There are changes afoot in Season 2 of Frankie Drake Mysteries both behind and in front of the camera. As its production company, Shaftesbury, and CBC announced earlier this year, James Hurst took over showrunning duties from Cal Coons. Co-creator Michelle Ricci, meanwhile, has moved on pen Hallmark’s Hallie Dean Mystery movies starring Kellie Martin.
Fans will notice changes in front of the camera. As Hurst told me recently, a shift in tone has taken place for the series’ sophomore season. Serious themes will still be addressed, he says, but there will be less heavy storytelling.
Here’s what the CBC has released as an official synopsis for “The Old Switcheroo,” written by co-creator Carol Hay and directed by Ruba Nadda:
In the Season 2 premiere, Frankie (Lauren Lee Smith) learns that her mother Nora (Wendy Crewson) has joined the board of the Royal Ontario Museum, promising to bring an influx of treasures to the museum’s fledgling antiquities collection. Frankie and Trudy (Chantel Riley) investigate a break-in but find nothing’s been stolen. Meanwhile, Flo (Sharron Matthews) and Mary (Rebecca Liddiard) are embroiled in a mystery of their own after discovering a body in the morgue has been intentionally misidentified.Â
And here are more observations from me after watching a screener.
Is Nora going legit?
After a lifetime on one side of the law, can Nora exist on the other? It would seem that’s her goal. Though, her promise to bring more treasures to the ROM had me wondering how she’d get them while staying above board. Speaking of the ROM, it’s a stunning backdrop in Monday’s return.
An X Company star drops by
Yes, I still miss Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern’s excellent Second World War drama terribly. The hurt was tempered a bit by getting to see Lara Jean Chorostecki back on my screen. She portrays Marian Hartley, a woman whose past is tied to Frankie’s. As with Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake often drops historical references into its fictional tales. Tonight we hear about Howard Carter and Hiram Bingham III. Learn a little more about them here and here.
Flo and Mary take on their own case
These characters are great together. They’re both quirky and unintentionally funny, a winning combination in my book. Seeing Mary struggle to say a certain French dish and the pair teaming to identify the body in the morgue is a real treat. See if you agree.
An adversary for Frankie is unearthed
I’ve been waiting for someone to seriously challenge Frankie since Episode 1 of Season 1. It arrives Monday in the form of Dark Matter‘s Anthony Lemke. He plays Detective Greyson, a veteran cop who gets under everyone’s skin. Also? Slasher‘s Steve Byers drops in to play Hiram Bingham III.
Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.
Moira Walley-Beckett and Anne with an E are on a roll. The former landed the Showrunner of the Year award at the 2018Â Rockie Awards gala at the Banff World Media Festival earlier this year while the latter was feted with individual awards and Best Drama Series at the Canadian Screen Awards.
With Season 2 of Anne with an E returning to CBC this Sunday at 7 p.m., we spoke to Walley-Beckett in Banff about what’s to come for Anne Shirley (Amybeth McNulty), Marilla Cuthbert (Geraldine James), Matthew Cuthbert (R.H. Thomson), Gilbert Blythe (Lucas Jade Zumann) and newcomer Sebastian (Dalmar Abuzeid).
There are some new characters in the second season, but the most important question that I want to ask is … the Season 1 finale, the two guys that came into the house … do we catch up with Season 2 right in those moments after? Do we find out what these guys are plotting? Because it would appear that they were plotting nothing but bad things.
Moira Walley-Beckett: They’re bad, bad, bad grifters. Season 2 picks up nine months later, and they are still there at Green Gables, pretending that they didn’t know each other before. We’re going to see how they’ve integrated into the household, what their master plan was in being there in the first place, what transpires, and how it affects everybody and the town.
It isn’t like there is this quick revelation that these guys are grifters and that they may be bad, and let’s get rid of them. They are part of life.
MWB: It’s a long game. It’s a very long game.
How much fun is it to do that to the audience?
MWB: It’s so fun.
You’ve got some diversity in characters in Season 2. I recorded a podcast with Dalmar Abuzeid. Now, we didn’t specifically talk about Anne with an E at that time. What can you tell me about his character Sebastian?
MWB: I’ve been chagrined by the fact that the story of Anne of Green Gables and Avonlea does not culturally reflect the diversity in Canada and the colour in the world. So, my master plan at the end of Season 1, which was my plan from the beginning, was to earn Gilbert’s exit, and put him aboard a steamship, and send him out into the world. It afforded me an opportunity to introduce this new character, played by Dal, who’s a person of colour, who becomes a very, very good friend of Gilbert’s. They travel to exotic ports of call, where we see a whole other part of the world and certainly a whole different cultural experience through the eyes of Gilbert.
Dalmar Abuzeid as Sebastian
That explains the filming in Port Dalhousie.
MWB: Yes. Which is unrecognizable. My art department and my production designers … I brutalized them this season. Because it’s a huge season they just did phenomenally detailed work. I mean, you’d have no idea that you weren’t actually there. Then we have our steamship and the interiors and exteriors of the steamship that we built. It’s just an incredible season.
When did you picture this big season? Was it in your grand plan from the very beginning?
MWB: Yes. From when I was first conceiving of the show and how I not only could go deeper emotionally with all the characters, and Anne particularly, her backstory, but certainly Matthew and Marilla too. But also, how do I want this series to grow? How do I want to expand the world? How do I want to foster conversation in families who are watching? So, it’s always been part of the master plan to expand the story and expand the world.
It must have been really great to get the Season 1 feedback, first from the fans watching on CBC and then the Netflix fans telling you how much they love these characters and your version of it.
MWB: It’s been really exciting to see how excited fans around the world are by this beloved Canadian story and how embracing they’ve been of the departures that I’ve taken from the book, which are, as you know, enormous departures. Basically, by the end of the first episode of the first season, we were off [the book]. I was like, ‘We’re doing this instead,’ and purposefully doing so, because it’s a beautiful template, but for me to have wanted to engage with it and develop it, I wanted it to be more, and deeper, and expansive.
The writer’s room for Season 2, what was dynamic? The female to male ratio, the veterans to new people?Â
MWB: Interesting question. Well, I’ll just start by saying I didn’t have a writer’s room for season one, and I wrote every episode myself. I mean, I’m such a control freak. I so loved that experience, but I had the luxury of time to do it that way, and I didn’t have that for Season 2. When I imagined how I wanted to undertake Season 2, I decided to have an all female writer’s room for the show. So, I hired five Canadian writers and one U.S. non-writing writer to break story with me in the room. It was an extremely invigorating experience, and intimate, and safe, and I think corrective for some of the female writers. It’s a diverse room, which was also super important because it’s … why limit? I want all the voices. I want different perspectives. It was a great crucible.
What can fans expect from this second season? You’ve already said big. We’re going to have diversity in the cast, going to places that the books have never gone before. What else can you say?
MWB: I guess I can say it’s a challenging season. I’m exploring some topics and themes that are very challenging, and very topical, and very relevant right now. We’re diving deep into bullying, and prejudice, and racism, and intolerance, and gender issues, and sexuality. It’s a major, major season, and it’s 10 episodes.
How is Matthew doing?
MWB: Matthew’s doing OK.
Because that’s got to happen. Well, I guess it doesn’t.
MWB: This is the thing, I’m an unreliable narrator of the book.
The [Amazing Race Canada] finale was good, but I’m super bummed with the outcome. Not having Martina and Phil in the finale made it way less fun to watch. I was really pulling for Taylor and Courtney to win. I never really got into Adam and Courtney, there was just something about them that made them unlikable throughout the whole thing. I enjoyed the season but it seemed shorter than previous seasons. I wouldn’t mind if they went abroad more next season because its always enjoyable to learn and see new countries and cultures. Overall a decent season. —ChristineÂ
I enjoyed the first [Bletchley Circle] series but missed the second one, unfortunately. Sounds like an intriguing take on the previous series, though I wish it had been set in Vancouver rather than the U.S. Hopefully, Season 2 will move to Canada. —John
Super, we love Jonny Harris and Still Standing. Looking forward to the Carcross, Yukon, episode as we have been there, and got lost trying to find our way back out of town LOL. —Steve
Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.
In 2015, director and anthropologist Niobe Thompson debuted “The Great Human Odyssey” as part of The Nature of Things. It won several awards, all deserved. Now Thompson is back with a new, and expansive, look at the life of an animal that has a close relationship with humans: the horse.
The three-part “Equus — Story of the Horse,” kicking off The Nature of Things’ new season on Sunday at 8 p.m.,  is an ambitious, masterful exploration into the animals through visits to 11 countries, three continents and trips back in time to delve deep into the human-horse relationship.
“No other animal has done more for us,†Thompson says in press materials for the program. “We built the world around us with horsepower. But what is it that makes humans and horses so perfect for each other? And how have we transformed the wild horse we tamed 6,000 years ago into over 400 specialized breeds today?â€
Much of Episode 1, “Origins,” does exactly that, with Thompson tracing back to the beginning of this proud, muscular beasts’ entrance to the world. He begins his journey in Saudi Arabia and the Bedouin people, who live on horseback and regard them as members of the family. His two-day experience into the desert is astride the Arab horse, a breed hardy, spirited, quick and able to handle the harsh climate thanks to some unique physical details. The Arab is one of the world’s oldest breeds, but it’s not the oldest.
That recognition is bestowed upon the 45 million-year-old Dawn Horse, a creature that led to modern horses. Tiny, forest roaming, vulnerable to predators, and a fruit eater, fossils of Dawn Horse are brought to stunning (and a humorous) life by evolutionary biologist Martin Fischer and Thompson’s team of 3-D animators. The changing of the planet from a greenhouse world to more temperate place meant the introduction of grasses and shrinking of the places a petite, chubby mammal could hide. So Dawn Horse ran and evolved into the tall, fit animal we recognize today.
With stunning visuals (the slow motion is simply amazing) and Darren Fung’s soundtrack, “Equus — Story of the Horse,” is a gem to behold and will likely garner more awards for Thompson. Future episodes of “Equus — Story of the Horse,” continue with “First Riders,” on Sept. 30 and “Chasing the Wind,” on Oct. 7.
The Nature of Things, “Equus — Story of the Horse,” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBC.
It’s been a long summer, hasn’t it Murdoch Mysteries fans? Those months between new seasons of the show seem to get more drawn-out with every passing year. But let’s forget about the days gone by and focus on the journey ahead: 18 shiny new episodes to enjoy.
When we last left Julia and William, they’d reconciled after Julia miscarried and the pair briefly separated. Meanwhile, Crabtree and Nina are kaput, perhaps forever, after she left for Paris and he stayed behind.
Season 12 kicks off with “Murdoch Mystery Mansion,” written by showrunner Peter Mitchell and directed by Gary Harvey. Here’s what the CBC has revealed as the official synopsis for the episode.
And here are a few more tidbits I gleaned after watching a screener.
What? New show credits and theme music?!
After 12 seasons, there’s a major shakeup with the opening credits and … KIDDING. It wouldn’t be Murdoch Mysteries without Robert Carli’s iconic theme and those oh-so-steampunk credits.
Downton Abbey’s Sophie McShera checks in…
I must admit, it’s a bit strange to see the actress I’ll always think of as Daisy from Downton Abbey walking around William Murdoch’s world. Here she plays Ann Ryand, which several eagle-eyed fans have suggested might be a nod to author Ayn Rand via wordplay.
…And so does Aaron Poole
No stranger to the CBC—Poole played Captain John Slotter in the cancelled-too-soon Strange Empire—he’s most recently appeared in the horror flick The Void, drama feature The Definites and sci-fi series Salvation. He’s great as the brilliant architect who has built William and Julia’s first home. And there is a very funny catch to owning Wright’s first-ever house in the Toronto area. (A hearty “Hurrah” to the set designers, props department, builders and other crew who made the interior of the home look so realistic.)
Julia and William are in a wonderful place
Those hoping our favourite couple are happy will be thrilled to find that’s certainly the case as “Murdoch Murder Mansion” begins. But then, well, murder.
Higgins and Ruth are still going strong
One of the most entertaining couples in primetime television is hurtling towards their wedding day. That means major events as precursors … and the opportunity to learn more about these two characters.
Miss Hart is perturbed
She may have big plans when it comes to running the morgue, but Inspector Brackenreid has other ideas.
Is Nora going legit?
