Orphan Black: Exciting new Sci Fi Series

Tatiana Maslany is first glimpsed sitting very still and composed in a CTV interview room at the network's Queen Street West headquarters.
It's the last interview of the day for her and her travel bag is all packed --she must soon rush off to fly to New York city for even more interviews.
She doesn't look at all tired. But rather apprehensive about the future that awaits her.
Because Tatiana Maslany is about to emerge from anonymity to become TV's latest hot star.
Her vehicle, the terrific new series Orphan Black, revs up on Space Saturday night at 9.
And already the insider buzz has been very encouraging.
She's pretty dazzling in the lead or rather the leads.
There are multiples of her character in play here. Her major character is Sarah a street wise waif from the lower British classes who sports a street Brit accent and has a daughter she's trying to reclaim after initially abandoned her.
But she's also another character, a cop named Beth who is up on charges of mishandling a major case.
And she's also a  mysterious German woman named Katjia.
Yes, Tatiana Maslany is playing clones.
They look alike although they dress differently, talk differently and live in different worlds.
It all makes for quite a dramatic challenge for Maslany and one early review calls her effort "excellent".
First up she had to get the job and she describes the audition process as grueling --it went on for several days and she had to deliver scenes in various accents viewers would find acceptable.
She also had to act  opposite possible co-stars most notably Jordan Gavaris who plays her foster brother Felix, another street urchin trying to find his way.
"I didn't know until the end that I had gotten it, "She says with a nervous laugh.
"I can be playing different characters in the same day. Most challenging are the scenes when I'm interacting with --myself!"
In the old days when Bette Davis or Olivia de Havilland were playing twins half the screen would be photographed and then the rest.
Maslany says the technology has so improved it can look as if she's touching the other character. But these scenes take hours to complete.
"I just have to remember what I'll be doing on the other side."
And then there's the different accents which she works on with a coach. "Sarah is number one but I sometimes play several the same day."
Orphan Black is BBC America's first North American made series --co-produced with Space and staffed with first rate Canadian actors.
Those of us from Toronto can spot the CN tower in an early shot but there's been some effort to make sure there are no street car tracks visible --here T.O. stands in for any North American major metropolis.
But Maslany laughs at the suggestion Sarah has an English accent because after all Orphan Black is on BBC America in the States.  "Besides the voice I have to change body movements as I go from character to character. Beth is more professional than Sarah, she has a demanding occupation,a settled life with a devoted boyfriend."
She would agree, I'm sure, that she's still at 27 relatively unknown. But I spotted her years ago on an early Heartland episode and then she co-starred in the CBC drama series Being Erika.
Her potential is enormous. She tackles every challenging scene in the first episode which I've watched twice.
Ten hour episodes have been shot. The executive producers are two cagey veterans of the TV series game: John Fawcett (Rookie Blue) and Graeme Manson (Flashpoint). As long as the plot has us guessing and not explaining away everything the show could take off.
The first hour is sleek to look at and filled with dense plotting --plus some nudity which is requisite on cable TV.
As I leave I tell Maslany I think she's in a winner.
Meaning that treasured life of anonymity will soon be over.
ORPHAN BLACK PREMIERES ON SPAVE ON SATURDAY MARCH 30 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

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Second Sight: Seed is Funny and Frantic

Second sight: it's a gift few TV critics possess.
Like most of my tribe I usually review the first episode of a new series and then practically forget about it.
So when Seed --Citytv's only scripted Canadian series-- came on in early February I was enthusiastic particularly after meeting star Adam Korson. His comic timing reminded me of Dustin Hoffman in The
Graduate.
Korson effortlessly plays bartender Harry who sold his sperm to the highest bidder only to discover he has kids all over the place.
It's not a conventional premise for a feel good network sitcom.
And I was surprised at City's scheduling decision: plopping Seed at 8:30 p.m. on Mondays.
Whatever happened to TV's Family Hour? Or maybe we're being told this is the ultimate family tale?
In my decades of covering Canadian TV I was always being told Canadians just couldn't make respectable sitcoms.
For every hit like King Of Kensington there was a Delilah. And if you can remember Delilah--I had to sit through several tapings in the line of duty -then you deserve a special award.
Canadian comedy was more of the sketch variety, some critics said pointing to SCTV, Kids In The Hall, RCAF.
And that interpretation reigned until the magnificent break out successes of The Newsroom and Corner Gas.
But subsequent sitcoms including Hiccups and Dan For Mayor simply couldn't match it..
I've been studying Seed since it came on the air. The writing is light and airy (thanks to executive producer Mark Farrell) and some of the principals really nail their characters.
For purely econiomic reasons Seed is shot in Halifax. Production values are very room comy meaning it could really be made everywhere.
And I'm hoping the presence of guest star Tom Green, well cast as psychiatrist Dr. Stuart Meinertzhagen, will hook in stragglers watching for the first time.
As with many Canadian sitcoms (Intelligence, Men With Brooms) the series is "block shot" meaning scenes in the bar will be shot one after another.
I'd prefer a live audience approach which always makes the principals act on a higher level but this might be considered too expensive.
Corner Gas worked without an audience because Brent Butt as a stand up instantly knew what would work and expertly guided the rest of his cast.
Korson has a hard assigment -- to play likable yet slightly dumb. I think he's  already found the right balance. Obviously Harry had to sell his sperm to make ends meet without realizing the consequences.
Equally funny is Carrie-Lynn Neales (L.A. Complex) as a single girl who ends up pregnant with Harry's sperm and then wants a relationship.
Harry already has a kid)William Ainscought) who has two moms (Amanda Brudge and Stephanie Anne Mills) and a 15-year old daughter Anastasia (Abby Ross) with two extremely neurotic marrieds (Matt Baram and Laura De Carteret).
Previewing Monday's episode made me realize how these comedy actors have grwn into their roles over the past two months.
In short Seed deserves a second season --the kinks are being ironed out--and given another season the show is set to soar..
But a later in the evening time change would surely be beneficial, am I right here?
SEED RUNS ON CITYTV MONDAYS AT 8:30 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Beaver Whisperers A Delight

I've just finished reviewing a CBC documentary about dogs.
Now I'm being asked to review one on beavers?
I was skeptical but after plopping in the DVD I couldn't stop watching.
The Beaver Whisperers makes the startling premise that beavers may be the saviors of Canada. In this challenging new age where water is becoming just as expensive as oil beavers can help us turn bone dry landscapes back into lush paradises.
The Beaver Whisperers premieres on The Nature Of Things Thursday March 28  at 8 p.m. and is highly recommended.
The director Jari Osborne isn't the first name I'd associate with a Nature Of Things documentary --she made the wonderful factual film Unwanted Soldiers (1999).
But Osborne told me the more she researched the story the more she was convinced beavers were being overlooked for their environmental contributions.
And she's provided some wonderful (and true) stories about how beavers can positively change the landscape.
"They have a reputation as pests which is undeserved.  Some Canadian provinces still have bounties on them."
The most wonderful scenes are in Nevada where Osborne looks at a parched valley where cattle have eaten most of the vegetation and the water supply is typical of streams in that area.
Ecologists fenced out cattle from the area and began rebuilding the fragile ecosystem.
"And two beavers suddenly appeared and began dam constructions --there were no trees so they used mostly mud dams where vegetation has since sprouted. Now there is available water all year around and we see cranes now nesting and in the ponds. And it's quite a story."
Another great story Osborne came upon is the experience of former trapper Michel Leclair who operates out of Quebec's Gatineau Park. For years he'd been battling the beavers as they built dams in the wrong places. Leclair would trap them, blow up the dams.
And a day later the dams would reappear.
He discovered beavers respond to the sound of running water --the sound determines where they'll build dams. Now Leclair uses a playback machine to get the beavers building dams where they are needed.
"He has the beavers working for him," says one colleague in amazement.
Another true incident looks at a little beaver kit adopted by an ecologist who is training him to be re-introduced to the wild.
Many transfers fail but in this case "Timber" does meet up with a beaver family who make room for him (beavers are usually territorial).
The lady recently fell through the ice near her pond and reports "Timber" showed up to make sure she was OK before heading home to his beaver pond.
To her credit Osborne seeks out the experts who argue beavers can bring back long neglected wetlands. They may be one part of our ecological survival --miniature animal flood control engineers.
And the amount of U.S. footage guarantees Osborne's fine production should get an American TV sale sooner than later.
THE BEAVER WHISPERERS PREMIERES ON CBC-TV'S THE NATURE OF THINGS THIRSDAY MARCH 28 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***.

TV And Agism

It all started a few weeks back when Joy Behar, 70, announced just like that she was leaving The View after 16 years.
I met Joy within a week of The View's arrival when I sat in on a live show in the audience and then went backstage to chat up "the girls".
Only Barbara Walters refused to talk to me. Too busy I was told. She owned the show but clearly disdained press interviews and stormed off to her ABC office to do other things.
I noticed during the commercial breaks that Barbara called the director over and read the riot act about what segment should come up next.
But I got to chatter with the other three co-stars Joy, Meredith Viera and Debbie Mantenopoulos.
When Joy decamps only Barbara, 83, will be left among the originals.
Joy said in her statement she's longing to get back to her roots as a stand up comic. But I strongly suspect her age had something to do with her leave taking.
On TV age is everything. And it always has been.
It's the reason Walter Cronkite left CBS News as chief anchor when he turned 65. CBS didn't want to lose the long running second-in-command Dan Rather.
But in picking Rather CBS so upset Roger Mudd that he left for NBC.
These days Jay Leno, 62, is in the line of fire.
He's used to being bounced by NBC. A few years back he lost his coveted Tonight slot for a chance to anchor a prime time nightly talk outing at 10 p.m.
That did not turn out and neither did his replacement at Tonight: perennial dauphin Conan O'Brien.
When the dust cleared Conan quit in a huff rather than being bumped back for the return of Leno.
Conan left for TBS where his ratings are infinitesimal and Leno seemed back in the saddle for a few years.
But when ABC gave Jimmy Kimmel, a mere child of 45, its 11:30 slot then a lot of youthful viewers began migrating from Tonight and Leno.
Leno still dominates  but NBC bases its advertising revenues on the number of young viewers. Johnny Carson never had such worries because in his day his show was often the only one in town.
So the story goes NBC is planning to dump Leno, bring in Fallon at 11:30 and watch him duke it out with Kimmel. NBC also wants to move Tonight back to New York city and is going to build a new TV studio to that effect.
Leno's contract doesn't expire until 2014 and includes a huge pay out if NBC cancels him early.
CBS's Letterman now operated on a yearly contract. How all this affects him is anybody's guess. Letterman is already number three --Kimmel's premiere week had him at 1.07 million viewers (18-49) versus 1.04 for Leno and 820,000 for Letterman. In week Leno was back on top.
If Letterman does  quit as he's often threatened then maybe Conan can make a jump back to network TV.
And, yes, agism also affects Canadian TV.
On September 1, 2011, CTV's Lloyd Robertson, 77,  retired as CTV's anchor after 41 years as national newscaster for CBC and CTV.  As late as February, 2010, he'd decried one press report about retirement as "a work of fiction.
His surprise replacement was Lisa LaFlamme,47, and CTV  ratings did not falter as some predicted.
That leaves CBC's Peter Mansbridge, 64, as the "grand old man" Of Canadian TV news. And to think I remember him as the youngest kid on the block.
Mansbridge replaced Knowlton Nash in 1988 --Nash, 61, voluntarily stepped down because CBC feared it might lose Mansbridge to CBS's Morning News.
I happen to think Mansbridge is currently operating at the top of his form but it's interesting to watch the current jockeying for position among such heirs to the throne as Ian Hanomansing, 52,  and Amanda Lang,42.

Death On TV

I'm thinking Larry Hagman would have loved how the sudden death of  his character J.R. Ewing on Dallas was all set up.
Hagman's anticipated death from cancer forced the producers to review every foot of film both used and unused starring Hagman. And enough was cobbled together from lines of dialogue and key face movements to set up a second "Who shot J.R. Ewing".
And viewers are being told that we'll all know the culprit before the end of the season.
But Hagman's death isn't the first time the lead actor on a big series died.
I remember going right back to 1972 when I was the kid TV critic for The Spectator and veteran star Dan Blocker died when Bonanza was still riding high.
Co-star Pernell Roberts had already departed the series in 1965 (Bonanza debuted on NBC in September 1959).
But Blocker as another son Hoss constituted the heart and soul of the show,
Star Lorne Greene who played Pa (and was only six years Blocker's senior) told me "That knocked the stuffing out of us."
The series only lasted one more season although in 1988 there was an attempt to reboot the series with Gillian Greene (Lorne's daughter), Michael Landon Jr. and Dirk Blocker (Dan's son) in a TV movie pilot that did not sell.
I remember venturing on the set of ABC's Eight Is Enough in L.A. in June 1977 as cast prepared for the first full season (it had debuted as a mini-series in March).
But trouble was co-star Diana Hyland who co-starred as wife Joan Bradford  succumbed to cancer after five episodes and newcomer Betty Buckley was understandably nervous about replacing the much liked Hyland.
She need not have been --the show was not yet well established and viewers instantly accepted her and the series ran two more seasons until expiring in 1981..
There were numerous TV movie reunions and when Buckley was unavailable for the 1987 edition she was replaced in turn by Mary Frann from The Bob Newhart Show.
The death of a peripheral cast member is easier to handle. Like the sad case of The Jeffersons in 1978 when long time co-star Zara Cully (Mother Jefferson) died at an advanced age,
The show continued on for another seven seasons but there's no doubt she was always missed.
And I was on the set of Hill Street Blues multiple times but in 1983 I had to cover the death of a beloved cast member: Michael Conrad who handled the roll call as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus.
This one was such a heavily populated ensemble series that HSB merely forged onward not expiring until 1987.
Of course the death may only be onscreen. I covered M*A*S*H even before it debuted on CBS (and CBC). In July 1972 I had lunch with the show's ingenue Loretta Swit  in a Belgian restaurant on L.A.'s Sunset Strip.-- in September she who would instantly hit screen stardom as Hot Lips Houlihan.
At the end of the third season McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers both left the show.
Stevenson's character, Colonel Blake, was promptly killed off in a plan crash. Stevenson was replaced by Harry Morgan Colonel Sherman Potter and Rogers was replaced by Mike Farrell as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt.
But I happened to think Larry Hagman's death was the best covered of all.
Of course it brought back memories of the original "Who Shot J.R.?" episode which climaxed the 1979-80 TV season.
At a CBS gala years later I told Hagman I had cracked the case and knew it was all because Hagman wanted a new contract. Had he refused to re-sign CBS had decided that when the bandages were taken off his face --Robert Culp would then appear! as the new J.R.
Hagman blanched and whispered :"You got that right."

 

I Give Dog Dazed Four Woofs

At first I was going to bypass Dog Dazed the new CBC documentary on Doc Zone --it's on Thursday March 21 at 9 p.m.
My reasons? Pure prejudice! I've always been a determined cat person simply because cats don't require daily walks in the park. Also cats don't bark loudly and the barn cats I acquired leave me alone most of the time and I try to leave them alone all the time..
I intended to glance briefly at Dog Dazed and go on to a more congenial subject but Vancouver based director Helen Slinger has done such a top notch job I quickly got hooked.
And the subject, I must admit, is one that I've been wondering about.
Like my own observation the number of dogs has surely skyrocketed in recent decades.
There's a parkette near my home where dogs can run without a leash and at twilight it is thickly populated by pooches chasing each other. The owners congregate to chat up each other.
We cat lovers would never give in to such displays of affection.
The North American statistics Slinger trots forth support my thesis. In 2010 38 million households had children while 43 million had dogs. In other words dogs are the new kids.
The consequences include the 30,000 daily tons of dog dirt that litter the parks and streets not to say the incessant barking I hear every morning --I'm across from a public school and mothers drop off their kids and also walk their dogs.
And there are very serious concerns about the amount of dog bacteria present in major metropolitan areas.
Sling covers the continent in her search for unusual canine stories. There's the strange tale of a Vancouver dog owner fined $1,500 for walking her dog without a leash on a Vancouver Beach.
She has broken the law but this dog lover is fighting mad at the verdict.
Then there's Toronto city councillor Karen Stintz (also TTC commissioner) who says she spends a large part of her time mediating dog issues.
This includes the huge problem of tiny Ledbury Park which was turned into a zone where dogs could run free. Presently the park was overrun by barking dogs beginning at dawn and ending at dusk causing local residents to bark back at politicians in their dismay.
We see how hordes of dogs can disrupt nesting birds causing some species to go into rapid decline.
But dog owning has become such a big business when we visit Woofstock we see how many people are trying to turn a buck from canine chiropractors to dog.
There's a shot of a dog being the ring bearer at a wedding and a visit to a pet cemetery where owners petitioned for the right to be buried next to their pet pooch.
Strangest scene has one building superintendent determined to find the owner of any dog who has dirtied her lawn --she keeps the DNA of every dog on file and rapidly dispatches a sample to a CSI lab to find the culprit.
Slinger has so roamed the continent in her rapid fire stories of strange dog doings she should be able to make a sale to the U.S. --perhaps there's even a TV doggie network out there I don't know about.
DOG DAZED PREMIERES ON CBC-TV's DOC ZONE THURSDAY MARCH 21 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

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Alien Mysteries: I Was Wrong

With regards to Alien Mysteries, Discovery's terrific new sci fi series I have to make a confession.
I was wrong.
The new show opened on one of the busiest weekends of the TV season and I had to drop one series to get everything in.
So I ignored Alien Mysteries and boy was I mistaken.
"You blew it this time," said a little old lady in the coffee shop I sometimes frequent.
And she's right.
I've been playing catch up with this show ever since.
I knew after watching a few episodes that I had missed one of the creative wonders of the season.
The title seems to imply another cheesy show about aliens all done up in the panoply of reality TV.
But this has to be one of the most expensive productions Discovery has ever attempted.
The CGI effects are as good as in any blockbuster movie courtesy of EPI (Exploration Production Inc.) and green screen techniques created by Toronto's Acme Digital Pictures.
What the show does is dramatize actual encounters each within the space of an hour. These are all first person accounts and most can be verified by other people or government agencies.
The dramatic reenactments are deliberately toned down without any of the screechings found in most sci fi movies. And this makes each tale all that more frightening.
First up there was the experience of Matthew Reed of Brownsburg, Indiana in 2009 who followed a strange light when driving home. When he woke up hours later he was bloodied and his SUV a wreck.
The first one was partnered with the story of residents of Stephenville, Texas, in 2008 who witnessed the lights of a huge aircraft that was subsequently chased by F-16 fighters across the sky.
The next two on the next week were even better: British Columbia housewife Corina Sabels in 1991 witnessed a huge spaceship hovering over her Aldergrove home. And the fourth hour looked at the sighting of an UFO on Christmas 1980 by U.S. airmen in England's Rendelsham Forest.
This Sunday at 8 there are the final two hours with the best reserved for the last.
Bucks County is the title of the hour looking at resident Denise Murter who awakens to see a huge spaceship hovering over her back yard.
The technicals are amazing and the way the drama is directed you'll fully believe in her encounter.
As with all the segments a wide range of experts tells us all the possibilities but never is there any sensationalism and that makes the hour compulsively watchable.
And the finale at 9 looks at the strange events in December 1965 in the tiny village of Kecksburg Pennsylvania as 16-year old Stan Gordon and veteran Bill Bulebosh witness a fiery object streaking through the night sky only to crash in the woods. NASA officials are soon on the scene trying to suppress all details of the encounter.
In telling these stories there is absolutely no effort to explain away or debunk the stories.  Each tale is extremely personal and became almost life altering for the participant.

The interviews with the real participants make the story --it is not effects driven but the startling images add a depth to each tale never seen before on TV.

Discovery has a real big hit on its hands --surely a second season is already being planned.
THE FINAL TWO HOURS OF ALIEN MYSTERIES PREMIERE ON DISCOVERY CANADA SUND. MARCH 17 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.