Tag Archives: CBC

This Life’s “Perfect Day” brings adventure … and surprises

Natalie may have started experiencing side effects from her cancer drug in This Life‘s Season 2 premiere, but she’s feeling energetic enough for an adventurous day out in Sunday’s new episode, “Perfect Day.” Meanwhile, Maggie gathers the family for a housewarming party that takes a surprising turn, and Matthew’s plans to take Abby out for the day hit a snag.

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming.

Natalie and her friend, Tia, put the “fun” in funeral
Don’t ask. Just enjoy.

Maggie is full of surprises
Last week, Maggie moved into Raza’s apartment to save money. However, her housewarming party is not quite what her family expected—especially her mother.

Emma’s encounter with David puts Matthew on the warpath
David tries to win over Emma, angering Matthew and setting up a confrontation where big truths are revealed. Tip of the cap to Rick Roberts and Louis Ferreira for their nuanced portrayals of two men on the outside of their families looking for a way back in.

Romy follows up with Oliver
Romy continues to make plans for her future without Natalie, but can Oliver step up the way she wants? This Life showrunner Joseph Kay teased that Oliver would have a bigger storyline in Season 2. Let’s hope it involves a lot of uncle-niece bonding with Romy, because Kristopher Turner and Julia Scarlett Dan are consistently great in their scenes together.

The cat Natalie found is sticking around
And he gets a name.

Kudos to This Life‘s focus on Montreal musicians
This Life‘s music is a series highlight. Not only is Monogrenade’s “Ce soir” perfectly placed in this episode, but it’s landed on the top of my Spotify playlist. Great work by music supervisor Delphine Measroch, Joseph Kay, et al.

This Life airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland return to TV with Shoot the Messenger

Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland have been creating gritty, thought-provoking projects for television for years. There was 2009’s Guns, a two-part miniseries for CBC about Toronto detectives following a 23-year-old gun trafficker. Before that was 2006’s Doomstown, a TV-movie documenting the violence in a housing project. Now the writers and executive producers (and real-life couple) are back with Shoot the Messenger.

Debuting Monday, Oct. 10, at 9 p.m. on CBC, the eight-part series stars Elyse Levesque as Daisy Channing, an entertainment reporter at Toronto’s fictional newspaper The Gazette, who’s finally got her big scoop since transferring to the news department: the death of a young Somali man. Eager to impress her editor Mary Foster (Alex Kingston), Daisy makes a rookie mistake, throwing her into a foreign world she’s unprepared for, and turning to co-worker Simon Olenski (Lucas Bryant) for guidance.

“She wants to be in investigative journalism and prove herself,” Levesque says alongside Bryant during a break in filming. “She is massively ambitious to a fault, and receives a phone call about a huge tip that will blow the lid off this town.” Levesque and Bryant just finished filming a scene outside, where Daisy and Simon met to discuss the latest regarding the story. Standing on the top of a high-rise (in real life the TIFF Bell Lightbox complex) with Toronto below them, the danger of what Daisy uncovered hit home. Why was this young man killed? Who is involved in the conspiracies? The only thing she knows for sure is she’s in way over her head.

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Lyriq Bent and Elyse Levesque

Complicating things for Elyse even more? She’s romantically involved with the detective on the case, Kevin Lutz (Lyriq Bent). That causes problems during the investigation and could jeopardize his career.

“Kevin wants to be an ordinary dude,” Bent says. “He wants to have a normal life away from work. He’s caring, considerate and thoughtful. And I think his relationship with Daisy is refreshing for Canadian TV and definitely for CBC.”

Shoot the Messenger‘s supporting cast is a whos who of the Canadian television world, including Nicholas Campbell, Ron Lea, Kim’s Convenience leads Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon, as well as appearances by The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, the Toronto Raptor’s Jamaal Magloire and ex-NBAer turned television star Rick Fox.

“He is my dickhead cousin,” Bryant says of Robertson’s role. “He’s a sports agent and he’s really good. I was a huge Barenaked Ladies fan and was looking forward to meeting him and he was humble, funny and fantastic. He told me that all he ever wanted to do when he was growing up was be a rock star and star in one of Sudz’ movies.”

Shoot the Messenger airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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This Life’s Lauren Lee Smith previews Maggie’s “Crazy” Season 2

Maggie Lawson is the free spirit of CBC’s This Life. Immature and impulsive, she frequently frustrates her siblings and parents with her life choices—despite her best intentions. Case in point, when she outed Matthew’s (Rick Roberts) affair to Nicole (Marianne Farley) last season, causing a major brother-sister fallout.

“She wants to help,” Lauren Lee Smith says of her character. “She wants to be the person who comes through for everybody, but things never seem to work out in her favour, which in turn gets the rest of her family pretty upset with her.”

At the end of the Season 2 premiere, Maggie appeared to take a step toward responsibility by moving into an apartment with new friend Raza (Hamza Raq). But Smith says things take a “crazy” turn in this week’s episode, “Perfect Day,” though she can’t be specific.

“It’s so hard not to be able to give more away,” she laughs.

Joining us by phone, Vancouver native Smith—who recently nabbed a Leo Award for This Life—tells us more about Maggie’s new living arrangements, her rift with Matthew and what to expect in coming episodes.

Congratulations on winning the 2016 Leo Award for Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series for Maggie. 
Thank you. I was very surprised and very excited for that. I just absolutely adore this character and I love working on the show, so to get rewarded for that as well is like, ‘Oh, my God!’ It’s crazy. It’s pretty great.

Maggie and Matthew had a falling out last season after she told Nicole he had an affair.  They were still at odds in the premiere. Are they ever going to make up?
I still stand by Maggie’s choice. I think Maggie was totally in the right for doing what she did and calling out Matthew. I think that he needed to be called out, and I think the truth needed to come out . . . Matthew wasn’t going to do it by himself. He needed Maggie’s push to get the truth out there, but we’re definitely going to see that cross into Season 2. They have not worked things out. When we’re first introduced to Season 2, they are still very much at odds, and the tensions are definitely still high between the two of them. I think they just approach life from two very different corners. And as the season progresses, we sort of see how they work that out, because ultimately the Lawson family is very close.

In the premiere, Maggie is experiencing a money crunch and decides to move in with Raza, a customer she meets at work. How is that going to work out for her?
Maggie is a very crafty person and she does know how to twist things and make things work in her favour when she needs to. So she meets one of her customers and they sort of devise this plan to help him and also in turn make Maggie’s life a little bit easier. And how they go about that is completely irresponsible and crazy and that’s basically what we see in Season 2. It carries throughout the rest of the season, and that’s basically Maggie’s big story point for the duration of the season.

this-life-202-2

So while it looks like a step toward stability for her, it may not be?
Yeah. When we left off in Season 1, Maggie very much still had a lot of growing up to do, and she still has a lot of evolving to do as a grown-up and her choices are still not completely thought through. I think toward the end of Season 2 we maybe start to see a little bit of her realizing that and realizing that she needs to take a good, hard look at herself. But starting with Episode 2 and heading toward the end of the season, it’s a big fumbling Maggie mess. It’s very fun to watch and very fun to portray. There are a lot of firsts for Maggie in Season 2, which are very difficult and heartbreaking and comedic.

Last week, Nicole accused Maggie of not understanding intimacy. Is that going to be a major part of Maggie’s journey this season?
It is. It’s definitely a major indication of what’s to come for Maggie. And there’s a point this season where Maggie realizes, ‘OK, maybe I do need to take a look at my life and my choices and relationships and look at them from a perspective other than just my own.’ And I think that’s a theme for Maggie throughout Season 2, right up until the very end.

How will Natalie react to Maggie’s choices this season?
I think that Maggie and Natalie have a very co-dependent, very strong, very beautiful and honest relationship—well, honest in Maggie’s terms—and I think they really do rely on each other for certain very different things. But it’s difficult sometimes for Natalie to put up with Maggie’s choices. We know everything that Natalie is going through, and she’s dealing with a load, not only with her diagnosis, but with the drug trial, and her three children, and her ex-husband, and the list goes on and on. So I think her exasperation and impatience with Maggie is also very apparent in Season 2—for very good reason!

What else can you tell us about Season 2?
Oh, gosh, there are so many surprises in Season 2, I don’t even know where to begin. I feel like every episode there’s something that the audience is going to be like, ‘Whoa, whoa, what just happened?’ Even me reading the scripts, that’s how I felt.

But I think Episode 209 is probably going to be the most shocking episode yet. That’s kind of all I think I can say at this point. But even reading the script, I had to read it three times and sort of go, ‘Wait, what just happened here?’ . . . I think the audience is going to be in for a very interesting, emotional, fun ride during Season 2.

This Life airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Link: Murdoch Mysteries: Why this CBC show is still so popular after a decade

From Steve Gow of Metro:

Link: Murdoch Mysteries: Why this CBC show is still so popular after a decade
One of Canada’s greatest mysteries is the ongoing success of Murdoch Mysteries.

After all, the longtime CBC series has not only beat the odds by heading into its 10th season (starting October 10th, fittingly), but it’s still gaining in popularity nearly a decade after making its television debut. Continue reading.

 

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Links: Shoot the Messenger

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

“[Creators Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness]created all these different characters that force [Daisy] to have to behave differently [with each of them]. She has some deep-seated issues. She’s a survivor. She knows how to play people, especially in the work environment.” Continue reading.

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

CBC’s Shoot the Messenger is not grubby enough

It starts with sexy stuff. Young woman on top of a guy in bed. “You know we gotta stop this,” he says. “That’s what you said the last time,” she says with a smile, which is all she’s wearing.

Next thing, a phone call compels her to leave. She’s a reporter and it’s a source calling. On TV, this is always when sources call newspaper journalists. People who write TV shows have very vivid imaginations about the personal lives of newspaper writers. Anyway, off the young woman journalist goes, pronto. After all, the source says, “This is going to put you on the front page of the world, Miss Daisy.” Continue reading.

From Ellen Brait of The Globe and Mail:

Link: CBC’s Shoot the Messenger pulls drama straight from the headlines
A fast-moving, sexy, timely, action-packed thriller … set in a newsroom? It sounds a bit far-fetched, but Lucas Bryant, a star of the new CBC drama Shoot the Messenger, says that’s just what the series delivers. “It’s just good TV,” he says, “Period.” Continue reading. 

From Bill Harris of Postmedia Network:

Shoot the Messenger uses Rob Ford story as inspiration for CBC thriller
Just to be clear, Shoot the Messenger is not about the Rob Ford crack-video scandal.

However, if you even are vaguely familiar with that scandal, some of this is going to ring a bell. At least in terms of the complex relationships between reporters and their sources and the police and politicians. And how that all gets even muddier when blackmailers are involved. Continue reading.

From Victoria Ahearn of The Canadian Press:

Shoot the Messenger is not about Rob Ford, say creators of the CBC series
A co-creator of the new CBC-TV crime drama “Shoot the Messenger” insists it’s not a story about Rob Ford.

But Sudz Sutherland does admit he was inspired by the saga of the late former Toronto mayor as he helped craft the series, which stars Elyse Levesque as a newspaper reporter caught up in a web of gangs, murder, sex, drugs and politics in Toronto. Continue reading.

From Sheri Shefa of The Canadian Jewish News:

Canadian actor happy to star in new CBC series
“Sam Charles is the attorney general of Ontario who is being groomed to be the next prime minister,” said Cohen, who is part of the cast of CBC’s eight-part series, Shoot the Messenger, which will begin airing on Oct. 10.

“He’s kind of a playboy, very smart. He’s a Rhodes scholar. I don’t want to say he was modelled on Justin Trudeau, but certainly he was one of the inspirations… He’s kind of, in some ways, a composite of Justin, [but] there are elements of Bill Clinton in there,” he said, adding that the show’s creators, Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, were also inspired by U.S. President Barack Obama. Continue reading. 

From Stew Slater of St. Mary’s Journal Argus:

New TV drama judged worthy of praise by St. Marys actor
With a cast filled with people of various ethnic backgrounds as well as several strong female characters — including a potential candidate for the Supreme Court of Canada played by St. Marys-based actor Brenda Bazinet — a new hour-long drama series is set to premiere on CBC Television on Monday, Oct. 10.

Shoot the Messenger, with an eight-episode main story arc exploring the aftermath when a young female journalist following a news tip happens upon a murder, was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton between August and November of 2015. Bazinet, who moved to St. Marys eight years ago after three decades living in Toronto, says she was proud to be involved in a production that consciously aimed to mirror the diverse ethnic kaleidoscope that the city has become. Continue reading.

From Ramin Ostad of the Edmonton Examiner:

Raising the Barr of Canadian TV
Ian Barr never used to want to write for television.

The Edmonton-based screenwriter has worked on multiple TV shows in his nearly 16-year career, including the widely acclaimed Tiny Plastic Men, and is a writer/producer of an upcoming 10-episode serial crime drama, Shoot the Messenger. Continue reading.
From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:
Link: Shoot the Messenger: Not Your Standard Crime Drama
“We are partners, but I am a gal and I’ve been watching TV just like everybody else with male protagonists at the center of things. I’ve always been in favor of supporting women, women’s stories and to put women at the center of things. I have an awesome partner that actually believes that.” Continue reading. 
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