Tag Archives: Featured

Featured, Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Interview: Matt Watts on the life and death and life of Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Except that the official announcement got scooped by a tweet, one of the biggest surprises on CBC’s 2015-16 schedule was the return of Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays, cancelled a few years ago amid low ratings. Created by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and “based on the neuroses of Matt Watts,” the show featured Martin and Watts as maladjusted therapist and anxiety-ridden patient.

The news of its return was met with joy and puzzlement, particularly on the heels of low-rated Strange Empire‘s cancellation. Co-star and co-writer Watts offered some answers to pressing questions like “WTF?!” in an email interview:

How did the revival come about? Did you guys approach CBC, or did they approach you?

I think Sally Catto [CBC’s general manager of programming] approached the producers … I’m not entirely sure how it happened, really. All I know is I got an phone call from Bob one day saying, “We’re doing Michael again!” I was never really consulted.

Given it was based on your own neuroses, you co-wrote and co-starred, it was critically acclaimed but cancelled, now revived … it seems like the cancellation/revival has the potential to be even more of an emotional roller coaster than if it was less tied to you personally? How do you feel about it? Are you approaching this season differently?

Well, I think I made a huge mistake by getting so attached to the show in the first season. The truth is, MTT was never really my show, it’s always been Bob’s. I allowed myself to get sucked into the whole whirlwind because I play Michael, and yeah, it’s based on me. The line got blurred. The cancellation hit me really hard. I took it way too personally… and it wasn’t even my show, really.

So, this year, I’m going to throw myself into the writing and performing, but as soon as we wrap, I’ll just go back to working on my own projects.

I’m really excited to see everyone again. When we wrapped season one, I arrogantly assumed I’d get see the crew again the following summer. That was actually the biggest heartbreak: not getting to see the crew again. I loved the crew on MTT.

Will the show be retooled for the reboot?

We’re going to take advantage of the five year gap. I think that’s the part of the relaunch that really intrigues me, because I don’t think a TV show has ever really done it before.

Maybe there should just be one season every five years. That’d be cool.

Actually, as I write this, I realize that the first episode has a line about Michael and David working together for 15 years. So this would be 20. It’s almost like we could make it look like the show has been designed to come back every five years for one season. Like the 7 Up series.

There you go. How’s that for a premise? A co-dependent relationship between a therapist and his patient, over a long period of time, seen at various intervals. (I’m drunk as I write this btw, so this may be ludicrous … again, it’s not my show.)

As for the show itself, within the season we’re going to stick to a serialized story that plays out over the course of the season. It’s not going to become an episodic sitcom or anything. Although Don and I often talk about bringing the show back as a time-traveling farce, just to blow the audience’s minds. Bob hates the idea though.

Will it be set in Ottawa or Toronto or both?

That would be spoiling the fun!

How far into planning and writing the season are you already?

Not that far. We had developed a second season when the show was cancelled. We’re trying to salvage what we can from that (a lot of it doesn’t work because of the time gap) and then we’ll go from there.

Do you know if all/most of the cast will return?

Right now we have it so most of the characters will return, yeah. But it’s tricky since no one is under option and they’ve moved on to other projects. For example, Tommie [Amber Pirie] is on Bitten now. That could be a conflict. Technically, I’m not even signed on. Maybe the show will end up just being Bob talking to an empty chair for a season. Every five years.

It got what you called “boutique ratings” the first time around. Do you think there’s an opportunity to grow the audience? Obviously there’s been a change in management but what’s different now about CBC’s programming that makes it ripe for Michael to return?

The support is there. Michelle Daly [CBC’s senior director of comedy], Sally Catto and Heather Conway [executive vice-president of English services] are all fans of the show and want it to do well. I think they plan to advertise this time — that might help. There wasn’t a single poster anywhere in Canada the first year. Even if the CBC puts up one poster somewhere, that’ll be 100% more advertising.

I hope it does better. It’d be disingenuous to say ratings don’t matter. They should, because why else do we do all this if it isn’t for the work to be seen?

That being said, I’m keenly aware of the possibility that after all this, it could get cancelled again.

How crazy would that be?

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Motive

Secrets keep Motive rolling into Season 3

Motive is all about the mystery. Who is the victim and why did they become a chalk outline? Who committed the crime? It’s a show that delves into hidden stories and—most of all—secrets.

Turns out Motive‘s lead, Kristin Lehman, has been keeping a little secret of her own.

“I cut my hair and I wear a wig on the show,” Lehman divulges during an in-person interview, sporting a closely-shorn ‘do. The Vancouver-based actress is doing press for Motive, returning Sunday, March 8, on CTV.  The drama series that introduces the victim and the killer within each episode’s opening minutes and then spends the ensuing instalment linking the two, bows with the same core characters, though two find themselves in different places.

Sunday’s return, “Six Months Later,” finds Det. Angie Flynn (Lehman) out of the homicide department and interviewing cop wannabes. She’s stuck in a small office with high windows far away from Det. Vega (Louis Ferreira), Sgt. Mark Cross (Warren Christie), coroner Dr. Betty Rogers (Lauren Holly) and Det. Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny), who is the lead in Sunday’s case.

Motive‘s unique storytelling technique, coined “whydunit,” enables the Vancouver-shot project to feature notable actors and actresses as witnesses, victims and murderers, and Season 3 is no different. “Six Months Later” boasts Victor Garber, Jessica Lowndes, Tony Plana and Luisa D’Oliveira with Alexis Bledel, C. Thomas Howell, Ally Sheedy, Chris Klein and Dylan Walsh all participating in future storylines. Lehman loves the opportunity to have guest cast to interact with because it ups the game of the regulars on the call sheet.

Though the victims and criminals rotate every week, some things never change. Vega and Angie, for instance, will never become romantically linked like so many characters do on long-running series. Lehman says it’s something she and Ferreira have talked about at length.

“These two people are so aware of their limitations in their personal lives that they’re conscious the degree of intimacy they have with each other is the most valuable relationship they have,” she explains. “We’re both playing characters that are in their 40s and there is a strong codependence between them. We’re taking out the sexuality, but we’re enhancing the intimacy.”

That intimacy and familiarity between Vega and Angie will likely be tested this season. Lehman teases Sunday’s storyline becomes a story arch that echoes through the 13 episodes and keeps veteran thespian Garber around.

“In the course of doing so, it provides for a little bit of space for Angie and Vega to continue exploring how they are with each other personally,” she says.

Motive returns Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Awards, Featured

Comments and queries for the week of March 6

2 Comments

Readers headed online to comment about several things this week, including the Canadian Screen Awards and what we can do to fix them, and what Canadian literature should be the next project the CBC adapts for the small screen.

I think the awards should be pushed off a month or two so the actors can show up on the red carpet without winter coats. And is Orphan Black produced by BBC America? If thats true then I don’t feel its truly Canadian.—Tom

I was disappointed two years ago when they amalgamated the two awards. I personally think TV should have their own night as well as film. I do love Canadian Screen Week and the opportunity for fans to meet their favourite stars. I would hate for this industry to become Hollywoodized. We have our own culture but we are still very much in infancy and are still finding our way or “voice.” We do need much more support to get our films “out there and seen.” —Nancy

 

So many wonderful suggestions have been made already.

My suggestions are:

* Any of Miriam Toews’ novels would make great adaptations – in particular, I would love to see All My Puny Sorrows, A Complicated Kindness, or A Boy of good Breeding.

* Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air could be wonderful!

* Annabel, by Kathleen Winter – wonderful story, amazing settings.

* Galore, by Michael Crummey. I love this novel so much and it could be a brilliant TV series. —Jennifer

COPPERMINE by Keith Ross Leckie. A must. And a true story. And written by a screenwriter.—SW

I’d love to see The Orenda – history and gripping story.—Steve

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? greg@tv-eh.com or head to @tv_eh.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Vikings

Review: A warrior’s fate met on Vikings

2 Comments

Maybe I should quit singing the praises of Vikings characters. It seems like every time I do something bad happens to them. Porunn, who I complimented as being one heck of a kick-ass shield maiden last week, had her head caved in by one of Burgred’s soldiers and is at the gates of Valhalla. And carrying Bjorn’s baby, no less. According to Ragnar, allowing her to fight while pregnant is a crime that no one can come back from.

Alas, “Warrior’s Fate” claimed the life of Torstein. Vikings is a violent show jammed with crunched skulls and lopped-off limbs, but Torstein’s death was awful to watch. Knowing he was a diminished member of the army, he sacrificed himself so that Ragnar would know the position of Burgred’s men. I hope he’s treated well in Valhalla.

When the episode wasn’t caught up in the heat of battle—Burgred’s army was defeated and the Prince saved from death by a plea from Kwenthrith—it was splitting time in Kattegat, the farming fields and Ecbert’s Roman bath. Harbard has made his presence known in a very short amount of time, first by winning over Helga with his tales of adventure and then by stopping Ivar’s crying with a gentle stroke of the infant’s head. Suffice it to say, those two girls are firmly under Harbard’s spell; the only one not convinced is Siggy, and that can be a dangerous spot to be in.

Meanwhile, the romance I’ve been dreading has finally come to full bloom. Ecbert and Lagertha—after making goo-goo eyes at one another—got full-on nekkid in the bath. Clearly Ecbert is thinking big picture—get Lagertha and Ragnar on side with sex and property—and they’ll be his scary little army of heathens to help him take over Mercia. He, of course, forgot one thing: these a violent folks with their own belief system. That was driven home when Ecbert and his nobles looked on in horror as Lagertha was doused in cow blood and then scattered it on their fields in a prayer to Frey for a bountiful harvest.

“I’d like to experiment between our cultures. Plowing, fertilizing and sowing seed are the very basis,” Ecbert said slyly at the beginning of the episode. But by the end of it his face seemed to reflect: “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

Notes and quotes

  • “Shut your face.” Line of the night from Ragnar to Floki.
  • “You have the strength of a man but the will of a little girl.” Second-best line of the night from Ragnar to Bjorn.
  • “I forgive you.” Ragnar after headbutting Burgred. The man was on fire!
  • Congratulations to Vikings for winning Best International TV Drama at the Canadian Screen Awards.
  • I’m amazed by the visual effects done on this show by Toronto-based Mr. X. I can never tell what’s real and what isn’t.
  • That scene between Bjorn and Rollo was touching as hell.

Vikings airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, X Company

Review: X Company explores both sides of the story

1 Comment

When I’d first heard that X Company—then called Camp X—was being developed by the CBC, I was excited. A history buff, I was champing at the bit to learn about Canada’s super-secret role during the Second World War.

And while I’ve certainly been educated in that all-important task, I’m even more impressed with the story surrounding the German soldiers and Nazis. Almost every program or film I’ve seen centred on the Allies, but X Company is delving deeper into who we’re taught are the villains. It’s easy to put the Nazis into a box and label them as murderers, but the reality is not everyone felt that way. That was certainly driven home during Wednesday’s “Kiss of Death,” where The Bleeder was unmasked—and dispatched, literally—by a poison pill kiss from Aurora.

The Bleeder’s affect on some of his fellow officers was very interesting. The man who so wanted to sleep with Celeste and had to settle for Aurora at first came off as a cruel, unfeeling jerk who was only interested in sex. Minutes later, he was shaking and afraid, confessing to Aurora that he was gay and therefore a target of The Bleeder, who wanted to stamp out homosexuality and other “deviant” sexual behaviour. The scene started out dripping with tension but ended with tenderness as Aurora promised to keep the weeping officer’s secret safe. It instantly put a human face to the enemy for both viewers and Aurora, and left me pondering my longtime thoughts.

I felt even more deeply about that when Oberführer Faber hid his son from view of the other SS officers. Anyone with a disability—in the child’s case, Down’s syndrome—was viewed as a fly in the ointment of the perfect race and would not have survived either.

I was, of course, touched by what was happening with Aurora and the team—Alfred’s combat training saved his butt and the atomic scientist extraction mission was a success—but the German side of the story really struck me this week. And has made it harder for me to cheer against them.

Notes and quotes

  • Brilliant move giving Alfred earplugs to wear so that loud noises don’t phase him. I hate it when he, you know, freezes up in a life or death situation.
  • It was great to see Maryam D’Abo back on the small screen as Madame Sournis.
  • I need to learn Morse code so that I understand what’s being transmitted in the opening credits. Is it SOS?
  • Am I to assume the blue-tinged prison cell Alfred is trapped in represents his mind? Can someone help a symbolism-stunted fellow out?
  • Is it weird that one of the most compelling characters for me is Harry? He’s got the innocent face but is able to be a cool killer too.

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

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail