All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Burden of Truth, Featured

Preview: Burden of Truth goes on a “Witch Hunt”

After a break for the Winter Olympics, Burden of Truth returns with a new episode this week. (Read my feature interview with co-star Sara Thompson here.) I don’t know about you, but I’ve been on tenterhooks wondering what was going to happen next after the last instalment, “Family Ties.” Back then, Joanna discovered she and Luna are sisters and confronted her father over that little tidbit of information.

By episode end, Joanna had served papers to Ben Matheson signalling the case is headed for the courtroom.

Here’s what the CBC has revealed about this week’s instalment:

Anger over the claim against the mill pits the sick girls and their families against employees of the mill who worry that their jobs are on the line. When the local Pastor’s daughter becomes afflicted with the illness, he blames the girls themselves. 

And here are more details after watching the screener for “Witch Hunt,” written by Brad Simpson and Eric Putzer and directed by James Genn.

Trial planning begins
Now that the papers have been served, Joanna and Billy have got a lot of work to do and holes in their case to fill. Thankfully, they have Luna to help. Speaking of Luna, she’s got some big plans not only for herself but her mom. Meanwhile, Billy—who is used to the love and support of his community—feels the scorn of mill workers who don’t like the side he’s taken.

Cracks in the community
There is mounting hysteria in Millwood after the Pastor’s daughter becomes sick, causing the high school principal to make a rash decision affecting a key part of their teenage lives. Adding to the stress felt by everyone is the Pastor, who things sin is behind the sickness rather than poison. That’s always helpful.

The mill hires their own legal team headed by …
… I won’t spoil the surprise.

Burden of Truth airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

 

 

 

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Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Murdoch Mysteries: writers Lori Spring and Robert Rotenberg discuss “Murdoch Schmurdoch”

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Spoiler alert! Do not continue reading until you have watched the latest episode of Murdoch Mysteries, “Murdoch Schmurdoch”!

As I wrote in my preview, “Murdoch Schmurdoch” is a bit of a departure for Murdoch Mysteries. Yes, there was a crime—the death of a theatre owner—which meant Dr. Ogden, Brackenreid, Higgins and Murdoch were all involved. But viewers were given an in-depth peek into the life of Det. Watts (Daniel Maslany) as it was revealed he’s actually Jewish. I found that insight to be highly enjoyable, as was the performance of Sayer Roberts as the legendary Al Jolson.

But, it turns out an early draft of the script had Crabtree discovering his Jewish roots. I chatted with longtime Murdoch Mysteries writer Lori Spring and Toronto-based criminal lawyer and mystery writer Robert Rotenberg—who co-wrote the episode with Spring—to discuss “Murdoch Schmurdoch.”

How were you and Robert teamed up to write this episode in the first place?
Lori Spring: I had gone into Shaftesbury with Bobby to pitch a series based on one of his unpublished novels. They knew that Bobby and I were trying to work together and they teamed me up with him. We went into the writer’s room together. Bobby is an experienced novelist and less experienced screenwriter so it was somewhat of a mentoring situation.

Robert Rotenberg: I’ve really wanted to get into TV screenwriting for years. I was talking to Christina [Jennings] and she mentioned her good friend Lori Spring. Lori Spring and I went to summer camp together when we were 15 years old! Lori and I got together. I came up with the idea of Al Jolson coming to Toronto when he was 18, they loved the idea and asked me to co-write with Lori which was the best thing that could have happened. I kind of went to screenwriting school for two months with Lori. It was incredible.

How did the main storyline, regarding anti-Semitism, break?
LS: The starting point was actually that Bobby had pitched Al Jolson as a historical guest character. He would have been around 19 years of age at that time. Then there was the general idea that he would have been in Toronto doing a performance. We had also sent some research notes because, at that time, there was a large influx of Eastern European Jews to Toronto in the late 19th century and earlier 20th century. By 1906, there were a number of Jews that were trying to initiate Yiddish theatres in the city. That became something that we wanted to work with. And Al Jolson was Jewish. So those were two threads that established themselves early on. Then we had the idea that one of the characters would find out that he was Jewish and Pete was really enthused about the idea of Watts discovering that about himself, so that became the B-story.

RR: One day, we were driving to the set and I turned to her and said, ‘I think we have too many characters.’ We walked in and said, ‘We’ve taken two characters and turned them into one.’ We had the producer and a director and it just became too complicated. It was much easier to make it one character, Levine. And we had an M.C. but decided to just let Levine do the introductions on-stage.

It really ended up being a Watts-centric episode and I loved that.
LS: Yes, and that was the intention.

RR: That was really fun. The original idea was that it would be Crabtree because they’re still kind of vague about his background. I loved the idea of someone hearing a tune and realizing that they’ve heard something from their childhood and putting it together. Then, they suggested it be Watts, which was a perfect fit.

That’s a lot of responsibility for you two. You shaped this character’s backstory.
LS: His tone has been established. Having worked on this show for so many years, the characters have sort of formed themselves and their backstories get filled in more and more every season. It’s not as if in the beginning of the show, William’s backstory was clear to everybody. It kind of fills itself in with every season. Watts is a latecomer to the season and it’s been a really interesting process.

Al Jolson really did visit Toronto and performed at The Royal Alexandra Theatre, but later than in your timeline.
LS: That’s right, he did. Well, I did the episode with Lucy Maud Montgomery and played fast and loose with that one too. [Laughs.]

I always love the little details and there were a couple in this episode. The Flatiron Building cutout was fun, and so was having Al Jolson turn around to show him just beginning to put on the blackface that would become his schtick.
LS: We really talked a lot about how to handle that. When he was the age he would have been in 1906 that was when Al Jolson started to do blackface, but we didn’t want to go heavy on the blackface because it’s pretty loaded. It wasn’t loaded back then. It was viewed quite differently back then and Al Jolson wasn’t the greatest guy in the world but was well thought of by black performers because he was very progressive in his racial politics.

RR: Historically, blackface was considered a very liberal at that time, which is completely opposite to what we think now. There were a lot of black performers at the time and it was considered as honouring them.

You wrote a very sweet storyline for John Brackenreid, having him fall in love with Charlotte. He’s such a blank canvas.
LS: [Laughs.] And to write scenes like that, you really start to fill in the colours. It’s fun to pretend you’re a 16-year-old boy in 1906 Toronto!

What did you think of “Murdoch Schmurdoch”? Let me know in the comments below!

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

 

 

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Caught

Links: Caught

From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:

Link: It was hard for Allan Hawco to shake TV alter-ego Jake Doyle. But along came David Slaney and Caught.
It’s hard to shake the legacy of Jake Doyle.

The beloved Canadian detective from TV’s Republic of Doyle was created by Newfoundland’s Allan Hawco and ran for five seasons on the CBC. The multi-talented Hawco was, to say the least, invested in the character of the roguish Doyle, serving a mind-boggling multitude of roles as the series showrunner, writer, executive producer and star. Continue reading.

From Richard Crouse of Metro:

Link: Allan Hawco gets Caught up in adaptation of Giller Prize finalist
“I was totally burned out at the end of Republic of Doyle,” says Allan Hawco. “When we finished six seasons every cool idea I ever had, every cool line I ever had, every cool plot idea, everything, I’d used it. My charm was gone. I was happy to have something to fill up the well again.” Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Link: CBC’s new drama ‘Caught’ like ‘a grown-up ‘Doyle”
Two years ago, Allan Hawco was working on a script for a TV series when he asked another writer — fellow Newfoundlander Adriana Maggs — to read an early draft and give an honest opinion.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” said Maggs, “but it feels like a grown-up ‘Doyle.”‘ Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Caught stars warn that everyone is hiding something in the new CBC series
“Every character is duplicitous and there’s so many sides to who they can be. As an audience member, you’re constantly guessing because no one is saying what they mean. It’s so refreshing to find a script that isn’t on the nose like that and you can really play the layers.” Continue reading.

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Paul Gross plays a very different Mountie in CBC’s gritty Caught
“He has lots of demons that he is hauling around with him. As the scripts came in and they were a little more fleshed out I realized that this was the thing he has to do. It’s like the last thing he might get a chance to do.” Continue reading.

From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:

Link: A conversation with the cast and executive producer of Caught
“With this, you’re doing long-form drama. It’s essentially the same kind of stories that you would tell in an independent feature or feature film, but you get to go further in depth with the characters. Instead of spending two and a half hours with the characters, you’re spending five hours, or maybe 10 hours depending on [the series]. It just allows you to get deeper into the story. You cut narrow and deep.” Continue reading.

 

 

 

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Burden of Truth, Featured

Burden of Truth: Sara Thompson’s primetime character mirrors real life

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To really immerse themselves in a role, actors must make a connection with their character. For Sara Thompson, that ended up being easier than she imagined.

The Winnipeg-born Thompson co-stars in CBC’s Burden of Truth as Molly Ross, a high school student and athlete who has her health threatened. Something in her small town of Millwood is making Molly and other girls suffer from seizures. Is it chemicals in the soil placed there by a local steel mill or something else? Lawyers Joanna Hanley (Kristin Kreuk) and Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney) are determined to find out. Meanwhile, Molly is struggling with the realization her promising athletic career is over, something Thompson related to.

“It was so easy to connect with Molly,” Thompson says, on the line from Winnipeg. “Because of her love for sport, it was very similar to my dancing career. I was the same type of person. And at the same age as Molly is I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I suffered from tremors and had to give that part of my life up. It felt like things were crashing down. I had to overcome the same things and it’s crazy how close to home this role is for me and why I fell so hard in love with this character.” In a strange twist, Burden of Truth‘s producers had no clue of Thompson’s history when they cast her. And what she initially thought would be a small role on the legal drama has turned into a major one: Molly has agreed to be the named plaintiff at the top of the case filed against the steel mill.

“They wrote the scripts as we went, so we didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Thompson recalls. “I didn’t really know where Molly was going and, initially, I didn’t think my character was as involved and as important as she is now. Reading a new script was like watching a movie.” The actress—whose next projects are on the big screen in I Still See You alongside Bella Thorne and Nomis with Henry Cavill—teases that things are only going to get more dramatic as Season 1 of Burden of Truth continues to roll out. Relationships will be threatened and Molly has to come to an uncomfortable realization about her future.

“Molly really wanted to break out into sports medicine and she really wanted to stay in that world,” Thompson says. “I think there was always a lot of pressure on Molly to always be the captain and this is the first time in her adult life that she has to really step back and realize ‘This could  kill me.’ And maybe being the leader all the time was too much on her and she was tired of putting her happy face on.” But Molly isn’t going down without a fight. As she was on the soccer field, Molly takes on the role of captain in the courtroom, leading the affected girls in a fight that threatens to tear the town apart.

Thompson, like Molly, is a team player away from the set as well. She’s involved in the Orange Daisy Project, a social action campaign supporting the mental health of young women around the world.

“I think that’s the most important thing when it comes to mental health: to not feel alone,” she says. “Even in the character of Molly. It shows how women can be so powerful when they just let go and lean on each other.”

Burden of Truth airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Featured image courtesy of Cris Montecillo. Burden of Truth image courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Awards, Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: Young ‘Breadwinner’ actress among ACTRA winners

From the Canadian Press:

Link: Young ‘Breadwinner’ actress among ACTRA winners
The star of the Oscar-nominated animated Canadian co-production The Breadwinner was among the honourees at the ACTRA Awards in Toronto.

Toronto actress Saara Chaudry, who voices the lead role of a young girl who helps her family in Afghanistan, won the award for best voice performance at Saturday’s show. Continue reading.

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