On the Tube: Richard Flohil's Recommendations

By Richard Flohil

This is the third in an irregular column about what our readers are watching on the Idiot Box. With Christmas on the horizon, and the plague ongoing, it’s a given we are going to be trapped indoors and part of our routine is going to be spent watching television.

Contributing today is Richard Flohil – ever brimming with colourful stories, often trenchant opinions and an unerring instinct for zeroing in on the nut of what's at hand which is precisely what he does in today's opinion piece.

GLOW — the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. A hilarious, well-written series of about a bunch of women wrestlers and the B-movie producer who creates their late-night cable TV show.  Sounds awful, but it ain’t; well written, perfectly acted, and I have fallen hopelessly in love/lust with Alison Brie who is one of the two female leads.  (Netflix)

DOWNTON ABBEY. My apartment mate got me into this, and to my surprise, I'm loving it. A comedy of English manners, starting with the sinking of the Titanic, and trundling through to the second World War, with the lords and ladies upstairs and the servants in the basement. England has not improved. (Netflix)

EMILY IN PARIS. Total candy for the eyes and mush for the mind. Two seasons of watchable rubbish exploring every single cliché about American and French attitudes to each other. All French women are beautiful and stylish, all Parisians are rude, all Americans are stupid, etc. Don’t even start this; it’s addictive.  And there’s a third season on the way and I can’t wait. (Netflix)

THE SOPRANOS. Totally missed this when it first came out.  Perfect acting from a core of cast members, smartly written, constantly intriguing, and a fascinating multi-season epic about the Mafia in New Jersey. One of the best shows on any of the streaming services. (HBO)

RAKE. A multi-season saga about an inept, drunken, drug-addicted, serial womanizer and gambler — an Australian lawyer who skates through disaster after disaster. Spoiler: he eventually becomes prime minister. Warning: lots and lots of lovely nudity. Verdict: Funny as fuck. (Netflix)

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. My apartment mate thinks this apparently endless women's prison drama is funny. I find it egregiously depressing, but I can’t stop watching it. (Netflix)

SUITS. This shot-in-Toronto series made Meghan Markle famous, and the story is that she met Prince Harry at a party at Ben Mulroney’s place; I can’t confirm this since I wasn’t invited. It's total rubbish, of course, but it employed a who's-who of Toronto under-employed actors (including a couple of my friends; hello Sonia Cote, hi Loryn Taggart). (Netflix)