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Continuum, Featured

Interview: Continuum’s Stephen Lobo looks to the future

Friday’s newest episode of Continuum, “Power Hour,” explores who we become, whether it’s Dillon’s gig working for Kellog, Julian’s road to becoming Theseus or even Edouard Kagame, who returns in a surprising way. Kellog is front and centre in the episode, throwing his power in the faces of Kiera and Carlos, and pulling the strings behind the scenes with regard to the Future Soldiers’ little project. A warning: not everyone survives “Power Hour.”

We spoke to Stephen Lobo this past May about playing Continuum‘s big bad for the past four seasons, and what he’s got lined up next.

Are you going to miss this character?
Stephen Lobo: I’m going to miss the heck out of this character. Guys like he and Jason are less precious. Kellog isn’t talking about the quantum physics of it all and the time travel. He’s rooted in a relatable reality. It’s been fun.

What was your reaction to the Season 4 renewal/last season news?
I’ve never been involved in a series where we’ve had the opportunity to finish on our terms. That in and of itself was really something to be grateful for. There was no news about the pickup for so long that at first I was thinking, ‘We’ve got to come back,’ to ‘Maybe we’re not coming back.’ And then there was a letting go process. So when the six episodes came I was like, ‘Wooooo!’ I was really, really grateful. They left me in such a great spot in Season 3, it was great to be able to play it out. In Season 1 and Season 2 he was kind of working in the shadows and now he’s going for it.

Everybody is going to be gunning for him and it’s all about survival. Live or die.

Continuum1

Kellog immediately distanced himself from the rest of Liber8 back in Season 1. What’s the analysis you’ve put into that move?
On the one hand there’s an instinct. He’d seen so much pain and suffering in his time that when he was given a chance it was a natural thing to do. On the other hand, here’s a guy who has been let down by every other thing that he’s lived for. Family, friends, society. Everything in his life has told him he’s worthless, so this is his way of responding to that. There is kind of a god complex going on. It’s the ultimate challenge for him and it’s what’s meant to be in his deluded, corrupt, completely unhealthy mind.

What was your reaction to reading the series finale script?
I couldn’t stop talking Simon Barry’s ear off. I just kept texting him, ‘Thank you so much, what a wonderful way to do it.’ What he accomplishes in that 45 minutes of television is beautiful and poetic. There were so many surprises and twists … the fans will be blown away.

Are you going to be taking anything from the set?
I’m going to be taking some suits! [Laughs.] Some fine threads. I’m going to go through my wardrobe!

Looking forward, being on a genre show like Continuum means not only the possibility of a crowd-funded feature but also the chance to attend conventions for as long as the fan support is there. Are you into that?
I’ve never experienced this kind of connection with fans before. It’s really amazing. You get this in theatre, this immediate reaction from he fans. If this show can receive some other life and there is a calling for that, I would be there 100 per cent. I love this guy and playing Kellog has never been boring.

What about developing your own projects?
I’ve got the rights to a play and I’ve asked Brian Markinson [Inspector Dillon] to direct and Kyra Zagorsky to be in it. I had never met Kyra, and I asked her to be in the play and then she was cast in this [as Future Soldier Vasquez], which is crazy. John Cassini is involved as well. That’s a play called The Motherfucker with the Hat, a wonderful play out of New York and that will be a blast. Coming off this show and Arctic Air, this is a nice spot to be in. I can breathe a little bit and be a little more choosy with my projects. I’d love to not have to do everything that comes across the table.

Continuum airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.

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Featured, Masterchef Canada

Set visit: MasterChef Canada cooks up Season 3

A cardinal rule in a reality is never, ever come off as cocky or over-confident in front of someone who is judging you. Two MasterChef Canada contestants learned the hard way when they received a dressing down from Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung and Claudio Aprile during the first day of production on Season 3.

CTV’s culinary competition—set to return in early 2016—started rolling on two months of production with plenty of drama. Myself, along with longtime film and television critic Chris Jancelewicz, spent several hours in the series’ super-secret set hidden just west of Toronto and it was a pretty impressive sight. One corner of the expansive building is devoted to shelves piled with pots and pans, another area is set up for confessional one-on-ones and a conga line of fridges are labelled with daily ingredients. Once a warehouse, Proper Television transformed it, putting in the water, power and gas lines needed to create stations for each of the finalists to prepare their dishes for judging.

Bell Media

It’s one thing to watch the finished product on television; it’s quite another to witness the raw emotion in-person. One after another, competitors hoping to move past the auction round had an hour to prep their signature dish in front of their fellow contestants and show producers before rolling their cart in front of the judges for a final five minutes of finishing touches and plating. Devoid of a music track, those minutes with Claudio, Alvin and Michael were a study in stress. Peppered by the trio’s questions about who they were and what the heck they were doing, sweat beaded on foreheads and stammering began. I squirmed as the chefs stepped forward for tasting, delivered their remarks and abruptly turned their backs on the contestants and walking away. Claudio was especially good at this; he’s developed quite the withering stare for Season 3.

Were aprons awarded while I watched? Yes, though fewer than I imagined. I can’t tell you who advanced and who didn’t yet, but I can say that Season 3 of MasterChef Canada promises to be the most challenging yet.

MasterChef Canada returns in 2016 on CTV.

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Featured, Podcast, Schitt's Creek

TV Eh B Cs podcast 31 – Annie Murphy Rocks the Fire Tornado

Annie1Annie Murphy is a graduate of both the Canadian Film Centre Actors’ Conservatory and the Theatre Performance Program at Concordia University.

Her projects have included Beauty & The Beast, Rookie Blue, Flashpoint, Good God, The Story of Jen and Blue Mountain State. Murphy has also spent time on stages in Montreal and Toronto.

She is currently starring in Schitt’s Creek for CBC as Alexis Rose, and the day we recorded, her new CBC web series The Plateaus hit the web with the first five episodes of a story about a band of brother, sister, best friends, lovers, and lastly, musicians.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to become a Patron of the Podcast? We’ve got a Patreon page where you can donate a small amount per podcast and get a sneak peek of each release.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured, Slasher

Dean McDermott gets back to basics with Slasher

Dean McDermott wears his family on his sleeve. Literally.

The Toronto native’s entire right arm is a story in tattoo ink, from the top of his shoulder and the McDermott family crest to the tiger representing himself and brightly-coloured fish standing in for wife Tori and each of their four children. The ink is a constant reminder of where he came from and who he is: father, protector and husband.

But McDermott is an actor too, and he’s returning to those roots in Super Channel’s horror series Slasher. Set to debut in 2016 on Canada’s pay cable station and Chiller in the U.S., Aaron Martin’s twist on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None stars McDermott as Iain Vaughn, police chief of Waterbury, a small town where bad things are happening. How bad? How about grisly murders every few days and a mounting list of suspects?

“I’m starting over again and I’m going to show you stuff that I think will blow you away.”

“I read a lot of scripts and some of them are hard to get through,” McDermott says during a break in filming on location in Parry Sound, Ont. “This was just a page-turner. I just couldn’t put it down. It’s so funny having someone like Aaron, who worked on Degrassi, create this. I thought, ‘Wow, this guy can really write.” Though McDermott and Slasher‘s production company, Shaftesbury, want to keep much of the show’s secrets hidden until the debut, we can reveal the series’ killer cast. As previously announced, Merlin‘s Katie McGrath stars as Sarah Bennett, who returns to her childhood home years after her parents were murdered. Upon her arrival, copycat killings begin and everyone is a suspect … or a casualty. Among them are Katie’s husband Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren), her grandmother Brenda Merritt (Wendy Crewson), and family friend Cam Henry (Steve Byers). Co-stars include Mary Walsh, Enuka Okuma, Erin Karpluk, Christopher Jacot, Jefferson Brown, Mark Ghanimé and Rainbow Sun Francks.

Slasher represents an important step in McDermott’s career, a return to acting that has rejuvenated him creatively. After regular roles in Due South, Power Play, Tracker and 1-800-Missing, and guest gigs on Kojak, NCIS, CSI, Without a Trace and The Closer, McDermott became more known for opening up his private life via Tori & Dean: Storibook Weddings, Tori & Dean: Inn Love and True Tori. He’s in the midst of Slasher‘s eight episodes, but McDermott sent out tapes in hopes of landing roles in CTV’s Saving Hope and Discovery’s first scripted series, Frontier; being on set has gotten him pumped for more varied roles.

“I’ve gotten my life in order and I realized that I am an actor,” he says, sitting forward. “That’s what I want to do and it’s what I’ll always do. I’m starting over again and I’m going to show you stuff that I think will blow you away.”

Slasher will air in 2016 on Super Channel.

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