The last days of Republic of Doyle
More than a hundred people stood jammed together, waiting for, but also dreading the words they were about to hear. “Cut. And that’s a wrap. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the Republic of Doyle.†First there came a giant sigh, like a hundred balloons deflating all at once. Then came clapping, loud and rhythmic. And above it all were whistles and cheers with, indeed, an undercurrent of barely repressed sobbing. Continue reading.
W5, CTV
This edition of W5 features a hidden camera investigation into horrific conditions during the transportation of animals on the way to market, and a look at Betty Regina Leininger the top judge in the world of show dogs.
Normally, I don’t like watching television shows where people get pranked. I physically cringe when someone is put into an uncomfortable situation that lasts for what feels like forever, squirming, while a joke plays out. Turns out I have no problem with watching high schoolers be the targets in YTV’s Undercover High.
Perhaps it’s because host–and head prankster–Lisa Gilroy makes it a ton of fun. The petite blonde, who bears a more than passing resemblance to Kristen Bell, wins viewers over with her spunk, charm and unique ideas for pranking two groups of high school kids in each of the five new episodes. I’m pretty sure, despite what she claims on-air, she didn’t come up with the situations on her own, but that’s not important. What is important is pulling off the prank with style, and Undercover High does that.
It helps that Gilroy is aided by a handful of actors and actresses to fill a variety of fake roles and elicits the students’ actual teachers to aid in making it all seem real. Saturday’s first episode visits Cobourg District Collegiate Institute East and St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School for the Arts, where mayhem ensues at both locations.
At CDCIE, teacher Miss Norohna suggests pranking her Grade 9 business class and the Undercover High folks come up with a doozy. After claiming her friend needs their help with a world record, the group enters the school gym to construct a tower of items created by a 3-D printer. Suffice it to say the printer isn’t real, the world record attempt is fake and the people organizing the whole thing are in on the joke. What isn’t fake are the reactions of the students when things begin to go south. I’m pretty sure I saw some actual tears and trembling chins as the minutes rolled by and the situation deteriorated.
Things don’t improve at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School for the Arts, where drama teacher Mr. Thomas pranks his kids by plunging them into a fake informercial where they find out–with seconds to go–that some will be reading Korean off cue cards while showing how an unknown kitchen item works. You can’t make up the red on the face of one lad who looks like he is going to pass out or throw up (or both) just before the cameras roll.
Kids are pretty savvy, and the secret to Undercover High‘s success is that the teachers–the people the students trust–are in on the joke. If they weren’t, the jig would be up within seconds. Luckily for us, they don’t catch on.
Undercover High airs Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.
“The fans may not agree with it right now, but there has to be a moment when the characters that you’ve seen as heroic people need to fall,” Marshall says. “They need somewhere to climb back up to. If you just have your characters going on this nice, mellow journey where they’re the hero of the show … what is interesting in that? There is no real life. There are no lessons to be learned. I was so happy when the writers took Amy and threw her down to basically starting from scratch.”
Marshall has literally grown up on the set of CBC’s Sunday night stalwart and she’s gained an immense amount of knowledge since filming the pilot episode when she was 19. And, unlike shows such as Degrassi, where the setting is high school and the characters have to be kept in a certain age group, Heartland‘s young folks have gotten older, matured and moved on to new stages in their lives.
Marshall has evolved too, adding the title of consulting producer to her list of responsibilities on the family drama. The London, Ont., born actress explains she was already on the set and involved outside of her acting role anyway. An experienced horse person, she was there to help the show’s writers tweak scenes that dealt with those four-legged co-stars; a discussion with Heartland‘s producers led to the additional credit. When she’s not on-set filming, Marshall educates herself on all aspects of production, an easy thing to do when you’re surrounded by folks you’ve been working with for years. Can executive producing or showrunning her own project be in Marshall’s future? Not until she learns more.
“There is some very interesting conflict coming up,” she teases. “It’s going to have a huge impact on the whole Heartland family, not just Amy and Ty.”
Heartland airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC.
Do you think Amy should tell Ty about her kiss with Prince Ahmed?
Yes, it's better to get it out in the open now. (93%, 154 Votes)
No way, he'll get upset and possibly break up with her. (7%, 12 Votes)
Package Deal, City – “How I Met Your Brother”
When Danny (Randal Edwards) and Kim (Julia Voth) tell the story of how they met, they discover that the circumstances of their first date were very different than either had originally thought. Told through a series of flashbacks, Kim learns that the note Danny used to ask her out was intended for someone else, and Danny learns that Kim’s true intentions for going out with him were far from romantic. Meanwhile, Sheldon (Harland Williams) tests Ryan’s (Jay Malone) ketchup palate in a high-stakes taste test.
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