From Heather M. of The Televixen:
Link: Camille Sullivan Talks The Disappearance
“I started watching documentaries about children who had gone missing and been found or never been found. What struck me was that the parents would say they felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. You want, as a parent, to save your kids, find your kids, and protect your kids and you can’t do anything. The emotion starts there and then you just jump in.†Continue reading.
From a media release:
Super Channel is pleased to announce that Acceptable Risk, a six-part gripping conspiracy thriller, will make its Canadian broadcast premiere on Thursday, November 9 at 9 p.m. ET (SC1) as a new Super Channel Original Series. Each episode of the Canada/Ireland co-production, will also be available on Super Channel On Demand the day following its weekly linear broadcast.
Shot in Dublin and Montreal, Acceptable Risk is written by Emmy® Award winner Ron Hutchinson (Traffic; The Ten Commandments, Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story) and directed by Kenny Glenaan (Charlie, Paranoid, Noah’s Ark, Wired).
Principal cast includes Elaine Cassidy (Harper’s Island, No Offence), Angeline Ball (Mr. Selfridge, The Commitments), Lisa Dwyer Hogg (Waking the Dead, The Fall) and Morten Suurballe (The Killing, Vikings), as well as Canadians Paul Popowich (Rogue, Saving Hope, Cracked) and Geordie Johnson (Copper, Murdoch Mysteries, Reign).
When her husband, Lee (Paul Popowich), is murdered while on a business trip to Montreal, Sarah Manning (Elaine Cassidy) comes to realize that she knows nothing about his past. While coping with her grief in her home in Dublin, Sarah questions who Lee actually was and what he did in his work for a powerful global pharmaceuticals organization. And why did Lee, a salesman, need to carry a gun?
The growing suspicion that Lee’s death may be connected to the death of her first husband, leads Sarah to confront a powerful conspiracy of corporate, police and political interests, extending from Dublin to Montreal, in which her own family may be complicit.
Acceptable Risk was produced for Irish broadcaster RTÉ by Siobhán Bourke and Kathryn Lennon of Saffron Pictures (Whistleblower) and James Mitchell of Soho Moon Pictures (Croupier) with funding from the Broadcast Authority of Ireland. The series is being co-financed by international distributor DCD Rights and U.S. partner Acorn Media Enterprises. Canadian Producer is Stephen Greenberg with Anna-Sue Greenberg and Jamie D. Greenberg as Executive Producers, all of Facet4 Media. Acceptable Risk is being distributed in Canada by Incendo Media Inc.
“What’s the craziest things that kids love and how do we jam them all into one show?” That’s the question Art Spigel was asking himself when he ruminated on his newest project. The answer: a lot. Debuting Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel, Massive Monster Mayhem is a mishmash of genres—live-action game show, comedy, CGI and sci-fi series—delivered at a frenetic pace.
Where else can you create a world where kids teleport to an alien planet or a hot dog can drive a robot? That’s just the tip of the iceberg with Massive Monster Mayhem. Co-created by Spigel, the veteran of kids’ programming recalled all the things he loved as a child—giant robots, wrestling, outer space and winning prizes—and jammed them into a television show.
Each episode is an ingenious combination of technology and old-school, as kids don costumes and become intergalactic heroes, facing off against each other in Intergalactic Battle Alliance challenges. The winner of those tests faces a monster sent by Master Mayhem (voiced by Daniel Davies and performed by Thomas Lorber), who has proclaimed himself “Greatest Ruler in the Universe.” Master Mayhem wants to rule Earth and these kids are our last hope. Shot against a massive green screen, CGI transforms the challenges to a space-based colosseum where Graham Conway and Devon Deshaun Stewart call the action from Wipeout-ish obstacle course to the monster movie-inspired smackdown of a cityscape finale. The competitor that successfully defends the world takes home $1,000.
Spigel teamed with Toronto video effects company Playfight to utilize a real-time CGI environment usually reserved for feature films like Avatar—he likens it to dropping the television cameras into a video game—when creating Massive Monster Mayhem.
But Massive Monster Mayhem isn’t just the competition. Master Mayhem is a shade-throwing, sarcastic fellow who delights in boasting of his powers in comedic segments between tests where he preps to destroy Earth.
“I think the humour is universal,” Spigel says. “As crazy as this is, we want there to be some co-viewing. Parents can appreciate the wrestling parody and kids can laugh because that monster looks funny when he breaks things.”
Massive Monster Mayhem airs Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel.
Image courtesy of Family Channel.
WOW! I live in and have raised two children in an 1,100 square foot home with wood heat, etc. I am amazed at the expense and extravagance of this home of Sarah’s [on Off the Grid]. I feel sorry for all of the young folk out there that aspire to this lifestyle. We need more shows about living more simply and more environmentally sensitively. Beautiful home, Sarah but wouldn’t want to have to clean it or keep it up. —C.K.
Disappointed that her show did not address how to live without ANY connection to hydro. —Brian
I have watched all of the episodes so far and do not see any heating vents or electric registers in any of the rooms. My wife and I built our own home north of Winnipeg over 30 years ago to R2000 standards, which is super insulated with an HRV air exchanger, and passive solar heat gain and forced air natural gas furnace. My question is, are you using solar electric with propane backup with radiant heat in the floors and ceilings? —David
Not sure they know what “off the grid†is. —Gordon
Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.
Our House Media first jumped onto my radar via Backroad Bounty, but they’ve stayed there thanks to three seasons of Paranormal Survivor and one of Haunted Case Files. Now the Canadian documentary series producers return with a third equally creepy series with Scariest Night of My Life.
Debuting Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on T+E, Scariest Night of My Life is exactly what it sounds like: ordinary people recount an awful night they’ve experienced. It all begins Friday with Gloria, who recalls the 2007 night she’ll never forget inside her first home. A happy moving day with her two children and husband went sour that evening when an odd vibe and cold temperature hinted something was amiss. It wasn’t until her daughter woke up to a figure knocking at her window that life for Gloria grew totally terrifying. With her husband gone to his night shift, Gloria and her kids bore the brunt of whatever was in their home, experiencing slamming kitchen cupboards, disembodied footsteps, odd reflections in a bathroom mirror and voiding black goo. Things get worse from there.
Presented with the witnesses narrating their tales, dramatic recreations packed with shadowy figures, giggling children, jagged fonts and otherworldly screams drive home the spookiness. Like Paranormal Survivor and Haunted Case Files before it, Scariest Night of My Life is terrifying. Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, the people interviewed on Scariest Night believe something happened to them.
If you’re looking for a double-dose of scares, Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on T+E marks the Season 2 return of Cream Productions’ Evil Encounters with more tales of personal accounts of paranormal experiences in the woods.
Happy Halloween!
Scariest Night of My Life airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on T+E.
Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media.
