Tag Archives: X Company

Link: X Company’s Torben Liebrecht on the many shades of Faber

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

X Company’s Torben Liebrecht on the many shades of Faber
“It’s hard for me to describe what this episode does, because it does so much. It’s the ultimate face off of two people representing different sides of this war, but on the other hand, are united by their love of innocence. There’s also the fact that they are supposed to act, and it’s demanded of them that they lead and not act how they are as people. In a way, that makes them two sides of the same coin.” Continue reading.

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Secrets revealed on X Company

I watch a lot of television shows. And while I enjoy every one, some are really special. X Company is one of those that strikes a cord with me emotionally every time, especially with an episode like this week’s.

“La Vérité Vous Rendra Libre,” written by Adam Barken and directed by Amanda Tapping, translates to “the truth will make you free,” and a lot of truths were uttered Wednesday night. With just three more episodes to go in Season 2, Barken’s script blew the doors off secrets kept for awhile. Perhaps the biggest of them all was the double shot of Sabine admitting to Aurora that she and Franz smothered Ulli and Aurora admitting to killing Rene (Aurora didn’t say Rene, but we all knew who she was talking about.) Alfred listening in to their confessions, in a church no less, means the Allied team is even more divided.

Now Aurora and Sabine have hopped on a train and headed to parts unknown. I’m assuming they’re going to the ocean so Sabine can bury Ulli’s bow tie. And if they are going to a beach, I’m betting it’s Dieppe, because of course it would be. Either way, Aurora has put herself in a dangerous position, betraying the team in order to get closer to Sabine and blowing their cover in Paris. And while Sabine and Franz’s relationship has been in the crapper since the tail end of Season 1, I always assumed things would work out between them. Not anymore. Franz knows Sabine told Aurora about the concert and it was he who told his wife in the first place.

As for the rest of the squad, they’re without a safe house or a camp. The guerrilla army was shattered when Martin revealed the location to the Germans—Neil’s cold killing of the young man was shocking but expected—and Miri and Neil’s relationship appears the same way. Him admitting his nightmares were tied to killing the German wasn’t what she wanted to hear, especially since Germans slaughtered her family.

Did I mention there was a lot going on in Wednesday’s episode? A planned mission to sabotage an auto plant being retrofitted to build tanks was jettisoned, and we learned Scuba Man joined the Royal Care Society so he can get into Camp X and kill Sinclair. And, thanks to the radio being shot up, Harry has no way to warn the camp of the coming attack.

Next week’s episode, “Fatherland,” is co-written by Sandra Chwialkowska and showrunners Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern and promises to be another nail biter. What do you think will happen? Will Franz turn against his wife or will he choose her over the party? Do you think Aurora and Sabine will end up in Dieppe? Comment below or via our Twitter feed @tv_eh.

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

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Link: X Company’s Dustin Milligan on growing tension in the team

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

X Company’s Dustin Milligan on growing tension in the team
“Tom is trying to rally the troops and what he experienced with getting shot and heading back to camp for awhile is that ‘yes, things are hard, things are real now and it’s not just about these ideals we have.’ Tom has never been one who has wanted to pull the trigger, but he sees the reality in that and now he sees how he can play an integral role in this final mission, reminding the team of what’s really important here, ‘yes, we have our differences but ultimately there’s something much greater than us that needs our absolute focus and attention.’ Otherwise all could be lost.” Continue reading. 

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Link: X Company preview: To the Dark Side!

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

X Company preview: To the Dark Side!
After taking a week to gather itself and slow the action down a bit, X Company returns in full force Wednesday night. Make no mistake about it, things are about to get very real for our team as major plans are set into motion that will have huge consequences both this week and moving forward towards the end of Season 2. Continue reading.

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Life imitates art for X Company’s Sandra Chwialkowska

Sandra Chwialkowska found her reality mirroring fiction during Season 2 of X Company. Like the CBC drama’s lead character, Aurora, Chwialkowska was surrounded by three other men in a country she was unfamiliar with.

After working on series like Lost Girl, Remedy and Cracked, Chwialkowska joined X Company this year to contribute directly to what’s going on in Aurora’s head, expand Sabine’s role and introduce Resistance fighter Miri into the mix. We spoke to her about all that and got a sneak peek into her next episode, “Fatherland,” airing in a few weeks.

I wrote this a week or so ago, but X Company has really upped its game in Season 2. Aurora’s team is tight and their storylines are great. And, I can’t help but be drawn to Faber and Sabine’s story too.
Sandra Chwialkowska: That was one of the things that we kept checking in on. The actor that plays Faber, Torben Liebrecht, and the actress that plays Sabine, Livia Matthes, are such incredible people that it’s hard not to fall in love with them. But, at the same time, that’s something that was really important to Mark and Stephanie; to really explore the moral compass and how someone like Faber got involved in the Gestapo and everything. We talked about how maybe he joined the ranks as a way to impress Sabine’s father. He wasn’t a die-hard. He did what many men kind of had to do: join the party. Not to excuse any of his behaviour, but we’re really interested in the human side.

You joined X Company in Season 2. How did that happen?
I was on the last season of Lost Girl when Season 1 of X Company was done. I’ve been wanting to work wth Mark and Stephanie for some time. I’d heard nothing but rave reviews about how they’re the best showrunners in the country and I love learning from the best. I’m actually working on the development of my own series with Temple Street, who produce X Company, and the development executives asked me if I was interested in coming on board X Company. They recommended me to Mark and Stephanie, we had a meeting and we really hit it off. I think part of it was to maybe get another female voice in the room and they were just looking for writers who had experience.


This season is really about Sabine coming to the fore and opening her eyes a little bit. The relationship between her and Aurora is going to deepen.


Do you feel like you brought something to the writers’ room that wasn’t there before?
I would say that, in some rooms that I’ve been in before, I have been the only female. I have sensed tokenism in the past, ‘I’m here to put the words in the ladies’ mouths,’ and that kind of thing. In X Company, there was a real strong sense of getting gender balance, but not because we had to satisfy a network demand. It was Mark and Stephanie—who are incredibly passionate—saying, ‘Aurora is the leader of the team and we want to really get into her head.’ And. obviously, Sabine, as the show has become more serialized and delved into Faber’s domestic life, rose to the fore.

Some showrunners say they want a really opinionated, vocal room. Mark and Stephanie really want that. Our room has Denis McGrath, Adam Barken and Dan Godwin. When they know what they want, Mark and Stephanie are very firm. But when it’s an open question, they sit and let the dialogue go. It’s a true debate and a true discussion and the best idea wins.

What was it like working on Season 2 in Budapest?
I literally felt like I was Aurora. I shared an office with three men for four months. [Laughs.] I really felt like her. I felt like a stranger in a strange land, on assignment in a foreign country and you don’t know anyone. You just have this little posse. What’s fascinating about Budapest is that it’s a city that has been occupied by so many different regimes over the centuries; that’s why it works as a location for big Hollywood movies and X Company. One street looks like Paris and another looks like Berlin. It’s the bizarre melting pot of regimes that have occupied it. You really feel the war is a living history. You see bullet holes in buildings. And they have these things that are unique to Budapest called ruin pubs; they’re these old, ruined buildings that were bombed out during the war that have been turned into pubs. We would go there after work for dinner or a drink and really feel the history.

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You’re a supervising producer on X Company. What does that title entail?
I wrote one and a half episodes this season. I wrote Episode 4 and co-wrote Episode 8 with Mark and Stephanie. It means that I’m a writer in the room but I’m also producing the episode, which means meetings all through pre-production in terms of costumes and wardrobe and location scouting. In the case of ‘Last Man, Last Round,’ that incredible fortress really dictated the story because they had to escape from that location. I’m also liaising with the director, the art department and casting. That was also the episode where we cast Miri and Klaus. There is a lot of producing that goes beyond the writing of the script. Being on-set is a huge thing too, dealing with fires as they come up, being the eyes and ears for Mark and Stephanie because they can’t be everywhere at once.

Let’s get to some storylines. Faber and Sabine’s relationship seems to be crumbling. Will that continue as the season goes on?
We’re going to spend a lot more time with their relationship and their marriage and the impact of losing Ulli. This season is really about Sabine coming to the fore and opening her eyes a little bit. The relationship between her and Aurora is going to deepen. There is going to be some pretty shocking stuff coming up between them.

And, looking forward to the next episode you co-wrote, Episode 8, entitled “Fatherland.” What can you tell me about that?
The title is really relevant because it has two meanings. One is it’s about patriotism and allegiance and that’s a big theme in the episode. What are we fighting for, where does our allegiance lie and why? The team will get a very visceral reminder of what they’re fighting for. The Fabers explore allegiance in that way, as to what side they’re on and why, and what that does to an individual.

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

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