TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 321
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Coroner

Links: Coroner, Season 1

From Charles Trapunski of Brief Take:

Link: Interview: Coroner’s Serinda Swan and Roger Cross
“I had to chance that a character that’s older than me and see how that works. But I think that all of that is why the show feels lived in, and why it feels different and moody and filmy, is because it’s human, it’s a very human show.” Continue reading.

From Dana Gee of Postmedia:

Link: Vancouver’s Cross returns to TV with CBC’s Coroner
“McAvoy is a complicated man. He’s great at his job, but his personal life needs work. He has been on the job a long time, and as is apt to happen, he becomes a bit jaded. He has been married a few times, and his current relationship isn’t the healthiest. But he’s a very just and fair man and reads people very well.” Continue reading. 

From Chloe Grant of Beyond Fashion:

Link: Serinda Swan on ‘Coroner’: “It Was Definitely a Character Piece for Me When I Read It and That’s What I’ve Been Looking for”
“I put on almost 10 pounds for her. I kept cutting my hair all weird, like ‘how would she have cut her hair?’ It’s not stylish, it’s not something for fashion, it’s utilitarian.” Continue reading. 

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Coroner: 6 Things to know about CBC’s New Drama
While the main protagonist in many crime procedurals seem to have a special gift that gives them an almost inhuman ability to solve crimes, Coroner’s lead, Dr. Jenny Cooper, isn’t that at all. Continue reading. 

From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:

Link: Coroner stars Serinda Swan and Roger Cross discuss their new series
“Jenny makes a lot of interesting choices that on the surface aren’t necessarily likeable, but you like her because she’s messy, imbalanced and human. A lot of the time, women have been accessories for a very complete male character as opposed to a very complete female character.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Coroner: Morwyn Brebner and Adrienne Mitchell talk “Black Dog”
“At Back Alley we were looking for a property that we could option centered around a female, but also be very character-driven and have an investigational line to it. We found the book series called The Coroner by M.R. Hall and loved the character.” Continue reading.

From Michael Pickard of Drama Quarterly:

Link: Speaking for the dead
“The hardest thing in the world is for a show not to feel like something you’ve seen before. This show does feel like something we haven’t seen before, and I feel very proud of that. There’s something about it that feels new; the cast is incredibly fresh and I feel that, if people watch it, they will feel the same.” Continue reading. 

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Link: Morwyn Brebner and Adrienne Mitchell talk CBC’s Coroner
“Jenny was really intelligent, full of fierceness, and also boundary-pushing in a way that consequences would befall her and she would always get up fighting. She was dealing with anxiety and all sorts of personal issues; she was also aware of her pitfalls and had a humorous take on herself. We loved her.” Continue reading. 

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Coroner’s Serinda Swan on the importance of portraying Jenny’s struggles on screen
“There’s about a minute and a half panic attack in one episode that’s raw, uncut and awesome to watch. It’s what it is, and you see her pick up the phone and talk to her colleagues while pretending she’s fine.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Heavy Rescue: 401 rocks and rolls into Season 3

This is the third winter that I’ve taken the time to preview a new season of Heavy Rescue: 401. You may wonder why I bother. Isn’t this, and its predecessor, Highway Thru Hell, the same thing every week? The answer is yes, both programs feature folks cleaning up vehicular messes in the west or on Ontario’s highways. But the sameness ends there. Every situation is different from the last and every job varies.

So I was, once again, excited when the fine folks at Bell Media sent over materials pertaining to Season 3 of Heavy Rescue: 401, returning Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on the specialty channel.

The first episode of the season is called “One Twisted Mess,” and it’s apt. Using dashcam footage to show the drama unravel, a sunny, dry day on Highway 401 west of Toronto turns dangerous when a tractor-trailer and car converge in a cloud of dust and shredded metal. A squad of rotators and wreckers, led by Metro Truck Group converge on the scene to clean up the 100,000-pound cargo mess. It takes years on the job to figure out the best—and safest—way to upright a tumbled truck and trailer and I’m always amazed to see it being done on Heavy Rescue: 401.

Meanwhile, Preferred Towing is on the move on Highway 402, the site of a rolled propane tanker, a truly dangerous cargo to take care of. With a new truck added to the fleet, Collin is becoming an even more important member of his father, Gary’s, team. It’s an all hands on deck operation to upright the propane truck and jackknifed second hauler laden with tomatoes. Will Collin succeed in his first-ever solo job? Will part of the 402 become engulfed in tomato sauce? Tune in to Heavy Rescue: 401 on Tuesday to find out.

Heavy Rescue: 401 airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Discovery.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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Cavendish, Featured, Mr. D

Preview: CBC’s Cavendish brings the weird and wonderful

“That’s a weird show, man.” Mark Little says that during an ad for Cavendish on CBC. And though it’s not clear which show he’s talking about as he looks at a television set, the inference is he’s talking about Cavendish. And he’s not wrong.

Premiering Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. on CBC, Cavendish is weird and wonderful, second only to Crawford in its strangeness, creativity and difference from the rest of the network’s winter lineup.

Created, executive produced, showrun and starring Little and Andrew Bush (Carter‘s Garry Campbell is credited as a creator too), the pair play Mark and Andy, brothers who have spent the decades following their parent’s divorce living with their mother in Toronto. Now the pair has returned to Cavendish, PEI, to care for their ailing dad, Rollie (Kevin Eldon), and reacquaint themselves with the community they left behind. (Look for Kathryn Greenwood, Kevin Hanchard, Joe Cobden, Teresa Pavlinek and Carolyn Taylor in Season 1.)

Little is probably best-known for playing Simon Hunt on Mr. D, but he and Bush have extensive backgrounds in writing and performing sketch. These skills are the bread and butter of Cavendish, which begins in Tuesday’s debut with Andy and Mark driving to the red-soiled province. It’s obvious within seconds the personalities at play here; Mark is innocent and looks on the bright side of things while Andy is quiet, morose and to many townsfolk, forgettable. This Ying and Yang results in plenty of funny moments, from Mark wondering if they’ll be able to converse with their Dad or if he’ll be “a husk,” and arguing over Andy’s high forehead.

Oddities rule the day in Cavendish, from the stuffed baby deer, fetus in a jar and sarcophagus—all pieces in their father’s home—to the beast living in the forest that emerges once a year to consume someone and an Anne of Green Gables cult. Yes, Cavendish isn’t like other towns. And Cavendish isn’t like other series.

Cavendish airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Featured, Schitt's Creek

Schitt’s Creek: Annie Murphy promises more heart and Ew, David’s in Season 5

It was almost a year ago that Schitt’s Creek jumped from a show slowly growing in popularity to an overnight smash. It was last winter, during Season 4, when Patrick—played by Noah Reid—sang “Simply the Best” to David Rose (Daniel Levy), publicly professing his love during an open mic night, bringing worldwide attention to the comedy and donations to LGBT Youth Line in Canada and The Trevor Project in the U.S.  via iTunes and Spotify downloads.

Since then, Schitt’s Creek—which airs on Pop in the U.S.—was nominated for Best Comedy at the Critic’s Choice Awards. The cast will be attending the January 13 event. A special Christmas episode brought further attention to the program, ensuring it remains a holiday staple. Next, a theatre tour through February, culminating with a stop in Toronto.

But while awards shows and tours beckon, Annie Murphy says the focus of the series remains the same.

“Each season peels back a layer on the family and the people of Schitt’s Creek,” she says over the phone. “This season is no different. There is a lot of love, a lot of heart and lot of the goofy, wonderful laughs that we’re used to. And a lot of ‘Ew, Davids.’”

When viewers tune in on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC, they’ll see a family that has truly become a part of the community. David and Patrick’s store, Rose Apothecary, is still in business, Alexis (Murphy) and Ted (Dustin Milligan) are still together and the Rosebud Motel is still standing thanks to Stevie (Emily Hampshire), Roland (Chris Elliott) and Johnny (Eugene Levy). Only Moira (Catherine O’Hara) is absent but that’s because she’s in Bosnia filming a movie. David, worried things are getting stale between he and Patrick, agrees to accompany Alexis and Ted on a double date that involves nature and heights, two things surely on David’s Must Avoid list.

“[We filmed] in a ropes course that I never knew existed,” Murphy says with a laugh. “I was feeling very confident going into it because I’m not afraid of heights. But once they strapped us in and we were up there on the platform with no barrier around it, we all had a bit of a moment up there. It was way higher than it looked, I can assure you of that.”

Murphy hints that changes are in store for Alexis in Season 5. Aware of what she’s put Ted through over the past few seasons—including cancelled wedding engagements—the fashionista realizes she has to devote more to their relationship than before. She puts herself into a scenario we haven’t seen her in.

And though the actions by Milligan, Murphy, Reid, O’Hara and Daniel Levy are all great in Tuesday’s return, it is Eugene Levy’s scenes that grabbed my attention. Levy has made a career out of being the straight man and leaving it up to his co-stars to grab the spotlight. He turns in the most sensitive performances I’ve seen from him, making for a commanding presence. They actually carry over from “Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose,” an emotional storyline in which Johnny tried to bring his family together for the holidays. It brought a tear to my eye. Turns out I wasn’t alone.

“Eugene really, really grounds all of the characters that surround him,” Murphy says. “In the Christmas episode especially, watching him play such a sad guy. When he’s releasing the tree and when he goes off to the café by himself, I had a hard time holding it together when we were shooting. I looked over and saw Dustin wiping away a tear. He’s such a wonderful human being and that really comes across in his acting.”

Agreed.

Schitt’s Creek airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Kim's Convenience

Links: Kim’s Convenience, Season 3

From Melissa Hank of O.Canada:

Link: Kim’s Convenience star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee talks Appa’s slow transformation
“I always love it when my character suffers because it’s funny and there’s growth. When you first meet him, he’s kind of stuck in his ways. He says horribly racist and insensitive things, but it’s never done out of a sense of malice. In his world, this is how he sees it. He’s just ignorant.” Continue reading.

From Captain John K. Kirk of Pop Mythology:

Link: Kim’s Convenience returns for Season 3; highlights Toronto culture and diversity
“There’s the family, but there’s also customers and in Season Two, the Syrian refugee family that we’re able to meet. We get to bring nuances to this show that touch on the real world that other shows don’t get the opportunity to show.” Continue reading.

From Charles Trupunski of Brief Take:

Link: Interview: Kim’s Convenience’s Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jean Yoon, Simu Liu and Andrew Phung
“What’s exciting about Season 3 is that the characters are all really established, so the writers are switching things up, like “what happens when you put Appa and Jung together, what happens when you put Kimchee and Umma together? What happens when Janet gets another roommate? The writing is taking us somewhere a little deeper–in terms of communication, in terms of family, boundaries, and the kinds of power struggles that happen between friends, and also between married couples.” Continue reading. 

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Kim’s Convenience cast on those evolving family dynamics
“I am hyped that people love it. I’m hyped that people watch it. I’m hyped that people talk about it. I cannot wait for them to see this season that I’m incredibly proud of and find so funny. I can’t wait to do many more seasons, hopefully.” Continue reading.

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