Link: How COVID-19 infused Coroner Season 3 with purpose When the COVID-19 global pandemic hit, film and television productions all over the world were shut down. Thankfully, due to strict safety guidelines and vigilant cast and crews, many productions were able to resume filming in the latter half of 2020. Continue reading.
[Spoiler alert! Do not continue reading until you have watched “Murdoch Checks in.”]
“It’s great to see Murdoch and Ogden together in such an informal setting, and just enjoy each other’s company. They work so well together, their skills combine to create a perfect detective team.” That’s what Noelle Girard, writer, and co-producer on Murdoch Mysteries, had to say about Monday’s newest episode. And we totally agree.
“Murdoch Checks In,” written by Girard, saw our favourite couple in the woods and part of a group headed to a lodge for a little getaway. Of course, no time away with these two is ever spent truly relaxing and this was no different. Sadly, the death of art collector Derek Ferdinand meant William and Julia were on the case.
Meanwhile, back in Toronto, Higgins and Crabtree teamed to identify a head buried in a garden allotment and Miss Hart’s relationship with Carmichael moved to the next level.
We had an email chat with Noelle Girard to find out how the episode came together.
Noelle, how has the pandemic affected the way you write? Are you comfortable writing by yourself or do you like the noisiness of a writer’s room? Noelle Girard: While it’s always been the case at Murdoch that we write the outlines and drafts by ourselves, I did miss going into the writer’s room every day and chatting about the script. We had our notes sessions via Zoom, and while it got the job done, there’s just something about the long, sometimes meandering talks in the room that can point you in a better direction or bring out something you missed while writing alone.
How did the idea for the main storyline of a trek through the woods and murder at the lodge come about? Was it inspired by anything in particular? NG: We like to have an episode where Ogden and Murdoch get away by themselves, and of course it’s always a busman’s holiday for them as there is always a murder to solve (or two, or three). It’s funny that while Julia does enjoy tramping and sleeping in a tent with Murdoch, this time she’s chosen their getaway, and it’s at a cozy inn.
We also wanted to bring back the character of Derek Ferdinand. That character inspired us to do something a bit different, as we typically have the murder Murdoch is investigating happen in the tease, or early in act one. But with the irascible Mr. Ferdinand, we thought it would be better to spend a bit of time with him before he’s offed.
I really enjoy it when Murdoch and Julia head outdoors. It’s the chance to see them in a new—and sometimes unfamiliar—environment. Do you enjoy that change of setting when you’re writing? NG: It’s great to see Murdoch and Ogden together in such an informal setting, and just enjoy each other’s company. They work so well together, their skills combine to create a perfect detective team. I also love their more informal outfits, it’s a treat to see what the costume department comes up with.
Professor Leamington is a lot of fun. I laughed out loud when he first spoke of the genus of woodpeckers. Did he come fully-formed on the page or did the actor bring his own ‘foibles’ to the table? NG: The actors always bring so much to the scripts, of course. We wanted to have a few ‘types’ as suspects, such as the flirty widow and the tweedy professor, to annoy Murdoch and Ogden, and it’s fun to play someone who thinks he knows it all off Murdoch, who actually does know it all. We had a larger cast of suspects planned and had to whittle down the numbers due to pandemic restrictions, but I think it turned out better with a smaller group of characters.
I’m not a fan of gardening, but even I know a human head isn’t supposed to be planted next to my beans. Where did that macabre detail come from? NG: It was actually stolen from an article I read a year or two ago. A woman in France was furious that her industrious co-worker was making her look lazy by comparison. She killed the woman with a wine bottle, then buried her head in her allotment. Very gruesome. I did get second thoughts halfway through the process, but by then the prop department and the model artist were having too much fun making the head!
It was enjoyable to have Higgins and Crabtree work a case together. Do you relish the opportunity to write for a pairing like theirs and a meatier storyline for them? NG: I just love the two of them together. I think every script I’ve written for Murdoch Mysteries has at least one daft conversation between those two. Crabtree, of course, is up to the challenge of taking on a murder investigation, and Higgins’s oblivious laziness is on full display.
Higgins is having a hard time staying focused. Clearly, the future baby is having an effect on him. NG: Doesn’t Higgins always have a hard time staying focused? It doesn’t take a lot to divert his attention. And I have to say I’m so excited that Henny and Ru-Ru are having a baby. I’m sure their parenting will be sweet but absolutely chaotic.
And yet, his interrogation of Miss Irwin was well done. NG: When we discussed the interrogation scene with Higgins and Crabtree in the early stages, it made us laugh that Higgins would be the one that cracks the suspect and gets the confession. While Higgins isn’t the murdering kind, it makes sense that he could understand her motivations, and sympathize a little bit.
Giving Miss Hart a romantic storyline is a welcome addition to Season 14. Has that evolution of her story come naturally? Yes, that was planned from our early talks about this season. We wanted to continue our exploration of what makes Hart tick. We’ve seen what she will do to get ahead, how she deals with her past coming to haunt her, and now we wanted to see her clash with a romantic interest. Arthur Carmichael, being so wealthy and cocksure, has more than met his match in Violet Hart.
The theme of racism arose during Miss Hart’s date with Carmichael at the restaurant. What’s it been like writing that storyline, and dealing with racism during this time period? NG: Hart and Carmichael’s relationship, for me, is all about power, class, and scandal. We were interested in showing the shifting power dynamics in their relationship. Carmichael is attracted to Hart but also attracted to the scandal he is causing by courting a Black woman. Of course, Hart is not one to be trifled with and soon asserts her power, intriguing Carmichael even more. The effects of racism are a part of Hart’s story, as well as her relationship with Carmichael. It’s perhaps at the root of most of their power imbalances, and it will be so interesting to see how Hart shifts all those imbalances throughout the season.
From the opening moments of Coroner’s Season 3 premiere, it’s clear that COVID-19 has invaded Dr. Jenny Cooper’s (Serinda Swan) world. There are social distancing measures during her group therapy class, full-body protective suits at her workplace, and in one painfully familiar scene, raw marks on her skin when she removes her mask.
“Yeah, that was a striking image,†creator and showrunner Morwyn Brebner says during a phone interview. “And it really did just evoke all the images that we’ve seen of the health care workers and the hours and hours and hours that they had to work in those masks.â€
Executive producer and lead director Adrienne Mitchell concurs, adding that the scene demonstrates “the truth of people trying to make their way through this, from doctors down to personal care workers in homes, and just the physical toll that that took.â€
Since Coroner is a medical-crime drama that focuses on death, Mitchell and Brebner felt it was natural to incorporate COVID-19 into the new season, which kicks off Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBC. However, aside from the first episode’s plot involving the death of a long-term care worker who lacked access to PPE, they say the pandemic will influence the ambience of the series more than its storylines.
“The weird thing about the pandemic is that … it proposes the possibility of different ways of living,†explains Brebner. “We can go into different worlds and go through them with a real sense of curiosity and wonder.â€
Over the course of this season’s 10 episodes, up from last year’s eight, Jenny and Detective Donovan McAvoy (Roger Cross) will investigate a slew of mysterious deaths in a variety of new environments.
“Because it’s been a COVID-19 year, where time is stopped and everything is surreal and you’re put on pause, you can invite unusual things into your life and hold them in a way that is perhaps more playful,†says Mitchell. “That’s what’s fun about this season: You can go from horror to haunted houses to witches to strange magic.â€
This season will also have a different vibe because Jenny faced down several personal demons—including her complex relationship with her dad, Gordon (Nicholas Campbell)—during the show’s dark and psychologically fraught second season, letting her approach Season 3 with a fresh perspective.
“[Jenny]’s decided to be open to life, and that makes her vulnerable, but it also presents an incredible opportunity,†says Brebner. “It’s like allowing things to come at her while she’s embracing her trauma a little and trying to see what it is to her, as opposed to being afraid of it.â€
According to Mitchell, series lead Swan—who has always tackled Jenny’s mental health issues with fearlessness and compassion—was completely onboard with her character’s emotional shift.
“Serinda was very much interested in exploring trauma as a tool,†says Mitchell. “So instead of [Jenny] succumbing and being paralyzed by it, now that she has a bit more of an understanding of it, how can she use it and draw from it to move through the world and connect with people who have their own individual traumas? … It’s very interesting. It’s a different journey for her this season.â€
Behind the camera, Mitchell used “flares of light and the magic of light†to visually represent Jenny’s newfound appreciation for life, choices that are evident during a trippy, drug-infused sequence in the first episode.
“Only Morwyn can write about a weed journey in the middle of a very hard COVID-19 case, but it works,†laughs Mitchell. “Because [the way we normally live our lives] is sort of on pause because of COVID-19, it allows for unusual, strange, and living-in-the-moment events to take place, and there are some opportunities to have what I would call ‘strange joy.’â€
However, not everything will be rosy for Coroner’s characters this season.
According to Brebner, McAvoy will have a health scare that forces him to face his mortality in a new way.
“He deals with death all the time,†she says. “He’s a homicide detective, he’s an incredibly stoic person, and he’s up against something that’s a new kind of adversary for him.â€
Meanwhile, Liam (Éric Bruneau)—who left Jenny in last season’s finale—will still be struggling with his war-related PTSD.
“We ended Season 2 with the decision that they needed to be apart to heal, and that being together was going to be an obstacle to their healing,†says Mitchell. “And then the question is, where does that take them? Is that going to bring them back together or not?â€
As for Brebner and Mitchell, they’re both trying to recover after Season 3’s exhausting, COVID-delayed five-month shoot, which ended on Jan. 22.
“We brought in a COVID-19 health management team, so we had about three or four rotating nurses and daily screens, in terms of temperature and questionnaires. We also had weekly COVID tests and a strict regimen of mask-wearing at all times,†Mitchell says.
The cast and crew were also required to stay six feet apart as much as possible, which was hard, Brebner notes, because TV production “is really a business where we stand close together and hand each other things.â€
Still, they both say it was a “privilege†to work during the pandemic and are proud of the result.
“We go to deep, emotional places, but we also go to a lot of fun places,†Brebner says. “This season has a really strange and magical integrity to it.â€
Mitchell concludes, “It’s just weird, but it’s a cool weird.â€
Coroner airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
We have had many conversations over the last few weeks with a view to continuing production on a second season of Trickster. Those conversations included producers, writers, actors, and the author of the books on which Trickster is based.
Fully respecting everyone’s perspective, season two will not move forward as planned, unfortunately.
CBC is extremely proud we were able to bring this compelling story to the screen and are grateful to the many talented individuals who made it possible.
We are as committed as ever to telling other important Indigenous stories, of which there are many. In fact, CBC currently has eight such scripted projects in development and we look forward to sharing more details about what’s next in the coming months.
Statement from author Eden Robinson:
“One of the best parts of 2020 was watching the young, Indigenous cast soar. The outpouring of support for the first season was magical. I’m deeply grateful that CBC and Sienna respect this situation. It gives me hope that future collaborations with Indigenous creatives can be done with care and integrity.â€
Burden of Truth could have ended after last season. The Season 3 finale wrapped up the legal show-turned-family drama’s storylines in a neat bow, with lead character Joanna Chang, played by Kristin Kreuk, completing her metamorphosis from emotionally damaged corporate lawyer to self-aware justice seeker and mom-to-be.
But just like after the show’s first season—which so efficiently resolved its legal-heavy environmental plot that it looked like it had nowhere left to go—it found a way forward by digging deeper into its characters.
“This year, we thought the only way to really do another season is to take it all away from Joanna and see what happens,†says Kreuk, who is also an executive producer on the series.
And in the Season 4 premiere, airing Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC, Joanna is clearly struggling. She and Billy (Peter Mooney) are trying to find their footing as new parents while waging a legal battle against a powerful mine company that wants to reopen an old gold mine outside of Millwood.
“[Joanna] and Billy are really trying to parent without any support,†says Kreuk. “They’re just doing it on their own in a vacuum while both of them are working.â€
The situation is made worse by the mine’s ruthless legal team—who use the same aggressive tactics that Joanna did when she was a corporate lawyer.
“She sees this mining company come in with predatory behaviour that she was part of in her past,†Kreuk explains. “So she’s trying to defeat her shadow self.â€
We recently caught up with Kreuk and asked her to break down Season 4’s biggest storylines and explain what it was like to film during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect production this year? Kristin Kreuk: We got kind of a late pickup for the show this year due in part to, in March, nobody knew what was going on or what would happen or how quickly the pandemic would resolve itself. Then we started shooting later than we normally would for our show. We didn’t start shooting until basically the end of August.
In Winnipeg and Manitoba at that time, they had very few cases, they hardly had a first wave. And so for a while there, it looked like we may be able to skate by a little bit. But even from then, before we even got on a plane, we got tested. We tested the minute we arrived. On set, everybody was wearing masks and shields, everyone was kind of placed in pods. People had to step away from set to eat, and there were hand-washing and hand sanitising stations. We worked shorter work days so people could get more rest, so they didn’t get tired and their immune systems didn’t weaken.
So a lot changed, and it was a very different season of television. And Winnipeg’s cases started to go up quite a bit in the fall, and they were the worst in Canada for a while, so towards the end, we got worried. But it always felt safe because of all the precautions. In many ways, I felt safer on set than I did anywhere else.
Were there any story changes because of the pandemic? KK: Yes, totally. One of the main things was ensuring that we didn’t have very many background performers, so we didn’t do courtroom scenes really. We used to have big courtroom set-pieces at the end of every season, and we didn’t do that this year. We had to change it up.
Season 3 ended on a very positive note for Joanna, but as this season begins, she’s having some problems adjusting to motherhood and also finding it hard to be on the less powerful side of a corporate case. What can you hint about her journey this season? KK: Joanna and Billy, when we left them last season, were probably in the happiest place they’ve ever been. The pregnancy wasn’t too hard for Joanna, she was able to work, they were doing very well, and she had kind of healed a bunch of her stuff. At the top of this season, the reality is sinking in more for them, and Joanna’s really struggled. She’s feeling the pressures of what motherhood should be and feeling all of the narratives that have been put on motherhood, and they weigh on her.
And then there’s the fact that the job she does is so dangerous in many ways because she’s taking on the underdogs in cases. It’s something that the other mothers that she’s meeting aren’t able to comprehend. So she’s kind of in this place of doubt.
As you said, Joanna and Billy were in a very happy place at the end of last season, but being a new parent is hard. How are they going to handle that? KK: What I love about Joanna and Billy is that they love each other, that’s not a question. But this year, you’ll see the differences in what makes them feel secure and safe. For Joanna, it has to do with her ability to do the things she’s best at, particularly because she feels like she’s failing at being a mom, which is debatable. If you just look at what she’s doing, she’s not, but she really feels like she is. She feels most secure through being able to be great at her job.
Billy’s sense of security also comes through Joanna being great at her job, but he also wants a more traditional life. And I think those two things butt up against each other because that’s not what Joanna wants or needs, but that is what he wants and needs. So we kind of see that unfold between the two of them, particularly because Joanna’s choosing, similar to last year, a case that isn’t helping them to make money for their firm.
Two recurring themes I’ve noticed are finding the meaning of home and finding your identity after trauma, and it looks like Season 4 will continue that trend. Was it always the show’s intention to explore those themes? KK: We are aware of what you’re talking about, but I think that when we started the show, we only understood one small aspect of what that meant—at least, I don’t know if this was [series creator] Brad [Simpson]’s scheme all along. I think that we were really focused on Joanna’s own trauma, and we weren’t looking at it as completely, but each season we’ve delved deeper and deeper into that.
A manifestation of that through Taylor [Anwen O’Driscoll] this season is her trying—and her storyline is so beautiful this year—to find her place in a town that she thought she’d never come back to, that’s a representation of her horrible relationship with her father and her loss of a future she saw for herself, of having to like reacquaint herself with her dreams and her place on that land. This season is very much about kind of repositioning yourself on your land and in your home and how you can do that while incorporating the trauma of your past into that without forgetting it.
I thought Owen Beckbie’s fight against racism in the police department was a very interesting storyline last season, and Meegwun Fairbrother did a great job with it. What will happen with Beckbie this season? KK: [Meegwun] wrote half a script this year, so he’s been a big part of the season. Beckbie’s in an interesting place where he’s finding himself in a position of power, and he thought maybe, as an Indigenous man in a position of power, could change things. But he’s realizing through being on the ground that that isn’t true, that the system is the system. And so this season is sort of about him evaluating his place in that system and how he can create the changes he wants. You see that through the cop aspect of [the story] and also through this kid, played by Skye Pelletier, who he sort of takes on. His relationship with Beckbie is a big part of the season.
Burden of Truth hasn’t been afraid to hold up a mirror to some of the darker aspects of Canada’s history, particularly its treatment of Indigenous communities. Have you gotten a lot of positive feedback about that? KK: Honestly, I think people are mostly really excited that we’re delving into those stories. Some people have told me that they’re actually learning from the show, which is kind of sad because our education system should be doing that. But it’s also great that we can do that because I have always believed that one of the powers of scripted television or feature films is that you fall in love with people, with characters and then you can develop empathy for them in a way that you feel more connected to. So feedback wise, people have said that to me, people really appreciate it. But I’ve also seen some really negative stuff about how we’re super white-hating, which is clearly also not true.
Did you have a favourite episode or storyline this season? KK: It’s hard to say because it’s such a serialized show, but there are images that have stuck in my head as I’ve watched them through all the edits. There’s a moment with Beckbie, he has a scene with Crystal [Michaela Washburn], who we briefly saw in Season 3. She’s a criminal and he is a cop, and they’re both Indigenous and they have an all-out, intense discussion. It’s a very good scene, and there’s a small moment that follows that I find really moving, where Beckbie is kind of facing his cop self.
There’s stuff with Luna [Star Slade] that’s really powerful this year as she tries to decide what path she wants to take for her career, whether she wants to focus on legal aid, or if she wants to sort of go in the direction that Joanna went, and she has to decide what will make more of an impact based on what she wants to do with her life.
And there’s stuff with Billy and Joanna as they manage being parents that I find really beautiful. They come to an understanding with each other and they have therapy scenes, which I think are also really interesting. There are a lot of things to look forward to from all these characters.
Burden of Truth airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
