Tag Archives: CBC

Featured, X Company

Review: Truth and lies on X Company

Say what!?!? Just when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen during Wednesday’s new episode, the folks at X Company threw a knuckleball I watched go past me.

“In Enemy Hands” began dramatically enough, with Harry stabbed in the neck and suffering shrapnel wounds following an attack on a German factory. Knowing Connor Price wasn’t going to die—he’s part of the main cast after all—didn’t ease up on the tension. For a few minutes it looked like Harry could very well have died on that table no matter what the pretty Irish nurse did for him. Ah, that pretty nurse who was so beguiling to the youngest member of the team. Harry’s Achilles heel is a lady, and he was simply smitten with her.

Too bad she turned out to be working for the Germans. The episode’s twist wasn’t that the German radio operator had been telling the truth when he’d hit an extra “H” in his report back to HQ and helped them escape. No, the shocker was Siobhan (Emily Taaffe) was more interested in ousting the English from Ireland, a promise Franz Faber vowed to uphold if she kept feeding him intel and the Germans won the war.

Now Faber knows of Alfred’s abilities and that he is the most important member of the team. With just a few episodes of X Company left, it would appear my belief Alfred is captured will end up coming true.

And while a lot of time was spent with Siobhan tending to Harry’s injuries, the most dramatic scenes of the night came between Neil and radio operator Rolf Bauer (Rick Okon). The claustrophobia of the bottle episode was made even more so in the confines of that basement, where Neil did everything he could not to murder Rolf with his bare hands. At first refusing to trust the German, Neil let down his guard as Rolf explained he loved his country, but hated what the war had become. By the time Rolf messed up that second transmission he was going to become a double agent and Neil had bonded with him. Which made it even more difficult for Neil to kill Rolf for his apparent alert to high command.

Warren Brown hasn’t shown a lot of emotion so far this season, but he laid it all out last night, playing a man haunted by the death of his mother and sister during the Blitz and furious with himself for becoming attached to Rolf. No wonder he keeps everyone he cares about at arm’s length.

Notes and quotes

  • Was Alfred drumming out Morse Code on the armrest at the beginning of the episode, or is it just me? I’m looking for clues all the time now.
  • “Lucky Harry. He opens his eyes and sees a pretty nurse.” You got that right, Tom.
  • My heart almost stopped when the German officer opened the door to the basement … and Tom came out dressed in a German uniform.
  • “I’m glad it’s you doing it and not a stranger.” Rest in peace, Rolf.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Featured, Mr. D

Interview: Naomi Snieckus is doing it on CBC

On the small screen, Naomi Sniekus can currently be seen playing Bobbi Galka, one of the offbeat teachers at Xavier Academy on CBC’s Mr. D.

Bobbi’s secret relationship with vice-principal Robert Cheeley (Jonathan Torrens) just went public in awkward fashion: she ran up and kissed him full on the mouth near the front office. It’s a relationship that has been simmering all season long, but while Robert wanted their sexual dalliances to evolve into relationship mode, she didn’t. And why would she? Bobbi found him gross to look at but incredible in the sack.

Turns out Snieckus is doing double duty for the CBC, starring alongside her husband and comedy partner, Matt Baram, in Doing It! With Brian & Darla, an online comedy series they co-wrote with Gavin Crawford for CBC Punchline that spoofs life hacks. Brian and Darla peer self-consciously into the camera as they offer helpful hints like placing a kiddie pool of warm, soapy water under your dining room table to put dirty dishes in, or creating a tunnel in a weiner to pump in mustard for a cleaner hot dog.

First of all, did you meet Roberto Alomar when he was on the set of Mr. D this season?
Naomi Snieckus: I didn’t. How do I put this? I like baseball and I enjoy live sports but I’m not like, ‘Oh my God! It’s Roberto Alomar!’ I’m no Gerry Dee. He was crying because he was so happy.

I feel like Mr. D is just an opportunity for Gerry to meet his favourite athletes.
NS: I don’t think you’re far off.

Is it tough when all of your are in the staff room filming scenes for staff meetings?
NS: It is hard to keep it together when we’re in those scenes. And it’s hard for the director to handle it but it adds to the energy of the scene, so it’s worthwhile to have those jokes. You want to be ready so that you’re not warming up after they call ‘Action.’ They always give us a little room to play, but the writing is so strong that we don’t need to. It’s all there. You might discover something in the moment and that’s always welcome.

What’s it like filming in Halifax? Everyone is there, so does it feel a little bit like summer camp?
NS: Total summer camp! We’re all so excited to get there and then on the last day we’re like, ‘I’ll write every day…’ If we shot in Toronto we would have busy lives outside of the show. We love it because we’re all in the same hotel, I bring my dog. It’s lovely.

How many sweat suits do you have in wardrobe?
NS: I have two pairs of track pants and I rotate tops. We have three changes in a day and I’m done my change and having bonbons at the craft table before everybody else. It’s great. And the rest of the girls say, ‘Oh, my shoes are hurting,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, my running shoes are really uncomfortable!’ It’s a joke now that once a season I get to curl my hair and put on a skirt.

Doing_It

Let’s talk about Doing It! With Brian & Darla. How did it come about and how did it get on as part of CBC’s Punchline?
NS: We have this company, The National Theatre of the World, and we’re creating and developing more and more sketch. We started developing these characters and the CBC gave us a call and asked if we had anything we could turn into a web series. We always have 10 things in our pockets that we can pitch or work on. We had this idea and it was originally called How To with Naomi & Matt, but it was us as ourselves rather than characters. We pitched it and then we thought it would be a lot more fun to be characters. We re-vamped the pitch and took it back to them and they still liked it. They gave us a little bit of money and we shot it in three days in our house.

That really is your house.
NS: Every room of our house was used. There were holes in the walls and spaghetti splattered on the walls but every shot looked great.

Matt, can you talk about Punchline? This is yet another outlet for comedy teams like yourselves to get stuff out there that isn’t on YouTube.
Matt Baram: It’s a really great entry-level opportunity for somebody with a great idea that doesn’t cost a lot of money to make. I think CBC is coming around to the concept of getting folks online and then driving them to the TV. Most major networks in Canada are doing this; they can develop new talent. I think we were the first original content on there and I think people are seeing the possibilities. I think they’d love for something on Punchline to translate to something on the network.

If CBC came to you, could you turn Doing It! into a TV series?
MB: We didn’t go into this without the idea of having a half-hour pitch. Brian and Darla would be one aspect of what that show would be.

This sounds like it has the possibility of being something like Smith & Smith.
MB: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if we’d have an original duo song at the end of it, but yeah. Brian and Darla would fit perfectly into something like that. I would love to do a variety show in front of a live audience and have that live feel and also the sketches. That would be a dream.

Did you base Brian on anyone?
MB: Naomi and I have an imaginary friend named Brian that we blame all of out life missteps on. If someone didn’t take out the garbage, for instance, Naomi will go, ‘Ugh, Brian!’ There is a lot of weigh on his shoulders. He’s kind of there so that other people can blame him.

It must be pretty fun to skewer these life hack sites.
MB: As you satirize these people you realize there is a lot of self-satirization going on. How much time does it save you to blow the centre out of a hot dog weiner? And most of these things in attempting them was detracting minutes from our day.

I feel like this is a natural for a coffee table book.
MB: That’s a great idea. The books would be, How to Do Lovemaking, How to Do Cooking With Brian & Darla … a bunch of garbage ideas to make your life more complicated.

Mr. D airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC; Doing It! With Brian & Darla can be found on CBC Punchline.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: SongbirdSOS examines declining numbers of feathered friends

My Toronto backyard is a playground for songbirds. We have a resident cardinal and his mate that have claimed our property as theirs. Robins, sparrows, chickadees and crows land on the lawn in droves. We’ve had woodpeckers on our dying tree in the back, and goldfinches in the flowers out front.

But we’re on the verge of losing our birds forever. That’s what SongbirdSOS—part of Thursday’s episode of The Nature of Things—posits. As York University’s Dr. Bridget Stutchbury says, species of birds still exist, but their numbers are way down. The wood thrush population in the Americas is down 62 per cent since 1966; the Baltimore Oriole is down over 45 per cent; the Bobolink has seen a 64 per cent decline. The question is, why?

Beautifully shot, SongbirdSOS suggests a few sobering answers. Mankind’s creation of artificial light has messed with the birds’ ability to migrate during the night, disorienting them and causing midair collisions. And, of course, we’ve constructed huge skyscrapers that songbirds fly into, a point driven home by FLAP  (Fatal Light Awareness Program) Canada when they lay out the bodies of hundreds of dead birds on a plain white sheet for all to see. Lost breeding and wintering habitats in rain forests, wetlands and boreal forests, oil pipelines and farm pesticides are contributing to declining song bird numbers, as well as house cats.

On the positive side, there are steps being taken to halt the dropping populations, including allowing birds to feast on hurtful insects in Costa Rican coffee fields and mandating building owners to switch off the lights at night. Hopefully enough changes will come in time to save the songbirds before their tunes cease.

The Nature of Things airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Featured, X Company

Review: Trains and strain on X Company

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I love Juliet Stevenson. I first saw her in Truly Madly Deeply, then Bend it Like Beckham, Nicholas Nickleby, The Hour and Atlantis. So I was thrilled to see her take on the role of Marie Bellaire, the fiery French mayor of Saint-Antoine.

X Company‘s latest, “Walk with the Devil,” carried on the exploration into the complex relationship between the French and the Nazis during the occupation of France. Though some citizens saw Marie rubbing shoulders with the SS officers in town as blasphemy, she saw it as a guarantee of keeping her citizens safe. I could certainly understand her feelings; she was voted into office and had a responsibility to uphold. Things got complicated, however, when several of the town’s girls, including her niece Claire, were taken to a private school.

Instead, the girls were impregnated by German soldiers as part of the Ledensborn Program, Adolf Hitler’s plan to breed the perfect Aryan race. Give birth to a healthy, blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby and it was adopted by a German family. Have anything else and it would be disposed of.

The lengths Marie would go for the town was driven home when Harry and Neil’s plot to blow up the German train—packed with torpedoes—hit a snag and the train was halted while still in the station and with the fuse lit. Putting a gun in the back of the SS officer was signing her death warrant, but it ensured the train left town before it blew sky-high. I knew it was coming, but I was still shocked when Marie took a bullet in the forehead.

But at least the townspeople were safe.

Notes and quotes

  • I love old trains and that one in Wednesday’s episode was beautiful.
  • I’m relieved that Sinclair knew all along that Krystina was reporting back to British high command and that the two have become a united front.
  • The Oberfuhrer better watch himself. I’m betting his underling will be all to willing to report his son has Down’s syndrome if it means an advancement.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Dragons' Den

Joe Fresh’s Joe Mimran joins Dragons’ Den

From a media release:

CBC announced today that Joe Fresh founder Joe Mimran will join the upcoming 10thseason of DRAGONS’ DEN. The new season of DRAGONS’ DEN will air in fall 2015.

Throughout his storied career, Joe Mimran has founded and built brands that helped define the industry landscape, including Joe Fresh, Club Monaco, Alfred Sung, Caban and—with his wife, Kimberley Newport-Mimran—Pink Tartan. With an intuitive design vision and a keen business sense, Mimran has been at the forefront of fashion and retail for over thirty years. As founder and former creative director of Joe Fresh for Loblaw Companies Limited, Mimran oversaw the brand’s design, merchandising and retail concepts. Under Mimran’s guidance, Joe Fresh has grown to become Canada’s second largest apparel brand, encompassing women’s, men’s, children’s, baby and beauty collections. Additionally, Mimran oversaw creative direction of Home and Entertainment brands for Loblaw, including PC Home, Life at Home, Everyday Essentials, Jump Kids World, Jogi and Tera Gear, among others.

Mimran is also a private investor in Canada-based businesses, ranging from steel to pharmaceuticals. Educated at York University and the University of Windsor, Mimran joined the family dress manufacturing business in 1977. The company marketed several labels, including its marquee Alfred Sung line. The business grew rapidly from a small rented factory to a 50,000 square-foot space on King Street and was renamed Monaco Group in 1981. A longtime collector and patron of the arts, Mimran’s wide-ranging philanthropic activities include support of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards and Nuit Blanche. Additionally, he was co-chair of the 2014 Big Bang Bash benefiting Toronto’s popular Luminato Festival.

Big things are in store for the anticipated 10th season of DRAGONS’ DEN, which will feature top entrepreneurs, innovative business pitches and new Dragons. Further details about the 10th season of DRAGONS’ DEN will be announced in the coming weeks.

DRAGONS’ DEN continues to be the top-rated Canadian unscripted program this season, with an average audience of about 1 million Canadians each week.

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