The exclusive world streaming premiere of Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo’s critically acclaimed SORT OF (October 5), a groundbreaking CBC original series about a gender-fluid South Asian millennial in transition in every aspect of their life
The Irish murder-mystery SMOTHER makes its exclusive Canadian premiere on October 22. PEN15 Animated Special launches October 29 from the Emmy-nominated team behind comedy PEN15. New international series include the first season of the legendary UK sitcom THE OFFICE (October 1) starring Ricky Gervais ( Afterlife) and the 2nd season of the critically acclaimed SHERLOCK (October 15) starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange)
CBC Gem will offer new programming in honour of MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK including the acclaimed series WHAT’S YOUR AILMENT?! (October 1) hosted by comedian Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite)
Four-part CBC Arts documentary series WRITING THE LAND (October 17) explores contemporary Canadian literature and the landscapes that continue to define it, showcasing Canada through an exciting, provocative and fresh lens
It’s nearing the spookiest time of the year! CBC Gem’s Halloween Collection includes the third and fourth seasons of R.L. STINE’S THE HAUNTING HOUR (October 15 & 29, respectively)
CBC ORIGINAL SERIES
- SORT OF (8×30, Dramatic Comedy, Sienna Films/Sphere Media, Canada)
Begins streaming Tuesday, October 5
*Exclusive World Streaming Premiere*
SORT OF, from creators Bilal Baig (Acha Bacha) and Fab Filippo (Save Me), is a big-hearted CBC and HBO Max original series about Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a gender-fluid South Asian millennial who straddles various identities from bartender at a 2SLGBTQ+ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family. Sabi feels like they’re in transition in every aspect of their life, from gender to love to sexuality to family to career. When Sabi’s best friend 7ven (Amanda Cordner) presents them with an opportunity to live and find themself in the “queerest place in the galaxy,” Sabi instead makes the decision to stay and care for the kids they nanny after their mom has a serious bike accident. Do they regret it? Sort of. A refreshing coming-of-age story, Sort Of exposes the labels we once poured ourselves into as no longer applicable…to anyone. Boasting a racially, culturally, trans and gender diverse team in front of and behind the camera, the groundbreaking series unapologetically represents and pushes against the walls of underrepresentation on TV to create space for queer people of South Asian, Muslim backgrounds; and of colour across Canada and beyond. While the series is a first in many respects, it’s firstly entertaining to watch.
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NEW INTERNATIONAL SERIES
- PEN15 ANIMATED SPECIAL (1×44, Comedy, Awesomeness, USA)
Canadian Exclusive Premiere
Begins streaming Friday, October 29
PEN15 is middle school as it really happened, in all its cringeworthy glory. Show creators, Maya Erskine (Plus One) and Anna Konkle (Rosewood), who are full-on adults, play fictionalized depictions of their younger selves as awkward 7th grade outcasts, surrounded by actual 13-year-olds. Taking a nostalgic trip back to the year 2000, these two best friends enter the wonderful world of puberty and burgeoning adolescence together while facing the trials and tribulations of middle school – from boys to school dances to overbearing parents – where the best day of your life can turn into the worst with the stroke of a gel pen. In this animated special Anna and Maya are introduced to new crippling insecurities. The girls try to ignore them but a mystical turn makes their self doubt impossible to forget.
- SMOTHER (6×60, Drama, Treasure Entertainment, UK)
Canadian Exclusive Premiere
Begins streaming on Friday, October 22
SMOTHER is a family thriller about deeply buried secrets and their unintended consequences, set in a small town on the wild and rugged coast of Clare. When Val Ahern’s (Dervla Kirwan, Ondine) husband is found dead at a foot of a cliff close to their home the morning after a family party, she begins to interrogate the events that unfolded the night before. The deeper Val delves into her family’s secrets the more she realises how her late husband’s controlling, manipulative behaviour had a deep effect on each member of the family.
- CALL THE MIDWIFE Season 8 (8×60 + 2×60, Drama, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
Return to Nonnatus House in 1964, a time of change both in Poplar and throughout the world. The nuns and nurses face a variety of challenging issues such as interracial adoption, cleft palate and sickle cell. For one, romance may be on the horizon.
- WHAT’S YOUR AILMENT?! (10×30, Comedy, Walleye Pictures, USA, 2019)
Featured in the MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK COLLECTION
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
Mental health is important! No one knows that better than comedian Maria Bamford. Now she’s opening up the discussion with fellow comedians and artists who share their own experiences. Join their funny, moving, and utterly candid conversations.
- THE OFFICE (UK) Season 1 (6×60, Comedy, BBC Studios, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
Ricky Gervais (The Invention of Lying) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) star in this internationally recognized, BAFTA-winning comedy set in suburban London at Wernham Hogg, a dysfunctional paper company where life is stationary. Told through the lens of a documentary film crew, this hilarious British series follows the day-to-day troubles of the firm’s uninspired desk jockeys while capturing every cringe-inducing moment on film.
- RIPPER STREET Season 2 (8×50, Drama, Tiger Aspect Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
The compelling crime drama returns for a second season and the job of preventing Whitechapel from descending into hell has never been harder for inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen, Pride and Prejudice) and his loyal deputies. The memory of Jack the Ripper may have faded but the Whitechapel streets he walked are more dangerous than ever.
- SHERLOCK Season 2 (3×90, Drama, Hartswood Films, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, October 15
There is nothing elementary about SHERLOCK. This sophomore season exceeds the pleasures and promise of the Emmy-nominated first season with three feature-length mysteries that fully test Holmes’ (Benedict Cumberbatch, Dr. Strange) mettle and cunning, and shake his very high self-regard. The first and third episodes do full justice to two figures who loom large in the Holmes canon. The first is Irene Adler (Lara Pulver, A Scandal in Belgravia), a ripping and naughty yarn involving a high-class dominatrix and some scandalous royal photos. The second, of course, is Moriarty (Andrew Scott, The Reichenbach Fall), who hatches a mad scheme to bring about Holmes’s ruination. The middle mystery is perhaps Holmes’s best-known, “The Hounds of Baskerville,” a psychological thriller that lacks the other two’s worthy central adversaries, although Holmes’s rare moment of bafflement sets the stage for the seemingly game-changing finale.
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FEATURE FILMS
- FIRECRACKERS (1×92, Drama, directed by Jasmin Mozaffari, Canada, 2018)
Begins streaming Friday, October 8
FIRECRACKERS tells the story of Lou (Michaela Kurimsky, Succor) and her best friend Chantal (Karena Evans, Mary Kills People) as they plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him through a night of vandalism and debauchery. The consequences of their actions are devastating, threatening the girls’ chance at freedom.
- DAUGHTER (1×101, Drama, directed by Antony Shim, Canada, 2020)
Begins streaming Friday, October 15
In the aftermath of his daughter’s death, Jim (John Cassini, Chaos) is living a life of isolation and self-destruction until he can no longer hide and must face his tragic past. He wanders Vancouver’s streets and finds fleeting solace in whatever facsimiles of intimacy he can afford. When he unexpectedly connects with Nikki (Teagan Vincze, Ecstasy), a younger escort, he can’t prevent himself from distorting their genuine friendship, looking to recast her as someone precious who’s been taken from him.
- DIEGO STAR (1×112, Drama, directed by Frédérick Pelletier, Canada, 2013)
Begins streaming Friday, October 22
Traoré (Issaka Sawadogo, The Invader), a mechanic from the Ivory Coast, is unfairly blamed when a serious accident occurs onboard a dilapidated Russian cargo ship, the Diego Star. When the ship is towed to a shipyard in nearby Eastern Quebec for repairs, crewmembers find shelter with the inhabitants of the small local village. Far from everyone he loves and knows, Traoré is engulfed by the Quebec winter.
- FELICIA’S JOURNEY (1×116, Drama, directed by Atom Egoyan, Canada, 1999)
Begins streaming Friday, October 29
Pregnant Felicia (Elaine Cassidy, Disco Pigs) has come to England to look for her boyfriend, who she knows works in a factory but not which one. There, she meets an older caterer, Joseph (Bob Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Joseph is obsessed with old tapes of a TV chef, who was seemingly his mother. However, he is a mysterious character who lies and steals from Felicia while putting on a friendly face. Eventually Felicia begins to stay with Joseph, but things turn from bad to worse when he puts more of his schemes into action.
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DOCUMENTARY
- THERE ARE NO FAKES (1×113, Documentary, directed by Jamie Kastner, Canada, 2019)
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies buys a painting by the world’s first Indigenous art star: Norval Morrisseau the self-taught, self-destructive Native Canadian genius Chagall once dubbed “The Picasso Of The North,’ creator of the Woodland School, one of three major strains of Indigenous art. Hearn begins to doubt his painting’s authenticity, and sues the gallery that sold it to him. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of two darkly comical feuding factions: all white people, each claiming to be the true defenders of this Native artist’s legacy. At stake is the value of a tranche of 3000 Morrisseau paintings worth some $30 million.
- FATIMA IN KABUL (1×20, Documentary, directed by Brishkay Ahmed, 2021)
Begins streaming Friday, October 22
FATIMA IN KABUL documents the days leading to the US and NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan during the Taliban’s return. Fatima, a young woman who has come of age during the rebuilding phase and in the digital age, is beginning to see her life shift; she expected a bright future but now finds herself heading towards darkness. As the days pass and insecurity increases, Fatima finds herself confined to the walls of her home. She takes care of her disabled sister while communicating with friends through her smartphone, and shares the story of her unfolding days of uncertainty with her friend and filmmaker – Afghan ex-pat Brishkay Ahmed.
- WRITING THE LAND (4×30, Documentary, directed by Stephanie Weimar, 2020)
Begins streaming Sunday, October 17
WRITING THE LAND is a celebration of Canada and its literature, presenting the country in all its eye-popping glory. Each episode features Canadian writers from different backgrounds representing the deep diversity of contemporary literature today. Writers Esi Edugyan, Joshua Whitehead, Madeleine Thien and many others deliver penetrating insights on Canadian literature and life. Shot over the course of four seasons, the series offers tableaux of different textures, colours and emotions as complex and varied as the writing the country has to offer.
- DREAMLAND: THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET (2×45, Documentary, directed by Salima Koroma, USA, 2021)
Begins streaming Friday, October 29
DREAMLAND: THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET explores the history of Black Wall Street and the violent events of late May and June 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of the city’s African American residents.
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TWEEN
- R.L. STINE’S THE HAUNTING HOUR, Seasons 3 & 4 (26×30 + 10×30, Front Street Pictures, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, October 15 (Season 3) & Friday, October 29 (Season 4)
R.L. Stine’s (Goosebumps) THE HAUNTING HOUR picks up where Goosebumps left off, bringing a new generation of young horror lovers a fresh look at one of the most popular anthologies in children’s suspense. Starring Bailee Madison (Brothers), Jeny Cassady (Imaginary Mary), Dan Payne (Watchmen), Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why) and Brendan Meyer (The OA)
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LIFESTYLE
- JAMIE COOKS ITALY (8×60, A Fresh One Production, UK, 2018)
Begins streaming Friday, October 1
In this food travel series, Jamie Oliver goes in search of Italy’s very best home cooks to create extraordinary Italian dishes that turn the simple into the sublime.
- GRAND DESIGNS NEW ZEALAND Season 4 (8×60, Lifestyle, Imagination Television, NZ)
Begins streaming Friday, October 29
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
GRAND DESIGNS features striking architecture, brilliant personal documentary, outstanding design and engaging stories, as celebrated architect, designer, urbanist and philosopher Chris Moller meets the brave Kiwis building their own extraordinary homes all over the country, following them from start to finish.
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CBC FALL 2021 SEASON
CBC’s fall 2021 season continues with new episodes from returning favourites like DIGGSTOWN (October 6), Season 2 of WAR OF THE WORLDS (October 6), THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW (October 17), A SUITABLE BOY (October 17) and DRAGONS’ DEN (October 21), all of which will be available on CBC Gem concurrently with their premieres on CBC TV. Details of CBC’s fall schedule are available here.
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THE BEST OF CBC
- Past and current seasons of CBC series including BURDEN OF TRUTH, THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW, FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES, HEARTLAND, MURDOCH MYSTERIES, STILL STANDING, TALLBOYZ, KIM’S CONVENIENCE, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW, and SCHITT’S CREEK; and classic CBC hits like BEING ERICA.
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COMING IN NOVEMBER
- Stath Lets Flats S2
- A Life in Ten Pictures
- Britannia S3
- This Time with Alan Partridge S2