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.
Get ready to fall in love, Canada! Our country’s bachelor is looking for someone to steal his bases – and his heart. A recently retired Major League Baseball player from Mississauga, ON, Chris Leroux searches for true love when 20 beautiful bachelorettes vie for his heart on W Network’s The Bachelor Canada debuting this fall. Canadian Screen Award nominated television personality and actor Noah Cappe (Carnival Eats, Good Witch) returns as trusted confidant and host of the series. Following each episode, The Bachelor Canada After Show will dish out all the details with returning host and Q107 personality Jennifer Valentyne.
Thirty-three-year-old Leroux grew up with strong family values and an ingrained passion for sports. Introduced to baseball at a young age, Leroux’s hard work and perseverance paid off when he fulfilled his dream of playing Major League Baseball. Throughout his career he has played for the New York Yankees, Florida Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates. Leroux’s success is matched by his kindness, loyalty and sense of humour, and now he’s looking for someone to share his laidback lifestyle and adventurous spirit with as he enters the next chapter of his life.
In the Canadian version of this smash-hit, romance reality series, Canada’s most eligible bachelor is in search of the woman of his dreams – and hopefully his bride-to-be. The Canadian bachelor will search for love as 20 women do whatever it takes to win his heart. The women compete for the bachelor’s affection via individual and group dates involving romantic encounters and exciting adventures. As the bachelor narrows the field and the number of women dwindles, romance and tensions will rise. Ultimately, he will choose the one woman with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life.
The Bachelor Canada is produced by Good Human Productions Inc.
Link: Orphan Black cast, crew reflect on genre-bending show’s strange trip
“It was the crazy Canadian clone show that could. But it really has become a pop culture-defining show. [It took] big storytelling swings, but it also had an emotional heart and depth to it…. It’s a rather rare mix of serious things, social provocation and wit. There’s something quite unique and brilliant about that.†Continue reading.
From David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Link: Send in the clones: Orphan Black, TV’s smartest show, is back
This clever Canadian import – an addictive blend of revenge drama and sci-fi thriller – is that rare thing on TV these days: a mythology-heavy plot twister with characters so well-crafted, and lines so intelligently written, that you genuinely, deeply care about what happens to them. Continue reading.
From Alicia Lutes of Nerdist:
Link: Orphan Black’s final season is the ending it deserves
Over the course of the previous four seasons, the series has managed to do what, before its premiere, felt largely un-accomplishable on television: make a thrilling, conspiracy-laden science fiction series—populated by a hero’s slate of fully dimensional female characters—that plays foil to the myriad issues facing women in our society today. Continue reading.
“I was like, ‘How do we get through a season of this show?'” recalled the Regina native, who’s blown away audiences by playing multiple clones with vastly different personalities. “‘How do we do this, how do we pull this off, how do I embody these characters?’ It was just a moment-to-moment challenge.” Continue reading.
From Hermoine Wilson of The TV Junkies:
Link: Orphan Black: Evelyne Brochu tips her hat to Cophine shippers
“What I was most excited about was getting some answers, and I think the viewers will be super happy because there will be answers. But in terms of my character, I obviously wanted to know how Cosima and Delphine would end up and there’s going to be answers regarding that as well.” Continue reading.Â
From Eliza Thompson of Cosmopolitan:
Link: Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany on what to expect from the show’s final season
“We start on the island right where we left off last season, with Sarah mortally injured and crawling her way to some kind of safety. All of the clones are disparate and separate and trying to come back together. I think the whole story’s really about how individuals are stronger in groups. We’re stronger in communities.” Continue reading.
Link: Tatiana Maslany will always have Orphan Black
“We’ve definitely explored a lot about identity and the science behind the cloning and that sort of stuff but there’s always more to do and there’s always more we could’ve done. But I’m really happy the series leaves an impact of questions and a legacy of characters and women’s stories that will inspire more. It exists within a bigger conversation about science right now, autonomy and the world.†Continue reading.
“If I thought that Waverly had a huge arc in the first season, it doesn’t even compare to what we have in store this season,” she told NBC Out. Continue reading.
TV Review: Wynonna Earp Season 2
That’s a long way of saying that the first four episodes of Season 2 are focused and fun. If you need a weekly treat that takes advantage of every meaning of the word “stakes,†this may be the show for you. And this year, everyone, from the writing staff to the directors to the extremely game cast, has dialed in on exactly how to come at this material. Continue reading.Â
From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:
Link: Wynonna Warp’s Melanie Scrofano says Wynonna must trust her instincts in Season 2
“Season 2 starts off right after Season 1 and she just has to jump right in. She’s just gone through this horrible tragedy again, only this time she’s the cause of it, and now Dolls, her mentor/lover/question mark, has been taken. She’s got to navigate all of this on her own instincts which is really scary for her, but all she can do is forge ahead because if she stops even for a second, she’ll realize how in over her head she is and how much she’s lost.” Continue reading.
Link: Wynonna Earp boss Emily Andras talks “bigger, badder, better” Season 2
“Now Wynonna takes some responsibility and has people in her life who support her, but she also feels responsible for, who she cares for. So it’s about her trying to keep this dysfunctional family together as they really work on becoming a team.” Continue reading.
From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:
Link: Melanie Scrofano on higher stakes in Wynonna Earp Season 2
“Anyone in view of the Earp curse and of Wynonna herself is in some way going to be affected, and those bonds are going to be tested with anybody. The curse is pretty high maintenance and I’ll say that it tests Wynonna to her limit. Any time somebody is tested like that, there’s going to be fallout elsewhere.” Continue reading.Â
This is it, Orphan Black fans. The last dance. The final farewell. Or, as the production sheets said during filming of Season 5:Â Swan Song. This Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on Space, that beloved club of clones returns to the small screen for the last 10 episodes.
Earlier this year, TV, Eh was among a handful of media who were invited to the set for a super-secret tour guided by co-creator John Fawcett (I’ve included some images in this story) , got up close and personal with the experts on hair, makeup and wardrobe and locked in a few precious moments with Fawcett and Graeme Manson and stars Tatiana Maslany, Kevin Hanchard, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jordan Gavaris, Evelyne Brochu and Kristian Bruun.
Here are the answers we got to the queries we gave:
Co-creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson What are you most proud of when it comes to Orphan Black?
John Fawcett: There are so many things. I think I’m most proud of the fact that this was a show that shouldn’t have gotten made in the first place. Nobody wanted to make it and the show is a bit weird. What Graeme and I had in our brains was a mashup and IÂ don’t think there was a lot of conviction from anyone. It was a ludicrous premise that we somehow made a believable place and garnered enough support from the media and from fans that we could keep the thing going for five seasons. It’s been a really, really wild journey. Graeme and I were new coming into this. Tatiana was new. We had all worked in the industry before but this was kind of our first show. It’s been life-changing.
Graeme Manson: We’re also all very proud of the fact we took this somewhat ludicrous sci-fi conceit, grounded it enough and imbued it with enough character that it became inspirational for so many young people, so many young women and that Tatiana and so many other women who work on the show kept the feminist themes of the show—identity, nature versus nurture, themes of diversity, inclusion—this is the fabric of the show and we were able to say important things on this crazy clone show. That’s something we’re all pretty proud of.
Did you always have the same final scene for the show in your heads from Episode 1 of Season 1? John Fawcett: Graeme and I have had the same thing in our head from the very beginning. The process of making this show … there has been a very organic nature to it. Sometimes you absolutely know how things are going to go and often it doesn’t and it goes in a different direction. Our collaboration goes beyond just us. We have a much bigger collaboration because we have a very talented group of writers and really talented performers and we have a small family around us from the beginning and we’re very tight. The inspiration comes from all different directions. Things have altered, but have kind of stayed the same.
Season 5 will be a hair-raising ride
Jordan Gavaris and Maria Doyle Kennedy Jordan, you said you grew up on Orphan Black. What did you learn about yourself as an actor and a person?
Jordan Gavaris: I learned I’m an activist. I learned that, if I wasn’t an actor I’d probably have gone to law school and probably working for the ACLU or in politics. What I learned more than anything is about the intersection between genders. I’ve been watching some very interesting artists over the years and the really, really great ones that everyone seems to celebrate culturally are these people who understood that gender is not real. David Bowie is a really good example. He got the intersection between masculinity and femininity, men and women. He figured out that women are great. And they always have been great. I’ve also learned a lot about leadership watching Tat. She moves through a business that is very much about aesthetic and it can be very oppressive. She is a unique paradigm when it comes to how she leads a set and there is a trickle down effect of her leadership. That perspective is what makes Orphan Black so unique. Her voice is in everything you see. Felix was such
Felix was such an exploration of all my feminine parts and I think it’s important to take the femininity to other characters that aren’t necessarily Felix or look like Felix or sound like Felix. They might be an attorney or doctor or whatever … I can bring what I discovered about my own feminity to them.
Are you taking anything from the set as a souvenir?
Jordan Gavaris: Oh yeah, I’ve gone full klepto. I’ve taken paintings, necklaces, cool pieces of costume. I’m stealing stuff.
Maria Doyle Kennedy: The only thing I want to take aside from my memories is this little wire bracelet. I think it’s the only thing I’ve had since Season 1 and I pretty much never take it off.
Kevin Hanchard What are these final episodes going to be like for fans?
Kevin Hanchard: I don’t think we’re going for cheesy gotcha moments, it’s about the wonderful base and the wonderful story we’ve built and the tangents we’ve built from that. It’s time for the laser focus. It’s only 10 episodes, so it’s gotta go really quick. It builds to a head. I think fans will be happy.
Tatiana Maslany
Where did you put your Primetime Emmy?
Tatiana Maslany: My mom didn’t know it was in this box and she put a plant on top of it. It’s in a pretty chill zone.
Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.
Want to make Alison’s face lotion? Here’s the recipe!
On the heels of a special sneak peek at the conclusion of its annual Upfront presentation, CTV today released a first look at the upcoming CTV Feature Presentation, a film about Canada’s beloved The Tragically Hip, their challenging year, and their momentous cross-Canada Man Machine Poem Tour. Click here to view the First Look.
As was announced last fall, the film chronicles the emotional and epic lead up to the iconic Canadian band’s now-legendary 2016 tour that captured the heart of the nation. Viewers will be given a unique and exclusive perspective into The Tragically Hip’s world through intimate moments, behind-the-scenes and on-stage footage, personal interviews with the band and close friends, as well reactions from their devoted fans from across the country.
Commissioned by Bell Media, the documentary is set for a fall theatrical run, distributed by Elevation Pictures, ahead of its television premiere in late fall on Canada’s most-watched network, CTV. The network premiere will be followed by airings on various Bell Media and on-demand platforms, including The Movie Network, MUCH, and CraveTV.
The film is directed by renowned Canadian documentary filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier (Manufactured Landscapes, Act of God, Watermark), and produced by Banger Films’ Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn (HIP-HOP EVOLUTION, RUSH: BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE), in association with Shed Creative (a division of Universal Music Canada).
