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.
Baroness von Sketch Show, Featured

CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show is back for even better Season 2

In what’s quickly become a wonderful summer tradition, CBC marks the end of June with the returns of Still Standing and Baroness von Sketch Show. Look for my interview with Still Standing host Jonny Harris elsewhere on the site; this column is all about the funny ladies of Baroness von Sketch Show.

Returning Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC, the first season was a riotous romp through the minds of Carolyn Taylor, Aurora Browne, Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeil and the crazy, kooky and creative characters and situations they came up with. The group won a well-deserved Canadian Screen Award earlier this year for Best Writing for a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series and they’ve returned to form in this sophomore season. (Check out my feature story on the ladies in Canadian Screenwriter Magazine.)

The troupe’s Mad Max-inspired bit has been posted on social media over the past few weeks and is the first sketch following Tuesday’s opening credits for the episode entitled “It Satisfies on a Very Basic Level.” Filmed on the shores of Lake Ontario, it’s a well-written, supremely acted segment showing a quartet of strong women in a post-apocalyptic world where all men have been killed so ladies may rule. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe, though the truth comes out. MacNeil, as in Season 1, grabs laughs not just with her delivery and facial expressions but her entire body. A sky-high orange mohawk and fur cape complete her ludicrous look.

Browne nabs a serious laugh in the next skit regarding showing ID when shopping for a certain item, a brief history lesson on menstruation is given next, followed by an uncomfortable situation that arises when someone forgets not to ask about one woman’s ex.

Unlike Saturday Night Live, where sketches often go on way too long on expired laughs, Baroness Von Sketch Show is tight, quick and to the point. The Season 2 writing room contained—in addition to Taylor, MacNeil, Whalen and Browne— award-winning author and poet Zoe Whittall (The Best Kind of People), author Monica Heisey (I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better: A Woman’s Guide to Coping with Life), Jennifer Goodhue (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), standups Mae Martin, Elvira Kurt and Dawn Whitwell, Ann Pornel and Alex Tindal (The Sketchersons), playwright Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Ify Chiwetelu, artist and writer Mariko Tamaki, Evany Rosen and Nelu Handa. The result? A summer of continuous laughs.

Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Featured, Still Standing

CBC’s Still Standing kicks off Season 3 in Fort McMurray

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It isn’t within Still Standing‘s guidelines to visit a place like Fort McMurray. After all, one of the stand-up/documentary hybrid’s keystones is to visit small communities across the country and Fort McMurray’s population is over 61,000. But the other rule is to focus on an area hit by hard times, and you don’t get much harder hit than the Alberta town which saw much of its area consumed by wildfires.

Returning with two back-to-back episodes on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBC, Harris and his crew stop in Fort McMurray during the first half-hour before jetting to Bell Island, Nfld, for the second instalment.

“We thought the story [in Fort McMurray] was so compelling and important that, with the one-year anniversary of the evacuation coming up [for filming], it was a story we could tell,” Harris told us during CBC’s upfront media day. Harris, his writers and producers spent several days in the area, interacting with folks and preparing original standup material to be performed for the community. Rewatching video of the events of May 3, 2016, brings the seriousness of the situation to light. It’s not, you’d think, something folks would want to laugh about. But they do, whether it’s at Harris’ suggestion some folks’ sins brought hell upon them or his own admission he’d freak out during an emergency.

But the episode is as much about joking about the situation as it is about the little triumphs and “disasterhood.” People offered up food, clothing, water and rooms to those affected by the conflagration. And, over a year later, the community is rebuilding, burgeoning and offering surprises.

“I was amazed by how multicultural it is there,” he Harris says. “I’ve met people from every corner of the globe in Fort McMurray and it doesn’t have that rough and tumble, work camp sort of feel. It’s got great restaurants and a healthier art scene than you might expect.”

The mark of a community getting back on its feet.

Still Standing airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Wynonna Earp

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Gonna Getcha Good”

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Gonna Getcha Good”
“That’s the problem with someone like Doc in that he can be cool as a cucumber and reject your drunken self in the bar, but then with one line and one intense look with those blue eyes and a twitch of that mustache you’re back in! Tim Rozon is so good and he just gets it and what that line has to be.” Continue reading.

From Nivea Serrao of Entertainment Weekly:

Link: Wynonna Earp EP says Waverly is under ‘a stone-cold possession’
“One of the things I love about Wynonna Earp is there’s a real sense of destiny and fate versus free will. Wynonna has been fated to become this hero. She has to pick up the mantle of fighting these revenants. She isn’t really given a choice. The Ghost River Triangle is a mystical place that really likes to have its players where it wants it — so Dolls didn’t have a choice on some level. But we’ll find out very shortly why he’s back and how he has returned and what they’re going to do about it ’cause he’s not in the best shape. In fact, Waverly is looking at him like she looks at a spider snack.” Continue reading.

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Dark Matter

Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “All the Time in the World”

From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:

Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “All the Time in the World”
“I knew the guy I wanted in the time loop would be Three. Anthony just nailed it, he was terrific in this episode. Then it was just making use of his forte; besides his comic abilities, his knowledge of the French language, which figured in quite nicely as well.” Continue reading.

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Industry News

Link: Pride Month: 10 shows that prove Canadian TV does representation right

From Victoria Nelli of The TV Junkies:

Link: Pride Month: 10 shows that prove Canadian TV does representation right
The Canadian TV industry boasts shows that not only featured an LGBTQ character, but also provide them with a stellar platform to evoke change, make waves, and serve as a beacon of hope, and for that, we are extremely grateful! Continue reading.

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