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CBC Gem’s Something Undone a genuine scare-fest

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I like my horror/scary projects to be atmospheric. A jump scare is OK, but I prefer a general feeling of unease coupled with a tinge of a slow burn. It’s why I love Something Undone.

Debuting Friday on CBC Gem, Something Undone—created by and starring Madison Walsh and Michael Musi—manages what I thought was unthinkable: a genuinely spooky piece of work encapsulated in a six-episode web series.

And, it was written, produced and filmed during the pandemic. Created through funding from CBC’s Creative Relief Fund, which provided $2 million in development and production funding to a diverse range of original Canadian projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBC’s hook was projects had to be produced under strict COVID-19 guidelines.

“Mike and I started brainstorming,” says Walsh during a recent call. “We thought, ‘What can you maintain the quality and enjoyment of with restrictions on visuals? If we can’t have that many actors, what can we do? If we could only have one location, what could we do?’ That’s when we started to think about sound.” The result is Something Undone.

In the first episode we meet Jo (Walsh), a foley artist and her partner, Farid (Musi), who are the successful hosts of a Canadian true crime podcast. After her mother passes away Jo returns to her small Ontario town to sort through her mother’s things while continuing her foley work on the podcast. With Farid in Newfoundland and only available over the phone, a sense of desolation, loneliness, and unease begins to permeate Jo’s life. A disturbing sound Farid hears in one of Jo’s tracks leads her on a creepy, spooky path. Did the house, or something in it, cause her mother’s death?

“I was doing research about sound and learned that we, as human beings, perceive sound so realistically that we can make them up and hear them almost as if they were actually there,” Musi says. “I think that’s why watching a horror movie in our home is such an amazing experience. It doesn’t end when the movie ends. It stays with us.”

With strict safety guidelines in place early in 2020, Walsh and Musi headed off to write Something Undone in a spot many would consider a scary setting: a cottage in the middle of nowhere with no heat. There, they wrote for 10 days, fleshing out what they had established in the pilot into one big chunk and then found ways to break it up into six episodes with a cliffhanger for each.

And while you can certainly watch Something Undone on your TV via the CBC Gem app—the colour palette, visuals and set decoration are wonderful—watching it with headphones on my laptop revealed a whole other level to the horror. Every little creak and clatter can be heard.

“We spoke to our sound designer and he spent extra time really juicing the sound for direction and to make that audio experience with your headset,” Walsh says. “Because it is sound-based, yeah, go for your headphones.”

Something Undone debuts Friday on CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of 4AM Film Studios.

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Kim's Convenience

Link: ‘It died from within’: Two actors lament the untimely demise of Kim’s Convenience

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From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: ‘It died from within’: Two actors lament the untimely demise of Kim’s Convenience
“No matter how good it can be, if you don’t deal with issues from within and try to gloss it over because everything on the surface looks fantastic and idealistic, then you are just asking for trouble. I think that’s the unfortunate lesson from this whole thing.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Kim's Convenience

Kim’s Convenience comes to an end after five seasons

After five seasons on CBC, Kim’s Convenience is closing its doors.

The news came on Monday afternoon via producers.

“Authenticity of storytelling is at the centre of the success of Kim’s Convenience,” the show’s producers said in a statement. “At the end of production on Season 5, our two co-creators confirmed they were moving on to other projects. Given their departure from the series, we have come to the difficult conclusion that we cannot deliver another season of the same heart and quality that has made the show so special. Kim’s Convenience has meant so much to our cast, writers, crew, and audiences around the world. Despite the restrictions and complications of shooting during the pandemic, Season 5 is our finest season to date. It’s been a privilege and a very great pleasure to work with the Kim’s family of gifted writers and performers for the last five years. Thank you to our fans for the love and support you’ve given this show.”

The statement was followed by messages from the cast on social media. The series had previously been earmarked for Season 6.

“It was announced today that the current season of #kimsconvenience will be our last and we will not make a season 6,” Andrew Phung posted on Twitter. “It’s a bittersweet end to one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’m so proud of what we’ve done and want to reflect and thank those who made it possible.

“We were the little show that could,” he continued. “Based on a fringe fest play that major theatres passed on. Ins Choi took this from an idea, to the stage, and w/ Kevin White to the TV screen. Few gave us a chance but we were a breakout hit. Thank you Ins and Kevin for your ideas and stories.”

You can read the rest of Phung’s heartfelt message, and feedback here, as well as Twitter posts by co-stars Simu Liu, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon.

This fifth season has seen the Kim family face one of its toughest challenges yet, with a difficult medical diagnosis for Umma (Jean Yoon), Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) stepping up as the primary caregiver, and recently-graduated Janet (Andrea Bang) moving back home. Meanwhile, Jung’s (Simu Liu) trip to business school has tested his relationship with Shannon (Nicole Power) and Kimchee (Andrew Phung) reconnected with his family, and his high school crush.

Recently, Kim’s Convenience was recognized by TV Guide as one of the best “feel good” streaming series available and a perfect quarantine distraction by Oprah magazine.

Awards it has collected include Canadian Screen Award wins for Phung, Sun-Hyung Lee, Amanda Brugel and the series, and nominations for Bang, Yoon and Power. The series has also received nominations for awards from the Writers Guild of Canada, and the Directors Guild of Canada.

In addition to airing in Canada on CBC and CBC Gem, the series also streams on Netflix and is watched on cable and VOD platforms around the world, including in Japan and Korea.

The news comes a week after it was announced Frankie Drake Mysteries would not return for Season 5 on CBC.

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Kim's Convenience

Links: Kim’s Convenience, Season 5

From Ron Johnson of TRNTO:

Link: Kim’s Convenience star on the premiere of the show’s fifth season and his dream role in the Mandalorian
“The character of Appa was always very, very special to me because I’d never seen before my father represented or my culture, my community represented or embodied in one character before.” Continue reading.

From Josh Walker or Complex Canada:

Link: Kim’s Convenience’s Andrew Phung May Be Calgary’s Biggest Sneakerhead
You likely know Andrew Phung as Kimchee, Simu Liu’s happy-go-lucky best friend on the wildly popular CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience. His role on the stereotype-shattering series, which premieres its fifth season on January 19, garnered him the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the Canadian Screen Awards last year. Continue reading.

From Melissa Hank of Postmedia:

Link: Kim’s Convenience stars Simu Liu, Andrew Phung share epic bromance
If two guys are bros, and they don’t have a special handshake to celebrate their bromance, are they really bros to begin with? Luckily, Kim’s Convenience actors Simu Liu and Andrew Phung have an epic one. Continue reading.

From From Norman Wilner of Now Toronto:

Link: Video: Kim’s Convenience cast talks season 5, Marvel, Star Wars and COVID
“Our producers – especially Sandra Cunningham – really thought thoroughly through the way we work and every single possible way of mitigating COVID.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Kim’s Convenience stars on the magic behind one of TV’s best friendships
“We begin to see his exploration into his relationship with Appa, which in turn is a triangle with Jung. We see Kimchee in his relationship with Gwen.” Continue reading.

From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:

Link: Jean Yoon and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee bring more light to the world with Kim’s Convenience Season 5
“With Appa, it always starts with what he thinks is right, and with the best of intentions. He never diabolically sets out to abuse this privilege or take advantage of a loophole.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Kim's Convenience

Kim’s Convenience: Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon preview Season 5

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To say a lot has happened between Seasons 4 and 5 of Kim’s Convenience would be an understatement.

Aside from COVID-19 safety measures, there were two other major behind-the-scenes events. The first was Simu Liu landing the role of Shang-Chi in the Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The second was Paul Sun-Hyung Lee scoring a multi-episode arc on a little Star Wars spinoff called The Mandalorian. Luckily, all three events failed to derail Season 5 of Kim’s Convenience.

Returning Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBC, we spoke to Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon about the family facing one of its toughest challenges yet as they navigate a difficult medical diagnosis for Umma.

How did the pandemic affect production on Kim’s Convenience?
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee: Shooting during a pandemic, it’s not business as usual. The mere fact that we were able to go back to work, I think, was a huge win. I have to give huge props to the production team and the producers of Kim’s Convenience for creating a protocol, a COVID protocol designed with safety first. They had systems where the different departments were separated into different pods. There were different points of access for everybody where there wasn’t any cross mingling. We had PPE, checking procedures, all these different things that we had to go to these hoops to ensure our safety. And it was really, it was quite an adjustment period. It’s a different energy on set, your timing’s a bit thrown off. You can’t see anybody’s faces. As an actor, on top of having to play a scene, you’ve got to do your own final makeup touches and you have to reset your own props and you have to think about blocking … all these extra things. You’re doing three or four different jobs sort of at the same time.

Jean Yoon: [Before the pandemic] between shots, you’d have grips moving the lights at the same time, hair and makeup is chasing around trying to powder you, wardrobe, the director and the assistant directors. [During COVID-19 protocols] it was easier to keep your train of thought as an actor, which is really good because with all of these protocols, I do think on average we had fewer takes. And so you really wanted to make sure that you were right on.

Umma has a medical situation this season. Jean, what can you say about it?
JY: Any medical situation for a character in our age bracket is an opportunity to explore stories that are grounded in truth. The uncertainty of one’s health is something that is just … you pass 50 and the next thing you know, you’ve got to start watching your cholesterol and your sugar and how much exercise you’re getting. So that raises some real questions and the opportunity for those sorts of storylines based in that kind of dilemma is pretty rewarding. One thing about this show is that its strength is the relationships between family members and any kind of medical situation is going to bring up, it raises the stakes and it’s going to bring up questions and stories and emotions that are worth exploring.

There is a scene between yourselves and Andrea Bang that killed me. It was so emotional.
JY: Thank you. Yeah. Working with Andrea at any time, she’s so good. Oh, my god. She’s so good.

PSHL: You’re no slouch yourself, Jean.

JY: Let’s talk about how amazing Andrea Bang is, though. She’s got this ability to tap into this well of vulnerability that just blows me away. And I remember even in the first audition, like with we were camera testing a few people and Andrea had it right from the get-go.

Paul, what can you say about some of the storylines that are coming up in some of the things that this family is going to run into?
PSHL: Without giving away too much of the storylines. One of the things Andrew Phung and I always bug the writers about is like, we want more scenes together. We want to see Kimchee hang out a little bit more and not for only selfish reasons, although they are, because he’s my best friend. But it’s this whole idea of us hanging out together puts a bit of a strain on his relationship with Chung. It’s this neat little triangle that sort of happens. It’s always a pleasure to work with Andrew. I’m happy to say that there are scenes with Andrew this season that I’m quite happy about. But there are also some scenes with Simu that happened this season that I’m very, very happy about. With Simu going away and shooting that little boutique movie and then coming back, it was just like, ‘Hey, the family’s back together again.’ It just felt like, for that period of time, all was right in the world despite it being a dumpster fire in 2020. It was just this moment of happiness, where we were sitting there like, ‘Our son is home and that’s a lovely thing.’ So in terms of storylines, this is a season that is focused on the family, the relationships with each other and character growth.

JY: Simu came back and quarantined for two weeks and the way it worked out is we ended up having a week hiatus which was great. But then he had to shoot nine days in a row, basically 10 episodes of scenes. They had to bring in all three directors back and there were days where the morning would be one director and the afternoon would be another. He had to be incredibly disciplined and prepared, and boy was he ever. Yeah, it was great to have the family back together.

Kim’s Convenience airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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