TV, eh?

From the WGC:

• Finalists Announced: The Writers Guild of Canada congratulates the 2010 Finalists

From Alex Strachan of Canwest:

• Great Canadian TV: What you might have missed
  “Canadians love Canadians. Canadians love television. But Canadians don’t always love Canadian television. There is, however, some great TV being created north of the 49th parallel, despite our national boob-tube inferiority complex.” Read more.

From Alex Strachan of Canwest News Service:

• Flashpoint’s field-leading total of 19 nominations a tipping point — in a good way — for the Gemini Awards
  “The Geminis are coming of age. Just look at the list of nominees for best dramatic series from Tuesday’s announcement, if you doubt that. Being Erica, The Border, Flashpoint, The Tudors and the Bosnian peacekeeper drama ZOS: Zone of Separation. Each and every one of them is distinctive in its own way, and deserves to be there — though The Tudors is only nominally a Canadian show.” Read more.

From a media release:

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is pleased to announce the nominations for the 24th Annual Gemini Awards, recognizing the year’s best in Canadian English-language television. The 2009 Broadcast Gala will take place on Saturday November 14th in Calgary, Alberta and will be broadcast live on Global and Showcase.

The drama Flashpoint leads the 2009 Gemini Awards nominations with a record 19 nominations, followed by The Tudors with 11 nominations. Being Erica, Diamonds, Less Than Kind, and The Border each received 9 nominations.

Click here for more information and a full list of nominees.

From a media release:

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) announces the 2009 DGC Awards nominations. Comedian Shaun Majumder will host the annual gala on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. See nominees here.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

• Seven ways to light up your winter
  “Being Erica (Mondays, CBC, 9 p.m.) is just terrific. If the ads convey that it’s some kinda girly-centric froth, don’t be fooled. It’s very entertaining for anyone – intelligent, serious and nuanced. Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk, who is exceptionally good), is single in Toronna but dealing with it, and her past, with aplomb.” Read more.

From Craig Takeuchi and Sean Minogue of the Georgia Straight:

• Canadian TV heats up the winter season
  “With layoffs at Canwest Global and CTV—plus whispers of cutbacks at the CBC—even our TV industry isn’t insulated from recent economic tremors. While belts tighten one notch, however, Canadian TV has kicked it up two. Two new CBC offerings, the dramedy Being Erica and the Alberta ranch tug-of-war Wild Roses, both debuted with ratings higher than the new 90210. And CTV’s Flashpoint drew 12 million viewers with its January 16 episode. Here are more shows to chill out with over the winter season.” Read more.

From Robert Cushman of the National Post:

• Zone of Separation is all soaped up with nowhere to go
  “For the third time in recent months, a character in a TV action drama finds himself – or in this case, herself – standing petrified atop an unexploded bomb. This scenario should be more gripping in Z0S: Zone of Separation, which is set against a real and recent conflict, than it was amid the fantasy heroics of Prison Break or 24. But in fact it’s less, precisely because the stakes and therefore the expectations are higher and they have not been met.” Read more.

From the Malta Independent:

• Maltese producer’s eight-part drama premieres tomorrow on Canadian TV
  “Hope is possible in ZOS and it is prized – but it’s always hard-won. Peacekeeping has pride of place in the Canadian national identity. It was, in fact, executive producer and director Mario Azzopardi’s pride in the country, which welcomed him as a young man from Malta almost 30 years ago, that was the catalyst for ZOS.” Read more.

From Brian Gorman of the Brantford Expositor

• Life and death in the space between the hate
  “Bosnia is one of those places that naturally lends itself to black humor and surrealism. Set in the former Yugoslav republic, “ZOS: Zone of Separation” is both. The eight-part series debuts Monday, Jan. 19, on Movie Central in Western Canada and The Movie Network in the East. And it blends high drama, black comedy and a surrealistic tragedy so dark that it occasionally wanders over the line into comedy.” Read more.

From Judith Klassen at Movie Entertainment:

• ZOS Judecast
  “In this podcast you get to listen to Jude chat with ZOS writer/showrunner/exec producer, Malcolm MacRury about his Monty Python esthetic, the first time he felt Canadian TV pride (SCTV), working on Deadwood with the Milch Man, and why the Canuck caster TMN is our best shot at creating killer television.” Listen now.

My interview with executive producer/writer Malcolm MacRury and actors Enrico Colantoni and Rick Roberts:

• In ZOS: Zone of Separation, Even Peace Is Hell
  “This is a story that could take place in Toronto, it could take place in New Orleans. All you have to do is shut the water off for a month and see what happens. This is in the heart of Europe. It’s supposed to be civilization. And it broke down into tribal religious violence, same way Belfast did. That’s why it’s important to tell the story now. We simplified it, too: it’s Christians and Muslims. Well, open the newspapers. That’s the debate all around the world right now.” Read more.

From Alex Epstein at Complications Ensue:

• Interview with ZOS showrunner Malcolm MacRury
  “Could you tell the story of a whole community in the same way that Deadwood told the formation of a civilization out of illegal opportunity and opportunism. Could you tell a story about a community that had had law and order and then descended into chaos and anarchy. Could you tell the story of that community, giving equal weight to all the partners, to see what happened to it.” Read:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4

From Brian Gorman of the Sudbury Star:

• Disturbing the peacekeepers
  “Bosnia is one of those places that naturally lends itself to black humor and surrealism. Set in the former Yugoslav republic, ZOS: Zone of Separation is both. The eight-part series debuts Monday, Jan. 19, on Movie Central in Western Canada and The Movie Network in the East. And it blends high drama, black comedy and a surrealistic tragedy so dark that it occasionally wanders over the line into comedy.” Read more.

From Joel Rubinoff of the Waterloo Record:

• Gritty drama takes an ambitious look at the private hell of peacekeepers
  “Ugly, depressing and filled with a surfeit of cable hallmarks — gratuitous sex, grisly violence and ear-bleeding profanity — this ambitious look at the private hell of UN peacekeepers trying to maintain a fragile truce between Muslim and Christian factions in a Casablanca-like no man’s land will be a poison pill for anyone hoping for feel-good homilies about doing the right thing.” Read more.

From Bill Harris of the Toronto Sun:

• ZOS realism really tough to watch
  “If a TV show makes you uncomfortable, does that necessarily mean you’re being entertained? It’s a question that crossed our minds as we were watching the debut episode of ZOS, an eight-part Canadian series that debuts Monday on The Movie Network and Movie Central. ZOS — which stands for Zone of Separation — is ambitious and well-done. But the truth is, we can’t really say we ‘enjoyed’ it at all.” Read more.

From Andrew Ryan of the Globe and Mail:

• He’s got a window seat for Zone of Separation’s in-flight premiere
  “Co-executive produced by Paul Gross and starring the fine Canadian actors Rick Roberts, Lolita Davidovich and Enrico Colantoni, ZOS is a damning indictment of the futilities of war. The program’s visual images are disturbing – young children are killed and wounded by land mines, a bolt-cutter is used as an implement of torture – but the violence is tempered by moral conscience and a solid script. Even with that kid kicking the back of my seat throughout the flight, I was immediately pulled into the story.” Read more.

From RM Vaughan of the Globe and Mail:

• Arms and the Woman
  “Michelle Nolden’s portrayal of burnt-out United Nations peacekeeper Captain Sean Kovacs in the miniseries ZOS: Zone of Separation (making its debut on The Movie Network on Jan. 19, but already available to Air Canada passengers) is the most realistic characterization of a woman in combat since, oddly enough, Sigourney Weaver took a bunch of slimy ET’s in hand (replace the spaceships with horses, and Alien is John Wayne’s The Alamo).” Read more.

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• New cable drama ‘ZOS: Zone of Separation’ premieres on Air Canada flights
  “Talk about a TV series hitting the airwaves. The new Canadian war drama “ZOS: Zone of Separation” premieres in the air, literally, when it debuts Thursday on Air Canada’s domestic and international flights. Nearly three weeks before hitting TV screens, the Movie Network/Movie Central series will court a captive audience of travellers through the airline’s inflight entertainment system as TV execs try out new ways to win eyeballs in an increasingly competitive market.” Read more.

From Mediacaster Magazine:

• Original Canadian Series Debuts In Air, Not On Air
  “Passengers on Air Canada flights will get an exclusive sneak peek of the new original TV series ZOS: Zone of Separation.” Read more.