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.
Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Maureen Jennings pens this week’s Murdoch Mysteries

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Wow, did I miss a lot while I was away! A three-week vacation in France meant I missed out on James Gillies’ final appearance (is he really dead this time?!) and my usual Murdoch Mysteries‘ writer chats. I’ll get going on those beginning next week; in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at Monday’s new episode, “The Missing.”

Maureen Jennings wrote the episode
Fans know Jennings created Det. William Murdoch and his world, and she concocted tonight’s instalment: 20 years after a child was kidnapped, Murdoch investigates the identity of a man claiming to be the wealthy heir.

Spooky starter
The episode begins with a flashback, and it’s super-creepy. We’re not talking James Gillies level odd, but the first few frames definitely made us feel uncomfortable.

Hooray for Detective Watts
I’m a big fan of Daniel Maslany’s offbeat—and brilliant—Det. Watts. He’s the ying to Murdoch’s yang, and I took particular pleasure in him teaming with Jackson on the missing women case. Aside from some funny moments between them, Watts reveals tragedy in his past.

Crabtree’s still hurting
I was hoping Nina and George would patch things up and rekindle their romance, but as “The Missing” began they were still apart, much to Crabtree’s chagrin. However, a certain lady he’s spoken to this season does walk back into his life, offering an opportunity he hadn’t considered before.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on CBC.

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Cardinal, Featured

John Cardinal leaps from the page to TV in CTV’s excellent, atmospheric Cardinal

On paper, Detective John Cardinal is a man of few words. The central figure in Giles Blunt’s Cardinal book series prefers to keep his thoughts on investigations in his head, much to the dismay of his co-workers and partner, Lise Delorme. The fact Cardinal isn’t one to share his intuitions was a challenge actor Billy Campbell embraced.

“I love that kind of stuff, particularly because I have fewer lines to learn,” Campbell says with a laugh. “No, it’s this kind of brooding thing. [Director] Podz and I were talking [before production began] and he said, ‘If you could give one adjective to describe Cardinal, what would it be?’ I said, ‘tortured.’ And he said, ‘Exactly!’ And a lot of that is internal. I like all that stuff that’s between the lines and you don’t see or get a lot of that on television.”

Impressive in scope, beautifully filmed and impeccably cast, CTV’s six-part serialized drama Cardinal—debuting Wednesday on CTV and Thursday on Super Écran—breathes life to Blunt’s first Cardinal novel, Forty Words for Sorrow. Filmed in and around Sudbury, North Bay, Atikameksheng Anishnawbek in Northern Ontario and Toronto, the project stars Campbell as Blunt’s tortured hero, who is called upon to track down the killer of 13-year-old Katie Pine. His partner is Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), a recent transfer and someone Cardinal doesn’t trust. Additional cast includes Brendan Fletcher as Eric Fraser and Allie MacDonald as Edie Soames, a young couple in town; Deborah Hay as Cardinal’s wife Catherine; Glen Gould as officer Jerry Commanda; Kristen Thomson as Sergeant Noelle Dyson, Cardinal’s commanding officer; David Richmond Peck as Corporal Musgrave, an officer in charge of a tightly guarded investigation; Alanna Bale as Cardinal’s daughter Kelly; and Robert Naylor as Keith.

What executive producer and showrunner Aubrey Nealon (Orphan Black) and Podz (19-2) have done is successfully translate an atmospheric novel to the screen. You can feel the fear gripping the snowy community of Algonquin Bay after Katie’s body is found. Did a drifter commit the crime or someone in town? A washed-out colour palette, cold temperatures and chilling examination of the body all contribute to a feeling of dread, something that came off the page in waves.

“Giles was a big part of the project early on, and then he handed it off,” Nealon says during a break in filming. “As a fan of the novel, I respect his writing so much and wanted to be true to the novel while trying to find my own voice in it.” Some parts of Forty Words for Sorrow didn’t make it to the television series and other content was added. Nealon explains Cardinal’s internal monologue was vocalized through adding new characters and activating past cases referenced in the book and making them part of the current storyline.

“This is so different from writing Orphan Black because these characters were fleshed out and living and breathing [in the novels],” Nealon says. “I wanted to explore Delorme’s personal life a little bit more than happened in the books.” When it came to casting the lead role, Nealon was looking for someone with warmth and humanity that draws viewers in while also presenting a troubled side to him. They got it with Campbell. Pair that with Vanasse’s Delorme, a young, eager cop full of good intention, and the duo simply crackles on-screen.

“Lise made some choices in the past that were safer for her,” Vanasse says. “She is finding in this new role that this is something that she’s always wanted to do. The closer that she gets to Cardinal, working on the case, he moves her. She recognizes how invested he is in the case and follows her instincts more and more.”

Cardinal airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET beginning Jan. 26 on Super Écran.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Mary Kills People, Podcast

TV Eh B Cs podcast 58 — Who makes Mary Kill

Tassie Cameron is a Gemini and Canadian Screen Award-winning screenwriter, who has written for television series, MOWs, mini-series, and feature films.

Cameron is currently the showrunner and executive producer on Global’s upcoming six-part series, Mary Kills People (under her new production company, Cameron Pictures, in partnership with eOne). She is also an executive producer on Global’s Private Eyes, Jason Priestley’s new hit P.I. series. Cameron was the co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner on the hit series, Rookie Blue which ran for seven seasons on Global and ABC.

Co-executive producer on the first season of Flashpoint, Cameron’s other credits include The Robber Bride, Would Be Kings, The Eleventh Hour, Degrassi: The Next Generation and Tom Stone.

Tara Armstrong is a recent graduate from UBC’s Creative Writing Program and the Canadian Film Centre Prime Time TV Program. Since graduating, Tara has written for Global’s television series Private Eyes which premiered on Global in summer of 2016, and Showcase’s Travelers.

A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre Prime Time Television program, Marsha Greene also has an Honours BA in Creative Writing from York University, and a graduate certificate from Humber College’s TV Writing and Producing program, where she was won the Brian Linehan Award for Outstanding Artistic Promise.

Marsha has lent her skills to scripted and unscripted productions for Global, CBC, Discovery Channel and Food Network. She was the Interactive Writer for the YTV/Teen Nick mystery-drama Open Heart. Marsha was a story editor on Global’s Remedy and Private Eyes, and a co-producer on Mary Kills People.

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Featured, Michael: Every Day, Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Michael: Every Day returns to CBC after a five-year hiatus

Matt Watts had finally gotten over the cancellation of Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays when Bob Martin called, saying CBC wanted a Season 2. Yes, five years after the events of the first season, the comedy renamed Michael: Every Day is back.

Returning Sunday, Jan. 15, at 9 p.m., the first two episodes find Michael—David’s (Martin) former patient—in full control of his life and enjoying success in a new city. The same can’t be said for David, whose home and psychiatry practice are in a shambles. It doesn’t take long, however, for Michael to call on David for help, leading to darkly comic moments over the course of six episodes. Written by Watts, Martin, Don McKellar (who also directs) and Lynn Coady, and co-starring Jennifer Irwin (Eastbound & Down) as Sammy, Tommie-Amber Pirie (Bitten) as Claire and Ed Asner as Dr. Wasserman, we spoke to Watts and Martin about the circumstances surrounding the series’ revival and what viewers can expect.

Clearly, Tuesdays and Thursdays wasn’t enough. It has to be every day now.
Bob Martin: We’re kind of embracing the idea that each season, if we do a third, is a standalone and you don’t have to have watched each previous season.

Maybe Wednesdays next season…
BM: Or maybe space! We don’t know.

Did you always, in the back of your minds, hope Michael would come back?
BM: After we completed the first season, we were working on a second season and were outlining it in great detail. And, for certain reasons, that didn’t happen. So, no, we didn’t think it would come back. We thought that was it, that was the end, and we were very happy with the first season and glad we had made a serialized show that had closed on the story beat. It didn’t feel like an open-ended show, necessarily. But then, yes, we were very surprised to be invited back.

Matt Watts: There was a lot of behind-the-scenes string-pulling that I’m not privy to. There were conversations between very important people and then a phone call to you and then you made a phone call to me.

BM: Yeah, that’s right. It was a surprise. It was out of the blue. Speaking for myself, I had booked a lot of other stuff to survive. I was like, ‘Oh my God. I love these characters and would love to revisit them.’ It was a bit of a logistical problem to get all of the creative together to do it. But, they knew we were excited about continuing to explore these characters. And you had an idea about doing a TV-movie version of Michael as a revisit.

MW: I always like this idea of one of the first lines is about the 15-year relationship. It kind of sets itself up about a relationship over a long period of time, so you could revisit these characters like what they did in the Seven Up series or Boyhood. It was always in the back of my mind that we could go that route. It took me a long time to let go of the show. We were both upset and you buried yourself in work. I got kind of depressed and anxious and spoke to the press about everything that was going on. And then I took a few more years and finally let it go, and then I get a phone call from Bob going, ‘We’re doing it again!’

BM: This feels like a bonus season.

MW: Also, a lot of the crew came back. When we wrapped the first season, I didn’t have a great last day on set. But I figured I’d see them again next season and then I didn’t get that. It was getting to revisit camp again.

When we start the season, Michael is the one that has it together and it seems David’s life is falling apart because he’s trusted someone and got burned.
BM: That’s my favourite scene of the two seasons. David finally thinks he’s found someone he can trust.

MW: The question we asked ourselves this season is, ‘Why this patient and why is he so special?’ We answer that this season. There is a revelation that comes later to explain all that.

How different is the original Season 2 from what became Every Day?
BM: We had to condense the episodes down to six.

MW: And we had to pick up five years later, so we took that into affect. The original second season picked up six months later. This was a five-year gap, so we had to make a lot of adjustments and changes. The last two episodes stay the same because we always had this idea for the season that we really wanted to do and that’s in the show. The show builds to this event in the fifth episode that carries into the sixth.

Michael: Every Day airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Featured, Workin' Moms

CBC’s Workin’ Moms spotlights the raw honesty of being a mom

Right out of the gate viewers will notice Workin’ Moms isn’t a typical comedy series, and certainly not the usual for the CBC.

In Tuesday’s debut at 9:30 p.m., a trio of moms sit at daycare, holding their infants and bemoaning how childrearing has ravaged their bodies, particularly their breasts. They speak of sagging, drooping and other changes while looking down. Then, suddenly, a wide shot of the ladies with their breasts totally exposed for primetime television. No editing, now pixelating, no black bars. This is Workin’ Moms, lumps and all.

“Bringing up a child, you lose a certain amount of privacy with your body and what happens to your body is incredibly humbling,” series creator, executive producer, writer and star Catherine Reitman says during a CBC press day. “To create a show about a mom where you don’t witness what happens to a mom’s body felt inauthentic to me … to not show it in a raw and honest way. It’s funny, but I also find heart and truth in it.”

Reitman—who appears sans top alongside her co-stars Dani Kind (The Good Witch) and Juno Rinaldi (The Killing); all have two boys in real life—has used her own experiences as a mother as the basis for Workin’ Moms. Reitman’s Kate is headed back to work at an advertising firm after maternity leave and struggles not only to spend hours away from her son but find her place in an office environment she left for months. Yes, there are funny moments in Kate’s days—reluctantly leaving her cherub with the nanny and she has to pump her breasts the bathroom, with the squirting results you’d expect—but there are sobering, serious moments that reflect on what it means to be a mother. The most poignant may be when Kate breaks down crying in the middle of a meeting with her male co-workers.

(l-r): Jessalyn Wanlim, Dani Kind, Catherine Reitman, Juno Rinaldi

“I think that’s part of being a mother and a parent,” Reitman says. “There are moments of comedy and moments of pain. But, usually, in those moments of pain you have to laugh.” She recalls how when her first son was born (he’s now three), she went back to work after just a couple of weeks and was wracked with post-partum depression. Like Kate, Reitman was joking around with male friends. The jabs went too far and before she knew it, she was crying and the men went silent, awkward and unsure of what to do. When Reitman got home, she told the story to her husband Philip Sternberg—he’s executive producing and co-stars on Workin’ Moms—who told her to get out her laptop and write it down.

“Catherine’s writing has a real floor to them,” Sternberg says. “These are real experiences, so you relate to them, and when the humour comes out, it really works and hits hard. I don’t think it would hit so hard if you didn’t believe the characters and the struggle.” He’s right. All of the ladies are dealing with something. Rinaldi’s Frankie Coyne is a successful real estate agent who in one moment makes a flippant remark about post-partum depression and in another is sticking her head in a swimming pool, dreaming of drowning. Kind’s Anne Carlson is just getting into the swing of things with her baby when her doctor tells her shocking news, throwing her life into uncertainty.

And while, at first glance, CBC may not have been the most obvious home for Workin’ Moms, Reitman couldn’t be happier because it meant her vision would stay intact and not turned into a broad comedy or watered down.

“We got here, and we realized it was nothing but working mothers,” Reitman says. “I’ve never seen a network where I literally shook hand after hand of working mothers. [CBC general manager of programming] Sally Catto watched it, and it struck so deeply with her as a working mother that we knew she would do it justice.”

Workin’ Moms airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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