Yearly Archives: 2012

Bomb Girls

Bomb Girls is Downton Abbey for badasses

From Alex Cranz of Fempop:

  • Bomb Girls: Downton Abbey for Badasses
    We all love Downton Abbey. It’s soapy good fun where everyone talks all old timey and they have to wear goggles and gloves to drive and you want to dissect every episode until you realize you spent one entire episode deeply concerned with the status of Matthew’s junk. Bomb Girls is like that in that you do sometimes have to question the status of wheelchair bound dudes’ junk and everyone talks old timey and it is soapy. But also it isn’t rehashing Upstairs, Downstairs class stratification themes. Instead it is about a bunch of Canadian women in 1941 building bombs to blow up Nazis and having romantic problems while catchy tunes play and people talk about “gams” and “socking people in the kisser.” Read more.

From Chris Lackner of Postmedia News:

  • Bomb Girls finale worth watching
    While the show’s individual Bomb Girls each wage climactic personal battles (from unwanted pregnancy to an abusive father), they’re also collectively forced to confront a new reality: The war has come home to North America with an attack on Pearl Harbor. Read more.
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Dramas and Comedies

Stephen Leacock’s legacy onscreen Sunday

From Gayle MacDonald of the Globe and Mail:

  • Stephen Leacock’s legacy: Yes, it includes Bubbles
    The quirky centre of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town has just clocked 100 years on the shelf – and to mark that moment there’s a new two-hour TV adaptation on CBC. The story’s return to the airways (CBC first did a series based on the book 60 years ago) isn’t just a nostalgia trap, however. It’s also an opportunity to explore Leacock’s ongoing impact – his fans range from Groucho Marx to The Goon Show gang to John Cleese to John Lennon – but most of all on comedy itself. Read more.
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Dramas and Comedies, Featured

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town’s Malcolm MacRury on making “Anne of Green Gables on Acid”

Malcolm MacRury (Cra$h & Burn, ZOS: Zone of Separation, Republic of Doyle, Deadwood, The Man Without a Face) is the screenwriter and an executive producer on Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, based on Stephen Leacock’s classic book as well as the author’s life. MacRury recently answered some questions on this literary reimagining, airing Sunday, February 12 on CBC.

In the television movie, co-produced with Movie Central, the elder Stephen Leacock (Gordon Pinsent) narrates the tale of his boyhood self at age 14 (Owen Best). The movie combines two key stories from Leacock’s comic masterpiece: the sinking of The Mariposa Belle steamer with its holiday crowd in the perilously shallow waters of Lake Wissanotti, and the frantic campaign to save Mariposa’s hotel and bar from the Liquor Commission’s shutdown.

Why this book at this time for you?

I’ve loved Stephen Leacock ever since I fled academia to write comedy. Here was a genius who could do both — write best-selling humour books that went around the world and also teach political economy at McGill. I’ve been on a mission to bring his comic masterpiece, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, to TV for about 20 years. The stars finally aligned when the centenary of his book and the 75th anniversary of the CBC coincided. Timing is everything!

Continue reading Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town’s Malcolm MacRury on making “Anne of Green Gables on Acid” →

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Featured, Industry News

TV, Eh? Industry Update – DVD, Apple iTV, CTS, More

Canadian TV-on-DVD news

Flashpoint‘s third season debuts on DVD in Canada May 22, 2012, through Phase 4 Films. A Blu-ray set has not yet been announced.

More information on the Rookie Blue second-season DVD/Blu-ray set. The set was first mentioned at TV, Eh? last Friday.

Apple iTV to launch in Canada?

Rogers and/or Bell might partner with Apple for iTV in Canada. Essentially, iTV is a television version of Apple’s iPad. Prototypes of the device are in Rogers and Bell’s possessions.

This should not be confused with Apple TV, a five-year-old product already available in Canada. Apple TV mainly streams online content from iTunes, and other selected sources, to television screens.

According to Best Buy’s American branch, a 42-inch Apple iTV, with a built-in webcam and iCloud support, will hypothetically retail for $1499 US. As the product is still in testing stages, prices may vary if/when Apple iTV actually hits the market.

Continue reading TV, Eh? Industry Update – DVD, Apple iTV, CTS, More →

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