TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 158
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Just in time for spring cleaning, The BIG Downsize, Season 3 premieres on VisionTV, April 5

Tell Tale Productions’ The BIG Downsize, Season 3 sees order meet chaos when professional organizer, Jane Veldhoven takes on two Nova Scotia households with too much stuff. The five-part documentary series premieres nationally on VisionTV, Monday, April 5 at 9 p.m. ET and runs until May 3.

Season 3 of The BIG Downsize, an exploration of why we love our possessions so much and the emotional baggage and stress that comes crashing down when there is no choice but to let go, sees Veldhoven helping freewheeling artist Doug Bamford prepare to move from a 3000-square-foot Victorian house in Lunenburg to an apartment and Dartmouth’s Sparks family downsize from their large family home to a much smaller one.

Host of this popular TV series, Veldhoven is the only Professional Organizer in Canada who is also a Certified Interior Decorator. An industry leader for the past 18 years, she has served on the National Board of Professional Organizers in Canada and is a founding member of the Nova Scotia Chapter. With a thriving business, Get Organized by Design, based in Halifax, Veldhoven is Past Chair of the Nova Scotia Interior Decorators’ Association and was a columnist with Herald Homes for 10 years. For more information on Veldhoven, visit: GetOrganizedByDesign.ca.

The BIG Downsize was produced by Edward Peill and Erin Oakes from Halifax’s award-winning Tell Tale Productions Inc., directed by Pamela Gallant, and written and story edited by Josh MacDonald. The series was produced in association with VisionTV with support from The Nova Scotia Film & TV Production Incentive and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit program.

For more information on The BIG Downsize, visit: TheBIGDownsize.
Follow: #TheBIGDownsize #JaneVeldhoven #GetOrganizedByDesign

About Tell Tale Productions
Tell Tale Productions Inc. develops and produces one-off documentaries and non-scripted series that resonate with audiences and have long lasting global appeal. The company has produced award-winning content for the CBC, Documentary Channel, Discovery, History, ZoomerMedia, AMI, NDR, and Super Channel. Recent productions include Spirit Talker, Drag Kids, The Big Downsize, and The Power of Play. Tell Tale also acts as a service producer for numerous series including top rated History series The Curse of Oak Island. Our award-winning productions have been viewed by millions of people in more than 100 countries on dozens of broadcasters including ABC, Amazon Prime, Al Jazeera, France 5, HBO Europe, ORF, Red Bull, NHK, and YLE.

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Industry News, Kim's Convenience, Run the Burbs, Strays

CBC announces two new comedies

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From a media release:

CBC is announcing initial details for two new original half-hour comedy series featuring Kim’s Convenience stars Andrew Phung and Nicole Power – RUN THE BURBS and STRAYS – with both shows set to launch during the upcoming 2021-22 broadcast season.

Created by comedian, writer and actor Andrew Phung and his best friend and collaborator, filmmaker Scott Townend (The Secret Marathon), RUN THE BURBS is a new original comedy about a young, bold Canadian family taking a different approach to living life to the fullest in the suburbs, featuring Phung as a stay-at-home dad with an entrepreneur wife and two kids. The series has been in development since May 2020 and is produced by Pier 21 Films, with additional details to be announced later this spring.

STRAYS follows the upbeat and enthusiastic Kim’s Convenience character Shannon Ross (Nicole Power) as she embarks on a new career in Hamilton, Ontario alongside an ensemble cast including Frank Cox O’Connell (Soulpepper Theatre), Tina Jung (Suits, Second Jen), Nikki Duval (Workin’ Moms), Kevin Vidal (Workin’ Moms), Tony Nappo (Pretty Hard Cases), Paula Boudreau (Workin’ Moms) and Emily Piggford (The Sounds, Warigami). Created by Kevin White (Kim’s Convenience, Schitt’s Creek) and produced by Thunderbird Entertainment, the series has been in development since July 2018 and is currently in production. More details will be announced later this spring.

“As our comedy slate continues to evolve, we are thrilled to continue working with Andrew and Nicole and offer audiences two new comedies to look forward to starring these incredible talents they have come to know and love,” said Sally Catto, General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports, CBC. “Both of these series were planned to join Kim’s Convenience on our comedy lineup this upcoming year, to reflect how many young Canadians are forging new lives outside of urban centres in Canada. We look forward to watching Andrew and Nicole as they explore these new stories.”

RUN THE BURBS and STRAYS join original comedy SORT OF as new additions to CBC’s award-winning comedy slate this upcoming broadcast season. Created by Bilal Baig (Acha Bacha) and Fab Filippo (Save Me), SORT OF stars Baig as a gender fluid millennial trying to live their most authentic life.

CBC will confirm series renewals and additional new original series for the 2021/22 broadcast season later this spring.

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Featured, Web series

CBC Gem’s Something Undone a genuine scare-fest

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I like my horror/scary projects to be atmospheric. A jump scare is OK, but I prefer a general feeling of unease coupled with a tinge of a slow burn. It’s why I love Something Undone.

Debuting Friday on CBC Gem, Something Undone—created by and starring Madison Walsh and Michael Musi—manages what I thought was unthinkable: a genuinely spooky piece of work encapsulated in a six-episode web series.

And, it was written, produced and filmed during the pandemic. Created through funding from CBC’s Creative Relief Fund, which provided $2 million in development and production funding to a diverse range of original Canadian projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBC’s hook was projects had to be produced under strict COVID-19 guidelines.

“Mike and I started brainstorming,” says Walsh during a recent call. “We thought, ‘What can you maintain the quality and enjoyment of with restrictions on visuals? If we can’t have that many actors, what can we do? If we could only have one location, what could we do?’ That’s when we started to think about sound.” The result is Something Undone.

In the first episode we meet Jo (Walsh), a foley artist and her partner, Farid (Musi), who are the successful hosts of a Canadian true crime podcast. After her mother passes away Jo returns to her small Ontario town to sort through her mother’s things while continuing her foley work on the podcast. With Farid in Newfoundland and only available over the phone, a sense of desolation, loneliness, and unease begins to permeate Jo’s life. A disturbing sound Farid hears in one of Jo’s tracks leads her on a creepy, spooky path. Did the house, or something in it, cause her mother’s death?

“I was doing research about sound and learned that we, as human beings, perceive sound so realistically that we can make them up and hear them almost as if they were actually there,” Musi says. “I think that’s why watching a horror movie in our home is such an amazing experience. It doesn’t end when the movie ends. It stays with us.”

With strict safety guidelines in place early in 2020, Walsh and Musi headed off to write Something Undone in a spot many would consider a scary setting: a cottage in the middle of nowhere with no heat. There, they wrote for 10 days, fleshing out what they had established in the pilot into one big chunk and then found ways to break it up into six episodes with a cliffhanger for each.

And while you can certainly watch Something Undone on your TV via the CBC Gem app—the colour palette, visuals and set decoration are wonderful—watching it with headphones on my laptop revealed a whole other level to the horror. Every little creak and clatter can be heard.

“We spoke to our sound designer and he spent extra time really juicing the sound for direction and to make that audio experience with your headset,” Walsh says. “Because it is sound-based, yeah, go for your headphones.”

Something Undone debuts Friday on CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of 4AM Film Studios.

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Children Ruin Everything

Aaron Abrams joins CTV original comedy Children Ruin Everything in lead role, with Ennis Esmer and Nazneen Contractor joining cast

From a media release:

CTV, Canada’s most-watched network, together with award-winning independent production company New Metric Media, announced today that Aaron Abrams (BLINDSPOT, HANNIBAL) has been tapped for one of the leading roles in the new half-hour CTV Original comedy CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING, joining previously announced lead Meaghan Rath (BEING HUMAN, HAWAII 5-0). In addition, Ennis Esmer (BLINDSPOT, SCHITT’S CREEK) and Nazneen Contractor (RANSOM, HEROES REBORN) have also signed on to join the cast.

Abrams stars as “James”, a supportive and loving husband to Astrid (Rath) and father of two. Positive but anxious, James loves parenting with Astrid but misses the freedom of his pre-kid life. Esmer joins the cast as “Ennis”, James’s co-worker and best friend who wants as few responsibilities as possible, and Contractor plays “Dawn”, Astrid’s successful, blunt, and mildly pretentious sister.

Created by Golden Globe® and Emmy® Award-winner Kurt Smeaton (SCHITT’S CREEK, KIM’S CONVENIENCE), CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING is about living with the worst roommates of all: young children. Astrid (Rath) and James struggle to find a balance between being ‘Mom and Dad’ to two kids, and being who they were before offspring. CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING explores the hilarious and varied ways kids can tear down your life and, if you’re lucky, replace it with something you have to admit is pretty okay, too.

Aaron Abrams has appeared in several regular and reoccurring roles for television including MASTERS OF SEX, THE L.A. COMPLEX, LONGMIRE, THE OATH, ROOKIE BLUE, SLINGS & ARROWS, BLINDSPOT, and HANNIBAL. Winner of a FilmOut award for Best Supporting Actor in the critically acclaimed film Closet Monster, Abrams has also starred in the hit sci-fi film Code 8 and in his award-winning drama Nose To Tail. He has written and produced several films, including The Lovebirds, starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae. Abrams is repped by Buchwald, Luber Roklin Entertainment, and The Characters Talent Agency.

An ACTRA Award and Canadian Comedy Award nominee, Ennis Esmer’s television credits include SCHITT’S CREEK, YOU ME HER, RED OAKS, THE LISTENER, PRIVATE EYES, DARK MATTER, MAN SEEKING WOMAN, LOST GIRL, and most recently he portrayed the billionaire criminal mastermind turned FBI consultant “Rich Dotcom” on the hit series BLINDSPOT. On the silver screen, Esmer can be seen in the indie Clara, which screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Other independent film credits include How To Plan An Orgy In A Small Town, Big News From Grand Rock, Dirty Singles, Sex After Kids, and the breakout hit Young People Fucking. Esmer is repped by The Characters Talent Agency and Berwick & Kovacik.

Nazneen Contractor has appeared in many popular television series such as THE BORDER, 24, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, COVERT AFFAIRS, HEROES REBORN, CHICAGO JUSTICE, and the Frank Spotnitz drama RANSOM, as well as voicing the character “Synara San” in STAR WARS RESISTANCE. Nominated for a Golden Nymph Award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, Contractor also starred as Rima Harewood in the record-breaking Paramount feature film Star Trek Into The Darkness as well as the upcoming film Spiral. Contractor is repped by The Characters Talent Agency, Gersh, and BMK-ENT.

Meaghan Rath is repped by Hess Entertainment, The Kohner Agency, and attorney Jerry Longarzo.

Alongside Smeaton, one of television’s premier comedy writers, Chuck Tatham (MODERN FAMILY, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) joins multiple Canadian Screen Award-winner Mark Montefiore (LETTERKENNY, WHAT WOULD SAL DO?) and Rath as executive producers, with Beth Iley (KILLJOYS) serving as producer.

Bell Media Distribution is the international rights holder for CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING, and New Metric Media is the series’ exclusive Sales Agent. The series is produced by New Metric Media in association with CTV, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund.

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Featured, Second Jen

Second Jen ends after three seasons on Omni

Jen and Mo have said goodbye. After three seasons on Omni, Second Jen will not be back for a fourth.

“It is bittersweet for us to announce that this has been the last season of Second Jen,” co-creators, co-executive producers and stars Amanda Joy and Samantha Wan, and showrunner Carly Heffernan posted on social media following the show’s Sunday season finale. “Thank you to everyone who has supported us. Thank you for the love and laughter over the years.”

“We leave Jen and Mo in a place that feels good; where they’ve grown, and learned, and come into their own,” the post continued. “We are so happy to have shared their journey with all of you. In many ways, their story has echoed our own.”

Read the rest of the post.

Over the course of three seasons, Second Jen centred on best friends Jen (Wan) and Mo (Joy) who banded together to tackle life’s ups-and-downs in Toronto.

Nominated for Best Comedy at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards, the Season 3 cast included Nile Séguin, Janet Lo, Timothy Lai, Richard Tse, Tina Jung, Isabel Kanaan and Andrew Bushell. Guest stars included Andrew Phung, Ken Hall, Deb McGrath, Kathryn Greenwood, Ann Pornel, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll and Kathleen Phillips.

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