TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 765
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Wild Archaeology: Jacob goes on an underwater archaeological expedition!

This week on Wild Archaeology,  we visit an area I am very familiar with: Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. Dr. Rudy and Jacob are off for a scuba diving adventure below the Great Lakes to explore the landscape that revealed itself during times of low water. Jacob’s first dive reveals evidence of waterfalls, far below the lake’s surface near Tobermory, Ont.

Oral history in the region speaks of the Prehistoric Alpena Amberly Ridge which was at one time used by migrating Caribou. Jacob grabs the opportunity to dive in this area as well and sees first-hand the remains of drive lane complexes, proving credible what  oral history has spoken of for generations. During his dive, Jacob collects flake indicative of tool sharpening.

As Dr. Rudy and his team have moved across Turtle Island in this series, they are seeing a “clear pattern between researchers and Indigenous peoples that there is no dichotomy between prehistory and history. Really what we are looking at across this vast landscape is deep history. The lines of evidence that Indigenous people and scientists, archaeologists and many others can bring to the table are only going to add to that, allow us to better understand the past.”

More and more Geomythology (geological occurances documented in myth and legend) is linking oral history with archaeology, providing clues and context to artifacts found in scientific digs. This discipline is also bridging that academic gap between what academia deems as knowledge and what Indigenous peoples have always known is knowledge.

Another really strong episode this week. This is such a great instrument for social studies in classrooms across Canada. As a teacher, with each episode I watch, my head spins with possible lesson plans that would excite children to learn more about Canada’s rich history.

Wild Archaeology airs Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Mohawk Ironworkers build New York

This week, Mohawk Ironworkers explores the connections between ironworkers and New York City.

Thomas Jock II, from Akwesasne explains that workers must travel for the work. Most of the large projects are found along the eastern coast of the U.S. in cities like Albany, New York and Boston. “Booming out” to the job, workers may spend months away from home and family; this is just one of the prices these men must pay for choosing this high paying, very high risk, occupation. Working in New York as a unionized ironworker, a person can earn in the neighbourhood of $2,000 a week.

The work week begins on Sunday, with the six-hour drive from Kahawa:ke or Akwesasne, in order to get to New Jersey for a night’s sleep. The work day begins at 4 a.m. in order to begin the commute to the job site in Manhattan. Several motels in the area recognize status cards, and try to accommodate as many ironworkers as they can with weekly rates. Rooming houses, small apartments and motels have replaced Little Caughnawaga in Brooklyn, New York, with families remaining in Kahnawa:ke.

This episode also covers the history of Mohawk ironworkers that began when they were hired in the 1880’s as unskilled workers on various building projects. Ever since, ironworkers have been traveling where the building boom takes them. Most building sites employ four or five workers from Kahnawa:ke and this brotherhood has helped to preserve the Kanien’keha (Mohawk) language as it’s often the language of choice for Mohawks on the job site.

This history also covers the collapse of the Quebec Bridge in 1907, an accident where 75 of the 86 workers building the bridge died, of which 33 were from Kahnawa:ke. Many of those who tragically died were not killed by the collapse itself, but rather were trapped by the wreckage at low tide and drowned when the tide came in. A number of memorials that have been built to commemorate these workers can be found in Kahnawa:ke.

This is one of the better episodes this season and far richer than many that have preceded it. The traditional documentary style of the program is tiring, particularly when we have seen some great storytelling in documentary formats using innovative techniques. I feel like I am back in grade school, which is a shame since so many of these stories could be presented in a way that engages the audience. I am hoping the directorial talents of Michelle Smith in next week’s episode bring some improvement.

Mohawk Ironworkers airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m. ET on APTN.

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Wynonna Earp

Link: Wynonna Earp: Panel reflects on first season and tease what’s coming

From Mufsin Mahbub of Film-Book.com:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Panel reflects on first season and tease what’s coming 
Wynonna Earp makes its first trip to New York Comic Con after becoming a runaway success on Syfy. The cast and crew came together to share with fans the behind-the-scenes in making the television adaptation of the cult comic book series. Showrunner Emily Andras, comic book series creator Beau Smith, actress Melanie Scrofano, and actor Tim Rozon joined the panel to chat about Syfy’s new hit series and give a tease of what’s coming for season two. Continue reading. 

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Kim's Convenience

Link: Kim’s Convenience, and the method behind the seeming madness of CBC’s programming

From David Berry of The National Post:

Link: Kim’s Convenience, and the method behind the seeming madness of CBC’s programming
If nothing can be everything to everyone, the CBC can at least be nothing to anyone.

I don’t know that our public broadcaster will ever shake its reputation for striving cluelessness when it comes to what, exactly, Canadians want to see on television. There’s all that history, for a start, and it’s a nice convenient narrative that works for everyone from grumpy free-marketers who see “heritage funding” as just another term for setting their hard-earned tax dollars on fire to sniffing aesthetes who think art isn’t art unless each and every second of it is a punishing ordeal designed to shake your understanding of human experience to its very core. Continue reading. 

From Katherine Monk of The Ex-Press

New CBC sitcom exposes The Convenience Truth
Andrea Bang thanks the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only did the team win the required games to advance, they pushed back the network premiere of her new show, Kim’s Convenience.

The new CBC comedy based on Ins Choi’s award-winning Fringe play airs this evening, but it was originally slated to air last Tuesday – in the heat of the Blue Jays’ wild card bid. The network wisely aired the ballgame instead, but Bang wasn’t depressed about the delay. Continue reading.

From Courtney Shea of Toronto Life:

Link: Q&A: Ins Choi, the writer behind CBC’s new comedy Kim’s Convenience
In 2011, Kim’s Convenience upstaged every other show at the Toronto Fringe Festival and earned the Best New Play award for its creator, Ins Choi. Five years later, the comedy—about a Korean family and their variety store in Regent Park—is the centrepiece of CBC’s fall prime-time lineup, premiering tonight at 9 p.m. (it got bumped by the Blue Jays last Tuesday), and the first Canadian TV series to feature an entirely Asian cast. We spoke to Choi about the pressure of pioneering, why Kim’s Convenience isn’t a “Korean show” and how the Asian–North American entertainment community can bury Long Duk Dong once and for all. Continue reading.

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The Disappearance

Production begins in Montreal on The Disappearance, CTV and Super Ecran’s new original mystery series

From a media release:

– Original six-part series to be produced in 4K by award-winning Montréal-based Productions Casablanca in association with Bell Media and NBCUniversal International Studios –
– Ensemble cast featuring Aden Young, Peter Coyote, Joanne Kelly, Camille Sullivan, Micheline Lanctôt, and Kevin Parent announced –
– THE DISAPPEARANCE will premiere as part of CTV and Super Écran’s 2016/2017 mid-season schedule –
– French-language version to air on Super Écran –

CTV and Super Écran, alongside award-winning Montréal-based Productions Casablanca and NBCUniversal International Studios, announced today that production has begun on THE DISAPPEARANCE, the networks’ new six-part limited run event series. Directed by Peter Stebbings (Defendor, ORPHAN BLACK), the character driven mystery drama begins shooting in 4K in Montréal today. THE DISAPPEARANCE is set to premiere as part of CTV and Super Écran’s 2016/2017 mid-season schedule. NBCUniversal International Studios will act as international distributor.

Also announced today are the members of the cast, which features Peter Coyote (E.T.) as retired judge and prosecutor Henry Sullivan; Aden Young (RECTIFY) as Luke Sullivan, Henry’s son, and a scruffy, soulful musician; Joanne Kelly (WAREHOUSE 13) as Catherine Sullivan, Henry’s daughter and Luke’s sister, and a funny, devoted palliative care nurse; Camille Sullivan (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE) as Helen Murphy Sullivan, Luke’s ex-wife, a microbiologist, and devoted mother; Micheline Lanctôt (UNITÉ 9) as Susan Bowden, a tough, experienced Lieutenant-Detective; and Kevin Parent (CAFÉ DE FLORE) as Sergeant-Detective Charles Cooper, and Susan’s partner.

THE DISAPPEARANCE is a psychological family drama centered around the unexplained and sudden disappearance of Anthony Sullivan during a treasure hunt on the day of his tenth birthday. The series follows the family as the complex and emotionally fraught mystery of their child’s disappearance unfolds. While both the police and family conduct their own investigations, seeking any signs and trace of evidence, long-buried familial secrets with devastating consequences rise to the surface leaving an unforeseen impact on every member of the Sullivan family.

THE DISAPPEARANCE was first put into development by CTV in October 2015. The series is created and written by the Montréal-based writing team of Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard. The series is produced by Joanne Forgues and Sophie Parizeau of Productions Casablanca, creators of the Prix Gémeaux-winning series, Les invincibles and Série noire, and is executive produced by Joanne Forgues and Jean-Marc Casanova. Emmy Award-winning JoAnn Alfano (You, Me and the Apocalypse, Resurrection & 30 Rock) will executive produce for NBCUniversal International Studios. The series is directed by Peter Stebbings.

THE DISAPPEARANCE is produced by Productions Casablanca in association with Bell Media and NBCUniversal International Studios, with the financial participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Cogeco Program Development Fund and the assistance of the Québec Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Super Écran has commissioned the series for French-language broadcast. NBCUniversal International Studios serves as international distributor.

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