedish audience because, believe it or not, Sweden and the UK are different countries. This crime drama follows a police detective who enlists his curmudgenonly father, a retired detective, to help catch a serial killer.

S&X/ SとX

| 🇯🇵 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Japan offers us this new drama following a sex therapist who secretly has their own relationship and sexual issues they’re not dealing with.

Stillwater

| 🇯🇵/🇫🇷/🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 5 Episodes | Drop | TV-Y7 | Apple TV |

James Sie returns as the voice of the wise panda Stillwater to impart lessons to the young cast of this series. Parents might (or might not) recognize Sie’s voice from the animated fantasy/ action/ adventure series Jackie Chan Adventures when he voiced the titular Jackie Chan.

The Dynasty: UConn Huskies

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Apple TV |

This three-part documentary miniseries profiles the UConn Huskies, or the University of Connecticut Huskies, the most dominant college basketball franchise in the Eastern Conference.

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August 17th to August 23rd

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

| 🇺🇸 | Season 18 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | FXX |

The popularity of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or Sunny as fans affectionately call it, is interesting in itself. The show was born from the same character-design philosophy that Larry David popularized on Seinfeld. The basic idea is that horrible, often immoral characters make for better comedy. The expectation would be that nobody would actually agree with or even side with such characters, but instead what we see is that they’ve become some of the most beloved characters in all of TV history. These degenerates who run a bar in the titular city will continue their regular misadventures.

Cocktail Wars

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | E! |

This reality TV competition series will pit professional mixologists against each other for a $10,000 prize and glory. Hosts and *NSYNC members Joey Fatone and Lance Bass will no doubt get to sample the 🎶dirty pop🎶 and say 🎶”Bye, Bye, Bye”🎶 to contestants through the ten-episode run.

Untold Stories of the ER

| 🇺🇸 | Season 16 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | TLC |

Doctors recount their most memorable cases for teams of actors to reenact in this docudrama.

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TV History and Trivia

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The show’s opening credits sequence has been called “the cheapest ever filmed” by Charlie Day, as it was filmed on a regular digital camera as they were driving around Philadelphia one night.

The name Sweet Dee was taken from Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchmen frontman Tom Morello's wife, Denise Luiso.

The pilot episode may have been filmed for as low as $85. The entire budget went to tapes for the camera. Official figures put the budget around $85 to $200.

Friends inspired this show in a very weird or morbid way. The initial concept was for a show about friends who wouldn’t ever be there for each other.

Once the series creators Rob Mac and Glenn Howerton settled on the title It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, they were offered $500 to come up with a different title. They did not.

The show that was first pitched to the network was called It’s Always Sunny on TV and about four actors struggling to make it in Hollywood. The network changed the location to Philadelphia, and then other changes were made.

Rob Mac was working as a waiter before this show, and through the first season. He didn’t quit until Season 2 was greenlit.

The main cast took a smaller salary through the first season, and because of that, the network gave them more freedom. The series also had less pressure on it to perform in ratings.

Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob Mac have a backend ownership deal for this series, and it has earned them at least $60,000,000.

The budget for the first season was $550,000/ episode which was a fraction of most TV comedies.

We especially want to thank…

Mason’s mom

Larissa’s mom

Larissa’s husband, Jordan

Mason’s uncles

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, August 9

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 07:01:36 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far!

We are now counting down to a big change in this TV Guide when we will switch over from internationally available TV shows to all Canadian shows. Feel free to let us know what you think! Three weeks left!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: The pig farm from Hell and MMIW

Pigs will eat basically anything.

It’s not unusual to hear people say that if they were going to murder someone or dispose of a body, that they would feed the body to pigs on a pig farm. Well… that actually happened in Western Canada.

Pig farms, it turns out, aren’t the best way to dispose of a body.

Between at least 1983 to 2001, Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert Pickton killed fourty-nine women from Vancouver, British Columbia, most of whom were sex workers and indigenous women. It’s an unfortunate norm that many predators will target sex workers for a number of reasons. Not only are they often a convienet and opportunistic target, but also perpetrators frequently assume that they don’t have connections who would look for them if they go missing, and that police don’t care. In the past that was at least partially true, but it was the activism of the victim’s families and friends that eventually lead to one of the largest police investigations in Canadian history and Pickton’s eventual arrest and conviction on six counts of second-degree murder.

The investigation and subsequent trial are almost folk-loric in Canada. A lot was revealed during it, including Pickton’s apparent connections to The Hell’s Angles biker gang (which has long been suspect but not confirmed of being a criminal organization in Canada), and Pickton being suspected of not being smart enough to pull off even this very simple plan.

In 1997 police began investigating Pickton and his farm. They used forensics to collect, trace, process, and test the DNA, blood, and human bones found around the farm, and tested the pig’s waste.

Throughout the tiral there was continued national conversations about Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), many of whom leave less than safe environments in smaller community and Reservations then end up in cities forced to enter sex work. The unfortunate thing that Robert Pickton’s trial highlighted is that racialized women not only face the same sexism and violence that all women face, but due to bias and racism in law enforcement often have their disappearaces and murders overlooked or disreguarded by law enforement. The trial, which began in late January of 2007 and ended in December of the same year, highlighted Pickton’s victim’s humanity. These women were indeed mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends, but also human. Loved and cared about just like anyone else.

Robert Pickton was killed by another inmate while serving a life sentence in 2024. In 2025, the inmate pled guilty and said he did it for Pickton’s victims.

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August 10th to August 16th

Mourinho

| 🇬🇧 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Jose Mourinho is many things: a talented coach. The man who took several teams to championships. And, according to him, while standing in front of a mural of himself in his own home: very modest. This three-part British documentary miniseries picks up at the start of the upward swing of his career and continues to the present day and the team he has come out of retirement for.

Reacher

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Prime Video |

When the Tom Cruise-fronted Jack Reacher movie was announced, there was a lot of criticism from fans of the book series because canonically Reacher is described as having the build of a Maytag 31 Cu. Ft. XL Capacity French Door Refrigerator (MRFF4336TZ). Alan Ritchson has not had the same complaints in this action series about a former military investigator. This season will see Reacher stopping suicide bombers.

Women in Blue/ Las azules

| 🇪🇸/🇲🇽 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV |

Apparently, an idea behind the formation of real-life, all-female Mexican police forces was that women wouldn’t be corrupt, wouldn’t face as much corruption, and would more often refuse bribes. This season will pick up after a promotion from last season and will see one of Las azules torn between roles while investigating the murder of a student activist.

Tires

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

We don’t know anyone who… wants this. This sitcom about a tire shop trying to improve its business stars problematic comedian Shane Gillis, who was fired from SNL before his first day for using slurs and then defending his use of slurs. Assumably, what his fans want to see from him wouldn’t actually pass even Netflix’s Standards and Practices department, making this show tame by comparison. That leaves Tires in a weird limbo where people are just wondering who it’s for.

My Brilliant Career

| 🇦🇺 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

This new Australian family drama follows a rebellious protagonist who refuses to conform to the norms asked of them as they try to find their voice and pursue their writing.

Hollywood Crime Story: The Mob Takes Over the Movies

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 3 Episodes | Release Schedule | Unknown Rating | Sundance Now |

The best way to dissuade young people from a career in the Hollywood film industry is to tell them more about the history and business practices of Hollywood. If they still want it after, ask questions. Case in point: this three-part docuseries details the mob’s infiltration of Hollywood through controlling trade unions, financial manipulation, fixers, and power brokers.

Umthetho

| 🇿🇦 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

This captivating crime drama out of South Africa has a prosecutor becoming a double agent in their brother’s prison gang to help keep him alive.

Moria

| 🇦🇷 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

First of all, make sure you wish Argentinian icon, sex symbol, and star Moria Casán a very happy birthday as she isn’t just lighting up the stage and screen, but a cake with eighty candles. This series has the multidisciplinary performer opening her life up to dramatic retellings where she will give three of her country's brightest starlettes a chance at playing her at different points in her career while she oversees the story.

Honest Renovations

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | # Episodes | Release Schedule | TV-Rating | Roku Channel |

Jessica Alba and Elizabeth Mathis host this home renovation show for “deserving people,” yet there is no clarification on what counts as “deserving.”

Lanterns

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO Max |

Nerds rejoice! Lanterns is the latest entry in James Gunn’s DC (cinematic) Universe, which is connected to other recent DC films and shows going back to the animated Creature Commandos series. This one is adapted from Green Lantern, both the multiple comic book characters who carry the title and the comic book series. According to the source materials, the Green Lanterns are essentially a group that has appointed themselves as intergalactic cops. Each member gets a ring that lets them create “constructs” of light that can also be solid. The strength of their “light constructs” is also tied to the individual’s strength of will. The series will follow more veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his trainee, John Stewart, as they travel into America’s heartland Dean-and-Sam-Winchester-style to face off against an intergalactic threat. Considering the more mature tone of this show, parental discretion is very strongly advised, but for younger budding geeks and nerds, parents should look for Green Lantern: The Animated Series, which ran from 2011 to 2013, or visit your local comic book shop and ask for a suggestion from the staff member who either can be described as the most spunky, or who looks like they’re really into primary colours.

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August 10th to August 16th

Engineering from Above

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | History |

Reportedly, Engineering from Above will be using very impressive graphics to detail, explain, and explore some of history’s greatest engineering marvels.

Jep & Jess: Beyond the Bayou

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Great American Family |

There was a time when the kids would leave the nest, and nobody would call that a spin-off. Although the children in this case are both older than forty. Jep & Jess Robertson, a husband and wife duo in the endlessly problematic family in the Duck Dynasty family from Louisiana, are leaving the Bayou and heading to Texas near the Dallas/ Fort Worth area to open a combination fishing pond/ pickleball court, which will probably cost a lot because there’s a reason you don’t see poor people playing pickleball.

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TV History and Trivia

Friends

This week we’re digging into the show Friends.

The fat suit that Courtney Cox (who played Monica) wore sometimes only sized her up to what would be considered a modern women’s size twelve.

David Schwimmer (Ross) and Jennifer Aniston (Rachel) were offered much higher pay than their co-stars due to the focus on their characters’ romance in Season 2. However, during negotiations for Season 3, Schwimmer convinced the principal cast to stop negotiating individually and instead form a unified block to get higher pay and equal pay. He and Aniston also took a pay cut to make this happen. But it worked; their salaries eventually became the highest on television, and it led to them each making $1,000,000/ episode.

When Matt LeBlanc (Joey) first auditioned, he had $11 to his name. The first thing he bought with his first cheque from Friends was a hot meal.

According to one source, by the end of the series Joey owes Chandler $119,760.

At the time episodes originally aired (1994 to 2004), it was not common for audiences to know episode titles of TV shows, but it was an industry standard for TV episodes to have a title, even if it was just the episode and season number. As a slight inside joke on this norm, Friends episodes were titled in the format, “The One Where…” or “The One When…” as a nod to how people would probably describe the plot of episodes.

James Michael Tyler’s (Gunther’s) bright blonde hair was an accident. Before Tyler came to audition, his friend, who had recently become a hairstylist, practiced (or experimented) on him. The producers loved the look, though, and kept it.

Jennifer Aniston was so frequently late to set that David Schwimmer led an “intervention” of sorts to confront her about the issue.

Matt LeBlanc can actually speak fluent Italian and French.

The show was filmed in front of a live studio audience (a very common industry norm for sitcoms), but Tom Selek was so ridiculously famous at the time of his appearances on Friends that the audience reaction to his entrances went on so long that they were totally unusable. They had to be reshot later without them there.

For the episode “The One With The Lesbian Wedding,” which aired in 1996, producers hired two hundred part-time people to take calls because they assumed they would be inundated with complaints about the lesbian wedding. In total, they only got eleven complaints total.

We especially want to thank…

Mason’s mom

Larissa’s mom

Larissa’s husband, Jordan

Mason’s uncles

Turn And Smile, and its agents may benefit from your interaction with links and buttons in this newsletter, as well as from purchases made through associated subscriptions or other commerce. Turn And Smile is a subsidiary of Stick Horse Marketing LTD. All rights reserved.

Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, August 2

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:00:26 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far!

We are now counting down to a big change in this TV guide when we will switch over from internationally available TV shows to all Canadian shows. Feel free to let us know what you think! Three weeks left!

If you still want an international weekly TV guide, will be hosting one after the switch. More details on that will come later.

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka, and Canadian Justice

(Content note: this Canadian Corner deals with a criminal case involving violence, murder, and sexual assault)

There is a movie that most Ontarians, and most reasonable Canadians, of a certain age will probably ask you not to watch if you are not Canadian after they find out it actually exists. It is considered one of the most disrespectful movies about a very Canadian issue made by non-Canadians.

It is the 2006 movie Karla, starring That '70s Show alum Laura Prepon and every nerd’s favourite angel, Misha Collins.

The content of the movie is highly sensitive, and the production was very poorly timed, to say the least.

Because it was about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Two of Canada’s worst serial killers.

Bernardo got his start in infamy in the late 1980s. At this time, he was dubbed the Scarborough Rapist for all of the many sexual assaults he committed in and around Scarborough, Ontario. He was an incredibly violent and depraved man, attacking teenage girls usually after they got off the bus or while they were walking alone at night. These attacks went on from 1987 to 1991.

In 1987, he met and then began dating Karla Homolka. They married in 1991. This timeline will be interesting later.

In 1990, Bernardo (and Homolka) drugged and sexually assaulted Homolka’s teenage sister, Tammy, who died of what has officially been determined to be an accidental asphyxiation. It may not have been that accidental, though.

Together, they kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered two other teenage girls before they were eventually caught and arrested. Their eldest victim was fifteen. One of them they forced to watch her own father on TV plead for her safe return while her captors laughed at her. The torture these children experienced is unconscionable.

Eventually, after being arrested, Homolka became a witness for the Crown (the prosecution or State in Canada) against her husband. She did this in exchange for consideration for a lesser sentence for her role in the murders. She asked for full immunity. That was a hard no.

Homolka’s testimony was that she was a battered wife, forced by her violent husband to participate against her will. She spent eleven days in the witness box testifying. Afterward, she pled guilty to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to two twelve-year sentences to be served concurrently. Paul Bernardo was sentenced to a life sentence and deemed a violent offender, which in Canada makes parole much more unlikely. He is still in prison at sixty-one years old. The only way he’s leaving prison is in a pine box or an urn. The only question is if it will be because of disease, shanking, or old age. Many in Canada feel that whatever horrors Hell has ready for him are not harsh enough.

Karla was released in 2005 and settled in Quebec. The thing about her, though, is there is a very real chance that she lied in her testimony, or at the least bent the truth.

The year after she was finally sentenced, her then ex-husband’s lawyer finally turned over some missing evidence that at the least should have been turned over the previous year, when he came into possession of it. This missing evidence was eight-millimetre tapes. On the tapes were video recordings of a lot of violent rapes committed by Bernardo. The additionally damning thing about them, though, is that Homolka is on there, helping to drug the teenage victims, and an active, seemingly willing, participant with her then-husband. She couldn’t be prosecuted further because of the binding plea agreement. But at the very least, the footage seemed to show an eagerness from her.

After she was released, there was a book written about her. She married her lawyer’s brother. It’s presumably a match made in hell. After the book was published, an American movie producer bought the film rights. Almost immediately, it became clear that if a movie was released, every single Canadian movie theatre would categorically refuse to show it. Full boycott. Canadians didn’t see or hear anything about the movie, but when American actress Laura Prepon was cast to play Karla Homolka, she had to dye her hair. If you were ever a fan of That ‘70s Show and watched in 2005/ 2006, that’s the reason her character Donna went blonde.

Canadian justice is currently built on a swaying pillar of ideals. Canada believes in rehabilitation. Determining who we can save and who we can’t. Prisons contain resources and classes to take convicts and give them the tools to not reoffend. With that understood, to her credit, teenagers in Karla Homolka’s neighbourhood haven’t been turning up dead or missing. Maybe the system works.

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August 3rd to August 9th

Futurama

| 🇺🇸 | Season 14 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Hulu |

Good news, everybody! Futurama’s back (baby)! The sci-fi series from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening might be one of the few writers’ rooms in all of Hollywood where a majority of the comedy writers who have worked on the show also have degrees in math and science. Among this adult-oriented comedy’s accomplishments is the fact that Futurama invented new math. An older episode involving body-switching invented a mathematical equation to facilitate a group returning to their original bodies. If you haven’t seen this show yet, you can look forward to Groening’s usual sense of humour, puns and sly sci-fi references, and fart jokes.

The Challenge: Cutthroat/ The Challenge

| 🇺🇸 | Season 42 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Paramount+ |

The Challenge is MTV’s reality TV competition series that pits alumni of other reality TV shows against each other for a $500,000 prize and, of course, the glory that comes with winning. Debuting originally in 1998, the show has featured countless pairings. This year, though, the list of reality TV stars is truly very large. This year we have alumni from: The Real World, Are You the One?, Big Brother (the American one), Survivor (also American), Love Island (both American and British versions), The Amazing Race, WWE NXT, Too Hot to Handle, Cheer, and Married at First Sight (the British version).

Ted Lasso

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV+ |

Ted Lasso has always been a bittersweet show. Combined with a healthy exploration of a lot of important issues, like workplace culture, depression, and even masculinity, the series has also expertly showcased quality drama within a sports show. It technically has something for everyone. This season, as Ted returns to England, the most bittersweet thing about it might be that it looks like it might be ending. Enjoy it while it lasts.

One Hundred Years of Solitude/ Cien años de soledad

| 🇨🇴 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Drop| TV-MA | Netflix |

In a mythical town called Macondo in this returning series from Colombia, seven generations of a family named Buendía navigate love and oblivion while they contend with everything we can’t escape and fate.

1670

| 🇵🇱 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Get a taste of the Polish sense of humour with this returning show from the former Soviet satellite state where a nobleman tries desperately to be famous and liked.

Let’s Marry Harry

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

The show hasn’t started yet, and already the internet is a buzz with leaked drama about this reality TV dating show involving the ultimate fate of the endgame couple of the show. Harry Jowsey is an Australian-New Zealander sunglasses entrepreneur who shot up to national fame on the Kiwi reality TV dating show Heartbreak Hotel. After this, he’s appeared on countless other reality TV competition and dating shows, plus two of his own podcasts and now three of his long-term friends are taking the reins of his love life to find his forever person.

Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi/ スター・ウォーズ：ビジョンズ／九人目のジェダイ

| 🇯🇵/🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Disney+ |

If you’ve ever wanted to see Star Wars rendered in the style of Japanese anime, you won’t want to sleep on this eight-part miniseries. For once, this show will take place in the distant future of the Star Wars universe when the Jedi have all but faded into memory. With that backdrop, Lah Kara leads a new group of Jedi to save their father, the last sabersmith, from a Jedi Hunter.

Sterling Point

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

This original coming-of-age drama follows two fraternal twins who were raised in the big city by their father. Now, they learn that their estranged grandfather has left them an island in a lake in his will.

My Life With the Walter Boys

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Netflix |

We haven’t been able to find a lot of details about the plot of this upcoming season of My Life With the Walter Boys, the coming-of-age romance series about a love triangle between a transplant to Colorado and their crushes. What we do know is that, whatever happens, we can look forward to Season 4 coming out, likely next year, at some point. If you want Jackie to end up with Cole, hit that like button. But if you want Jackie to end up with Alex, restack.

Alley Cats

| 🇬🇧 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

Problematic comedian and obedient soldier in the culture war, Ricky Gervais, helms this new adult-oriented animated comedy about feral street cats getting up to various misadventures straight from the shores of the UK.

Death Inc./ Muertos S.L.

| 🇪🇸 | Season 4 | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

In this Spanish comedy, drama and hilarity start after the owner of a funeral home dies and their right-hand person and widow vie for control of the business.

Flex x Cop/ 재벌X형사

| 🇰🇷 | Season 2 | 14 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Disney+ |

This series follows a “chaebol cop.” For those of you who aren’t Korean, a chaebol (재벌) is a large company controlled and run by either a single individual or a single family. A cop is a police officer tasked with upholding the law, arresting criminals, and issuing tickets for certain offences. A chaebol cop therefore is a nepo baby who decided to become a police detective and relies on their family’s massive wealth and influential connections to solve crimes.

The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

The Chosen is a TV show you can check out through Prime Video, Vid Angel, and Angel Studios about Jesus (the Christian religious one) through the eyes of those who knew him. In this reality TV adventure series, British adventurer Bear Grylls takes members of the cast of The Chosen on adventures in the wilderness, including the show’s creator, Dallas Jenkins, who kind of looks like Michael C. Hall.

The Shards

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Hulu (FX) |

It’s been a while since Bret Easton Ellis has been widely relevant to pop culture. Ellis has made an impact, though, as he’s the author of every “edgy” teenager’s and crypto bro’s favourite novel, “American Psycho,” which was turned into one of the most misunderstood movies starring Christian Bale in the year 2000. But now we get to see a very fictionalized version of Ellis’ life in this show from television wunderkind Ryan Murphy. In this series set in 1981, a seventeen-year-old Bret Easton Ellis has his world turned asunder when a new kid starts at his elite private school at the same time that a new serial killer begins terrorizing their city.

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August 3rd to August 9th

How to Catch a Dirtbag

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | # Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Discovery |

Technically a stochastic terrorist and an obedient culture war soldier, Michael McWhorter (Tizzy Ent on socials) is known as someone who calls out racists and bigots. He does this by “stitching” videos and commenting on them before identifying his targets and pushing their full government name and location to his audience of millions to (however unintentionally) harass those targets, and inform their employers of their behaviour. This week it becomes a TV show.

Monsters of God

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 5 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO |

So Monsters of God is a documentary miniseries that seems like it will take you on a ride. It focuses on the illegal and exotic reptile black market. It takes a hard look at two prominent figures in that “industry,” Hank Molt and Tommy Crutchfield, from their prominence as the go-to partnership for zoos, to Tommy Crutchfield’s release from prison and subsequent revenge plot against his former partner, Hank Molt, who ended up monopolizing the illegal reptile trade.

Escape from Alcatraz

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Discovery |

In 1962, four inmates at California’s island-based maximum security prison Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary tried to escape. This largely successful escape attempt has been a persistent part of pop culture lore that’s been the subject of dramas and documentaries, including a movie starring the Man with No Name himself, Clint Eastwood. Despite speculation and fan theories, reputable sources state that all the escapees were either caught or likely drowned. This docuseries reexamines this case and the subsequent investigation (which will remain open until the 2030s), and might have new evidence that two of the escapees might still be alive.

Anna Pigeon

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | USA Network |

Made in partnership between Canada and our southern neighbours, Anna Pigeon follows a woman who used to live comfortably in the city until a tragedy rocks her life and she gives up her life to become a park ranger, hunting down criminals in the parks no matter what.

Age Inappropriate

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | WeTV |

This reality TV series profiles four couples who all have one thing in common: they’re all in relationships with a very large age gap between them. With the smallest gap being a whole nineteen years, it’s safe to say there will likely be conversation about this, and a lot of people turning away from it.

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Bravo |

Wow, twenty years already? We certainly feel old. This reality TV series features ladies from across the Real Housewives franchise going on a cross-country road trip exploring the cities of each series, starting in Orange County where it all started, and ending in New York.

Double Lives of Suburban Wives

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | TLC |

As we continue to try to say nice things about TLC, this week they give us a reality TV show about a group of St. Louis-based wives who are earning an extra income for their families by creating adult content online. We don’t know if they’re going to avoid explicitly (pub intended) saying the names of the platforms they use for rights or censorship reasons, but we would be surprised if they weren’t on whatever website or app just popped into your mind.

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TV History and Trivia

Futurrama

There is a lot of very nerdy trivia for this very nerdy show.

The sound the Hypnotoad makes is actually a stock sound included in the editing software that the show’s staff use. It was meant as a placeholder, but they liked it.

During the pilot episode, viewers deciphered the alien language often depicted in the show before the second episode aired. The cipher was cracked because there was a sign that said, “drink Slurm” where the word “drink” also appeared in English.

There are a lot of subtle background details in the futuristic setting of the series. One of them is that owls have replaced pigeons and rats as the pests of New York City.

Phil Hartman was a very talented and beloved comedic actor who was in mind for Zapp Brannigan. Unfortunately, he was murdered by his wife in a murder-suicide sometime after she relapsed after a ten-year bout of sobriety. Comedian and actor Andy Dick has been blamed for getting her to relapse.

Hubert J. Farnsworth is named in reference to Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of TV.

Bender’s metal composition has been wildly inconsistent.

The series has a habit of borrowing sound effects from other series, like Star Trek.

Leela is named after a Doctor Who character.

The writer’s room has had three PhDs, seven Master’s degrees, and over fifty collective years at Harvard. It’s a great use of a physics degree.

Morbo is based on the aliens from Invasion of the Saucer Men from 1953.

We especially want to thank…

Mason’s mom

Larissa’s mom

Larissa’s husband, Jordan

Mason’s uncles

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Turn and Smile Prime Time, July 31: Hockey Night in Canada, Bon Cop/ Bad Cop

Turn And Smile! — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:00:51 GMT

Welcome back, Sofa Taters!

Our second year of very Canadian reviews for July, the month when Canada celebrates its founding. We ask that you forgive us this brief moment of patriotism.

This year we’re listening to the iconic melody of Hockey Night in Canada. Recently, the CBC lost national broadcast rights for NHL games, leaving only Rogers Communications, a Canadian media and telecom company, as the only rights holder in the country. CBC routinely provides its content without extra charge to Canadians, but Rogers monetizes everything they can.

Not that we can relate to that…

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What that means is that Rogers has a confusing patchwork of sports content shuffled between its main and specialty channels and streaming services, resulting in exuberant costs to viewers who just want to see some hockey. It is truly the end of an era, so it is with a heavy heart that we’re digging into this tune that means so much to us in the Great White North.

In addition to that, we’re looking at a new show from Canada that you might not be able to see yourself unless you have a Crave account and a Canadian IP address (or unless you can find it while looting and plundering on them briney shores, matey). Crave, if you don’t know, is a Canadian streaming service, kind of like a “Canadian Netflix” if Canada didn’t have Netflix and if CBS, NBC, and PBS all dumped their shows exclusively on Netflix. The show is Bon Cop/ Bad Cop, a bilingual action comedy out of Quebec from the host of LOL: Last One Laughing Quebec, Patrick Huard.

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OPENING

Hockey Night in Canada

“The Hockey Theme” by Dolores Claman and Jerry Toth

| 🇨🇦 | Unknown Rating | CBC |

Hockey Night in Canada has been the place for television audiences to see Canada’s game since at least 1952.

Hockey is a cultural force in Canada and has a very long history, going from scrappy amateur leagues to becoming professional sports organizations. Since then, hockey has become a thing of awe and community. Even kids who don’t play organized hockey end up playing games with friends and at school.

Nobody goes through life as a Canadian without playing hockey. Hockey is ubiquitous. Hockey is blood. Hockey is everything.

Hockey Night in Canada was a broadcasting block where Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC, would air hockey games. The iconic theme song was originally composed in 1968 and had a very weird history.

One might expect the composer of what would predictably become Canada’s most loved theme song to be a fan of the sport. She wasn’t. She was, however, a Juilliard-trained composer, so that’s probably what helped her.

Instead of the holy sport of hockey, Dolores Claman was inspired by visions of Roman gladiators fighting and sieging. Which also proves that women think about the Roman Empire, too. Recording cost a total of $800. Which would be about $7,230 (CAD) today. The composition itself wasn’t actually commissioned by the CBC. It was commissioned and paid for by marketing firm McLaren Advertising, now known as McLaren McCann, basically Canada’s Mad Men.

The composition itself is very brass-heavy, but is a high-energy explosion of sounds. It’s very hard to be impartial or objective about it, too, because it’s been such a fixture of Canadian life. Kids remember hanging out with their family watching their favourite teams. This music is nostalgia. It is family. It’s an announcement that something epic is about to happen.

Is there any wonder why this tune has been called Canada’s unofficial national anthem?

Rest ye well, Hockey Night in Canada. You will be missed.

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SEASON

Bon Cop/ Bad Cop

Season 1

| 🇨🇦 | TV-14 | Crave |

Summary

Bon Cop/ Bad Cop is a legacy sequel of a film series that’s technically popular in Canada, by Canadian standards. The franchise focuses on the adventures (and misadventures) of two cops and unlikely partners, Martin Ward (originally played by Canadian actor Colm Feore but replaced by Canadian actor Henry Czerny on TV), originally with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and David Bouchard (played by French Canadian actor and comedian Patrick Huard) of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ)/ Quebec Provincial Police).

The reason they are an unlikely pair is that they don't fit the common buddy-cop archetype. Namely, Martin Ward is a by-the-book, straight-laced dork vying for a boring desk job, and Bouchard is the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants tornado of chaos whose attitude and carelessness create trouble as much as it gets results. In the 2006 film, they are brought together to investigate The Tattoo Killer, a deranged hockey fan bothered by decisions the NHL was making. Which, in Canada, is widely considered a reasonable reaction. In the film’s sequel, made eleven years later, Ward has moved from the OPP to the RCMP, and they are reunited to investigate a car theft ring controlled by the Italian mob, which also takes them briefly into the United States. This time around, our dynamic duo is reunited to investigate the politically inconvenient disappearance of a Mi’kmaq Nation chief before an important vote on the construction of a pipeline through their territory.

Review

If you are bilingual in both English and the mix of French, slang, and Catholicism that is français québécois (Quebec French), this series is going to be a fun and fast-paced adventure. If you’re not bilingual, then you probably will need to watch every frame to follow the action.

For fans of the series: let’s address the elephant in the room.

Colm Feore, the actor who originated the role of Martin Ward, is not here. Feore is a very successful actor, and also currently in the Paramount+ series Landman by TV’s own (American) King Midas, Taylor Sheridan. Since Landman films in Texas, Feore couldn’t have come to Quebec to fulfill a commitment to this series. Henry Czerny, who might be recognizable from Clear and Present Danger, the Mission: Impossible films, or as Toyman in the Arrowverse Supergirl series, did a remarkable job in the part. We totally didn’t even notice that he’s actually shorter than Colm Feore, and he sounds so similar we’re actually starting to worry that all Anglophones just… sound like that? Please let us know.

The show is incredibly fast-paced. The benefit of the breakneck speed is that the show is incredibly engaging, and action frequently breaks out. However, the downside is that they frequently switch back and forth between languages.

The thing you need to know is that second language requirements are managed provincially, and while Quebec mandates English as a second language for high school graduation requirements, Ontario requires at least one credit in French. This means that in Ontario, where Ward is from, students take French in school up until at least grade nine, which makes them much more fluent than most of the rest of the graduates in Western Canada. If they want to join certain fields for their career, like the OPP, French fluency is considered an asset. So all the main characters speak both languages, and like most bilingual people, casually flip back and forth. It’s the Canadian equivalent of Spanglish. In short: the subtitles are an asset if your French is as lacking as it usually is for us way out west.

There also is a lot going on with this series that is probably going to be a bit of a barrier to non-Canadians if they find a way to watch this show. First of all, the show takes the relationship between the Mi’kmaq reservation, the government, and the federal and provincial police more-or-less “as read.” There is a whole political situation that an average Canadian is more aware of walking into this show than anyone else would be. The relationship between reservation members and the non-reservation cops is very contentious, and it just doesn’t really spend a lot of time on why that is. For that context, please see the past about 160 years of Canadian history.

There also seems to be an undercurrent of French/ English hostility or contention running not only through the series, but the whole franchise. In every iteration, even though Ward and Bouchard become friends and get along, it feels like the partnership is treated as an obligation and something they need to do, where, if they had the choice, they would choose not to work together at all. This is especially highlighted by the fact that very early into the season Bouchard is bothered by the fact that Martin didn’t invite him to his retirement party, or really kept in touch at all. This subplot feels a little out of place considering that in every one of their team-ups something explodes.

It feels like Martin Ward would resent the paperwork David creates.

There are a few loose threads specifically for those who were fans of the films before this. Martin’s son, Jonathan Ward, doesn’t appear at all, despite being an interesting minor character and having a lot of conflict with his father. Iris Ward, who had a kinky one-night stand with David in the first film, isn’t involved, either. Considering Bouchard’s very unofficial relationship with his boss, seeing her again would have been a great opportunity for more conflict, too.

One failing that we want to highlight is that this season is very much David Bouchard’s story, whereas the movies, though feel-good popcorn fare, were very much about Bouchard and Ward equally. In the first film, Ward’s goal to get that desk job and Bouchard’s struggle to maintain a connection to his family were equal through lines that drove both characters and things that came up frequently. The same was true during the film’s sequel, where Ward was dealing with estrangement from his son and his cancer diagnosis that changed his character, and Bouchard was dealing with scrutiny from his actions. Through the series, we see very little about Martin Ward. He’s recovered from cancer, his son doesn’t get mentioned, and it feels like he’s there just to fill the promise of the series as the titular Bon Cop. Bouchard also gets all of the interesting character moments as a relic of a bygone era, teetering on the edge of his career, ever closer to mandatory retirement.

Criticism aside, though, it’s a very, very entertaining show. If you aren’t French/ English bilingual, you don’t mind reading subtitles, you’re willing to not look at your phone while watching, and you have a way to see a show exclusively on Canadian streamer Crave, give it a chance. It’s a well-done show.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, July 26

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:02:13 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Poutine

In Canada, poutine has a wild history. It’s also a dish that, like so many other foods, went from working class to foie gras.

The story is a little murkier than most, as there are at least four claims to its creation.

The things that all of the claims have in common are that they happened in Quebec.

Our first claim comes in 1957 when a regular customer at Le Café Idéal asked restaurateur Fernand Lachance to put a handful of cheese curds in a takeaway bag of fries. Lachance is believed to have exclaimed, “ça va faire une maudite poutine!” at the request, which translates to, “It will make a (darn) mess!” but in the more colourful French Canadian vernacular. At some point later in 1957, the dish appeared on Le Café Idéal’s menu where it was served on a plate. In 1962, Lachance added gravy to poutine to keep it warm. Gravy also helps to melt the curds, which is normally amazing.

Our second claim comes from Le Roy Jucep, a drive-in restaurant known for orange juice, pizza, and other similar things; it also served French fries with gravy. Some creative customers would also ask to add cheese curds to their order, too. It was added to the menu in 1964, where it was called “fromage-patate-sauce,” but later renamed after one of the cooks started calling it Ti-Pout. After that, it was renamed again to poutine. The difference with Le Roy Jucep’s dish is that the owner registered it with Canada’s trademark and copyright office (which actually is also headquartered in Quebec). Unfortunately, Thomas Edison has taught us that the existence of a patent, trademark, or copyright doesn’t inherently mean that it was the original work, just that it was the first to be registered.

The final claim is that… this was just something Quebecers did. For reasons unknown to history, Quebecers started asking for their fries like this at some point in the 1950s (maybe earlier, we don’t know). It was just part of the culture.

The rest of the history of this dish also seems to fit that last narrative because a lot of restaurants absolutely refused to add it to their menus. It was an early secret menu item—the “McGangBang” of mid-century Quebec. The popular view was that it was a very low- or working-class dish. The kind of thing you would eat while drunk at two in the morning, not suitable for a proper establishment.

But then it kept growing in popularity. It kept spreading. Eventually it became something that chefs couldn’t ignore, and they even started trying to elevate it to the status of high-class dining. There have even been foie gras versions of this food.

Do you like poutine? Have you had any creative adaptation of it? Let us know in the comments below!

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July 27th to August 2nd

Wrath/ Fúria

| 🇧🇷 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Release Schedule | Unknown Rating | Netflix |

Whenever we do these TV guides and we see a show from Brazil, the one thing we know for sure is the synopsis isn’t going to be boring. This series follows a protagonist with some form of amnesia as they start training to be an MMA fighter and start trying to piece their life back together.

The Proud Family Louder and Prouder

| 🇵🇭/🇺🇸 | Season 4 | Unknown Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Disney+ |

After twenty-five years, The Proud Family is coming to an end for a second time. This insightful show about growing up and the pains that teens experience while promoting close family relationships started on September 15th, 2001 (never forget), ran until 2005, and then started again with a Louder and Prouder reboot in 2022, right after the pandemic. This season promises more family adventures and togetherness. We hope to see another reboot immediately after the next global crisis, whenever that will be.

Diarra From Detroit

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Paramount+ |

Season 1 of this series created by its lead, Diarra Kilpatrick, hit BET+ back in 2024. It must have done well, because now not only do we get a Season 2, but it’s been moved up to Paramount+ at a time when the network has been promising to cancel everything like a Tinder date who just found out you like Crypto and comic books. If you didn’t catch the previous season, you would have missed the titular Diarra’s story about getting sucked into a cold case when they realize their new date might be someone who was abducted decades ago. This season, they’re going to try to put crime-solving behind them before getting wrapped into the shenanigans of a cult. Hilarity may ensue.

Furious

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Hulu |

Did you like (the American) Shameless? Emmy Rossum, who played Fiona Gallagher over about 110 episodes, stretches their acting chops in this new crime drama from Elizabeth Meriwether, the creative genius who gave us Dying for Sex and New Girl, the latter of which starred Zooey Deschanel and Damon Wayans Jr., and seriously treated Jake Johnson as a romantic lead for the very first time. Rossum plays an FBI agent tracking a serial killer very similar to them before their worlds collide and the difference between right and wrong gets harder to determine.

Paris Is Always a Good Idea

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 6 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Hallmark+ |

Based on the romance novel of the same name written by Jenn McKinlay, Paris Is Always a Good Idea follows a career-driven nonprofit executive as they travel to Paris with a rival-turned-ally for business, but then they decide to retrace their backpacking journey across Europe to find love.

Batman: Caped Crusader

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Prime Video |

Batman: Caped Crusader is produced/ created by Bruce Timm, who will be a familiar name to anyone who is a geeky keener who watched 1990s and 2000s superhero cartoons. If you’re not familiar with the name, you might be familiar with his work, because he is the one who brought Batman, Superman, Static Shock, and the Justice League to animation some thirty years ago, and created Batman Beyond. After that, he’s been involved in almost all of the DC straight-to-video animated movies since Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Timm also created the first shared superhero universe based on comic books before the Arrowverse and MCU, which has come to be called the DCAU (DC Animated Universe). This series has been called the “spiritual successor” to the DCAU by Timm himself, and pays homage to Kevin Conroy’s iconic performance of Batman from the 1990s (and beyond). Conroy unfortunately died before he could even consider returning to this part, but the inspiration is still evident. Season 1 teased The Joker, and introduced new versions of villainous mainstays like Onomotopia, Firefly, Harley Quinn, Clayface, and The Penguin. While rated TV-PG, this is certainly one of those shows that some parents might want to review first before letting their kids tune in, or at least join in watching to talk about.

Lioness

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Paramount+ |

Starring acting iconoclast Zoe Saldaña, this series focuses on a rough but passionate Marine who is recruited into an elite team of special ops women. This season, the Lioness team seems to go into thrilling territory as foreign operatives and personal betrayals collide.

Or…

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July 27th to August 2nd

President Curtis

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Adult Swim |

With so many sequels and spinoffs coming that nobody asked for or really wants, it’s still important to evaluate each offering fairly and give them a chance to surprise you. That brings us to the Rick and Morty spinoff President Curtis that focuses on the ancillary Rick and Morty character President Curtis, played by former Community castmate Keith David, who originated the role over a handful of appearances over the years. This series, set in the same world as its predecessor, focuses on the titular president as he and his staff deal with the kind of sci-fi nonsense that Rick and Morty have been dealing with over the last nine years but without those two heroes.

Beat Shazam

| 🇺🇸 | Season 8 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | FOX |

Host and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx returns to this game show with his daughter, Corinne Foxx, who continues to serve as the DJ and certified hype man (a role she’s served in since 2018). Contestants battle against each other to guess the popular song title from a brief clip. After progressing through elimination rounds, the final contestant faces off against Shazam, the popular app software that informs users of a title after listening to a clip of a recorded song.

Kitchen Undercover

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Food Network |

Part Undercover Boss and part Kitchen Nightmares, this new series will feature two chefs; one will stay in a surveillance van while the other infiltrates a struggling restaurant on the verge of closure or collapse to see exactly what’s going wrong before they help the owner right their ship.

The Ark

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 12 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | SyFy |

Get ready for a sci-fi adventure. Ark One, an interstellar spacecraft, is humanity’s first hope at surviving our destroyed planet one hundred years in the future. As the ship approaches a new planet for colonization, the drama ramps up with a loss of leadership and much more.

House of Stassi

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Freeform/ Hulu |

Stassi Schroeder is a multitalented star of the modern age. Podcaster, author, TV star and personality, fashion writer, and model. She is maybe best known for her stint on Vanderpump Rules, where she was a cast member from 2013 to 2020. Now she’s back and ready to climb that ladder to the top, first on Freeform, then again on the very next day on Hulu.

Put a Ring on It: Cheathab

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | OWN |

Spun right off of the original Put a Ring on It reality TV dating show/ “social expariment,” where couples try to find out if they’re going to go the distance like Turn And Smile’s own Larissa and her husband Jordan did, Cheathab instead focuses on couples who have been rocked by infidelity who move into the Miami-based “Cheathab” house to confront the trust issues, jealousy, and hurt that still lingers between them.

Fightland

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Starz |

Executive produced by actor and rapper 50 Cent, this British/ American show focuses on a disgraced boxing champ who spent time in jail as they return to London (the one in England) to try to reclaim the career they lost and get revenge on the mob they believe ruined their life.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 12 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | TNT |

If you’re late to the party, The Librarian is a fantasy franchise born out of… get this: a TV movie from 2004. Through this franchise, one or more of the titular Librarians go on globe-trotting adventures, risking life and limb, to rescue or find artifacts across the world and through time. It blends in a tad bit of magic, too. In this incarnation, a Librarian from the distant past finds himself in the present where he accidentally releases a Pandora’s Box of evil on the world, after which he is given a new team to sort it all out.

Naked and Afraid: Shipwrecked

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Discovery |

Your favourite Naked and Afraid alums return only to have the rug pulled right out from under them as they are dropped off in the middle of the open ocean and have to make their own way to nearby land.

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TV Internet History and Trivia

A lot of Portuguese kids sound Brazilian… Because of September 11th

Portuguese parents in 2026 are flabbergasted, confused, and gobsmacked because, for some reason, Portugal’s youth sound Brazilian. And what’s crazier is that the root cause may have been the September 11th attacks an ocean away.

On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck New York City when two airplanes, hijacked by terrorists, crashed into towers at the World Trade Centre. It was a horrible tragedy we all remember, unless you’re 24.5 years old or younger.

Now we feel old.

Not to gloss over this, but there’s more to the story. This event was tragic and horrible, and deeply impacted a lot of us in ways that many still feel today. One such person was an animator named Gerard Way, who was struggling so much he started therapy and also started writing poetry. His therapist suggested he put his poems to music, so he started a band. That band was My Chemical Romance.

My Chemical Romance blows up and becomes one of the hottest bands of the early oughts. We can’t comment on how influential they were in the music scene generally, but what we do know is that their songs made it all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, where a Mormon stay-at-home mom and former receptionist was rocking out to Gerard Way’s therapeutic songs and emotive singing while starting to write her first book. My Chemical Romance became a main source of inspiration for Meyer as she began, continued, and finished what would eventually become a book series. That series was The Twilight Saga.

As popular as My Chemical Romance was, Twilight was so much more popular. You definitely had to be there for it to understand the size and scope of the fandom for this book. Even though it was technically YA fiction, it became popular with women and girls of all ages (who can read). Because of this popularity, Hollywood started paying attention. Eventually, the Twilight movies came out.

The Twilight movies surpassed the books. If you weren’t there for the ubiquity of the films. Everyone was talking about it. These movies were divisive. Women and girls generally loved it, and weird guys started picking on a wholly average popular media property for girls because it wasn’t made specifically for them. Something that’s never happened since.

Ahem… (Credit: The Hollywood Reporter)

For better or worse, whether valid criticism or not, there was a lot of it for these movies. One such critic was Brazilian YouTuber Felipe Neto, who has a right proper YouTube crash out over this whole franchise.

Felipe Neto’s video about his disdain for Twilight really does numbers for him. This video made Neto very internet famous and turned him into the most popular Brazilian on YouTube.

Felipe Neto has a brother, too. His brother, Luccas Neto, worked a lot of different jobs but, as Felipe exploded in popularity, began working with him behind the scenes on the channel. Eventually, though, he thought he might give it a go himself.

Luccas didn’t have a crash-out over a movie, though. Luccas decided to focus his channel on kid- and family-friendly content, in Brazilian Portuguese.

Now, the thing you need to understand about internet video content is that there isn’t a lot of it that is originally in Portuguese for kids. There is a deficit for this demographic, and and they desperately want it. It’s a very specific niche that Luccas Neto walked right into.

And then COVID-19 happened.

As popular as the Neto brothers were in the Portuguese-speaking world, the 2020 pandemic changed everything. All of a sudden, kids are spending the majority of their time in their homes relying on phones, laptops, tablets, TVs and computers for everything. With the empty chasm where native speaking Portugese kids can go for entertainment online, Luccas Neto quickly became the go-to YouTuber for kids in Portugal. His videos spread like wildfire.

Because of how much time the kids were spending with his videos, and how young many of them were while watching him, Luccas Neto had a big impact on their language acquisition. Effectively, he was also teaching them how to speak by speaking normally to them.

Soon, these impressionable kids adopted the speaking patterns, accent, and lingo of Brazilian Portuguese, confusing literally everyone. It’s been in the news!

Credit: The Rio Times Online

And that’s the real story of why Portuguese kids sound Brazilian.

We especially want to thank…

Mason’s mommy

Larissa’s mom and dad

Larissa’s husband, Jordan

Mason’s uncles

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, July 19

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 07:30:19 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: The Beachcombers

Canada has a long history of producing TV shows about simple people living simple lives.

Robson Arms was a soap opera about people who live in and around an apartment building in downtown Vancouver.

Corner Gas is about a guy who lives in a small town in Saskatchewan.

Kim’s Convenience, The Littlest Hobo, and even Degrassi all fit this mould. They’re just about ordinary, everyday people living their lives. People who like their neighbours, have their friends, and do their jobs. This genre has long been a staple of Canadian television, and the longest-running (and arguably the best) example of it was 1972’s The Beachcombers. Airing on Canadian TV and PBS in the US from 1972 until 1990 (eighteen years, a record only broken by Canadian drama Heartland), the show was about a Greek-Canadian log salvager who lived in the coastal town of Gibsons, BC. Gibsons itself might be better described as a “community” than a town, because despite having a mayor of its own, it’s less than five kilometres across.

The series has had a substantial impact on Canada. Gibsons itself became something of a tourist stop for Canadians who decided to vacation closer to home. The iconic diner in the show, Molly’s Reach, which was a prominent location in the show, eventually became a real cafe that still operates in Gibsons. Most recently, it was used as a location for the series Murder in a Small Town.

The Beachcombers is very much “of a type,” and it’s a type that Canada not only loves, but continues to repeat. We clamour for these shows where we can see ourselves. Not as great people. Not as heroes. Not as the city on a hill. But as people. And that’s really sweet.

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July 20th to July 26th

King of the Hill

| 🇺🇸 | Season 15 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Hulu |

The bittersweet news about this season of King of the Hill is that Johnathan Joss, who was murdered in a hate crime while defending his husband in front of his Texas home, did complete voice work for at least one episode of this season, where he was able to play his character John Redcorn one last time. This season will have Hank and Peggy settling into their retirement, and Bobby continuing to connect with friends. Just don’t try to do the math for how old Bobby should be. Time doesn’t make sense in this animated world.

A Shop for Killers/ 킬러들의 쇼핑몰

| 🇰🇷 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Disney+ |

Debuting in 2024 and coming from South Korea, A Shop for Killers follows a nibling whose uncle runs a shopping centre and learns an uncomfortable truth after their death. Season 2 doesn’t pick up where we were last left off; instead, we’re taken back to our protagonist’s university days, where they unearth an assassination plot.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Paramount+ |

The Canada/ America co-produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is ending… next year. With that end date looming ominously over the series, there has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of “Star Trek: Year One” focused on Paul Wesley’s version of Kirk and the Enterprise crew fans are more familiar with. We can’t confirm or deny anything other than there is a lot of interest from Wesley himself and the Strange New Worlds showrunners, but for now it might be best to live in the moment and look forward to the upcoming Muppet episode of this show with actual puppets crafted by the Jim Henson company.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO Max |

It feels like the one thing nobody is asking for or is spinoffs of The Big Bang Theory, but for some reason the one well Chuck Lorre keeps returning to is The Big Bang Theory. With this latest franchise installment, the show diverts from its grounded sitcom reality and ventures deep into science fiction, where the ancillary The Big Bang Theory side character Stewart (the miligned comic book shop owner) breaks an invention of Leonard’s and Sheldon’s creation that causes multiverse shenanigans that Stewart has to resolve with the help of other The Big Bang Theory ancillary characters (not Sheldon or Lenord).

Ransom Canyon

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Ransom Canyon is based on the ten-part “Ransom Canyon” book series by American author Jodi Thomas, who has deep ties to Texas. Her grandmother was born in a covered wagon in the state. Thomas eventually grew up to be a teacher, where she taught at the high school level for fifteen years. She published her first book in 1988 after she began to fear that her salary as a teacher wouldn’t allow her to fund her child’s college tuition. This series follows three ranching dynasties in rural Texas as they fight for their land and those they love.

Kaulitz & Kaulitz

| 🇩🇪 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

The founding members of the German pop-rock band Tokio Hotel, twins Tom and Bill Kaulitz, return in a new season of their reality TV series where they give viewers and fans an in-depth look into their lives in Germany and California.

Breaking Bear

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Tubi |

“Imagine if Breaking Bad was an animated comedy starring bears” is among the wildest sentences we’ve had to say, but that’s life now. However, this Canadian-American show has a fully stacked cast with Canadian icons Brendan Fraser (Doom Patrol) and Annie Murphy (Schit’s Creek and Kevin Can F**k Himself), with Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scooby-Doo), Elizabeth Hurley (Bedazzled), Josh Gad (Wonder Man), and Chris Parnell (Archer, Rick and Morty) all rounding out the cast.

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July 20th to July 26th

Ugliest House in America

| 🇺🇸 | Season 7 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | HGTV |

Marietta Sirleaf, who often works under the name Retta, is best known for her roles as Donna Meagle on Parks and Recreation and for her stand-up comedy career. Now she returns for another season of Ugliest House in America, where homes are nominated based on bad designs and renovations, after which homeowners compete for a renovation worth $150,000.

A Killer Among Friends

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Investigation Discovery |

Debuting again on Mason’s mom’s favourite TV channel, this docuseries profiles groups of friends who tragically lose one of their own and subsequently discover their secret life.

Extreme Buyers Club

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HGTV |

Dallas Buyers Club was a movie about a club that sold memberships and gave out free AIDS medication. The Extreme Buyers Club isn’t a more extreme version of that, but rather a new show where a realtor helps home-buying clients find homes based on extreme, weird, wild, or out-of-the-ordinary requests and needs.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | ABC |

Enigmatic truth-teller, late-night host, and comedian Jimmy “James” Kimmel returns to host this popular game show that tests your confidence as contestants vie for a one-million-dollar prize, which was a lot more impressive amount twenty years ago. This version, however, has celebrities playing for charity.

Kitchen Nightmares

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Fox |

Famous curmudgeonly British chef Gordon Ramsay returns to his reality TV show, where he helps struggling US eateries overcome their challenges and thrive in a competitive market.

Impractical Jokers

| 🇺🇸 | Season 13 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | TBS |

This might be the best version of a prank show in that it is a group of four lifelong friends pranking each other rather than pranking strangers.

Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston/ Pompeii: Out of Time

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | National Geographic |

The MCU’s Loki actor, Tom Hiddleston, hosts this documentary miniseries that explores the massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the stony aftermath.

Restaurant Impossible: Last Call

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Food Network |

Chef Aarón Sánchez and restaurateur Jen Agg host this spinoff of Restaurant: Impossible. This Kitchen Nightmares-esque series will see the hosts given two days and $20,000 to fix issues and revitalize struggling restaurants.

Roast My Rental

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HGTV |

Comedian Leslie Jones travels around and stays in the worst and most misrepresented temporary and vacation rentals. Then, after properly roasting the property, returns with HGTV designer Jasmine Roth to renovate it in seventy-two hours.

The Great Food Truck Race

| 🇺🇸 | Season 19 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | Food Network |

Long-time host and chef Tyler Florence returns to this reality TV competition where food trucks compete to win a $50,000 prize. The theme of this season will be “Sweet and Savoury.”

The Walking Dead: Dead City

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | AMC |

We could make a joke about this series being a reanimated corpse shuffling around aimlessly, but we like to believe that we’re better than that. This season will see Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan and Lauren Cohan’s Maggie finally put their past behind them to build a real community in New York. However, internal chaos will make them question everything.

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TV History and Trivia

Schitt’s Creek was the… well… you know.

There are lots of interesting facts about this iconic Canadian series. Starting with one of its stars and creators, Dan Levy.

Dan Levy’s first job wasn’t in show business, as one might assume it might be with famous parents like Eugene Levy and Deborah Divine. Instead, the story goes that Dan’s father dropped him off in downtown Toronto with resumes when he was fifteen and told him to find a job. He ended up working fast food.

Schitt’s Creek went on to win 112 awards out of a total of 153 nominations. Internationally. Inside and outside of Canada.

On the last day of filming before the end of the series, Eugene Levy gave his son a framed picture of them on which he wrote, "Daniel, it was an honour being your partner, son. Dad xo."

All of the cast of the series are Canadian, except for Chris Elliot, who plays the town mayor, Roland Schitt. This was almost slightly different, as originally the part of Alexis Rose was played by Elliot’s own daughter in the unaired pilot episode. She was ultimately unavailable by the time the series was picked up.

The Schitt family names in the show, including Chris Elliot’s Roland, are all puns. We won’t tell you what they are, but if you say them very slowly you might be able to figure it out yourself. This is peak comedy.

After Abby Elliott had to drop out, Canadian actress Annie Murphy was cast as Alexis, and that was a career-saving happenstance. As it turned out, she had recently lost her home in a fire and was so broke that she was considering quitting acting and “getting a real job” immediately before the call came.

Moira Rose was inspired by Daphne Guinness (yes, that Guinness). She is known as a fashion designer and socialite.

The Rose Motel is a real motel in Orangeville, Ontario. Bob's Garage, Cafe Tropical, and Rose Apothecary are in Goodwood, Ontario. The Goodwood locations all sit around the same intersection.

Credit: Architectural Digest

Finally, Patrick’s (Noah Reid’s) cover of “Simply the Best” became an iTunes top ten hit in Canada in February and March of 2018. The episode the cover appears in, Season 4’s “Open Mic,” is also the first time David (Dan Levy) wears a colour other than black or grey.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, July 12

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:01:25 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: CanCon/ Canadian Content

What makes a TV show Canadian?

You might think that a show that comes out of the TV or film studios of a given country defines its country of origin, but in some countries, like Canada, that determination is a tad more complex. The reason Canada has systematized this determination a lot more is, at least in part, because Canadian media qualifies for a bunch of grants, tax incentives, and support that non-Canadian productions don’t get.

The determination of what is or isn’t Canadian Media, Canadian Content, or CanCon as it’s sometimes called is made by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which we’ve discussed in a previous Canadian Corner. But briefly for those who are new, the CRTC is a regulatory body for Canadian TV, radio, film, telecommunications, and internet. In Canada.

The CRTC has a fun little checklist they use to determine whether Canadian media and a production need to meet all of these requirements. So let’s take a look at how TV becomes Canadian TV.

Canadian Spending

If 75% or more of the budget is spent in Canada, or on Canadians, it’s a Canadian production. You can hire Canadian post-production businesses, rent Canadian studio space, hire a Canadian catering company, rent or buy equipment from Canada, etc, etc. If you’re spending 75% or more of the production budget in Canada, that’s one of the boxes it’s ticked.

Canadian Producers

If all of the producers are Canadian, this is an easy box to tick. However, if the show is a co-production, currently half of the producers involved need to be Canadian. Given that there are often multiple kinds of producers (like “executive,” " assistant,” and others), the CRTC doesn’t pay much mind to the producer’s exact title, and cares instead for their level of power, control, and decision-making ability.

“Whoopsie!”

Canadian Points System

The CRTC also has a fun little points system it uses. There are a total of ten possible points, but a production has to get six out of ten points to be considered CanCon. The CRTC looks at a few key positions in a production and hands out points if it is filled by a Canadian. A Canadian director or screenwriter is worth two points each; a Canadian protagonist and deuteragonist are worth one point each, and a Canadian production designer, director of photography (DOP), Composer, and editor are each worth one point each.

Writers

Writers are often listed on scripts in order of how much of the script they’ve written. The CRTC doesn’t really care about “percentage of work done” for a given script. If the Canadian has done enough to be credited, that’s two points. If there is more than one writer, eighty percent or more need to be Canadian. In a TV show with a writer’s room and staff writers, the CRTC looks at the key creative positions to award the points. In this case, it would be roles like the head writer, showrunner, story editor, etc.

“Super easy, barely an inconvenience”

Directors

The two director points are for the main, decision-making director. No points for assistant directors or whoever is getting the B-roll for establishing shots.

Production Designers and Editors

Production designers and editors can sometimes be one of many within a department, so the point is for the person who is making design decisions and calling the shots. The department lead.

Composers

However, for the composer, not only does the same department head/ decision-maker rule apply, but they actually have to compose original music. If you have a Canadian composer but they’re only arranging existing music, you lose the point.

Canadian composers when they don’t compose, and you lose a CRTC point.

All or nothing

On top of all of that, to qualify, these rules are an “all or nothing” kind of situation. It’s not enough to spend 75% of the budget in Canada. It’s not enough to have a Canadian producer, director, and top two leads. The show or movie needs everything. Gotta tick all the boxes to be part of Canadian culture.

Except…

There is one, maybe two, small exceptions. But in those circumstances, the boxes that need to be ticked are just different. Those exceptions are co-productions across Canada’s international borders. Canada even has some treaties to govern those requirements to share creative responsibility and control. It should also be noted that certification as Canadian is not dependent on distribution within Canada.

The CRTC also doesn’t have a hand in treaty co-productions. Telefilm Canada works with those. Non-treaty co-productions are in the CRTC’s wheelhouse, though. In many cases, the rules vary by country. The rules are also different for animated productions, both from Canada and co-produced.

There are slightly different rules for animation, and for co-productions with other countries. There are actually treaties that help determine countries of origin for media when there is international co-operation. The rules can also be a bit different in Canada depending on funding sources a production could apply for. One such grant requires ten points in the aforementioned point system.

At least the CRTC makes it fun.

Credit: Matt Hatfield, 2021

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July 13th to July 19th

Hot Ones: Extra Heat

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

If we were to speculate how Hot Ones managed to get so popular, we would suggest that it’s harder to maintain a manufactured image while eating very spicy food, and audiences respond to the honesty host Sean Evans can extract. Evans describes this new series as a series of specials that will go deeper with more guests. Episode 1 will be a celebration of sport with the cast of Apple TV’s upcoming series The Hawk starring Will Ferrell, Fortune Feimster, and Jimmy Tatro. Scroll down for more about the comedy series coming out later this week.

Rabbit Hole

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Hulu |

There isn't much we could find about this new competition series, other than that several influencers or YouTube or TikTok stars are included, and that it’s going to blend collaborations, competitions, games, and performances. You might be looking forward to seeing Josh Peck of Drake and Josh fame, as well as Andymation, Notx Ashamad, and Yung Astroo.

Murder 101

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 3 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

Creators of this three-part docuseries spent a little more time asking if they could and no time at all asking if they should. This new show profiles a high school sociology class in Tennessee investigating a murder that is considered a cold case.

Quarterback

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

This time around, this returning docuseries profiles the life and times of four NFL quarterbacks: Jayden Daniels, Joe Flacco, Baker Mayfield and Cam Ward and explores the ups and downs of their lives and games over one season.

The Real Wolf of Wall Street

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Paramount+ |

Jordan Belfort, the subject matter of the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street, was not the good guy in that movie. He was a criminal. This three-part documentary mini-series takes a much deeper dive into Belfort’s life and career, and everything from his time at his firm, Stratton Oakmont, that was a bit too much for the movie.

Lucky

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV |

One thing we can say about Apple TV is they know how to get talent. Lucky stars The Queen’s Gambit alum Anya Taylor-Joy, Mars Attacks star Annette Bening, Santa Clarita Diet co-star Timothy Olyphant, and Mom castmate William Fichtner in a thrilling crime drama about a con that goes sideways, leading to the culprit going on the run from both the FBI and the mob they stole from.

Ride or Die

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 8 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

Action comedies are something special because they pair unreal circumstances with real reactions. Ride or Die looks like it’ll be just that and more as two best friends go on the run after one of them reveals they’re an assassin and now a former client is targeting them.

The Hawk

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

The cast for The Hawk is stacked. Comedy icon Will Ferral, SNL alum Molly Shannon, comedian Fortune Feimster, Owen Wilson’s brother Luke, and former Archer cast member Chris Parnell all lend their talents, but also Canadian Gabriel Hogan makes an appearance, too. The series follows an aging golf star at the backend of his career trying to make a comeback.

The Five-Star Weekend

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Peacock |

American writer Elin Hilderbrand wrote the book that this series is about a famous chef who invites her friends to a beachfront meal after their spouse’s sudden death and their subsequent breakdown. Hilderbrand, whose most popular setting is Nantucket, is known as a mystery writer of books called “beach reads.”

The East Palace/ 동궁

| 🇰🇷 | Miniseries | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

This fantasy mystery from South Korea (the best of the two Koreas) follows a person who can enter the spirit world and another who can hear the dead as they enter the East Palace upon the King’s orders to unravel the mystery inside

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July 13th to July 19th

All American

| 🇺🇸 | Season 8 | 13 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | The CW |

Now in its eighth season, this sports drama has a teen from a low-income part of Los Angeles recruited to the wealthy part of town to play (American) football because they’re a sports ball wunderkind. A little fun fact for you is that Canadian actress and Degrassi: The Next Generation alum Greta Onieogou has a major role in this series.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | ABC |

Big Brother meets Making the Band in this reality TV dance competition, as twelve dancers move into a large house, each competing through a series of auditions and challenges as they vie for a spot as a dancer on Dancing with the Stars.

Pitmasters

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Food Network |

Pitmasters, or expert BBQ cooks, compete in this reality TV competition in a week-long battle to show exactly how creative they can be with cooking protein with fire in a pit. With pitmastering glory and $50,000 on the line, these cooks are putting it all on the line.

Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 5 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-Y | Disney Jr |

If you’re one of those radical parents who want your kids to learn “empathy” or “how to share,” then this show is right for you. Spidey and his Amazing Friends has Spidey and his friends Spin and Gwen meet various challenges from various baddies like Rhino, Doc Ock, and the Green Goblin while learning and practicing important social skills for kids aged two to five.

Homestead Rescue: Intervention

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Discovery |

There are many grifters and social media influencers who are unjustly romanticizing the off-grid homestead lifestyle. The truth is that, like most things worth doing, it takes a certain degree of expertise, dedication, and money to do well. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people out there doing video series on why you probably shouldn’t live off-grid on a homestead. This spinoff to Homestead Rescue has the Raney family staging actual interventions for some of the folks who shouldn’t have abandoned civilization because now they’re living way beyond their means and/ or failing at every turn. Watch them sit people down and talk some sense into them this week.

ESPY Awards/ Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award

| 🇺🇸 | Special | Live | Weekly | Unknown Rating | ESPN |

The Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards honours excellence in sports performance yearly. The best sports ball players and sports persons will be awarded awards.

Worst Yard on the Block

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 12 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HGTV |

Lawn expert Tucker Kincaid, carpenter Jared “J. Paul” Foster, landscaping expert Blake Hawthorn, and designer Margo Fairchild compete in teams of two in this reality TV landscaping show to produce the best lawns they can for homes that need it.

Nation’s Dumbest

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | FOX |

Featuring the ever mesmerizing Carmen Electra, Steve-O of Jackass fame, former NWA member and current rapper and Law and Order: SVU cast member Ice Cube, and Jojo Siwa as contestants, this reality TV competition hosted by British comedian Jack Whitehall seeks to crown the dumbest celebrity competitor as the winner. Get too many questions right and ace too many challenges, and the contestants will be booted off the show until only the dumbest remain.

Scott Peterson: The New Evidence

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 2 Episodes | Daily | Unknown Rating | A&E |

People of a certain age will remember the very publicized trial and conviction of Scott Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife and unborn child. Now, the Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) says that it has reason to believe that Peterson may not have killed his now ex-wife, Laci Peterson. Be warned, though, because last month the appeals court denied the LAIP’s 140-page petition for a new trial based on their claim that some evidence was suppressed or destroyed.

Holmes on Homes: Building a Legacy

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | HGTV |

HGTV celebrity contractor Mike Holmes joins forces with his progeny to help homeowners fix bad DIY projects, the “work” of crooked or incompetent contractors, and helping deserving owners who need their assistance.

Maine Cabin Masters: All Inn

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | HGTV |

Spinning off from the Maine series, Maine Cabin Masters, but this time around our rustic hosts tackle their largest project yet. Instead of renovating cabins, they will focus on a Maine bed and breakfast, while trying to transform the business into a twelve-acre property. Maine Cabin Masters: All Inn will also premiere two weeks later on the Magnolia Network at the same time.

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TV History and Trivia

Dan Aykroyd is autistic.

The Canadian-born actor, writer, producer, and comedian was first diagnosed in the 1980s, but didn’t come out as autistic until the 2010s.

Growing up, Aykroyd had his share of hyperfixations, as all people on the spectrum do, and even had speech and social difficulties, as well. You might actually be very familiar with two of his hyperfixations: spiritualism and the police. He drew on his intense interest in these subjects to create and write Ghostbusters.

The autistic ability to hyperfocus and dig very deep into subjects has also helped him a lot in his career and led to him becoming an accomplished screenwriter as well.

Dan Aykroyd is an example of someone who channelled his struggles into a very successful career to create unique films and a very varied career.

Turn And Smile, and its agents, may benefit from your interaction with links and buttons in this newsletter, as well as from purchases made through associated subscriptions or other commerce. Turn And Smile is a subsidiary of Stick Horse Marketing LTD. All rights reserved.

Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, July 5

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:31:13 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Canadian Confederation

It’s important to address the fact that, before the confederation of British North America into one country, there were already people living here who had split this vast land into their own separate nations. Though we conceptualize the idea of nations differently from how they did, the land was not border-free before then.

Before confederation, Canada was known as British North America and comprised a collection of British colonies and territories. In North America. The British are very good at naming things.

Things had been going pretty okay for the settlers in British North America up to that point. If you ignore the inhospitable cold. But there were some slight snags (ignoring the inhospitable cold). For example, territorial governments were struggling to get things done. At the time, Quebec and Ontario were a unified province called the Province of Canada that looked like what happened to that guy you know after he got back from Las Vegas (you know the guy. He shouldn’t have shown you the pictures). The Province of Canada struggled a lot because of the French/ English divide and animosity. Not to mince words, but they hated each other. Unification, it was decided, would allow provinces to do what they need to do while managing the big stuff together.

For the next issue, we need to start at 1844.

It’s an election year in the US, and James Polk is running for president. His big slogan that is solidifying his base and energizing his eventual victory is “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" The idea behind his entire campaign aligns with Manifest Destiny. Polk wants to take the entire Oregon territory, by force, if needed, all the way up to the 54°40′ parallel, which would stretch the US border all the way up to the Alaskan panhandle. It was a very real threat of possible war.

On top of that, it would push British territory all the way up to where it gets too cold to live. This was before the advent of heaters, and they’re asking us to have a fire going for nine months. That’s just irresponsible and dangerous.

When Polk eventually became president, he chickened out of his threat almost immediately. The Oregon territory was a generally peaceful negotiation. The border was drawn where it is today. It was a huge nothing burger. However, the threat rustled some jimmies, and the territories realized that the Americans are expansionist crazies who would go where they want, ignore borders, and take land by force if they want to, and the only way they could fight back if they ever got on the wrong side of their territorial ambitions was if they were a unified country. So we started talking about Confederation.

There were a few other reasons, too. Britain wanted to stop funding and defending these territories (it was expensive and there was an ocean in the way), and the Provinces wanted to build a railway to increase trade, which was a logistical nightmare without a unified government body. After the US Civil War, some Americans started doing cross-border raids and started talking about Manifest Destiny again, we really wanted the stuff out West for ourselves, and in 1866 the US suddenly decided to end a very benificial trade agreement for no reason and British North America realized that unifiying and supporting itself would make us much less vulnerable to the whims of clearly unhinged neighbours, which we’re sure isn’t relatable today.

From 1864 to 1866, the terms and possibility of Confederation were discussed three times at three conferences in Charlottetown, Quebec, and London. Finally, the British North America Act 1867 (later renamed The Constitution Act, 1867) was signed into law by the British Parliament, and Canada was established as a country in its own right.

Happy Belated Canada Day.

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July 6th to July 12th

The Ghost in the Shell/ 攻殻機動隊 THE GHOST IN THE SHELL

| 🇯🇵 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Crunchyroll |

When we tell you that this new series from Japan is set three years from now and is set in a much, much, much more futuristic world, we need you to understand that the manga it is based on started in 1989 (a whole Taylor Swift ago), and at that point, 2029 seemed like a far-off, distant time when technology would probably be much different from what it is. We were all much more hopeful. The series is set in a world where replacing limbs or incorporating tech upgrades into the body is common, and where the world and its people are more connected than ever before. In this world, Niihama City’s Public Security Section 9 is responsible for combating corruption, terrorism, and other dangerous threats.

Better Late Than Single/ 모태솔로지만 연애는 하고 싶어

| 🇰🇷 | Season 2 | 4-10 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Netflix |

Have you ever wanted the Queer Eye guys to host a dating show? Well, we can’t tell you how the hosts of this South Korean reality TV series swing, but we can tell you that they help guests with makeovers, style consultations, and help them improve their confidence to go from life-long single to the hottest profile in their area.

Trying

| 🇬🇧 | Season 5 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Apple TV |

After a married couple discovers they can’t conceive together, they decide to try to adopt. Season 5 picks up right where last season left us, with the chaotic birth mother showing up at their doorstep and causing issues for this British family.

Little House on the Prairie

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Netflix |

Little House on the Prairie is a series of books primarily published between 1932 and 1943 by American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder about her and her husband’s childhoods on the American frontier and her family’s lives as pioneers in the Midwest. Interestingly, Wilder was born the same year as the Canadian Confederation (1867). These books have been adapted more times than we can count, and because of the nightmare funhouse maze that is modern US copyright law, they are still not in the public domain in the US. Which means that if Laura Ingalls Wilder had any living descendants, they would still be putting their kids through college with this series.

Married at First Sight

| 🇺🇸 | Season 20 | 20 Episodes | Weekly | TV-Rating | Peacock |

Married at First Sight, the reality TV dating show where people choose to get married or not upon their first meeting is coming to the Pacific North West (PNW) this year as ten Seattle-based singles give the entire premise of Dharma and Greg a chance for their own lives.

The Westies

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | MGM+ |

Set in the 1980s in the Hells Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City, this crime drama profiles the rivalry between two gangs, the Italian mafia, and the Irish gang known as The Westies.

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July 6th to July 12th

Dark Side of the Ring

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 7 | 9 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Vice TV |

Among other subjects, this season of Dark Side of the Ring will take a deep dive into Renegade Rick Wilson, Missy Hyatt, and TNA Wrestling.

ER: Off the Charts

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | TLC |

TLC brings us a docuseries focusing on strange happenings and mistakes in hospital operating rooms retold by survivors, doctors, and others.

Big Brother

| 🇺🇸 | Season 28 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | CBS |

One of the original modern reality TV shows, Big Brother returns with a new cast moving into the iconic house where they will be recorded 24/ 7.

Big Brother: Unlocked

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | CBS |

This docuseries returns with exclusive access to the cast and set as it examines the long-running reality TV show Big Brother

Celebrity Family Feud

| 🇺🇸 | Season 12 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | ABC |

The game show where contestants try to guess the responses to largely non-political opinion polls tweaks its contestant pool by inviting famous people and their families, or co-workers, instead of average American families.

Press Your Luck

| 🇺🇸 | Season 7 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | ABC |

The most well-known thing about this popular game show that originally aired in the 1980s is the time someone scammed the network and won over $100,000 (over $300,000 today). The game board featured in the series claimed to randomize the lights, but in reality, it was only five repeated patterns that the cheater memorized. The show has since resolved that weakness.

The Real Housewives of Orange County

| 🇺🇸 | Season 20 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Bravo |

Not to be confused with the Desperate Housewives, this popular reality TV show about well-to-do housewives in Orange County, California, returns this week. Is it just us, or does the fact that much of the cast have jobs, businesses, and their own charities make calling them “real housewives” a bit of a misnomer?

Project Runway

| 🇺🇸 | Season 22 | Unknoen Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Freeform |

Tim Gunn still has not returned to this popular fashion-designing reality TV competition, not for lack of interest, but for lack of invitation. When it was rebooted, he was left out. However, rest assured that since then, he has given the show (which still features supermodel Heidi Klum) his blessing.

The Man Will Burn

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 4 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO |

This four-part documentary miniseries profiles Burning Man, from its founding as a small, anarchist event to what it is today.

The Real Murders of Atlanta

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Oxygen |

Some might tell you that Atlanta is filled with hustle and decadence. We can’t really comment on that, but this docuseries will profile a murder that happened in the ATL and recount the story of it from investigators, journalists, and those the victims left behind.

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TV History and Trivia

There are a lot of reality TV shows premiering this week, so we wanted to take a moment to tell you about the first version of this experimental form of TV.

An American Family was an experiment from PBS. As a concept at the time it debuted in 1973, it was odd and didn’t really make a lot of financial sense. It was kind of like a documentary, but it wasn’t really a “documentary.” It was just following an average family around without commentary. And to be very explicitly clear, if it wasn’t for PBS, the US public broadcaster, this show that launched a new genre would never have seen daylight.

The premise was incredibly simple. A camera crew followed a very normal American family around. The family they eventually chose was the Loud Family. Contemporary accounts described them as very painfully ordinary in middle-class White America. What we learned was that the parents were on the verge of divorce, and all their kids had their own stuff going on. As we said: painfully ordinary.

The Loud Family were breakout stars of 1973, though. People were obsessed. Eventually, the divorce did happen, though. One of the kids moved from his California home to New York City. Over the years, American TV has made special efforts to keep up with the family. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Turn and Smile Prime Time, June 30: Spider-Noir, Will Trent

Turn And Smile! — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:01:51 GMT

Welcome back, Sofa Taters!

We didn’t plan to review two detective shows this month, but now that it worked out that way we’re not going to change anything.

But since that is how it worked out, we do have mysteries on our mind and how so many don’t stay mysteries. Who kidnapped the Lindbergh baby? Bruno Richard Hauptmann. What happened to Amelia Earhart? Died. Who was the Zodiac killer? There were a few suspects, but the murders stopped after one of them died.

Mysteries are a tantalizing piece of entertainment and very engrossing. Writers of mysteries bend over backwards to not make the answer too obvious, and audiences try with varying degrees of difficulty to figure them out. They’re very para-socially intimate.

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OPENING REVIEW

Spider-Noir

“Saving Grace” by KIRBY

| 🇺🇸 | TV-14 | Prime Video |

Marvel’s opening sequences for its many related TV shows have almost exclusively swung for one of two extremes: Either busy or minimalist. Shows like Ironheart went incredibly minimalist, trying for visually diegetic titles. However, Spider-Noir has a sequence that is much more active. It appears more fragmented, and it cuts from segment to segment casually.

The interesting thing about the sequence is how devoid of Spider-Man (or The Spider, as he’s known in this show) it is. Unless you’re paying close attention, it would be easy not to even be aware that it’s a Spider-Man series. The individual elements themselves lean more heavily towards the noir genre of the show.

Like so many other noir openings, it makes the most sense after you have seen the whole season. It does a really good job of teasing the mystery at the heart of the plot.

KIRBY is the mononym stage name of rhythm and blues/ neo-soul recording artist Kirby Lauryen. Their contribution to the sequence is the soulful song “Saving Grace.”

The song itself is very “of a type.” Namely the slow, moody jazz common in noir media. It evokes the image of a smokey club with the fem fatal Jessica Rabbit type singing a seductive ode to loneliness. Lauryen’s song is itself about loneliness. However the difference this time around seems to be that the target of the song, the romantic foil we are being asked to imagine, is inattentive with a particular hold on the singer.

Kind of sounds like Kirby is on the hook.

Placing Nic Cage’s Ben Riley as the speaker of this song doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. Ben isn’t played as a romantic lead and we all know that Captain Corelli is good at playing a romantic lead. Instead, if we centre Felicia Hardy (played by Li Jun Li) as the speaker the point of view in the song makes a lot more sense.

As an opening sequence, centering a main but secondary character in its perspective is certainly a very unique and original choice. It’s one that most shows wouldn’t be brave enough to try, and Spider-Noir executes with skill and subtlety.

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SEASON REVIEW

Will Trent

Season 4

| 🇺🇸 | TV-14 | ABC/ Hulu |

Will Trent is a crime drama based on the book series from Karin Slaughter about Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) Special Agent Will Trent, a GBI agent who grew up in the foster care system after his mother was murdered and who is functionally illiterate due to very severe dyslexia. He carries a lot of shame about his disability and past, but it’s also turned him into a dedicated and honest agent.

Will Trent is by no means a perfect person. He has multiple issues that could be solved by regular therapy, and also, probably a qualified adult special education tutor. And though he does exist in our “ACAB”/ “no good cops”, post-George Floyd world, his introduction in Season 1 as the agent who uncovered corruption in the Atlanta Police Department that forced his partner’s mom off the force is treated as a bad thing. Like he shouldn’t have done that.

The visual language of that first episode goes to a weird amount of effort to establish him as an outsider, uniquely dedicated to upholding the law and doing his job very well. He is also a Holmesian detective wunderkind, but that comparison is unavoidable because crime fighters in these shows always have a one-hundred-percent solve rate. However, his outsider status is almost immediately ignored soon after, as his partner learns to trust him, and his foster sister from his traumatic past is also an APD detective.

A lot of the series is very run-of-the-mill, as the conflict that exists is more focused on stopping the criminals and not testing Will’s convictions or putting him in difficult positions. Early seasons put a lot of work into the secondary and tertiary characters before doing anything remotely interesting with them, too.

When the show finally decides to test Will, we are treated to true masterclasses of acting and much more interesting plots. He is someone who usually knows the right thing to do, but he either has a blind spot for himself or he’s lying to himself. We will let you decide which one it is for yourself.

The show gets progressively less run-of-the-mill as it goes. More plots test his convictions as the series progresses. There is much more character development. On the note of his dyslexia, we will say that a lot of other shows will pay a lot of lip service to a condition or disability like that before never drawing narrative attention to it ever again. The unique thing about Will Trent is that the show continually orients attention on Will’s struggles with it and how being functionally illiterate impacts him. Not only that, but as a character, Will is actively trying to hide it, so the attention spent on it isn’t just related to throwaway lines of dialogue. The camera and editing give us his perspective.

Season 4 may also be spoiling fans, because there is a lot of very rapid narrative movement this season.

In his first moments in Season 1, Will is introduced as someone committed to doing the right thing even if it will make him uncomfortable. This is shown by his adopting a dog, Betty, so she would avoid being put down at a shelter. As the series progresses, he develops more and more affection for her. As a character trait, this is very consistent, but Season 4 sets him up for a brand new life, which he might not be entirely prepared for.

🍁 Canadian perspective 🍁

Canada doesn’t have a police organization that is a one-to-one comparison for the GBI. Canada has the RCMP. The RCMP is local, regional, and federal police all rolled into one.

However, one thing that the RCMP has in common with Will Trent is corruption, and like Will Trent, RCMP officers have to do the social calculus of reporting or investigating fellow law enforcement and upholding the law, or siding with the officers. Unlike the TV show, officers who report their peers can get more than the cold shoulder that Trent got. Notably, those officers who do the right thing can develop a reputation for not being a team player or not having others’ backs, which leads to calls for backup not being answered, which can be deadly for cops, and other tomfoolery.

A great Canadian example of real life falling short of TV police is the Starlight Tours case. From 1976 to at least January 2000, police in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, made a habit of taking drunk people, most of whom were Indigenous people, to the city limits in freezing weather and abandoning them there to walk back home. Many people died of exposure. The harshest penalty we were able to find was that one officer who participated served eight months in prison.

Police organizations in general also have a bit of an issue with the fact that an uncomfortable amount of officers are also members of hate groups, too. Not only in Canada. As it is, it’s very difficult for someone with the moral fortitude of Will Trent to maintain their convictions when it’s a fellow officer in the wrong.

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Turn & Smile Bi-Yearly TV Cancellations

Turn And Smile! — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:01:29 GMT

We Support Each Other in Our Sadness

Television is a tricky business, Sofa Taters.

Sometimes, not always, a cancellation isn’t permanent. Sometimes, a week or month after the death of a TV show has been announced, we find that it’s being shopped around to other networks to keep it going. This fact makes up-to-the-minute reporting exhausting. We would much rather collect a bunch of titles in a giant list, wait until the end of June, and then release what we know before we start another list for December.

We feel like doing it like that, in conjunction with our regular TV Guide, would save your emotions from the inevitable yo-yo effect of speculative and yellow journalism about your favourite (or most hated) shows.

A few rules for this list:

We’re not covering concluded shows— Shows that ended on their own, or limited series that were always going to end. This includes shows like 1923 and Emily in Paris.
If a show on this list is still airing new episodes on TV, you should assume that it is either airing what is already in the can or is finishing the current season before ending.

Here is an alphabetized list of cancelled shows.

Cancelled TV Shows (June Edition)

The Abandons

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Netflix |

If you listen to Netflix, the reason this big-budget western about economically diverse families battling over the untamed West was cancelled is that it couldn’t hold a sizable enough audience to justify the $150,000,000 price tag. However, if you listen to Kurt Sutter, the creator of the series and former executive producer and showrunner, the streamer caved to algorithmic data instead of an auteur’s vision. Notably, Sutter left the series before its debut after “creative differences,” including a first episode with a runtime of an hour and forty minutes, and the episode order being reduced from ten to seven. This is, of course, before a team of lawyers apparently contacted him and reminded him to play nice, per his contract.

Access Hollywood

| 🇺🇸 | 27 Seasons | TV- G | Syndication/ NBC |

So it looks like NBC is scrapping an entire division, just folding it up and putting it into the bin. That division is its first-run syndication division, which produces its daytime talk lineup, among other shows. Last year, due to tragic circumstances, The Kelly Clarkson Show decided to end on its own accord, and now, partly because of the booming podcast industry, viewership is apparently down across the board for similar kinds of shows. Access Hollywood, an entertainment industry news and gossip show that’s been on the air since 1996, has been caught in this kerfuffle, too.

The Boroughs

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Netflix |

Thirty-five million might sound like a lot of viewers, but unfortunately, it’s not for Netflix. Ultimately, this sci-fi/ fantasy mystery/ horror series from The Duffer Brothers, who you might remember as the creators of Stranger Things, didn’t get the audience it needed for a second season. Not helping things was that some critics were not kind to this show. One critic said that it was so similar to Stranger Things that it could have been called Stranger Things: Elders. But on the upside, at least that also accurately describes the plot, and that makes our job easier.

Brilliant Minds

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-14 | NBC |

It looks like this medical drama starring Zachary Quinto as a doctor with Face Blindness (Prosopagnosia) had an issue with its viewership numbers. They kept going down. As low as they got in Season 1, Season 2 was much worse, so last month, NBC decided to axe this very well-reviewed series. As it was on NBC, you can check it out on Peacock or wherever you can get Peacock shows.

Building the Band

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-14 | Netflix |

Whenever we research shows for the Turn and Smile TV Guide or Bi-Yearly Cancellations, we’re always tempted to look at what other shows pop up in the various search bars we use and make a little joke about how you shouldn’t confuse this one with another series. This time that’s not a joke because in the late 1990s, very problematic band manager Lou Pearlman (look it up) produced one season of the reality TV competition show Making the Band, which was responsible for forming the group O-Town, before Diddy (big yikes) took the show over in subsequent seasons. Building the Band has the same premise: audition and then form a pop group not dissimilar to O-Town, except it adds in elements of Love is Blind or The Voice in that judges and coaches don’t get to see the young hopefuls when they audition.

The reason for the cancellation is very atypical. If you haven’t heard, One Direction alum and British pop superstar Liam Payne was a coach on this show and died in 2024 in Argentina while trying to renew his American travel visa to tour the States and see a fellow Directioneer’s Buenos Aires concert. After he fell to his death from his hotel room balcony, the local coroner’s report revealed that he had so many substances in his system that the list reads more like the inventory of a pharmacy than anything else. Host and Backstreet Boy AJ McLean and the other judges (Kelly Rowland, formerly of Destiny’s Child and Nicole Scherzinger, who was in The Pussycat Dolls) all felt continuing without Payne would be very difficult for them, and so Netflix quietly decided to pull the plug. Rest in peace, Liam. You didn’t know how beautiful you were.

The Copenhagen Test

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA| Peacock |

The great thing about being a leading Marvel actor is that everything you do tends to command a very high salary for you after that part. So when we tell you that one of the reasons this spy thriller starring the Marvel and Canadian icon Simu Liu was cancelled is that it cost too much to produce and had lower-than-expected viewership/ engagement, it won’t be a big surprise. The interesting thing about this one, though, is that Liu has talked about his view that actors shouldn’t be making $20,000,000 for a job when there is a pretty large pay disparity on set as it is. Not for nothing, but his net worth is estimated to be about $12,000,000, largely from his work with Marvel.

DMV

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-PG | CBS |

Last year, we saw a bunch of shows get cancelled by Paramount due to its merger with Skydance and its subsequent, however misplaced, desire to focus on brand-new content rather than continue to support established shows. This year, with their merger with Warner/Discovery all but confirmed, it seems the CBS parent company has made a similar choice with the wickedly entertaining DMV, a move also encouraged by the workplace sitcom’s undeservedly low viewership.

Dope Girls

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-14 | Hulu/ BBC One |

Things aren’t much better across the pond. The BBC One series Dope Girls (also streamed on Hulu), about a nightclub owner who gets into underground crime, got the axe because the overall reception was… lacking. Critics seem to love the show. Rotten Tomatoes has it at ninety-one percent. On top of that, viewership was low, despite its Saturday timeslot.

Gen V

| 🇬🇧/🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-MA | Prime Video |

It’s always a shame when a quality show with a poignant message gets the axe. Unfortunately, that’s the case for this series. With declining viewership that finally got the executives to pull the plug, the one saving grace is that, because it’s part of the wider The Boys franchise, we can still get references to Marie and her friends. Unfortunately, the more expensive a show is, the more people need to watch it.

Going Dutch

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-14 | Fox |

Of the Boomer comedians still working today, Denis Leary is widely considered one of the greats by everyone not familiar with Bill Hicks. However, he’s turned his skill as a comedian into a long acting career, and as such found himself with a darling little sitcom about a Colonel who gets sidelined to the most unimportant military base in the armed forces. As much as executives at Fox like Leary (his long-running drama, Rescue Me, was produced at FX for seven years, the Fox subsidiary), their admiration was not enough to fight against the low viewership it got.

Good Cop/ Bad Cop

| 🇦🇺/🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-14 | The CW |

When The CW first formed, it would have been easy to assume that, as a cooperative effort between two major studios (CBS and Warner Bros.), it would potentially be like a big-budget studio itself, producing high-calibre, big-budget TV. That’s not the case. Now in its twentieth year, the baby network is producing lower-cost shows and licensing programs from other countries like Canada or Australia for broadcast stateside. One of its goals in its production process is to attract other streaming services to share streaming rights and the cost of production, too. This seems, at least, to be part of the reason this one about cops with mismatched personalities is going the way of the dodo because, despite the show being on Netflix, too, it hasn’t been able to attract any other streaming support, at a time when the network seems to be shifting its focus to cheaper-to-produce shows like unscripted reality TV shows and sports.

The Hunting Party

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Season | TV-14 | NBC |

The show Gilligan’s Island was wildly and massively popular when it was still on the air, and by all accounts, a ratings giant for CBS. Ultimately, though, the head of the network at the time had a wife who loved the show Gunsmoke more than Gilligan and his friends (maybe even more than her husband). So even though it would have been a better business decision to cancel Gunsmoke, he cancelled Gilligan’s Island. In a similar turn of events, NBC has opted to cancel The Hunting Party, a crime drama about investigators tracking down criminals who escaped from a prison that doesn’t officially exist. But instead of cancelling a more popular show to save a less popular show that the network head’s spouse loves, NBC cancelled a show with dwindling ratings in favour of just creating a space to be filled later.

Karamo/ Karamo Show

| 🇺🇸 | 4 Seasons | Unknown Rating | Syndicated/ NBC (Pluto TV) |

It’s another first-run syndicated talk show from NBC! That’s right, Karamo Brown’s talk show is another casualty in the NBC/ Universal decision to shutter its entire first-run syndication department. Brown first came to prominence in the early 2000s on MTV’s The Real World: Philadelphia. He is also the culture expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye.

Kevin

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Prime Video |

The Prime Video series Kevin was co-created by Big Mouth alum Joe Wengert and Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza. The animated series about a cat that decides to leave its owners and live feral was partly based on a breakup and the pet cat caught in the middle of it. The unique thing about it is that it is a metaphor for an ended relationship. But why was it cancelled in its first season? Well, like Parks and Recreation, it struggled to attract a large audience while it spent this season trying to find itself. Unlike Parks and Recreation, however, it wasn’t given the freedom to do that because streaming TV is apparently stricter and harsher than network TV. When she announced the cancellation via Instagram, Plaza was hopeful that Kevin could return for Season 2 at a new network.

Law & Order: Organized Crime

| 🇺🇸 | 5 Seasons | TV-14 | NBC/ Peacock |

If you’ve ever worked at a company where executives and managers keep quitting, you know that’s not a good sign. Such was the case with this Law & Order: Special Victims Unit spinoff as it experienced an inordinate amount of behind-the-scenes “shuffling.” On top of that, low viewership on linear cable helped the network push it off the weekly schedule like a cat and a glass of water.

On Brand With Jimmy Fallon

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-PG | NBC |

It seems like marketing professionals don’t really want to sit around for an hour watching people do their job while Jimmy Fallon acts like a child. On top of that, the show was apparently shuffled around time slots so much that no marketing department could save it from the lack of viewership it got.

Palm Royale

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-MA | Apple TV |

There has been a lot of love for this series. It’s a fan favourite. It won an Emmy! But apparently, Apple cares about social media engagement, too, and the lack of substantial mentions of this show, combined with comparatively low viewership, means that there won’t be a third season.

PONIES: Persons of No Interest

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Peacock |

Cliffhangers can be divisive. Knowing that this series ends in one might make you less likely to check it out even after learning that it is highly rated by critics. Knowing that the creators of this series only did that because they assumed there would be a second season might make you feel a certain way. PONIES, which included Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clark and Dropout mainstay and breakout star Vic Michaelis, followed two women who were considered “Persons of No Interest” who became CIA operatives to uncover the conspiracy that got their husbands killed during the Cold War. Peacock doesn’t release its viewership numbers (a policy that SAG-AFTRA would like changed), but they do claim that viewership for this one was disappointing, despite the many accolades, and they couldn’t justify the budget for a second season.

The Runarounds

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Prime Video |

If you missed our announcement of this show in one of our TV guides from last year, we told the story that this show was based on the real-life story of a real-life band that was formed by American writer/ director/ producer Jonas Pate when he was trying to find a group to perform on the series he created, Outer Banks. The band was formed whole-cloth from auditions he conducted of musicians he smushed together until he found a group that worked well together. There’s probably a really endearing message somewhere in that story about the perseverance of art and creativity, but now we’re not going to see that through because Prime Video has cleared it off their slate for reasons that fans of this musical drama will probably really hate. Officially, the show was cancelled due to very low viewership, but if you dig just a little bit deeper, you’ll see that there wasn’t actually that robust a marketing campaign behind it. Now it kind of feels like if there were better marketing, there would be more viewers.

Sherri

| 🇺🇸 | 4 Seasons | TV-PG | Syndicated |

Producers at the show’s production company, Debmar-Mercury, have come out and said that the cancellation of Sherri Shepherd’s talk show, Sherri, was purely a business decision, highlighting the changing television landscape and the rising cost of daily productions (the series is known to film two episodes per day) as major factors. As recently as last year, Fox TV highlighted Sherri as a “linchpin” of its daytime lineup, while everyone involved has been heaping praise on Shepherd herself, as the only comedian with a daytime talk show. Sherri Shepherd herself addressed the cancellation back in February on air and highlighted the fact that she and the team making the show are actively seeking a new production company and new distribution platform, with the hope that the show will be able to continue in the near future, and doing so with the blessing of Debmar-Mercury. As it stands now, though, the last episode of its current season is scheduled to air this fall.

Sight Unseen

| 🇨🇦 | 2 Seasons | TV-14 | CTV/ The CW |

This Canadian police drama about a blind detective who is helped by assistive tech and a remote agoraphobic assistant is a great example of a group project where one of the group members totally drops the ball. The CW has adopted a production and distribution strategy of buying up distribution rights and putting its logo on them for American viewers, which has them entering into co-financing agreements where they help fund the production of the shows they air. They had such an agreement with CTV (the Canadian Television network) to produce this show. Unfortunately, they decided that it wasn’t getting enough viewers in the US and have decided to stop. It turns out that CTV can’t afford to produce this series on its own and is being forced to cancel it. Ainsi va la vie.

The Snake

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | Unknown Rating | Fox |

Viewership can be a fickle metric in mainstream television, given that middling performance is usually counted in the low millions, so when a reality TV competition series like The Snake averages around 780,000 per episode, everyone involved feels pretty good calling it a failure in that respect. But that’s not where it ends for this fledgling series, either. On top of fewer people than the population of Australia tuning in for this show, critics apparently eviscerated the pacing and editing in review after review, plus it looks like nobody enjoyed the show’s heavy reliance on luck, too. Clearly, people want a skill-based show!

So You Think You Can Dance?

| 🇺🇸 | 18 Seasons | TV-PG | Fox |

Aww, dang!

We’re going to call this one cancelled, Sofa Taters. Officially speaking, the head of Fox has stated that there are no plans to bring this dance competition series back for a nineteenth season. What that seems to mean is that they’re not putting money into doing it this year. At the same time, the last season was in 2024. But also, the show hasn’t had a very easy go of it since it took a hiatus for the COVID-19 pandemic. After breaking for two years, it tried to shake things up in ways that didn’t really resonate with fans. They brought in a new team of judges and lost one because he “failed to follow competition protocols,” which sounds like a euphemism for something, though we can’t tell what, and another host also died. It hasn’t been very smooth sailing, that’s for sure.

Spartacus: House Of Ashur

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Starz |

When we announced Spartacus: House of Ashur from Starz last year, we made a lot of jokes about the fact that this is a sequel to a TV show that was last on air in 2013. We rightly pointed out that Spartacus, the series, wasn’t the kind of widely popular cultural touchstone it would need to be to justify a sequel to begin with, let alone thirteen years later. It seems that viewers agreed and completely skipped it. Starz themselves have cited the very low viewership as a reason, but also pointed out that they’re trying to appeal to more women, and apparently, a show set in Roman antiquity about gladiators isn’t really cracking into their core demographic.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-14 | Paramount+ |

Not to sound like “one of those people,” but nothing is worse than people who claim to be a fan of something and do nothing but complain about it. Though there are plenty of deeply weird people who fit that description for this show, believe it or not, they actually didn’t have anything to do with that. Two concerns that contributed to the choice to cancel the show are its low viewership and its high cost. Reportedly, it costs roughly ten million dollars per episode, which, honestly, is really insane considering that historically the production budget for episodes of a Star Trek series has been a handful of peanut shells and a little lint. But on top of that, Paramount’s restructuring efforts amid its merger with Skydance are another reason. As previously mentioned, Paramount is refocusing on producing new shows and opting to clear existing series to make space in their budget for them. Please note that the second season hasn’t aired yet and is scheduled to debut this year. Be sure to subscribe and follow to get our weekly TV and see when it lands on Paramount+.

Strip Law

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Netflix |

Looking back, you might wonder if you saw this series pop up on your Netflix feed, or any sections on the page, like the top ten. It’s okay if you don’t remember seeing it, because it never reached the top ten. On top of that, it also underperformed among viewers. Meaning almost nobody watched it. We have a theory that a coven of witches has cursed Adam Scott so that everything he does tanks so that he makes more Severance, because witches are widely known to both be vengeful and want more seasons of Severance already. Excuse us as we shop for a culdron and a crystal ball for… non-curse things…

Stumble

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-14 | NBC |

Stumble might have been doomed to fail. The mockumentary-style cheerleading comedy was placed on the very hard Friday night schedule directly behind a very successful show, Happy’s Place, a more traditional family sitcom. Arguably, the different filming styles (multi-camera for Happy’s Place and mockumentary for Stumble) led to an incongruence that turned off some of the audience, leading to low cable viewership. The show also didn’t perform well on Peacock, but that could be because nobody has Peacock.

Talamasca: The Secret Order

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | AMC |

Since buying the rights to Anne Rice’s Immortal series, AMC has really gone to work building out a franchise of its own. The first casualty of that franchise on TV is Talamasca: The Secret Order, the fantasy series about a recent law school grad who is approached by a secretive organization to help monitor the fantasy world under our noses. Though we haven’t been able to find more than “underwhelming viewership numbers” as the reason, producers at AMC have affirmed that we’re likely to see characters from Talamasca: The Secret Order pop up in The Mayfair Witches and Interview with the Vampire in the future, as well as the Talamasca organization itself.

Terminator Zero/ ターミネーター 0

| 🇯🇵/🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-MA | Netflix |

Terminator Zero was a series with something of an auteur creator behind it, who had a multi-season epic in mind for the plot of this anime series, co-produced in the USA and Japan. Mattson Tomlin, the show’s creator, had the second season written and done, and the third was totally mapped out and ready to write when Netflix axed it due to undeservedly low ratings, as critics and fans alike loved the show. Credit where credit is due, however, and to their credit after cutting this show, execs gave Tomlin the option to produce two or three episodes to bring his story to a close. Unfortunately for fans, he opted not to take the offer because the story he envisioned was much longer. He’s since said that he’s happy with where he left the characters and story.

Them

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-MA | Prime Video |

We’re including Them, Prime Video’s horror anthology series, in this list out of an abundance of caution. We’ve found mixed reporting on the fate of the show. Some sources we found say that it’s dead in the water and not coming back. Others just report that there currently aren’t plans for it to return. It might go either way.

The Ultimatum: Queer Love

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-MA | Netflix |

It would be really awful if Netflix announced they were cancelling this series in June, and the optics of announcing it now, at the end of June, amid… everything else… are not great. In actuality, the cancellation of this reality TV series, where lesbian and queer couples face an ultimatum from within their relationship to either marry or break up, was actually announced last year in October, but we only learned about it this year, partly because it was under-reported. Speaking of under-reporting, though the network has said that the show struggled to break into its top ten ranking and viewership declined in the second season, fans and others have noticed an uncomfortable trend that shows (especially within reality TV) struggle to get renewed when they focus on queer women.

The Vince Staples Show

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-MA | Netflix |

Rapper, Cutthroat Boyz member, and actor Vince Staples starred in this satirical dramady, where he takes on the very challenging role of playing himself. Reasons given for the cancellation, other than disappointing viewership, are that Netflix reported it is looking for “broad market appeal,” which we’re not inclined to believe due to all of the creepy German horror the Network produces. As it turns out, most people who see it (like most people who see creepy German horror) love this series, as it is rated in the upper eighties on both metrics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Watson

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-14 | CBS |

Watson debuted with a very unique premise: Dr. John Watson, the ever-loyal sidekick to Sherlock Holmes, goes back to continue his medical practice after Holmes’ death at the hands of his notorious rival, Dr. Moriarty. It’s a modern Sherlock Holmes without Sherlock Holmes. Then they brought Sherlock Holmes back, and viewership dropped. We can’t say it jumped the shark and the audience tapered off, but it does look like that.

With Love, Meghan

| 🇺🇸 | 2 Seasons | TV-PG | Netflix |

This lifestyle and talk show series by the first Canadian Duchess of Sussex did indeed not live up to the network’s viewership expectations, but it turns out that episode completion is important to them, and according to them, a disproportionate amount of the audience dropped off partway through each episode without ever finishing it.

Yes, Chef!

| 🇺🇸 | 1 Season | TV-PG | NBC |

Of all the things that could happen to lead to this intense cooking competition’s cancellation, all of them hit this one. The series hosted by the original lifestyle influencer, Martha Stewart, suffered not only low viewership but also low viewership among the coveted eighteen-to-thirty-five demographic, and on top of that, reviews from critics and the audience were very unkind.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, June 28

Turn And Smile! — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 07:01:06 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: The Canadian Flag/ L'Unifolié

Canada’s national flag seems like a timeless national symbol that has existed since the founding of the country in 1867, but nay, it’s much younger than that.

First of all, just as a little housekeeping, there are a lot of people who don’t see this flag as a symbol of pride and patriotism, or even one that represents their nationality, identity, or citizenship. To that point, we aren’t here to suggest that it should be. We’re faceless nobodies on the internet giving opinions on media. We aren’t the arbiters of national pride, and it’s weird that so many people in this field are appointing themselves as the definitive word on birthrates and patriotism. The more we learn, the more our relationship changes to symbols and media. We’re not trying to suggest how to feel about this, and we’re not telling you what its subjective meaning should be to you.

But it is one of the symbols we have, and it’s part of the culture, and a form of media. From Canada. That is what the Canadian Corner is for.

The very first flags used to represent Canada weren’t actually used to represent “Canada.” Before confederation, what would become known as Canada was initially known by settlers and Americans as British North America, which we’ll call BNA for short. That flag was the Union Jack. From Brittian.

Before that, Quebec also used the French national flag.

As confederation into a country became more and more inevitable, there was more discussion around adopting and developing a uniquely Canadian flag.

So the Canadian confederation happened in 1867, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined together like a nineteenth-century geopolitical Voltron, and formed Canada.

That same year, a man from English Canada wrote the song “The Maple Leaf Forever,” which served as an unofficial anthem for English Canada, and more or less cemented the Maple Leaf as our national symbol.

The deference to Britain in the song also stuck around for a while, but eventually petered out.

As the discussion continued, we eventually settled on this… We want to say monstrosity?

Do keep in mind we’re not referring to this as a monstrosity lightly. This was never Canada’s official flag. It was unofficially used as a naval flag and also unofficially used as a land flag. There is… way too much red. You’ll also notice the little coat of arms to the right. That was another gift from England. It was assigned to us, not developed by us.

That settled the discussion for a while, but then Canada grew. The coat of arms went through modifications to incorporate each province as they joined. Canada matured as a nation, and then World War I happened.

The Great War was a shining moment of sorts for the young nation of Canada. Before this, it was untested and not really a big player on the world’s stage. But the war changed all of that. Even though Canada didn’t exactly have a choice to enter the war in the first place, it did so eagerly and took it as an opportunity to prove itself with enthusiasm and veracity. Over 650,000 Canadians (and Newfoundlanders, as it was still not a province) enlisted. Of that number, about 4,500 were native and indigenous Canadians.

Canada stepped up in a major way and proved itself, and so it was time for a new flag.

Actually, it was time for a new coat of arms. On the same flag. This was the flag that Canada adopted in 1921. Can we get a new flag? We have a flag at home!

The next change came in 1957. By that point, it looks like we really couldn’t take it anymore, given how this flag didn’t represent us or our symbols at all. So after much discussion, we finally took it upon ourselves to change it.

It’s like King George V never even saw a Maple Leaf when he gave us the last one, right?

These flags did cause us some issues, though. In 1956, Canadian troops served as United Nations peacekeepers in Egypt during the Suez Crisis and took with them the Red Ensign (the official name of the flag at that time) and raised it proudly. The crisis itself led to England, Israel, and France invading Egypt, which caused problems for the Canadians. You can see how they would be mistaken for the British, who were invading.

We don’t know if you would consider designing a new flag an issue that should permeate political discourse where you’re from, or if you think it would be normal to be discussing that for nine years, but that’s what happened in Canada. Some Prime Ministers did everything in their power to try to avoid discussing it.

During this period, the only movement that was made for a uniquely Canadian flag was to keep the Union Jack as the official flag, but fly the (new) Red Ensign from government buildings.

Yeah, still not the official flag.

Following the next World War, the demand for a truly Canadian flag started to rise to a fever pitch, too. As time went on, it became more and more an issue that couldn’t be avoided.

Lester B. Peterson became Prime Minister in 1963, and if Canada had a “the buck stops here” moment, it was with the flag issue. Peterson took it seriously and even formed committees for a national flag design.

He didn’t just want a national flag to have a flag, though. His Prime Ministership was going to run through Canada’s centennial in 1967, and he thought that being the guy to raise Canada’s first official flag at the centennial would be really great for the country, too. Just imagine the hype.

As you can see, the fifteen-person committee considered a lot of designs, but by 1964, there were three finalists.

The Honourable John Matheson, a Member of Parliament (MP) from a riding in Ontario, is credited with finding consensus both in the committee and in Parliament. He’s the one who ended the Great Flag Debate. That’s what it was called. The Great Flag Debate. It’s in history textbooks.

The chosen design was known as The Stanley Design, and eagle-eyed people will notice a difference between this flag and the final design. The chosen design has a thirteen-point maple leaf. It was then given to the committee’s design specialists and artists to be refined to go to the Canadian Government Specifications Board to build the final design.

The final design settled on an eleven-point maple leaf. It was unveiled at a public ceremony in February 1965. Lester B. Peterson is quoted at the ceremony as saying, “May the land over which this new flag flies remain united in freedom and justice … sensitive, tolerant and compassionate towards all.”

This has been Canada’s official national flag since then, and will probably stay that way until the next World War.

The most idealistic version of this flag represents the hope of what Canada can be, and is enduringly trying to be. Free. Just. Sensitive. Tolerant. And Compassionate. For all.

True North Strong and Free

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May 13th to June 28th

Would You Rather: Decide to Survive

| 🇬🇧 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

We don’t know a whole lot about this, but research tells us that this reality TV game show from the United Kingdom is scheduled to come out in June. When in June? Couldn’t tell you. But look for this series hosted by British comedy star Romesh Ranganathan, where some of the top online content creators form teams to answer questions like, “Would you rather fight one giant duck, or one thousand tiny ducks?” all for an as of yet undisclosed prize amount, and, as always, glory.

The Old Stories: Moses

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Unknown Rating | Wonder Project/ Prime Video |

In a move that surprises, maybe everyone, this series managed to get Ben Kingsley, the famous Indian-British actor, in the titular role of Moses. We weren’t going to cover this series because Wonder Project, the very religious streaming service, was not available internationally, but executives at the small Prime Video connected streamer announced that they were rolling out availability internationally this year. On top of that, this miniseries will also be available either through Prime Video or MGM+. We can’t tell you if most of the budget went to locking down Sir Ben Kingsley, but what we can tell you is that this retelling of the story of Moses exists within the House of David series.

June 29th to July 5th

Adventure Time: Side Quests

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 9 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Hulu (HBO Max/ Cartoon Network) |

If you want to crash the reality of children in your life and make them doubt everything they know, tell them that SpongeBob and the Ice King sound similar. As it happens, Tom Kenny voices both. Another interesting bit of information is that, except for Finn the human, the original voice cast (including Futurama’s John DiMaggio as Jake the Dog, and Gravity Falls alum Niki Yang as BMO) all return to their iconic characters. These Side Quests see Finn and Jake return to the land of Ooo to have fun and punch evil in the butt along the way. Though it will be debuting on Hulu this time around, you should also expect to see it on Cartoon Network and HBO Max come October.

Tyler Perry’s Ruthless/ Ruthless

| 🇺🇸 | Season 6 | 10 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | BET+ |

In Tyler Perry’s The Oval, Ruth Truesdale gets caught up in a sex cult. In Tyler Perry’s Ruthless, she goes to save them from the cult. We’re just curious how it connects to Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan.

X-Men ‘97

| 🇰🇷/🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 9 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Disney+ |

We’re not saying that Season 1 of X-Men ‘97 made Mason cry ugly sobbing tears, but Season 1 of X-Men ‘97 made Mason cry ugly sobbing tears. Season 1 of this series was the pet project of Beau DeMayo, who penned the story for last season and this one. DeMayo must have a skin condition because it’s increasingly difficult to find a picture of him wearing clothes. To that point, he was unceremoniously fired from the show while production on Season 2 was gearing up, creating an unsafe work environment. Matthew Chauncey, a producer and writer on What if…? and Ms. Marvel, will helm X-Men ‘97 for Season 2 and beyond. Chauncey seems not to have an adversarial relationship with shirts. So hopefully the crew of X-Men ‘97 will be able to do even better work while not being harassed. This season will find the titular mutant team spread out across time and must find their way back to 1997 to face the mutant antagonist known as Apocolypse and prevent a future dystopia.

Elle

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Prime Video |

Fans of Legally Blonde will bend and snap in excitement because the prequel series following the series protagonist, Elle Woods, is finally here. It’s been a very long journey, but now it’s here. The series itself will follow Elle through high school, starting in her junior year. The show promises to chronicle the early experiences that shaped her into the icon we fell in love with in the movie (and the musical).

Human Vapor/ ガス人間

| 🇯🇵/🇰🇷 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

This one has a global history. The story actually starts in 1958 in Japan with the release of Toho’s first film in the “Transforming Human” trilogy, The H-Man. Toho is, of course, the Japanese studio that gifted the world Godzilla. They do other things, too. The Human Vapor was the third installment of the Transforming Human trilogy, and producers at Toho contracted American television writer John Meredyth Lucas (best known at the time for B-movies and Star Trek) to write a story for The Human Vapor. It was then given to Japanese writer (and political activist) Takeshi Kimura for the screenplay, after which it was eventually released in December 1960. Human Vapor marks Netflix’s first collaboration with Toho in this production, produced in Japan and South Korea. The story follows someone who is the subject of a failed experiment that gives him the ability to turn into vapour, or smoke, which they use to murder and steal.

Survival of the Thickest

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

This season might be a little bittersweet for fans of Survival of the Thickest. The reason is that Netflix announced that there will be no Season 4. Hopefully, though, we’ll get some closure to the drama in this comedy series starring comedienne Michelle Buteau, based on her memoir of the same name. The show itself follows Buteau’s character’s efforts to rebuild her life after a particularly devistating break up.

Silo

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV+ |

This season, we’re getting some much-needed backstory as a journalist and politician before the “Silo Times” begins an investigation that will shed new light on what is happening in this dystopia. Meanwhile, in the modern timeline, we will pick up where we left off after the reeducation efforts on Juliette Nichols.

Sparks of Tomorrow/ 二十世紀電氣目録-ユーレカ・エヴリカ-

| 🇯🇵 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-14 | Netflix |

This Japanese anime leaves us with a lot of questions that we don’t have the time to uncover before its debut. Based on the light novel “20th Century Electricity Catalog” it follows two protagonists, either in a steampunk version of Meiji-era Japan or in Meiji-era Japan. One of them is mourning their dead sibling. The other has secrets. They’re both looking for the 20th-Century Electrical Catalog, which appears to be a book that will either help them or solve all their problems somehow.

Or…

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June 29th to July 5th

Jay & Pamela

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | TLC |

Last season, we were introduced to Jay and Pamela, a couple who both have the same rare genetic condition. This season, they return in their reality TV series, and will apparently be considering having a baby.

Lot Patrol

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | BET |

A new comedy created by talent agent, actor, and producer Ernest Dancy. Lot Patrol follows a group of security guards on a major film studio’s backlot as they deal with unruly actors and other comedic drama.

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TV History and Trivia

Betty White: First woman on national television

Betty White was widely recognized as an iconoclast, and, in addition to being a highly talented woman, she was also the first woman to appear on TV.

The year is 1939. Sliced bread is only about eleven years old, yet recent high school graduate Betty White gets a gig with a Los Angeles-based experimental broadcaster for this new-fangled thing they’re calling “television.”

The job is pretty simple. She dances the Merry Widow Waltz with her class president.

White’s career has been filled with a lot of other firsts, too. After starting her career with a monumental first, she became the first woman to produce a TV sitcom in 1952. She was also the first woman to star in a TV sitcom for the same 1950s sitcom, Life with Elizabeth. Before that, she was also the first woman to host a daytime talk show.

After that, she was the first woman to win a daytime Emmy Award in 1952.

While facing a boycott from Southern TV stations, Betty White stayed true to her convictions and continued to feature a talented Black dancer on her talk show, even offering him more time on the program. She also insisted on hiring a woman to direct that series.

The world changed in ways that the high school grad hired to dance for the first national TV broadcast probably never even assumed it would, and a fair amount of that change was her doing, too.

Be more like Betty White.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, June 21

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 04:30:58 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Bannock

Can bread be… racist?

Like most things in Canadian history, the answer is simultaneously “YES” and “it depends.”

Bannock has a very long history on both sides of the Atlantic. On the opposite side, it started its life in Scotland and spread around the UK. Now you can get British Bannock all over that place. In North America, it had a lot of different variations and could change wildly from tribe to tribe. We’re not incredibly sure, however, how it came to be known as bannock. Some say that’s what tribes called it. Some say that was an anglicization of what the tribes called it, and some say that’s what the British called it when they did that whole stealing land thing and then the term caught on.

At this point, it’s impossible to know how long tribes have been baking bannock for themselves. It was a staple food on the Lewis and Clark expedition, too.

But when the British established the Native reservation system, and the Canadian government later took it over, they forced tribes off of their traditional territory, initiated strict rules that forbade them from leaving reserves, controlled their hunting practices, and then provided them with limited food rations.

Bannock evolved into a staple food on reservations because it was a food that could be made with most of the ingredients provided by the government. Those ingredients were:

Flour
Salt
Sugar
Lard
And pork or bacon (which wasn’t used for bannock)

Bannock became a food staple that tribes would make by choice to have something to eat while migrating, to a food staple they had to make with non-traditional ingredients because they had few, if any, alternative options for food.

Now, if you have any knowledge of nutrition, when you learn that bannock during this time was also fried in oil, you might look cock-eyed at all of the ingredients.

Yes, another thing the government gave tribes was diabetes.

Canada is far from perfect, and the government’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation (T&R) can sometimes change with the tide. However, understanding the impact of choices goes a long way to making life better for everyone.

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June 22nd to June 28th

Rhythm + Flow: Italy/ Nuova Scena

| 🇮🇹 | Season 3 | 9 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Netflix |

The rap game is hard. The only thing that could make the rap game harder is turning it into an actual game. Well, now you can follow three established Italian rappers as they try to find the best up-and-coming rappers in three Italian cities to have them compete against each other for a €100,000 grand prize, and of course, the glory.

Harry Wild

| 🇩🇪/🇮🇪/🇬🇧 | Season 5 | 6 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-14 | Acorn TV |

Starring Jane Seymour, this quaint German/ Irish/British-produced mystery series follows a retired professor as they find they have a knack for detective work and can’t help but stick their nose into their actual detective son’s cases.

Behind the Attraction

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Disney+ |

Narrated by Criminal Minds and Community alum Paget Brewster, this ~~advertisement~~ docuseries profiles how Disney Parks’ Imagineers developed and constructed Disney attractions, animatronics, areas, and parks while also covering their impact and visitor reactions. If you’re going to Disneyland, Disney World, or EuroDisney, this docuseries will be good to watch before the trip or the plane ride over.

A Woman of Substance

| 🇬🇧 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-14 | BritBox |

So A Woman of Substance has quite a history. Starting as a 1979 book by British-American author Barbara Taylor Bradford called “A Woman of Substance,” about a woman who starts a clothing retailer. The book eventually expanded into a seven-part series of novels that went through the generations of the titular woman’s family. Then, in 1985, the UK’s Channel 4 adapted the first book in this series into a three-part miniseries starring Deborah Kerr and Spin City and Rocky Horror Picture Show star Barry Bostwick. Channel 4 aired another adaptation of the original novel earlier this year, forty-one years after the original miniseries, and now BritBox gets to bring it to the rest of the world.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 7 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Netflix |

Based on the immensely popular animated series of the same name, this show follows a young “chosen one” known as the Avatar on their quest to master four regional “bending” powers (hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis, aerokinesis, and terrakinesis) so that they can fulfill their destiny to bring balance and end the imperialism of the Fire Nation. Not to be confused with James Cameron’s Avatar films that are easily described as Dances With Wolves with blue people, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantasy series with something for everyone, including children.

The Bear

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Hulu |

This season might be a bit bittersweet for fans of The Bear, considering it’s the last one that will undoubtedly finally plate the order and lay it bare on the table. This season will pick up directly after Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy Berzatto has decided to leave the food industry, with those remaining at the restaurant finding out that they’re on their own now, with no money, a pending purchase threat and an oncoming storm as they finally try to win a Michelin Star.

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO Max |

Apparently, the story here is that the Obamas (Michelle and her husband Barack) wanted to do something to celebrate the sestercentennial of the USA’s founding, but then Curb Your Enthusiasm writer, creator, and star Larry David called. This comedic sketch comedy show explores multiple moments across American history from its colonial days and beyond. David is widely considered one of the premier comedy writers not only of his generation, but also currently working, too.

Camp Snoopy

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 13 Episodes | Drop | TV-G | Apple TV |

Co-produced between Canada and the United States, this animated series, based on the “Peanuts” comic strips by cartoonist Charles Schulz, debuted in 2024 and now returns with more adventures from Snoopy and the Beagle Scouts, as well as Charlie Brown and his friends. This season, you and your kids can look forward to the elusive hedge toad, towering sandcastles, and a debate about hot dogs versus hamburgers.

Notes from the Last Row/ 맨 끝줄 소년

| 🇰🇷 | Miniseries | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Coming to us from South Korea, Notes from the Last Row details the story of a teacher who offers to tutor a student in writing after seeing great talent in them. However, as the student’s story unfolds on the page, the real mystery begins.

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June 22nd to June 28th

Expedition Unknown

| 🇺🇸 | Season 17 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Discovery |

Slightly controversial archeologist Josh Gates returns to host this season of his flagship series, where he will explore ancient sites, cultures, and some fringe theories about the ancient world of long ago.

Love It or List It

| 🇨🇦 | Season 21 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | HGTV |

Realtor David Visentin and designer Hilary Farr compete with themselves to convince their clients to sell or renovate their homes in this Canadian reality TV show, very likely taking place in a city currently experiencing a housing crisis to such a degree that even people who renovate will probably still turn around and sell because affordability has been that bad for at least a decade. It’s rough out here.

Next Gen NYC

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 5 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Bravo |

All the Gen Z(ed) nepo babies and influencers from last season return this year, with the addition of a couple more cast members, too, as these twenty-somethings continue to figure out adulthood after growing up in the spotlight, or adjacent to it.

The Bear

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | FX |

Yes, The Bear is dropping on Hulu this week in its entirety, but also the first two episodes of the new season are debuting on FX, and the series is continuing weekly there, too, for any fans who haven’t cut the cord yet.

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO |

We’re going to take a page from Larry David because we don’t want to repeat ourselves. What we will add, though, is that on top of being on HBO Max, this miniseries will also be on HBO, also for those who haven’t cut the cord yet.

In the Eye of the Storm

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 4 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Discovery |

This show might not be for anyone still living in Tornado Alley, and earthquake or wildfire zones, or in the path of hurricanes and typhoons. Why? Because the whole premise of this show is the worst day of their lives, which turned their home into a spread-out pile of rubble three inches tall. For those of you who don’t live in the places that have angered Satan, this series relies very heavily on “found footage." Namely, the videos of ordinary people that are often shot on their phones.

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TV History and Trivia

Wentworth Miller, the star of Prison Break and the villain turned antihero Captain Cold in The CW Arrowverse shows The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, was invited to the St. Petersburg International Film Festival in 2013. He was to be an honoured guest of the festival. However, at the time (as still is now), Russia had some laws that treated the existence of certain groups of people unfairly and criminalized their existence.

Miller, most famous for playing the manliest manly man to ever man on Prison Break, took the occasion of this invitation to Russia to pen an open letter in response to the festival and not only came out as a gay man in this letter, but also told the festival, and all of Russia, where they could stick this invite specifically for the country’s treatment of people like him.

Obviously, he did so with a heavy helping of class. However, we don’t feel it’s inappropriate to read that tone into the very tactfully written letter. This may very well be the most punk rock coming-out to ever happen.

Unfortunately, Hollywood coming-out stories aren’t usually as nice as Miller’s (or by choice). Most infamously, Neil Patrick Harris came out after gossip blogger, and the most toxic gay man, Perez Hilton, engaged in an aggressive campaign to collect evidence of Harris’ queerness, leading him to come out publicly before he was ready, which he did in a 2006 interview with People Magazine. Perez Hilton had other targets in the mid 2000s, too, including N*SYNC alum Lance Bass, who received a twenty-four-hour ultimatum to come out himself, White Collar star Matt Bomer, who says that his career was impacted by Hilton’s outing, and former Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui, who had private photos of her as a teenager leaked by Hilton.

If anything, the lesson we learn from Wentworth Miller (other than how close to the ground his testicles hang) is that if audiences and insiders treat people in showbiz with respect and let them come out when they’re good and ready, we might get more coming-out stories that involve flipping organizations and governments off with some very choice words.

And, honestly, isn’t that the world we all want to live in?

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, June 14

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 04:30:28 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: The Raccoons

Recently, it was announced that The Raccoons would be getting its soundtrack album “Evergreen Nights” rereleased more than thirty years after the original children’s cartoon series was cancelled.

Now, if you’ve ever wondered why millennial and Gen X Canadians always seem so passionate about environmentalism, fairness, and justice, chances are this very popular Canadian show (that has also gotten airplay in multiple countries) had something to do with that. And the passionate response to the aforementioned album release is a clear indication of the show’s impact.

The Raccoons began its life in the early 1980s as a series of four TV specials focused on cartoon forest critters in the fictional Evergreen Forest. The characters included Bert Raccoon, Ralph and Melissa Raccoon (no relation), Cedric Sneer, an ardvark, and Cedric’s industrialist father, Cyril Sneer, who served as the main antagonist before eventually becoming an antihero much later. By 1985, after the four specials performed well for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a TV series was greenlit and ran for five seasons, eventually ending in early 1991.

The show itself frequently had a very reliable plot structure, as many kids’ shows do, where Cyril Sneer would be trying to do some shady, destructive, or polluting thing, the main cast, including his son, would find out, and then they would put a stop to it. In hindsight, the most unrealistic thing about this show about anthropomorphic talking animals was that Cedric Sneer wasn’t a nepo baby trust fund kid with as much empathy as his father. Then again, sometimes the apple falls pretty far from the tree. How else did we get Chet Hanks?

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a lot of high-action, loud, noisy sci-fi, fantasy, and action-adventure children’s cartoons coming out. Shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and its spinoff, G.I Joe, Thundercats, Mighty Max, and the X-Men and Batman animated series are great examples of this trend. But The Raccoons was unique in that it was a lot calmer. More in the vein of shows like Hey Arnold!

For the kids that grew up with this show, it was a masterclass in empathy and the importance of standing up for what you believe in. In many ways this calm little adventure cartoon helped them develop a spine.

The Raccoons is currently available for streaming or purchase in Canada, the USA, Germany, Austria, and the UK. “Evergreen Nights” is available now in multiple formats and includes the epic very 1980s end credits theme “Run With Us.”

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June 15th to June 21st

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 7 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Netflix |

The great thing about this docuseries, following the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders from audition to the regular season, is that the show has dramatically improved the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders’ lives. After the cheerleaders discussed their salary, which is low across multiple professional sports cheer squads, fan outrage got so high and vitriolic against the team for this injustice that their total take-home pay was increased.

The Season

| 🇭🇰 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Hulu |

There are a lot of very different, interesting, and compelling things a drama from Hong Kong could be about, but this one chooses to focus on a group of friends in the elite boating scene whose past time is at risk of devolving into power plays and betrayals as their secrets and hidden agendas come to light.

I Will Find You

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

American mystery writer Harlen Coben is having a bit of a moment. After having some success with several series based on his work debuting last year, the adaptation gravy train keeps chugging for him, and this time around, we’re getting another atmospheric mystery, this time focusing on a man serving time for a murder he didn’t commit who escapes prison to find the child he was accused of killing.

Million Dollar Nannies

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Hulu |

Our American Sofa Taters will be able to see this new reality TV series, following high-priced elite nannies to the wealthy and powerful on the cable channel Freeform, the day before its debut on Hulu, but Freeform isn’t available on cable outside of the US, so we’re listing it here, with Hulu. This series is coming from the producers of other salacious reality TV shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, about Utah-based married women who are swingers (some of whom have left the LDS church), and profiles the women and men who work for a million-dollar nanny service who cater to the one percent who vacation or live in Ibiza. We unfortunately don’t know much about Ibiza, other than you probably shouldn’t take a pill there.

Sugar

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV+ |

Particularly nostalgic Canadian millennials might see that a series called Sugar is debuting and assume, as we did, that finally we’re getting a show about the life and times of the Canadian actress and former co-host of YTV’s The Zone, Sugar Lyn Beard, and you would be wrong. Instead, this series follows a private detective struggling with his own demons while trying to find a Hollywood producer’s granddaughter. The show was created by Mark Protosevich, who wrote the script for I Am Legend, and came up with the story for the first Thor film.

Oasis

| 🇪🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

If you fall in love with Ibiza while watching Million Dollar Nannies, the next day you can check out a little bit more of Spain in Oasis, a Spanish whodunit set at an idyllic and exclusive resort where someone goes missing, and the police won’t let anyone leave until the culprit is found.

The Root of the Game/ Várzea: Onde Nasce o Futebol

| 🇧🇷 | Miniseries | Unknown Episodes | Release Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

The Super Copa Pioneer, or the Champions League of amateur football, is the premier amateur, street, and community-level football (soccer) tournament in São Paulo, Brazil. This documentary miniseries follows several players and coaches competing in this large championship as they not only go for glory but also dream of changing their lives.

House of the Dragon

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | HBO Max |

The Targaryen dynasty continues its gradual downfall this season, which also sees the introduction of the brilliant mind behind and talent the YouTube channel Philosophy Tube, the short film Dracula’s Ex-Girlfriend, and the off-West End play “The Prince,” starring Abigail Thorn. The multi-talented philosophy grad will be playing Sharako Lohar this season, continuing George R. R. Martin’s tradition of very creative names that Mason struggles to pronounce.

The Agency/ The Agency: Central Intelligence

| 🇫🇷/🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Paramount+ |

Coming to us from the executive producer of MobLand, the series that recently fired Tom Hardy for chronic tardiness and professional difficulty, this French/American-produced series follows a covert undercover CIA agent who is ordered to return to London, where their romance with their estranged love reignites before the plot pulls them both into a world of terror and espionage. This season picks up with their spouse held captive in the Sudan, as they must go even deeper to save them.

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June 15th to June 21st

The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Bravo |

If you really, really like Yellowstone, Landman, or most of Taylor Sheridan’s body of work, now you have the opportunity to see basically the same premise but as a reality TV series. Standing in for the Dutton family is the McBee family, whose ranch is on the verge of becoming either a good ‘ol American billion-dollar success or collapsing into financial ruin.

The Moment with Katy Tur

| 🇺🇸 | Season 10 | Unknown Episodes | Daily | Unknown Rating | MS Now |

Formerly titled MS NOW Reports Katy Tur Reports, this news series has trusted NBC journalist Katy Tur reporting on the pressing issues of the day.

Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Daily | Unknown Rating | MS Now |

Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle is a two-hour news program focusing on finance and politics, headed by MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle.

On the Line with Alicia Menendez

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Daily | Unknown Rating | MS Now |

Journalist Alicia Menendez hosts this news show featuring in-depth investigative reporting and interviews on news stories that matter to an American audience.

The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi

| 🇺🇸 | Season 11 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | MS Now |

Taking over from original host Brian Williams, Ali Velshi digs into the political climate and reports on the most up-to-date (American) political news, which will undoubtedly impact the rest of the world.

Little Singles

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | TLC |

This reality TV show follows a group of Little People, also known as Dwarfs, as they live their day-to-day lives and face the challenges of living in a world that is largely uninclusive of their needs or limitations.

Lakefront Bargain Hunt Renovation

| 🇺🇸 | Season 6 | 13 Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | Magnolia/ HGTV |

If you’re outside of the US, you can find this series on HGTV. The reality TV series has people looking at beachfront properties to buy. This, however, sounds like a totally unrealistic and totally fake show to us, because since we both come from Metro Vancouver which is currently in a housing affordability crisis where during the pandemic a years old penthouse condo sold for a record-setting fifteen million dollars, we simply can’t fathom the notion of property being “affordable” or a “bargin” (especially on the beachfront) as the series claims. Feel free to check it out, but we’ll be yelling, “No way that’s real!” whenever the price is on screen.

OG Stories

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | BET |

Apparently, host, entrepreneur, record executive and producer Damon Dash worked to send himself to boarding school to ensure he got the best education available because he saw the value in that. Because he did that, though, as he started to come up in the music industry, he had his authenticity and street cred heavily questioned. But he learned to hustle hard from his mom, who died of an asthma attack when he was fifteen, and gradually built himself up, eventually starting a record label and apparel line with Jay-Z. Since then, he’s had a very long career, making lots of connections and friends with some of the most talented people in rap and hip-hop. This talk show will have him sit down with them for an in-depth conversation about their lives, their careers, and the industry they’ve dedicated their lives to.

Alone/ Alone: World Championship

| 🇺🇸 | Season 13 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | History |

In the fight against dysintery, the History channel is apparently on the side of dysintery, apparently, because the reality TV competition series Alone has been going for eleven years and thirteen seasons. The competition pits survivalists and wannabe adventurers in isolated, individual camps where they must survive alone, with the person who survives the longest winning the $500,000 prize, the glory, and, depending on the location, an aversion to pork, fish, or camping for the remainder of their life afterward. Last season shook things up by moving the location out of North America and plopping contestants in the South African desert, but this year we’re coming back (home) to Canada, with the Northwest Territories in the Canadian Arctic being the location they will have to survive in. The place with all the polar bears. Also new this season is an expanded list of countries of origin with contestants hailing from the United States, Canada, Wales, Australia, Slovenia, Portugal, and New Zealand.

UFC Rivals

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-Rating | A&E |

The UFC has long been the premier location for sports fans who like to watch grown men smash their fists into each other’s faces. This docuseries takes viewers into some of the most heated rivalries between the fighters and explores their history.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, June 7

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 04:30:37 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to help us grow, there are several ways you can contribute. You can:

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We thank you for all you can do to support us.

🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Hawaiian Pizza 🫢

In 2017, Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson jokingly suggested that pineapple should be banned as a pizza topping. In response, then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ever the paragon of Canadian patriotism, tweeted, “I have a pineapple. I have a pizza. And I stand behind this delicious Southwestern Ontario creation. #TeamPineapple […]”

Believe it or not, this divisive type of pizza, which seems like a variant as old as the dish itself, is actually not as old as you might expect and is entirely a Canadian invention.

Our story actually starts in Greece with Sotirios "Sam" Panopoulos, who immigrated to Canada for a taste of that Canadian dream. After getting here, he did two things: he bought the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, and he tried the local pizza.

His restaurant, which he ran with his brothers, started as an American-style family restaurant offering the standard fare, including burgers, fries, and even Americanized Chinese food. But then, in the very early 1960s, pizza started getting popular, and Sam decided to add to the menu. That went well for him, but he was always an innovator.

You may have thought that including Americanized Chinese food was an interesting (or odd) choice that Gordon Ramsay might question on Kitchen Nightmares, but Chinese-Canadians have a rich food history in Canada, and it is a very popular style here. Panopoulos’ experience making it showed him that disparate flavour pallets can actually work very well together, and due to those recipes learned how to mix sweet and savoury flavours in the same dish.

This experience started giving him ideas, and one of those ideas was to make a pizza with pineapple (sweet) and ham (savoury). He then named the pizza after the brand of canned pineapples he used.

In a different world, we would be arguing online about Dole Pizza

This new style of pizza became very, very, very popular in Chatham, and Sam didn’t trademark his creation, either, which allowed the recipe, and variations of the recipe, to spread across Canada, into the United States, and all around the world and back to Italy.

Suffice it to say, a uniquely Canadian set of experiences, and a willingness to try new things led to a world-changing adaptation of food culture that people continue to discuss, and enjoy.

Don’t worry. It’s okay if you don’t like it.

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Play like Dragon Strikers!

The FIFA World Cup is fast approaching this year, and on top of that, this week you’re going to see that a new show from Disney called Dragon Striker is debuting, which, if we’re right about it, is going to be what Yu-Gi-Oh was for Trading Card Games (TCG), but for football/ soccer. We would not be at all surprised if kids six and up fell in love with it and decided they need a soccer ball and a striking pair of shorts after they see it.

Well, now, you don’t have to be left in the lurch. With our friends at Soccer Garage, you can get all your soccer needs. Now is your opportunity to be ready for a new passion in your home. And at the worst, it’s never a bad thing to have a ball around the house for you to kick around on the weekends.

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Play like Dragon Strikers!

June 8th to June 14th

Alice and Steve

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Disney+ |

If you have a twenty-six-year-old daughter, chances are you and your friends are around forty-eight years old (or older). There is an argument that if your friend starts dating your twenty-six-year-old child, you might not want to be friends with them. Maybe the situation gives you the ick. Maybe the term “cradle robber” comes to mind. In this series, Alice (Nicola Walker of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame) discovers that her best friend Steve (Flight of the Conchords member Jemaine Clement) is dating her daughter, and pulls them into a feud in this new British/ American romantic dramady.

The Root of the Game/ Várzea: Onde Nasce o Futebol

| 🇧🇷 | Miniseries | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | Unknown Rating | Netflix |

Are you excited to learn about the explosive Sao Paulo amateur football scene and the Super Copa Pioneer league? If so, then this Brazilian documentary miniseries is everything you need this week to scratch that itch.

Norway: The Dark Horse/ Norges vei tilbake

| 🇳🇴 | Miniseries | 2 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Norway has been absent from the World Cup for twenty-six very, very long years. This year, however, they’re back and more eager than ever to shoot their shot. This two-episode documentary miniseries gives us deep and unprecedented access to the team and their rise to the World Cup and the glory that comes with it.

Every Year After

| 🇨🇦/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Prime Video |

Canadian author and journalist Carley Fortune has contributed to Canadian outlets and also to Refinery29. In 2022, they published their breakout novel, “Every Summer After,” followed by a 2025 sequel, “One Golden Summer.” The first book in this series is the basis of the Prime Video series Every Year After, which was optioned and produced by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor and the Canadian icon he married, Rachel Meghan Markle. The series tells an epic love story of two people who take decades to fall in love, but they fell apart and became estranged. Now, reunited for a funeral, they have a chance to rekindle and heal old wounds.

Outlast: The Jungle/ Outlast

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-14 | Netflix |

With one million dollars on the line, sixteen contestants will have to survive their rivals and cozy up to their teammates if they want to outlast the others and walk away with the money and glory.

Rosario Tijeras

| 🇲🇽 | Season 5 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-14 | Netflix |

Rosario Tijeras is a very popular Spanish-language novel from Colombian author Jorge Franco about a vengeance-obsessed woman who catches the eye of a pair of wealthy friends. It was adapted into a movie in 2005. It came to Colombian TV in 2010. Now, Mexico has adapted it with the help of Netflix, which revived the show in 2025 from a six-year hiatus.

My Family/ Storia della mia famiglia

| 🇮🇹 | Season 2 | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Coming directly to us from Italy comes the story of a terminally ill father who relies on a team of family and friends who all have their own tensions between them as he prepares them to raise his small children without him.

All the Queen’s Men/ Tyler Perry’s All the Queen’s Men

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 11 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | BET+ |

Producing wunderkind Tyler Perry is back at it again, putting his name on things. This time around, a book adaptation is getting the full Tyler Perry treatment with the crime drama novel “Ladies Night” by American actor and model Christian Keyes. This show follows a “legitimate nightclub owner” with a crew of male strippers as they stop at nothing to maintain their power, wealth, and status.

Sweet Magnolias

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Netflix |

American author Sherryl Woods has been writing novels for forty-four years and has written at least one hundred and ten of them. That’s an average of two and a half books per year. While most writers might consider a less-than-six-month turnaround an insane speed that makes the rest of us look bad, it did give us the eleven-book “Sweet Magnolias” series about a group of friends who support each other as they deal with life, relationships, jobs, and family in their small South Carolinian town.

The Evil Lawyer/ ทนายปีศาจ

| 🇹🇭 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

The Evil Lawyer could be showcased as an example of why you shouldn’t underestimate the output of another country. Following a plot involving a young lawyer framed or arrested for a violent crime he did not commit, he puts his fate in the hands of a very cold defence attorney to help him.

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune

| 🇺🇸 | Season 6A?? | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-PG | Disney+/ Hulu |

The really big news this year is that The Mouse is doing something weird with Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. It turns out that they’re pulling Ryan Seacrest from whatever vault they keep him in between hosting gigs and getting him to host ten extra, streaming, exclusive episodes with several celebrities vying for charitable donations. Season 7 will hit ABC this Autumn in the network’s fall lineup.

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June 8th to June 14th

American Ninja Warrior

| 🇺🇸 | Season 18 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | NBC |

Contestants in peak physical form run the most challenging obstacle course they’ve ever seen, sure to rival the most challenging game of The Floor is Lava that you’ve ever created in your home, in a series of regional qualifying rounds before they make it to the finals and their chance at walking away with $1,000,000, glory, and the title of American Ninja Warrior.

Dragon Striker

| 🇫🇷/🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 11 Episodes | Weekly | TV-Y7 | Disney XD |

Parents: Are your kids fantasy nerds and geeks who you really want to try sports? Have no fear, Disney XD is here for you with this new animated fantasy adventure based on football (soccer). Coming to us from France, the UK, and the USA, not a lot is known about it except that it follows a chosen one farm boy who joins a team to try to defeat an ancient evil. The series blends fantasy action-adventure with sports in a way that will make your elementary-aged kids want to kick around a ball and join a football team of their own!

Big Girls Wanted: Escaping Pearadise

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Investigation Discovery |

Pearadise started as a Discord server built around body positivity for plus-sized women. However, under the leadership of Stefan Wilhelmy, this community based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, eventually turned abusive, assaultive, and coercive. Wilhelmy even sued some of his accusers for defamation for accusing him of being a sexual assaulter. This three-part documentary miniseries explores the community and the accusations surrounding it. Yes, that is the correct spelling of the title. We checked three times.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Starz |

Power Book III: Raising Kanan is the third series in the 50 Cent-created Power Book franchise, but it is a prequel focusing on Fiddy’s character, Kanan Stark, who, by the way, has nothing to do with Tony Stark or the MCU. In the Power Universe that connects this franchise, Kanan is based very heavily on Fiddy’s own life growing up in Jamaica, Bronx, New York City. In Power Book, the character serves as an antagonist to a rival criminal, and this series builds his history to show how he got to that point.

My Adventures With Superman

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Adult Swim |

Weird people on the internet have given this adaptation of the Superman character a lot of undeserved criticism for adopting a very Japanese style of animation, yet fans of this series love it. Earlier seasons of the show took a lot of inspiration from the 1986 “Superman” comic book limited series titled “The Man of Steel” and the 1978 Superman film, while this new season will be inspired by the comic book limited series “Reign of the Supermen” which took place after “The Death of Superman” story and introduced several characters who tried to take over the Superman mantel. It should also be noted that the creators of this show have deliberately tried to put something for everyone in this show, including adults and teens, and people of every gender. It also focuses on Superman/ Clark Kent (played by The Boys alum Jack Quaid), Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen in their twenties, and models it a bit like a coming-of-age or self-discovery story, with Clark new to being Superman and all three characters building their skills. Also, it’s important to point out that episodes also debut on HBO Max the day after they premiere on Adult Swim.

Connect with Jacob Soboroff

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | MS Now |

Perfect for news-conscious Americans who care about the real issues, and the rest of the world who are concerned about Americans (let us know if you’re okay), journalist Jacob Soboroff hosts this new weekend news show where he will report on natural and other disasters, climate issues, and American voter issues. Soboroff is known for his on-the-ground reporting style, and viewers should expect more of that from him in Connect with Jacob Soboroff.

BET Awards/ The 26th BET Awards

| 🇺🇸 | Special | Live | Unknown Rating | BET/ MTV/ CMT/ CBS/ VH1/ Pop/ BET Her/ etc |

Designed to honour BIPOC Americans in entertainment across Hollywood, music, and sports, the BET Awards return this year with host Druski leading the ceremony to honour the contributions of entertainers from minority communities. Druski is a rising star and still a surprising choice for the hosting gig. He is a comedian, actor, and social media influencer who has had success crossing over into mainstream entertainment after amassing over twelve million followers and subscribers across Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, May 31

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 04:31:01 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to the most and what you’ve enjoyed so far! Remember to vote in our footer poll this week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Lord Stanley’s Cup

Maniac fans should be the ones who make trophies for things, and hockey shows us why.

With the World Cup coming up, we’ve been thinking a lot about hockey because we’re Canadian. What else are we going to think about? The Stanley Cup Finals are scheduled for June and will conclude no later than the twenty-first of that month. It is a hallowed tradition of sport and competitiveness that has been happening since at least 1893, and the history of the trophy is something else, and a testament to the kind of rabid, insane fandom you might only expect from football fans or ComicCon attendees.

The Stanley Cup is named after Lord Stanley, who is also known as Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, and as Lord Stanley of Preston. He was a British Conservative Party politician who was appointed Governor General of Canada by Queen Victoria in 1883. He was the sixth person to fill this largely ceremonial role in the Canadian government. His duties were mostly to act as the Queen’s representative in Canada’s government and to rubber-stamp government actions while the Queen is in Westminster.

Stanley had long been an avid sportsman in England and even opened his own stables. However, at some point in June 1888, he and his family saw their first hockey game in Montreal. It must have blown his mind, though, because he went all-in on hockey fandom from that point.

He was so passionate about hockey, in fact, that The Montreal Gazette is quoted as saying that he “expressed his great delight with the game of hockey and the expertise of the players." He then began organizing hockey games, and two of his sons went on to play hockey themselves. They were one of the first hockey families in Canada. Lord Stanley even formed an early hockey league.

Eventually, he began thinking that there should be a trophy for a hockey competition. Something to recognize truly great skill and sportsmanship in the game that Lord Stanley loved so much.

Keep in mind that all through this time, there was no such thing as “professional hockey.” All of the teams, the leagues, and players were amateurs, which meant that they were just regular people playing and coaching in their free time for no money. Nobody was paid. There was no cash prize for winning. It was a hobby. Which is probably why there was no trophy. The reason we describe Lord Stanley as being a rabid, maniacal fan of hockey is that he’s putting in more time, money, and thought into it than anyone would reasonably do. At the time, it wasn’t trained athletes at the peak of their ability; it was the cobbler and blacksmith apprentice, or students. Imagine Barack Obama going all-in on Ultimate Frisbee and saying, “There should be a prestigious award for the great sport of Frisbee.” You very well might respond to that with something like, “Okay? I guess that’ll help Brad get a job after graduation?”

The other crazy part of Lord Stanley’s plan is that there were no hockey championships in Canada at all during this time. His train of thought was first, “hockey should have a trophy,” and then second, “there should probably be some kind of championship.”

So what does he do?

He spent a little under the modern equivalent of about $2,000 to commission the Stanley Cup from Boodle and Dunthorne Jewellers. Keep in mind that the low-end cost of running a hockey team during this period was the modern equivalent of about $3,000 in a year. So he basically spent a little more than half the yearly cost of running a college sports team on the trophy for the sport. We are convinced that nobody would do something like that today.

Lord Stanley, unfortunately, never got to see the trophy he gave his name to a winning team because he returned to England in 1893. At the time, his tenure as Governor General was over, and the man was fifty-two years old. He lived out the remainder of his days there and died in 1908.

The Stanley Cup was entrusted to trustees who kept and maintained it. The trophy is unique in that winning teams must eventually return Lord Stanley’s Cup to its trustees, who then award it to the winner of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

So when you watch the playoffs this June and the (hopefully Canadian) winning team raises it sky high, be sure to remember everything it represents. Dedication. Professionalism. Skill. And most of all: more passion than a grown man has ever shown for anything in his entire life.

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June 1st to June 7th

Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | HBO Max/ HBO |

The week is starting strong with this three-part documentary miniseries about the Eternal Values cult of the 1980s and 1990s. Strangely, there isn’t a Wikipedia page about this cult, which attracted models into its ranks. What we do know is that the cult leader, Frederick von Mierers, died in 1990 as a result of having AIDS. The 80s were wild.

Love Island USA

| 🇺🇸 | Season 8 | Unknown Episodes | Daily | TV-MA | Peacock |

This reality TV dating competition, based on the British series Love Island, has attractive singles in a tropical climate where they try to find their one and only. Every few days, they try out a new pairing, but those who aren’t paired up risk losing their spot on the island.

Not Suitable for Work

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Hulu |

After taking a (winning) risk on Adults last year (which we’re still excited for Season 2 whenever it gets here), Hulu is giving us another absurd comedy starring Zoomers in this workplace comedy about a group of twenty-something professionals in the Murray Hill neighbourhood of New York City. This one happens to be created by TV veteran Mindy Kaling, who first came to prominence on The Office, and most recently co-created the Netflix series Running Point.

Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Paramount+ |

Gloriavale is an isolated Christian cult in New Zealand with a shocking and impressive history of sexual abuse against children. At least eight people in the community have been criminally charged with sexual offences and prosecuted for them. We’re not exactly sure how many of those cases are being featured in this documentary miniseries, but we assume it’s at least one.

The Legend of Vox Machina

| 🇺🇸 | Season 4 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Prime Video |

“Critical Roll” and The Legend of Vox Machina fans, be sure to really savour this season because we are at the penultimate season before it ends, and it’s over. This time around, we pick up after a whole year since our intrepid heroes’ last adventure, where they must come together again to contend with a long slumbering great evil that has awoken. To adventure!!

Clarkson’s Farm

| 🇬🇧 | Season 5 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Prime Video |

Jeremy Clarkson’s farm, Diddly Squat, is facing a loss of income due to reduced UK farm subsidies, which forces Clarkson to modernize his operation and send one of his employees abroad to help bring the farm into this century. If you’re not familiar with Jeremy Clarkson, he’s a long-running British media personality.

Michael Jackson: The Verdict

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | Unknown Rating | Netflix |

Will June be the month of documentary miniseries? This one profiles the trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson regarding the sex abuse allegations, which continue to this day, mind you. This miniseries will focus on the people who were in the courtroom at the time of the trial. Because Jackson is dead.

The Witness

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 3 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

In 1992, a mother was out with her two-year-old, walking their dog around a neighbourhood in London (England, not Canada). Randomly, and out of the blue, a stranger approached her, stabbed her forty-nine times in the neck and chest, sexually assaulted her, and then left her to die. Her son, Alexander, was later found by her body, saying, “Wake up, mummy,” and had placed a piece of paper on her forehead as a bandage. This is the start of one of the most gruesome and most bungled murder cases in the history of Scotland Yard. Eventually, the police suspected a man who had absolutely nothing to do with the crime as being the one responsible and proceeded to entrap him by way of a honeytrap operation where an officer pretended to date him and tricked him into admitting guilt through a sexual role play that he went along with because he thought it would get him laid. Eventually, they did catch the person responsible, even though it took them until the early 2000s. This miniseries is a dramatic retelling of the crime.

Cape Fear

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV |

If the title of this one sounds familiar to you, that’s for good reason. This series is based on the 1957 novel The Executioners by American author John D. MacDonald, which was also the basis of the 1962 movie Cape Fear and the 1991 Scorcesee film Cape Fear starring Robert DiNiro. The plot follows a couple who are lawyers responsible for putting a murderer behind bars, who go on vacation when the man they had convicted is released.

Teach You a Lesson/ 참교육

| 🇰🇷 | Miniseries | 10 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Coming to us straight out of the best of the two Koreas (South Korea), this action-adventure dramady follows the story of a school where respect has reached an all-time low (🎶 dear Maria, count me in 🎶) when unique and unconventional inspectors are sent in to shake things up, get everything right, and teach some lessons that can’t be found in the textbooks.

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June 1st to June 7th

90 Day: The Last Resort

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | TLC |

90 Day: The Last Resort is a spinoff of the popular 90 Day Fiancé franchise, where previous couples featured on the show who ended up breaking up go on a retreat together in a last-ditch effort ~~for producers to milk the series for all they can~~ to try to make it work. We try to say nice things about TLC here.

History’s Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | History |

Original (live action) He-Man actor Dolph Lundgren takes viewers through history to examine the impact and effect of various machines on people. This will include a look at such revolutionary technologies as the printing press, the Ford Model T, and the personal computer.

Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Investigation Discovery |

Originally debuting in 2024, this true crime docuseries profiles social media influencers, TikTokers, and YouTubers who get involved in horrible, bloody murders.

Lethally Blonde

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-14 | Investigation Discovery |

Sharknado 3 star Holly Madison returns to host this true crime docuseries about average, everyday women who use their sex appeal to reach for power, which ultimately results in them getting caught up in dark, twisted, and tragic plots.

Battle on the Beach

| 🇺🇸 | Season 5 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | HGTV |

A $50,000 prize is on the line as three teams compete to renovate identical beachfront properties in this reality TV competition series hosted by HGTV alums Ty Pennington, Alison Victoria and Taniya Nayak.

Password

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | NBC |

Hustlers star Keke Palmer and the late-night host known for making staffers cry team up to host this popular game show based on word association. Password originally debuted in 1961 with its original host, Allen Ludden.

The Proof Is Out There: Unexplained Edition

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | History |

Journalist Tony Harris leads this series that explores claims of cryptid sightings, UFOs, and other unexplained phenomena with a team of experts and conspiracy theorists.

Surviving Earth

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | NBC

Profiling the prehistoric age of dinosaurs, Surviving Earth examines how the beasts of yore survived, the conditions they faced, and the extinction events that occurred.

Everything on the Menu with Braun Strowman

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 12 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | USA Network |

Semi-retired professional wrestler Braun Strowman returns in this reality TV series, where he travels across the country he calls home, attempting to eat every single item on the menus of restaurants he visits.

Interview with the Vampire/ Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Lestat

| 🇺🇸 | Season 3 | 7 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | AMC |

This season, the popular adaptation of American author Anne Rice’s iconic vampire story is apparently going with the title The Vampire Lestat as it picks up from where we were left off last season. Now, Daniel Molloy’s book has been released, and Lestat de Lioncourt embarks on a hedonistic concert tour while trying to set the record straight and correct how he was portrayed in Louis de Pointe du Lac’s telling.

This Land

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 6 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | CNN |

Across six parts, and released to coincide with America’s 250th year, this series takes a look at the expansion of US territory in North America, the rise in prominence of certain states and cities, and the impact this has had on the country.

Best of the World with Antoni Porowski

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 4 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | National Geographic |

Canadian heartthrob, personality, chef, and current Queer Eye member Antoni Porowski does a little globetrotting with Nat Geo to find the absolute best the world has to offer in a multitude of categories.

100 Cooks

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Food Network |

American icon Terry Crews invites one hundred home cooks into a stadium-sized area where they will get to compete for glory and up to 250,000. If too many cooks spoil the broth, then hopefully 100 Cooks is fun to watch.

Tony Awards

| 🇺🇸 | Special | Live | TV-14 | ABC/ CBS/ NBC/ Paramount+ |

This year, you can “Get The Party Started” with musical diva and pop icon Pink because she’s hosting the biggest night on Broadway this year, the seventy-ninth Tony Awards. The three-hour event will honour the best and most notable musicals and plays that played in the famous New York City theatre district. The ceremony always puts on a good show of its own, not only featuring popular songs from the last season in NYC theatre, but also featuring many of the performers from the casts being honoured.

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Turn and Smile Prime Time, May: Pluribus

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 04:01:18 GMT

Welcome back, Sofa Taters!

We’ve been working on changes behind the scenes, Sofa Taters! We’re working really hard to bring you our very best and hope you’ll like our changes. Please be sure to let us know in the comments and the poll at the bottom what you think!

This time around, we’re looking at Pluribus, a show that’s ostensibly about happiness and the conditions that move us. It’s been on our mind a lot since we started watching it in December, and we wanted to make sure we got everything down.

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OPENING REVIEW

Pluribus

“Pluribus Theme” by Dave Porter

| 🇺🇸 | TV-MA | Apple TV |

Vince Gilligan is one of the best television writers and producers working today, and he makes a habit of working with some of the absolute best creative and technical artisans in the industry that he can find. While he does let the people he works with cook (as the youths like to say), he does work incredibly closely with them to design what ends up on screen. He is undoubtedly a very intelligent person and is known for inserting a lot of hidden details. These details are usually spotted after the fact as more and more critics, video essayists, and MatPat-style “theorists” watch his shows. Or rather, as they obsessively comb through every frame of each episode.

But that’s just a theory… A FILM THEORY!

When asked about these newly uncovered discoveries, Gilligan has largely confirmed them.

We are not the people to do that.

So let’s talk about the “Pluribus Theme.”

This song is sung in a very creepy way by American R&B and jazz singer Kenya Hathaway. She is a frequent backup singer on American Idol and voiced the character Sunny Funny in the PlayStation game PaRappa the Rapper.

The point, however, seems to be to give an unsettling tone, like returning to your home where you live alone to find your furniture moved to the left. The longer we watch it, the worse we feel about it.

This is compounded by the title sequence’s radiating dots spelling the title of the show. At first, it seems innocuous, but after learning the premise of the show (a sentient alien virus gets replicated on Earth and goes Invasion of the Body Snatchers on the planet), the sequence starts to represent the spread and movement of an infection. Which is unsettling.

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Pluribus is about an alien invasion that starts from a virus that dominates the world. The last time a virus spread around the world, we spent a lot of time inside. What did we do while inside for so long? Well, a lot of us started to go batty. But a lot of us also started to “entertain” ourselves. How did we do that?

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Pluribus

Season 1

| 🇺🇸 | TV-MA | Apple TV |

Speechlessness in and of itself can be its own commentary.

The problem with Pluribus is that it is so good. In terms of difficulty in film and television criticism, the easiest ones to review are the bad ones and the ones that we don’t like. It is a widely known psychological quirk that people prefer talking about negative experiences and will talk about them a lot more when given the chance. You might remember our feelings on Kill Tony, the teetering tower of rotting feces disguised as a comedy show that we hope angered whatever God Tony Hinchcliffe believes in. Suffice it to say that there is usually more to say about the shows we despise.

Conversely, there is media that is so good we are left in stunned silence.

There is a lot to say about Pluribus, but at the same time… what could we even say about this show?

Show creator Vince Gilligan has outdone himself this time. A true maverick and wunderkind of his art, he has not disappointed.

If you are someone who doesn’t like hard science fiction, or the kind of sci-fi where actors sometimes complain about prosthetics, makeup, or talking to a ball on a stick in a very green room, you need to know that this isn’t that kind of show. The focus is Earth. The drama is human. It is very cerebral storytelling, much like Gilligan’s other popular work, but so are other popular shows, too.

Carol, played by Better Call Saul alum Rhea Seehorn, continues the cultural obsession with a curmudgeonly loner who refuses to learn the obvious lesson the plot is trying to teach them. She also acts as a necessary counterpoint to the Stepford Wives hive mind surrounding her. Carol casting herself as the most antagonistic person in the room and doing everything in her power to tell everyone else is what makes the show what it is. Any other kind of character would make this very conventional. Carol is the one fighting for humanity, but she also hates people. Watching her is an exercise in comedy, seeing a humanist doing what they know is the right thing, begrudgingly, when they no longer have the societal infrastructure they relied on to act for them. She feels a lot like Dante Hicks from Clerks.

The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, much like other things Gilligan has done on TV. Unlike for Breaking Bad, where Albuquerque was chosen for the twenty-five percent tax rebate the production got, this time Gilligan chose Albuquerque for the setting because all of his favourite collaborators and crew members live there since he produced two other shows there. At least he’s loyal, right?

Pluribus is a showcase of greatness and brilliance. Not just the best of what New Mexico can offer, it’s the best that talent can offer. Hopefully, Pluribus gets to run its course to tell the story it intends to tell.

🍁 Canadian perspective 🍁

Canadian culture, and Canadians as a whole, are so different from Americans (despite our many similarities) that we can’t really say with any authority that something like Pluribus would ever happen. We feel like Canadians would have a very, very different reaction to an invasion, alien or otherwise. And to tell you about it, first we have to tell you a little about Germans.

During WW2, the Allied forces the Germans feared most were the Canadian Forces. Reportedly, according to the Germans who survived, on the battlefield, nothing would stop the Canadians. Canadians would charge forward and stop only when they no longer saw Germans. Canadians wouldn’t stop if their friends or comrades were shot down beside or in front of them. Canadians, during the war, had a very particular bloodlust that could only be tamed by spilling German blood on the ground and watching the life drain from their eyes.

To their credit, Canada’s armed forces quickly developed a reputation for not only being well-trained killing machines, but also for being the ones you call when you needed to clear a path through Germans by any means necessary. Canada is (partly) responsible for some of the things currently known as “War Crimes.”

While watching Pluribus and getting to know the cast of immune people, it’s striking to us that there isn’t a Canadian in that group. We have a headcanon that the reason is that it would be a Canadian who would decide to go fearal and reenact their great grand pappy’s stories about all the Germans he met in France or the Netherlands. We wouldn’t even need the Geneva Checklist, because Canadians would love a chance to be creative.

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Turn & Smile TV Guide: Sunday, May 24

Turn And Smile! — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:30:59 GMT

This will be a good week, Sofa Taters!

Here’s another Sunday TV Guide with more premieres to fill your week!

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🍁🇨🇦 Canadian Corner 🇨🇦🍁

This Week: Hollywood North

Not to be confused with North Hollywood (NoHo), a community within Los Angeles, California, that is North of Hollywood, Hollywood North is the coliqual name for the Canadian cities popular with Hollywood producers for filming locations and other production services.

There are two main cities that are commonly called Hollywood North. They are Toronto, Ontario (to the lesser extent), and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Toronto’s history as a Hollywood hotspot is much shorter lived, only going back to the 1950s. Vancouver’s history, though, goes all the way back to 1910. Canada usually has a lot to offer producers and creatives. Vacouver in particular either features or is a very short drive from a variety of diverse landscapes, architechture, and communities that can very easily pass for a number of locations around the world. Plus, the typical value of the Canadian dollar compared to its American counter part, and provincial tax incentives for TV and film productions end up saving productions a lot of money for working here.

A lot of TV shows are well known for filming in Canada, too. Notably, the Star Trek franchise has developed a very close relationship with Toronto. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds both filmed at soundstages in Toronto. Supernatural, which went off the air in 2020 filmed every episode in and around Vancouver. X-Files very famously filmed in Vancouver until David Duchovny decided that he didn’t like a little rain.

(Vancouver only gets a paltry fifty-seven inches, or about one hundred forty six centimetres, of rain every year. Honestly the floods aren’t even past the knee most of the time).

The Last of Us Season 3 and the upcoming God of War TV series will be coming to Vancouver, as well.

Oftentimes when productions come to Hollywood North, there are a lot of technical, artistic, and union jobs that get filled on set and behind the scenes locally. In Canada we also offer post production, animation, design, casting, performance, accounting, location scouting, ADR and looping, sound recording, and really the whole shebang, often at rates less than what they would pay in the TMZ (Thirty Mile Zone) after you factor in the currency exchange. If you look through the cast list of the shows and movies that come here for our talent, trades, and landscapes, you will see a lot of Canadians there. On a show like The Flash, Supernatural, Smallville, or The Last of Us most of the bit players, like the monster-of-the-week the background performers, or other random parts will be cast from our local pool of talent, too.

Hollywood North has a lot to offer, and does a lot to support the entertainment industry, too.

Special Offer

We want to inform you about a special offer from our partner, Soccer Garage.

Get ready for the World Cup

Are you excited for the World Cup? Soccer (or football) fever is HIGH and if you need some gear or accoutrements for your own football games or to enjoy the big game itself, Soccer Garage is there for you. And there is no time better than this week, when you are getting at least two new docuseries about soccer stars getting to qualify for the big game.

Click the button or scan the QR code to check out what Soccer Garage has for you.

Get ready for the World Cup

May 25th to May 31st

American Music Awards

| 🇺🇸 | Special | Live | TV-G | Paramount+/ CBS |

If you hear that the AMAs are happening this week and you think, “oh, cool, what Subreddit?” from the bottom of our hearts, honey, you need to put down your phone and take a vacation. Fortunately for you, the American Music Awards are happening on Monday in Los Vegas, so if you manage to get a flight and a hotel (good luck) at least there’ll be a lot of after parties and fun stuff happening for your vacation.

Jae-seok’s B&B Rules!/ 유재석 캠프

| 🇰🇷 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-PG | Netflix |

Yoo Jae-seok, the famous South Korean comedian and media personality better known as The Nation’s MC, has opened his own bed and breakfast! But it’s not your average B&B. Here, Jae-seok and their other hosts will create very memorable moments for guests in this reality TV variety show.

Spider-Noir

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-14 | Prime Video |

It’s going to be really interesting how this show angers the wrong kind of supposed comic book fans in this adaptation of a somewhat popular-ish comic book character. Nic Cage, who first played Spider-Man Noir as a 1930s version of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, returns in this adaptation of the Spider-Man Noir comic book, but instead of being a version of Peter Parker, he debuts as Ben Riley. This version of the character is a 1930s noir private investigator who was once a New York City-based superhero known as The Spider and is currently down on his luck as he contends with his past. It is also important to note that this series will be available in both full colour and black and white because Amazon makes a habit of burning money for fun. Another thing worth mentioning is that many creative choices in this series were likely made to meet contract requirements between Sony (which would own the adaptation rights) and Marvel. Marvel would own the adaptation rights to “Peter Parker,” as an example. Will you be watching this? Would you choose colour or black and white?

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

| 🇩🇪/🇬🇧 | Season 2 | 6 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Netflix (BBC Three) |

Coming straight out of Germany and the UK, this mystery series started with series protagonist Pippa investigating their friend’s mysterious murder. Season 2 begins right after that and finds them determined to handle and resolve the fallout from the resolution they found.

My 2 Cents/ My Two Cents/ Due spicci

| 🇮🇹 | Miniseries | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Italian cartoonist Zerocalcare returns with another animated series created by and starring himself. This time around, Zero and his friends struggle to keep their business afloat among financial pressure, misunderstandings, and the return of someone from Zero’s paof which st, all put more pressure on them and jeopardize their future.

Criminal Minds/ Criminal Minds: Evolution

| 🇺🇸 | Season 19/ 4 | 10 Episodes | Weekly | TV-Rating | Paramount+/ CBS |

Criminal Minds, technically in its nineteenth season, is continuing its second phase of life, now in its fourth season. The police procedural show focused on a team of FBI criminal profilers who investigate and apprehend serial murderers will return this week, likely to feature series newcomer Elias Voit, played again by Midnight Mass alum Zach Gilford.

The Four Seasons

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 8 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Based on the movie of the same name, this Tina Fey-created show was originally intended as a standalone miniseries. And as a miniseries, we felt it was a very funny, very honest, very good series. We have no idea where it’s going to go or what it’s going to do through its second season, about couples who vacation together, but it’s probably going to be entertaining.

Deli Boys

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Hulu |

Season 2 starts right where we left off last year as the brothers have to deal with the realities of running an underground criminal empire, a money launderer, trying to organize an assassination, and a district attorney with machinations for the mayor’s office.

Murder Mindfully/ Achtsam Morden

| 🇩🇪 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

This dramady follows a mob lawyer who attends a mindfulness retreat, then discovers that murder is a great coping mechanism for him. Please note that murder isn’t recommended as a coping mechanism. Should you see yourself considering using murder as a coping mechanism, please go into therapy immediately.

Star City

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Weekly | TV-MA | Apple TV+ |

Star City is a spinoff of the sci-fi series For All Mankind, told from the perspective of the Soviet Union.

Rafa

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 4 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

A four-part documentary miniseries about tennis great Rafael Nadal that promises to go deep into their life, career, and their final season on the court as a player.

Brazil 70: The Third Star/ Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri

| 🇧🇷 | Miniseries | 6 Episodes | Drop | TV-MA | Netflix |

Brazilian football superstar Pelé wears the dreams of his nation on his back as he takes his team to represent his country at the World Cup this year. See their journey to go for the cup in this exciting six-part documentary miniseries.

Calabasas Confidential

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 8 Episodes | Unknown Schedule | TV-MA | Netflix |

If you’re calling a spade a spade, then this reality TV show is about the next generation of Gen Z(ed)/ Zoomer nepo babies and influencers as they return home to Calabasas, California, from college to figure out the next steps of their lives from their’ parents mansions.

Or…

Buy Us A Coffee

May 25th to May 31st

Sofia the First: Royal Magic

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | 22 Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | Disney Jr |

Kind of on the heels of Modern Family castmate Aubrey Anderson-Emmons’ iconic coming out last year, Ariel Winter returns to her character Princess Sofia in the Sofia the First franchise, which she has been a part of since at least 2012. This series also features a star-studded voice cast that, apart from Winter herself, is set to also feature fellow Modern Family alum Eric Stonestreet, as well as Tim Gunn, and the funniest pansexual man, Who’s Line is it Anyway alum Wayne Brady.

World War II with Tom Hanks

| 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | History (Sky) |

A little early Father’s Day gift for everyone’s dad comes a British/ American docuseries about dad’s favourite topic, presented by dad’s favourite actor. That’s right: it’s all about WW2 from the invasion of Poland to the big bomb, brought to you by the man, the myth, the legend: Tom Hanks.

Food Network’s Top 10

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Food Network |

We haven’t been able to find a lot of information about this new show, including who even is hosting it. What we do know is that the premise is summed up in the title. The Food Network will countdown the top ten dishes. Yum.

Maine Cabin Masters

| 🇺🇸 | Season 13 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-G | Magnolia |

Off the heels of the 2022 lawsuit over unsafe lead levels that long time host and professional renovator Chase Morrill settled against the EPA, Season 13 of Maine Cabin Masters comes back to our screens with more renovation goodness.

The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | 2 Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | Investigation Discovery |

In 2004, a naked man was discovered, badly sunburned, behind a Burger King in Georgia (the state, not the country). He was suffering from severe retrograamnesiasia, had no ID, and that’s where the mystery started. Two producers tried to help him figure out who he is. Was his name Benjaman Kyle?

Castle Impossible

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | # Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | HGTV |

Daphne Reckert and her husband Ian Figueira, who we will remind you inherited a French castle, are back this season to again have HGTV fund the renovation of their estate on the outskirts of a small French town. This week they’re getting started with an episode titled “The Secret Library” which we assume means they found a hidden library.

Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch

| 🇺🇸 | Season 6 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | TV-PG | Discovery |

Blind Frog Ranch is another ranch in Utah where there are claims of both paranormal activity AND hidden treasure. But that’s not the mostridiculouss part of this reality TV series. First of all, one of the paranormal researchers in the cast is (apparently) annoyed that all the work they’ve done over the last two or three seasons was cut down to make them look like a bi,t player and they’re not coming back for Season 6. But the wildest part? One of the cast members killed a guy. Not only that, but apparently he (allegedly) beat his cellmate to death after previously getting into a little legal trouble, and THEN he was legally declared too incompetent to stand trial by two out of three doctors.

Craig Ferguson: American on Purpose

| 🇺🇸 | Miniseries | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | CNN

Scottish-Americancan comedan, and handsome man about town, Craig Ferguson, is many things. A recovering alcoholic of about thirty-four years, and a passionate American. He’s talked very, very openly about his choice to become an American, his passion for the ideals and values of his adopted home, and his pride in his new country. It’s very inspiring. This documentary miniseries has Ferguson criss-crossing his (apparently) greanewfoundnd home to talk to Americans, many like him, about what they love about America, the ideals acontradictionsons of their shared country, and then he’ll examine these things while reflecting on his own experience in this country that so many have chosen to be part of.

Heart & Hustle: Huston

| 🇺🇸 | Season 2 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | OWN |

Return to Huston with the Boss B’s of this series as they represent the full meaning of sisterhood while maintaining their lives and families.

OG Stories

| 🇺🇸 | Season 1 | Unknown Episodes | Weekly | Unknown Rating | BET |

Music producer and media mogul Damon Dash is, himself, an iconoclast in the entertainment industry but rather than focus on him this series, billed as a docuseries and talk show, will feature Dash sitting down and talking to others in the industry including trendsetters, innovators, and the underground greats.

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