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, Slasher

Slasher cuts another character

With the Season 1 finale airing on Chiller this Friday, fans in Canada watching Slasher on Super Channel are still seven weeks behind. Sarah and Dylan have just moved to Waterbury, and Verna McBride (Mary Walsh) and Justin Faysal (Mark Ghanimé) are The Executioner’s first two victims. That is, if there is in fact just one person committing the crimes, something Police Chief Iain Vaughn (Dean McDermott) was hoping when Heather Peterson (Erin Karpluk) was arrested last week.

Clearly, as “Like As Fire Eateth Up and Burneth Wood”—Friday’s new episode—shows, the wrong person was put in jail. That’s not all we learn during the instalment; here’s a sneak peek at what’s to come.

Brenda confesses
We love Wendy Crewson in everything, but she really shines in Slasher. Creator Aaron Martin has written a sassy, cigarette smoking chick who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, especially when things get a little tense. When she and Sarah find themselves in a dangerous position, she pulls out a gun, stating: “You think I’d return to this shit-hole without packing a little heat?” Line of the night. There is one thing that scares Brenda, and that’s the past: her confession, revolving around an incident in 1968, threatens to ruin the relationship she’s got with Sarah.

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Tropes twisted
Horror movies contain some of the most hackneyed scenes and dialogue ever. Running and hiding in a closet. Calling “Hello, is anyone there?” into a darkened room. Hitting re-dial on your phone and having it ring the killer hiding inside your house. Martin’s nods to those well-worn customs are rife, but subtle twists on them result in truly scary moments.

Shout-out to Mr. D
Booth Savage, who played Principal Callaghan on Mr. D, gets new life on Slasher as the mayor of Waterbury. It’s pretty safe to say we’ve never seen this side to him before.

The Executioner vs. Sarah
Turns out The Executioner isn’t merely killing everyone. There is method to his madness and Sarah discovers what that is during the show’s closing moments.

Slasher airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Super Channel.

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Featured, Orphan Black

Orphan Black returns to form in Season 4

I was a huge fan of Orphan Black in Season 1. I sat, transfixed, as Tatiana Maslany assumed multiple personalities to play Sarah, Katja, Alison, Cosima, Helena and the first revelations about the Leda clones were first hinted at. I missed folks like Dr. Leekie, Det. Angie DeAngelis and Olivier Duval (a.k.a. the man with the tail), who were so important—and fun—in those early days.

So to see all of them packed into Season 4’s return, “The Collapse of Nature,” was not only thrilling, but a much-needed—in my eyes—reboot and reminder of why we all tuned in in the first place. Within the first four minutes (available to fans to watch online ahead of Thursday’s broadcast), it had been established there was yet another clone, M.K., who was working with Beth Childs. Speaking of Beth, she was alive and well. Yup, Orphan Black did a time jump back to before Sarah Manning ever entered the picture. There she was, sleeping when M.K. called to say she’d witnessed a body being buried in the woods. And who was next to Beth and wrapped in the sheets? Paul, also alive and kicking.

I was immediately immersed in the story as Beth and Art investigated the mutilated corpse, boasting a bifurcated penis and missing right cheek, and were off to find out who he was and why he was there. The path led Beth to the body mod club … and there was Olivier having shiny bling added to his tail.

We’ve all known Beth had issues, but to see them played out in front of us was amazing and added depth to the character. Addicted to drugs and battling to keep her relationship with Paul intact, Beth was only scratching the surface of the clone conspiracy—including questioning Leekie—when she stepped in front of that train. Feeling alone and emotionally disconnected, she turned to Art for affection before being called away by a girl at the club and witnessing the worm being pulled from a fellow club-goer’s cheek. The revelation the bearded guy involved in the plot is with the police union in wake of the alleyway shooting that killed Maggie Chen is pushing Beth into a corner she’s desperate to escape from. (As an aside, how great was it to see Felix in the police precinct, sassy as ever while defending the actions that got him booked in the first place?)

By episode’s end, we were jerked back to the present, with Art calling Sarah to tell her to run, that Iceland was no longer safe for her. I’m hoping that there’s at least one more episode where we see Beth’s storyline and see what she’d discovered before she took her life. And, of course, to learn more about M.K.

Orphan Black airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Space.

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Bitten, Featured

Bitten says goodbye

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It’s always hard to say goodbye to a television show, especially one like Bitten. Far from stale, Season 3 felt like a bit of a rebirth for the show, and a move in a bold new direction. That’s certainly the case for Friday’s series finale “Truth, Changes, Everything.” Written by Daegan Fryklind, the script does close out stories, but leaves others wide open for interpretation and the imagination. Yes, there have been dark moments for several of these characters over the last three seasons, but by the end of “Truth, Changes, Everything,” I definitely felt hope.

Here’s what’s in store for Jeremy, Elena, Clay, Nick, Rachel, Paige, Sasha, Alexei, The Albino and Konstantin moving forward.

“Truth, Changes, Everything”
The episode title has a wonderful double meaning to it, referring both to how the truth literally changes everything and the storylines deal with truth, changes and, well, everything. Fryklind is a damned wordsmith and I love it.

Things start slow
The first 20 minutes are prep and posturing. Then the wheels really start to move and there’s no let-up. The next 22 minutes sped by faster than a wolf chasing down prey.

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Elena’s dream is realized
“We’re the outlaws now. It’s time to embrace our fate. This won’t stop until it happens, so let it come.” With those words, Elena makes a decision, putting irreversible steps in motion that can’t be stopped. Whether or not those steps were the right move will have fans talking for awhile.

Not everyone survives
It would be silly to assume everyone emerges from “Truth, Changes, Everything” unscathed—Bitten is a series about werewolves, blood and witches, after all—so place your bets on who will, and won’t, survive the final showdown. I can say those who do perish don’t do so in vain and are given the proper sendoff.

Bitten‘s series finale airs Friday at 10 p.m. ET on Space.

Let me know what you think of Bitten‘s series finale!

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Orphan Black

Links: Orphan Black

From Nick Patch of the Toronto Star:

Orphan Black is back, complex as ever
“I’ve always really respected the UK model like The Office where they tie it up in a really wonderfully satisfying narrative way but … you’re still wanting more. With this kind of a series, it is finite in terms of what we can explore with these characters because ultimately, they have to discover the thing and we can’t draw that on forever. I don’t want it to ever settle into territory that we’ve already tread.” Continue reading.

From Aaron Pruner of Zap2it.com:

‘Orphan Black’ Season 4: Kristian Bruun teases Helena ‘hilarity’
“Helena’s a roommate and Helena and Alison don’t necessarily get along very well. They’re quite opposite and, even though Donnie and Helena were polar opposites last season, they really learned to appreciate each other … but she’s a tough roommate.” Continue reading. 

From Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly:

Orphan Black: Jordan Gavaris says Felix is ‘grappling with where he fits in’
“We’re differentiating all of these women and we’re following all of these plot threads, and it was dizzying in a wonderful way, in the best way possible. But I think we’re coming back and getting answers to questions posed in season 1. And I think it’s fair to say that Sarah might have to try and understand Beth a little bit more.” Continue reading.

From Scott Huver of Moviefone.com:

‘Orphan Black’ Showrunners Tease ‘Dark and Twisty’ Season 4
“I don’t think it’s a ‘smaller’ season. ‘Intimate’ in that our characters all know each other better now. Especially our core characters of Cosima, Alison, Sarah, Helena — and Rachel for that matter, even though she’s the bad sister. I think drawing those characters close together this season, that feels intimate. The family that we’ve built is starting to feel more and more intimate. I don’t think it’s intimate in the way that they all sit together in the living room and watch TV. [But] that’s not what happens.” Continue reading. 

From Carla Day of BuddyTV.com:

‘Orphan Black’ Interview: Creators on Going Back to Move Forward, Delphine and New Clones
“This year– What’s kinda nice when you get into three and four seasons is that you’ve built a mythology. There was a lot of stuff that John and I raced past in our first couple season and we were like, ‘We’re gonna come back to that. We’re gonna come back to that. There’s more there. There’s more story there.’ So we had a plan always to loop back on some of the concepts that we had in the first season. And that’s really what Season 4 is about. It’s about going back to the beginning in order to move forward.” Continue reading.

From Cassandra Szklarski of The Canadian Press:

Maslany on the surprises and challenges of her ‘Orphan Black’ clones
“Every year we sort of get together with Tat at the beginning and rub our hands together a little bit and go, ‘What do we need? What are we looking for, who do you got?’ And we start thinking of new clones.” Continue reading. 

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Q&A: Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany
“We’re really lucky that we are in a time when people are willing to watch something like Orphan Black and are so voraciously excited about it. I’m super proud that we feature so many Canadian artist on our show. Not just the actors and the regular cast but also the amazing crew that we have. The wardrobe and hair and makeup team are the best in the business.” Continue reading. 

From Amber Dowling of The Hollywood Reporter:

How ‘Orphan Black’ Is Returning to Its Roots in Season 4
“By the end of season three, we had answered a lot of our big questions and wanted to end it with a feeling of resolution and closure in a way. Of course there are still lots of doors wide open, but we wanted to end Sarah in a different place so that we could launch off a different foot. We wanted a feeling of return to season one where we didn’t know who was pulling the strings. We didn’t know who the bad guy was.” Continue reading.

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Orphan Black

Link: Orphan Black finally has its mojo back. Maybe.

From John Doyle of The Globe & Mail:

Orphan Black finally has its mojo back. Maybe.
It’s not just fans of the series who were disappointed by the second and third seasons. The show began to sag in terms of prestige and attention. Although Tatiana Maslany finally got some formal recognition for her extraordinary work playing multiple characters, the series itself was revealed to be a lot of vapid rambling and dreary story mythology. Continue reading.

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