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Comments and queries for the week of September 27

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It is bothersome when shows do something that undermines its essential goal, and part of that has always been that true love exists and is worth fighting for. The writers put in years investing in the relationship and to have a hint of unfaithfulness is troubling. And of course, it would be on Julia’s part. William has always been the one to give up everything for her while encouraging her to do what she wants and needs. My heart is broken. The first episode was so promising. Very disappointing. —Sara

It’s called Murdoch Mysteries, Julia should be back as the coroner working with William. I absolutely love the romance between the two but I fear the writers are going to split them up. Which would end it for me and Murdoch Mysteries. I couldn’t watch Julia in the arms of another man. —August

I agree, but I do love Julia. My favourite character; any episode she’s not in I tend to skip on a re-watch binge. I love her in the earlier seasons where she is bold and fierce, and pushes Murdoch to think for himself or reconsider things. I also love that Murdoch is supportive of her decisions and genuinely puts her happiness above his own. I mean, the loyalty, love, and respect that has been evident between them should always be the most eminent thing we see instead of “it just happened” kind of mentality that we see in shows today. That lust is more important and stronger than commitment. But still, Julia and Murdoch definitely do have passion towards each other, last season went out of the way to show us that. The first episode this season was sweet between them, and I loved how Julia put that guy in the end in his place (throwing the glass in his face), so when she closed the door this week and hugged the guy she must have known it was a bad choice, obviously. All that said, I am happy Julia is playing a larger role this season already, I’ve missed her, and I love the two together. But I also appreciate the mysteries and inventions, the historical figures and the gallantry, and I have to say they were better earlier seasons. I’m hoping the season picks up some more steam, I’d be sad to see it end, and it may sound silly, but if the writers do more to keep Julia and Murdoch apart, it’s the end for me anyhow. Like you said, too much has been invested, to ruin it now would diminish the relationship completely. I feel better getting this all out, damn good TV! —Alexa

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Featured, Frankie Drake Mysteries

Frankie Drake Mysteries: Lauren Lee Smith reflects on Frankie’s evolution

Anyone who watches television knows the evolution of a series is ongoing. Writers give characters tweaks as they get to know the actors involved. Story arcs change. A secondary character can grow because of on-screen chemistry. In the case of Frankie Drake Mysteries, two showrunners in two years and actress Lauren Lee Smith’s changing look has made the series somewhat uneven.

Now, the program feels as though it truly has found its stride with Peter Mitchell as showrunner, gorgeous opening credits and Frankie’s blonde hair. Throw in the genuine chemistry between Frankie (Smith), Trudy (Chantel Riley), Mary (Rebecca Liddiard) and Flo (Sharron Matthews), and Frankie is revving on all cylinders.

We spoke to Lauren Lee Smith about all of that and more.

Congratulations on Season 3.
Lauren Lee Smith: Thank you. Yeah, it’s pretty exciting. I feel like it’s like a whirlwind. I can’t believe where we’re premiering Season 3. It feels like yesterday that we were premiering Season 1. It’s been a quick, a quick three years.

And with that has come change. There’s, there’s Frankie’s hair, the opening credits, and then behind the scenes with Peter Mitchell as the showrunner. What was your reaction to, to having him be named as the showrunner for Season 3?
LLS: Well, we are very fortunate to have Pete come on board. He’s the man, he knows what he’s doing better than anyone in this country. And, and to have him come on board, especially last-minute, we were super fortunate and lucky to have someone of his calibre come on and, and help helm the show.

Does the blonde hair stay through the third season?
LLS: It does. And I think we’ve nailed Frankie’s look. In Season 1 they sort of had this image that someone found and it was with this red hair. Very cool. And we tried it. I’m not naturally a redhead. Maintaining red hair was extremely difficult, especially keeping the style. That made it very difficult for everyone. It was very time consuming for everyone. My hair started to fall out.

So Season 2 we’re like, ‘OK, maybe we’ll try a wig.’ Right. That again added about an hour and a half to my day each day, and you’re already dealing with it a 14-hour day. That’s a lot of extra time to add to a day. And also, we were very limited in terms of how I could move with it, and if you’d be able to see it. It was one of those things where everyone’s like, ‘You know, you’re naturally a blonde. We’d love you as a blonde.’ Why didn’t that, why wasn’t that ever sort of…

Three women stand in a morgue.It sort of goes with the original idea that we had of this character anyway, which is a little bit more of a tomboy, a little bit more ahead of her time, a little bit more androgynous and ready to take on action and not be so girly girl. We tried a few different styles. We, we did a bunch of hair makeup tests and, and then everyone just sort of agreed, wait a minute, I think this is sort of the Frankie, that we all, we all envisioned her to be in the first place.

In the first episode, Frankie is in London. How long did you film there?
LLS: We did two full days in the UK and we took advantage of those two days. They were full days. We were all over the city. It was incredible. It was surreal to shoot at The Savoy. That alone was, I think worth it. We can shoot a lot here in Toronto and the outskirts of Toronto, but I think actually being in London and not having to sort of use green screen and, and, and have those actual locations, just it makes the episodes so, so much bigger.

As a fan of Foyle’s War, when Honeysuckle Weeks’ name jumped out, I was pretty excited. 
LLS: I was so stoked to be getting to work with her. I think she’s incredible. And then I met her on the first day I was just like, ‘Oh my god. Okay. This is amazing.’ She’s so down to earth and so lovely and so talented and such a fun energy to work off of. We had an absolute blast and she got to come over to Toronto for a week and shoot here with us.

This group of women, they’re just so tight now. They get along so well. The show just oozes fun.
LLS: We’re not faking the friendship. We actually are all really tight and we’re all really close and we hang out outside of work and we adore each other and we’re all so different. It’s a natural chemistry that we have in the scenes and the times that we do get to all be there together. You can’t really fake that stuff.

Can you give me a little bit of a teaser into some of the storylines or maybe a major story arc this season?
LLS: We have a really exciting story arc coming up early on in the season where we delve into Frankie’s personal life and she’s thrown for a loop yet again by some personal stuff that she had no idea about and perhaps a new person in her life that she was not aware of. So that’s pretty cool and very, very different. And it’s definitely something that when I read I was like, ‘What? OK, where are we going with this?’ So that’s really exciting. And then we, you know, there’s lots of really fun stuff. Again, we have Wendy Crewson, who plays Nora. There are lots of really interesting beats with that. We have some, we have a few familiar faces who, who will pop up again who we haven’t seen maybe since Season 1, which was really fun.

And again, it’s always interesting incorporating actual people into our show and we definitely do that in Season 3.

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Children's Programming, Featured, Podcast

TV Eh B Cs Podcast 89 — Rev & Roll-ing with Scott and Julie Stewart

A family smiles into the camera.Scott & Julie Stewart are an award-winning, Vancouver-based husband and wife team in kids’ animated content. They are showrunners, executive producers, content creators and writers.

Their latest series is Rev & Roll, which airs daily at 8 a.m. ET on Family Jr., and is also available on Family Jr. OnDemand and the Family Channel App. The action-packed show follows eight-year-old Rev, and his best friend Rumble—a powerful truck with a puppy personality—as they go on wild adventures in their town of Fender Bend!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured, Hudson & Rex

Hudson & Rex showrunner Derek Schreyer teases Season 2

After a break of only a few months, Hudson & Rex returns for its second season on Citytv. We couldn’t be happier. The crime drama, based out of St. John’s and starring John Reardon, Mayko Nguyen, Kevin Hanchard, Justin Kelly and German Shepherd Diesel vom Burgimwald is a must-see for anyone that enjoys their mysteries lighter in tone and with a great ensemble cast.

In Tuesday’s debut—at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv—Charlie (Reardon) and Rex (Diesel vom Burgimwald) discover a wanted criminal has been living in St. John’s under a false identity for 20 years and end up in the crosshairs when the man’s past catches up with him. Along for the ride are the capable Doctor Sarah Truong (Nguyen), Superintendent Joe Donovan (Hanchard) and Tech Analyst Jesse Mills (Kelly). And, with David Hewlett, Shiva Negar, Janet Kidder and Noam Jenkins in guest roles, it makes for a fast-paced and highly enjoyable first instalment.

We spoke to showrunner Derek Schreyer—who took over for Season 1 showrunner Ken Cuperus—about what’s to come, including a visit to France.

How’s filming been going?
Derek Schreyer: It’s been going great. It’s been really fun. For Season 2, we really pushed to get some scripts done in time for the summer, which relies on some of the amazing, amazing summer scenarios of St. John’s. So that’s been really a lot of fun.

I sort of jumped on board this as a showrunner about two-thirds of the way through Season 1. I’d never been there before, so it was like I just got thrown into the fire. It was two months of absolute pain because we were way behind and I had to do a lot of stuff. But I knew it’s the first year of the show, and every time there’s the first year of a show, there’s a lot of cooks and a lot of people really care about it, and want to make sure that it’s right. And this show’s been developed for 10 years. I mean, there’s a lot of different voices and whatnot.

I just started to really connect with the environment. I just loved St. John’s, and I love the area, and I love Diesel and the crew.

You were filming in Saint Pierre and Miquelon. What can you say about that storyline?
DS: My first episode, the one I co-wrote with my friend Alex Pugsley, is going to be set there. It’s kind of a Bon Cop, Bad Cop thing where the climax takes place in Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Two men, a woman and a dog stand next to a parked car.One of the things about Hudson & Rex that I like is that everybody’s on an even keel, human and canine, and I love this team that you guys have established with this group of police officers that are solving these crimes.
DS: Yeah, I think it’s definitely interesting because this is obviously based on Inspector Rex. That had a certain model, and that was basically a man and his dog, which meant that there was always one of those two POVs. We’ve gone more with an ensemble feel with the dog at the mix. I just love being on a show where the No. 1 on the call sheet is a dog. It really lessens egos. They all really love just to interact with a dog. It really changes the chemistry of the set, I think.

One thing I wanted to do before we started season two is just to bring in Sherri [Davis, Diesel vom Burgimwald’s trainer] just to have her talk about the kind of things that Diesel can do. She’ll mention that she has a dog that can play as a wolf. And all of a sudden, there comes an episode right there. It could be an episode where we’re in the forest with a wolf, and plots appear, and then maybe Rex can do this, he can balance on a rope as he crosses. All of a sudden, plots ignite from that.

You already mentioned Saint Pierre and Miquelon; what are some themes and a couple of storylines that you follow in Season 2?
DS: We’ve got one that’s delved into the Insta celebrity culture. It’s kind of a comedy from Bridesmaids meets the Instagram culture. We have one called ‘The Woods Have Eyes,’ where this woman goes missing after she sees something, and the mother comes in and believes that she … we actually track her to the forest somewhere, and Rex and the team ended up discovering a sort of a shady, almost a Stranger Things-type organization, and try to figure out what they’re doing. That’s kind of neat.

Then we have one set which is super fun, it’s called ‘Game of Bones.’ It’s going to be set in the world of LARPing. It’s a completely eccentric cast of characters of LARPers who portray these characters on this battlefield. There’s a character that dies and has sort of a death rune carved in his body, and that’s symbolic of something in the sort of medieval Viking lore, and we have to explore that. So that’s kind of a really fun world.

We have one called ‘Rex in the City,’ which explores the dating culture. It’s a real bunch of mixed, fun stuff. Some of it’s a little heavier handed, and some of it’s lighter. But I think we’ve sort of figured out our tone, so we’re a fairly grounded show. We have a little bit of heart, a little bit of humour, and hopefully some really cool stories.

Hudson & Rex airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv.

Images courtesy of Rogers Media.

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Featured, Frankie Drake Mysteries

Preview: Frankie Drake Mysteries, “Counterpunch”

Like the season return of Murdoch Mysteries, fans were thrilled with the first episode of Season 3 of Frankie Drake Mysteries. I agreed. The series has really hit its stride thanks to a little road trip in London, England, new opening credits and a palpable feeling of fun among the core four ladies.

Here’s the official synopsis for Episode 2, “Counterpunch,” written by John Callaghan and Keri Ferencz and directed by Mina Shum.

Frankie takes her boxing skills to the ring as part of a plan to take down a corrupt cop extorting Ward residents.

And, as always, a few notes from us after watching a screener.

A bigger budget?
I’m not sure if “yes” is the answer to my question, but it sure appears so. When the episode begins, we’re met with a very good CGI view of Toronto followed by one heck of a great set packed with citizens. It just felt bigger, and brighter, than past seasons.

Moses Page returns
That’s not a surprise if you were paying attention to the photo above. Frankie in the boxing ring pretty much guarantees Moses on the other side of her gloves. Sparks fly there … and outside of the squared circle.

Tony Nappo guest stars
Mr. Nappo, familiar to Murdoch Mysteries viewers as a trolly driver in “The Accident,” and in a sketch in last Tuesday’s episode of Baroness von Sketch Show, checks in here as Leo, a gun-toting gym owner who doesn’t take kindly to gals picking locks and entering his establishment. Also, keep an eye out for Aaron Poole as a less-than-pleasant cop.

Flo meets a man
She makes assumptions about the gentleman off the top and learns there’s more to him than meets the eye.

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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