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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

Orphan Black hits 404,000 viewers

From a media release:

ORPHAN BLACK is Most-Watched Original Series Debut in Space History with 404,000 Viewers

The series premiere of what the Hollywood Reporter calls “one of the most intriguingly entertaining new series of the year” lived up to its hype Saturday night. Space’s new Original Series ORPHAN BLACK debuted to a record-breaking 404,000 viewers, making it the highest-rated Original Series premiere in the channel’s 15-year history. Overall, Space was the #1 specialty network of the day Saturday, with the return of DOCTOR WHO at 8 p.m. averaging a rousing 654,000 viewers, powering ORPHAN BLACK’s mind-blowing audience at 9 p.m.

In all, almost 900,000 viewers watched some or all of ORPHAN BLACK’s first episode, which launched a complex urban mystery after lead character Sarah comes face-to-face with a stranger who looks just like her. The premiere episode, “Natural Selection,” was also the most-watched specialty program during its timeslot.

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Monday: Seed, Bomb Girls

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Seed, City – “Rebel Without Lamaze”
As a former nerd, Rose (Carrie -Lynn Neales) worries that her Lamaze class will be high school all over again. Fortunately, Harry (Adam Korson) thrived in high school and is ready to help out. Meanwhile, Anastasia (Abby Ross) plans for her own school’s formal, while Jonathan (Matt Baram) and Janet (Laura de Carteret) try to capture the few parent-child milestones they have left. Plus, Michelle (Amanda Brugel) and Harry realize that they dated the same woman years ago.

Bomb Girls, Global – “Fifth Column”
While out with the girls, Gladys finds herself a magnet of unwanted attention – first from a mystery man and then from an overly-curious redhead who questions her about the factory.
Meanwhile, in a bid to get closer to her daughter, Lorna enlists Kate to volunteer with her at Sheila’s hospital; and Betty’s budding relationship with Teresa intensifies.

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Carrie-Lynn Neales – Seed’s Rose Blooms

Seed

“We have so much more to explore, plus I’ll have delivered the baby.” That’s how Carrie-Lynn Neales, who plays Rose on the Canadian comedy Seed, feels about the opportunity to continue for another season. “Renewal is still up in the air, but we have a great fan base and the audience is growing, so everyone is pretty hopeful.”

Although this is Neales’ first time as a regular on a TV show, her two years spent with the Classical Theatre Project has taught her how to breakdown a script and really find the rhythm of her character’s words. She talked about how great writing is the first step in that process and that Seed has great writing: “All the characters have richness.”

Neales also raved about the cast. In fact, as she walked away from her audition with Adam Korson, who plays Harry, she said it struck her how fun it had been. Not the usual audition experience at all.

“I was surprised at how quickly and how well all the cast members connected. At the first table read, Amanda Brugel, who plays Michelle, had me in stitches.”

Neales says she knows her experience is rare. “Everyone in the cast and the crew are amazing and offer great support to really play. It’s a fun set, which is important because the days are long – 12 to 14 hours.”

Neales said her character Rose had impeccable instincts, but is very guarded. If she was going to offer Rose any advice as she embarks on motherhood it would be to trust her instincts and enjoy every moment. Neales says that she and Rose are frighteningly similar.

As for shooting on location in Halifax, she found the people there lovely. Her brother obtained his Masters at Dalhousie University so she had previously spent some time there. The long days didn’t leave a lot of free time to enjoy the local music and arts scene. However, she did find a favourite coffee spot near her hotel, where she consumed too many cups of coffee as she poured over her scripts. Neales hopes to return to the comfort of that coffee spot and the opportunity to play again with the cast of Seed for another season.

Seed airs Mondays on City.

By Ann MacDonald

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Saturday: Orphan Black premiere

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Orphan Black, Space – season premiere
Sarah (Tatiana Maslany, Picture Day), a streetwise hustler on the run from a lifetime of bad decisions, witnesses the suicide of a stranger who looks just like her. She assumes her identity hoping that cleaning out the woman’s bank account will solve all of her problems. Instead, after taking on the new identity, Sarah quickly finds herself caught in the middle of a deadly conspiracy and must race to find answers.

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Orphan Black reviews and interviews

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From Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter:

Orphan Black: TV Review
It’s addictive and compelling — you want the next episode mere seconds after the previous one has ended, which is always a fantastic sign. But even beyond that, there’s little doubt that Orphan Black is more than just a thrill ride or some guilty pleasure. It is, flat out, one of the most intriguingly entertaining new series of the year, and it’s so much more than pure entertainment. For a sci-fi series, there’s some real heft to it. Read more.

 

From Bill Harris of QMI Agency:

‘Orphan Black’ compelling
Orphan Black has one of the best opening scenes I’ve witnessed in a long while. A young woman played by Tatiana Maslany sees a couple of things that would shake anyone when she gets off a train. The first three minutes are spooky and mesmerizing and artistically shot. Read more.

 

From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:

Familiar feeling
Poor Sarah just isn’t herself today. In fact, she’s someone else altogether. Or perhaps several someone elses, all rolled into one. Sarah, as sci-fi fans are about to learn, is the perplexed sort-of heroine in the new Space network series Orphan Black, which premières Saturday, March 30, at 8 p.m. She’s a troubled soul, a disenchanted loner and a directionless orphan, right up until the moment she watches a woman commit suicide by stepping off a railway platform into the path of a moving train. Read more.

 

From Kate Taylor of the Globe and Mail:

Meet Tatiana Maslany: a small-town Canadian ‘salivating, starving for’ her latest TV role
Tatiana Maslany is a nice girl from Saskatchewan. In person, the rising actress is cheerful, friendly, free of attitude and blessed with a sweet face that makes her look younger than her 27 years. On-screen, she is a chameleon who has played roles as lofty as the Virgin Mary, but who more often gets down and dirty, cast as the anarchic street tough with a leather jacket and plenty of eyeliner. Read more.

 

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

‘Orphan Black’ a compelling thriller starring Tatiana Maslany in many identities
Talk about a dead ringer. Late one night, standing on an otherwise empty subway platform, a street-smart orphan named Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) watches in horror as somebody jumps in front of a train. She looks down the platform and notices the dead woman left behind her purse. She grabs it and finds cash, keys to an apartment and a startling ID photograph: the woman’s name was Beth, and she looked exactly like Sarah. Read more.

 

From Mark Leiren-Young of the Vancouver Sun:

Hollywood North: Former soap star Dylan Bruce takes on sci-fi
Orphan Black, the new sci-fi series on Space, features a mind-bending premise with Canadian It Girl Tatiana Maslany (Picture Day) playing multiple clones of the same character — but while some actors might find this concept complicated, improbable plot twists and twins are nothing new to Vancouver-born actor Dylan Bruce, who kicked off his career on the soap opera As the World Turns. Read more.

 

From Rick Mele of Huffington Post Canada:

‘Orphan Black’: 10 Things You Need To Know
And while good science-fiction always grounds its more out-there elements in something familiar, like a shared personal experience or universal theme, “Orphan Black” takes the idea of identity crisis and multiplies it. That’s because the series star Tatiana Maslany doesn’t just play one leading role in the new show, she plays enough to necessitate the use of a cheat sheet. Read more.

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