Everything about Burden of Truth, eh?

CBC renews Burden of Truth and Diggstown

From a media release:

CBC today announced the renewal of original dramas BURDEN OF TRUTH (Season 4, 8×60, ICF Films, Eagle Vision, and eOne) and DIGGSTOWN (Season 3, 8×60, Circle Blue Entertainment, Freddie Films, and Waterstar Entertainment Inc.). BURDEN OF TRUTH will start production in Winnipeg, Manitoba later this summer, with DIGGSTOWN set to return to Halifax, Nova Scotia to shoot in early 2021.

Set in Manitoba and starring Kristin Kreuk, BURDEN OF TRUTH follows Joanna Chang, a ruthless, big-city lawyer who returns to her small hometown in Millwood for a case that will change her life forever. Each season centres around a new life-altering legal case – the vulnerable plaintiffs searching for answers and the boots-on-the-ground lawyers fighting incredible odds to deliver justice.

A CBC original drama, BURDEN OF TRUTH is produced by ICF Films, Eagle Vision and Entertainment One (eOne) with executive producers Ilana Frank (Nurses, Saving Hope), Linda Pope (Nurses, Saving Hope), Adam Pettle (Nurses, Saving Hope), Jocelyn Hamilton (Cardinal, Mary Kills People), Brad Simpson (Rookie Blue, King), Eagle Vision’s Kyle Irving (Taken, Ice Road Truckers) and Kristin Kreuk (Beauty & The Beast, Smallville). Co-Executive producers are Lisa Meeches of Eagle Vision (Taken, Ice Road Truckers) and Tyson Caron (Lovesick, Wynter).

Starring Vinessa Antoine, DIGGSTOWN follows legal aid lawyer Marcie Diggs, who continues her exploration of a system fraying at the edges as she and her band of tireless colleagues fight to protect society’s most vulnerable from a capricious justice system. In Season 3, Marcie and her cohorts are pushed to the brink, frustrated by an under-resourced and overtaxed legal aid system.

A CBC original drama, DIGGSTOWN is co-produced by Circle Blue Entertainment, Freddie Films and Waterstar Entertainment Inc. Floyd Kane is creator, executive producer and showrunner, and Amos Adetuyi (Jozi-H, Jean of the Jones), Karen Wentzell (Seed), Brenda Greenberg (Being Erica) and Todd Berger (Wynonna Earp) are executive producers.

BURDEN OF TRUTH is also broadcast on The CW Network in the U.S., and DIGGSTOWN was recently acquired by BET+ in the U.S.

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Link: Burden of Truth’s Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney

From Charles Trapunski of Brief Take:

Link: Burden of Truth’s Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney
“The fans who love the show are very passionate about the characters and about the dynamics and they feel deeply connected.” Continue reading. 

From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:

Link: Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney are back in Burden of Truth Season 3
“Millwood represents stasis. He’s not growing there, and he’s got his patterns where he can hide from things. Going back and forth from the city to Millwood and the shift that happens each time forces him to make changes, which is difficult.” Continue reading.

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Kristin Kreuk previews Burden of Truth’s “emotional” third season

Burden of Truth is billed as a legal show, but in reality, it’s an intricate family drama that uses a deeply flawed—and systemically unequal—legal system as its highly-effective backdrop. 

This character-driven approach has been a big hit with both critics and viewers. It’s also one of the reasons series star and executive producer Kristin Kreuk initially wanted to do the series.

“I wanted to do something serialized, and I wanted to be able to delve into the lives of the people affected by these cases as well as our regulars,” Kreuk tells us in a phone interview. “On our show, we just happen to have legal cases that trigger all of our characters, and as the seasons have gone on, I feel that all of our leads are related to each other, like they’re all family in a way, so we kind of get to be This Is Us, but also a legal show, which I really like.”

Over the course of two seasons, Kreuk’s character—corporate attorney-turned-socially woke lawyer Joanna Chang—has experienced some This Is Us-level personal drama. At the start of Season 1, she was an emotionally disconnected corporate attorney working at her ruthless father David Hanley’s (Alex Carter) big-city law firm. However, after she teamed with small-town lawyer Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney) to investigate an environmental case in her rural hometown of Millwood, Manitoba, she discovered she had a secret step-sister named Luna (Star Slade), who was the product of a sexual assault committed by Hanley. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, in the second season, Hanley was murdered, and Luna was falsely accused of the crime by racist cop Sam Mercer (Paul Braunstein). In the taut Season 2 finale, Joanna proved Luna’s innocence and—in a huge display of personal growth—gave up a posh corporate law gig in Singapore to pursue her budding relationship with Billy in Winnipeg.

During the Season 3 premiere, which airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBC, we find a year has passed since Joanna missed her overseas flight, and she and Billy are in love, living together and running their new socially-conscious law firm, Crawford Chang. It all appears blissful at first glance, but as usual, there are new legal issues brewing that could shake things up.

“The beginning of Season 3 is this crazy time for Joanna,” Kreuk explains. “She’s started a business, and it’s probably not the smartest business choice to start a boutique law firm in Winnipeg and work primarily on cases that speak to a social conscience.” 

The fledgling law firm’s precarious position is immediately highlighted when Joanna and Billy lose a workplace negligence case, devastating their clients, forcing them to cut staff, and causing Joanna—who has never lost a case in her life—to be plagued by self-doubt.

“Joanna is being forced to reckon with the parts of herself where she perceives herself to be weakest,” Kreuk says. “She’s not as good at the things she’s chosen to do as the things that she’s done before, and she has a lot of people who are relying on her in a way that working in corporate law didn’t previously come into play. She’s the most vulnerable that we’ve ever seen her by far, and she’s starting to have a bit of anxiety rumble up.”

That anxiety is made worse when Kodie (Sera-Lys McArthur), an old high school friend, has her children taken away by Millwood Family Services, forcing Joanna to delve further into unfamiliar areas of law and, worse, face more family skeletons.

“There are some secrets in Joanna’s past that affect the way she perceives everything and that she’s kind of buried,” Kreuk hints. “Joanna’s mom was taken from her—not in the same way as Kodie’s kids are taken away—but her mom was taken away. And Joanna’s really mad because she thinks it’s her mother’s fault that her mother abandoned her, so there’s all this personal stuff with family for her: Who gets to have the kids? Who gets to keep them? Why did Joanna’s father get to keep her? What makes it possible for someone to raise their children and why? Who decides?”

Kodie’s struggle to regain custody of her children also continues the show’s exploration of the way the Canadian legal system treats indigenous individuals and communities.

“I have to be delicate here, but in Canada, in the foster care system, we have a lot of Indigenous children, and this storyline will represent that to some degree,” Kreuk explains.

In addition, she says that Owen Beckbie (Meegwun Fairbrother), who is now the Millwood police chief, will be increasingly pushed “to the edge” in Season 3, as he comes to terms with the light prison sentence his former boss Mercer received for causing the death of an Indigenous man. Meanwhile, Luna will be dealing with the aftermath of her false imprisonment, “trying to find her place in the world after seeing the reality of what her situation [as an Indigenous woman] in the country is.”

Luna’s journey of self-discovery—which includes working at Crawford Chang—will also cause some disagreements with her sister.

“Joanna is very strong-willed and can put a lot of pressure on people, like her father before her,” she says. “Despite her growing humanity, she still feels that the job is the job is the job. You do what it takes to make sure your client wins, and that is the most important thing. How you feel about it is irrelevant. And Luna isn’t that person—which is good in who she is—but that will result in conflict.”

The events of Season 3 will also be hard on Billy, who is unaware of the family secret that is driving Joanna to take on Kodie’s “unwinnable” case.

“She’s obviously choosing this for emotional reasons, but she won’t tell him what it is,” Kreuk says. “And indeed the audience won’t know the real reason until probably the end of the season.” 

The situation will lead to “the most intense period of difficulty” Joanna and Billy have ever experienced, she says, but despite this, their arc “is really gorgeous and culminates in a very moving way. This is the most emotional case that we’ve done.”

Burden of Truth airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

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CBC announces winter premiere dates for Coroner, Schitt’s Creek, Workin’ Moms and more

From a media release:

CBC today announced premiere dates for its winter 2020 lineup of new and returning Canadian series, featuring original programming that reflects contemporary Canada. With a new winter schedule launching Sunday, January 5, each series will be available on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.

New original series premiering this winter include:

Hosted by Gerry Dee, FAMILY FEUD CANADA will introduce audiences to Canadian families from across the country four nights a week, beginning Monday, December 16 at a special time of 8PM (8:30 NT), before moving into its regular time slot at 7:30PM (8 NT) on Monday, December 23

New original factual series HIGH ARCTIC HAULERS, a high-stakes journey at sea that offers a look at Canada’s resilient, vibrant northern communities, premieres Sunday, January 5 at 8PM (8:30 NT)

Starring Kari Matchett (Covert Affairs), Darren Mann (Giant Little Ones) and Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and set in the social and political chaos of 1968, new spy drama FORTUNATE SON premieres Wednesday January 8 at 9PM (9:30 NT)

In a new take on the popular factual entertainment format, BACK IN TIME FOR WINTER follows one modern Canadian family on a winter time-travelling adventure beginning Thursday, January 9 at 8PM (8:30NT)

Epic sci-fi adventure series ENDLINGS produced in partnership with Hulu, follows four foster kids who make a startling discovery that affects the entire universe, and premieres Sunday, January 5 at 6PM (6:30 NT) with weekly back-to-back episodes

New culinary competition series and original Canadian format, FRIDGE WARS, premieres Thursday, February 27 at 8PM (8:30 NT)

New CBC Docs original series THE OLAND MURDER premieres Thursday, March 5 at 9PM (9:30 NT)

Returning titles include:

Last season’s most-watched new Canadian series* CORONER, starring Serinda Swan, returns for Season 2 Monday, January 6 at 9PM (9:30 NT)

CBC’s popular Tuesday night comedy lineup returns with the fourth season of KIM’S CONVENIENCE at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) and the sixth and final season of SCHITT’S CREEK at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) beginning Tuesday, January 7, with WORKIN’ MOMS returning for a fourth season Tuesday, February 18 at 9:30PM (10 NT)

The Kristin Kreuk-led legal drama BURDEN OF TRUTH returns for Season 3 Wednesday, January 8 at 8PM (8:30 NT)

Gripping Canadian true crime series THE DETECTIVES returns for Season 3 Thursday, January 9 at 9PM (9:30 NT)

CBC DOCS POV returns with a new series of documentaries from some of Canada’s most talented documentary filmmakers beginning Sunday, February 9 at 9PM (9:30 NT)

Halifax legal aid drama DIGGSTOWN starring Vinessa Antoine and Natasha Henstridge returns for Season 2 Wednesday, March 4 at 8PM (8:30 NT)

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Filming in Winnipeg has begun on Entertainment One’s Burden of Truth Season 3 for CBC

From a media release:

Entertainment One (eOne), ICF Films and Eagle Vision today announced that cameras are rolling on Season 3 of CBC original drama series Burden of Truth (8×60). Following attorney Joanna Chang (Kristin Kreuk; Smallville, Beauty and the Beast), Burden of Truth continues production in Winnipeg until late October. Burden of Truth airs on CBC in Canada and the CW in the US.

In Season 2, corporate attorney Joanna Chang was dragged into the shadowy world of hackers and activists in a case that threatened her life. In the new season Joanna and Billy Crawford are working together in their new boutique law firm, Crawford Chang, when an old friend abruptly re-enters Joanna’s life in desperate need of help. To save her friend, Joanna must take on an impossible-to-win case and confront a long-buried secret from her childhood that may threaten her relationship and partnership with Billy. After this case, nothing will be the same again.

Reprising their roles for Season 3 are Peter Mooney (Rookie Blue, Saving Hope) as Billy Crawford, Millwood’s local attorney; Star Slade (Emerald Code) as Luna Spence; Meegwun Fairbrother (Mohawk Girls, Hemlock Grove) as Officer Owen Beckbie; and Anwen O’Driscoll (Emerald Code, Flint) as Taylor Matheson.

A CBC original series, Burden of Truth is produced by ICF Films, Entertainment One and Eagle Vision. The series is created by Brad Simpson (Rookie Blue, King). Adam Pettle (Saving Hope, Nurses) returns as showrunner and will also write on Season 3. Burden of Truth is executive produced by Ilana Frank (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue, The Detail), Adam Pettle, Linda Pope (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue, The Detail), Brad Simpson, Jocelyn Hamilton (Mary Kills People, Cardinal), Kristin Kreuk and Eagle Vision’s Kyle Irving (Taken, Ice Road Truckers, Lovesick). Co-Executive producers are Lisa Meeches (Taken, Ice Road Truckers) and Tyson Caron (Lovesick, Wynter). For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Programming; Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content; Helen Asimakis is Senior Director, Scripted Content; and Sarah Adams is Executive in Charge of Production.

BURDEN OF TRUTH is produced with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and Manitoba Film and Music, and with the assistance of the Government of Manitoba – Manitoba Film & Video Production Tax Credit, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit. eOne holds worldwide distribution rights to the series.

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