Tag Archives: Featured

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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Featured, Industry News

Discover this, CRTC

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I’ve been gorging on a lot of UK crime dramas lately, though crime shows have rarely been my preferred series of choice (there’s a The Wire exception to every rule though).  Luther might have been the first I devoured, but it’s been followed by The Fall, Happy Valley, Scott & Bailey, and Broadchurch. I tried others and found they weren’t to my taste: Inspector Morse and Midsommer Murders are two I remember. Some UK not-crime dramas slipped into my heart, too: Call The Midwife, The Bletchley Circle.

US series have the advantage of all the marketing money in the world and being widely covered in Canadian media, and Sherlock Holmes and Downton Abbey have become mainstream North American water cooler shows, but how did I discover all these UK series? Netflix. One after another, Netflix told me I’d probably like them, and Netflix is often right.

One of the interesting aspects of last week’s TalkTV announcements was the CRTC’s intention to host a “Discoverability Summit” this fall to “bring together innovators and thought-leaders from the public and private sectors to explore how technology can be used to help viewers find programs made by Canadians.”

Great things happen when thought leaders get together, naturally. I sure hope those innovators consist of the people who thought up the Eye on Canada brand.  That was super successful.

Sarcasm aside, very few Canadian series are on Netflix Canada, and that’s by design. Shaw, Rogers and Bell don’t want their programs on the evil empire, choosing instead to create their own walled garden streaming services where they can place their original series, unfettered by Netflix’s established, incredible recommendation engine.

I’m unlikely to be invited to this Discoverability Summit, but I have some ideas for the CRTC and the industry at large, free for the taking:

  • Sell your damn shows to Netflix.
  • Fund TV critic positions at all major newspapers in the country. Accept that these critics will not always cover or like your shows, and fund the positions anyway. Newspapers sure aren’t doing much of that lately.
  • Hell, fund TV, eh? (I may have a slight bias here.)
  • Run far, far away from attempts to brand all Canadian content as though it’s the brand and not the show that matters (hi, Eye on Canada).  In fact run from anything that smacks of “build it and they will come”.
  • Did I mention Netflix? I hear they buy shows.
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Featured

Preview: Hockey Wives score for W Network

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“If Brandon cheated on me, I would cut his balls off, cook them and make him eat them.” This is what would befall Montreal Canadiens right winger Brandon Prust if he ever cheated on his girlfriend, Marpier Morin.

Morin’s threat is just a sample of the various bon mots and personalities uncovered in the first episode of Hockey Wives, debuting Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network. The reality show follows 10 girlfriends and wives of NHL hockey players and coaches who are shown doing the everyday things that other married women do, like shop, take care of kids or carry on a career. Unlike most married women, however, these gals live in an environment where an injury to their partner can mean the end to a steady paycheque or a trade equals picking up their entire lives and moving somewhere else.

For someone like Noureen DeWulf—betrothed to Vancouver Canucks net minder Ryan Miller—it equals a couple of unknowns. Pregnant with their first child, DeWulf is unsure whether to move to Vancouver to be with her man or stay in Los Angeles and continue her acting career.

For Brijet Whitney—wife of recently retired player Ray—it means a wholesale upheaval in her life. The mother of three has her husband home for the first time in over two decades and worries they’ll become a statistic of hockey couples who divorce after the player hangs up his skates for good. Brijet is clearly the most grounded of all the wives featured in Episode 1; she’s been through the ups and downs of an NHL career and knows it can be taken away in a flash.

Hockey Wives isn’t my cup of television tea, but I certainly see the allure. The opportunity to tune in and see how these ladies get on with organizing the home and kids while their pro athlete partners are away is fascinating stuff. Even the group get-togethers—which I’m sure were set up by producers and fuelled with booze in hopes of fireworks going off—are entertaining, if not a little tame.

Hockey Wives airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.

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Featured, Podcast

TV, eh? podcast episode 178 – It’s Not Easy Being Green Beer

The bulk of this week’s show featured Diane, Anthony and Greg breaking down the major points of the CRTC’s latest decision regarding the future of Canadian TV. (Special kudos to Kelly Lynne Ashton for her easy-to-understand breakdown of the decisions: you can find the links to them in this week’s He Said/She Said column.)

Also on tap: a chat about Chris Haddock’s return to the CBC with The Romeo Section and the Canada-Brazil co-production Rio Heat, which we kinda hope is so bad it’s good.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to become a Patron of the Podcast? We’ve got a Patreon page where you can donate a small amount per podcast and get a sneak peek of each release.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Interview: Cameron Mathison’s Game of Homes giveaway

It’s perhaps the coolest name ever devised for a competition show. It’s certainly one of the biggest giveaways in Canadian television.

Cameron Mathison hosts W Network’s impressively-titled Game of Homes (we’re pretty sure they cleared it with HBO), a series that pits teams of amateur home renovators against each other for the ultimate prize: a house with a chunk of land to put it on.

Debuting Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the Sarnia, Ont., born, former All My Children actor turned Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight contributor challenges four couples to renovate a run-down home. Every week finds the couples fixing up one room in the home before they’re judged by folks like Jillian Harris and Todd Talbot from Love It Or List It Vancouver, Jonathan and Drew Scott, or Colin & Justin. One team per week pockets a prize for best room reno. In the finale, the judges weigh in on who they think deserve to win before viewers vote too. The winning pair not only win the house they renovated but are awarded a piece of Vancouver property to put it on.

How did you get involved in Game of Homes?
It’s funny, I was talking to my agent about this. I went to McGill where I majored in structural engineering and that was something I was going to do with my buddy, who was a designer. I was talking to my agent about that and, literally, the next day Game of Homes called and asked me to send them a tape. It’s something that just came my way that happens sometimes.

With your background, did part of you want to run over and take over the renovations from the competitors?
Like, a large part. Like, 95 per cent of me wanted to get in there either with my two cents or to get my hands dirty. To the point where I have actually pitched to turn the tables on the host of Game of Homes and I’ll do my own transformations with some twists and turns. That’s all I can say. [Note: that project is Cameron’s House Rules, debuting Tuesday on W Network’s YouTube page.]

I couldn’t wait to get to set every day and see what they had done. The challenges are tough, but they do a phenomenal job. I saw the job on paper and thought it was amazing but I wondered how the teams would be able to pull it off and they do.

W Network

The teaser was amazing, showing the four homes being brought on barges to sit on a Vancouver pier while the competition was going on. They have generators for the tools, but they don’t have heat and plumbing, do they?
No heat, no plumbing. It’s tricky.

Are they shown how to do the work beforehand?
Each team has a contractor working with them, but every decision is driven by the team. The contractor will help them with aspects that might be too technical. It depends.

Is there anything that surprised you about the show or the competitors as production rolled?
I think the prize is pretty amazing. A house and property in a city where that’s at a premium? That said, every week there are amazing prizes. Trips to Paris, trips to Japan, Caribbean cruises, spa weeks, it’s out of control. And yet, one of the most surprising things is that the teams became very, very close and were rooting for each other. It was really touching and fun to watch.

There must have been a lot of tears of frustration too. Lack of sleep!
Sleep deprivation was a big one. I was host and couples’ therapist. I had to come in and say, ‘Come on guys, you have to compromise and communicate to get through this.’ A lot of tears shed and animosity against the guest judges. It was so hard to announce a weekly winner because everyone wanted it so badly and no one was going home. Everyone was in it until the very end.

Game of Homes airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on W Network.

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