Say Hello to Fall on CBC: There's plenty to keep you entertained
Grab your apron for a new season of The Great Canadian Baking Show or head back home for some family dysfunction on the new season of Moonshine. Check out our documentaries including The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, or hide under a blanket while trying to watch our Halloween collection…if you dare!
CBC GEM
Making its world premiere at TIFF 2022, LIDO TV is a variety show with a mission: to help people cope with life in a world that sometimes feels like it's falling apart, filled with hilarious sketches, inspiring interviews, immersive documentaries, surreal animations, and puppets. At the centre of it all is host Lido Pimienta, the award-winning Colombian-Canadian musician, artist and mother whose hilarious, curious, and tender personality drives the action. The series tackles themes ranging from feminism and privilege to colonialism and success, and features appearances by Nelly Furtado; musicians Shad and Kittie; writer Sarah Hagi; NorBlack NorWhite co-founder Mriga Kapadiya; and artists jes sachse and Jessica Karuhanga.
VIRGINS! - Now Streaming
Set in Toronto, virgins! is a dramatic comedy created by Aden Abebe that follows the lives of four 20-something year-old women who are too modest for the big city and too provocative for the East-African homes they come from. Doe-eyed in-betweeners, they are not just virgins in the biblical sense but in life experience as well. The show follows Aby [the Analytical-Intellectual virgin], Amina [the Apprehensive-Queer virgin], Delina [the Bride-of-Christ virgin], and Sara [the Family-Honour virgin] as they awkwardly navigate through an infinite number of adult experiences they were never prepared for: starting their careers; dodging workplace politics; dating & relationships; and of course, sex.
DREAMS IN VANTABLACK - Now Streaming
A poetic animated series featuring the voices of six Black youth. The young poets reach within to make sense of a world that has often silenced them, revealing their truths on bullying, mental health, identity and racism. Told through a wide array of animation styles DREAMS IN VANTABLACK brings to life poems that teeter between disaster and a dream.
CBC TV
The longest-running one-hour drama in Canadian television history, CBC's original family drama HEARTLAND is back. The new season finds Amy (Amber Marshall) and the rest of the family making bold strides towards their futures. For Amy that means taking the blinders off and looking at her life with renewed hope and focus. She'll be challenged by the horses that need her help, but she'll also open herself up to the possibility of new friendships and maybe even romance. Amy's daughter, Lyndy (Ruby and Emmanuella Spencer) will follow in her mom's footsteps as her talents with horses start to develop over the course of the season. Jack (Shaun Johnston) and Lisa (Jessica Steen) will find themselves living out the dreams they've both worked so hard to achieve, but they'll also realize that there are unforeseen consequences to dreams coming true. Just as Lou (Michelle Morgan) and Peter (Gabriel Hogan) have recommitted as a couple, Katie (Baye McPherson) will struggle to find her place in the world and in her family. Tim (Chris Potter) has never been happier in his marriage to Jessica (Michelle Nolden), but a ghost from his past will force him to reconsider mistakes he made years ago and seek ways to atone for them.
The Great Canadian Baking Show is CBC's homegrown take on hit format The Great British Bake Off. The series brings together 10 amateur bakers from across Canada, with hosts Alan Shane Lewis and Ann Pornel, to compete in a series of themed culinary challenges that celebrate their diverse backgrounds, families and communities. The Great Canadian Baking Show is an affirming, warm-spirited competition that celebrates personal achievement and the joy of baking.
MOONSHINE is back for Season 2 and picks up just a few days after Season 1 left off. Adorably A-Type Lidia (Jennifer Finnigan, Salvation) will embark on a heart-thumping but disastrous romance with outlaw biker, Gale, played by beloved Canadian star Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan) and -- with the very best of best intentions -- become embroiled in a dangerous money-laundering scheme. The new season will dig into the unexpected pregnancy of fave unhinged sister Rhian (Anastasia Phillips); see commitment-phobe Nora (Emma Hunter) struggle as her career takes a surprising turn; and follow the youngest Finley-Cullen, Sammy (Alex Nunez), as he searches for his biological parents, with lovably clueless Ryan (Tom Stevens) along for the ride. With four weeks of summer left, it's just enough time for the Finley-Cullens to inspire flash mob insanity, primal screaming, dirty bingo, snow crab-jacking, pending bankruptcy and a looming family turf war that threatens to annihilate the Moonshine once and for all. Buckle up...
Created by Floyd Kane (Across the Line), DIGGSTOWN is an authentic legal drama depicting the very real inequities that exist in the Canadian legal system and has never shied away from delving into issues of class, race, and gender. Returning for its fourth and final season, titular character Marcie Diggs (Vinessa Antoine) is struggling mentally and physically after last season's shooting, while she faces threats and defections from all sides. As she rushes from one crisis to the next, a former ally's actions may spell the end of Marcie Diggs & Associates. Despite a tumultuous ride filled with searing emotional battles and transitions driven by trauma, where even though the victories are few and hard fought, Marcie and her team continue to be relentless in their fight for justice right until the very end. This season will zero in on mental health, the plight of migrant workers, the treatment of a pregnant trans man within the healthcare system, sterilization of Black women and Indian Day School abuse, among other true to life stories.
Based on Jo Bloom's acclaimed novel, Ridley Road tells the compelling story of Vivien Epstein (Agnes O'Casey), a young jewish woman who falls in love with a member of the anti-Nazi '62 Group', rejecting her comfortable middle class life in Manchester and joining the fight against fascism in London. She will end up risking everything for her beliefs and for the man she loves. Rory Kinnear stars as Colin Jordan, the real-life leader of Britain's post-World War II Nazi movement, and Tom Varey as Jack, Vivien's true love.
CBC PODCASTS
CBC journalist and podcast host Jen White and her husband Neil Hyde are a happily married couple in their thirties, and from the outside, life is picture perfect. But behind their smiles lies a heartbreaking secret — they can't get pregnant. One in Six is a new CBC Podcast that launched on Oct. 18 that takes you on Jen and Neil's years-long fertility journey; one filled with hormone injections, internal ultrasounds, tears, anxiety, shame, love, laughter and hope. It also examines the barriers faced by people struggling with infertility.
The high seas are beyond the reach of international law – and beyond the beat of most reporters. But Pulitzer-Prize-winner and former New York Times journalist, Ian Urbina, has sailed into uncharted territories. Urbina sets out on a years-long quest to investigate murder at sea, modern slave labour, environmental crimes and quixotic adventurers. Part travelog, part true-crime thriller, this 7-part series takes listeners to places where the laws of the land no longer exist. The Outlaw Ocean is brought to you by CBC Podcasts and the LA Times and produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project.
CBC NEWS
THE FIFTH ESTATE - Thursday at 9 p.m. or steam on CBC Gem
The Fifth Estate looks at the shame inside Canada's game; why a troubling history suggests an alleged sexual assault in 2018 by some members of Canada's World Junior team was not an isolated incident.The fifth estate brings in-depth investigations that matter to Canadians – delivering a dazzling parade of political leaders, controversial characters and ordinary people whose lives were touched.
MARKETPLACE - Fridays at 8 p.m. or stream on CBC Gem
This season, Marketplace marks 50 years as Canada's award-winning consumer watchdog. Always on the lookout for slick scams and misleading marketing claims, its team of investigative journalists put the everyday products and services Canadians use to the test, and hold companies and government to account. Innovative, insightful and irreverent, Marketplace gets the goods and fights for change.
CBC DOCS
The Talented Mr. Rosenberg is a revelatory look into our oh-so-susceptible selves and an investigation into the mind, motive and methods of a con artist — and his victims, including family and lovers, who fell for his cons over and over again. In the tradition of films like The Tinder Swindler, Catch Me if You Can and Inventing Anna, this documentary tells the story of Albert Rosenberg, an audacious entrepreneur and life-long scam artist.Albert Rosenberg convinced banks, art galleries and elite investors from Monaco to Toronto that he was a sophisticated, cultured tycoon with millions to spend and endless business schemes. He also managed to sell this fabricated identity to his wives and girlfriends until the multiple red flags became impossible to overlook. How did he do it? And how did he get away with it for so long?
Stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert is painfully shy. He might hide it well, but he can't even go into a cafe to buy a coffee. No joke. In fact, his social anxiety has had a massive effect on his life. And he's far from being the only one: around 50% of us identify as being shy. In this documentary, Rhod's going to try to find out why and what can be done. Talking to fellow shy comedian Greg Davies, other shy sufferers, and scientists, Rhod comes up with a radical solution for how we can all stand up to shyness.
One in four people in the UK experience a mental health problem, yet despite being so widespread, people rarely talk openly or candidly about it. For those who have these difficulties, this stigma can exacerbate their situation and make it harder to recover.
In this two-part series, a group of ten unlikely runners living with or affected by different mental health issues train for the ultimate test of mind over matter. They'll compete in one of the world's most famous endurance races - the 2017 London Marathon. Mental and physical health is closely linked, and taking up sport or exercise can benefit our psychological well being, but this is no easy ride.
THE FALCONER - Now Streaming
This intimate portrait film follows master falconer Rodney Stotts on his mission to build a bird sanctuary and provide access to nature for his stressed community. THE FALCONER weaves Rodney's present-day mission with the story of his past, both of which are deeply rooted in issues of social and environmental injustice, and consistently orient the viewer to his worldview: nature heals. The film captures beauty and hope in a forgotten corner of the USA's capital, as Rodney takes the time to break through to those too often dismissed as "hard to reach." This is a story of second chances: for injured birds of prey, for an abandoned plot of land, for a group of teenagers who have dropped out of high school, and for Rodney himself.
IN FULL VOICE - Now Streaming
Muslim women are disconcerting, intriguing, polarizing—and straitjacketed by conflations of ideas in front-page stories. While the media tend to portray them as submissive and silenced, filmmaker Saïda Ouchaou-Ozarowski has chosen to distance herself from that caricature, with which she does not identify. She sat down with six Muslim Canadian women eager to talk about what shapes their identities. The resulting documentary, IN FULL VOICE, offers an intimate perspective on the journey of these women, who have a common desire to share their visions of Islam.
FILMS
When two estranged siblings go on a family bonding hunting trip, a dark and evil entity from their past stalks them through the countryside. But something from the past is drawing one brother deeper into the woods. A night of unrelenting horror will force the other brother to make the ultimate choice.
In a small, remote village in upstate Quebec, things have changed. Locals are not the same anymore – their bodies are breaking down and they have turned against their loved ones. A handful of survivors go hiding into the woods, looking for others like them.
SHE NEVER DIED - Start Streaming Friday, Oct. 21 on CBC Gem
Lacey is a socially detached and cannibalistic immortal plagued by the never-ending tedium of existence. With a life that dates back to the primordial ooze, Lacey is the walking culmination of human history. Currently, she is a violent and deadpan vagabond reluctant to participate in the vulnerabilities of life.
In her attempts to keep her supernatural compulsions in check, Lacey discovers some of the darkest souls humanity has to offer. Confronting these depraved sadists reminds her of her own long-forgotten memories of destruction. Lacey must now defy her own inner demons and strike a balance of revenge and responsibility while simultaneously finding her next meal.
BLINDNESS - Start Streaming Friday, Oct. 21 on CBC Gem
Adapted from Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's masterwork, BLINDNESS is a harrowing tale about the fragility of mankind. Evocative of the recent SARS epidemic, or occurrences in the New Orleans Super Dome during Hurricane Katrina, BLINDNESS takes place in a city which is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down.
WHITE ELEPHANT - Start Streaming Friday, Oct. 21 on CBC Gem
Set in 1996, in a majority-minority suburb of Toronto, 16-year-old Pooja (Zaarin Bushra) finds herself torn between her crush on a white boy, and her Brown friends. Her pursuit takes a violent turn, making her quest for love, a question of self-love. Winner of Outstanding Feature Film at the 2020 ReelWorld Film Festival.
BLOOD QUANTUM - Start Streaming Friday, Oct. 21 on CBC Gem
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.
COME TO DADDY - Start Streaming Monday, Oct. 24 on CBC Gem
A privileged man-child (Elijah Wood) arrives at the remote coastal cabin of his estranged father (Martin Donovan). He quickly discovers that not only is his dad a jerk, he also has a past that is rushing to catch up with him.
5150 ELM'S WAY - Start Streaming Friday, Oct. 28 on CBC Gem
5150 Elm's Way is located at the end of a quiet street in a small town. When Yannick Bérubé (Marc-André Grondin) fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu (Normand D'Amour) and his family had other plans for Yannick. And so Yannick is now a pawn in Beaulieu's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life. Nominated in multiple categories at the 2010 Genie Awards.