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Featured, Mohawk Girls

Review: Mohawk Girls are “Building a Nation”

Review by Carolyn Potts

This episode, entitled “Building a Nation” sees the introduction of Tantoo Cardinal (of Dances With Wolves, Black Robe, and Legends of The Fall) to the cast, taking up the role of Zoe’s mother, The Chief.

We are caught up with Caitlyn daydreaming about the future she hopes to have with her baby and Butterhead, nice girl Anna is hiding out with Thunder (because who wouldn’t since we are talking about Thunder after all!) in order to avoid confrontation with Vicky, Zoe’s mother, once again voices her displeasure with Zoe for missing the “splashy” fundraiser from Episode 107 “The Beast”, and Anna is forgiven by Bailey for dating Thunder (and besides Bailey is fairly gushing over her budding relationship with Jack “Mr. Dimples”).

Our episode takes off with Caitlin. She cannot wait to share the news of her pregnancy and visits Butterhead at work. Once again Caitlin is disappointed by Blockheaded Butterhead. He is obviously surprised but he makes it very clear to Caitlin that he does not want another baby. Word of Caitlin’s pregnancy spreads quickly on Kahnawa:ke and Zoe hears it from the neighbourhood gossips. The girls decide it is in Caitlin’s best interest that they conduct an intervention and confront Caitlin with their support “regardless of what she decides to do” (implying they think she might be better off with an abortion). This time Caitlin is heartbroken by her closest friends. She is stunned that they would even imply such a thing. Caitlin turns once again to her father who this time does not disappoint. Her father thinks Butterhead will come around in time (fingers crossed for Caitlin).

Baily receives shocking news from Jack’s roommate Leon (Alain Chanoine). According to Leon, Jack doesn’t want the drama that comes with a relationship with Bailey and intends to break things off with her. Will this spell the end of Bailey and Mr. Dimples?

Team “Thana” arrive together at the Fire hall fundraiser and it “seems” Anna can finally take her place in the community. Can the women in the community handle their best man taking up with a “half breed”? – Stay Tuned!

Good girl Zoe is once again waging war on her inner bad girl, cleaning and redecorating but comes across an advert to yet another fetish party, and so she returns to the sex shop. This for me was the surprise moment of the show as our sex shop clerk turned out to be none other than Yanic Truesdale, Michel from Gilmore Girls fame (and who doesn’t want to meet a sex shop clerk like him?). Zoe plays dress-up trying on lots of fabulously sexy outfits at the suggestion of “Michel” (“Michel” it is since his character has not yet been named). NOTE to Tracey Deer and Cynthia Knight, if you are reading this, please please PLEASE can Yanic reprise this role in future episodes so we can at the very least give him a proper name?

The other highlight of this episode came once again from Caitlin played by Heather White. Caitlin shows up to the driving range and dumps all of Butterhead’s stuff at his feet. Caitlin’s Beast finally shines and it appears Butterhead rises to the occasion. It seems he has finally met his match. He tells Caitlin that this time he is up to the task of fatherhood. He wants to be a father to their baby that his father never was to him and proclaims that Caitlin is the loving and caring woman he wants to have in his life. (YAY for Caitlin!!)

We end with a “bang” so to speak, at the expense of nice girl Anna, who is jumped by Vicky by the lacrosse rink.

Will Butterhead live up to his promises to Caitlin? Will Jack really break up with Bailey? How will Zoe cope now that Caitlin knows her secret? How will Kahnawa:ke react to Anna’s beating? Let me know what you think is ahead for our foursome in the comments below!

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Featured, Mohawk Girls

Review: Mohawk Girls is a “Beast”

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Review by Carolyn Potts

Our story picks up right where we left off with a reminder that Anna is still trying to find acceptance at Kahnawa:ke. She is still at odds with Bailey, Caitlin, and Zoe over Thunder. Speaking of Thunder (because who wasn’t thinking about him?), tonight’s episode entitled “Beast” does not refer to “WOW! Thunder is so Beast!!”(even though Thunder IS so beast!); we will appreciate the journey that each of our protagonists undergo as their true characters – the inner “Beast”- struggle to fight their way out. Series creator Tracey Deer cleverly reinforces this theme played out in a bit featuring Zoe. Zoe opens a package to reveal some naughty reading just as her mother, The Chief (a final episode for Tina Keeper in this role), calls to remind her of her familial duty to help at yet another fundraiser.

This episode takes off with Bailey turning to Zoe and Caitlin for support as she considers if she wants to seriously date the forbidden white guy Jack (“Mr. Dimples”), knowing the battle she will face within her community if she does. Bailey is so distraught that even Auntie Velma notices. This gave us a great emotional scene played by Ashley Michaels. Auntie Velma reminds Bailey “who is going to think about you if you don’t?”, recalling her own unhappy past of always doing what was expected of her rather than what made her happy.

Catlin’s starting point is a reminder of how strong and supportive she is when she is with her friends and yet when it comes to the men in her life her insecurities come rushing forth. This time though the strong “Beastlike” Caitlin comes out to do battle with Butterhead; at first just testing the waters.

Several great bits are peppered throughout the episode featuring Zoe’s inner “beast”: Zoe perusing the BDSM web site again, Zoe pacing outside of a sex-shop, Zoe madly cleaning and organizing to regain control (I secretly hope we will be treated to an episode featuring more of Zoe’s back story as so far most of her story is told only through these little snippets).

Bailey, armed with the knowledge that she has a few allies*, goes to Jack “Mr. Dimples” and tells him she doesn’t want to end up like an old Lobster (a reference to episode 105 “The Lobster Club”). She wants to make a go of a relationship with him.

Anna, who up until now has been looking for a connection to her recently deceased father, finally makes that connection through Bailey’s father Sose (played by Glen Gould). He encourages her “to take her place among us and get in there and defend your turf.” He continues, “Your father was a proud Mohawk man and you are his child.”

Our “beast reveal” happens at the fundraiser (or in Zoe’s case NOT at the fundraiser – and Zoe’s Beast does not disappoint). Bailey shows up with “Mr. Dimples” and announces to all that yes, the white guy is her boyfriend. A furious Sose and Butterhead start to make a scene, Bailey stands her ground and Anna’s beast uses this moment to shine. Poor Vicky (Rachelle White Wind Arbez) ends up in the pool, heels still intact, producing a fabulous disruption to the party. Bailey and Jack are able to escape disaster.

Finally, we learn that Caitlin is pregnant by Butterhead (a fabulously poignant moment played by Heather White that every woman will recognise in herself).

Will Anna and our girls make up? How will Butterhead react to fatherhood, again? Is Caitlin doomed to be just another of Butterhead’s babymamas? What fallout will Bailey face after her declaration? What naughty things will good girl Zoe get up to next?

Another great episode. Keep ‘em’ coming ladies!

*This term “Allies” keeps popping up. I have to wonder is this a deliberate word choice? Time will tell.

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Featured

Comedy is hard, says Corner Gas: The Movie star

After an extended stay in movie theatres, Corner Gas: The Movie lands on CTV and CTV Two tonight. Stripped of the pre-show and feature film credits, the two-hour flick takes on the structure fans of the series are more accustomed to, a super-sized episode of a project they loved dearly.

For those who didn’t venture out to the movie theatre, here’s a short refresher on what to expect: Dog River, Sask., has hit on hard economic times and is in danger of ceasing to be a town. Everyone has crazy ideas on how to make ends meet, from entering Dog River in a contest to win the cash to pay off debts to prepping for the end of the world. Coming up with a script for a 90-minute movie was a tough task according to creator/executive producer Brent Butt, executive producer Virginia Thompson, writers Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggitt and executive producer/director David Storey, who took over two years to come up with something everyone was happy with.

Comedies are just harder to make says Butt’s co-star, Nancy Robertson.

“You laugh or you don’t,” she says during a press junket in support of the project. “In comedy, you don’t have the help of mood lighting or music. Those all help to set up a drama, but they screw up a comedy because they get in the way of the timing. It’s far more delicate.”

“I think when people see a comedy and they burst out laughing they think it’s a surprise,” the gal who played Wanda Dollard for six seasons continues. “There is nothing further than the truth. They have no idea of the work that has led up to that laugh, that smile. Because the laugh is impulsive, I think people think what led up to it was impulsive.”

All of that work has paid off. Corner Gas: The Movie is a wonderful salute to the fans who wanted more of Oscar (Eric Peterson), Emma (Janet Wright), Davis (Lorne Cardinal), Wanda, Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and Hank (Fred Ewanuick). The feature film structure allows for an expansion of a couple of characters, most notably Oscar and Davis. The former attempts to go full commando and live off the land (when he’s not calling people “jackass”), leading to several laugh-out loud moments. Davis, meanwhile, tries his hand at being a private investigator; the resulting scenes make me wish CTV, Butt and everyone else involved had the time and cash to pull of a Davis spinoff where he’s a small-town P.I. working in a big city like Calgary or Vancouver.

For now we’ll have to be content with Corner Gas: The Movie, a loving return to those odd folks in that little town where there’s not a lot going on, knowing that there was in fact a lot going on behind the scenes to make it happen.

Corner Gas: The Movie airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV Two; and Monday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.

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Featured

Preview: Ice Pilots flies into the sunset

For the last six seasons, viewers have been able to experience what it’s like–visually at least–to climb aboard a DC-3 and jet around Canada’s north. Now it all comes to an end as Ice Pilots NWT takes off for the final time.

Airing Wednesday night on History, the series-ender “D-Day” is unlike most episodes of Ice Pilots in that it was recorded in June–the polar opposite to the sub-zero filming in Yellowknife’s winter months–and the only cargo are human beings. But what a group of human beings. Mikey McBryan’s two-year dream of celebrating the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Europe has finally arrived. He’s got 12 Canadian troops and 12 American Green Berets flying up to Yellowknife to participate in the event, a commemorative jump into Alberta’s Abraham Lake from just 1,200 feet off the ground. Not only that, but Mikey and long-time Buffalo Airways employee Corey are jumping too, in a separate exit from the DC-3 at 12,000 feet.

ice_pilots

But, like the D-Day jump that was postponed due to weather, all of the planning and plotting Mikey had done seems for naught when Hurricane “Buffalo” Joe McBryan arrives on the scene and unhappy about the landing zone. Add to that a wall of bad weather and the entire project is set to be scrubbed.

I won’t ruin what happens next.

I was lucky enough to fly up to Yellowknife during a press junket for Ice Pilots NWT. The highlight, of course, was climbing into the back of the DC-3 and flying to and from Hay River with Joe in the cockpit. Bundled up in layers of clothing and packed into that fuselage, I realized I was one of a small group who’d had the opportunity to do it in real life. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Thanks, guys, for six great years on the air, and for welcoming a TV critic from the south into your lives for a day or two.

The Ice Pilots NWT series finale airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on History.

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Blackstone, Featured

Review: Did Blackstone just kill off a character?

“Mom? Mom?” Alan’s drug-induced, hazy question to an open cell phone line was the shocking ending to what had otherwise been a very Jumbo-centric episode of Blackstone.

“Wolves vs. Sheep” concluded with the ultimate cliffhanger: Debbie, drunk and frustrated that Alan hadn’t come by to pick her up and drive her to see Andy, headed out behind the wheel. Alan’s call to her over an hour later arrived as she was ready to pull onto the highway and she missed the visual and aural tip that a tractor trailer was coming her way. The truck’s grille, splattered with blood, means Debbie is either dead or practically there. No way she’s unscathed.

That will leave the two Fraser men guilt-ridden; Alan for tossing his troubled mother to the side like a bag of trash and Andy for being unable to protect Debbie from harm.

As for Jumbo, his health is in question too. Over $50,000 in debt to Jack, the jig was up for Daryl’s right-hand man after both Gina and Alan confessed Jumbo was skimming funds from the club to pay for his increasing gambling addiction. His truck seized by Jack’s thugs, Jumbo has just five days to pay off the rest of what he owes. That’s going to be a major problem now that he’s unemployed. Unfortunately, Jumbo seems to have cost Daryl the only meaningful relationship I’ve seen him enjoy on Blackstone. That’s too bad, because at the beginning of Tuesday’s instalment it looked like Daryl was one two-minute hand-hold away from telling Gina he loved her. Now that’s up in the air thanks to Jumbo’s indiscretion.

How desperate is Jumbo to raise the funds to pay off Jack? Is he willing to take drastic measures, like steal from a bank, or will he flee the city and hope Jack and his men don’t find him?

Meanwhile, life for Victor has gotten a lot more complicated. The immediate money troubles the band is suffering from–the government is considering holding back on funds because of files burned up–could be alleviated by the oil company that wants to start fracking on the reserve. Victor’s flaw is that he wants everyone to be educated on the long-term effects fracking will have on Blackstone while the young men want the jobs and money ASAP. Victor has the support of folks like Wilma and Leona, but that appears to be it, especially after he was shot at and had “Frack You” spray-painted on the side of his truck.

Speaking of Leona, she and Gail at least talked about the latter’s alcoholism. Good on Leona for standing up to Gail’s excuses with her comment that she’s a recovering alcoholic too. I understand what Gail is going through, but enough is enough. If she truly wanted help she’d seek it out rather than make excuses, which is the classic denial phase of the issue.

With just two more episodes to go before the end of this season, there are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up, the most pressing of which is: is Debbie dead?

Blackstone airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on APTN.

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