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Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Murdoch Mysteries: Peter Mitchell on the premiere and previews Season 11 storylines

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Spoiler warning: Do not continue reading unless you have watched Monday’s Season 11 episode, “Up from Ashes.”

If you’re still reading, it’s because you have either A) watched Monday’s premiere, or B) you love spoilers. After a Season 10 cliffhanger that saw Doctor Julia, Inspector Brackenreid and Constables Crabtree, Jackson and Higgins all in danger and Detective Murdoch in custody, “Up from Ashes” returned with an emotional thrill ride that not only exonerated Murdoch but collared Councilman Williams, Robert Graham and Chief Constable Davis. Unfortunately, Jackson passed away as a result of his gunshot wounds, leaving Station No. 4 in mourning. (But how great was it to see Hodge has landed back on his feet?)

In the first of our exclusive weekly discussions with the Murdoch Mysteries writing team, showrunner Peter Mitchell—we caught him scouting locations for an upcoming story about a white moose—explains the season premiere and what’s to come in Season 11, including the two-hour holiday special, which explains the Murdoch Takes Vancouver event!

Congratulations on a great season premiere. It was well-written and well-performed. You were able to bring all of the storylines together in an exciting way.
Peter Mitchell: I think we did a nice job. It was economical and worked.

It’s now official: Constable Jackson did not make it out of the church alive. Did Kristian Bruun want to leave Murdoch Mysteries?
When I decided to commit to doing a cliffhanger like that, someone couldn’t make it. It would have been dishonest if everybody was fine. I hadn’t even really decided who it was going to be when I wrote it.

How, then, did you decide who it was going to be?
Fan loyalty, number of years on the show, Kristian had some other opportunities … Daniel Maslany [Detective Watts] has a bigger presence on the show this year, our cast was starting to get large, large, large and I think we served Kristian well and he served us well. There were no hard feelings or anything like that, it’s just what happens.

Fans become so attached to characters and they don’t want to see anyone leave. But I think that becomes boring if you don’t shake things up. 
I think so. And, at the heart of it, this is a drama. Without conflict, without change and without loss … every jeopardy can’t be on just secondary characters. You have to have it happen to your primary characters to have any kind of impact.

Can you go into more detail about Detective Watts’ involvement in Station No. 4 this season?
He’s in at least half of the episodes, he’s kind of a gadabout detective and he comes and he goes. He is semi-permanently stationed in No. 4.

Is that a case of Daniel comes in and your plan was just to have him for a few episodes and then you change your mind because of what life he breathes in Watts?
I think so, yeah. Kristian was like that too. Kristian came in as Slugger Jackson a few years ago and I couldn’t help keeping him in my mind, and we decided to bring him along, much like we did with Lachlan Murdoch; his participation has increased with every season of the show and continues apace this year.

The scene where Murdoch realized Crabtree was really alive and working behind-the-scenes was pretty emotional.
The bromance between those two has been and will continue to be, a key element of our show. It just felt that natural way to play it. William had kind of given up hope on him; he had never really given up hope on Julia, and he kind of expected Brackenreid would be OK. And he saw Crabtree lying there, dead, in the season finale.

Are we going to revisit Murdoch’s house building this season?
We’re constantly riding that line between murder mystery and domestic drama and we have a whole new domestic drama for Murdoch and Ogden this year that is more important than houses.

When I spoke to you last season, you thought Teddy Roosevelt might be back this season. Can you confirm he does?
Well, somebody hunting the moose! [Laughs.]

What about Dr. William Osler?
Yes, he is in the early part of the season.

Helen Keller?
Yes, early part of the season.

Alexander Graham Bell?
Early part of the season.

Our friend Terrence Meyers will be back?
Yes, along with Pendrick. The nosy newspaper reporter we were all beginning to hate is back, and so is the burlesque dancer.

And Colin Mochrie is guest-starring this season as well.
With the number of incidents that have surrounded the Murdochs at their hotel, someone thought it was wise that we get a hotel detective. [Laughs.] He appears in the Helen Keller episode which is, I think, the third episode of the season.

The holiday movie this year is two hours, correct?
Yes, it’s two hours and it’s a slightly different spin on the holiday movie this year. It’s not so much a retelling of a straight-up Christmas story. There is a little extra in it. We’re going to shoot a little bit of it out in Victoria, B.C. We’re actually prepping it as we speak and are just doing the final casting decisions.

So, the west coast of the county is playing into the storyline?
Yeah, there are sort of two independent storylines. ‘Meanwhile, out on the west coast…’ and then, ‘Meanwhile, back in Toronto.’ It will have some elements of Indigenous culture, specifically the Haida. We’re going out to Victoria in nine days to shoot.

At what point did you decide that going west to film was a good idea?
It’s always been a part of this show, and particularly with Christina Jennings, that when we have the opportunity we try to travel the show. We do have fans across the country and it’s an opportunity for the fans to say Hi. In formulating the Christmas movie this year, and in an attempt to not start spinning our wheels, it was a natural part of our growth to say, ‘Let’s get out a map … where do we want to go? Is there a story we can tell here? Yup.’ We were able to come up with a story that has a bit of resonance with Canada being 150.

What did you think of the season premiere? Do you have a message for Kristian Bruun? Are you excited for the holiday movie? Let me know in the comments section below!

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

 

 

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Featured, Kim's Convenience

CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is on a mission for more laughs in Season 2

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It’s hard to believe that, after a very funny first season for Kim’s Convenience, the word around Season 2—returning Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC—is that it’s even better this year.

“We follow the comedy,” co-creator and co-executive producer Ins Choi said during production a few weeks ago in Toronto. “We have the best comedy writers in the country in our writers’ room pitching ideas, pitching stories. We know the characters, we know what works with these specific actors in these specific roles. We know what worked on-screen and we know what the audience loved. We know what we were drawn to, so it’s following what makes us laugh and what works.”

There’s no denying Season 1 worked. Kim’s Convenience was the No. 1 new Canadian comedy of last year and nabbed three Canadian Screen Awards—including a Best Performance trophy for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Best Performance in a supporting role for Andrew Phung—along the way. After a wildly successful run of the original play on Broadway earlier this year—Choi and co-creator, showrunner and fellow executive producer Kevin White developed that into the CBC comedy—everyone is a little tired, but excited, about the sophomore run. And, in the case of Simu Liu, he’s jazzed with the way that Kim’s Convenience has been embraced.

“The most encouraging thing for me is that the feedback for the show does not revolve around the fact that it’s centred on a Korean family,” Liu says. “It is important and it is diverse, but it’s a funny show and it’s a Canadian show. Those are the things that, I hope, will make it succeed in the long-term.”

Tuesday’s return picks up right after the season finale, with Janet (Andrea Bang) desperately looking to find her own Toronto apartment. Umma (Jean Yoon) and Appa (Sun-Hyung Lee) are, understandably, reluctant to see her go, especially when they learn about some of the potential properties their daughter has investigated (Look for Bad Blood‘s Tony Nappo in a memorable guest role on Tuesday.). Shannon (Nicole Power) is still in a relationship with Alejandro (Marco Grazzini), leaving Jung (Liu) reeling, and Kimchee (Phung) is, well, Kimchee. Recurring characters Gerald (Benjamin Beauchemin), Terence (Michael Musi), Mr. Chin (John Ng) and Mr. Mehta (Sugith Varughese) all appear in Tuesday’s instalment; Choi says Pastor Nina (Amanda Brugel) is back for Season 2 too.

“Letting go is a lot easier said than done,” Sun-Hyung Lee says of Appa accepting Janet’s desire to move out. “And Janet goes through a lot. She’s going through the wringer, not only to sort of spread her wings but Umma and Appa to, literally, let go of her.” Janet will learn, he divulges, just how sheltered she was and how good she had it under her parents’ roof.

“We see Janet in the store, but we also see a lot of her outside the store,” Bang says. “There are also new characters that we meet. Last year, we were establishing our characters. Now we get to delve deeper into them and even explore relationships that we didn’t get to, like Janet and Kimchee or Janet and Jung.”

Kim’s Convenience airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Featured, Heartland

Comments and queries for the week of September 22

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I am really looking forward to finding out the baby’s name and more of Amy and Ty’s relationship and romance since we did not see much of that last season [on Heartland] and to see how they cope as new parents. —Brooke

I knew Season 11 was going to be special, but you have laid out a season that goes far beyond special, it’s incredible. Ty and Amy as new parents … I can’t wait; Georgie’s role has really expanded which it should, she is very talented can’t wait to see her tackling this new role. Jack and Ty’s relationship should grow and Ty has matured and can’t wait to see him tackling fatherhood. Tim has always been a challenge to deal with but I love his character. You all have done a fantastic job and I know Season 11 hasn’t started yet, but I sure hope it leads to Season 12. Heartland is No. 1 in all our hearts. —James

Heartland has a real man at its centre: Jack. Someone who has such integrity, he didn’t just provide for his own family but sacrificed to silently take care of another for decades, asking for no credit or applause in return. A constant rock that is always there when the ones he loves need him—his backstory makes it clear he knew he had to be accountable and present, fair when he married Lyndy and they had a child. Trying to claim a guy bailing on his pregnant wife on a whim, putting himself in serious danger and actually losing significant income (without even getting into how he once behaved over Amy possibly having outside Heartland aspirations), is a “romantic hero” is bad PR spin at best, especially on a family show, where sadly too often lately family matters less and less. —Lauren

Thank you, Heather Conkie and Greg David for this insightful preview of what we can expect during the upcoming season of Heartland. There’s absolutely nothing else like it on television and it truly gets better every year. Every announcement that it has been renewed is a magnificent blessing for the fans who have been with the program since Day 1. —Nicholas

Reading this is very interesting, but just makes it more difficult to wait to see it in the U.S. As I have said before, all the production pictures, and talk about Season 11 on social media, this is going to be a very good and exciting season. I certainly hope that what goes on in Season 11 will draw a huge audience and lead to another season of the best TV show ever, at least for me. —Tony

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

 

 

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Alias Grace, Featured

Alias Grace: Sarah Polley’s excellent Margaret Atwood adaptation comes to CBC

CBC has made it part of their mandate to focus on adapting more Canadian novels into television projects. They’ve already done it recently with Anne—Moira Walley-Beckett’s take on Anne of Green Gables, in production on Season 2 now—and Allan Hawco’s Caught, his adaptation of Lisa Moore’s novel.

Now the network goes all-in with Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood’s novel about a murderess in 1840s Canada. Debuting Monday at 9 p.m., the six-parter has been adapted by Sarah Polley and stars Sarah Gadon in the lead role of Grace Marks. The project ticks all the boxes of what’s top of mind in society—women’s rights and the immigrant story among them—and a hot genre in true crime. Alias Grace is based on the real-life case of domestic servant Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant who was imprisoned in Kingston Penitentiary for teaming with stable-hand James McDermott (played by Kerr Logan) and murdering their employer, Thomas Kinnear (Paul Gross) and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery (Anna Paquin). The book and the production introduce a fictional doctor, psychiatrist Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft), into the mix, who meets with Grace to discuss what she recalls of the crimes. Did Grace really commit the murders she was convicted of? And where does housemaid Mary Whitney (Rebecca Liddiard) fit into what happened?

“Adapting Alias Grace was like a boot camp for screenwriting,” Polley says during a media press day in Toronto. After buying the rights to the novel years ago, Polley initially thought Alias Grace would be a feature film. Those plans were scuttled because the book contained too many time jumps and changes in characters’ views and voices to make a movie feasible. A six-hour television series was perfect, giving her the opportunity to fit everything in. Once she had the scripts done, Polley began shopping them around; executive producer Noreen Halpern snapped it up for Halfire Entertainment after having a coffee with Polley.

“Sarah handed me the six scripts and I read them in one sitting,” Halpern recalls with a smile. “Once you start reading them, you can’t stop. The writing is so compelling.” Equally compelling is the colour palette devised by director-executive producer Mary Harron. Washed-out greys are the backdrop to scenes in the Kingston prison, dark grime on the ship from Ireland to Canada, rich browns in the prison governor’s office where Simon and Grace’s conversations take place, and golds seeping into Grace’s reflections of her happy days at the Kinnear farm.

“When she arrives in Toronto, which is supposed to be this promised land, it is a sea of mud,” Harron says. “When Grace sees the farm for the first time, it’s bathed in golden light. Even though terrible things happened at this farm, in her memory it was a beautiful place.”

What really makes Alias Grace hum is the cast. Gadon is spectacular as Grace and Holcroft is equally to task as Simon. In Sunday’s opening moments, Grace serves as narrator, describing her long prison term and the reason she was there in the first place.

“I think of all the things that have been written about me,” Grace says. “That I am an inhuman female demon. That I am an innocent victim of a blaggard forced against my will and in danger of my own life. That I was too ignorant to know how to act and to hang me would be judicial murder.” While she states each version of herself, Gadon twitches and teases her face to match each person the public views. With such skill in presenting the right face, who’s to say Grace isn’t playing the victim in her chats with Simon? Is she playing him for a fool, hoping he’ll help to have her pardoned?

“We have our own theories,” Gadon says with a smile. “Margaret Atwood was very, very against us sharing them with you. I will say that we all got so caught up in the whodunit aspect and the web of lies. What’s interesting is that the book is historical fiction but Margaret did take every piece of historical fact and weave it into the story, which makes it so difficult to make up your mind whether she did it or not.”

Look for more exclusive Alias Grace interviews with cast members Sarah Gadon, Kerr Logan and Rebecca Liddiard in the coming weeks.

Alias Grace airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Featured, The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things returns with stunning “The Wild Canadian Year”

It’s no secret that I love documentaries. No matter how jam-packed my days and nights are, I can always find time for another doc. The best is not only educational but beautifully filmed, impeccably scored and wholly entertaining. That’s certainly the case for “The Wild Canadian Year,” the five-part documentary kicking off the newest season of The Nature of Things on CBC.

Moving to Sundays at 8 p.m. this fall, “The Wild Canadian Year” is the perfect way to start the long-running series’ season. Filmed by award-winning documentary filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner of River Road Films, “The Wild Canadian Year” turns cameras on this country’s wildlife during the four seasons (the fifth episode is a making of). It all begins Sunday with spring, as Arctic fox pups take their first steps and black bear cubs learn to climb trees after the long cold days of winter while female caribou make the dangerous trek to reach their calving grounds.

With 4K ultra-high definition providing the visuals and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra the soundtrack, “The Wild Canadian Year” truly is a spectacle. I don’t have 4K in my home, but watching a screener of Episode 1, I can only imagine how incredible this project looks. My laptop’s retina screen captured amazing details—droplets of water as part of a thunderous waterfall, the nostril flare of a seal, the feathers on a hummingbird—so the better the screen the more breathtaking this will appear.

A spectacular 75 stories were recorded in Canada’s provinces and territories for the series, beginning Sunday with a caribou herd in northern Quebec that treks far north while the area’s lakes and rivers are still frozen. The animals follow each other, creating a beaten path that expends far less energy than breaking new ground. That energy store is needed at a moment’s notice: the pack is constantly hunted by hungry wolves.

Fauna isn’t the only thing to be focused on in “The Wild Canadian Year.” The thundering Hay River is explored next, as thick ice plunges over a waterfall creating into the vicious tumult below. Then it’s to the boreal forest of the east where a truly fascinating thing is documented. Cameras show the rebirth of a tree frog, frozen solid during the winter months thanks and revived during the snow melt. The camera work is so detailed you can see cataracts of ice over each eyeball and its first breath of the new year.

“The Wild Canadian Year” is the stunning result of nature and technology combining stellar storytelling set to a magnificent soundtrack. Don’t miss it.

The Nature of Things returns Sunday, Sept. 24, at 8 p.m. on CBC with “The Wild Canadian Year.”

Images courtesy of CBC.

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