Tag Archives: HBO Canada

Featured, Sensitive Skin

Sensitive Skin cancelled by HBO Canada

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Sensitive Skin will not return for a third season on HBO Canada. That’s the word from the show’s official Twitter account, which posted the news on Sunday morning.

Bell Media issued a statement to TV, Eh? on Monday afternoon:

“Several months ago, we informed the SENSITIVE SKIN team that we had made the decision not to renew the series for a third season. In our view, Davina’s journey came to a moving and elegant conclusion at the end of Season 2. We are very proud to have been part of this amazing show, which won over audiences and critics around the world. We remain huge fans of the creative team behind SENSITIVE SKIN and hope to work with them again in the future.”

Starring Kim Cattrall and directed by Don McKellar, Sensitive Skin garnered a 2015 International Emmy nomination in the Best Comedy Series category and Season 1 captured four Canadian Screen Awards, including the Bell Media Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role (McKellar); Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series (McKellar); Best Photography in a Comedy Program or Series (Douglas Koch) and Best Picture Editing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series (Matthew Hannam).

Cattrall played Davina, a fiftysomething Toronto woman who was adjusting to her life as an older woman while married to her neurotic husband, Al (McKellar). Davina was worried she hadn’t done anything of note with her life and set out to change that. In Season 2, Davina was coping with life as a widow and moved to the Toronto Islands and attempted to make new friends. Sensitive Skin co-starred Nicolas Wright, Bob Martin, Colm Feore, Joanna Gleason, Clé Bennett, Elliott Gould and Marc-André Grondin.

Season 1 of Sensitive Skin was written by Bob Martin; Susan Coyne, Rosa Labordé and Lynne Coady wrote Season 2.

Fans were not happy to hear the news and took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

Consider us in that group too.

How do you feel about Sensitive Skin being cancelled? Let me know in the comments section below.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

HBO Canada offers intimate access to P.K. Subban in Skate Past the Noise

From a media release:

With an all-access pass to one of the world’s most elite athletes, HBO Canada laces up for P.K. SUBBAN SKATE PAST THE NOISE: THE OFF-SEASON, premiering Friday, Nov. 18 at 10 p.m. ET. The new Original Documentary is a Bell Media co-commission between premium English-language Pay TV service, The Movie Network, and leading French-language networks RDS and Canal D.

With a running time of just under an hour, this up-close-and-personal documentary tells the story of one of hockey’s biggest personalities and features unparalleled access to his inner circle. As Subban faces a major turning point in his career, the electric defenseman bids adieu to Montréal. The film follows Subban during the 2016 off-season while the star is at home in Toronto, preparing for the next chapter of his life and career in Nashville.

P.K. SUBBAN SKATE PAST THE NOISE: THE OFF-SEASON explores what it means to be P.K. Subban as he prepares for the season to come. Shining a light on what it takes to be a top professional athlete, the documentary includes interviews with Subban, rap superstar Snoop Dogg, and former Canadian sprinter – and Subban’s speed and agility coach – Ben Johnson.

P.K. SUBBAN SKATE PAST THE NOISE: THE OFF-SEASON will also be seen in French on Nov. 16 on Canal D at 7:30 p.m. ET and RDS at 8:30 p.m. ET. A 30-minute special edition including 15 minutes of never-before-seen content will be available on Bell Fibe TV1 channel, beginning Nov. 17.

In association with Bell Media, P.K. SUBBAN SKATE PAST THE NOISE: THE OFF-SEASON is produced by Productions KOTV III Inc. P.K. Subban, Alain Chicoine, Louis-Philippe Drolet, and Louis Morissette are Executive Producers. Alexandra Toulch and Jack Hackel are Co-Directors.

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Featured, Sensitive Skin

Sensitive Skin returns for more quiet reflection in Season 2

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I’m so used to watching series featuring gals dispatching biker demons, Second World War spies, vikings attacking Paris and serial killers slaughtering small-town folk that Sensitive Skin made an immediate impact.

Returning Sunday on HBO Canada for Season 2, the Kim Cattrall-led drama doesn’t feature a gun owned by Wyatt Earp, Nazis or longboat battles. It’s a slow, spare character analysis of a woman trying to find her place in the world. The first season ended with Davina Jackson (Cattrall) at a crossroads in her life. Unhappy in her life and marriage to Al (Don McKellar), things were shaken up when Al suffered a heart attack and then flatlined in the season’s closing moments.

Now, picking up after that incident, Davina is moving on. But how? Would finding a new place make her happy? Would living with sister Veronica (Joanna Gleason) and brother-in-law Roger (Colm Feore) fill a hole in her life? She doesn’t know, though Theodore (Clé Bennett) goes a long way to helping her come to a decision. And while Davina is certainly the focus of Sensitive Skin, I was constantly drawn to Theodore. Sure, he deals drugs outside of her condo building, but the guy definitely has some viewpoints on life and is dead-on about many of them. (“They’re building one of those bath bomb places across the street, so you’d have to be smelling that hippy shit all day. That ain’t no way to live, right?” is one of his sage statements.)

Several segments in Episode 1 are very much about words left unsaid. Rather than fill a scene with conversation, head writer Bob Martin’s scripts boast precious seconds slowed down and set to a simple horn and strings as Davina quietly contemplates her next life move. She caresses a kitchen counter here, stares out a ceiling to floor window there; you can see the internal discussion going on in Davina’s head without her having to say the words aloud. It sets Sensitive Skin apart from other series, and I like that. A lot.

Sensitive Skin airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada.

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Sensitive Skin

Links: Sensitive Skin

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Sensitive Skin heads to Toronto’s islands in Season 2
When we last visited “Sensitive Skin,” things did not look good for Davina and Al. Particularly Al (played by Don McKellar), who was flatlining in a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Continue reading.

From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:

New wrinkle
As we age, change becomes difficult to contemplate and even harder to achieve. Sometimes, the only kind of change we can entertain is that which is forced upon us.

For Davina Jackson, the central character in the HBO series Sensitive Skin (played by Kim Cattrall), change is as uncomfortable as it is unavoidable. And as this clever Canadian comedy returns for a second season (Sunday, May 15, HBO Canada; check listings for time), change is also the most necessary element of her life. Continue reading. 

From Jeanne Beker of The Globe and Mail:

Kim Cattrall on feeling good in the skin she’s in
A lot of people say, “Gosh I didn’t know that Sensitive Skin was Canadian. I just thought it was filmed in Canada.” And I say, “No, this is a Canadian woman that I’m playing. It’s not an American woman.” Continue reading.

From Nelson Branco of 24 Hours Toronto:

Six and the City: Kim Cattrall returns in HBO Canada’s Sensitive Skin
“As I’ve gotten better, stronger, and more confident as an actor, I’ve allowed more of myself to be available in the parts I play. I like to reflect life in my work … it’s not all tragedy. There’s love, companionship, and humour, but there is loss too. I like the characters I play to balance those qualities because it only enriches the stories I try to tell.” Continue reading.

 

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Sensitive Skin

HBO Canada Reveals New Episodic Images and Brand New Promo for Season 2 of Hit Original Series SENSITIVE SKIN

From a media release:

HBO Canada revealed today a first look at 11 all-new episodic images for the first episode of the Emmy®-Nominated, Canadian Original SeriesSENSITIVE SKIN. In addition, HBO Canada released the brand-new promo for the series, which returns May 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET on HBO Canada.

Sunday, May 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET
SENSITIVE SKIN picks up after the highly emotional cliff-hanger ending of the first season and sees Kim Cattrall’s Davina enter a new phase of her life. In the first episode, Davina searches for a new home but discovers that moving on isn’t as easy as she’d hoped, and soon finds herself in the picturesque Toronto Islands.

 

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