After a week’s delay thanks to the Federal Election, Murdoch Mysteries is back to—hopefully—answer the niggling questions posed in the Season 14 finale and still left incomplete in the Season 15 premiere.
Will Anna be reunited with Harry and William? Is George really married? Where is Higgins’ baby? And who killed Mr. Larkin?
Here’s the official synopsis for “The Things We Do for Love, Part 2,” written by Peter Mitchell and directed by TW Peacocke:
To save his former lover and son, Murdoch makes a risky deal with a Black Hand henchman.
And here are some teasers from me after watching the episode.
Freddie packs a punch I always enjoy a visit from Freddie Pink (Alex Paxton-Beasley), and she provides some welcome dialogue and actions during a scene with a member of the Black Hand.
Who really married George and Amelia? Many of you stated you believe it was Higgins helping George get out of making things official with Amelia. All I can say about this part of the episode is you junior sleuths would make for excellent detectives.
Julia goes digging Ever the adventurer, Julia attempts a brain surgery using a new technique. But will she be successful? And, after putting her hands to use, Julia’s brain is tested by a suspect jailed in Station House No. 4.
“I’ve never felt or looked better, you should see me,†she gushes over the phone when asked how she’s doing.
Arden’s just joking, of course, using her trademark self-deprecating humour to get through a long day of interviews promoting the upcoming third season of her comedy series, Jann. But all banter aside, the singer-songwriter-actor really is at the top of her game. She has a hit TV show, she’s recording a new album, and she’s planning an international tour for 2022—provided the world has “calmed the f–k down by then.†Things are going well for her.
The same can’t be said for Arden’s hilariously self-sabotaging TV alter ego.
In Jann’s Season 3 premiere, airing Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, we find fictional Jann holed up in her house with her mom Nora (Deborah Grover), surrounded by pizza boxes and enough home spa products to fill an Amazon warehouse. Apparently, the events of last season—firing her manager Cale (Elena Juatco), getting spurned by her girlfriend Cynthia (Sharon Taylor), and inviting Nora to live with her—have caused the singer to embark on a months-long online shopping spree, responsibilities and utility bills be damned.
“Things are kind of falling apart at the seams,†Arden says of TV Jann’s situation. “It’s hard for me to manage my life even when I’m by myself, so add my mother living with me full-time, being newly single, struggling with my career…it’s just a lot of chaos.â€
And Jann isn’t the only one spinning out of control. Cale’s attempts to “ground†herself after getting sacked involve sleeping in the woods. She shows up on Jann’s doorstep dishevelled with twigs in her hair, prompting Jann to ironically scream, “How can anyone go so far downhill, so fast?†Meanwhile, Max (Zoie Palmer) and Dave (Patrick Gilmore) are finding it hard to run their household without Nora’s help, resulting in piles of laundry and their kids dressing like “Victorian orphans†for school picture day.
To get her life back on track, Jann hires personal assistant Trey (Tenaj Williams), commits to recording a new album from the heart, and starts dating a younger man (Charlie Kerr). Never mind that she poached Trey from Max and Dave’s nanny interviewees, can’t get funding for her record, and keeps running into Cynthia.
“There are a lot of moving parts,†says Arden. “But that makes it fun. It’s quite farcical.â€
We phoned Arden at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver to learn more about Jann’s Season 3 antics.
Season 3 brings some new people into Jann’s life, including Trey, her personal assistant. Is she going to butt heads with him? Jann Arden: I think Jann butts heads with anybody who tries to come into her life. Jann wants help, but she wants it on her own terms. So I think Trey brings so much fun because he deals with Jann in a very matter-of-fact way. He doesn’t put up with any crap. Plus, he really loves my mother, so they get along like a house on fire, and I’m kind of on the outside looking in. So I think you’ll see that, not unlike Cale, he’s constantly dealing with the complete lack of respect Jann has for the people around her. He and I together are very funny.
Speaking of Cale, it looks like getting fired has really sent her into a tailspin! I didn’t expect that. JA: Well, she’s never been fired in her life, so she was probably raised by a Tiger Mother, perfectionism the whole way across. She’s not used to not getting her way, she’s not used to any kind of failure. It’s an unacceptable outcome to do anything in her life without it turning out exactly the way it was in her head. And what she finds, as a lot of people do in life, is that’s not how it goes. You have to face obstacles, you have to change, you have to face adversity and challenges, and Cale is Failure 101. She’s going down a road where she needs to figure out really what life’s about, and I love getting to explore a character like hers because like you said, no one expects to see Cale go on a journey of self-discovery and trying different things.
Cynthia turned down Jann’s marriage proposal at the end of Season 2, and Jann bounces back by dating a younger man later this season. I love the nonchalant way the show approaches her fluid sexuality. JA: It is what it is. It’s a fluidity, it’s a person who absolutely dates whoever she wants and does what she wants and has no labels. And, you know, some people probably in the LGBTQ community would disagree with how we’ve approached it, but this is completely my doing, this is how I wanted to approach it and not ever make it into an issue for anyone.
On the contrary, Nora is quite taken aback that I’m dating a man. She’s like, ‘I thought you were done with men,’ she’s almost discouraging me from having a boyfriend, which is kind of the antithesis of what you think our society sort of tells us we should be doing. So my mother’s very much on Cynthia’s team. She would love to see us get back together. But I really find myself in sort of a throuple this year—I always think that word is so funny—but I’m literally playing two people, and I think that I can get away with it.
Nora’s storyline is very personal to you. What is going to happen with her this season? JA: You know, the reason that obviously Nora is a character with Alzheimer’s is because of my own mother. Even before we started the show, I said that’s just a storyline that we need to tackle. Of course, my mother’s Alzheimer’s stretched over a 10-year period, and it was a very slow decline, it wasn’t rapid. So we feel that we have lots of time to uncover how dementia works, that it’s definitely varying degrees. No, a person can’t live by themselves, they can’t really be left alone. Nora has moments obviously where she’s there and she’s funny, but she also has moments when she doesn’t know where she is, she doesn’t know why she’s doing things, and that is the very frustrating part of memory loss.
[Having a loved one with Alzheimer’s] is not an easy thing, but it’s doable, it’s survivable. You’re never going to win against Alzheimer’s, you’re not gonna win the narrative, you’re not gonna win the fight, they’re not gonna get better. And that’s hard for people to admit to. And that’s why those control issues come in all the time, and my character’s always dealing with that because I think I can control the outcome of what’s coming, and I won’t be able to. It’s gonna be really interesting to see that unfold.
You’re very active on Twitter and frequently tweet about issues that are important to you. Are your followers ever shocked at how socially aware you are compared to TV Jann, who is so overtly self-involved? JA: I don’t think so. I think that people who have followed along with my career the last 30 years, certainly the last 10 years or so of being on social media, know what I’m all about. Thank God I’m not TV Jann, her decision-making drives me crazy. She always makes terrible decisions, but that’s what makes it funny.
In my life, I’m not going to be one of those people sitting on my hands waiting for other people to do the heavy lifting, whether that’s in women’s health issues or animal welfare issues or voting or being vaccinated and worrying about the people around you and not just yourself. I don’t care. I block so many people every day, you have no idea. I don’t care what other people think, but I do care about how they feel. And that is two different things. So I’ll always be outspoken. I’m gonna kick my clogs someday, and I’m just not gonna go and leave this world quietly. At all.
Jann airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV.ca, and CTV app.
The old adage “write what you know,” certainly applies to Susin Nielsen’s latest creation, Family Law. She admits that she didn’t know anything about the law, but knew plenty about family. In fact, what happens to her lead character happened to Nielsen.
Debuting Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global (with a special preview of the premiere episode on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET/PT), Family Law stars Jewel Staite as Vancouver lawyer—and recovering alcoholic—”Abigail “Abby” Bianchi. As a condition of her probation to return to her legal duties, Abby must work at the firm owned by her estranged father, Harry (Victor Garber), alongside her half-brother Daniel (Zach Smadu) and half-sister Lucy (Genelle Williams). Throw in Abby’s husband Frank (Luke Camilleri), mother Joanne (Lauren Holly), daughter Sofia (Eden Summer Gilmore) and son Nico (Brenden Sunderland), and there is plenty to mine for drama and laughs.
With legal dramas a popular genre, what truly sets Family Law apart is sharp writing and stunning performances by the cast, led by Staite.
We spoke to Susin Nielsen about about the road to making Family Law, which has already shot its second season.
How did Family Law come to be? Susin Nielsen: I actually first came up with this idea about a decade ago, and brought it to SEVEN24 — they’ve always been my partners with it — and we got it into development at another network, but they didn’t move forward with it. And then flash forward I guess about, five years and Jordy Randall at SEVEN24 called and he said, ‘We’ve never stopped thinking about Family Law and we see another opportunity to pitch it.’
So I went to [the] Banff [World Media Festival] and I pitched it to Susan Alexander and Rachel Nelson at Corus in 2018, and I think it was a lot of serendipity, it was right time, right place. I think I had made the idea stronger and better as well, and they put us into development and then they gave us more development, and then eventually they green-lit us.
In terms of the creative origins, when I first came up with the idea, there was a part of me that was trying to be shrewd. I’m not usually very shrewd when it comes to my writing, but it seemed like what was selling were procedurals, and I knew that for me and my sensibilities, I was probably never going to do a cop show. A hospital show just felt so out of my area of expertise. And certainly, I also really know nothing about law, but I knew a lot about family. I know a lot about family function and dysfunction, and my own family background somewhat mirrors Abby’s in that I didn’t meet my father until I was a teenager. At which point, I also met my half-brother and my half-sister.
I think that’s kind of always informed, probably, a lot of my writing. It just felt like a premise that I got really excited about. What if there was this woman who had been estranged from her father for all of these years, carried a huge chip on her shoulder, is almost disbarred because of her alcoholism and the only lawyer in town who will take her on is her dad? What I really loved about it was that I could explore family on three levels. I could explore the cases. I could explore Abby having to work with these people who she’s really just getting to know, and at the same time she’s trying to salvage her marriage and her relationship with her children.
The cast that you’ve got is incredible. Victor Garber, Jewel Staite, Zach Smadu, Genelle Williams, Lauren Holly. You must be pinching yourself every day that you got to work with these folks. SN: Thank you for bringing all of them up. I do pinch myself. What’s interesting is that not only are they obviously exceptional actors, they’re also incredibly lovely people and Jewel really sets the tone on set for all of our actors coming in. They all hang out all the time during the season, like every single weekend they were doing things together, doing dinners, it was hilarious. They don’t have to do that, they could just say, nice to see you, see you on Monday.
What was so interesting about Jewel was that she could just elevate whatever was in a scene. She could take a comedic scene and just — with a look — make it that much funnier. And a heartfelt scene, again, just with a look, and make you tear up even more. The three siblings, they got their rhythm together so fast and the looks that passed between Abby and Daniel all the time, they all just add all sorts of layers that are obviously not there on the page.
And then Victor. I, in a million years, never ever thought we’d get Victor Garber. Like he was like my dream Harry, but I just thought, ‘Well, that’s fantasy, but you’re never going to get Victor Garber.’ And it’s just been such a pleasure working with him, he’s just a consummate professional. I think he’s had two questions for me about script. He just comes in and he delivers.
Let’s switch over to the writer’s room. In addition to you, we’ve got Corey Liu, Damon Vignale, Sarah Dodd, Ken Craw and Sonja Bennett. What’s your writing process with the team? SN: I knew I wanted, if I could, a 100 per cent a Vancouver-based room because we have a lot of really talented writers here. Everybody in that room had a story of their own, and certainly when we were developing Season 1, there was no such thing as a worldwide pandemic yet, so we were able to do all of it in person.
We would meet at Lark Productions, which is our producer here on the ground in Vancouver. We would just meet in this big, open boardroom and start hammering out ideas. First, we would talk about character arcs for the season and I had initial documents with things that I had been thinking about and case ideas that I had had since 2011, and the writers brought their own ideas to the room. Then we just started talking about case ideas and what excited us, and how could a case relate back to the family?
What do you look for in a writer? SN: You’re looking for a group that are going to compliment each other for sure, and different people bringing different strengths to the table. The one commonality I was looking for were people who could write believable, compelling dialogue, people who could do both drama and comedy, comedy coming out of character. I felt very blessed to get Sarah Dodd because Sarah has, frankly, a lot more experience than I do, particularly with procedural. She’s done a lot of procedural. So it was fabulous to have her there just to make sure that we were structurally sound as well. Sarah is all those other things as well, but she brought oodles of procedural experience.
Sonja Bennett is so funny and she can make it look effortless with her lightness of touch with her dialogue; her dialogue’s fabulous. And then Cory Liu … I have a real soft spot for Corey. Seeing him grow over the last two seasons has just been exceptional. He is so talented and he will rule the world one day, I am sure. It’s been such a pleasure to watch him grow into his own confidence, because I don’t think he understood just quite how talented he was.
Family Law airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.
There have been many, many television series using the fish out of water scenario as a key part of its storytelling. And APTN’s Unsettled does it in a very effective way.
Airing Fridays at 8 p.m. Eastern on APTN, Unsettled follows the journey of Rayna Keetch (Cheri Maracle). A victim of the Sixties Scoop—the mass removal of Indigenous children from their families into the child welfare system—Rayna returns to her First Nation for a traditional homecoming ceremony when life throws her a curveball. Her husband, Darryl (Brandon Oakes), loses his business, car and their Toronto home. The result? A short visit turns into something more long-term for Rayna, Darryl and kids Stacia (Michaella Shannon) and Myles (Joshua Odjick).
Created, written and directed by Jennifer Podemski and Derek Diorio (Hard Rock Medical), Unsettled has been in the back of Podemski’s mind for years.
“I built this narrative around this family,” Podemski says. “Really using a lot of my own experiences and my desire to interweave and focus it with an authentic Indigenous lens.” Themes include child welfare, the aforementioned Sixties Scoop, residential schools, loss of identity and substance abuse and Podemski had a circle of advisors on-hand to make sure she got the facts correct.
A truly unique way of framing the story is through Henry (Albert Owl), Rayna’s father and the local radio DJ. Viewers listen to Henry speaking to his audience in Ojibwe, recalling the past while fuzzy, home movie-like visuals roll. It’s very well done.
“These stories are effective because they’re so rarely told,” Podemski says. “My goal was to weave these storylines, but not be an issue-driven show, be a character-driven show that weaves characters that are directly connected to these issues.”
I admit it. I’m going to miss Kim’s Convenience. Certainly the saddest part about its demise is what happened behind the scenes. I won’t go into that here, search on the site for stories about it, but perhaps the best news to come out of that bad situation was Strays.
Bowing Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on CBC, Strays follows Shannon Ross’ Kim’s Convenience‘s Handy car rental manager as she heads west to become the new executive director of the Hamilton East Animal Shelter. My initial thought surrounding Strays was that it quickly came together as Kim’s Convenience was falling apart. Not so, says star Nicole Power, who reprises Shannon on Strays and serves as consulting producer too.
“At the end of Season 3, I was approached with the opportunity to start developing an idea for a show that would be a companion piece to Kim’s Convenience,” Power says during a conference call. “It would be an expansion of the universe and explore a different side of Shannon and Shannon exploring something new.”
That “something new” is Hamilton, where she is surrounded by new people, clients and fur babies. The new humans in Shannon’s life include her cousin Nikki (Nikki Duval), animal care manager Kristian (Frank Cox-O’Connell), office manager Joy (Tina Jung), landlord Liam (Kevin Vidal) and maintenance guy Paul (Tony Nappo). Nappo, in particular, is a joy to watch on screen, his trademark gruff exterior buffed by Shannon’s cheery countenance.
When Shannon arrives at Hamilton East Animal Shelter, things are in disarray. Nikki is foisted on Shannon, building budgets have been cut and a birthday party for an elderly cat goes horribly awry. But where most would curl up in a corner, Shannon soldiers on, using her unique word choices to get her and others through trying times.
“Shannon always wants to make the best out of a situation and people-please,” Power says, with a laugh. “She is always trying to manage that everyone else is good, so what you’ll see in Strays is just an extension of Shannon’s desire to have the best of the situation be the reality.”
