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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Featured, What Would Sal Do?

What Would Sal Do? ending after one season on CraveTV

What Would Sal Do? won’t be given a Second Coming on CraveTV. That’s the word from creator Andrew De Angelis, who made the announcement via Facebook on Monday afternoon.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the end of What Would Sal Do? Unlike Jesus, our little show will not return,” De Angelis said via his personal page. Season 1 of Sal debuted on CraveTV in March, and that was a miracle in itself. In the summer of 2016, De Angelis’ comic creation was dead in the water. Last June, Allarco Entertainment was granted creditor protection. Allarco owns Super Channel, Sal‘s original home. With creditor protection in place, What Would Sal Do? couldn’t air on the pay channel and was released to its production company to be shopped around. Sal‘s producers, New Metric Media, landed a deal with Bell Media.

“We had a good run,” De Angelis said in his Facebook post. “Well… we had an OK run. Who am I kidding, we had a run. This sucks. There, I said it. But here’s what didn’t suck: getting the chance to make the show I wanted to make—no compromises, no regrets. Here’s another thing that didn’t suck: working with Mark Montefiore, Pat O’Sullivan, Cameron MacClaren and everyone at NewMetric media. This show doesn’t exist without their tireless work, passion and dedication. Their insights not only made Sal a better show, they made me a better writer.” He also shone the spotlight on the entire cast, crew and season writers Kurt Smeaton, Mark Forward, Alex Levine, Mark De Angelis, Steve Dylan, Brandy Hewitt and Karen Moore, and director Samir Rehem.

Sal stars Dylan Taylor (most recently of CBC’s Pure) as the titular character, a foul-mouthed overachiever who has lived a life of laziness and questionable decisions in Sudbury, Ont. That all changes when his mother, Maria (Jennifer Dale) blows his mind with the following info: Sal is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Along for the ride are Sal’s best friend Vince (Ryan McDonald) and Father Luke (Scott Thompson).

Season 1 of What Would Sal Do? can be seen on CraveTV.

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Orphan Black

It’s roll call for the final season of iconic Canadian series Orphan Black, beginning June 10

From a media release:

Space Original Series ORPHAN BLACK makes its highly anticipated return for its climactic final season on Saturday, June 10 at 10 p.m. ET. Produced by Temple Street, Season 5 of ORPHAN BLACK brings Sarah Manning and her sisters to their darkest days, in an effort to win their freedom. Throughout the season, the sisters individually delve into their past to confront personal struggles and emerge stronger through these self-explorations. Space viewers can catch-up on Season 5 of ORPHAN BLACK on Space.ca, Space GO, and via On Demand partners.

Adored by fans and critics alike in more than 170 countries, ORPHAN BLACK has transcended the landscape of Canadian television. Throughout its four-season run, this genre-bending series has introduced viewers to some of the most unconventional characters and storylines on television, championed individuality, personal evolution, and strong and complex female characters. Led by the Emmy®-award winning Tatiana Maslany, the series has amassed a fervent fan base spawning Clone Clubs around the globe. It has received a cavalcade of accolades, including a Peabody Award, as well as multiple Canadian Screen Awards for Best Drama, Writing, and Direction, along with multiple Best Acting wins for Maslany.

This season, after Sarah’s harrowing physical battle with Rachel and unsuccessful attempt to save Cosima on a remote Neoloution-operated island, she awakens to a familiar nightmare – her daughter, Kira, is in Rachel’s care at The Dyad Institute. Nearly all the clone sisters have been brought to heel and Sarah’s next in line. Yet this time, Rachel doesn’t resort to force to break Sarah’s defiant spirit. She wields her newfound power with grace, and dubiously promises an end to the violence if Sarah cooperates. Wary of these new terms, Sarah leans on Mrs. S to teach her a new strategy as they change tactics to pursue a long game. Working together, the sisters uncover the missing pieces of the insidious conspiracy, and finally learn the story behind their origin.

In the season opener, “The Few Who Dare” (Saturday, June 10 at 10 p.m. ET), a wounded Sarah, desperate to rescue Cosima get off the island and reunite with her family, journeys into the island’s interior, only to discover a mysterious village – the beating heart of the Neolution agenda. Meanwhile, a recovering Cosima reunites with Delphine and begins investigating the secrets of the Island under the watchful eye of Rachel who is now firmly in charge at the right-hand of the 170-year-old founder of Neolution, P.T. Westmorland. Back home, Neolution’s hunt for Helena, puts the screws to Alison and Donnie.

Throughout ORPHAN BLACK’s run, INNERSPACE delivers an insider’s look at the events that transpired in Saturday night’s episode in an AFTER THE BLACKsegment every Monday night at 6 p.m. ET. Hosts Teddy Wilson, Morgan Hoffman, and Ajay Fry dive deep into the rabbit hole with interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and viewer questions.

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Slasher

Slasher wrapping production on Season 2

From a media release:

Production will soon wrap on the second chapter of Aaron Martin’s award-winning anthology thriller series Slasher, produced by Shaftesbury, to be called Slasher 2: Guilty Party. Leslie Hope (24, NCIS, Suits) leads a large ensemble cast comprised of returning actors including Paula Brancati (Sadie’s Last Days on Earth, Degrassi: The Next Generation), Jim Watson (The Strain, Between), Christopher Jacot (Rogue, Eureka), Joanne Vannicola (Being Erica), Jefferson Brown (Rookie Blue, Degrassi: The Next Generation), and Dean McDermott (Ecstasy, CSI). New cast members this season include Lovell Adams-Gray (Lost & Found Music Studios, Dead of Summer), Kaitlyn Leeb (Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, Heartland), Rebecca Liddiard (Houdini & Doyle, MsLabelled), Melinda Shankar (Degrassi: The Next Generation, How to Be Indie), Sebastian Pigott (Rogue, Revenge), Paulino Nunes (Designated Survivor, Brooklyn), Madison Cheeatow (Heartland, Sadie’s Last Days on Earth), Ty Olsson (The 100, Supernatural), and Simu Liu (Kim’s Convenience, Taken).

Aaron Martin (Saving Hope, Being Erica, Degrassi: The Next Generation), recipient of the 2017 WGC Showrunner Award, returns as showrunner. Set in the remote Canadian winter wilderness, the story revolves around a group of former summer camp counsellors who are forced to return to the isolated campground to retrieve evidence of a crime they committed in their youth. Before long the group, and the camp’s latest inhabitants, members of a spiritual retreat with their own secrets to hide, find themselves targeted by someone – or something – out for horrific revenge. Nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards for its first season, Slasher 2: Guilty Party has been filming on location in Orangeville, Ontario and surrounding area since February.

Brought together by a horrific secret they’ve long kept buried, a group of former friends must return in the dead of winter to the now-closed summer camp they worked at five years before. Deep in the snow-covered wilderness, the rundown camp has now become a private and isolated “intentional community” cut-off from civilization by weather, wilderness, and choice. The group’s secretive reason to return causes tension and tempers to flare. Before long, they find themselves gruesomely targeted by someone – or something – out for horrific revenge. The location’s isolation starts to wear on relationships and expose surprising secrets, and as the winter weather worsens, so does the killer’s grisly spree. As blood and secrets spill across the vast and snowy wild surrounding the camp, the mismatched group must try to escape not just the killer’s retribution, but also survive the deadly elements.

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Featured, Sensitive Skin

Sensitive Skin cancelled by HBO Canada

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Sensitive Skin will not return for a third season on HBO Canada. That’s the word from the show’s official Twitter account, which posted the news on Sunday morning.

Bell Media issued a statement to TV, Eh? on Monday afternoon:

“Several months ago, we informed the SENSITIVE SKIN team that we had made the decision not to renew the series for a third season. In our view, Davina’s journey came to a moving and elegant conclusion at the end of Season 2. We are very proud to have been part of this amazing show, which won over audiences and critics around the world. We remain huge fans of the creative team behind SENSITIVE SKIN and hope to work with them again in the future.”

Starring Kim Cattrall and directed by Don McKellar, Sensitive Skin garnered a 2015 International Emmy nomination in the Best Comedy Series category and Season 1 captured four Canadian Screen Awards, including the Bell Media Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role (McKellar); Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series (McKellar); Best Photography in a Comedy Program or Series (Douglas Koch) and Best Picture Editing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series (Matthew Hannam).

Cattrall played Davina, a fiftysomething Toronto woman who was adjusting to her life as an older woman while married to her neurotic husband, Al (McKellar). Davina was worried she hadn’t done anything of note with her life and set out to change that. In Season 2, Davina was coping with life as a widow and moved to the Toronto Islands and attempted to make new friends. Sensitive Skin co-starred Nicolas Wright, Bob Martin, Colm Feore, Joanna Gleason, Clé Bennett, Elliott Gould and Marc-André Grondin.

Season 1 of Sensitive Skin was written by Bob Martin; Susan Coyne, Rosa Labordé and Lynne Coady wrote Season 2.

Fans were not happy to hear the news and took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

Consider us in that group too.

How do you feel about Sensitive Skin being cancelled? Let me know in the comments section below.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Saving Hope says goodbye to spring with emotional finale

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Say it ain’t so, Saving Hope! This Sunday’s episode is being touted as the medical drama’s “Spring Finale” on CTV, meaning the show goes away for a month before returning on Thursday, June 8, at 9 p.m. ET/PT to broadcast its remaining episodes.

And what a finale it is, with familiar faces returning to Hope Zion and others saying goodbye. Here’s what the network has said about Sunday’s “All Our Yesterdays,” written by Patrick Tarr and Thomas Pepper and directed by Steve DiMarco.

An unidentified man arrives at the hospital with critical injuries after being struck by a subway train, and the Hope Zion doctors rally together to try to save his life. Dr. Charlie Harris’ personal medical struggle is overshadowed by a spiritual one when he discovers the John Doe is “The Great” Randal Crane. In spirit form, Randal delivers a dire warning about Charlie’s gift and its heavy cost if he doesn’t rid himself of it. Dr. Maggie Lin attempts to leave her past behind her, but it proves impossible when Dr. Sydney Katz comes back to town, urging Maggie to put her pregnant sister in the now-defunct cancer study. Away from the hospital in the wake of her mother Martha’s diagnosis, Dr. Alex Reid takes Martha to visit their family farm.

Maggie and Sydney reunite in Sunday’s episode

And here are a few more facts to whet your appetite.

Manny has to make a decision
A message on his cell phone leads Manny to re-evaluate his career and Dana is there with words of encouragement … and an arched eyebrow.

Cassie’s struggling in her new role
Turns out going from employee to boss isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as Cassie finds it hard to get respect from her former same-level staffers. She turns to Charlie for help, but he’s got his hands full with, you know, a pesky spirit.

Peter Keleghan returns
Speaking of that spirit, he’s played by none other than Peter Keleghan who has been so great on Murdoch Mysteries and Workin’ Moms. The veteran actor is back to reprise his role of psychic Randall Crane, who has a dire dialogue with Charlie.

Maggie and Sydney have a reunion
We’ve missed Sydney in our lives, so it’s great to have Stacey Farber back. Unfortunately, she’s not at Hope Zion for happy reasons.

Kenneth Welsh guest stars
The veteran and Member of the Order of Canada causes problems for Zach and Dev when he re-stumbles into their lives as Wilfred.

Saving Hope returns with new episodes on Thursday, June 8, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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