The Glass House, Prime Video<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Martin Matte stars in The Glass House.Laurence Grandbois Bernard\/Supplied<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s streaming service has had a bad track record making series set in Quebec, bungling such solid IP as Louise Penny\u2019s chief inspector Armand Gamache novels (Three Pines; lasted one season) and the great maple syrup heist (The Sticky; cancelled mid-cliffhanger). But for its latest attempt the Bezos-backed bozos finally got wise to hiring an actual Quebecois talent to make one. <\/p>\n Popular comedian Martin Matte (Les beaux malaises) is the creator of this bingeable six half-hour episode limited series, containing only hints of humour and is kind of Death of a Salesman set in Laval during the 1995 referendum. <\/p>\n Matte plays Andr\u00e9 Joyal, a racist, homophobic, federalist businessman (inspired by the star\u2019s own father), going through the worst month of his life. Joyal\u2019s glass and door company is failing owing to big-box competition and his refusal to cave to corruption. His wife is on the verge of leaving him. And then, halfway through the series, comes a twist, which, if you don\u2019t know Matte\u2019s personal story, is a major surprise and takes the tale and characters to original places (and makes up for earlier unevenness). Available with English subtitles, The Glass House is, throughout, handsomely directed by Guillaume Lonergan (the visual voice of Crave\u2019s superb Empathie).<\/p>\n Deli Boys, CBC Gem, Disney+<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Asif Ali, Poorna Jagannathan and Saagar Shaikh star in Deli Boys, Season 2.Sandy Morris\/Supplied<\/p>\n I noted the other day while biting my nails off that CBC is using the deep playoff run of the Montreal Canadiens to promote the first season of Deli Boys, which it has added to its streaming service Gem.<\/p>\n This 2025 American crime comedy is created by former Vice alt-journalist Abdullah Saeed \u2013 and has a bit of that mag\u2019s old in-your-face vibe. After their father\u2019s sudden death, rich Pakistani-American Philadelphian brothers Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh) discover they have inherited not a sprawling deli chain as expected but a vast drug operation. The two spoiled second-generation brats are tutored in the black-market arts by their violent auntie Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan). <\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Disney+ subscriber, the six-episode Season 2 is just out to follow the story onward \u2013 with Portlandia\u2019s Fred Armisen new to the cast as a casino owner named Sugar (and love interest for Lucky) and Andrew Rannells as a district attorney running for mayor and determined to bring down the deli boys operation.<\/p>\n Half Man and Hacks, Crave<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Jamie Bell and Richard Gadd star in Half Man.Anne Binckebanck\/Supplied<\/p>\n Two great HBO shows that are complete polar opposites drop series finales this week on Crave. Half Man, the latest twisted limited series from Richard Gadd (Baby Reindeer), is a nasty, brutish and six-hour drama about two Scottish stepbrothers trapped in a decades-long cycle of shame and abuse. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) gives an extraordinarily ugly, hard-to-watch performance as the, initially, more likeable one; this heart-wrenchingly honest show makes most other TV dramas seem sanitized. <\/p>\n