Yearly Archives: 2015

X Company

Link: X Company Deserves Its Second Season

From James Bawden:

X Company Deserves Its Second Season
X Company is CBC’s new World War II drama that probably seems even better than it is. That’s because of the sheer lack of competition: the conventional Canadian networks simply will not make anything they cannot sell to the U.S. market.

Witness the cruel fate of Global’s Combat Hospital –one dazzling summer run followed by a cancellation after ABC pulled the plug in the U.S.

Of course I expected X Company to be greatly entertaining fare. After all it was created by Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern who created the CTV hit Flashpoint. Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Survivorman searches for Sasquatch

I’ve always enjoyed Les Stroud’s show, Survivorman. I know I’d be dead if I was left in any of the situations he has been in, but it’s fun as heck to watch him fight to survive in hostile settings like the Arctic, jungle and plains.

Stroud returns Wednesday for six special episodes on OLN that focus on a legendary creature I’ve been fascinated with since I was a kid: Bigfoot. Stroud was given special permission by a Native Canadian band to stake out a spot in Klemtu, B.C., an area known as such a hot spot for Sasquatch that it’s not even a question of whether the hairy beasts exist because townsfolk have seen them walking down the main street and in their back yards.

Small-screen searches for Bigfoot have been around for years—Finding Bigfoot may be the most popular—and none have captured real, tangible evidence of the animals save for screams in the night and plaster casts of footprints. And the same holds true for Survivorman, at least until the last segment of Wednesday’s debut. It’s then that Stroud, who is virtually unshakable in all of his survival experiences, catches a major case of the willies thanks to something happening that he can’t explain.

Unlike traditional episodes where Stroud is dumped in a location, sets up camp and starts recording with cameras right away, the premiere spends several minutes taking sweeping shots of the town with eyewitness accounts flashing on-screen. This isn’t about surviving on what he catches in the water or in traps, or about keeping warm, this is about encountering a Bigfoot. Along the way, Stroud outlines how hoaxers have, over the years, faked footsteps, and addresses Bigfoot naysayers who say the lack of any found skeletons means the animals don’t exist.

Does Stroud finally pull back the curtain on one of our biggest mysteries? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Survivorman: Bigfoot airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on OLN.

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Orphan Black

Link: Ksenia Solo says her Orphan Black character is no Kenzi

From  Cassandra Szklarski of Canadian Press:

Ksenia Solo says her Orphan Black character is no Kenzi
Lost Girl fans still mourning the loss of beloved character Kenzi may be surprised by actress Ksenia Solo’s turn on Space’s Orphan Black.

Solo says it’s a much different role, and fans of the Showcase serial shouldn’t be expecting some sort of resurrection of their spunky heroine.

“I think maybe in people’s minds they imagine Kenzi coming into clone club,” Solo said Tuesday while also promoting her upcoming role in the AMC series Turn: Washington’s Spies. Continue reading.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

BNN shakes up business with The Disruptors

From a media release:

With a flood of innovative Canadian companies set to go public this year, the next vanguards of our economic growth are popping up everywhere. These are the companies that see and exploit inefficiencies, disrupt the large and lazy and can keep future generations competitive. But few of them will make it to the public markets or the “big exit” without a lot of luck and a lot of help. Airing Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET beginning April 16, BNN’s all-new, original series THE DISRUPTORS traces the most exciting international business news and trends from incubators and venture capitalists, to young entrepreneurs and CEOs of some of the most innovative companies in the world, offering expert analysis and advice to smaller Canadian companies looking to scale up fast. BNN anchor and reporter Amber Kanwar co-hosts the new weekly, half-hour series along with Bruce Croxon, one of the country’s indisputable disruptors, who co-founded the wildly successful online dating site, Lavalife.

Each week, the duo analyzes pitches from the hottest prospects, offering a frank assessment of whether they stand a chance of becoming the next Uber, Airbnb, or Facebook. Hard-nosed, scoop-loving business reporter Kanwar believes innovation has its place, but it better be profitable. Croxon mostly agrees, but the digital disciple also believes no profitable company is safe from the next disruption. THE DISRUPTORS also welcomes leading CEOs of Canadian and international companies who share their own success stories, along with their thoughts on the risks faced by start-ups fighting for traction.

Behind the story pitch that resulted in the creation of THE DISRUPTORS, BNN’s Kanwar specializes in equity markets and is constantly digging for stocks flying under the radar, trends that are about to emerge, and curating research to make it accessible to viewers. Kanwar has interviewed CEOs from across the C-Suite, and brings the day’s biggest business stories to viewers on BNN, CP24 and CTV News Channel.

THE DISRUPTORS is produced by BNN, with additional research provided by BetaKit, the nation’s foremost source for Canadian start-up news and tech innovation.

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Featured, Podcast, Strange Empire

TV Eh B Cs podcast 18 – Aaron Poole and the Charcoal Lemonade Conspiracy

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Aaron Poole broke out in his defining performance in Ed Gass-Donnelly’s This Beautiful City, a film for which he was also a producer. He’s played a recurring role on TMN’s Z.O.S: Zone of Separation and was featured in Atom Egoyan’s Adoration. After filming the third act to American indie hit, Circumstance, in Lebanon, Aaron teamed up with Ed Gass- Donnelly and producer Lee Kim once again for the feature Small Town Murder Songs.

Poole is an executive producer and one of the lead actors in The Conspiracy, a mockumentary thriller about secret socieities. Additionally he’s been in Showcase’s Crash and Burn, HBO Canada’s Living in Your Car, the Global series King, BBC America’s Copper, and most recently on CBC’s Strange Empire. He was also featured in Samuel L. Jackson’s The Samaritan, Jason Priestley’s Cas & Dylan, and Jon Cassar’s film Forsaken, starring opposite Kiefer and Donald Sutherland.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to become a Patron of the Podcast? We’ve got a Patreon page where you can donate a small amount per podcast and get a sneak peek of each release.

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