From Michael Pickard of Drama Quarterly:
Link: Laying down the Law
“I loved the idea of this woman who suddenly happened to work with her estranged father and siblings, who she never knew growing up. While they are helping other families in crisis, she’s also trying to win back her husband and two children who feel incredibly burned by her.” Continue reading.
From a media release:
 Global and Entertainment One (eOne) announced today that production is underway on Season 5 of the smash-hit series, Private Eyes (8X60). From Canadian broadcaster and production partner Corus Entertainment, with leading independent studio eOne, the new season returns with more cases and drama for Everett & Shade Private Investigations. Canada’s favourite detective duo Angie Everett (Cindy Sampson) and Matt Shade (Jason Priestley) are back with eight new episodes featuring more cases and some real questions about their future together, professionally, and personally. As the recipient of the 2019 Golden Screen Award for Canada’s most-watched comedy or drama, Season 4 of Private Eyes is set to air later this fall on Global.
Season 5 welcomes back Shade’s daughter, Jules Shade (Jordyn Negri) and her boyfriend Liam Benson (Jonny Gray); Shade’s father, “The Soup Don†Don Shade (Barry Flatman); Everett and Shade Agency’s assistant, Zoe Chow (Samantha Wan); Officer Danica Powers (Ruth Goodwin); Angie’s mother, Nora Everett (Mimi Kuzyk); Shade’s ex-wife, Becca D’Orsay (Nicole DeBoer); and Angie’s childhood friend, Detective Kurtis ‘Maz’ Mazhari (Ennis Esmer).
Guest stars this season include Kandyse McClure (Battlestar Galactica) as Jada Berry, Shade’s new love interest; Brett Donahue as Tex Clarkson (Bad Blood); Sagine Semajuste (Grand Army) as Laila Maxton, the successful Financial Health Coach; Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars) as Chief George Cutler, and special appearances by Canadian Singer-Songwriter, Royal Wood; renowned Toronto Drag Queen, Lucy Flawless, and more.
Broadcast details for Season 4 of Private Eyes are coming soon. Stream Seasons 1 through 3 anytime with the Global TV App or STACKTV, available with Amazon Prime Video Channels.
Private Eyes is produced by eOne in association with Corus Entertainment, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit. The series is executive produced by Jocelyn Hamilton and Tecca Crosby for eOne, Shawn Piller and Lloyd Segan for Piller/Segan, Jason Priestley, Alexandra Zarowny and James Thorpe. Piller, Zarowny and Thorpe are also showrunners.
At the end of its first season, Detention Adventure teased a new quest to be tackled by our heroic foursome: a map hinting at the lost treasure of Ignatius Cockshutt.
The time for that quest is nigh, as Season 2 of Detention Adventure returns to CBC Gem on Friday.
But Raign (Simone Miller), Brett (Tomaso Sanelli), Joy (Alina Prijono), and Hulk (Jack Fulton) aren’t alone this time around; quick and quirky Kelly (Lilly Bartlam) joins the fray and adds a new dimension to the web series.
“We wanted to have a history expert this season,” says co-creator, co-executive producer, co-writer and director Joe Kicak. “Having Kelly in there really became the catalyst for this season. And, as you’ll see, she very much becomes part of the story arc.”
A big part of what makes the second season of Detention Adventure so enjoyable—aside from the nods to Brantford, Ont. (my hometown) and the addition of Workin’ Moms’ Sarah McVie—is the personal stories attached to the four main characters. From dealing with divorce or the death of a parent to feeling like the odd one out or an underachiever, Raign, Brett, Joy and Hulk face reality when they aren’t hunting for Cockshutt’s treasure.
“We wanted them to feel very real,” says co-creator, co-executive producer and co-writer Carmen Albano. “The emotional arc of our characters is important, so it had to be genuine.”
Detention Adventure serves up genuine scares too. Several scenes shot in a darkened church result in very creepy moments, making this adult wonder if it was a little too scary for kids.
“CBC told us to just go for it,” Kicak says with a laugh. “We shot one scene and they said, ‘We didn’t really get a jump scare,’ so we made it even worse. Then they said, ‘OK, maybe you went a little too far.’ It might scare some kids but, at the same time, you might have other kids who really enjoy the ride.”
Climb on board the ride this Friday.
Season 2 of Detention Adventure is available on CBC Gem this Friday.
Image courtesy of CBC.
I recently moved from Toronto to a small town just outside of Gatineau, QC. Surrounded by forest, the big-city robins and cardinals I spotted in Southern Ontario have been swapped for blue jays, woodpeckers, chickadees, warblers and wild turkeys. I’ve downloaded the Merlin Bird ID app from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology onto my iPhone and am constantly searching for and documenting my findings. Needless to say, I was intrigued to watch a screener of Paul Riss’ documentary.
“Rare Bird Alert,” broadcast as part of CBC Docs POV this Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, embarks on a one-man odyssey to meet other enthusiasts and take the pulse of birdwatching in North America. Turns out I’m not the only one on the birding bandwagon; birdwatching has become one of the fastest-growing pastimes on the continent. With the Latin names of 234 birds tattooed on his body, Hamilton-based Riss heads out to meet a few folks amid the growing flock.
In Canada, one in five people is an active birder who spends more than a quarter of the year watching birds. According to the Canadian Nature Survey, more than half of these are women; birdwatching has now become more popular than gardening.
Among those Riss meets are biologist Melissa Hafting, teenage birding phenomenon Toby Theriault, LBGTQ visual artist Christina Baal, and Philadelphia rocker and naturalist Tony Croasdale. All have their own reasons for birding, from passion to environmental activism.
There are also some sobering stats. The bird population is dropping worldwide, sounding the alarm on climate change.
“Rare Bird Alert” is fun and funky, with an engaging soundtrack and great graphics to accompany stunning shots of birds in varying backdrops. From a cattle egret in Hamilton’s Royal Botanical Gardens, a least bittern in Long Point and Anna’s hummingbird in Vancouver, the must-don’ts of birding (always confirm your sighting) and the definition behind “lifer” and “face-melter,” Riss’ project is for anyone interested in birding or the people who do it.
“Rare Bird Alert” airs as part of CBC Docs POV, Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
Images courtesy of Dream Street Pictures.
I have two younger sisters, and they were/are enough of a handful. I can’t even imagine having over 600 siblings. And yet, that’s exactly what award-winning director Barry Stevens found out, and is documented in an upcoming CBC Docs POV episode.
“The World’s Biggest Family,” bowing Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC, follows the documentary filmmaker and screenwriter as he tracks down several of his half-siblings. But as much as it is learning more about those who are related to him, Stevens’ project is a critical look at the practice of anonymous sperm donation, including doctors who have used their own sperm and lied about it, anonymous donors with mental or physical genetic illnesses that are passed on unknowingly to several of their kids, and donors who discover they may have hundreds of kids, despite being told by sperm banks that there were strict limits.
“The World’s Biggest Family” kicks off in 1884 Philadelphia to explain how sperm donors were first conceived, before switching tacts to his own tale. Stevens’ parents wanted children, but his father was unable. Enter an anonymous sperm donor who was used to conceive Stevens and his sister. A secret kept for decades, they didn’t learn the truth until their father died. The advent of DNA testing popularized by Ancestry.com and 23andMe led Stevens on a journey of discovery, not only to uncover more siblings but who his biological father was.
Through interviews with his half-siblings, Stevens delves into the feelings of people who always felt like something was missing in their lives, felt like they didn’t fit in, and struggled with emotions like anger, sadness or happiness upon learning the truth.
But the project doesn’t just deal with Stevens’ family. He meets Rebecca, who learned she is just one of possibly more than 19 children who was fathered by the same Ottawa fertility doctor; and Angie, who discovered the sperm she and her partner had received was donated by a man who failed to disclose his mental and physical health issues.
“The sort of idea that it can be done with a few shakes of this wrist and nothing else, there should be a bit more to it than that, I believe,” Stevens’ sibling, Graham, says during the documentary.
I agree.
“The World’s Biggest Family” airs as part of CBC Docs POV, Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
Image courtesy of Bizable Media.
