Tag Archives: Featured

19-2, Featured

19-2’s shocking, stunning Season 2 return

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The second season return 19-2 on Monday night features a continuous tracking shot that sets the tone for a series that already set a high bar for drama in Season 1. “School,” directed by Podz, who helmed the episode for the original Radio Canada series, captured over 10 minutes of stunning, shocking television in a continual shot, following officers Ben Chartier (Jared Keeso), Nick Barron (Adrian Holmes) and the members of their squad as they track down a shooter loose in a Montreal high school.

Ben and Nick go from the front office area through the cafeteria as bullets fly and students flee around them. The camera continues to a wall of windows to show a squadron of police cars arriving while frightened students weep against walls and pillars, praying they survive. It’s the most dramatic episode of 19-2 so far, a big deal considering cop Audrey Pouliot (Laurence Leboeuf) was beaten to the brink of death by a group of thugs in Season 1.

Monday’s return also marks a new direction for the Canadian Screen Award-nominated Bravo series. There is the overarching theme of Ben being asked to spy on his partner, Nick, who is suspected of being a mole by the Sécurité du Québec (SQ)—a theme explored in the French series too—but it won’t follow the same trail to get there.

“We get to the same place, but we get there in a very different way,” says executive producer, showrunner and writer Bruce M. Smith (Cracked, Durham County) during an on-location press junket in Montreal last August. “We did that not because we didn’t like what the French did, but because of who our cast was and how they had developed over Season 1. They had become quite different people from their French counterparts.”

Smith is a huge fan of the original 19-2, and likens Bravo’s take to NBC’s version of the British smash comedy The Office; they were given a lot of liberty to make it different organic being based on the same DNA. Benz Antoine (Blue Murder), Smith explains, plays Officer Tyler Joseph in both versions of 19-2, but they’re very different characters. Speaking of writing, the room has expanded for Season 2 as well. First season scribes Smith and Jesse McKeown (Republic of Doyle) have been joined by Damon Vignale (Blackstone) and Nikolijne Troubetzkoy (Call Me Fitz), a four-person luxury Smith says is alien in Quebec where writers pen their scripts at home alone and then bring them to set for filming. Lynne Kamm has kept things realistic on 19-2, serving as a liaison between real police and the show, which has entailed dozens of ride-alongs.

Smith says he expects there to be a lot of talk among viewers following Monday’s return broadcast—there are many, many casualties in “School” and the overall story mirrors recent events around the world—but Bravo has stuck by the producers since Day 1.

“We see this as a cable show, and they have encouraged us to go there with the content,” Smith says. “We are, at times, much more realistic and darker, and we show these characters warts and all.”

19-2 airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo. The season premiere will air commercial-free on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Helix

Jordan Hayes gets put in a Helix hot zone

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It’s been 15 months since Arctic Biosystems blew up in Helix’s Season 1 finale and, as you might expect given that final epilogue, they haven’t been quiet ones for the CDC members. But even with the mysteries of Ilaria—and Julia’s disappearance—lingering over what’s left of the team, it’s still time for another case and, more importantly for Helix faithfuls, another disgusting virus.

The series set in motion its plan to revamp the show each season, taking us from the soundstages of downtown Montreal to the Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Lac in Oka, Quebec. One chilly, wet weekend this past summer, the cast and crew are in the midst of filming the fourth episode of the season and Canadian Jordan Hayes—last year’s CDC rookie—is nursing a tea and analyzing how becoming immortal has turned Dr. Sarah Jordan into an up-and-coming name at the organization.

“She’s much more reckless this year,” Hayes tells TV, Eh? inside the former monastery. “Last year she was terminally ill and this year she’s basically invincible, and not really vulnerable to any kind of disease or anything. So she’s able to put herself into critical situations, hot zone areas where she can really be effective.”

Hayes chalks it up to an urge to boost her reputation—mixed in, of course, with her character’s desire to help people. “That’s why she got into this field in the first place,” she explains. “Along with a love and passion for science—but I think that she’s also very ambitious and wants her name to be recognized amongst the greatest scientists of her generation.”

That certainly seems to be the path she’s on when Season 2 of Helix opens. Sarah’s now a no-nonsense expert capable of throwing a decent punch and having nothing to do with newcomer Dr. Kyle Sommers (Matt Long, Mad Men) or his jokes. Then again, Sarah doesn’t seem to be too thrilled about much now that she’s on a team being led by Peter Farragut (Neil Napier, Bullet in the Face), dubious brother of Season 1’s hero, Alan (Billy Campbell, The Killing).

“A bit of it is because of the competitive nature,” Hayes says. “Maybe Sarah feels like she’s proved herself and she should be team captain—but I think it’s more that she sees that Peter isn’t Alan, and he’s not the same leader that Alan was. She really got spoiled in her first expedition, where she had Alan as a leader, and now she’s stuck with Peter, who she thinks isn’t as good.”

Of course, Sarah’s relationship with her former team leader is a bit more complicated than whether Alan was simply better at the job than Peter. Right before Arctic Biosystems lit up the Arctic in a final, desperate attempt to contain the Narvik virus, Sarah found out from one of the doctors at the base that she was pregnant and Alan—at that point in the arms of his ex-wife—was the father. Hayes couldn’t say much about how that played out for Sarah on the super-secret set, but she did confirm it’s “still a plot point in the second season.”

It’s plenty for Season 1’s rookie to have to handle, hot zone expert or no. But Hayes seems to be relishing the extra challenges facing her character.

“To add that dynamic on top of everything else that she had gone through—being terminally ill, basically losing her life and then coming back to life and becoming immortal—on top of all of it, now she has to deal with bringing a child into this life that she has … I mean, as an actor it was good because it’s a lot of juicy, complicated things to work with but I mean, as a character she has to deal with a lot, for sure.”

Helix airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Showcase.

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Featured, Lost Girl

Review: Lost Girl goes to the gods

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Of course Lost Girl would be the series to give us gender bending Greek gods, Hera and Zeus, with our mysteriously undead Kevin Brown revealing himself/herself as the devious goddess and leaving Zee as the lightning bolt-delivering god. The swap went some way towards explaining my confusion over trying to figure out how Hera was suddenly shooting lightning bolts like Zeus, but I’ll admit I’m slightly disappointed it means we have a dude kicking butt as top god on this lady power loving series.

Instead, Hera-as-Kevin Brown was relegated towards cleaning up the curious Alicia and trying (and failing) to take out Dyson. Though that does make sense if Bo’s guess about why the Ancients have suddenly returned is correct. Hera might be down with sticking up for her team, but not quite to the extent of Zeus—who might technically be Persephone’s father. Though, with the obvious sense that Lost Girl is going way off text when it comes to these fae, there’s no telling what the alliances are or who they’re really looking out for.

It’s a nice idea that the Ancients have returned to rescue Persephone—and maybe that’s why they were so interested in Bo’s “truth,” to find out how she got the candle and where Persephone is. Then again, considering they’ve killed nearly all of Lauren’s employees and devastated the city—along with an elevator of people—and finally, launched Cassie off the balcony of a skyscraper, the Ancients as good guys is a bit of a tough sell.

But if they’re that loyal to Persephone, who’s related to them, maybe they’ll turn out to be as unwilling to harm Bo—assuming they find out she’s one of them as well. Because I’m pretty sure that’s what having Hades as a father should mean. Of course, it’s not really news Bo is bandying about—keeping the list of people in the know about it to the barest of bare minimums—though rightfully opting to let Trick in on the update to what happened to his daughter after he turned her over.

I can’t help but feel like we should be seeing just a little bit more remorse from Trick as the revelations about Aife’s life come out. I understand the need to maintain balance (and that Aife’s a bit scary on a good day), but surely discovering your daughter gave birth in a cage in Tartarus warrants a bit of a pause if you were the one partially responsible. Then again, Trick’s already had to live with that decision for a long time and he did, technically, do what was right. But I’m feeling just a tiny bit of sympathy for Aife as the revelations come tumbling out.

Tamsin was in for her own set of revelations when she got succubumped to the curb by Bo. It was easy enough for us to see—even without the oracles exposing Bo’s heart’s desires—that Tamsin wouldn’t be on that list. But as a Tamsin fan (though not a shipper of the couple) it still hurt to watch her cling to any number of explanations as Bo finally stepped up to tell her the truth. I don’t agree at all with Bo’s assertion that Tamsin is confused just because they’re roommates (having managed to avoid falling in love with any number of my own), but there might be some truth to the fact that Tamsin’s feelings for Bo could be caught up in the complicated history they’ve shared. It doesn’t make breaking her heart hurt any less, though, and I wasn’t too impressed with Bo by the end of that talk.

Maybe giving the oracles one last go around finally gave us a sense of what direction all those “ships” would be “sailing” in before the end, with some kind of Dyson/Lauren/Bo triumvirate being an easy call. But while I doubt Mark’s worthiness in general, even I have to admit watching Vex cope with his attraction to Dyson’s son, of all people, was well worth it. And hey, at least it means we can rest easy in the shipping wars now.

Losing it:

  • Tamsin’s “Shit got real,” is also how I would describe this episode, now that we know what’s going on
  • “No, no, no, but yes.” Was this Vex’s redemption? Because it totally worked for me
  • “You smell good wet.” Was this not meant as an innuendo? Because if we’re talking ships here …
  • “Explains the face.” Evony, upon discovering Mark is Dyson’s son
  • Evony’s big, bad reveal was a big, bad letdown

Lost Girl airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

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Featured, Heartland

Review: Silent treatment on Heartland

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Communication is a big thing, whether it be between family, friends, business partners or horses. That was driven home on several fronts during Sunday night’s newest episode. And while the episode may have been called “The Silent Partner,” the subtitle could have been “The Silent Treatment,” especially when it came to Peter and Lou.

It’s no secret that the couple’s marriage has been rocky of late, with him quite happy to be jetting to Vancouver for work, something that gives him a much-needed respite from life on the ranch. And who could blame him? It seems like Lou has got a new bee in her bonnet every week. This time around it was pressuring Peter to find a job in Calgary so he would be closer to home. I thought she was crossing the line by having Amy serve as the go-between to land Peter a job with Tanner Gunn (Patrick Gallagher, Endgame). In the end her plan backfired in a major way. Not only did she fail to communicate her feelings to Peter directly, but she learned the worst news of all via Amy: Tanner offered Peter a lucrative job that he turned down. Now Lou (and we) can only wonder what Peter has planned. Is he leaving Lou, or has he got a business plan cooked up to keep him at home and he’s just getting ready to surprise his wife with the news?

Speaking of surprises, Caleb had a big one for Ty (and Amy). Despite Ty’s advice to the contrary, Caleb is in business with Jesse, which led to windfall of cash for Ty in the form of his initial investment and profits to the tune of over $41,000 in cash. What will the the engaged couple do with all that green? They could certainly pay for their wedding with it, but I’m suspecting a business of their own is in the cards. After all, Amy could train horses and Ty could care for them. It’s the perfect business idea.

Communication was the word of the week for Jack and Georgie too, the former between he and Lisa over planning Amy’s wedding and the latter regarding letting Steven ride Phoenix to take some of the pressure off her mounting responsibilities at school and Heartland.

But back to Lou and Peter for a second. I may complain a lot about Lou’s meddling in everyone’s affairs, but I don’t like to see her hurting. Sunday’s final scene—preceded by a weepfest with Jack—found her the odd (wo)man out, witnessing Peter and her two kids watching Phoenix ride while she wondered where her marriage was headed. Do you think it’s over between she and Peter? Let me know below or via @tv_eh.

Notes and quotes

  • Hey Heartland fans, does anyone know how far Calgary is supposed to be from Heartland ranch?
  • “Can’t a man spend some time in his own home with people thinking there’s a crisis?!”—Jack
  • I could watch Heartland‘s horse riding footage all day long

Heartland airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC.

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Book of Negroes, Featured

Recap: Book Of Negroes Part 2

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We open part two of six, with Aminata (now played by Aunjanue Ellis) waking and several critical pieces of the story are quickly thrown at the viewers. We learn Aminata is travelling with Georgia (Sandra Caldwell) to assist with slave births and in this instance Georgia is insisting Aminata travel with her for her own best interest. Georgia is very much aware that their owner, Robertson Appleby (Greg Bryk of Bitten fame) has his eye on the young slave and warns Aminata of her fears. We are also informed of a couple of unrelated items imperative to the story; Aminata knows how to read, and that the south is suffering from smallpox outbreaks.

This episode gives viewers a visceral depiction of the power that the slave owners held and the violation perpetrated against the slaves during this era. This sense of not having any control over your own life is repeated throughout.

Our story really begins when Solomon Lindo (Allan Hawko of CBC’s popular Republic of Doyle), a Jewish businessman, comes to visit the Indigo Plantation. He and his wife Rosa (Amy Louise Wilson) realise that Aminata is an exceptional woman and attempt to buy her from Appleby. Rosa is aware that “Mina” can read. It is clear that Rosa wants Mina for her own. However, Appleby refuses Solomon’s offer of purchase.

As the Massa, we see Appleby exercing his power and orders Aminata to the Big House, trapping and ultimately raping her. I am not sure what would have be worse, actually watching the rape played out on the screen or leaving the violation to my imagination. We are however spared the details and only to hear her screams as Aminata is attacked by her owner. This scene only lays the groundwork for yet more abuse to come.

All is not lost though for our heroine, there is a bright spot. Chekura (Lyriq Bent) conveniently manages to track Aminata down since she is after all a famous baby catcher who knows every possible language, and they wed.

We next see Aminata ripe in an advanced stage of pregnancy and an incredibly powerful scene plays out (In my mind the most emotional of the night). Appleby, realises that the baby Aminata carries is not his and he shears her head before all of the other slaves. He concludes this public violation on Aminata, demonstrating his ultimate power by informing all who will listen with his veiled threat that “the baby you (Aminata) carry is no more yours than the hair on your head.” Mr. Bryk manages to convey his character’s contempt for the slaves that to him are merely a commodity. He exudes the entitlement as the owner and master of his domain. Further we see Ms. Ellis beautifully maintaining her character’s quiet dignity in the face of this public humiliation. Brava to Ms. Ellis for portraying Aminata’s strength and determination in such a poignant manner.

Aminata carries her baby to term and of course, Appleby, knowing that the child is not his sells the infant off in order to punish Aminata. Then as a final blow, she is sold to Solomon, committing her to a state of permanent exile her from her family of slaves.

In her new life as a servant (rather than slave) to the Lindo’s, Mina must adjust her perspective. Mina assists in the birth of Rosa’s son. Still the inequities of life as a black woman play out as we learn that Solomon helped sell Mina’s daughter. This is justified in his mind as he believes that both Mina and her daughter are better off out of the clutches of Appleby. He feels he deserves her gratitude since he exercised his power and wealth and saved them both.

We close with Mina grieving the loss of her daughter; she has succumbed to smallpox.

What a fabulous episode. I am loving that even in the short time frame this show airs (I really wish each episode was a 2 hour slot instead of the 1 hour) we are seeing a richness in each of our characters. We have in two episodes essentially seen two separate casts (in order to accommodate such a broad span of time) and yet this production has delivered a splendidly woven story with dynamic characters and not the caricatures we so often see.

Let me know what you thought about part two in the comments below.

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