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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Featured, Tribal

Comments and queries for the week of February 28

I saw the first episode of Tribal last night and thought it was great. I’ve really liked Jessica Matten in Frontier and Burden of Truth and she deserves a leading role. Brian Markinson was great too in bringing the bigoted white guy to the series. They had great chemistry together. I expect by the end of the series the two characters will be drinking beers on the porch reminiscing about their cases. The script was well written too. I look forward to many more years of this show. —John

We are lucky to have our cable provider carry the CBC here in Ohio. My mom introduced me to the detective looking for “finger marks” and we have enjoyed the characters and mysteries. Watts is fantastic, Murdoch is wonderful, Margaret a hoot. So much to enjoy.

It is, however, not without disappointment. The loss of Parker feels wrong. One can recognize human complexity and that people do bad things and still know when a line is crossed. I feel the this temptation of Julia maybe an unnecessary line to cross. I compare her actions to Brackenreid. When Margaret left him, he was with a woman, but stopped and voiced his love for his wife and respect for his marriage. Julia? Only a phone call prevented anything from escalating with Dixon. On top of this, hearing William, the supposed love of her life, did not give rise to regret or a voice of her love for husband and her marriage. It was Dixon that left without her asking him to leave. Thirteen years of this couple and then that reaction?

I hope if the writers choose this cheating route they have the guts for the fallout. The fallout probably should include the marriage ending. How can he ever trust her again? Another pretty face comes along to tempt her, then what? I hope Murdoch isn’t left pining for her or even having to fight for her; let her fight for him. Invest in a love interest for him too. People do bad things and there are consequences. Julia decides to cheat, there needs to be consequences. —Jennifer

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Family Law

New Global original series Family Law begins production March 2

From a media release:

On the heels of the Nurses Season 2 start of production release, Global proudly announced today principal photography and casting for its latest scripted original series, new legal drama Family Law. With filming beginning March 2 in Vancouver, Family Law is produced by SEVEN24 Films (Heartland, Wynonna Earp) and Lark Productions (Motive, Fortunate Son), created by Canadian award-winning author Susin Nielsen (Robson Arms, Cedar Cove), with Jordan Canning (Nurses, Schitt’s Creek) directing the pilot episode.

Set to premiere on Global later this year, the 10-episode, one-hour drama follows a group of flawed family members who reluctantly work together at their father’s law firm in downtown Vancouver. The legal procedural stars a talented all-Canadian cast including: Jewel Staite (Firefly), as recovering alcoholic Abigail ‘Abby’ Bianchi; Victor Garber (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) as Harry Svensson, Abby’s estranged father and head of the firm; Zach Smadu (The Expanse) as Daniel Svensson, Abby’s half-brother who is displeased to be working with Abby; and Genelle Williams (The Expanse) as Lucy Svensson, Abby’s half-sister and considered dad’s favourite child. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Set in Vancouver, Canada, Family Law follows lawyer and recovering alcoholic Abigail ‘Abby’ Bianchi (Staite) struggling to put her career and family back together after hitting rock bottom. As a condition of her probation, Abby is forced to work at her estranged father’s (Garber) firm, Svensson and Associates, and practice in family law for the first time while forging new relationships with the half-brother (Smadu) and half-sister (Williams) whom she’s never met. The result is a dysfunctional family law firm operating to help other families with their own dysfunctions.                 

Produced by SEVEN24 Films (Heartland, Fortunate Son) and Lark Productions (Motive, Fortunate Son), with Susin Nielsen (Robson Arms, Cedar Cove) serving as showrunner, Family Law is executive produced by SEVEN24′s Tom Cox and Jordy Randall, Lark’s Erin Haskett and Andy Mikita. eOne will handle distribution for the series outside of Canada.

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Transplant

Links: Transplant, Season 1

2 Comments

From The Suburban:

Link: Laurence Leboeuf from CTV’s Transplant talks about new medical drama premiering February 26th
“She knows everything, talks fast, she’s by-the-book, and she’s someone who cares a lot… maybe too much. She puts everything into her work, which is one of her faults: she puts too much emotion into it.” Continue reading.

From Melissa Hank of Postmedia:

Link: Transplant star Hamza Haq celebrates 20 years in Canada as new show debuts
I think the goal of the show was to go for the feeling of what it’s really like to be a refugee, not a sensationalization. Some of these stories are taken directly from our consultants, many of who are Syrian refugees. But it’s safe to say that Transplant tells the story of one specific refugee. This is Bash’s story.” Continue reading.

From Aparita Bhandari of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Canadian actor Hamza Haq, star of CTV’s Transplant, on his immigrant parents, studying neuroscience and playing a doctor on TV
From an extra who blends into the background to the lead character in the new CTV medical drama Transplant, Hamza Haq has slowly and steadily worked his way up in an industry known for its fickleness. Continue reading.

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Transplant is a medical drama with its own energy and voice
Transplant is far more ambitious and on the evidence of early episodes sometimes reaches what it aims for. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Transplant stars on why the new medical drama feels so real
“So much of this is just a personal show. Every director that came in gave us their all. Every actor gave it their all. It’s such a phenomenal cast.” Continue reading. 

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Haq and Higgins breathe life into CTV’s terrific Transplant
The character lifts this show beyond the usual miracle-of-the-week medical rut and into a dialogue on the changing face of Canadian society. This is a series as much about refugees and immigration as it is about universal health care and waiting rooms. Continue reading.

From Charles Trapunski of Brief Take:

Link: Interview: Transplant’s John Hannah
“I thought it was really interesting for the time and it was interesting that it was the Canadians that were ahead of the curve on dealing with immigration in a positive story arc, rather than necessarily seeing it as something unfortunately in which a lot of the world has lurched a bit further to the right, it was a very positive story and I think that we’re in a time in which we really need to focus on that.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Transplant stars on the gift of second chances
“A lot of times, in these stories of displacement, people spend a lot of time readjusting and acclimate to a life they aren’t used to.” Continue reading.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Cottage Life TV goes off the grid, braving the cold in all-new Series, Life Below Zero: Canada

From a media release:

Based on the popular BBC Studios format and multi-Emmy® Award-winning reality series, Life Below Zero, the long-awaited Canadian adaptation, Life Below Zero: Canada (8×60’) follows a diverse group of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, including Canadians, First Nations and Swiss trappers, giving viewers an unfiltered glimpse into how they survive in the coldest and most remote regions of Northern Canada. Filmed across the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Northern Ontario, with a crew of six people, 120 days travelling and over 500 hundred hours of footage shot, the eight-part docu-series captures the compelling stories of five ‘off the grid’ Canadians who must navigate through deadly weather, with limited resources, to seek out food, water and shelter. Life Below Zero: Canada airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starting March 17, exclusively on Cottage Life during the channel’s eight-week free preview event running from March 2 to May 3 across 10 million Canadian households.

From long, dark, frozen winters to sweltering, bug-infested summers, Life Below Zero: Canada captures the day-to-day trials of people living in unforgiving environments. The stars of the series include Becky Broderick, who left Sudbury, Ontario to start a family in the wilderness; Bentley Kakekayash, who was born in a remote North Caribou Lake First Nations community only knowing life in the bush; “Pike” Mike Harrison, a self-professed “lone-wolf”, who has spent the last two decades living in isolation in a cabin he built himself; and best friends Kim Pasche and Pierre-Yves Duc who moved from Switzerland 10 years ago to live off the land in the Yukon.

Life Below Zero: Canada is based on the original format, Life Below Zero, licensed and distributed by BBC Studios. The series is produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company. Paul Kilback and Tara Elwood are the Series Producers. Paul Kilback, Victor Kushmaniuk and Mark Stevenson serve as Directors. Michael Kot, Betty Orr and Paul Kilback serve as Executive Producers. Overseeing the series for Cottage Life TV is Sam Linton, Head of Original Content for Blue Ant Media.

Meet the Canadian Stars of Life Below Zero: Canada:

Becky Broderick 
Location: Mendenhall River, Yukon Territory Łutsël K’e, Northwest Territories
At 30 years-old, Becky left her suburban life in Sudbury, Ontario to move to the remote north and settle down roots. Becky lives with her husband, newborn daughter and her beloved team of sled dogs. They live off grid and Becky aims to ‘up’ their game to be completely self-reliant. Becky wants to raise her daughter to be “a self-sufficient badass.”

Bentley Kakekayash
Location: Weagamow Lake, Northern Ontario (a remote North Caribou Lake First Nations community)
At only 25 years-old, Bentley Kakekayash is an experienced outdoorsman who has been working and living in the bush since the day he was born. Living in a remote First Nations community, Bentley works the same trap line that his ancestors did before him.

“Pike” Mike Harrison
Location: Lindberg Landing, NWT (670km west of Yellowknife)
Mike has been living alone in the woods for over 20 years and it’s left him extremely industrious… and a little loopy.  Mike is a professional handyman, constantly upgrading his cabin and gear with items he sources from the wilderness. Mike is a regular “MacGyver” when it comes to builds and general wilderness survival.

Kim Pasche and Pierre-Yves Duc
Location: Silent Lake, Yukon
Best friends Kim and Pierre are Swiss born hunters, trappers and bushmen who have lived in the Yukon for 10 years. They have been working one of the remote trap-lines in the Yukon Territories for the last six years.

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Mirage

Super Channel to premiere international spy thriller series, Mirage

From a media release:

Super Channel is pleased to announce that Mirage, a six-part dramatic spy thriller about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, will make its Canadian English broadcast premiere on Sunday, March 8 at 8 p.m. ET as a new Super Channel Fuse Original Series. Each one-hour episode will also be available on Super Channel On Demand the day following its weekly linear broadcast.

The series is directed by Louis Choquette (Versailles, 19-2) and stars an international cast featuring Quebec native Marie-Josée Croze (Jack Ryan, The Barbarian Invasions), UK actor Clive Standen (Vikings, Taken), Germany’s Hannes Jaenicke (Sardsch, Code Name: Eternity), Canadians Shawn Doyle (House of Cards, Frontier) and Maxime Roy (19-2, October Faction), as well as France’s Grégory Fitoussi (Spiral, Spin).

Mirage is set against the backdrop of a futuristic cityscape—on its glittering surface is a world of fabulous wealth and opportunity, but underneath hides a much more mysterious side. The series tells the enthralling story of Claire (Croze)—an expatriate starting over in Abu Dhabi with her son and husband Lukas (Jaenicke). Claire is thrust into the shadowy world of espionage after she discovers that her former husband Gabriel (Standen), who supposedly died years ago, is alive.

For the past 15 years, Claire’s been convinced Gabriel died in the 2004 tsunami. When she catches his reflection in a restaurant window one night, she sets out to find him, and inadvertently unleashes a sinister chain of events that ultimately push her to the brink. As past and present collide, Claire embarks on a life-or-death mission that includes blackmail, nuclear sabotage, and deceiving the people she loves the most.

Mirage is created and written by Franck Philippon (No Limit, Tunnel), Bénédicte Charles (La Légiste), and Olivier Pouponneau (Surveillance, Watch Your Lip!). The director of photography is Ronald Plante (Sharp Objects). The producers are Christine De Bourbon Busset, Marc Missonnier, Pablo Salzman and André Barro. The executive producers are Marc Gabizon, Joseph Rouschop, Jean-Yves Roubin, Franck Philippon, Louis Choquette, Julien Leroux and Peter Emerson.

An international treaty France/Canada coproduction by Lincoln TV and Connect3 Media, a division of Cineflix Media, with the participation of France Télévisions, Super Channel and Bell Media. A European coproduction with ZDF, Wild Bunch Germany and Gapbusters. Cineflix Rights has the exclusive global distribution rights for the series.

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