When we last left Mary Harris (Caroline Dhavernas), her world was in disarray. She’d been investigated by undercover cop Ben Wesley (Jay Ryan), who sought to arrest her for performing illegal assisted suicides. Her daughter, Jess (Abigail Winter), suspected Mary was leading a double life, putting a strain on their relationship. And Des Bennett (Richard Short) had gone to prison after taking the fall for Mary. So, what’s in store for Mary in Season 2 of Mary Kills People?

“The stakes are even higher,” Dhavernas told us during a recent set visit. Created by Tara Armstrong and executive-produced by Armstrong, Tassie Cameron and Amy Cameron, Mary Kills People returns Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Global with Mary unable to stop killing and coming in contact with new characters. Mary is seekingÂ a steady supply of pentobarbital while attempting to keep her day job as an ER doctor intact. Making that difficult is Olivia Bloom (Rachelle Lefevre), a mysterious woman tied to someone from Mary’s past.

We spoke to Caroline Dhavernas about what fans can expect in the series’ sophomore season.

I understand there is a bit of a time jump between Season 1 and Season 2. When we catch up with Des and Mary, he is getting out of prison. How much time has gone by?
Caroline Dhavernas: It’s eight or nine months. He’s been a good inmate, so he’s out early.

Des went to prison for Mary. Where does this leave their relationship?
It’s a big responsibility and for Mary, it’s a big weight on her shoulders. But, as you can imagine, she’s been doing her thing on her own while he was away and taking a liking to it. In the first season, we explored very grey zones, and that’s even more so in the second season. Mary has always been very open-minded about who deserves to die, but now she takes that to another level and Des and Mary will come into disagreements because of that.

I like it when Des and Mary don’t always see eye to eye.
It’s a great relationship. I don’t think that we see it often on TV; a man and a woman who are really great friends but there is no romance happening, ever. We’re very proud that it hasn’t gone that way.

At the end of Season 1, Nicole wanted in on Mary’s business. Does that occur in Season 2?
She does try for that to happen. Of course, they’re very bonded with what they did to their mother, so it’s an interesting avenue for them to take.

There is a lot of dark and light to Mary Kills People, but there is a lot of humour as well.
That’s why I think the tone is so unique. We go from very dramatic and compassionate moments with the deaths to them having a taco and letting the steam out. I like that balance. In Season 2, the stakes are even higher and the suspense is even stronger than it was in Season 1.

What can you tell me about Rachelle’s character, Olivia?
She is a very strong woman. She loves power. I think she and Mary have a lot in common but in polar opposite ways. There is something about power for Mary as well because of what she does, but Olivia is the dark side of the force. We explore a little bit of the criminal world more this season.

I did wonder where Mary could go in Season 2. I thought maybe she’d lay low for awhile. Clearly not.
Nope, she’s just not that kind of gal. [Laughs.] I think it speaks volumes to her addiction. In Season 1 we really saw the compassionate side of her and at the end, we started to see how she couldn’t help herself. She loves doing this. She’s not capable of stopping; she says that to her sister on the dock. We see that side evolve even more. She needs it.

I really enjoyed the scenes between Mary and her daughter, Jess, played by Abigail Winter, in Season 1. Where does that relationship go in Season 2?
There are moments, again, where they don’t understand each other. Mary cannot be exactly who she is in front of her family because she’s hiding it from them. This will always be a problem with her older daughter because she’s old enough to feel things are a little off. Mary is having a hard time keeping all of the lies together and Jess keeps feeling that. Jess will continue to explore her sexuality in Season 2 and who she is.

What I loved about her in Season 1, her sexuality and her mom is that we never talked about the fact that she was gay. It was just a given. It didn’t have to be the big coming out and all that. There is the scene on the dock where she says that she is in love with Naomi [Katie Douglas], and the way I saw it Mary always knew but she doesn’t have to say anything about it. She’s in love, period. I love that.

Mary Kills People airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

Images courtesy of Corus.

Featured, Hard Rock Medical

Preview: TVO’s Hard Rock Medical checks in for the final time

December 31, 2017 Greg David

Hard Rock Medical is the ultimate under-the-radar show. Ask folks if they’ve heard of it and I’m betting the majority will say no. Out of the minority that have heard of the series, I’m betting they’d say Hard Rock Medical was about rock ‘n’ roll. I certainly did. This was back during Season 2, and when I finally tuned in I was stunned. Hard Rock Medical is a damn fine medical drama that mixes in very funny moments set against the rugged backdrop of Sudbury, Ontario, a.k.a. The Canadian Shield, a.k.a. the hard rock in Hard Rock Medical. Inspired by the world-renowned Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the program spotlights and celebrates the distinct challenges of delivering quality healthcare in Northern Ontario.

Co-created by Smith Corindia and Derek Diorio, the last season of Hard Rock Medical returns for its final nine episodes on Tuesday at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET on TVO. Thankfully, TVO has put the past three seasons on their website, so folks can not only catch up but those outside of Ontario can tune in to Season 4 episodes after each broadcast.Â

What amazed me about the show back in Season 2 is the high-profile Canadian talent in the cast. Andrea Menard (Blackstone), Tamara Duarte (Wynonna Earp), Angela Asher (Bad Blood), Jamie Spilchuk, Stephane Paquette and Pat McKenna (Traders) are just a sampling of the actors who’ve been part of Hard Rock Medical from the beginning. Throw in guest gigs from Jennifer Podemski, Marc Bendavid, Ron Lea, Michelle Thrushâ€”and Corner Gas‘ Eric Peterson this yearâ€”and you’ve got one hell of a fine stable of talent participating in Corindia and Diorio’s taut, half-hour scripts.

When we pick up Tuesday’s return, “Dreaming the Life,” Eva is in the midst of an odd dream that reflects her First Nations heritage and ties to Nancy and Gary while under anaestheticÂ to donate bone marrow. Meanwhile, Louise and Fraser are facing the media over Sergio’s suicide and request that his brain be used for concussion research, and Tara and Charlie are juggling life with her chemotherapy schedule. Charlie’s considering quitting med school to be available to Tara full-time but she’s having none of it. This is his last year of school before becoming a doctor and she won’t let him give up now. As for Farida, a patient with a fishhook lodged in her cheek leads to a custody battle between a husband and wife. And Cameron? His day is an awful one.

Episode 2, “Quo Vadis,” follows Gary into reconciliation classes with the racist cop he punched and Cameron meets up with Gina, who is suffering from amnesia following her assault.

I’m going to miss following the medical students and their adventures; the last four seasons of Hard Rock Medical have been a joy to watch and cover for TV, Eh? I can only hope that, perhaps, Diorio andÂ Corindia can create a new series about the lives of these newly-graduated doctors working in the community they were educated in.

Hard Rock Medical airs Tuesdays with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET on TVO. Episodes are available for streaming at tvo.org the day after each new broadcast.

Images courtesy of TVO.

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Season 2 of Heavy Rescue: 401 drives back onto Discovery

December 29, 2017 Greg David

I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff during my decades driving the 400 series highways in southern Ontario. There was the jackknifed tractor-trailer I observed sliding sideways on the northbound 427 as I drove southbound, spinning cars bouncing off one another on the 403 in Hamilton and an elderly woman walking down the offramp onto the 404. I can only imagine the wide range of things witnessed by the police, firefighters, EMTs and tow truck drivers during their careers.

A mere taste of those experiences are featured in Season 2 of Heavy Rescue: 401, returning Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Discovery. The No. 1 specialtyÂ program in its timeslotâ€”from the producers of the equally engaging Highway Thru Hellâ€”once again takes cameras into the cabs and onto the roadways of the province’s 400 series highways including the 401 (the busiest stretch of freeway in North America), documenting the heroics and characters keeping those routes clear.

Tuesday’s first episode sets the stage for what’s to come, as Ontario Provincial Police officer Sgt. Kerry Schmidt outlines how everyone has to be vigilant at all times for road conditions to change. And, minutes later, it does just that. A sudden snowstormâ€”blowing in earlier than expectedâ€”turns the 401 at Yonge St. into a sheet of ice. Salters are on high alert. They’re not fast enough, however, and cars start spinning out. It’s here that Heavy Rescue: 401‘s producers really shine; their relationship withÂ the Ministry of Transportationâ€™s massive control centreâ€”the eyes that watch and manage the highwaysâ€”means they have access to the centre’s camera system and can show real footage as accidents (and drama) unfolds. As interesting as it is to learn about the people who work the highways and arrive at the scene of a collision to show the cleanup, the COMPASS cameras tell the story of how it happened.

The COMPASS cameras capture key footage the following day as a dump truck driver’s boxâ€”in the up positionâ€”drives straight into a bridge, causing traffic chaos. Enter Steve’s Towing driver Sonny Subra, who rushes to the scene but is hogtied by traffic. Meanwhile, in Barrie, Ont., Classic Towing & Storage’s James is under the gun to clear a unique and surprising breakdown before the next band of snow hits highway 400.

Additional stories covered this season on Heavy Rescue: 401 is the complete shutdown of the 401 twice (once for over 30 hours); more time spent with the OPP and their tales, includingÂ an organ transplant run and airborne highway patrol; and Kingston, Ont. being included in episodes.

And with a third season already in production, fans can look forward to more Heavy Rescue: 401 stories in 2019.

What accidents and/or experiences have you had on Ontario’s 400 series highways? Let me know in the comments below.

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

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

Featured, Travelers

Comments and queries for the week of December 29

December 29, 2017 Greg David 1 Comment

1. Why did the director not intervene to prevent the â€œtravelersâ€ program from being made public?

2. If Philip was given memories of the now altered timeline, and his knowledge his knowledge is once again quiet “historically” accurateâ€”accurate enough to know the moment Carly was going to beat her husband to deathâ€”how is he not aware of the travelers program being made public?

I hope the writers can explain this and still maintain the internal logic of the show. Canâ€™t wait for Season 3. â€”Fissile

Seriously, I wouldnâ€™t be surprised if [Travelers] gets cancelled. During the second season, it took a similar way as Person of Interest in its third and fourth season. Instead of concentrating on fixing the future, our travelers have to fight against personal problems and two major enemies, the Faction and Mr. Ingram. Which led to about eight more or less mediocre episodes in Season 2, where I seriously asked myself if the writer’s team was constantly on vacation because they did so good onÂ Season 1. Now the last three or four episodes got some drive back, but still, the original mission was to find out what causes the worlds degradation and to fix it.

I loved Season 1, it was fast, well played, well written, with interesting characters, a surprise. Especially the concept itself elevated it from other time travel stories, since sending consciousnesses through time instead of matter, which would need a nearly infinite amount of power, simply made sense. We do that all the time by remembering. And my, was that (mostly) well done! Season 2, instead, went in the wrong direction. I fear it lost a lot of theÂ audience. And when Simon came into the game, I was embarrassed because we had a mad, but genius time travelling engineer in Continuum, so, this character was completely copied from there. I did like Continuum though, but Kira’s constantly present “I wanna go home to my son”whining annoyed me, so I already may have had a bad feelingÂ when MacLaren was announced to have a child.

Travelers made the same mistake as its protagonists; it got involved with too many details of our current world, losing the big picture that could bind us to the screen, waiting for every episode to reveal something terrifying and new. Which didnâ€™t happen in the first eight episodes of Season 2, sorry!

Now with Agent MacLaren slapped in the face by his wife, that could be a proper allegorical conclusion, before the show gets a third installment that would ruin it completely. â€”Knotzers

I just love this show! Spoiler Alert: so, at the season finale, we see that both Simon and Vincent have taken over other bodies using the new machine that Simon has built. Assuming Simon built another machine just like the Director (since he built the first one in the future) does having a second machine now in the 20th century mean that the Director doesnâ€™t exist? Will this machine replace the Director? Or do they both exist? Also, what will happen with Simon who has now replaced Vincent? Will he now assume some of the mad-man traits? Or is that purely 001â€™s traits? Canâ€™t wait for Season 3! â€”Am

I have read and watched a lot of sci-fi and it’s normally quite difficult to let the plot holes and inconsistencies slide. On this show, I have been having difficulty spotting them. My only concern is that great sci-fi like this does not last more than two-three seasons (too much thinking involved for some folk). â€”John

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

Industry News

Link: Looking back at 25 years of Air Farce on TV

December 27, 2017 Greg David

From Artsculture:

Link: Looking back at 25 years of Air Farce on TV
But we all â€” and that includes Luba and I â€” get excited and nervous before stepping in front of a live audience in December when, for two nights in studio, when the CBC Broadcast Centre is packed with fans and we record the majority of the show.

The butterflies are definitely one thing that havenâ€™t changed in 25 years. Continue reading.