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.
Featured, Podcast

TV, Eh? podcast Episode 229 — Overall nutty overtone

This week’s episode is brought to you courtesy of The Pop Shoppe Lime Ricky Hard Soda and Wild Turkey Forgiven.

First up is the latest Calendar news, including THE SUMMER OF SCI-FI with the returns of Dark Matter, Wynonna Earp and Orphan Black. This is Canadian Upfronts week and, yes, some networks have Canadian shows to announce, like Corus with their plethora of originals and co-productions. Also: CityNews has gone national (not really), and Bellevue‘s future is up in the air.

And we say thanks to our Patreon supporters!!

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

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Dark Matter, Featured

Dark Matter’s Melissa O’Neil and Anthony Lemke talk Season 3’s explosive return

When we last left the crew of the Raza on Dark Matter, things looked pretty dire. EOS-7 had exploded and we weren’t exactly sure who’d survived. Thankfully, we can confirm everyone made it out alive—you’ve seen this photo gallery, right?—but find themselves in varying states of distress and with a brand-new enemy to face.

Season 3 of Dark Matter returns with two back-to-back episodes this Friday beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Space until moving to its regular timeslot of 9 p.m ET next week, with “Being Better is So Much Harder” and “It Doesn’t Have to End Like This” setting the stage for what promises to be another 13-episode thrill ride from Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. (We don’t like to give much away prior to broadcast, but The Android flat-out steals two scenes in Episode 1.)

What’s in store for Two (Melissa O’Neil), Three (Anthony Lemke), Five (Jodelle Ferland), Six (Roger Cross) and The Android (Zoie Palmer) now that it appears Four/Ryo (Alex Mallari Jr.) turned against them? We got O’Neil and Lemke to give us the scoop!

Season 2 begins with the aftermath of the explosion at EOS-7 and our heroes are scattered. There is plenty of action and humour, but there are some very serious and emotional moments, including a nice one between Two and Six.
Melissa O’Neil: Two and Six represent both sides of the topic with regards to the enemies they face this season. I didn’t really think about it until now but it’s kind of a continuing Mommy-Daddy relationship that flows throughout the season. I really loved shooting that scene with Roger. In all of my scenes with Roger, we always get to talk about the big questions and what it means to be a good person. I love playing off of him; he’s so earnest and wonderful.

I never thought of the Mommy-Daddy angle before. It certainly makes sense. Then you have the ornery teen…
Anthony Lemke: … and the drunk uncle.

MON: No, you’re the ornery teen!

AL: Actually, Three is the teen and the parent. He’s both and he walks that line.

I love it when the crew is together, having dinner. That’s happened more than once in the past two seasons and we get it again in Episode 1.
AL: It’s funny. The table has been this push-pull. The directors come in and say, ‘OK, how do we shoot this room?’ And we’re like, ‘We sit at the table.’ When I watch the show I really identify with the idea that the family that eats together stays together and I think the audience responds to that. It’s important, those moments. They don’t happen every episode, they happen every once in awhile when it’s important.

MON: In Season 3 especially we have everyone going off on their single journeys and there were spans of time when we forgot that we worked with each other. Alex, we barely saw him, so it does feel important not only in the context of the story but as a cast thing.

Does that mean much of this season sees the team spread apart?
AL: I think it’s been an evolution since Season 1. The first season we were almost cloistered and were, literally, in almost every scene together. We tend to be on more isolated journeys than we were in the previous two seasons.

MON: Two has a big struggle with leadership, making choices and whether or not she should be the one to make choices on the behalf of other people, especially when the costs are so high when she makes the wrong decision.

The Android appears to be on an interesting journey as well. Her wardrobe choices in Episode 1 were outstanding.
MON: It’s massive too. The exploration of that is going to be a big fan favourite, I think.

What can you say about Three’s own journey or story arc?
AL: Three’s through-line story has been about his past and discovering that a bad guy isn’t all bad. We learned in Season 2 the root of that complexity; he is a caring and very soft person, but that bravado is real too. Both of those sides live within this character and that’s what makes it fun to play. When he says, ‘Let’s go steal stuff and kill some people,’ he means it. We continue on that journey in Season 3 and that will spin into Season 4 in a totally awesome way. So please, everyone, tune in a lot so that we can get a Season 4!

Dark Matter airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Space.

Images courtesy of Space.

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Big Brother Canada, Featured

Big Brother Canada goes on hiatus after five seasons

It’s the end of the road for Big Brother Canada. For now, at least. Host Arisa Cox made the surprising announcement on Monday afternoon with a post on Twitter.

“It’s been FIVE BRILLIANT SEASONS and now it’s official, @BigBrotherCA is on hiatus,” she wrote. “MASSIVE LOVE to our BB fam from the bottom of my heart.”

The announcement came the same day Corus made its upfront announcement, outlining American primetime acquisitions and Canadian original orders and renewals. Big Brother Canada wasn’t listed on any of the press materials, but it being a spring program isn’t always on fall materials.

“We CAN and we WILL get through this together!” Cox tweeted a few moments later. “The second we know more I’ll share it, so stay tuned. LOVE! #BBCAN @BigBrotherCA @Global_TV”

Listen to our interview with Big Brother Canada supervising producer Trevor Boris

The hiatus comes following the series’ May 18 season finale when professional poker Kevin Martin of Calgary emerged victorious, scoring the $100,000 grand prize, $30,000 gift card from The Brick and 2017 Toyota ’86. Season 5 of brought back some of Canada’s favourite houseguests from the past to battle new houseguests from the present, pitting them against each other in a fight for future supremacy inside the Big Brother Canada “Odyssey” house. Second chance houseguests included Gary Levy from Toronto; Neda Kalantar from Vancouver; and Bruno Ielo from Ottawa. First-time houseguests joining the returning players included Andre “Dre” Gwenaelle, a masters student from Montreal; Mark Chrysler, a bartender from Edmonton; William Laprise Desbiens, a marketing student from Trois-Rivieres, QB; and Emily Hawkin, a bartender from Lindsay, ON.

Though fans should still hold out hope Big Brother Canada could return, Insight Productions—the folks behind the program—placed Canadian Idol on hiatus with CTV after six seasons. It never came back. Insight produces Top Chef Canada for Food Network Canada and The Amazing Race Canada for CTV.

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Industry News

Cue the hits in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… City unveils its 2017/18 prime-time schedule

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From a media release:

Proven, powerful, and pedigreed. Today Rogers Media unveils City’s 2017/18 programming schedule, building on last season’s proven hits with bold new additions backed by some of the most creative minds in television today. Rogers Media president, Rick Brace, and senior vice president of television & broadcast operations, Colette Watson, together with the executive team will present the new schedule to advertisers and media this afternoon at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Comedies
This broadcast year, City had three of the Top 10 and eight of the Top 20 comedy hits4, and City will continue to bring the laughs with five new comedy series for the 2017/18 season. Joining the fall lineup, The Orville, from Emmy Award-winning executive producer and creator Seth MacFarlane and director Jon Favreau, is an irreverent workplace sci-fi adventure comedy set 400 years in the future that follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Orville, an exploratory spaceship, and the familiar and funny everyday challenges of its human and alien crew. The weird and wonderful out-of-this-world theme continues with Ghosted, when a cynical skeptic (Craig Robinson, The Office) and a genius “true believer” (Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation, Big Little Lies) are recruited to investigate unexplained phenomena in Los Angeles – all the while uncovering a larger mystery that could threaten the existence of the human race. Canadian cult classic Fubar moves to the small screen, propelling beloved characters Terry and Dean into the modern age. New-to-City, Speechless starring Minnie Driver joins the schedule in mid-season, along with new Will Ferrell-produced commuter comedy LA to Vegas.

Dramas
Power and political games drive City’s scripted drama slate for the 2017/18 season with four new series joining the lineup.  A City original, Bad Blood follows the true-crime saga of one of Canada’s most notorious mob families, a revenge story of Godfather-like proportions. New-to-City this fall, hit series The Blacklist joins the schedule with prime-time’s favourite fugitive-turned F.B.I informant, “Red” Reddington (James Spader), as he teams up with his hand-picked profiler to work through his own “most wanted” list of criminals. Coming in 2018, Versailles is a lush Canadian drama about Louis XIV, and the darkness, ambition, and manipulation that simmers just beneath the gilded surface of the Sun King’s court. Also, a young doctor’s ethics are tested when The Resident, starring Canadians Emily VanCamp and Bruce Greenwood, joins City’s schedule in mid-season.

Returning Favourites
Proven hits and fan favourites return as City confirms the renewal of 16 prime-time series, delivering more laugh-out-loud moments, dramatic plot twists, and thrilling competition through the 2017/18 season. Returning series include The Bachelor franchise, Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy, Hell’s Kitchen, Hockey Night in Canada, Last Man on Earth, Lethal Weapon, Life in Pieces, The Mick, The Middle, Modern Family, Mom, New Girl, Nirvanna The Band The Show,and Scorpion.

New Series:

BAD BLOOD
60-minute Canadian scripted drama series
Thursdays at 8 p.m.
National broadcast

Inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto, and based on the best-selling book, Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story is a six-part limited event series. While imprisoned in Colorado’s Supermax Prison for the murders of three Bonanno family members, Rizzuto watches helplessly as the thriving empire he built is dismantled, and his closest friends and family members are mysteriously murdered one by one. When Rizzuto is finally released from prison, a Shakespearean-level revenge tale plays out – leading to the brutal murders of his closest companions, and ultimately the death of Rizzuto himself.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: New Metric Media, Sphere Media, and DHX Media
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Konyves, Simon Barry
CAST: Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy), Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint)

FUBAR: THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER
30-minute Canadian scripted comedy series
Sundays at 10:30 p.m.
National broadcast

Based on the beloved film franchise and hurdling it into the modern age, Fubar: The Age of the Computer finds Terry and Dean fleeing from the wildfires of Fort McMurray in a desperate retreat to Calgary, with nothing but emergency government debit cards to their names. Discovering high-speed Internet for the first time, Terry is exposed to a world of commerce and social media and attempts to harness the web to make a profit. Meanwhile, Dean embarks on a journey to record a triple-concept album using his burnt bass guitar and extreme falsetto voice.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Busted Tranny Productions Ltd Cardinal Film Inc., Vice Studio Canada
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Michael Dowse
CAST: David Lawrence (Freezer Burn), Paul Spence (It’s All Gone, Pete Tong)

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Awards

Link: B.C. film biz celebrates indie and service work a Leo Awards red carpet gala

From Sabrina Furminger of Westender:

Link: B.C. film biz celebrates indie and service work a Leo Awards red carpet gala
If you needed a reminder that the British Columbia film and television industry is both a top-tier service provider and rich with boundary-pushing independent filmmakers, you got it at the 2017 Leo Awards red carpet gala.

Now in its 19th year, the Leo Awards recognize achievements in the BC screen scene. 113 Leos were handed out this year over three ceremonies and two weekends, culminating on Sunday with the annual Red Carpet Gala, held in a cavernous ballroom in the Hyatt Regency Vancouver. Actor and comedian Peter Kelamis (Beyond) presided over the event, which saw trophies handed out to cast and crew from independent motion pictures, locally shot American and Canadian television series, and narrative short films. Continue reading. 

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