There are so many new words and phrases that have come into English usage this past year, “social distancing”, “lockdown”, “flatten the curve”, “maskne”. “doom scrolling”, covidiot”, to name a few. Here’s another one: “Netclix” – constantly (compulsively?) refreshing the Netflix homepage to see if there’s anything new. Recently I noticed that the #1 Trending show was “Groundhog Day”, which seemed appropriate.

I’ve been watching more shows than ever this past year and I’m not alone in that. We cut the cable cord a few years ago once NFL started streaming but there’s lots of options. In addition to Netflix we subscribe (on and off) to Crave and HBO, Brit Box, Amazon Prime and MHZ Choice. A friend on the other side of the country and I touch base most weekends to exchange “what are you watching” Hot Tips. Here’s my very eclectic list of recent watches:

My Octopus Teacher – my absolute favourite film of the past year. The pure magic of inter-species communication and dare I say, friendship. It opens the heart and blows the mind.

This 8-part Danish police procedural series The Investigation was compelling – and the differences between it and the typical American cop shows was very interesting. This was on HBO but another recommendation for other European series is MHZ Choice, a streaming service available here that carries shows from a lot of different countries with English sub-titles, many (not all) in the mystery, suspense, cop show genre.

This weekend saw the drop of the third season of Formula 1 Drive to Survive, a behind the scenes series about the drivers and teams of Formula 1 racing. Three years ago I watched the first season, which immediately converted me into a huge F1 fan, following the races and players during the season – Race Highlights and Paddock Pass on the F1 website on race weekends. Last year the first race was scheduled in March but then all hell broke loose with the pandemic and everything got cancelled for a few months. They managed to save half the season once they figured out how to deal with masks, distancing, health protocols and no fans in the stands. But TV still works just fine to watch a race. This weekend the new race season starts again and I’ll be there.

Also starting up again for the season this past Equinox weekend was the weekly UK gardening show, Gardener’s World hosted by Monty Don, a huge favourite in this house (no surprise there) and a Friday night watching tradition during gardening season, streamed on Brit Box.

Other films that have kept my attention:

• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• One Night in Miami
• The Kominsky Method Season 2
• The Dig
• Dancing With the Birds
• The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Lupin
• Midnight Diner
• The White Tiger
• What Would Sophia Loren Do?

But the biggest Hot Tip of this month has to be a show streaming on CBC Gem, a documentary called For Heaven’s Sake. It’s about an unsolved missing person case from 1934 in rural Ontario. In October of that year, Harold Heaven walked out of his cabin, carrying his rifle, leaving the door open and the lamp on and was never seen again. Now his young great great nephew and friend have become amateur detectives to try to solve the case and created an 8 part series about their adventures looking into his disappearance.

Why this show? Well the Heaven family properties are just down the road from my family’s cottage property at Minden. I think it’s safe to conclude that foul play was involved and this is one of those shows that looks at a number of theories as to what could have happened. One of them was that Harold Heaven was murdered and his body was dumped in our lake. I say “our” but my grandparents didn’t buy the property till 1948, 14 years after the disappearance so it’s safe to say our family is in the clear as suspects. Last summer while filming the series, the film makers organized a dive in our lake ostensibly to look for the rifle Harold Heaven had with him the night he disappeared, so on one of the episodes I can actually see the bottom of the family lake on film and watch a scene filmed at our picnic table at the beach with the very distinctive raft in the background. It’s the story of the two young film makers’ quest to solve this 86 year-old mystery and at times they are very funny. It was a blast watching the scenes of places I’m so familiar with – a cemetery scene at a little church nearby (my aunts are buried there), a drone scene over a barn across the road that was once owned by people considered suspects and now owned by my cousin (that was her dog barking madly at the drone overhead), recognizing a friend in his boat in the background of a scene filmed at a nearby lake, and a glimpse of someone else we know in a scene filmed in the local bar.

Once I finished the last episode I was beside myself with excitement and called Cousin Sharon the next morning for a good chin wag as we talked about all the theories and scenes in the film, sharing memories of our childhoods at the cottage as well as – of course – discussing our own musings of what must have happened to Harold Heaven.

I went back to the family property 3 years ago after a very long absence and wrote about it. Check out that post At the Lake and when you look at those bright, beautiful shots of a sunny day at the lake, remember: you never know what may be lurking in those depths.