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.
Industry News

Link: A message to new CBC president Catherine Tait: Commit to great TV, not the ordinary

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From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: A message to new CBC president Catherine Tait: Commit to great TV, not the ordinary
Far be it from me to join the lineup of pundits offering advice and analysis to Catherine Tait, the incoming CBC president. But, in the matter of CBC English-language TV, there’s an issue: Where’s the great stuff?

This week the legal drama Burden of Truth was renewed by CBC. Why? Seriously, why is this mediocre, generic drama going to go on and on, sucking up money resources and airtime on our public broadcaster? I’m all for fun and entertainment, but this workmanlike series is just that — bland, ordinary stuff. Continue reading.

 

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Frankie Drake Mysteries

More mystery to go around: Frankie Drake Mysteries greenlit for Season 2

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From a media release:

From the Shimmy to Art Deco, the Roaring Twenties return with Shaftesbury’s prohibition-era-set FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES renewed for a second season (10 x 60) by CBC, UKTV, and Kew Media Group. Season 1 of the series garnered an audience average of 782,000 on CBC, making FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES the public broadcaster’s second-most-watched drama of the current broadcast season after Murdoch Mysteries.

FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES stars Lauren Lee Smith (The Shape of Water, The Listener, The L Word) as the private eye with the mysterious past Frankie Drake, Chantel Riley (Race, The Lion King) as Frankie’s fearless and clever partner Trudy Clarke, Rebecca Liddiard (Alias Grace, Houdini & Doyle) as keen police morality officer Mary Shaw, and Sharron Matthews (Mean Girls, Odd Squad) as spirited morgue attendant Flo.

Season one saw secrets emerge from Frankie’s tightly hidden past, from discovering her mother alive and working as a con woman, to her friends uncovering her past as a spy. What other secrets will be discovered about the enigmatic Frankie Drake in season two?

Set in 1920s Toronto, FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES follows the city’s only female private detectives as they take on the cases the police don’t want to touch. In a time of change and hopefulness, their gender is their biggest advantage as they defy expectations and rebel against convention. Their cases take them through every cross-section of Toronto, meeting people of all backgrounds and means, as well as historical characters, along the way. Frankie and Trudy’s fearless sense of adventure gets them into all kinds of trouble, but they always manage to find a way out. They are new detectives for a new world – but is the world ready for them?

Created by Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci, FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES is executive produced by Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, Carol Hay, and James Hurst, who also serves as showrunner, Ruba Nadda serves as lead director/co-executive producer, and Teresa Ho is producer. A CBC original series, FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES is developed and produced by Shaftesbury in association with CBC and UKTV, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, and the Bell Fund. Kew Media Group is the global distributor of the series.

Source: Numeris TV Meter, Nov. 6, 2017 – Feb. 5, 2018, CBC, A2+, Mon. 9:01-10:00p, Total Canada, AMA, generated by InfoSys+TV

 

 

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Featured, The Nature of Things

Preview: The Nature of Things celebrates the fun and fearsome world of fungi

To me, there is nothing better than a nice pile of sauteed mushrooms nestled up against a grilled steak. But those buttery morsels merely scratch the surface on the beautiful, dangerous and important world of fungi.

The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World, airing as part of The Nature of Things on Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBC, is the result of a three-year journey by science documentary director Annamária Tálas that digs deep into fungi, those odd-shaped, sometimes colourful things that are neither plant nor animal and exist much of the time out of sight. Some facts to get you thinking … and possibly freak you out: a fungus in Oregon is 3.4 square miles large and is 2,400 years old. The mushroom you see poking out of the ground is merely the fungi’s fruiting body; the main body is a mass of filaments underground that form the mycelium, a fungal network tied to water, minerals and sugars with trees. Also? Fungi spores are everywhere. Like, on you right now. Yeah.

All of this is revealed in The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World thanks to folks like Professor Lynne Boddy, Dr. Mark Fricker, Dr. Anne A. Madden and Professor Rob Dunn, and stunning still and time-lapse photography from Steve Axford. Through their words and images, we learn how fungi have evolved to survive by consuming and recycling matter to feed itself, defending itself against harm, and that experts have only identified less than one per cent of the estimated five million fungi species.

Fungi have been on Earth for a long time. About a billion years ago, the planet began to be populated by microbes that contained bacteria and, eventually, fungi. Those first critters consumed the minerals contained in rocks and established a foothold on the planet. Later, land-bound fungi and marine algae swapped nutrients to start the process of plant-life evolution and the greening of the planet. And, on the opposite end of the life cycle, fungi consume dead plant life that in turn enriches the soil and encourages new growth.

Meanwhile, the fact we’re mammals seems to be the reason why most fungi haven’t killed us already. The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World is a truly fascinating, and admittedly creepy, peek at an alien lifeform that has been integral to all life on Earth.

The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World airs as part of The Nature of Things on Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of Stephen Axford.

 

 

 

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Pure

Super Channel commissions second season of Pure from Two East Productions and Cineflix

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From a media release:

Super Channel is pleased to announce that it has commissioned a second season of PURE, the critically acclaimed, Canadian Screen Award-nominated series from Two East Productions and Cineflix.

The six-part Super Channel Original Production will tell the continuing story of Noah and Anna Funk, Mennonites trying to protect their family and preserve their faith while battling drug trafficking within their community. The second season is scheduled to begin production in Nova Scotia later this spring and anticipated to premiere on Super Channel in early 2019.

“We are thrilled to be working with Michael Amo and the team at Two East and Cineflix to bring PURE back for Canadian fans of the series,” said Melissa Kajpust, Vice President, Programming for Super Channel. “We jumped at the chance to bring this compelling drama set in a unique world to a pay-tv audience. There is so much more to the story to be told and we are excited the creators will have the creative freedom to take the story in new directions.”

Showrunner Michael Amo said: “As a storyteller, I couldn’t ask for better creative partners or more compelling characters. Noah’s path will lead him to redemption or perdition, while Anna, exiled by her community, will be forced to outsmart the new cartel kingpin all by herself. It’s going to be a fun ride.”

“We could not be more pleased and thankful to work with Super Channel to bring audiences a second season of PURE in which Michael is taking Anna and Noah on an even more conflicted and perilous journey,” added Cineflix President, Peter Emerson.

PURE takes us deep inside a closed, secretive subculture through the eyes of a conflicted, good-hearted Mennonite couple trying to protect their family and preserve their faith.

Inspired by actual events, PURE is the journey of Noah and Anna Funk, determined to rid their community of the scourge of drugs and its nefarious ties to a transborder smuggling alliance with ruthless Mexican cocaine cartels. But just when they believe the danger is behind them, they are pulled back into a world of violence, greed, and betrayal. Returning cast for season two include Ryan Robbins (Arrow, The Killing) as Noah Funk and Alex Paxton-Beesley (Cardinal, Copper) as Anna Funk.

Produced by Two East Productions and Cineflix in association with Super Channel, WGN America, Hulu and the CBC, PURE is created and written by Michael Amo (The Listener) with Ken Girotti (Orphan Black, Vikings) as the series Director. Amo and Girotti serve as executive producers for the second season, along with Brett Burlock, Peter Emerson and David MacLeod (Call Me Fitz, Haven). Cineflix Rights has the exclusive worldwide distribution rights to PURE.

 

 

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Industry News

Link: A Street Legal reboot is in the works — cue the sax solo

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From Vinay Menon of the Toronto Star:

Link: A Street Legal reboot is in the works — cue the sax solo
In this TV age of nostalgia and reboots, Street Legal is coming back.

A revival of the CBC drama, which earned water-cooler status in Canada between 1987 and 1994, is now in development at the CBC. Sources say there will be six new episodes, to be executive produced by veteran Bernie Zukerman (Net Worth, Conspiracy of Silence, Remedy). Continue reading. 

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