Everything about Featured, eh?

Blackstone, Featured

Comments and queries for the week of December 11

Blackstone prepares for the end

Sorry to know that Blackstone is ending. Do hope there will be DVDs made available for us who weren’t able to get APTN. Where will we be able to follow what’s happening with the cast? —Carol

We’ll be keeping you up to date on everything that the cast is up to. As for catching up on Blackstone, you can watch all of the past seasons on APTN’s website. Carmen Moore update: she’s co-starring in Fox’s drama, Second Chance.

Is House of Bryan the Last Straw for Bryan and Sarah Baeumler?

Watched the final reveal episode—blech! My husband and I preferred the original over the final house. That powder room … ugh. I’m sorry Sarah, but an interior designer you are not. —Bev

Quality, quantity and creative questions for the CRTC

While this writer has a point, Blais isn’t entirely wrong either. Quantity means that there will be more but more isn’t necessarily good. Having to hit quotas could actually encourage laziness as people just put out the bare minimum to meet the levels they are forced too. This in turn makes it harder for quality to break out the sea of weakness around it.

Blais’ theory is by pooling more resources into fewer projects those projects have a better chance of making an impact, and people won’t be lazy because they have no backup project to hide behind so what they put out is expected to be strong with all the resources it gets. The fact is U.S. shows would crush us in the fall so winter and spring is a better bet for Canadian TV anyway.

Now, quality in art is subjective. If you want something to be watched a lot and be profitable, procedurals like NCIS are your way to go. If you want accolades and prestige you need smaller but meaningful shows like Orphan Black. You want initial buzz, you need a big concept like the upcoming The Expanse. Buzz, prestige and high viewership is hard to do all at once unless you are Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. —DanAmazing

 

Some insightful points made by all here! And a relief to hear some WGC voices that are aware of the particulars of that incessant guessing game with our CRTC re: future standards on production. I do believe, however, that we have some challenges here on an entirely different “platform,” if you will: the challenge is, as someone has already thoughtfully pointed out here, one of interpreting “quality,” but *before* becoming, typically, titillated by the busyness of quantity.

Once upon a time, a few years back, I had a show in development with the CBC: everyone was nice … well, that’s about it. No one knew how to speak to the (proposed) quality of the possible show. No one. Everyone claimed they knew, but very simply put, no one had the *skills* to speak about what makes a story palatable to what makes a show even compelling. No one. Who possesses the skills that can deepen the quality of a story? Where does one, as a skill and not from a résumé, gain the knowledge of how to develop the art of a story? Where is this quality of development?

We don’t know how to develop stories anymore. Where we need quantity is in thoughtfulness, consultation, and caring discussion within the discipline of story development. Slow down everything! Humbly, let’s learn what quality is as creators, and apply that *knowledge* to our attempts at Development *before* “rushing” to principal photography. There needs to be more—get ready!—faith in creators. And there needs to be more resources in development. (Good Lord! We had so few on our show.)

So, Mr. Blais may have opened up the possibility for consultation on this highly artistic matter named “quality.” Maybe it’s our responsibility to truly wonder what this word is and remove ourselves from this addiction as Canadians and consumers to “keep busy.” Death to our TV. Long live our TV.

Be well.—Ross

 

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

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Featured, Saving Hope

Saving Hope celebrates with a holiday episode

Christmas is upon us, and the folks over at Saving Hope have given fans one heck of a present: a special holiday episode. Yup, Thursday’s newest instalment, “Shine a Light,” combines an ice storm, ugly sweaters, family, wayward spirits, an injured Santa and a dose of miracles into a feel-good story that’s unique to the series. As co-writer Fiona Highet says, creating an episode of Saving Hope for the holidays means dropping ongoing storylines—such as Dawn’s sexual assault and Maggie’s near-death experience—from the mix so the episode can air out of sequence from the series.

Before we talk about “Shine a Light,” I want to chat about this season overall. There have been some really strong episodes and storylines, particularly Dawn’s sexual assault and the marathon bombing that led to Maggie chatting with Charlie.
Fiona Highet: The show has so much heart, you want to take people where you know they’ll be moved. The trick in a story like the bombing one is to position our characters in it rather than have patients come into the ER. We positioned Maggie into the race and then took the unusual step of having her speaking to Charlie. That opened up Charlie’s world wider than it’s been.

Did Adam Pettle really push the writers’ room this season to explore those boundaries?
With the addition of new characters, every episode so far has served a lead character, a guest star and a new character. That’s three angles to come at rather than two, which is much harder. That construct really challenged us. We needed bigger stories. The cast is playing more like an ensemble than they ever have. I wouldn’t say that Adam specifically said anything, but we’ve moved away from the love triangle and have said, ‘Now what? What obstacles can we put in everyone’s way?’

OK, let’s talk about “Shine a Light.” How does it feel to have a writing credit on something that will live on and be broadcast every holiday season?
I was so excited, and it’s not even because Patrick Tarr and I are the Christmassy-ist. He and I were already lined up to write Episode 12, and that’s the one it turned out to be. I’ve written with him before and he and I just clicked, so I knew this was going to be good. I was really excited to be writing it for a couple of reasons. One, as you say, it has a life outside of the show, but it also comes with its own challenges. We couldn’t use the new cast members or serial information. All of the stories and drama around Charlie and Alex were gone. We have to play Dawn as though she has not come through this experience … those things seemed to be more challenging than they were once we were in it.

Were there certain items on the Christmas episode checklist that you felt needed to be addressed?
I had to do a little research. I could picture M*A*S*H and Christmas in The Swamp, but not much else. I very consciously watched some Grey’s Anatomy and some ER Christmas episodes to see what they did and what they were talking about. There is always a kid on the verge of life and death. There was certainly conscious thinking around story balance and structurally saying, ‘We cannot go from this child waiting by the tree to the guy whose genitals hurt.’ That was much harder than I thought it would be.

We knew we wanted to cover ugly Christmas sweaters because it’s funny, we knew it would be funny to put Dana and Shahir together because we don’t often see them together and we knew we could give them some of the anti-Christmas sentiment and they would play it with exactly the right touch.

You spoke earlier about doing research for this episode by watching holiday episodes of Grey’s and ER. Are there holiday episodes, TV movies, movies or specials you watch during the holidays?
I can’t not watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. My kids are 13 and 11, so they’re too old for it but I’ll drag them back in every year. Elf is a modern classic and I’m a fan of a more recent movie called Arthur Christmas. My family has a funny tradition—I don’t even know how it started—of watching Gene Kelly movies at Christmas, the big musicals, so I’m sure I’ll be seeing Anchors Aweigh even though it has nothing to do with the holidays. I’ve also come around to the Love Actually phenomenon.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV.

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Featured, Podcast, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, X Company

TV Eh B Cs podcast 38 – Erica Durance & Adam Pettle: The Ghosts of Christmas Hope

Erica_Durance

A workday conversation with Saving Hope lead Erica Durance and showrunner Adam Pettle. Saving Hope is CTV’s enduring supernatural medical drama that centres around the lives of the doctors and nurses of Hope Zion Hospital.

Erica has spent the last decade and a half in film and television, before Saving Hope probably most noted for her work as Lois Lane on the popular CW series Smallville. In addition to being the lead on Saving Hope, she’s also a producer and, as we learn in our discussion, a new director as well.

Adam is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program, whose most popular play Zadie’s Shoes has been produced across Canada as well as in the U.S. and the UK. He’s worked on several Canadian and American television series, including Combat Hospital, King, Rookie Blue, X Company, and Saving Hope where he became showrunner this season.

We talk about the upcoming holiday episode, transition through Erica’s getting called back to the set, and learn a whole bunch about the show that fans can’t seem to get enough of.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Blackstone, Featured

Blackstone prepares for the end

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With just one more episode left—the series finale is set for Dec. 22—Blackstone is hurtling along. The show is dense, with lots of moving parts and some storylines that have been around for several seasons. That’s a lot to try and wrap up with just two hours left, and I’m pretty sure not everything will be nicely wrapped by then either; this is Blackstone after all and nothing seems to conclude happily.

“Retribution” does advance several storylines, however, as a number of characters see light at the end of the tunnel or prepare for the worst. Last week’s instalment, “The River’s Edge,” was a horrifying and realistic peek into sexual assault as Trisha was attacked by a trio of thugs. The tale took an equally awful turn when it was revealed Jack’s nephew was the ringleader, leaving Daryl caught in the middle between family and his business partnership. Daryl decides what side he wants to come down on and the repercussions of his actions will resonate in the finale.

Andy, always quick to make things happen (especially when it’s in his favour) is positively sprinting around Edmonton, threatening Jack and Travis and begging for money to get Blackstone’s girls off the streets and given some support. It’s almost as if he’s trying to get as much done before something bad happens. Andy’s cough is getting worse, and with nothing else to lose, I can’t help but wonder how far he’s willing to go to help Daryl get out of his jam.

Gail continues on her artistic path, growing in confidence so much—was it really just a couple of weeks ago she was hiding her work?—that she’s painting in the middle of the band office. The fact she’s continued to paint is inspiring in itself, but what happens between she and Trisha put a lump in my throat. Gail has grown so much during the past two seasons, it’s inspiring to not only see her take control of her life, but inspire others to do the same.

But with just one week left after tonight, there are still questions that need to be answered.

  • Will the remaining kids stay with Smokey?
  • What’s causing Andy to cough up blood? Will he survive the series finale?
  • Will Daryl lose the club?
  • Will Wilma pass away?

The series finale of Blackstone airs Tuesday, Dec. 22, at 10 p.m. ET on APTN.

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Featured, Heartland

Heartland’s tense midseason finale

Talk about a nail-biter of a midseason finale. Sunday’s newest episode of Heartland, the final one of 2015, was unlike any I’ve seen since I started watching the show. Gone were the feel-good, happy endings we’re used to getting, replaced by scary scenes and poisoned animals.

The focus of “A Matter of Trust” was Georgie and Lou’s deteriorating relationship. Heartland hasn’t shied away from portraying the struggles associated with a family ravaged by divorce, but Sunday took another step, first by having mother and daughter wage war over lies, trust and responsibility and then with Georgie running away to Vancouver and leaving her cell phone behind at the ranch. Yes, Georgie is maturing and moving past that awkward phase and taking her first tentative steps into being a woman. She’s not there yet, but she sure wants to hang with and be accepted by the older girls. Everyone can relate to a storyline like that, and Georgie’s feelings. This being Heartland, I’m assuming Georgie will make it to Peter’s door unscathed, but that knowledge certainly didn’t take the edge off that final scene of her alone in the dark and wandering down the street. (As an aside, I hope Michelle Morgan receives a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her work this season; she deserves it.)

Meanwhile, an environmental disaster threatens the life of Phoenix. It’s been awhile since Heartland dealt with that angle, and having Rusty and then Phoenix succumb to poisoned water was tough to watch. Rusty has been treated and is on the road to recovery, but Phoenix may not be so lucky. Georgie’s disappearance means he’s not getting any attention and he needs someone to notice he’s not doing well. Fingers crossed Amy or Ty head back to the barn and discover the horse is in bad shape.

Heartland returns Sunday, January 10, at 7 p.m. on CBC.

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