• 2008 Great between the crises
  “Flashpoint (CTV, CBS) changed everything. It benefited from the paucity of new shows available in the United States, thanks to the Writers Guild of America strike, but as soon as it became a hit, it brought the Canadian TV industry alive with hope and ideas. It also got better, episode by episode. And it showcased great Canadian actors to Hollywood and the world.” Read more.

• Talent for power tools, power roles
  “Nellie McClung existed in the same time, in 1890, that my (Murdoch Mysteries) character did. I am intrigued with women of that time who had more open minds than some women in our time. Look at what’s happened today – brainless body-obsessed Pussycat Dolls – and it sickens me. We’ve come so far and we’re going there?” Read more.

• Self-esteem issues of a cultural kind
  But the good reviews for MVP suggest something else. The series is doing well because it’s vaguely different. It doesn’t feel like a copy of a U.S. show so it’s got a freshness and appealing zip to it. Ironically, I suspect that’s precisely why MVP was never a big hit in Canada – most viewers expect soapy Canadian drama to look and feel like a show made in Hollywood. And at that point, I give up. It’s all too complicated. There are validation issues and self-esteem issues too complex for me.” Read more.

• CBC’s cancelled ‘MVP’ soap getting good reviews in U.S. – even from The New Yorker
  “While Canadian reviewers were lukewarm about the CBC’s cancelled nighttime hockey soap, “MVP,” the show is getting high praise from television writers in the United States, where its first and only season is airing on the cable channel Soapnet.” Read more.

• MVP
  “Ignore those funky Canadian accents, and MVP is a passable nighttime soap — using hockey (!) as a slick backdrop to its bed-hopping shenanigans. The first hour alone features every imaginable serial cliche, from a sudden death to the sex-tape-making stud and the spoiled rich girl who says, ‘You work for me. Now take your pants off!’ All told, it’s a natural fit for Soapnet — ABC’s second-chance cabler for daytime serials — and receives an overtime showing on ABC following this week’s Daytime Emmys. So nothing new here, but like, not bad, eh?” Read more.

• At least this time, CBC got it right
  ” A “gotcha” mentality has crept into most conversations about MVP, the cancelled CBC series that gets a crack on ABC tonight. But even though this will make us even more unpopular among our colleagues, we have to defend CBC on this one.” Read more.

• ‘MVP’ Starts Tonight
  “Here’s one made just right for me – at least on paper.  SOAPnet unveils its latest sizzling new baby, when MVP – about the Canadian Mustangs hockey team – premieres tonight at 11.  This is right up my alley for the simple reason that ice hockey is my sport of choice to follow.” Read more.

From the New York Daily News:

• ‘MVP’ is everyone’s favorite sport, plus hockey
  “The Mustangs are an unusual hockey team. They only seem to recruit players who look like their previous experience came in a Calvin Klein ad. They also don’t seem to play any hockey – or at least we never see any hockey on opening night of SoapNet’s latest steamy drama, MVP.” Read more.

• For a Hockey Player’s Workouts Off the Ice, Go Straight to the Videocam
  “Within the first few minutes of MVP, a new drama — and I use that term as one might call Big Momma’s House a film — a young woman barely out of her teens is straddling a guy upstairs during a party at her parents’ Disney World castle of a house, and making royal demands: ‘You work for me now. Take your pants off.’ More trousers tumble, going forward: off the hips of a practically mute underwear model as well as a coke-addicted hobby pornographer, who secretly shoots his one-night stands from the vantage point of what appears to be a stuffed-donkey cam. He’s not a Democrat; he’s Canadian, and a hockey player. When he picks up a new conquest at his team captain’s funeral, he labels the tape of their lascivious efforts at mourning Funeral Chick. MVP, which begins Thursday on SoapNet, is itself a Canadian import, and it forces us to ask: Really, what has Nafta wrought?” Read more.

• MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives Goes Into Overtime
  “MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives was cancelled by CBC a few months ago, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the TV schedule. The first season will start airing on the US network SOAPnet – a cable sibling of ABC – starting June 19. Then ABC itself will air the first episode following the Daytime Emmys on June 20. Not to be left out, CBC is re-airing season one starting June 13, so Canadians who missed it the first time around can catch it. Plus, the DVD is being released July 15 with loads of bonus features.” Read more.

The interview’s about 16 minutes: listen below, visit the show site, or subscribe via iTunes or with any other program via the TV, Eh? feed.

Here’s the dates to remember for MVP:

• Friday, June 13 is the start of season one reruns on CBC.
• On June 19, MVP premieres on Soapnet, with weekly airings Thursdays at 11 pm Eastern.
• June 20, it airs at 10 pm Eastern on ABC following the Daytime Emmys.
• July 15, watch for the DVD release.