TV: ‘Slaycation’
Who knew that one of the best “RuPaul’s Drag Race” franchise extensions would be a low-budget Canadian offshoot? The six-episode seasons feature fan favourites from across the Ru-niverse living together in a mountain chalet, completing strange challenges and, of course, fighting constantly. In the newly dropped Season 2, featuring Alyssa Edwards, Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Nicky Doll — plus one of our fave Toronto queens, Miss Fiercalicious — the conflicts (including classic freak-outs over sleeping arrangements) seem deliciously real, the challenges are as unhinged as ever, and the winter fits are fun. — Briony Smith
Music: ‘One Battle After Another’ score
I’m terribly late to the party, but I’ve finally seen “One Battle After Another,” the black-comedy thriller about the forces of good and evil in a fractured, tattered America. Believe the hype: Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is a masterpiece — epic and brash in its sweep, while also maintaining the intimate, emotional intensity of a quiet family drama. But what I was drawn to most was the movie’s score, composed by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Completely modernist in its sound, with disquieting, darting melodic lines, the music was a sonic manifestation of a world splintering apart. It’s one of the best film scores I’ve heard in a long time. — Joshua Chong
TV: ‘Fallout’
For a perverse, ultraviolent post-nuke dystopian survival series led by a noseless zombie gunslinger, “Fallout” sure is fun. Now in its second season on Prime Video, this videogame adaptation starring Walton Goggins and the wonderful Ella Purnell, is off to great start as the retro-futuristic world-building comes into sharper focus and Kyle MacLachlan brings his potent brand of preppy menace as the new villain. — Doug Brod
TV: ‘Rick Mercer’s Stand Up for Canada’
Still feeling a little patriotic as the year runs down? The CBC taped the final show of Rick Mercer’s 20-city standup tour, which airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBC TV and streams on CBC Gem. In it, the Newfoundland native, known for “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” and “Rick Mercer Report,” pokes gentle fun at Canada and its inhabitants while praising Canucks he admires, including Terry Fox, “the greatest Canadian.” There’s also a particularly sweet anecdote about the late Gord Downie. Conservative party Leader Pierre Poilievre and U.S. President Donald Trump take some ribbing, although the latter is never mentioned by name. The main takeaway? “I have no idea what it means to be a Canadian,” Mercer says, “but I do know I’ve never ever wanted to be anything else but.” — Debra Yeo
