Link: Interview: Malcolm McDowell and Mark Critch on SON OF A CRITCH Season 3 That Shelf sat down with Son of a Critch stars Malcolm McDowell and Mark Critch (also creator and writer) to discuss returning for the show’s third season, McDowell’s admiration for Newfoundland, and how Critch helped pay tribute to fellow Canadian William Shatner in the show’s special Star Trek homage. Continue reading.
Link: He’s a dad, a TV star and a sneakerhead: Andrew Phung of ‘Run the Burbs’ It’s easy to draw a road map of Andrew Phung’s adult life when sifting through his sneaker collection. From the pair worn during a final audition for “Kim’s Convenience” to those donned at his wedding, they tell a story about the Canadian comedian who went on to become the face of CBC, first as sidekick Kimchee on the celebrated comedy “Kim’s Convenience” and now as suburban dad Andrew on “Run the Burbs.” Continue reading.
Produced by Fenix Film & Television and Small Army Entertainment in association with CBC and Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), PUSH Season 2 will premiere on Sunday, January 14th at 7:30 PM on CBC and the free-streaming service CBC Gem. PUSH Season 2 features eight, 30-minute episodes.
The ground-breaking CBC original docu-series, PUSH, is back for a second season. Pulling back the veil on life as a wheelchair user, PUSH once again takes audiences into the inner world of the ‘Wheelie Peeps’, an unlikely group of friends bonded by their shared experience of life on wheels. Season 2 features returning favourites including the group’s fearless and unfiltered leader, Bean Gill; Canada’s favourite potty-mouthed and self-proclaimed redneck, Brian McPherson; concert pianist, entrepreneur and adventure-seeker, Riccardo Baldini; and more! Nothing is off the table as this bold group of friends tackle everything life throws their way. From the logistics and stigmas of sex with a fellow wheelchair user, to navigating new motherhood as a “quad mom”, to facing the people and places who knew them pre-injury, Season 2 has The Peeps confronting their past, facing their demons and supporting new members of the group through the early days of wheelchair life.
Benveet “Bean” Gill is the “mother hen” and unofficial ringleader of the Wheelie Peeps. Bean shares, “After I was paralyzed, I made it my mission to go find my homies, my fellow friends in wheelchairs. After a while, there was a big group of us and we called ourselves the Wheelie Peeps. I believe in having a strong support system around you, and I’m grateful to have one. I went through so many dark days alone and after seeing the power of community, I vowed to never let anyone have a dark day alone again. The Wheelie Peeps have lifted each other up. We help each other when equipment breaks. We laugh with each other, and we have cried many tears together. We learn so much from each other.”
PUSH Season 2 premieres on Sunday, January 14th at 7:30 PM on CBC and the free-streaming service CBC Gem. AMI-tv will additionally air PUSH Season 1 on Monday, January 15th, and Season 2 on Monday, March 18th.
Shot from May to October 2023 in Edmonton, Alberta, Fano, Italy, and Salt Lake City Utah, PUSH Season 2 is executive produced by Sean De Vries and Kaitlan Stewart and produced by Kaitlan Stewart with Benveet “Bean” Gill acting as consulting producer. Dylan Wertz is series showrunner, Frederick Kroetsch and Rebecca Campbell are at the helm as directors and Daniel Ennett as story producer and co-director.
Watching the first episode of Wild Cards, I was immediately reminded of Private Eyes. Criminally cancelled too soon, the Jason Priestley/Cindy Sampson series had the same spunk and heart Wild Cards has. Turns out that makes sense, as many of the behind-the-scenes folks involved worked on Private Eyes too.
Debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, Wild Cards is charming, light and full of fun. Created by Michael Konyves (Bad Blood) Wild Cards features demoted big-city detective Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti, Murdoch Mysteries), who is paired with clever con woman Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan, Degrassi, Saving Hope), to solve crimes.
With a whos-who of producers in Private Eyes‘ James Genn, Shawn Piller, Lloyd Segan and writers Alexandra Zarowny, James Thorpe—and Wynonna Earp‘s Noelle Carbone and Coroner‘s Morwyn Brebner—there is plenty to like writing-wise. And the casting and lead cast chemistry is spot-on.
When we first meet Max, she’s plotting to rob a rich woman of her fortune. Caught by the police, Max is hauled into the police station for questioning by Cole, who was called in from harbour duty—the bulk of his days are filled giving tickets to wayward boaters—when the third in a string of high-profile thefts take place. With all hands on deck to solve the crimes, Cole is relegated to handling Max. Overhearing the police chief (Terry Chen) describe the circumstances of the latest heist, Max divulges to Cole what she thinks the thief will do next. She’s right, and the City Commissioner teams the two up. Solve the case, and Cole is back on the beat he wants and Max gets probation. Win-win, right?
While Cole is by the book, Max’s unique set of skills is key to capturing the baddie. I wasn’t even halfway through Wednesday’s pilot, “The Infinity Thief,” and was already enjoying the back-and-forth repartee between Gianniotti and Morgan. Morgan’s Max is sassy and smart, going over the top with clothing, accents and charm to gather intel while Cole tries to keep up.
I won’t ruin the ending of the episode, but the storyline does involve twins, priceless art and one of many appearances by the aforementioned Jason Priestley, who checks in as Max’s dad, George. This new series is wild, and I’m loving it.
Wild Cards airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
Murdoch Mysteries is a worldwide brand. With it comes expectations, so a spinoff associated with it leads to extra scrutiny. Thankfully, Macy Murdoch not only meets but exceeds those expectations.
Available now on CBC Gem, the Murdoch spinoff web series Macy Murdoch stars Canadian Screen Award winner Shailyn Pierre-Dixon as Macy, the great-great-great granddaughter of Detective William Murdoch. Set in the present day, Macy and her pals Zane (Beau Han Bridge) and Billie (Raffa Virago) travel back in time after a villain uses a time machine to frame William for murder, the trio goes back to 1910 to find the real perpetrator of the crime. Along for the ride in 1910 are Murdoch Mysteries‘ Constable Henry Higgins-Newsome (Lachlan Murdoch) and Mrs. Violet Hart (Shanice Banton), who help the kids with the case.
Initially developed by JP Larocque and Jessica Meya, we spoke with executive producer/showrunner Jennifer Kassabian (Frankie Drake Mysteries, Carter) and co-executive producer Robina Lord-Stafford (Frankie Drake Mysteries, Moonshine) about the project.
Jennifer, can you tell me how Macy Murdoch came to you? Jennifer Kassabian: JP and Jess developed it with Shaftsbury before my time. I finished working with Jennifer McCann, who’s one of the series executive producers on Ruby and the Well. Around July, she reached out to me to say that Jess and JP were moving on to other opportunities and would I be interested in this project that she had because we had worked so well together. I said, ‘Well, let me just read everything,’ because I didn’t know if I wanted to keep my foot in the kids’ world, but then the bible that Jess and JP created blew me off my feet. I’ve never read a bible that good. It was so rich, and it was so interesting. I said yes, I’m in. I want to run the show. We didn’t have the money for a writers’ room. It was freelance scripts that were half assigned and half to be assigned, but I could have a No. 1, someone to help me shepherd the show through.
Robina was the only name on my mind from the time we met on Frankie Drake. Sometimes those relationships on a show make you friends off a show. We were friends in real life, I already had a shorthand with her and I said, ‘Would you come on as the No. 2, and will we do this together?
Obviously, anything with the word Murdoch in it is going to come with extra scrutiny. Robina, any nervousness on your part about it having the Murdoch name and William Murdoch involved in it? Robina Lord-Stafford: I didn’t really have enough time to think about it. I was on Pretty Hard Cases and Jen was like, ‘You’ve got to come and do the show with me.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ Once I was in it, it was like, ‘OK, we really have to make sure we’re doing the Murdoch world justice. We were lucky enough to get two characters from the world, so that was super exciting. Getting to shoot on the Murdoch lot was super exciting and that all kept elevating the production value of the show. We did consult with Murdoch writers to make sure that when we were going back into 1910 and creating a world for our characters to be in, that seemed authentic and real. We also binged a ton of Murdoch because we wanted to make sure that Henry Higgins-Newsome and Violet Hart’s voices were really authentic to what the Murdoch world has created already.
Robina, when it came to the writers’ room, is it different to write for the web as opposed to an episode of broadcast television? Does each web episode represent story beats in a larger project? RLS: Great question. We did have all those beats already. When Jen and I got onto the project, there were already, I think, two scripts written by previous writers. And so it was like, ‘OK, let’s continue this on,’ and then we had another writer that joined us. One of the things that we did maybe a little bit differently than what I’m used to doing in one hour is that we knew what the beginning, middle, and end of the whole series was going to be. We could then break it down into different episodes on how we were going to then achieve all of that to make sure that we were getting all the juice that we needed and the great cliffhangers at the end of each episode.
You really pack a lot into each 11-or-so-minute episode. JK: I think there is a misconception that when you hear 11 minutes it’s easy peasy and not that much content. You can get the story in when it was our primary goal and character development for sure.
The young cast was simply amazing. JK: We had a full day of chemistry reads between people’s favourite casting picks. We had already had Shailyn cast when we went out to cast Billie and Zane. Raffa and Beau sparkled in their solo auditions and then when we partnered up Raffa and Beau we had the magic of the Billie and Zane friendship right off the bat. This is Raffa’s first thing that she’s ever been on screen. She’s such a special talent. They did become fast friends on set, just good people who just really wanted to bring their A-game.
