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.
X Company

Link: X Company: Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern talk “Friendly Fire”

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: X Company: Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern talk “Friendly Fire”
“It’s one of those classic things where you set these two people in motion and create a powerful dynamic between them, but if it’s too quickly or easily satisfied then it loses all its power. We’ve been stretching this elastic for as long as we think is right. We definitely wanted to give them this moment of being able to be completely free with each other.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Paranormal Survivor gets spookier in Season 3

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Oh, lucky day! Specialty network T+E (formerly known as Travel & Escape) is available in a free preview in March, meaning potential customers have access to one of the creepiest series on television: Paranormal Survivors.

Returning on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Paranormal Survivor takes a different approach from the usual supernatural series. This isn’t just about turning out the lights and waving technology around in the air, asking questions into thin air. Nope, this project—from Our House Media—interviews people who have been assaulted and abused by entities. As they tell their tale, re-enactments bring it to life, injecting disturbing details and driving home the fact they believe something awful happened to them.

In the first part of the debut, “Dream Home Nightmares,” Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., resident Kirk Wilson and his mother, Colleen, recount their 1987 experience. Moved items, strangely stacked CDs and a feeling of being watched plagued Kirk for months until one night when several “things” came out of his closet. Kirk was determined to ignore the occurrences … but then it got physical. There is no doubt Kirk his mother believe otherworldly stuff happened, and that’s what makes Paranormal Survivor so darned dramatic and, at times, disturbing.

In addition to the episodes on television, T+E has also released a series of one-minute digital shorts called Paranormal Survivor: Evil Surrounds You, available on the channel’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Each video features a one-minute scary scene based on true story. It’s very well done; I was suitably freaked out tracking my way around a darkened bedroom as something came out of the closet in the first clip. (A technical heads-up: the videos don’t work in Safari, so use another browser to witness the creepiness below.)

 

 

 

Paranormal Survivor airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on T+E.

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Saving Hope prepares for a tumultuous goodbye

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Five years. Eighty-five episodes. Regardless of what country it’s been created and filmed in, Saving Hope is a success story. Now we’re saying goodbye to CTV’s medical drama, but the Canadian Screen Award nominee—returning Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT—isn’t going quietly.

Executive producer and showrunner Adam Pettle and co-executive producers Noelle Carbone and Patrick Tarr (the latter two are currently writing Season 3 of Cardinal), sat down with us during a Saving Hope set visit last summer and hinted at the drama Alex (Erica Durance) and Charlie (Michael Shanks) will go through, and what will befall recent lovebirds Dawn (Michelle Nolden) and Zach (Benjamin Ayres). And keep your eyes peeled for our interviews with Nolden, Ayres and Dejan Loyola in the coming weeks.

At what point did you know there would be a Season 5?
Adam Pettle: I think it was October, just after the Season 4 debut. We were still working on the season finale and weren’t sure if we would be writing a series finale or a season finale.

Noelle Carbone: I think every series [in Canada] is in the same boat where you write for a series finale and hope it’s a season finale.

What would have happened if last season’s finale was the series finale? Would it have been different?
Adam Pettle: Yes, and you’ll see it this year. Maybe.

Noelle Carbone: [Laughs.] Yeah, we’re just going to recycle our idea!

I understand you had to close off the street in front of the Royal York Hotel downtown to film part of the Season 5 return. Is that the biggest shoot you’ve done?
Adam Pettle: My feeling was, we wanted to come back and have a different energy and pace to this year’s premiere than last year’s. Last year it was quieter because Alex and Charlie were together and in this domestic setting. We’ve been rooting for them to be together.

Will Crenshaw be back in Season 5?
Patrick Tarr: We’ll definitely be feeling his effects.

You brought Alex and Charlie together … but I understand things may change?
Adam Pettle: Saving Hope is a love story between Charlie and Alex and to have an emotional payoff for fans [is important]. They’ve also had really shitty luck and need to figure out some stuff.

Noelle Carbone: As in real life, having a baby doesn’t always solve your problems. There is a lot of work to be done in solving the fundamental problems of that relationship. Every time they get together something tragic happens. [Charlie] might see ghosts or he might be crazy. Alex has been searching for a cure, suggesting that he have the surgery to remove the brain tumour. She’s not 100 per cent bought into his reality and that’s a fundamental disparity between them. Luke—as adorable as he is and as much as they love him—is not going to solve that.

Patrick Tarr: We have these great lead actors [in Erica Durance and Michael Shanks] and to give them real challenges and real places to go—yearning and frustration—there is a lot more there than in contentment. To give them some scenes to really sink their teeth into was motivation as well.

Adam Pettle: Alex is our hero and I think putting her in a place where she’s doubting herself or having a crisis of faith is identifiable.

I noticed a name on the call sheet that says ‘Ghost Claudia.’ Obviously, having the tumour removed did not change what Charlie can see.
Patrick Tarr: That’s right, and some might say at some point in the season it comes back with a vengeance.

Noelle Carbone: The Season 4 finale did such a wonderful job opening up that spiritual world to what is possible for Charlie. It was so visual and so different … how do we build on that and how do we evolve that experience for him seemed like a natural progression for Season 5.

Dawn and Zach have a solid relationship now.
Noelle Carbone: In the read-through, when they finally got together, everybody cheered. Everyone here is as invested in them as much as a fans are.

Adam Pettle: Even inside of the Dawn and Zach relationship we want to give them obstacles and challenges. We have to keep those characters who they are so that they don’t become soft.

Patrick Tarr: They’re prickly people, so that makes it easy to create some tension in their relationship. They’re both fully-formed people with opinions.

Noelle Carbone: We also threw some professional challenges at them in the early part of the season that I think will galvanize their relationship.

Saving Hope airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Awards, Featured

Kevin Hanchard, Murdoch Mysteries and Andrew Phung take home trophies during Night 2 of Canadian Screen Awards

Orphan Black‘s Kevin Hanchard, Murdoch Mysteries – A Merry Murdoch Christmas, Slasher‘s Wendy Crewson, Schitt’s Creek‘s Emily Hampshire, Baroness Von Sketch Show and Kim’s Convenience‘s Andrew Phung were among the winners in the Creative Fiction categories during Night 2 of the Canadian Screen Awards.

Hosted by Seán Cullen, the non-televised celebration honoured 42 categories in the guest performance, writing, directing, photography, editing, production design, visual effects, sound, limited, variety and sketch comedy.

“We celebrate all of you in the creative industry,” Cullen said at the beginning of the night. “You are the Steve Bannon of this industry.” He then mentioned Canada’s 150th anniversary before poking fun at Murdoch Mysteries. “The only mystery about Murdoch Mysteries is how to stop yourself from being lost in Yannick Bisson’s eyes,” he said.

“I want to thank Pete Mitchell,” Murdoch Mysteries executive producer Christina Jennings said after A Merry Murdoch Christmas was named Best TV Movie. “He has been running Murdoch Mysteries for six seasons and we are now at 150 hours of television.”

Here are the winners in several of the key categories:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting role in a Dramatic Program or Series
Kevin Hanchard, Orphan Black

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting role in a Dramatic Program or Series
Wendy Crewson, Slasher

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting role or Guest role in a Comedic Series
Andrew Phung, Kim’s Convenience

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting role or Guest role in a Comedic Series
Emily Hampshire, Schitt’s Creek

Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series
Baroness Von Sketch Show, CBC

Best Writing in a Comedy Program or Series
Jared Keeso, Jacob Tierney, Letterkenny

Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Limited Series
Peter Mitchell, Murdoch Mysteries – A Very Murdoch Christmas

Best Writing in a Dramatic Series
Graeme Manson, Orphan Black

Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series
Alejandro Alcoba, Degrassi: Next Class

Best Writing in an Animated Program or Series
Craig Martin, Nerds and Monsters

Best Performance in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series
Brittany Raymond, The Next Step

Best Performance in an Animated Program or Series
Martin Short, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about Camping!

Best Performance in a Guest Role, Dramatic Series
Edward Asner, Forgive Me

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Limited Series
Ben Carlson, The Taming of the Shrew

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Limited Series
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Unclaimed

Best Performing Arts Program
The Taming of the Shrew, CBC

Best Pre-School Program or Series
PAW Patrol, TVO

Best Animated Program or Series
The Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale, CBC

Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series
Odd Squad, TVO

Best TV Movie or Limited Series
Murdoch Mysteries – A Merry Murdoch Christmas, CBC

Best Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series
Baroness Von Sketch Show, CBC

The complete list of winners from Wednesday night.

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Industry News

The Canadian Academy launches new apprenticeship program for female directors

From a media release:

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television today announced the creation of a new Apprenticeship Program for female directors, as part of the organization’s year-round initiatives addressing pertinent issues within the film, television, and digital media sectors. This initiative will receive major support from The RBC Emerging Artists Project and Canada Media Fund (CMF). The Apprenticeship Program will assist early and mid-career female directors in film, television or digital media to identify and achieve their career and project goals, hone their directing skills, and develop a network of allies to springboard the advancement of their work.

“The Academy believes that gender equality in key creative positions shaping story-telling content, is an essential element of a vibrant and profitable media industry,” said Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. “Homogeneity on ours screens is a missed opportunity to capitalize on the diverse experiences of Canadians. It is this belief that motivates the Academy to develop its own programming to address this industry-wide issue.”

“The CMF is delighted to support this program. Supporting third-party initiatives such as this one is part of the CMF’s broader strategy to increase gender balance in Canada’s screen-based industries,” stated Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “We believe that the female talent and skill are out there. We only need to level the playing field, so new opportunities for women can be triggered. I’m certain this and other initiatives being implemented by organizations across our industry will trigger those opportunities.”

Participants will shadow a working director in their own region for six months, while also participating in bi-weekly working sessions with other participants, conducted via Google hangout. These hangouts will include guest speakers who will run working sessions on practical skills that are essential for every director to have in their toolbox. A small honorarium will be provided to the participants.

The Academy will hold an open call starting in May 2017 to recruit participants for the Apprenticeship Program, with the goal of ensuring diverse regional representation and with special attention paid to outreach among Canadian women who are members of typically underrepresented groups in the mainstream media industry, including Indigenous Canadians. Applicants will submit a Statement of Interest, and will be asked to include a sample of their work and a letter of recommendation from a colleague, mentor, or peer.

The Academy will convene a diverse, regionally representative Selection Committee of six established professionals from the industry. These six experts will select the inaugural cohort of participants. Once the six candidates have been selected, the Academy will work with each mentee to understand her goals and to pair each participant with a regionally appropriate mentor who is an established professional working in the film, television, or digital media sector.

In order to ensure a robust, rigorous programme that is truly national in scope, the Academy is building an advisory committee, which will include organization working to promote female directors from all regions. Women in View is the first organization on the committee.  The Academy looks forward to engaging with other industry partners to support the program and enrich the experience of its participants

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