TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 1612
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

Rosie O’Donnell guest stars on Bomb Girls

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From Global:

Rosie O’Donnell comes to ‘Bomb Girls’
It didn’t take much to convince Rosie O’Donnell to play a rabble-rousing reporter on the Global series Bomb Girls. First of all, the invite came from her good friend Meg Tilly, who stars as munitions factory boss Lorna Corbett on the made-in-Toronto series. Then there was the female-focused subject matter, which brought to mind another war-era tale about women establishing new roles for themselves outside the home. Read more.

From The Record:

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Jonathan Torrens marks 25 years in Canadian TV

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From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:

Quarter-century comic: Jonathan Torrens has been making a living for the past 25 years being a funny guy… in Canada
Twenty-five years is a long time to be doing anything. But working in show business? Steadily and successfully? In Canada? That’s the equivalent of several lifetimes all rolled into one. Jonathan Torrens, whose career path has taken him from Street Cents to Jonovision to Trailer Park Boys to TV with TV’s Jonathan Torrens to Wipeout Canada to Mr. D and Call Me Fitz, fully understands the magnitude of the accomplishment. Read more.

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Saturday: Orphan Black, W5

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Orphan Black, Space – “Instinct”
With a body in her car and nowhere to turn, Sarah (Tatiana Maslany, Picture Day) is forced to continue her con and earn “Beth” (Maslany) a second chance on the force. But with a killer on her tail, her only hope of finding answers lies with another twin, Alison (Maslany).

W5, CTV – “Tax Me If You Can”
W5 investigates the taxman who goes after ordinary Canadians while ignoring foreign tax havens.

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Never Ever Do This At Home premieres May 6 on Discovery

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From a media release:

What Happens When Curiosity Overrides Caution? Find Out When NEVER EVER DO THIS AT HOME Premieres May 6 on Discovery

Danger! Parents warn their children, caution labels abound, and common sense dictates that there are just certain things that one must never, ever do – especially at home. But turning this accepted wisdom on its head, Discovery presents NEVER EVER DO THIS AT HOME, an “explosive” new Canadian series premiering Monday, May 6 with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The 13-part series blends science, danger, and comedy when hosts Teddy Wilson (INNERSPACE) and Norm Sousa (The Sketchersons) conduct madcap experiments and test the limits of what a house can withstand – and beyond.

In each episode, the two dangerously unqualified hosts precariously mix, ignite, flood, explode, and otherwise wreak havoc on the contents of a charming old farmhouse in southwestern Ontario – no appliance or fixture is safe in their hands! NEVER EVER DO THIS AT HOME, produced by Toronto’s Insight Production Company Ltd. in association with Discovery Canada and Bell Media, is based on a format devised by Norwegian broadcaster NRK and distributed by DRG.

Don’t most people – secretly – want to know what would happen if they ignored the safety warnings? Why can’t she garden with explosives, or heat tin cans directly on the stove? Why shouldn’t he flood a second-floor room to test its threshold, or make moonshine in the garden shed? As Wilson and Sousa test these “nevers” and more, staging elaborate trials using conventional products, household appliances, volatile gases, and professional-grade explosives – essentially whatever they can get their hands on – they reveal the extreme dangers lurking behind commonplace warnings.

NEVER EVER DO THIS AT HOME also features a team of special effects and fire safety professionals, plus experts from various fields of demolition, chemistry, and radiation, to maximize the consequences – and keep Wilson and Sousa out of harm’s way (most of the time…). With 20 cameras capturing every angle – including highly-specialized “Phantoms” that can record 2,650 frames per second for the ultimate in slow-motion replay — the series showcases the legitimate physics and chemistry behind the outrageous cause-and-effect consequences of Wilson and Sousa’s experiments in stunning detail.

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More Orphan Black reviews and interviews

From Lauren Davis of io9:

Orphan Black teaches you to steal your clone’s identity for fun and profit
Last (episode), our favorite new clone Sarah came face to face with Beth, her apparent twin, and stole her identity. But stealing money from your doppelgänger turns out to be more complicated than dying your hair and affecting a Canadian accent, especially when she’s hiding a few secrets of her own. Orphan Black delivered an hour of clones, cops, puke, and mocking the people at your own funeral. Read more.

From BBC America:

Interview: Dead on ‘Downton,’ Maria Doyle Kennedy Resurfaces on ‘Orphan Black’
At last month’s BBC Worldwide Showcase event in Liverpool, I spoke with the actress about her new role, balancing a career as a musician with her acting work, and whether she’s kept up with the death parade over at the Abbey. Read more.

From Krista Smith of Vanity Fair:

Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany on Growing Up in Rural Canada and Playing an Intense Soccer Mom
I think the first audition was Sarah exclusively, and then I think I might have done like a “Sarah as” scene. By the time we were at the screen-test stage, it was five different characters. It was a lot of switching back and forth right in front of a roomful of execs. It was the weirdest audition, but so much fun. Read more.

From Anna Pinkert of Spinoff Online:

On BBC America’s Orphan Black, a Game of Cops, Robbers & Clones
The pilot has a bit of a slow start, but it works to set up two characters’ backstories simultaneously. We already know from the BBC promotional material that Sarah and Beth are clones, not twins – but Sarah doesn’t know that yet; she hasn’t even had a full conversation with one of her doubles. Sarah is so distrustful of everyone that it almost makes sense that her gut instinct would be to hide out as another person and go on the run instead of using Ancestry.com to figure out if she and Beth just had the same deadbeat parents. Read more.

From Critics At Large:

Orphan Black and the New Face of Canadian Science Fiction
This past Sunday, Orphan Black aired its first episode, and on April 21, Showcase’s hit time-travel drama Continuum premieres its second season on Canadian airwaves; both shows are not only produced and filmed in Canada, but (with an appalling deficiency of that renowned Canadian humility) are also set here as well. Read more.

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