SUNDAY
Coming of Age
CKVR, 8 p.m. Made almost a decade ago, Coming of Age is a rarity in Canadian TV-movie production for several reasons. Although the movie deals with death, aging and the complicated pain of coping with Alzheimer's disease, it is far from being a melodramatic, disease-of-the-week production. In fact, Coming of Age is the sort of well-crafted and socially aware drama that used to fill CBC TV's old For The Record slot, except that it's even better. Made by Ira Levy's Breakthrough Films, with significant help from CKVR (with a grant from the Senior's Secretariat of Health Canada), it is a quiet, emotionally effective movie about finding renewed joy and hope in old age. Marion Gilsenan, who would later star on CBC's soaper Riverdale, plays Jane Mackenzie, a recently widowed woman struggling to hold on to her home and sense of self. Unwilling to simply sell her house and move on to a clichéd old age, she takes in boarders. Among them is Tomas, an elderly free spirit who specializes in handyman work and wise sayings. "You must squeeze the grapes of sorrow for the best wine," is among the first things he says to a skeptical Jane. Jan Rubes plays Tomas -- Old World charm with a hint of mischief. Coming of Age is a love story that develops slowly, but inevitably. It's also a portrait of abiding sorrow. Jane takes in a couple dealing with the wife's descent into Alzheimer's and, for a time, her home is a chaotic place of tension, illness and bitterness. Ultimately, Coming of Age is a celebration of life. If it has a fault, the weakness is the insistence on dramatizing so many problems.
TUESDAY
Shadow Lake
CKVR 1 p.m. So you're at home on New Year's Day and you want to just watch TV for the afternoon. Forget college football. Shadow Lake, a Canadian murder mystery, looks like it belongs on CKVR because it's set in Muskoka, features a morose, but dogged, OPP officer (Graham Greene) and there's a lot of snow and ice. You see, this body is found under the frozen lake. It's a guy who disappeared 14 years earlier. A diamond is found with the body and letters from a Scrabble game. Along comes the dead guy's daughter (Joy Tanner) and there's romance with the son (Gabriel Hogan from The Associates) of the dead guy's business partner (Michael Hogan from Cold Squad). Mag Ruffman plays a gal who works at the cop station. Steve Smith (Red Green) plays a bartender. One of the few non-Canadians is Frederic Forrest as another cop, the devious one. This all works well. Shadow Lake is no groundbreaking thriller, but it's palatable and efficient.
The Carol Burnett Show: A Reunion
Comedy, 7 p.m. The news release announcing that Comedy is showing this Carol Burnett Show special comes with the inevitable reminder that, during the recent November sweeps period, The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers, got astonishing ratings for CBS. Nobody expected that special to be a big winner with viewers and, in the copycat TV world in LaLa Land, the ratings had an inevitable result. Now, as February Sweeps are being planned, reunion specials for numerous old shows are being considered. I suppose the feeling is that the affection for The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers was some sort of indication of audience taste in the post-Sept. 11 America. This special tonight features the expected suspects -- Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner. The show includes clips of Burnett's unscripted question and answer sessions and appearances by dozens of guest stars, including Bing Crosby, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles, Lucille Ball, Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Martin, Rita Hayworth (Rita Hayworth!!), Ethel Merman and Cher. Mind you, that old Carol Burnett Special was a big hit in the U.S. and even if it's a new year, we're still in a separate country.