New Episodes Of Nerve Center? Hurray!

When the first two hour episodes of Nerve Center debuted on Discovery in May I hoped more would be coming along because this reality series works without the forced hoopla.
Sunday night at 8 there are two new hours and the first one focusing on Washington D.C.'s emergency response teams is pretty terrific.
It's just one day in the operations in America's capital city and everything seems to be happening.
First up there's a brutal high rise apartment fire that has huge flames bursting out of a ninth floor apartment while trapped residents above and below on other floors scream for help --the black billowing smoke is so dense they can't escape along the hallways.
We see the response team in action from the lady calmly answering the pleas for help at central despatch to the order for fire engines and the call to the police chief who's cruising the Potomac river giving a a seminar on rapid response.
How every facet gets there through the traffic maze and how residents are advised to stand at open windows but not to jump makes for a hugely exciting hour.
But wait! That's not all. There's a demonstration in one of the parks that swells to twice the anticipated size as ambulances get trapped trying to take the injured to hospitals.
There's a man who jumps on the subway line during rush hour and gets trapped under the wheels. And despite having his legs shredded somehow he has survived and the emergency crew must get him out with only 46 centimeters between the rail lines and the subway car. How they do this slowly but surely is one of the most gripping scenes I've ever seen recently on TV.
Expert editing keeps us on the edge of our seats. And there's still a marathon race to oversee, a woman trapped in an elevator and a fireman who winds up in pitch black entangled with live wires.
And how was your day?
One problem: ever commercial break is accompanies by a Perils of Pauline episode and the cumulative effect of watching so many rescues becomes positively exhausting.
By contrast the second hour on one day at Los Angeles' Central Port Authority is positively lethargic. We can learn all about the docking of huge tourist ships as well as gigantic container ships from China but there's nothing life threatening here no matter how it's hyped before each commercial break. But as a lesson in economics it's worth sitting through.
And there are still two more hours left in the six-part Canadian series made by Exploration Production Inc. (EPI).
made series.
PARTS 3 AND 4 OF NERVE CENTER IS ON DISCOVERY CANADA SUND. JUNE 12 AT 8 AND 9 P.M.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.

Paul Watson Is Back In Whale Wars

To some he's a conservation hero. Others deem him an eco-terrorist.
Toronto-born Paul Watson, undoubted star of the returning series Whale Wars, insists he's neither.
"I'm just a guy trying to get on with his job."
His job as he sees it is trying to stop the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic.
"And maybe, just maybe, we have succeeded. every year when we go out on these missions the fleet gets less and less of a catych. And this year it's been down to the point the whale hunt is no longer economical. I think."
Whale Wars returns for its fourth season of derring-do on the high seas. Like all Reality Shows every chapter builds to a thundering climax and after the commercial break it's on to the next cliffhanger.
"Honestly, we do not try and manufacture crises," he says on the line from Los Angeles. "But we show how very dangerous this kind of pursuit can be in the Antarctic seas with those huge ice flows everywhere and the rotten weather that is always threatening."
This season the Japanese fleet went home weith only a fifth of their usual catch of 850 whales --"and that's because we pursued them, harassed them. It's absolutely preposterous to suggest that whaling is part of their culture.
"It was only started in 1946 as a make work project by General Douglas MacArthur. Consuming whale meat isn't a tradition at all. It's being consumed in decreasing qualtities as the older generation dies out. Younger Japanese don't eat it at all."
Reports Watson "They left over a month earlier than planned. We simply made it too difficult for them. And it no longer pays. I doubt they'll be back."
Watson says the huge ratings for Whale Wars demonstrates viewers feel they have a steak in the planet's ecology. The way we get to know the cast --many of them volunteers --gives us a stake in their adventures. In Episode One bad weather and leaking oil could doom the voyage before any sightings are made.
Williams made enemies in the Maritimes where he grew up when he took on the seal hunt.
"And it's no more. Again we made in uneconomical. As plain as that. And I think we'll have the same outcome with the whales. The Japanese are exploiting some ambiguities in the charter protecting the whales --at one time they were killing 900 whales a year purely for what they claimed were scientific study whatever that means."
In 2007 Watson persuaded Discovery Channel a documentary series on the Sea Shepherd's ongoing war against whales would make for exciting TV. One of his vessels, Steve Irvin, is named after the late, great Australian ecologist, the other the Bob Barker is named after the American game show host who has donated millions of dollars to the cause.
He didn't dream at the time it would ever hit four seasons.
Does that mean a fifth season of Whale Wars is an impossibility?
"No! We are currently after blue fin poachers off the Libyan coast --they are poaching right through the current war. And we are onto pilot whale hunters in the Faroes. We'll always have new causes to keep us going."
So a fifth season of Whale Wars is a "great possibility".
THE FOURTH SEASON PREMIERE OF WHALE WARS IS ON DISCOVERY CANADA THURSD. JUNE 9 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.

Yannick Bisson Returns As Inspector Murdoch

The first Inspector Murdoch I knew was reliable Canadian actor Peter Outerbridge.
He starred in three highly regarded Inspector Murdoch TV movie mysteries shot in 2004 and 2005 with Winnipeg of all places standing in for Victorian Toronto.
At the time the idea was to continue the adventures as TV movies but citytv was desperate for a Canadian series and made a 13 episode show order.
Trouble was Outerbidge already had a series job with Shaftesbury Films on the intellifgent sci fi series ReGeneris and couldn't fit in a second series within that year. In fact I heard Outerbridge tell TV critics at one Global press scrum that of the two series he'd rather be doing Murdoch.
A casting call resulted in the fortuitous substitution of Yannick Bisson who has been front and center throughout the three seasons. Filming moved to Toronto's East end studios but for this fourth season the fantastic police precinct set had to be dismantled and moved elsewhere -the East end studios are shuttered.
In early years there was location work done in Cambridge but the fourth season used Toronto and Hamilton locations --Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his daughter visited the set--he has a cameo as a constable.
It's hard for me to believe it but the ultra handsome Bisson is now 42. I may have been the first reporter to interview him way backin 1984 when he was a good looking kid getting his big break on the TV movie Hockey Night starring Megan Follows and Rick Moranis.
It was Bisson's quiet demeanor that was startling and his ability to project both intensity and sincerity.
I certainly do remember him in the 1986 TV drama Brothers By Choice although the 1988 series Learning The Ropes was a setback.
He replaced another actor in the 199 series Nothing To Good For A Cowboy and made the 2000 series Soul Food which I missed and Sue Thomas F.B. Eye which showcased his talent for dominating every scene he's in.
In short he has worked hard to become a dependable TV series actor and it shows in Murdoch Mysteries.
The first new episode introduces a new pathologist (Paul Rhys) as Dr. Llewellyn Francis with a disdain for everything colonial, and has Murdoch trying to solve a very violent murder in which the victim's limbs were severed and placed in concrete.
Murdoch's trusted pathologist and confidant Dr Julia Ogden has left for a better opportunity in --gulp --Buffalo.
Don't laugh but Buffalo in those days was several times larger and more important than Toronto.
Guesting is none other than Canadian character star Victor Garber who plays Mirdoch's predecessor on the force and is called in to help solve the gruesome murder. Don't forget in those palmy days any sort of murder was unusual. The city was then known as Toronto The Good.
I remember chatting up creator Maureen Jennings on the set in 2008 --weeks later she was swept out to sea off the coast of Florida and was lucky to survive. On that day she talked about getting the details just right and how that makes for a very expensive show. But she didn't want the Victoriana to completely take over --it was still the plot that would cause viewers to stay tuned.
And executive producer Christine Jennings made a good call by importing British guest stars whose presence meant she could peddle the series to a British network now titled Alibi.
Still, most viewers watch for Bisson's take on Murdoch. Unlike other teen stars he didn't drift on but hunkered down to learn his craft and has been growing and improving as an actor for 25 years.
THE MURDOCH MYSTERIES' FOURTH SEASON PREMIERES IN CITYTV TUESD. JUNE 7 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.


balmy

Recessionize: A Funny Look At Our Monetary Woes

Is it just me or do other TV critics also wonder if every other documentary they watch has the name "Kastner" attached to it?
At University of Toronto I took a French course audited by actor Peter Kastner who later made it big in L.A.
My first week on the job at the Hamilton Spectator and I had to share an interview with Pete Seeger with writer Susan Kastner.
I don't think Seeger even glanced at me once during his two hours of rambling conversation with Susan.
Then came many first class CBC documentaries produced and directed by John Kastner.
And now I'm watching the new TVO film Recessionize by Jamie Kastner who I first met at the Toronto Star when he was a promising summer student.
Recessionize comes with a very cute premise: what did people do during the Great Depression that might be of use today.
And to find out Kastner got to take trips to Southern California, Amsterdam, London, Berlin and even Dubai.
In all these places he discovered and interviewed a truly eclectic mixture of subjects.
Then he packaged it fetchingly with old black and white shots of way back when mixed with scenes from his recent shoots.
The result is strangely upbeat. Hey, all of a sudden this lingering recessions seems like a blast.
Kastner's list of 15 top ways to fight back starts with an atfer school program for L.A. rich kids who are financially illiterate about the ways of the world. "Pay yourself first!" is the golden rule they're learning the day we pop in.
Then he discovers in Laguna Beach a married woman with kids who is a "home manager". She plunks her two kids and her furniture in a home up for sale and guarantees a certain homey touch that just might want prospective owners to buy into this dream. The downside: she has to be ready to depart within days if a sale goes through.
Some of these segments really work. In the Depression people sold apples. Today one unemployed male model bought and fixed up a "Green Truck" to peddle organic produce to office workers during their lunch breaks.
Another guy profiled repossesses private plans and has a hangar full of them ready to ship out. I guess when a company is slipping the plane is the first thing to go.
Another great profile, this time set in Amsterdam, examines an enterprising couple who make upscale bed linen inspired by street people. Hey, the sheets that look like container boxes are ever so chic.
And the House Of Envy in Berlin, a house of ill repute, facing competition and a lack of parking spots, offers cut rates to clients who bicycle over for services rendered.
I guess my favorite is the French hamster hotel where guests get a very tight room and a bed fashioned on a gigantic hamster wheel one can use for exercising as well as sleeping purposes.
Anybody suffering through the pangs of this recession should watch to instantly feel better.
RECESSIONIZE IS ON TVONTARIO SUND. JUNE 5 AT 11 P.M.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.

Fred Ewanuick Returns In Dan For Mayor

After Corner Gas expired two new comedies emerged.
Part of the CG cast (Brent Butt, Nancy Robertson) co-starred in the new sitcom hiccups which premiered its second season last week.
And Sunday night at 7:30 there's the second season debut of Dan For Mayor starring CG alumnus Fred Ewanuick and executive produced by CG's Mark Farrell.
Of the two I rather like Dan For Mayor better. It's had fewer problems in getting a storyline down and establishing key funny characters around lead Ewanuick.
The premise was weird and wonderful. Dan Phillips became mayor of the small Ontario city of Wessex by accident.
And now Dan is mayor only to find himself spectacularly under equipped for just about every function he must perform as mayor.
In devising the format Farrell and fellow exec producers Paul Mather and Kevin White have whether they like it or not constructed a sort of classic comedy.
Not to be rude but Ewaniuck is really Mary Tyler Moore here --he's the everyman who may be slightly dense but is surrounded by crazies who are far funnier. We see the plot unfolding through his eyes and gauge his reactions with ours.
The show in its second year seems to move better, lines are better written and the talented cast are through feeling their way into their characters.
In the first new episode Claire (Mary Ashton from Heartland) returns to the city as a wiser girl determined to make it in PR in the very small city.
She thought she might take time off to ponder her future but a series of accidental meetings means she finds herself with a new company Kendall And Associates smack dab in the same office complex as ex-fiance Mike.
Benjamin Ayres is spot on as this boyfriend, a clunky guy who always gets everything messed up. Now Mike is very funny in small doses.
Then there's Fern (David Ferry), the friendly barttender who sold his bar Fern's to Jeff ( (Paul Bates) who is Dan's best friend from childhood days. And Laurie Murdoch is the senior bureaucrat trying to keep Dan in tow.
I enjoyed chatting with Ewanuick on the phone from a B.C. rink where he was playing hockey with his mates.
"I agree I had great luck with Corner Gas," he said. "We all did. After the first episode got over a million viewers we were all phoned by (CTV president) Ivan Fecan.
And that kind of response never dimmed over the series' five top-rated seasons.
A combination of good writing and impeccable casting made this one Canadian TV's best ever situation comedy.
It was only natural there'd be pressure from CTV to keep a good thing going. And indeed as Butt told me only a few days ago there may yet be a movie edition coming up sooner than later.
Or how about Corner Gas: The Musical? After Glee's success it's like anything goes.
In CG Fred was far funnier than he is on Dan For Mayor and that's deliberate. Here he's front and center in many more scenes and often must play straight man to the characters around him.
"It's been an adjustment," he acknowledges about the first season. "I think we came back and are far more into our characters and that shows in everything being more polished."
In the first new episode Dan promises to name the new rink after a local hockey legend. Directed by Ron Murphy, the pacing is assured and there are some big laughs.
But even better is the second new episode, The Trash Compact, as Dan wants Wessex to go green and arranges with the city next door, Glenbridge, to take all of Wessex's garbage,. Murphy directs again but whole scenes are stolen by Kathleen Phillips as the wacky fellow mayor who keeps a pet goat and repeatedly states "I'm not kidd-ing" Get it?
Ewanuick says two episodes are shot at once for a shooting total of eight days. Interior sets are at a Toronto studio but exteriors are shot in Waterloo, Kitchener and Hamilton --parts of the Wessex city hall are in both Kitchener and Waterloo.
Let's hope the fine tuning continues. So fart an alternate universe such as existed in Corner Gas seems achievable. Each episode is getting easier to watch.
And some of these characters are already growing on me.
THE SECOND SEASON OF DAN FOR MAYOR PREMIERES SUNDAY JUNE 5 AT 7:30 P.M. ON CTV.
MY RATING: ***.

CTV Battles To Retain Its Top Slot

That was quite an all day party CTV threw for itself Thursday as befits the number one ranked commercial network.
The location, ironically, was the former Citytv headquarters on Toronto's Queen Street West. When CTV gobbled up the Citytv empire the part denied it were the former Citytv stations now owned by Rogers Media.
Last year the empire was CTVglobemedia --but The Globe was bought back by the Thomson family and Bell bought back CTV and renamed itself BellMedia.
To celebrate the new company a gaggle of American stars arrived for the festivities.
Look, there's Anderson Cooper, and his hair really is that white.
And Debra Messing was around actually promoting a new series Smash that won't even debut until midseason.
Girl watchers oohed and aahed as the four distaff stars of the new show Pan Am arrived: Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie Kelli Garner and Karine Vanasse.
Their show might best be scribed as a variant on a certain popular cable show --it could well be titled Mad Women.
And there was standup sensation Whitney Cummings who stars in the quite risque (for network TV) sitcom Whitney.
And four of thestars of The Big Bang Theory also showed up: Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg.
I once interviewed Mayim when she was the perky star of the teen comedy Blossom.
She took 12 years off from acting to garner her PhD in neurosciences.
CTV sources insist their web has the brightest new series including the second revamping of Charlie's Angels, Hank Azaria in the new sitcom Free Agents, the crime drama Grimm, the heartfelt drama Man Up with Mather Zickel, Poppy Montgomery in the crime drama Unforgettable, Simon Cowell's The X Factor, Christina Applegate and Will Arnett in the sitcom Up All Night.
Anderson Cooper proved polite and enthusiastic as he promoted his new hourlong daily talk show. Instead of seeing himself as Oprah's successor he invoked the memory of Phil Donahue several times and seemed to favor a cross off between star interviews and touchy feely people features.
He'll tape his shows by day and continue evenings to anchor his CNN gig.
Whitney's sitcom was a riot --as least the pieces shown to the press and marks a return to the sitcom format of a three camera show taped before a live audience.
And far from looking like a girlie show Pan Am profiles the behind the scenes exploits of stewardesses in the era when people still dressed to travel and the women were relentlessly exploited. For verisimilitude the actresses had to wear contemporary girdles and behave in an unliberated way.
Biggest internal news at CTV is the absorption of the A Channels into a new weblet titled CTV Two.
On CTV there are few if any Canadian series outside of ETalk weeknights at 7. In daytime it's an almost ceaseless flow of U.S. simulcast product with the exception of Marilyn Dennis at 10 a.m.
CTV Two, however, does have some Canadian series including W5, Degrassi (weeknights at 7), Flashpoint, the Listener.
CTV did announce that Toronto-made Flashpoint has been renewed for another season of new episodes.
The booze and dainties flowed at the party at Sony Center for the crowd of potential advertisers who seemed mighty enthusiastic about the new product.
I duly mingled and caught up with Lloyd Robertson. I reminded him of the CBC fall launch in 1976 I'd attended when CBC News head Knowlton Nash jumped up and said "I've lost my Mr. Clean!" --a reference to Lloyd's defecting to CTV. whereupon the entire cadres of TV critics jumped in taxis and sped off to CTV's Charles St. headquarters.
Catching up with producer Linda Schuyler, creator of Degrassi was not hard at all. I'd written the very first story on the iconic show way back in 1979 (titled the Kids Of Degrassi street). Schuyler informed me the new season order was for 45 new episodes, an indication of Degrassi's continuing popularity.
Riverdale was another Schuyler creation, a CBC soap opera that needed a full year to get started up --if CBC had stuck with it I'm prepared to say it would be as popular as Coronation street today.
But I was onto Brent Butt and his wife/leading lady Nancy Robertson on hiccups. Butt says he could have continued with Corner Gas for years and has even had an offer to remount it as a stage musical.
Behind a pillar I shared horror stories over the state of journalism with renowned sportscaster Brian Williams. He says he's already studying up for his role as CTV's host newscaster for the 2012 London Olympics.
"At one time TV sportscasters were second to the print guys. Now newspapers have fallen on tougher times than we could ever imagine."
And with that I sneaked out a side door and sprinted for freedom. Judging from the noises inside the revelers were determined to go on and on.



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Global Is Coming On Fast

A fear years back Global TV was a network being battered and bent by competitor CTV.
And now?
The network along with CanWest specialty channels got purchased by Shaw Media and the cash is surely flowing.
This fall Global will have a highly competitive prime time schedule. With Citytv also coming on strong the bidding for American hits was never more intense.
Vice president Barnara Williams surprised thecrowd at the Sony Center that the big new hit would be the U.S. version of Prime Suspect with Mario Bello (A History Of Violence) replacing iconic Helen Mirren as the tough-as-nails detective (it runs Thursdays at 10).
Also highly regarded is A Gifted Man (Fridays at 8) with Michael Holt as the surgeon taught life's lessons by the spirit of his deceased wife.
Sarah Michelle Geller's next series The Ringer casts her as good and evil twins (Fridays at 10). The 2-2 from Robert De Niro follows six NYPD rookies as they patrol upper Manhattan --it sounds suspiciously like Global's successful local series Rookie Blue.
From the creator of Bones it's The Finder, described as a procedural about a brain damaged Iraqi War veteran who is skilled at recovering people from all sorts of dangerous situations. Geoff Stults stars.
New sitcoms include How To Be A Fentleman with David Hornsby and Kevin Dillon. I Hate My Teenage Daughter has Jaime Pressly and Kate Finneran as fortmet high school pals who are now parents. Happily Divorced stars Fran Drescher who plays a florist who discovers her husband of 18 years is gay.
There are two new animated series both from Fox, Allen Gregory and Napoleon Dynamite and Chelsea Handler from late nights has her own sitcom Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea which NBC is making.
Key returning American hits include NCIS, House, Hawaii Five-0, Glee, NCIS: Los Angeles, Parenthood, Harry's Law, Season 8 of The Office, Bones, Saturday Night Live,
In fact it's hard to find a single Canadian series in prime time on Global this fall. CRTC content regulations dictate the split should be 50-50.
The infusion of money from Shaw is enabling Global to finance 15 new scripted Canadian series which take time to be developed and cast and shot. Later this month last summer's hot Rookie Blue, shot in Toronto, comes back for its second season.
And later on there'll be second seasons for such Canadian fare as Lost Girl, King, Haven and Producing Parker,
Debuting June 21 on Global is the latest homegrown drama series Combat Hospital looking at the NATO Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.
Williams told reporters Haven which debuted on Showcase also had a Global window that enabled it to grow viewers and get a second season and she hopes to feature other series on both networks.
Global also expands its news operation with its own Morning Show described as being more conversational in tone with Liza Fromer, Dave Gerry and Kris Reyes.
Global was so flush with money this season it was able to bring in a gaggle of visiting U.S. stars including Glee's Matthew Morrison, Dot Jones and Iqbal Theba plus the usual Canadian suspects who in seasons past were usually shunted off the stage very quickly. But this year Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith and castmates from Rookie Blue were front and center.
Shaw Media also has new seasons for its 18 specialty channels and some 35 new series lined up, an indication specialty TV is booming, growing far faster than its conventional cousins.
I'm told there was a huge bidding war between the three principals for the best new U.S. imports.
But Global sources are optimistic the network and sister channels are back on track and ready to challenge CTV for ratings primacy.
May the best set of American imports win!