TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 161
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

Links: Departure, Season 1

From Daniel D’Addario of Variety:

Link: Archie Panjabi and Christopher Plummer Make for a Thrilling ‘Departure’: TV Review
“Departure,” a drama that will hook those who seek from their viewing a charge of adrenaline, if not always the most rigorously challenging of mysteries. Continue reading.

From Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter:

Link: Departure: TV Review
Created by Vince Shiao, Departure begins with a flight from New York to London going horribly wrong. Continue reading.

From Gerrad Hall of Entertainment Weekly:

Link: Peacock’s Departure: Archie Panjabi on airplane crash mystery
“I loved the parallels between her being an air crash investigator and yet she had been through this huge traumatic event in her own life.” Continue reading.

From Radhika Marya of Fortune:

Link: Christopher Plummer on his new series ‘Departure’ and acting in different formats
Christopher Plummer hopes audiences will enjoy watching a “good yarn” when his new series Departure debuts on Peacock Thursday. Continue reading.

From Cynthia Vinney of CBR:

Link: Peacock’s Departure Is a Twisty, Turny, if Conventional, Mystery
Departure focuses on the investigation around what happened to the missing flight, and from the start, is firmly grounded in reality. Continue reading.

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: Vincent Shiao never expected his plane crash series ‘Departure’ to get made — let alone star Christopher Plummer and Archie Panjabi
“I always wondered why isn’t there a (drama) about these types of investigators who try to solve the mysteries of plane crashes around the world.” Continue reading.

From Melissa Hank of Postmedia:

Link: Christopher Plummer takes flight in new TV drama Departure
“I didn’t mind going back to television. All my friends are going back to television, and it seems to be the fashionable thing to do at the moment.” Continue reading. 

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CTV and Just For Laughs wrap production on an all-new season of The Stand Up Show with Jon Dore

From a media release:

CTV and Just For Laughs announced today that production has wrapped on an all-new season of THE STAND UP SHOW WITH JON DORE. Amid COVID-19 safety protocols, eight half-hour episodes were filmed in front of live, socially distanced audiences at Crow’s Next Theatre in Toronto last month.

Produced as part of Bell Media’s ongoing partnership with Just For Laughs and hosted by Canadian comedian Jon Dore (THE JON DORE TELEVISION SHOW, FUNNY AS HELL), the second season is slated to premiere on CTV Comedy Channel, with broadcast details to be confirmed later.

Featuring Dore’s notorious offbeat humour, the newest episodes features performances from some of Canada’s most sought-after homegrown comedians including Al Val, Debra DiGiovanni, Nour Hadidi, and Salma Hindy, as well as many coveted Just For Laughs’ New Faces: Canada alumni like Cassie Cao, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Dave Merheje, Hoodo Hersi, Hisham Kelati, Nick Nemeroff, Ron Josol, , Yumi Nagashima, and many more.

THE STAND UP SHOW WITH JON DORE is produced by CTV, in association with Just For Laughs Television and Counterfeit Pictures. Bruce Hills is Executive Producer and also President, Just For Laughs. Anton Leo serves as Executive Producer, along with Dan Bennett and Shane Corkery of Counterfeit Pictures.

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Links: Trickster, Season 1

From Daily Hive:

Link: New series Trickster is a can’t-miss drama meets supernatural thriller
It’s a gritty and delightfully creepy coming of age teenage drama set in a troubled world that still manages to feel entirely Canadian — and incredibly fun. Continue reading. 

From Radheyan Simonpillai of Now Toronto:

Link: TIFF review: Trickster is electrifying
Trickster is a scrappy, bare-knuckle answer to the Harry Potter series. The comparison might seem reductive but the parallels are there. Both are coming-of-age tales with supernatural elements. And both are about young boys absorbing personal traumas and discovering their inherent power and purpose. Continue reading.

From David Friend of Canadian Press:

Link: ‘Trickster’ actor Joel Oulette on the ‘overwhelming’ rise of CBC’s new series
When it comes to career milestones, actor Joel Oulette considers his passing appearance during a commercial break on “Hockey Night in Canada” to be one of the coolest so far. Continue reading.

From David Friend of the Canadian Press:

Link: Eden Robinson says she couldn’t unsee ‘Trickster’ cast while writing third book
Eden Robinson says the actors in CBC’s upcoming mystical-thriller “Trickster” have winnowed their way into her imagination. Continue reading. 

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: Funny, exciting, with magical monsters: Michelle Latimer and the cast on why ‘Trickster’ isn’t your stereotypical Indigenous show
“There’s so many people who are just so used to that old narrative of just like a native on horseback with the bow and arrow. You’ve got to change that perspective.” Continue reading.

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Link: Michelle Latimer talks Trickster
“My favorite thing in the world is young talent. I just love working with green, young talent.  It’s kind of like working with a dancer or an athlete [and] rooting them in their body and in their intuitive emotional sides. And that’s really fun for me.” Continue reading. 

From Haley Lewis of Flare:

Link: 6 Reasons to watch Trickster, CBC’s new supernatural thriller
Trickster has the opportunity to help bridge the gap between Indigenous art consumed by Indigenous folks and Indigenous art consumed by everyone. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: 7 Reasons why Trickster is a must-watch
For those not familiar with Robinson’s best-selling books, Trickster is a unique blend of storytelling unlike much else we’ve seen on television. It’s fresh and exciting and leaves viewers never knowing what to expect next. Continue reading.

 

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Battle of the Blades Season 6 premiere postponed

From a media release:

As a precautionary measure in response to an individual on the Battle of the Blades production team testing positive for COVID-19, Insight Productions has temporarily halted all training and pre-production on the upcoming season to ensure the health and safety of the entire cast and crew. CBC fully supports this decision and, as a result, is postponing the October 15th live premiere of Battle of the Blades Season 6. CBC will provide additional scheduling updates as soon as possible.

A CBC original series, Battle of the Blades is produced by Insight Productions. The series is executive produced by Insight’s John Brunton, Lindsay Cox, Erin Brock, and Mark Lysakowski and is co-created and executive produced by Olympian and World & Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Famer Sandra Bezic.

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Preview: Big Timber hauls wood—and drama—on History

I was a big fan of Timber Kings and its spinoff, Carver Kings. Both series, which aired on HGTV Canada, delved into the lives and projects created and carved by the folks at Pioneer Log Homes in Williams Lake, B.C.

Now I’ve got a new show to fill the void left by the cancellation of that duo: Big Timber.

The reality series—which bows Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on History—rides alongside logger Kevin Wenstob and his team of family and staff as they work deep in the heart of Vancouver Island. Kevin has sunk $1.5 million into a remote piece of timber on the side of a mountain and is determined to cut down and ship out red and yellow cedar, fir and hemlock to his customers. Aside from dangers like weather and injuries at the hands of sharp machinery and thousand-pound chunks of wood are the logistics of creating your own roads in and out of the site you’re cutting.

When viewers catch up with Kevin, he’s got 200 loads of wood to get off the mountain and to Wenstob Timber before winter shuts him down for the season. If he pulls it off, Kevin will make millions. Miss that deadline and his business could go out of business.

Logging like this is an intricate dance between team members cutting up trees which are then hauled up the mountainside by a contraption called a yarder, a machine that is an octopus of cables pulled taut. Kevin’s right-hand man, Coleman, and rookie Gord walk down the claim—wary that any wrong step would mean a broken leg—to affix 50-pound choke chains to logs pulled up the incline by the yarder.

Once hauled into place, the logs are inspected, evaluated and trimmed prior to transport to a sorting area and then down the hill and over 200 km to the mill where final cuts are made. This is the domain of Sarah, Kevin’s wife, who makes the sales critical to the mill’s survival and Erik, their son, who keeps the machinery working.

Boasting stunning drone shots and a spectacular natural setting, Big Timber is the latest in a series of must-see programs about the unique jobs available and the folks who do them.

Big Timber airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

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