From Craig Takeuchi of The Georgia Strait:
Link: Why CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is particularly important for Vancouver at this point in time
The success of CBC’s comedy TV series Kim’s Convenience could not have come at more crucial time for Vancouver—with the only regret being that it didn’t arrive sooner.
Amid racially charged debates over Vancouver’s overheated real-estate market, anti-Asian sentiment has risen to one of the most disconcerting levels in recent decades. Continue reading.
From Melissa Hank of Canada.com:
Link: Murdoch Mysteries returns for season 11 after cliffhanger
With the action in Murdoch Mysteries’ season finale squeezed in tighter than a size 10 gal in a size six corset, fans have been eagerly awaiting the period drama’s return. And with the episode Up From Ashes, airing Monday on CBC, it’s finally here. Continue reading.
From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:
Link: Steady hand: Dean Bennett reflects on 10 years of directing Heartland
“I was so interested (in) the quiet, man-of-few-words people who came along. When we did the pilot it was something that Shaun and I talked about. He created a character who really is the rock and the anchor of the Heartland series.” Continue reading.
From a media release:
Go Button Media announces that three seasons of their original television series Mom vs Matchmaker has been acquired by OUTtv. Season one (6 x 30’) and season two (12 x 30’) will air later this year on OUTtv. Season three (12 x 30’) has been commissioned to air in 2018. OutTV has acquired 30 episodes in total.
In an age where dating is dominated by apps and social media, Mom vs Matchmaker instead brings a new, fun twist to traditional matchmaking.” In Mom vs Matchmaker, sassy professional matchmaker Carmelia Ray goes head-to-head with an opinionated mom to see who can handpick and train the most suitable suitor for mother’s precious offspring. One single, two potential mates and two battling forces of nature. In the time of Tinder, can these titans of love generate game changing sparks for the single using whatever means necessary? Only one, mother or matchmaker, can make the winning match. The final twist, the single won’t know which date is a ringer for which cupid until the end.
Season one and two of Mom vs Matchmaker air in the United States on MyxTV. Season three will air on MyxTV in 2018. The series has been sold to Australia (E!), Middle East (Fox), North Africa (Fox), Discovery Latin America. Season one of the series previously aired on iChannel, FTV, and GSN in Canada. Season two will air on OUTtv and ZTV. Season three has been commissioned as a co-first window on OUTtv and Rewind. The series is licensed internationally by Electus International.
From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:
Link: Alias Grace: An ambitious, almost brilliant Margaret Atwood adaptation
Alias Grace (Monday, CBC, 9 p.m.) is tightly wound, stark and knowing about its central female protagonist. It is a very literary and at times elliptical adaptation, one that soars when it reaches into the elusive soul of Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) and at times the six-part series hits you like a headache, it is so charged and sententious. It is sometimes gloriously exciting as Grace is revealed in oh-so-many twisted ways and, simultaneously, it suffers from the great curse of Canadian TV drama – it becomes visually inert when imaginative vigour and freshness of expression are called for. Continue reading.
From Victoria Ahearn of The Canadian Press:
Link: Alias Grace comes at a ‘critical moment,’ says star Sarah Gadon
Sarah Polley’s new TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel “Alias Grace” has been about 20 years in the making.
As it turns out, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
Debuting Monday on CBC-TV and Nov. 3 on Netflix globally outside of Canada, the Ontario-shot miniseries comes after the smash success of another recent adaptation of Atwood’s work, eight-time Emmy winner “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Continue reading.
From Sonia Saraiya of Variety
Link: TV Review: Netflix’s ‘Alias Grace’
For a book that is essentially un-adaptable, though, “Alias Grace” presents a remarkably faithful and dazzlingly complex portrait of servant girl Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon), a real-life “celebrated murderess” who was found guilty and imprisoned, at 16, for the killing of her master and mistress. Continue reading.
From Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter:
Link: ’Alias Grace’: TV Review
Polley and Harron (and Atwood’s source material) represent a powerful and thoroughly in-synch writing-directing team, spinning six episodes of television out of a story that is, on its surface, barely a film’s worth of plot. Continue reading.
From Courtney Shea of Toronto Life:
Link: Q&A: Sarah Gadon, the star of CBC’s new Atwood adaptation, Alias Grace
My agent sent me the script. When I saw it was a Sarah Polley project, I flipped out. Growing up in Toronto, I had always looked up to her as an actress, and I’ve watched her evolve into a director, producer and writer. I’ve always carried around a secret dream that maybe one day I might get to work with her. Continue reading.
