All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “No Cure for Crazy”

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “No Cure for Crazy”
“One thing I feel so gratified about on Wynonna Earp now, and it’s one of the many joys of being in Season 3, is that the fans are here for it. They know we can throw them a curveball and instead of being angry about it, they are only going to be enticed. I’m really excited about next week and I think it’s just so much fun. And horrible.” Continue reading.

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Link: Frankie Drake Mysteries: Unsolving the mystery of what to expect for the upcoming season with Lauren Lee Smith

From Cierra Badhwar of Beyond Fashion:

Link: Frankie Drake Mysteries: Unsolving the mystery of what to expect for the upcoming season with Lauren Lee Smith
“The chemistry between all of the girls there is nothing forced, we all seriously love each other and everyone else.  It’s one of those things that just works.” Continue reading.

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Link: Wynonna Earp writer Brendon Yorke on writing room dynamics and shifting the tone

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp writer Brendon Yorke on writing room dynamics and shifting the tone
“By now there’s no excuse not to have a firm grasp on the characters. The challenge now is figuring out how they evolve in interesting and unexpected ways. Whatever they do still has to be something that character would do, but now it’s a matter of throwing new situations at them to test what we know about them.” Continue reading. 

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Comments and queries for the week of August 10

Thanks for the [Amazing Race Canada] tidbits. Bad placement if everyone came up the other side of the Mat. Kinda telegraphed the Navy ladies would be out. Even without the U-Turn they were an hour behind and 401 traffic in the afternoon. Lattes seemed easier and looked good. The charity tasks are a nice gesture but not really challenging nor good TV despite attempts to make it tense. Though the cheerleaders mistake was funny. Another prize to Asia without mentioning the sponsor. Likely Sinorama from last year that’s been in some trouble lately. Without them a future season will be even smaller in budget it seems. I read a few years back that the producers had to fight for four international episodes a year. Looks like it was cut down even further. Still more Face-Offs, meh. —DanAmazing


[Just in Time for Dinner] is a great show (I haven’t seen the original British version yet but will check it out). However, I too am very frustrated with the poor cooking skills and frequent references to bad dietary choices. “When I want hash browns I go to a drive thru and ask for six.” Seriously? Who feeds their children like that? Also interesting to watch an entire family eat with only forks! They do not know how to use a knife and fork together! Pity but probably culturally accurate… —Tina

I thought the lack of cooking skills in this family pathetic. Irritating to watch. Are 40-somethings really that clueless? —Claire

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Killjoys: Hannah John-Kamen and Luke Macfarlane look forward to Seasons 4 and 5

All hail Team Awesome Force.

Sure, there has been a lot of drama so far on this season on Killjoys, what with Hullen Johnny, Dutch and Aneela in the Green and a baby on the way for D’avin. But there’s also been a lot of fun too. A lot of swagger. I think a lot of that comes from a cast, writers, showrunner and crew who all get what they’re doing and are having a blast doing it.

With that in mind, here are our interviews with Hannah John-Kamen and Luke Macfarlane, conducted during a set visit earlier this year.

Hannah John-Kamen
I’ve already asked a couple of people about this. Obviously, as an actor, it’s good to know that you’ve got a couple of seasons still to go. Why is it important to you to be able to close this out?
Hannah John-Kamen: It’s a real soothing feeling, to be honest, just to know that we can close it out and we can do it properly. We know the time that we can do it in. There’s the story of the Killjoys and of Dutch, also introducing Aneela last season. Knowing that we’ve got two seasons to continue and know when it ends means that we can have a hell of an ending.

As one of the three main characters or actors on the show, you were doing heavy lifting anyway. Then you had another character for you to play. Was it a daunting feeling in the beginning? Is it still daunting?
HJK: No. Actually, to be honest with you I embraced her with open arms. It was just like, ‘OK. This is exciting.’ ‘Cause it’s just the creating of a character is the fun part. That’s the real fun part. I remember doing that with Dutch and figuring out who she is. Then introducing this new character which I suppose is a villainous character, but actually, she’s not and is actually finding when you play a villain, you actually play yourself like you’re the good guy. That was really fun to do, and I absolutely adored that. It was amazing to have such a juxtaposition of Dutch and to find her. That was fun creating.

How do you tap into Aneela?
HJK: It was amazing to see with the writers and actually figure out, what is her backstory? It’s all Khlyen. It’s all linked in with Khlyen. As Dutch, as an actor, Hannah working with Rob Stewart as Dutch and having that history with Khlyen it was amazing to use that history with Khlyen and create this one with Aneela which actually goes back way, way, way further and actually is more damaged.

Near the end of that season where we just found her backstory, and she’s just such a damaged individual. You had to feel bad for her. She’d been propped on this pedestal as being this villain and it was Khlyen all along.
HJK: It was Khlyen. Also, it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t ask to be that. Also what’s amazing is what Michelle [Lovretta] does which is amazing is, there’s no such thing as good and bad. Actually at some point, what was so fun was it flipped. You’re kind of going, ‘Dutch, you’re the bad guy and Aneela is the good guy.’ It was amazing to have that flip of the two characters and that, as an audience to go, ‘Oh god, I’m feeling confused. I’m feeling conflicted here.’

Obviously, you can’t give too much away but what’s the elevator pitch for Season 4?
HJK: Well, now we know that there’s a bigger force than the both of them. We’re gonna definitely, definitely try and destroy the greater evil.

Luke Macfarlane
What does it mean for you as an actor to have two seasons to wrap this up, aside from getting to know you got a gig for job stability?
Luke Macfarlane: Twenty episodes, yeah. Well, especially in this genre you are constantly making these really intricate things and you kind of hope it all goes somewhere. It feels like there’s satisfaction to the conclusion. What does it really mean to me? I mean, you always wonder about these characters. You wonder where they go off to in your mind so I think, I’m hoping there’s some sort of peace and rest for that because like I said, I’ve never been able to do that with a character on a television show. I imagine it’ll be sort of like a beautiful funeral. I don’t know if I’m going to die or not.

Even if you die in genre you can still come back. You never know what’s going to happen.
LM: This is true. As we found out in this show specifically.

D’avin is going to be a father. That must’ve messed with your mind a little bit when you read the script in Season 3 that that was going to happen.
LM: Totally, absolutely. It’s an amazing thing too where you just have to, the given circumstances are you are a dad now and we do this amazing sci-fi thing. He’s become somebody different as it’s gone on. I think he had the most to shuck off and he’s in a way having run away from a family, the guy who’s now building his own family. So it’s really interesting, really connecting with this part of the storyline for him. And hopefully, that will carry on to Season 5.

This character has grown because in Season 1, Episode 1 when we first met him it was almost immediately a pissing contest with Johnny. There’s just an ease between these characters now. It’s so much fun to just sit back and watch their adventures and not worry about squabbling between them.
LM: Totally. There’s always little disagreements and stuff but we’ve moved beyond squabbling for sure. I also think what’s interesting about the show is we’re so used to these kinds of tropes in television like two guys fight over the girl. We’re kind of past those tropes. So as an actor it’s funny to have to reinvent what we are. It’s a little bit more complicated than just your typical two brothers who like the girl and want the girl. So it always keeps you on your toes a little bit.

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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