From Pop-Culturalist:
Link: Pop-Culturalist chats with Tamsen McDonough
“I’ve never played a voice-only character before, so this was all very new to me. It was a steep learning curve, but so much fun figuring out how to convey all Lucy’s ideas and motivations with just my voice.” Continue reading.Â
From Chloe Tejada of The Huffington Post Canada:
Link: ‘Kim’s Convenience’: Asian-Canadians finally find a show they say represents them
It’s been almost a year since #OscarsSoWhite took over the Internet, and although Hollywood has been making huge gains in putting people of colour on screen, Canada has been a bit slower on the uptake.
That has changed though with CBC’s “Kim’s Convenience.” The TV show, which had its series premiere on Tuesday, stars a diverse cast whose four lead actors are all of Asian descent — a rare sight in television. Continue reading.
Discussing diversity and Shoot the Messenger
Unless you’re being intentionally ironic, I wouldn’t characterize the guest cast as a “who’s who†of Canadian television. First off, you could name 10 well-established Canadian actors to most Canadians and they’d say “Who?†Second, beyond Nick Campbell your marquis names include former music and pro sports celebrities with not much track laid as actors. It smells of stunt casting to me, which is a sad commentary on the need to add ANY recognizable name to a project, regardless of their requisite skill as actors, in order to raise a show’s profile.
Last, I’m getting a little tired of Sudz and Jennifer talking about diverse casting and storytelling like they somehow have a corner on it. I don’t doubt their struggles early on with an industry slow to evolve and adapt, but diversity has been clearly part of the Canadian broadcaster mandate for a while now, they’re not the sole purveyors. To suggest otherwise demeans the efforts of a lot of industry types, both at the broadcaster and creator level, who have championed this for some time. —Canadian Showrunner
Really? You’re getting tired of me and Jen talking about diverse casting and storytelling? Are you kidding me? If you think you are tired of me talking about it, ask the reporters who lead off their questions to us with the subject. When this is the first and the last thing reporters want to talk about when talking to us—the obviously diverse filmmakers—they will write about it, no matter how much we talk about the challenges of serialized storytelling, and writing all the scripts before production and the challenges that entails for a development budget. No matter how much we talk about working with actors like Alex Kingston, Elyse Levesque and Lyriq Bent, and the rest of our killer cast, one of the main stories that people want to tell when they write about our work is around diversity. Do you honestly think that is all we have to say? Do you honestly think that we think we are the only ones doing work in this area? To write that we think that we are the “sole purveyors†of diversity in Canadian drama shows how little you question the process by how these stories are written, edited and see the light of day, which is one of the things that Shoot The Messenger tries to go behind the scenes to show. Lastly, I do not hide behind any pseudonym. When I write my opinions down on a public forum, I sign my name because I am not afraid for anyone to understand that I am entitled to an opinion, no matter what it is. Can you say the same? —Sudz Sutherland
In an industry that penalizes people for being “off message� Yup, anonymity required.
Sudz, I’m a fan of your work, I’m a huge supporter of your determination to bring gritty and authentic stories to the public. I’m also heartened you’ve got support from a broadcaster who feels similarly. And I’m sorry you’ve been mischaracterized by the press. The tone of much of the Messenger coverage suggests you and Jennifer are somehow the lone voices at the vanguard of diverse programming and sadly, in my off message opinion, that diminishes the efforts of everyone else who is in those trenches with you. If that’s the media’s fault, then we all need to address that. Is this some white media mea culpa? If they lionize you then that makes their past dismissal of diversity somehow atoned for? I guess taking note of it, even if disproportionately, is better than them NOT highlighting it at all. But I would also like the coverage to be about the quality of the work, not just the diverse subject matter or multi-ethnic casting. What you’re doing, what many of us are doing, can’t be allowed to be talked about like it’s tokenism. If it is then it’s just some pendulum swing to make it seem like the problem has been momentarily compensated for rather than some legitimate progress being made. But maybe I’m putting the proverbial cart before the horse. I actually celebrate what you’ve achieved Sudz and if it came off as anything else then I apologize.
And Greg, I’m impressed by the main cast too. Much more than the musicians and athletes doing cameos. Maybe if the Canadian media focused more on our fine domestic actors we’d have a modest star system in the country that would help draw eyeballs to screens. But that’s a whole other topic. —Canadian Showrunner
Discrepancies in Airport: Below Zero
Just had my first chance to watch this show (Episode 2 in this case). Good show, typical reality formula but being a bit of an airplane/airport geek, this show is somewhat of an interest to me. However, I noticed a couple of anomalies in the production in regards to some inaccuracies which calls into question the validity of the show. There was a glaring error where the subtitles misquoted ground traffic control. Also, a certain type of aircraft was completely misidentified. These errors should not be happening if the show is going to be totally believable. Other than that, I’m actually liking the show. Good characters and a good view into the operation of a major Canadian airport. —Dean
Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.
Teddy Wilson loves to travel. He also loves trains. So it makes total sense that the InnerSpace and sometime Daily Planet co-host would—when he’s not talking all things sci-fi or science—ride the rails for Discovery’s newest series.
Mighty Trains, debuting the first of six episodes Sunday on the specialty channel, is the latest in the “Mighty” franchise that has previously celebrated ships, planes and cruise ships. But where those three had narration and one-sided conversations to describe what it’s like living and working on the machinery in the sea and sky, Mighty Trains has Wilson climbing aboard, talking directly to viewers and folks riding and working on the trains.
“I think the producers wanted to add a host to this one because the nature of trains is about the journey and a bit more of a focus on the passengers and the travel element,” Wilson says. “And I think having a host is representative of the viewer and drawing them into the journey.” He’s right. When I think of riding a train, it’s about looking out the window, experiencing the scenery, drinking in the adventure and chatting with my seatmates.
But Mighty Trains, like its counterparts, does go under the hood to explore what’s so special about these trains. Sunday’s first instalment follows Wilson on the Glacier Express, an eight-hour ride from Zermatt, Switzerland, at the base of the Matterhorn, to the ski town St. Moritz. With parts of the line in operation for more than 125 years, it takes old technology to get these sleek, modern train cars through its climb of almost 5 km along inclines of up to 12 per cent, way over the three to four traditional trains can handle.
“This rack and pinion technology is an ancient technology, but it’s used on these ascents and descents,” Wilson says. “Seeing this technology in action and getting to visit the place where they actually build the train cars … I was absolutely blown away by it and that fascination really extended to every episode.” Future Sundays spotlight The Shinkansen, Japan’s bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka; Norway’s North Rail Express, a state-of-the-art freight service between the Arctic Circle and Oslo; the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad and its relationship to the Klondike Gold Rush; and The Ghan in Australia, which travels between Adelaide in the south and Darwin in the north, bisecting the country in its three-day journey.
A Canada-based production wouldn’t be complete without celebrating a train in this country; that happens Oct. 30 when Mighty Trains hops on The Canadian—star of the $10 bill—for the four-day journey from Toronto to Vancouver.
“I’m a proud Canadian and have been all over the country, but I had never crossed the country by train,” Wilson says. “That was a real life highlight for me, waking up every morning and seeing this completely different landscape from the window of a train.”
Mighty Trains airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Discovery.
Images courtesy of Bell Media.
From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:
Link: A journey through time with Eric McCormack
If Eric McCormack lived in the future and could send his consciousness to the present day to prevent the destruction of the universe as we know it, whose body would he inhabit?
If it’s 2016, then you must be talking about presidential candidate Donald Trump. Continue reading.
