At first blush, there might be little to laugh about Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson’s fall from grace. After setting a world record in 100 metres in 1988, Johnson was stripped of his medal when he tested positive for traces of a performance-enhancing drug in his urine. Nearly 40 years later, Johnson is ready to poke fun at what was framed as a tragedy. Hate the Player, a mockumentary-style miniseries that premieres in late March, mines the whole ordeal for comedic gold. It joins a string of recent reassessments of tabloid scandals from the late-20th century, with feedback from Johnson himself on the scripts. The Globe’s J. Kelly Nestruck caught up with creator Anthony Q. Farrell and Johnson ahead of the show’s premiere.

Also hitting theatres this week: Canadian-Turkish thriller The Things You Kill, which follows a literature professor named Ali. The Globe’s Barry Hertz writes that the film pushes the father-son dynamic into uncomfortable extremes, and will leave you scarred – but in a good way.

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