Rivals, Disney+<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n David Tennant shines as Lord Baddingham in the self-described \u201cnaughtiest show on television\u201d, Rivals.Supplied<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big week for the delightful Scottish actor David Tennant. (Who? That\u2019s right \u2013 he was the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctor.) First, on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video, Good Omens \u2013 a fantasy comedy in which Tennant plays a demon named Crowley opposite Michael Sheen\u2019s angel Aziraphale \u2013 ends its curtailed-by-controversy<\/a> run with a 90-minute episode. Then, on Disney+, Rivals \u2013 a British romp in which Tennant plays a ruthless nouveau riche 1980s TV executive named Lord Baddingham \u2013 is back with the first three episodes of its second soapy season on May 15. <\/p>\n The latter is a highly enjoyable comedy that somehow won an International Emmy Award for best drama. Tennant ups the evil energy this season as Baddingham escalates a professional rivalry with a womanizing toff and Tory MP named Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and self-serious Irish presenter named Declan O\u2019Hara (Aidan Turner). Based on a book series by the late Jilly Cooper, the campy show is partly about the TV biz but mostly about all the sex going on among the upper and not-so-upper classes in the fictional county of, ahem, Rutshire. The first line of first new episode, which is heavy on penises and polo, is: \u201cWelcome to the naughtiest show on television.\u201d Perhaps!<\/p>\n Dutton Ranch, Paramount+<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n As Beulah Jackson, Annette Bening delivers a swell performance to help anchor Yellowstone sequel Dutton Ranch.Emerson Miller\/Supplied<\/p>\n Speaking of camp, this new neo-Western sequel series to Yellowstone premiering on Paramount+ borders on it. It\u2019s built around the chaotic-evil cowgirl character of Beth Dutton, played by British actor Kelly Reilly. As it starts, Beth, Rip, her husband, and Carter, their foster son of sorts, move away from all the mayhem in Montana to quietly raise cattle in Texas \u2013 but, of course, it only takes an episode for a body to show up on their new property. <\/p>\n Related: Yellowstone\u2019s Luke Grimes on the perils of taking cowboy Kayce Dutton from prestige to procedural TV<\/a><\/p>\n They shouldn\u2019t have moved in next door to a ranch run by Beulah Jackson, played with deliciously understated menace by Annette Bening behind an amazing pair of oversized glasses. Beulah\u2019s got a ne\u2019er-do-well son and a hard-working son who covers up his brother\u2019s tracks, and quickly has Beth in her sights. There\u2019s much familiar in the plotting to anyone who\u2019s watched a show in the extended universe of executive producer Taylor Sheridan (Landman, Lioness, etc.), but there are some swell performances, especially from Bening, Marc Menchaca as an ex-con farmhand and Ed Harris as a kind-hearted vet. The first two episodes, out May 15, lassoed me.<\/p>\n Good Fortune, Crave<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Written and directed by Aziz Ansari, Good Fortune stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Oh, and the laughs rarely let up.Eddy Chen\/Supplied<\/p>\n Speaking of Good Omens, how about another high-concept comedy about an immaterial being with \u201cgood\u201d in the title? This 2025 movie written and directed by Aziz Ansari concerns a bored guardian angel named Gabriel, played by Keanu Reeves, who decides to pull a spiritual switcheroo on a gig worker (Ansari) and a finance mogul (Seth Rogen). <\/p>\n In his Globe and Mail review<\/a> of Good Fortune, Barry Hertz noted the high concentration of Canadians in the cast (Sandra Oh plays Gabriel\u2019s boss) and awarded it a Critic\u2019s Pick designation: \u201cIt is all fairly silly and sometimes wildly uneven stuff, with Ansari\u2019s rather dark socioeconomic themes often colliding uneasily with a barrage of lighthearted zingers. But the laughs rarely let up, with Ansari committed to ensuring that barely a minute passes by without a wry observation or sharp gag.\u201d It lands on Crave on May 15.<\/p>\n Academy of Country Music Awards, Prime Video<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s sweetheart Shania Twain is a seasoned emcee of televised awards show at this point. The country-pop crossover superstar hosted the 2003 Juno Awards in Ottawa on CTV, the 2018 Canadian Country Music Association Awards in Hamilton on CBC and the 2024 People\u2019s Choice Country Awards in Nashville on NBC. <\/p>\n