Tag Archives: Jason Priestley

Private Eyes, The Code

New original drama Private Eyes starring Jason Priestley premieres May 26 on Global

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From a media release:

There’s a new P.I. duo heating up Global’s summer schedule as Jason Priestley (Call Me Fitz, Beverly Hills, 90210)) returns to Global, alongside Canadian actress Cindy Sampson (Supernatural), in the original crime-solving series Private Eyes (formerly The Code) premiering Thursday, May 26 at 9 pm ET/PT. From global studio Entertainment One Television (eOne), the 10-episode procedural drama which is filmed and set in Toronto follows ex-pro hockey player Matt Shade (Priestley) who irrevocably changes his life when he decides to team up with fierce P.I. Angie Everett (Sampson) to form an unlikely investigative powerhouse.

Shade sees working with Angie as an opportunity to redeem himself from his checkered past. On the ice, he learned how to hustle, read people and anticipate their moves. Working with Angie, Shade discovers a fantastic rush of adrenaline, and realizes that he’s found a new home where his skills still matter. Meanwhile, Angie took over her father’s agency after his death and strives to keep his legacy alive. Each case is an opportunity for her to test her smarts, strength, and strategic thinking. Angie may find Shade naïve in the way that he sees the world, but his passion and heart bring something special to her one-woman business.

The premiere episode begins in the fast-paced and cutthroat world of professional sports, where hockey scout Matt Shade’s top pick, Cory Sinclair, goes down on the ice at the Intercontinental Professional Hockey League try-outs. Surrounded by suspicious circumstances, Shade begrudgingly teams up with private investigator Angie Everett to find out who sabotaged his young player. Through their new partnership, Shade is forced to examine who he has become and who he wants to be. Ongoing episodes find Shade and Angie investigating high-stakes crimes in the worlds of horse racing, fine dining, Toronto’s vibrant hip-hop scene, scandalous literature, magic clubs, and more.

Additional cast in the series includes Barry Flatman (Fargo, Defiance) as Shade’s father Don – the ultimate blue-collar hockey dad; Jordyn Negri (Warehouse 13, Dino Dan) as Shade’s 14-year-old visually impaired daughter Jules, who is wise beyond her years but yearns to fit in; Clé Bennett (Rookie Blue, Barney’s Version) as Detective Derek Nolan – a by-the-book cop who thinks P.I.s get in the way of his own police work; and Ennis Esmer (The Listener) as Detective Kurtis Mazhari – a good guy cop who is also a bit of a player, who helps Angie with cases because he sees P.I.s as useful to the force.

The series also features various guest stars including PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu, four-time JUNO Award-winning rapper, record producer, and record executive Kardinal Offishall, hockey legend Doug Gilmour who makes a cameo appearance in the first episode, former WWE superstar, “Edge” Adam Copeland, and more.

Private Eyes is executive produced by John Morayniss, Rachel Fulford and Tecca Crosby for eOne and Shawn Piller and Lloyd Segan for Piller Segan together with Shelley Eriksen, Alan McCullough, Tassie Cameron, Kelly Makin, and Jason Priestley. It was created by Tim Kilby and Shelley Eriksen. Showrunners/writers are Shelley Eriksen (Continuum, Flashpoint) and Alan McCullough (Rookie Blue, Reign). Directors for this season are Kelly Makin, Anne Wheeler, Shawn Piller, Charles Officer, Rob Lieberman, Jerry Ciccoritti and James Genn. It is inspired by the novel “The Code” by GB Joyce.

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Children's Programming

Family Channel soars to new heights with Raising Expectations on May 8

From a media release:

They’re smart, they’re funny and this Mother’s Day the Wayneys are coming to Family Channel in the premiere of the highly anticipated new series Raising Expectations. Debuting Sunday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT, the live-action family comedy, created by Tom Saunders (Arrested Development) stars Jason Priestley (Call Me Fitz, Beverly Hills: 90210) and Molly Ringwald (The Secret Life of the American Teenager, The Breakfast Club) as seemingly flawless parents Wayne and Paige Wayney. The series follows the misadventures of their less-than-perfect son, Emmett as he celebrates his relatively mediocre status within his overachieving family. Highlighting Sundays on Family as the go-to television destination for family entertainment, the new series is followed by a new episode of the family comedy Dr. Ken.

Ahh, the Wayneys… what an amazing family: good looking, smart, talented, athletic and popular. Child psychologist and bestselling author Paige Wayney (Ringwald) and her architect husband Wayne (Priestley) have worked hard at raising their five children to be “multi-exceptional”, and they succeeded…four times! However, their youngest son, Emmett, is a work in progress. But what he lacks academically, athletically and artistically, he is determined to make up with… nothing. Or as he calls it: “street smarts.” Bottom line, every day without a visit from rescue workers in hazmat suits is a win for the Wayneys!

In the premiere episode, titled ”Wayne’s White Lie,” Paige shares a tale about Wayne’s heroism during an online lecture, but the online community calls “baloney.” The Wayney kids rally to defend their dad against the internet trolls, but as the evidence against Wayne starts to mount, the kids begin to suspect that their parents’ legendary romance may have been built on lies.

Starring alongside Priestley and Ringwood as the Wayney kids are Luke Bilyk (Degrassi, Lost Girl) as Adam; Katie Douglas (Defiance, Max & Shred) as Conner; Matthew Tissi (Call Me Fitz, Transporter) as Bentley; Jake Sim (The Amazing Gayl Pile, Arthur) as Derek; and introduces newcomer Simon Cadel as Emmett.

The series features notable special guest stars Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Will Sasso (MADtv), Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall), Patrick McKenna (Remedy), Ricardo Hoyos (Degrassi), Cristine Prosperi (Degrassi) and Devyn Nekoda (Backstage). In addition to his starring role, Jason Priestley serves as director on multiple episodes, as well as Jim Allodi (Call Me Fitz), Warren Sonoda (Backstage), Melanie Orr (How to Be Indie) and Stefan Brogren (Degrassi).

Commissioned by Family Channel, Raising Expectations is produced by Aircraft Pictures (Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil, What’s Up, Warthogs!) with producers Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen, in association with Dolphin Entertainment (Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Zoey 101, and the upcoming feature film Max Steel, based on the Mattel action-figure franchise) with executive producer Bill O’Dowd. Tom Saunders (Arrested Development, The Larry Sanders Show) is series creator and executive producer. The show is co-executive produced by Steve Skrovan (Everybody Loves Raymond, Hot in Cleveland) and Garry Campbell (MADtv, Kids in the Hall). Tia Ayers, Barbara Haynes, Skander Halim, Max Reid, Josh Gal and Emer Connon round out the writing room.

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Featured, Haven

Haven limps across the finish line

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After five seasons, Haven finally came to an end. I’ve made no bones about either my love and support of this series in its first two seasons, or my derision for it over the last three, when story arcs went from head-scratching to downright ludicrous.

A science-fiction/fantasy series is always hard to keep on track, and the introduction of the barn went from being what I hoped was a minor wobble into a full-on shimmy with the addition of The Guard and a complete coming off the rails when the legend of Croatoan—itself an interesting real-life mystery—was turned into a being in human form in the shape of William Shatner. Listen, I love Shatner, but introducing him as Audrey’s father and an all-powerful being in control of the aether caused me to flap my hand at Haven in disgust more than once.

So while much of Sunday’s finale, “Forever,” cleaned up the messy tale that was Croatoan, it also offered a sweet goodbye to the key characters I’ve always liked. That meant giving Audrey, Nathan and Duke some major screen time. The seemingly endless back and forth between Audrey and Croatoan over whether she would join him and rule together forever was finally decided; she did team with him but not to cause pain, but rather to absorb all Troubles and then lock them and the pair (along with Vince) away forever in another barn. I must admit I expected Duke to return from the dead—via a Trouble—but that never happened. And perhaps that was for the best, story-wise. Always just outside of Audrey and Nathan’s relationship, having Duke sacrifice himself last week was a heroes’ way to go out and keep him looking good in everyone’s memory.

Most touching scene of the night goes to Lucas Bryant, who narrated Nathan’s final thoughts about Audrey in an articulate and loving way that was more expressive than any of the dialogue the writers gave him to utter on-screen. Juxtaposing Nathan’s speech over Audrey’s glowing exit and the dissipation of the Troubles (I giggled like crazy when Jason Priestley reprised his role of Chris Brody) was effective and I admit to welling up a couple of times. It was the perfect ending to their relationship—Audrey sacrificing herself for the Haven’s citizens (something I suspected would occur anyway)—and a natural jumping-off point for what happened next.

Audrey may be gone, but Croatoan and Vince wiping her memory and sending her back to Haven as Paige gave Nathan the happy ending (and sorta son in James) he deserved.

What did you think of Haven‘s series finale?

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Featured, Haven, Rookie Blue, Spun Out, The Code, Working The Engels

Jason Priestley injured on set of Global’s The Code

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We’re sending out well wishes to Jason Priestley, who suffered an injury while filming Global’s new 2016 drama The Code. The drama project has been shut down for at least three days after Priestley was bucked off a horse while filming in Toronto; he won’t return until given a clean bill of health from a neurologist.

We understand the precaution. Priestley suffered a serious head injury, fractured spine, broken nose and fractured feet in a 2002 car crash during the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series at Kentucky Speedway.

As previously announced, The Code stars Priestley as Matt “Shadow” Shade, an ex pro hockey player who uses his ability to read people and anticipate their next move to success as a crime-solving private investigator. The 10-part one-hour project also stars Cindy Sampson (Rookie Blue) as Angie Everett; Barry Flatman (Defiance) as Matt’s father, Don; and Jordyn Negri (Warehouse 13) as Matt’s daughter, Jules.

Based on the book of the same name by G.B. Joyce, The Code is executive-produced by John Morayniss and Rachel Fulford for eOne along with Shawn Piller, Lloyd Segan, Shelley Eriksen, Alan McCullough, Tassie Cameron, Kelly Makin and Priestley.

Priestley has become a staple of Canadian TV both in front of and behind the camera in the last couple of years, appearing on Haven, Package Deal and Spun Out, and directing episodes of Saving Hope, Rookie Blue and Working the Engels. He’s also set to star alongside Molly Ringwald in Family Channel’s original series The Wonderful Wayneys.

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Featured, Package Deal

Review: Priestley pumps up Package Deal

I miss Call Me Fitz. The HBO Canada award-winner about a morally-bankrupt used car salesman named Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick (Jason Priestley) isn’t officially dead, but it’s as close as you can be without the press release shovelling dirt on it. I loved how Priestley blew his Beverly Hills, 90210 past out of the water by embodying a man who drank too much, chain-smoked, bedded women by the hundreds and elevated personal insults to new levels of atrocity.

And while Fitz may have moved on, Priestley isn’t totally over playing him. The actor chewed up every piece of scenery available as weatherman Storm Chambers in Monday’s episode of Package Deal. Storm may not share the same last name as Fitz, but he was full of his DNA. Smarmy charm? Check. Double-entendre jokes? (“Did you hear the news? There’s a storm brewing’. Down south,” he said to Kim.) Check. A taste for booze? You got it.

“The Imperfect Storm” brought hurricane Storm into Danny, Kim and Sheldon’s lives when Ryan saw the superstar meteorologist blow into the gang’s watering hole. Ryan was star-struck, Kim was repulsed and Danny was irritated, mainly because Storm had once reported sunshine on a day that downpoured on him. No matter; Ryan dropped everything and was at Storm’s beck and call. Late nights, drinking and over-laughter hid a side of Storm that was only revealed when Danny–attempting to make amends for not defending Kim during a robbery at the tea shop–informed Storm that no one really liked him. Shattered, Storm returned to the airwaves on the verge of suicide and only Sheldon’s foster puppy could brighten his day.

I had the chance to see Priestley work a room when he appeared in an episode of Spun Out last year and he’s a pro at it. That showed in “The Imperfect Storm”: he elevated the script to new levels and pushed his co-stars to up their game. The result? A great episode.

Package Deal airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET on City.

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