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.
Kim's Convenience

Link: Kim’s Convenience, and the method behind the seeming madness of CBC’s programming

From David Berry of The National Post:

Link: Kim’s Convenience, and the method behind the seeming madness of CBC’s programming
If nothing can be everything to everyone, the CBC can at least be nothing to anyone.

I don’t know that our public broadcaster will ever shake its reputation for striving cluelessness when it comes to what, exactly, Canadians want to see on television. There’s all that history, for a start, and it’s a nice convenient narrative that works for everyone from grumpy free-marketers who see “heritage funding” as just another term for setting their hard-earned tax dollars on fire to sniffing aesthetes who think art isn’t art unless each and every second of it is a punishing ordeal designed to shake your understanding of human experience to its very core. Continue reading. 

From Katherine Monk of The Ex-Press

New CBC sitcom exposes The Convenience Truth
Andrea Bang thanks the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only did the team win the required games to advance, they pushed back the network premiere of her new show, Kim’s Convenience.

The new CBC comedy based on Ins Choi’s award-winning Fringe play airs this evening, but it was originally slated to air last Tuesday – in the heat of the Blue Jays’ wild card bid. The network wisely aired the ballgame instead, but Bang wasn’t depressed about the delay. Continue reading.

From Courtney Shea of Toronto Life:

Link: Q&A: Ins Choi, the writer behind CBC’s new comedy Kim’s Convenience
In 2011, Kim’s Convenience upstaged every other show at the Toronto Fringe Festival and earned the Best New Play award for its creator, Ins Choi. Five years later, the comedy—about a Korean family and their variety store in Regent Park—is the centrepiece of CBC’s fall prime-time lineup, premiering tonight at 9 p.m. (it got bumped by the Blue Jays last Tuesday), and the first Canadian TV series to feature an entirely Asian cast. We spoke to Choi about the pressure of pioneering, why Kim’s Convenience isn’t a “Korean show” and how the Asian–North American entertainment community can bury Long Duk Dong once and for all. Continue reading.

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The Disappearance

Production begins in Montreal on The Disappearance, CTV and Super Ecran’s new original mystery series

From a media release:

– Original six-part series to be produced in 4K by award-winning Montréal-based Productions Casablanca in association with Bell Media and NBCUniversal International Studios –
– Ensemble cast featuring Aden Young, Peter Coyote, Joanne Kelly, Camille Sullivan, Micheline Lanctôt, and Kevin Parent announced –
– THE DISAPPEARANCE will premiere as part of CTV and Super Écran’s 2016/2017 mid-season schedule –
– French-language version to air on Super Écran –

CTV and Super Écran, alongside award-winning Montréal-based Productions Casablanca and NBCUniversal International Studios, announced today that production has begun on THE DISAPPEARANCE, the networks’ new six-part limited run event series. Directed by Peter Stebbings (Defendor, ORPHAN BLACK), the character driven mystery drama begins shooting in 4K in Montréal today. THE DISAPPEARANCE is set to premiere as part of CTV and Super Écran’s 2016/2017 mid-season schedule. NBCUniversal International Studios will act as international distributor.

Also announced today are the members of the cast, which features Peter Coyote (E.T.) as retired judge and prosecutor Henry Sullivan; Aden Young (RECTIFY) as Luke Sullivan, Henry’s son, and a scruffy, soulful musician; Joanne Kelly (WAREHOUSE 13) as Catherine Sullivan, Henry’s daughter and Luke’s sister, and a funny, devoted palliative care nurse; Camille Sullivan (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE) as Helen Murphy Sullivan, Luke’s ex-wife, a microbiologist, and devoted mother; Micheline Lanctôt (UNITÉ 9) as Susan Bowden, a tough, experienced Lieutenant-Detective; and Kevin Parent (CAFÉ DE FLORE) as Sergeant-Detective Charles Cooper, and Susan’s partner.

THE DISAPPEARANCE is a psychological family drama centered around the unexplained and sudden disappearance of Anthony Sullivan during a treasure hunt on the day of his tenth birthday. The series follows the family as the complex and emotionally fraught mystery of their child’s disappearance unfolds. While both the police and family conduct their own investigations, seeking any signs and trace of evidence, long-buried familial secrets with devastating consequences rise to the surface leaving an unforeseen impact on every member of the Sullivan family.

THE DISAPPEARANCE was first put into development by CTV in October 2015. The series is created and written by the Montréal-based writing team of Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard. The series is produced by Joanne Forgues and Sophie Parizeau of Productions Casablanca, creators of the Prix Gémeaux-winning series, Les invincibles and Série noire, and is executive produced by Joanne Forgues and Jean-Marc Casanova. Emmy Award-winning JoAnn Alfano (You, Me and the Apocalypse, Resurrection & 30 Rock) will executive produce for NBCUniversal International Studios. The series is directed by Peter Stebbings.

THE DISAPPEARANCE is produced by Productions Casablanca in association with Bell Media and NBCUniversal International Studios, with the financial participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Cogeco Program Development Fund and the assistance of the Québec Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Super Écran has commissioned the series for French-language broadcast. NBCUniversal International Studios serves as international distributor.

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Kim's Convenience

Link: Kim’s Convenience brings much-needed diversity to Canadian TV

From Hermoine Wilson of The TV Junkies:

Link: Kim’s Convenience brings much-needed diversity to Canadian TV
Personally, I enjoy comedies that have a bit of depth to them, and Kim’s Convenience definitely checks that box. When you’re not laughing at the antics of Mr. and Mrs. Kim, and their sometimes awkward but loving relationship with their adult children, you’ll be drawn into the emotional side of their story. Continue reading.

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This Life

Link: This Life: Lauren Lee Smith discusses Maggie’s unexpected nature

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: This Life: Lauren Lee Smith discusses Maggie’s unexpected nature
“As this season progresses we see that the decision they made perhaps was not the smartest choice, and the repercussions emotionally for Maggie are definitely more than she bargained for and more than she anticipated. It turns out to be not what she thought it would be at all. At all. Like AT ALL!” Continue reading.

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Industry News

Link: New funding rules for Canadian television draw ire

From Ian Bailey of The Globe and Mail:

Link: New funding rules for Canadian television draw ire
If new funding rules for the production of Canadian television were in place years ago, Simon Barry fears he wouldn’t have kept his job as executive producer on his made-in-Vancouver TV series Continuum, which ran for four seasons before ending last year.

“I would have been replaced immediately,” said Mr. Barry, now working in Vancouver on the series Van Helsing. “They would have said, ‘We’re going to spend all this money on a big sci-fi show with a big cast and it’s ambitious. We shouldn’t trust this to the guy who created it just because he’s Canadian.’” Continue reading.

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