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

Preview: Five seasons later Still Standing is still going strong

Back when Still Standing debuted, I remarked that Jonny Harris was becoming the next Wayne Rostad. Now, five seasons in, he really has. Like Rostad—who spoke to Canadians from regions of the country from 1987 to 2007—Harris has the wit and charm to win over strangers and get them talking, and a genuine warmth. You can’t help but like him.

Returning Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBC, Season 5 follows Harris to a little part of the country I’d never heard of: Campobello Island. The New Brunswick community’s only year-round and direct access to the mainland is a bridge to the U.S. This, of course, makes for a unique Canadian/American cultural blend and many challenges.    Including, as Harris points out in the first minute, worrying about having your passport. If the ferries are running, you catch one from mainland New Brunswick to Deer Island and another to Campobello Island. If they aren’t you have to go through Maine.

It’s a unique trait not shared with the rest of the country. And, like the places showcased in Still Standing, makes Campobello Island’s 850 citizens unique. And, like those other communites, this one has fallen on hard times. A decline in fishing has seen the population drop; children are reluctant to stay if the area isn’t prosperous.

But while times are tough on Campobello Island, there’s lots to laugh about. And that, of course, is what Harris helps them do, whether it’s over outlandish border import rules or a wayward brining shed that made international new. Over the course of their visit in each episode, Harris and his writers craft fresh material based on the community and the people in it before entertaining them with a stand-up performance. The result? A funny, folksy look at smalltown Canada.

Future episodes include stops in Schreiber, Ont., and Harrison Hot Springs, B.C.

Still Standing airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Killjoys

Links: Adam Barken Talks Killjoys “Terraformance Anxiety”

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: Adam Barken talks Killjoys “Terraformance Anxiety”
“[Alanna] is incredible and was from day one. The main thing we saw in her from the audition was a weirdness. We were looking for [someone] who didn’t look completely comfortable in their skin. She brought that in her performance…the way her eyes moved and the way she spoke, that felt a little off. She’s inhabiting a body she’s not entirely used to. We wanted a less extreme version of Vincent D’Onofrio’s character in Men In Black.” Continue reading. 

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Killjoys: Adam Barken talks “Terraformance Anxiety”
“Michelle [Lovretta] and I, along with our incredible writers, had been talking about this for months now, imagining the big moments and those final images that would give us a guide. Still, we had to find satisfying ends not only to Team Awesomeforce, but also all the other amazing characters – Pree, Gared, Fancy Lee, Zeph, Turin, Jaq, not to mention our Green Queens themselves, Aneela and Delle Seyah.” Continue reading.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Thunderbird Entertainment and APTN announce second season for Queen of the Oil Patch

From a media release:

Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV:TBRD) (“Thunderbird” or the “Company”),  is excited to announce a second season of  the hit series Queen of the Oil Patch, has been ordered by national broadcaster APTN. The critically acclaimed documentary series is produced by Thunderbird, a global multiplatform entertainment company, in collaboration with Kah-Kitowak Films. Production is now underway in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and the Mikisew Cree First Nation.

Queen of the Oil Patch received strong reviews for its groundbreaking coverage of the inspirational journey of one man with two spirits – Massey Whiteknife and Iceis Rain. Whiteknife is an openly gay Indigenous entrepreneur. After his multi-million-dollar oil empire in Fort McMurray was devastated by the collapse of oil prices and the 2016 wildfires, Whiteknife worked to rebuild his life with the help of his other spirit, Iceis Rain, a fearless female pop singer and anti-bullying advocate.

The first season of Queen of the Oil Patch was nominated for Best Writing in a Factual Series at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards, and Best Screenwriting in a Documentary Series at the 2019 Leo Awards. It was also well received by critics, with John Doyle of The Globe and Mail writing: “Queen of the Oil Patch is…truly distinct, about a true original. And truly inspiring. This is wonderful TV.” Additionally, Rachna Raj Kaur from NOW Toronto called it “a great entryway into the life of a man breaking down boundaries, but also an insightful look into a community unseen on mainstream TV.”

Queen of the Oil Patch Season Two will air in Fall 2020, and will feature eight episodes.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: APTN’s First Contact returns to educate and inform

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A year ago, First Contact debuted on APTN. The three-night broadcast event explored Indigenous culture through the eyes of six Canadians. Narrated by George Stroumboulopoulos, First Contact followed those six on a 28-day adventure to Winnipeg, Nunavut, Alberta, Northern Ontario and the coast of B.C. to visit Indigenous communities to challenge their preconceived notions and prejudices.

Now, First Contact returns for a second season. Hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos and broadcast over three nights—Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on APTN—it once again seeks to inform and educate Canadians about First Nations people, culture and beliefs, and rid them of some preconceptions along the way. In my preview of Season 1, I wrote about growing up in Brantford, Ont. Located close to the Six Nations of the Grand River, I heard the awful, racist jokes uttered by more than one person in that city. In Season 2, a fellow Brantfordian takes part.

Sixty-two-year-old Larry Harris works in shipping and receiving and enters First Contact believing anything bad that befalls Indigenous Peoples are their own fault. So, does he change his tune over the 28-day experience? Certainly not within the first few minutes. Larry voices the opinion we are still shouldering the guilt for those who took the land away from the First Nations. Participants Brennan Kovic and Laurianne Bencharski say similar things, the latter that anytime a white person speaks about Indigenous Peoples they’re labelled a racist.

A group of people participate in a First Nations dance.Twenty-six-year-old Samantha Whitehead, meanwhile, has a different view. She has never met a member of the First Nations and is genuinely interested in being educated. As for Jackson Way, the 19-year-old from Midland, Ont.—who hopes to teach history one day—believes taking benefits away from Indigenous Peoples will force the community “to work to get certain things.” He wonders if the current system is trying to make up for what happened in the past.

The six head to Kanesatake, QC, and learn the other side of the story of the 1990 Oka Siege—a very different tale from what Larry tells Brennan and Samantha on the bus there—and then in Natuashish, Labrador, time spent with the local Innu Peoples sheds new light on its residents and history.

In Episode 2, the six participants travel to Thunder Bay, where a number of incidents have exposed racist attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples prior to a meeting with residential school survivors in southern Ontario.

In the emotionally charged final episode, the six travel to Saskatchewan. Once there, they meet with people from communities deeply affected by the death and trial of Colten Boushie. At the conclusion of Episode 3, the Indigenous hosts and producers will sit down in an interactive panel, live on Facebook

First Contact airs Tuesday-Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on APTN.

Images courtesy of APTN.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Salvage Kings reveals the treasures among trash found by Priestly Demolition Inc.

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Residents of Toronto will recognize the name Priestly Demolition Inc. The company, which has been around since 1971, specializes in—among many other things—demolition and salvage services to the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors of the construction industry in Ontario.

I’ve always wondered what goes on the sites marked by Priestly signs. Now, thanks to Salvage Kings, I know.

Debuting Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History, Salvage Kings—from Media Headquarters, the folks behind Canada’s Smartest Person and Tessa & Scott—gives the award-winning company and its staff a starring role. Priestly Demolition Inc. offers a one-two punch, going in and tearing down anything from a bridge, hospital, mall or industrial complex to an airport or even the CN Tower. But before the demolition can begin, salvaging anything of value happens first. That responsibility falls on Ted Finch, head of salvage, and his four-person team, who are tasked with collecting, sorting and then auctioning and selling items for a profit.

“From the time I was five or six years old, I’ve been interested in old stuff,” Finch says. “I would drag stuff home and refinish it. I’ve been going it my whole life. I’ve been an antique dealer and I’ve known Vic Priestly for 25 years. He just kept telling me to come and work for him.”

In Sunday’s first instalment, Ted and his team, including right-hand man Justin Fortin, descend on Market Village Mall in Markham, Ontario, where they are tasked with unlocking mysterious vault doors, while the demolition team begins its tear down. But while the vault and its mystery may be the big prize, there a lot of little ones collected along the way. Store signs can be sold by the letter, cooling and heating systems cut from ceilings for a profit, or medical equipment rolled away to be snapped up for cash by a feature film set decorator. As with anything in the collectable genre, I’m constantly surprised by what can be given a value … and the folks who are willing to pay for them.

“I like it when people get an appreciation for recycling and history and moving things forward and not just throwing it in the garbage,” Finch says. “There is a lot of waste in this society and it boggles my mind the stuff that people just throw out. It has a lot of life left in it.”

Salvage Kings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Image courtesy of Corus Entertainment.

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