Watching This Week #100

A very happy Family Day (or Islander Day, or Nova Scotia Heritage Day, or solemn and commemorative Louis Riel Day, or regular workday) to those who celebrate. This is the February 20, 2023, edition of Watching This Week, the weekly newsletter from Where Can I Watch – covering the latest news on where TV shows and movies will be available in Canada.

Read on after the week's listings for news on where you'll be able to watch, Jurassic World: Dominion, Andrea Riseborough's Oscar-nominated performance in To Leslie, and the latest season of Portrait Artist of the Year in Canada. Plus, we answer questions about the XFL and Leave It to Beaver.

What's new this week – February 20–26

Compiled from our monthly listings and/or any subsequent updates we've come across. We strive for accuracy but schedules may change without notice. Some series/seasons may have weekly rollouts; we won't list new episodes every week (though we may note significant episodes such as series finales). *An asterisk denotes programming added in past weeks that we've learned about (or has been rescheduled) since our last newsletter.

• Netflix: Full Swing (golf docuseries – Wednesday); The Strays (British thriller film – Wednesday); Triptych (Mexican series – Wednesday); Outer Banks (season 3 – Thursday); That Girl Lay Lay (season 2 – Thursday); Formula 1: Drive to Survive (season 5 – Friday); Oddballs (season 2 – Friday); We Have a Ghost (horror comedy film – Friday)
• Disney+: The Low Tone Club (Colombian series – Wednesday); Bruiser (drama film – Friday); Growing Up Wild (2016 nature doc – Friday)
• Crave: The Marksman (2021 action film – Friday); 1Up (2022 comedy film – Friday); Lines of Escape (2022 Canadian drama film – Friday); The Lord of the Rings (1978 animated film – Friday)
• Prime Video: Marc Marquez: All In (motorcycling docuseries – Monday); The Consultant (dark comedy series – Friday); Die Hart (reformatted version of the 2020 Quibi "movie in chapters" – Friday); Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022 film – Friday); ONE Fight Night 7: Lineker vs. Andrade Ⅱ (Saturday)
• CBC Gem: The Battle for the Soul of Quebec (doc – Wednesday); Push (docuseries – Fridays)
• Paramount+ (also available as a channel on Prime Video and Apple TV): Ze Network (German comedy series – Tuesday); The Infernal Machine (2022 thriller film – Thursday); Margaux (2022 horror film – Friday); Peppermint: So-sigh-ety Effects (stand-up special – Friday); Resistance: 1942 (2022 war film – Friday); The Challenge: UK (reality series – Saturday)
• Apple TV+: Liason (thriller series – Fridays); Pretzel and the Puppies (season 2 – Friday); The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy (travelogue series – Friday)
• Apple TV app: MLS Season Pass – now available; Major League Soccer season starts this Saturday with first-weekend games available at no charge (some games throughout the season also on Fox, TSN, and RDS)
• Global (also on StackTV): The Blacklist (season 10 – Sundays)
• FX (also on Citytv+): Snowfall (season 6 – Wednesdays)
• AMC (available on AMC+ on Prime Video and Apple TV):
• Starz (also available as an add-on/channel on Crave, Prime Video, and Apple TV): Gulliver Returns (2021 animated film – Friday); Party Down (season 3 – Fridays)

Programming news

• Super Channel posted a number of announcements this past week with January or February dates. Among them: To Leslie, the 2022 independent drama film starring Andrea Riseborough, in a performance that recently earned her an Oscar nomination, will be available on the service on March 1. The film's North American theatrical distribution was handled by Entertainment One subsidiary Momentum Pictures.
   
  The service has also signed an exclusive output deal for scripted and unscripted programming from Winnipeg-based Farpoint Films. Other new programming coming to the service includes several additional Canadian docuseries and scripted films.
   
• Blue Ant's Makeful channel has announced that as part of its free preview – ongoing on most TV providers through April 2 – the channel will be airing The Repair Shop [Australia] Wednesdays starting this week (February 22), as well as season 9 of Sky Arts UK's Portrait Artist of the Year, which will air Sunday nights starting March 5. (Makeful is also included in the base service of VMedia's RiverTV streaming platform.)
   
• We'll probably get fuller listings in the next few days, but for now, new movies that appear set to arrive on Crave in March include Canadian film Stay the Night (via Photon – March 3), Barbarian (via 20th Century and already on Disney+ – March 3); Jurassic World: Dominion (via Universal – March 10); and 2021 films The Mauritanian and The Marksman (via Elevation and previously on Prime Video – March 17 and March 24 respectively, per on-air promos).
   
  While nothing's been announced, there's also a strong possibility of Magic Mike's Last Dance arriving on Crave before the end of March, given that the film was released in North American theatres by Warner Bros. on February 10.
   
• This may be old news at this point, but we've just noticed (and don't believe we've previously noted here) that Showcase will be airing the second season of Peacock series Bel-Air Monday nights starting March 20, while Gotham Knights will premiere on Tuesday, March 14, simultaneously with its U.S. broadcast on The CW.

Other notes

• Nordic streaming service Viaplay, which recently launched a selection of its programming on Crave in Canada, will be launching its direct-to-consumer service in this country on March 7, for an initial price of $6.99 per month.

Mailbag

Here's some of the reader questions we've received recently by email (hello@wherecaniwatch.ca). We welcome questions of general interest, and publish a few of them (and our answers) from time to time; messages may be edited for brevity and clarity.

Ryan: Is there anywhere to watch the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver? It holds a sentimental place for me, and I can never find it anywhere – despite being fooled the odd time in my guide by [Canadian reality series] Leave It to Bryan. Has it been lost in rights limbo?

WCIW: It looks like NBCUniversal owns the copyrights to the series and have made it available on Peacock in the U.S., and for digital sales in Canada on services like the iTunes Store. We don't think Netflix or Prime Video would have much interest to pick it up a series of that vintage in Canada, but assuming Peacock doesn’t eventually come here, it’s the kind of series that might eventually turn up on one of the free ad-supported services like Tubi or Pluto TV.

Christine: How can I watch the XFL in Canada? I know a few games will be streamed on the major networks, but most aren’t. I’d like to follow the league – what do I need to buy now?

WCIW: The XFL – the American football spring league which launched for a third time this past weekend, this time overseen by a collection of investors including Dwayne Johnson – sold global broadcast rights to its games to Disney / ESPN. TSN has Canadian rights to those broadcasts through its relationship with ESPN.

However, at this point it looks like all XFL games will be available on the new TSN+ streaming service, and not the regular TSN cable channels.

For the moment, TSN+ is available in an indefinite free preview on the TSN website and app, even if you don’t have a regular TSN subscription, but at some point Bell Media will start charging for it separately. You can check the schedule of upcoming games here.

A handful of games, including two this past weekend, will also air on the ABC broadcast network and will be available to those who have access to that network on cable in Canada. But all other games seem destined to be exclusive to TSN+. And to be abundantly clear, while Disney-owned FX U.S. will air some games, Rogers’ licensed FX Canada channel will not air any coverage.

Recent changes on WCIW

We've added a new post about Major League Soccer, in advance of the start of the new MLS season – and some new media rights deals – this coming weekend.

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We'll see you again next week.