Lonnie Turner II

Stephen Colbert belongs up there with the likes of Carson and Letterman as one of the all-time great late night hosts. His tongue-in-cheek but savvy and razor sharp wit remind us in these days of one embarrassing, angering presidential scandal after another that no matter how bad things are in this country right now, being able to laugh at it helps keep the ulcers away. As for those who hate on him because of his lambasting of Trump, it's like Colbert himself says: "I have jokes. He has the launch codes." You tell me which is worse for America.

The best thing about the Conners is also the best thing about the original Roseanne show -- the supporting cast. Goodman and Metcalfe are worth their weight in gold, and Gilbert, Goranson and Fishman are now better actors than they were in their youths. While I can't say I miss Roseanne herself (her off-screen antics notwithstanding, I found a little of her character went a long way) I find it oddly interesting that the writers gave the character a potentially fatal pill addiction in the reboot. You would think that maybe they knew that Barr at some point would shoot herself in the foot, so they had an exit strategy for the character in case they had to kill her off. No matter; so far I'm enjoying this show more than I did the original Roseanne. Still too early to tell if it will have the original's staying power, though.

I only discovered this show recently when Netflix aired its third season. I binged the entire run and was instantly hooked. Great character work from all the leads, and I enjoy how it humorously illustrates immigrant life in a primarily white, English-speaking country without getting preachy or ham-handed about it. Big thanks to Netflix for picking this up. Down here in the States, we have a number of shows that are filmed in Canada (such as Psych, The X-Files and many others) but we it's not often that we actually get Canadian TV shows (unless you live in certain border markets). Which is a shame, because having lived in Canada myself for a year back in the early '00s, I quickly took a liking to a great many things Canadian, including a number of their TV shows. Now if only Netflix would pick up Da Vinci's Inquest...