Tag Archives: Featured

Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Preview: Murdoch Mysteries taps into murder

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First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out and voice your pleasure for my recent interview with Murdoch Mysteries star and executive producer, Yannick Bisson. It’s always fun to catch up and talk shop with him and I know fans love reading his thoughts on the show we all love.

Now, on to Monday’s new instalment! Here’s what the CBC has revealed regarding “One Minute to Murder,” written by Murdoch Mysteries book Maureen Jennings and directed by Mars Horodyski.

When a man is electrocuted during a typing contest with Crabtree and Louise Cherry, Murdoch suspects the reporter was the intended target.

And here are a few more tidbits from me after I watched a screener of the episode.

Oliver Dennis guest stars
Oliver Dennis may not be a household name for his television work but he’s known in theatre circles. I’ve been lucky enough to see him in Soulpepper productions of Parfumerie, High Life and A Christmas Carol. Dennis appears on Monday night in the role of Alexander Langston, creator of an electric typewriter that several folks, including Crabtree and Louise Cherry, try out. Keep your eyes peeled for fellow theatre veterans Andrew Musselman and Richard Waugh in guest roles too.

Louise Cherry returns to cause trouble
Try as I might, I just can’t warm up to Miss Cherry. Maybe it’s because she said those awful things about William and Julia or perhaps it’s because she’s always reporting privileged information to the public … either way I just can’t get in her corner, even if it appears she was targeted for murder.

William and Julia’s book is published
Unlike most folks who must wait years until their book is in print, Julia and William’s tome was penned, edited and bound in mere weeks.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC and on CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Spaceman delves into Granger Taylor’s strange disappearance

It could be the A-story in an episode of The X-Files. The tale of a man who, in 1980, announced to his friends and loved ones that he was leaving Earth aboard a UFO and would return in a few months and then disappeared. But rather than being the stuff of “Duane Barry,” the Season 2 episode of Fox’s sci-fi drama, this story really happened. At least, two-thirds of it.

“Spaceman,” debuting as part of CBC Docs POV on Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC, is the strange tale of Granger Taylor, a young man who climbed into his truck in Duncan, B.C., and was never seen again. He left the following note for his family:

Dear Mother & Father,
I have gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship as recurring dreams assured a 42-month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help.
Love, Granger

Now, almost 40 years later, Alibi Entertainment—the folks behind shows like Carnival Eats and Sarah Off the Grid—sit down with Granger’s family and friends to look back at his life and reflect on the rumours and reports surrounding his whereabouts.

“One of the things that became really obvious right from the beginning that made this stand out from your average story that might not be true was just how current a topic this still is on Vancouver Island,” says executive producer Jennifer Horvath. “It’s been this unanswered question in a smaller community and has stayed in people’s minds.” What isn’t disputed is that Granger was a technical genius. From disassembling cars to building an airplane and steam engine, Granger’s social skills were lacking but his ability to build things wasn’t.

Through interviews with Granger’s sister, Grace Anne Young Reynolds, and close friends Robert Keller and Darrin Manns, viewers learn the details of his life and untangle the theories behind his disappearance. A journalist, Tyler Hooper, digs into the official record to separate fact from fiction. Among the things unearthed by Horvath and her team are Granger’s mental health—something simply not discussed in the 80s—and drug abuse.

But before making the mistake—like I did—and assuming the case of this missing man was simply one to do with his state of mind, “Spaceman” delivers two earth-shattering revelations you’ll shake your head at.

“At the beginning, I would have said, ‘Absolutely not. [Granger leaving on a UFO] is ridiculous,'” Horvath says. “But meeting people who were so whole-heartedly convinced … it leaves the question open.”

“Spaceman” airs as part of CBC Docs POV on Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of Alibi Entertainment.

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Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Murdoch Mysteries: Yannick Bisson breaks down “Sins of the Father”

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Spoiler alert! Do not read on until you have watched the latest episode of Murdoch Mysteries, “Sins of the Father.”

Covering an entire season of Murdoch Mysteries with previews and post-episode interviews—as I have for the past several years—just isn’t complete unless I’ve spoken to Yannick Bisson.

Our chat couldn’t have come at a better time. Monday’s newest, “Sins of the Father,” dealt with the death of Det. William Murdoch’s father, Harry. Though he was only portrayed by Stephen McHattie for two episodes, the impact Harry Murdoch has had on his son has endured. And, unsurprisingly, William acted as though Harry’s demise didn’t affect him. But, as evidence began to suggest murder rather than an accident, William sought justice.

We spoke to Bisson about the episode, his acting choices, Season 12 overall, and his very un-Murdoch-like role in Another Wolfcop where he plays a villain named, yes, Swallows.

I feel like this has become a yearly event, checking in with you. Every year I say, ‘Congratulations on another season,’ but congratulations on Season 12 of Murdoch Mysteries. I’ve loved it so far.
Yannick Bisson: Well, this is my phone call I look forward to because if I’m talking to you, that means we are still in business.

Before we specifically get into ‘Sins of the Father,’ I want to get your take on this season because there have been a few things that have been notable. I want to start with the ‘Sir. Sir? Sir!’ episode, which I think was the most controversial of this season. What was your take on the wacky, Halloween themed episode?
YB: It was great. I mean, we have to take a step aside sometimes and have some fun, and that’s really what a lot of these types of episodes … we’re somewhat blatant with it, so that there’s no mistaking that we’re just going outside the envelope a little bit here and trying something different. We did that in the past with the ‘Weekend at Murdoch’s’ type of episode, so it’s clear that this is not sort of part of the canon if you will, or whatever you want to call that. We’re doing something creative, we’re trying something different, and hopefully, you’re along for the ride. Now, not everybody responded the same way, unfortunately, but we don’t always do it just for the audience. Sometimes we do episodes for us.

As an actor, although you’re enjoying the ride, it is nice to shake things up a bit.
YB: Well, absolutely. I mean, that’s a big part of it for me is doing different things, doing new things, but also within the show having new experiences, meeting new actors and it’s just like any job. It’s great to have new challenges and new opportunities. So, as much as I look forward to other projects completely outside of Murdoch, I also look forward to doing things a little bit differently within Murdoch. That’s been fun to do when we’ve travelled to other countries or done wacky episodes.

William and Julia’s Frank Lloyd Wright house is amazing and not only a refresh for the couple and the set but also the forward-thinking of this couple as we’re gradually moving into further along into the history of the show and the history of Toronto.
YB: Oh, absolutely. It’s good to have these contemporaries sort of float through the timeline of Murdoch, so we’re able to talk about people like Frank Lloyd Wright, which a lot of people associate his work with closer to the 30s and the 20s and stuff like that. So, being able to say, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no. Very early in his career, this is possibly the very first year of his public career,’ and so on. We’re able to do that, which is a lot of fun and certainly educational because I definitely would have pinned him as doing the bulk of his work, or certainly the most notable stuff, in the 30s. I had no idea.

I know it’s a good episode of Murdoch when I quickly go to Google and start Googling things to find out more information.
YB: Yeah, no kidding.

So, this past week was kind of a twofer. First of all, Nikola Tesla, always great to have him on the show and got me reminiscing about ‘Power.’ But also Elvis Stojko, who told me that he had a fantastic time. What was it like working with him one-on-one in the interrogation room?
YB: Oh, he was hilarious. I mean, I was laughing out loud at stuff that he was doing and it certainly wasn’t expected. I didn’t know at all what to expect, especially since on the page, that particular scene was pretty funny and then for him to come in and actually be even funnier was a really pleasant surprise. I mean, such a great guy. We reconnected since in the skating world. I went and visited their Thank You Canada show with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and Elvis. So, it was a cool connection to make and I’m just so hugely proud of our Olympic athletes. As you know, I’m a very, very proud Canadian, so it was just like heaven for me and then for him to do such a knockout job. It was hilarious.

He didn’t want to look as though he was a figure skater showing up and not be taken seriously.
YB: That’s right. That’s right. He told me about that. He’s also got that mindset of if you want to accomplish something, you’re gonna have to put in the work. You gotta prep. You gotta do what you gotta do and then you’re gonna get the results out of it with the effort that you put in. That seems to be his approach, and it’s kind of cool. Everybody has a different process, a different approach. I certainly appreciated that.

Let’s get into Monday’s episode. The director, Mina Shum, filmed some beautiful scenes of William. The quiet one at the beginning of the episode where he’s in the forest, and then in Harry’s room, going through the suitcase and those old memories. Very unlike some of the scenes that we see in Murdoch.
YB: Yeah, it was funny, from the moment the script came up I started to sort of feel a lot of that stuff and feel a lot of that sense of helplessness, that sense of being let down, the sense of incomplete relationship, a sense of anger, all those different things. It was easy. It came off the page very, very easily for me. The weather cooperated in so many ways because of that read of looking up to the sky and seeing possibly something. I actually added that in, I think. I know I did in a couple of spots. I’m not sure if it was my idea altogether, but I know that I added it in a couple of spots and when I saw the edit, I saw that they kept it in there, so that was interesting because I sort of thought it was almost as if Murdoch conceded to the fact that his father went the way that he should go and that he’s up there and he’s sort of conceded to what Julia says about maybe it was this, maybe it was that. In the end, it may not be perfect, but it was the way it was.

So, the weather kind of cooperated with that, which was kind of weird because at first, it’s gloomy, it’s dark. It’s very unclear and then towards the end, the sky’s starting to part a little bit and it’s a little more clarity. It created a cool symbolism of what Murdoch was feeling.

It was quite interesting to see Simon McNabb credited for the episode because when I think of him, I’m not necessarily thinking of those emotional moments, I’m thinking of funnier moments.
YB: Yeah. And that just goes to show you the depth of our lineup, the depth of our roster, you know?

When William is in the morgue and Harry’s body’s on the table, William is as about as far away from the body as you can get without being out of frame. Was that a conscious decision that he just doesn’t want to go near the body?
YB: Yeah, definitely. I played that physically in tone. He, I thought, very early on put a wall between himself and the entire situation and that becomes clear in the dialogue between the other characters of the story, but he definitely throws up a wall and is protecting himself, but also doesn’t want to lower himself to some possibly very base level, even though he would for other people. He would seek out justice for other people, but with his own father for some reason, he was judge, jury and executioner and so I wanted to physically show that.

I’m sad that Harry’s not going to be around anymore. I kept thinking, ‘OK, maybe it wasn’t him.’ 
YB: Yeah, I know. I know. The reality is it’s probably really difficult to get Stephen McHattie, but there’s also a great opportunity in that script, so it’s like you gotta pick and choose.

Speaking of actors, I couldn’t believe that Sara Botsford and Peter McNeil, neither of them had been on Murdoch Mysteries until Monday night. What was it like working with them?
YB: I know, isn’t that funny? Peter and I go way, way back and Sara, obviously she’s been part of Canadian fabric for so long. It was so incredible to have them both there and I thought a real privilege. They were both so sweet. They were both so complimentary and proud of the show and the accomplishments of the show and the cast. It was just such a sweet time to have them there because these guys are veterans. People like Peter have appeared in some of the biggest movies ever. So, it was just very sweet for them to A) take the time to do the episode with us and then B) to just come around and just, ‘Heck yeah, we want to be part of this. We’re so proud of you guys.’ So, it was a very sweet time.

We just got a handful of episodes left before the end of the season. Obviously, you’re not going to give anything away, but I’m assuming it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster heading into the two-part season finale?
YB: Yeah, we’ve got a pretty great season this year. It’s funny because it didn’t feel all that different when we started out. It was like, ‘Alright, we’re doing this. Oh, we’re going to try a weird alien episode? OK.’ Do you know what I mean? We’ve done zombies before, so why not? But, I’m getting so many comments from people saying that it’s just a standout year and stellar and can’t believe we’re this far into it and it’s still so creative and there’s still so much still to offer. So, that really makes me happy, because I’m somewhat isolated a little bit. I film the show. There’s nobody around and then when people are watching the show, I’m not around. So, it’s a little bit strange to be sort of disconnected completely. But, the word on the street is that this is a great year

The writing room is turning out stories that continue to be incredible, and then with the fact that we got to see some back stories of some of the supporting characters, this has just been a great season all around.
YB: Absolutely, and funny enough, all of that great sort of enriching of the secondary characters, everybody’s back story, has actually been a huge blessing for me this past year because it gave me so much downtime that I’m starting to wonder if I was getting written out of my own show. But, it was really great and I think the show has been better for it, because a lot of people are attached to … the bandwidth is much broader now, the attachment to the characters and to their story and to what they want.

One last question. How much fun was it being in Another WolfCop? I saw the movie over the holidays on Super Channel, and man, you’re fantastic in it.
YB: Oh, I’m so glad to hear when people have seen that. It was such a blast. I actually enjoyed working with those guys so much that I partnered up in the production company and we’ve since made some other projects and there are more coming. But yeah, the whole WolfCop thing was so much fun and being able to play that just hugely reprehensible character, it was so great, so great.

It’s worth it just to hear you swear.
YB: Oh, I had a whole bunch more. I had a whole bunch more because they would just tell me, ‘OK, start ripping.’ We banked all kinds of stuff that the world will just never view. But I tell you, that was fun. It was kind of like decades of holding back and I just let loose on it.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC and streams at CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Featured, Travelers

Travelers ending after three seasons

The Travelers‘ mission is complete. Star Eric McCormack made it official on Friday afternoon, confirming the sci-fi drama will not return for a fourth adventure.

“Travelers Program One, as well call it, is complete,” McCormack said on the show’s Facebook page. “On behalf of our creator Brad Wright, my fellow producers and directors, designers, our writers, our amazing crew in Vancouver, and our cast—who I love more than they know—I want to say thank you. All three seasons of Travelers will continue to be available for you to re-discover and, hopefully, bring some others along with you.

“But, for now, Protocol 5,” he continued. “Much love from 3468 in the 21st.”

“Well, all good things…,” Wright tweeted on Friday afternoon. “Thanks to the greatest cast, crew, directors, writers, artists and producing partners a guy could ask for. Love to you all. And to
@Netflix for stepping up so we could make Season 3!”

Created by Brad Wright and executive-produced by McCormack, Wright and Carrie Mudd, Travelers starred McCormack, MacKenzie Porter, Nesta Cooper, Jared Abrahamson and Reilly Dolman as a group of agents sent from the future to change the path of humanity by putting their consciousness into the bodies of others. Patrick Gilmore, Leah Cairns, Jennifer Spence and Ian Tracey were all part of the cast.

Travelers most recently won a Banff Rockie Award for Best Science Fiction, Fantasy or Action Program at the Banff Television Festival. It also captured Leo Awards for Best Direction for William Waring and Best Guest Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series for Spence.

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Coroner, Featured

Coroner: Ehren Kassam on his beard, the butterfly stroke and working with Serinda Swan

A beard almost stood in the way of Ehren Kassam landing the role of Jenny Cooper’s (Serinda Swan) son Ross on CBC’s crime drama Coroner. You see, Kassam is 21, and Ross was originally supposed to be 16.

“They were just a little skeptical about choosing me because I was a little bit older than the character they were going for,” says Kassam. “And they did want to cast it authentic.”

But, despite his status as a legal adult, he was called in for a  chemistry test with Swan and the results upended any reservations the show’s producers may have had.

“Serinda and I really clicked instantly, and Adrienne [Mitchell] the director, was there, too. We all sat and talked for like 15 minutes, and it was really just this natural, electric feeling, and we were all sort of like, ‘Shit, this is really going to be cool.'”

In the end, Ross’ age was inched up to 17 to accommodate Kassam’s scruff, and the former Degrassi: Next Class star was handed the part, which, he says, led to the “best filming experience of my life.”

Ahead of this Monday’s new Thanksgiving-themed episode, “All’s Well,” we gave Kassam a call to learn more about what makes Ross tick and what will be coming up for him in the second half of the season.

You said you had an ‘electric’ chemistry test with Serinda Swan. What was it like working with her throughout Season 1?
Ehren Kassam: I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better partner because she was the most focused actor I’ve ever worked with for sure. She knew exactly what was going on in every character’s head in every scene, and it was so cool and so inspiring to see that because she does take it as seriously as possible, and I really, really respected that. And we just really clicked. I don’t know how else to describe it. We really got along well. We were always joking around and had this really nice chemistry and really nice balance, and we could always sit and have an actual conversation and talk about the scene before doing them.

We would always sit down with [showrunner] Morwyn [Brebner] and Adrienne and sort of discuss wherever we wanted the scene to go, and it was kind of a new experience for me as well because, as a younger actor, you’re sort of used to just being kind of told what to do, and you’re not really given the liberty to experiment as much as you might want and as much as you might think, at least for Canadian network TV, where most of my experience has been. You kind of just get told, ‘This is your character, you’re the heartthrob teenager and play that as much as you can.’ So this was kind of cool because we really got to sit down and experiment with things and try out different things. And I never felt rushed, and I can safely say that it was the best filming experience of my life.

I was going to ask how being on Coroner compared with some of the other shows you’ve been on, such as Degrassi.
EK: Degrassi, don’t get me wrong, was fantastic and I met a lot of people who I’ll call best friends for a long time. It could have been that my character on Degrassi, I really was just the boyfriend to three different storylines for four years. So it was a great experience and a lot of fun, but I didn’t get that experimentation, getting to sort of try out things at my liberty, maybe because the scenes were never really about me then. So it’s interesting when you then switch to a show that has scenes that are focused on you and relying on you, that you are given the liberty to experiment at your will.

But there are pros and cons to both. I was definitely more stressed being on Coroner than I was on Degrassi. Because when I walked on the set of Degrassi, I always knew what I was doing for sure, and it was almost down to a science. Where on Coroner, I would walk in and I would have no idea where the scene would go. So it was definitely an interesting experience.

I understand that you had to learn to swim the butterfly stroke to play Ross.
EK: Yeah, within the first couple of months of casting, there was a little back and forth about, ‘Can you swim?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can’t do a competitive level stroke, but I can swim.’ So I ended up booking it, and they said they wanted me to learn how to do the butterfly stroke, and I said I could hopefully learn that, which was me confidently, casually saying that I could learn something that I knew nothing about. Because looking back, I definitely had no business doing that stroke. But I did learn it, and I actually went to the woman who taught me how to swim when I was a little kid. I went back to my hometown a couple times a week and had an hour-long lesson, and then I learned I had to get a full-body wax.

Oh, my. How did that go?
EK: I laid there for three hours, and it was not fun. I thought it might have been blown out of proportion, it can’t be that bad to undergo it. For maybe the first 45 minutes, I thought, ‘Oh, this isn’t so bad.’ And then the next hour and a half, I remember being actually angry just wanting it to be over so bad. And then I thought she was done, and she said, ‘Now we have to do your other side.’ I was so upset. But I shouldn’t have to do it again, because I’m pretty sure Ross has quit the swim team forever.

Yes, Ross has been really struggling with his dad’s death, particularly after finding out that he gambled the family’s money away. Are things going to improve for him as the season progresses?
EK: One of my favourite things about the character was the opportunity to portray a real mental illness at that age. He had to go through so much and then he decides he’s going to quit school and you see that scene with Matteo in Episode 3, where Matteo is like, ‘When are you going to come back? I can’t bring your homework forever.’ And that’s a very clear indication that kids that age aren’t used to actually dealing with mental illness and knowing how to deal with somebody who is going through that. Because Matteo is like, ‘What do you mean? Why don’t you wanna come back?’ And Ross can’t even explain why he doesn’t want to come back. How do you put that into words? So that’s definitely a big scene that ends up playing out, and the way he then finds out how to deal with that—like meeting Liam in Episode 4 and deciding to work on the bridge with him—that’s a nice way that he ends up being able to cope with it. But that’s not the end of the unfortunate things that do happen to him, so he definitely also finds ways to deal with it that may be less orthodox.

When you say mental illness, do you mean Ross is suffering from depression, or is there something more going on with him?
EK: It’s primarily depression and a lot of anxiety that he goes through. The depression stems from the actual things that are happening to him, and then he develops this fear and overall anxiety about going to school and leaving the house. At the end of Episode 2 when he’s crying about how he can’t go back, that’s a real feeling of a simple task, which is going to school, and just not being able to do it.

It seems that hanging out with Liam is helping him a lot. What is it about Liam that he’s drawn to?
EK: It’s actually funny because in the read-through, the first scene where he goes to meet Liam in the woods, I think it was originally written as Liam was outside his house doing chin-ups shirtless and Ross walked in on him. And, the way the scene was written, a bunch of us really got the vibe that they were going to have a love triangle between Ross, his mom and Liam, and that wasn’t what happened at all. Éric Bruneau actually suggested that maybe he isn’t shirtlessly doing chin-ups because it just kind of gave a weird intimation to the scene that probably didn’t need to be there.

But I think in Liam, he finds that he doesn’t have to just go through the motions, he doesn’t have to go to school, he doesn’t have to swim if that’s not going to be working for him anymore and if that’s affecting his mental health. And he finds this really nice way to do this co-op with Liam and I think it helps him heal a lot. And I hesitate to say that it may have even given him an older male role model in his life that he might have been specifically craving at that moment because of his dad.

We only got to see Ross’ dad, David, in one scene before he died, but from just that one scene, it appeared that he was very hard on Ross. Is that the backstory in your head?
EK: A lot of the sadness that comes from Ross is the fact that he and his dad didn’t have a great relationship, is the read that I got. He wasn’t a mean and awful father, but he was definitely a stern, very focused, very strict father. And that opens up to a lot of feelings that he might want to talk about, like, ‘Hey, why are you being so hard on me?’ And then his dad just dies. And that’s interesting to me because when someone dies and you’re mad at them, or when somebody dies and maybe you’re not on the best terms with them. it’s a really hard thing to deal with because, as sad as you that they’re gone, obviously, those feelings that you had aren’t not real or not valid because the other person is gone. You’re still allowed to be angry at the person for the way that they treated you.

He had very real feelings of embarrassment and fear toward his father because his dad put so much pressure on him to be the best swim team member, and his dad was a surgeon and he really wanted Ross to follow in his footsteps, so there’s a lot of that and a lot of unspoken feelings that Ross is definitely feeling about his father. And it’s sad because he won’t ever get the closure that he wants. He can’t talk to his dad, he can’t have that conversation.

Ross and Matteo are very sweet. Will we be seeing more of them?
EK: Not as much as I wanted you to see. You do see him in a few really important moments to Ross, but you don’t get to see as much of the Ross and Matteo and Jenny hanging out and eating pizza kind of stuff. That scene was super cute and I really wanted to see more of that. But we do get a lot more plot development with Matteo and Ross, in terms of things happening to Ross, and Matteo is there helping him understand and cope with it.

Do you have a favourite episode or moment from Season 1?
EK: Honestly, the end of Episode 2 was probably the scene I was looking forward to the most, and then there’s another one in Episode 5 when we have Thanksgiving. Overall, I’m excited for people to see the relationship between Ross and Jenny grow and a lot more scenes with Nicholas Campbell, because he is a great grandfather and he is loads of fun to work with. He comes back in Episode 5, so you do get a lot more of him. I find that our scenes are so electric, and we have so much fun on camera together.

Coroner airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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