On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

There's an interview with the writer and director of this week's episode that might be worth some time and attention. There are spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 of Coroner, so be warned of that.

https://www.thetvjunkies.com/coroner-shannon-masters-charles-officer-talk-one-drum/

Which just started this week on CBC. It's as much a soap opera as crime/mystery and horror show, and that last is in my thinking a very quiet, subtle and slow-building horror when it shows up. Never mind the fake burnt corpse built for a post-arson investigation, it's what shows up in people's behaviour. Including the protagonist, Jenny Cooper MD as portrayed by Serinda Swan...and Marvel's loss is definitely CBC's gain here with Swan's work on this show.

https://www.tv-eh.com/2020/01/10/coroner-serinda-swan-on-jennys-season-2-journey-and-the-joys-of-creative-freedom/

1. After watching the third episode of Stumptown, I finally watched the first episode of Diggstown tonight. Had the first season saved on the family PVR for months, and could not find the guts to watch it until tonight.

Yes, I know how that choice of phrasing looks.

Diggstown is worth the time, and I should have made that time sooner. My dumb.

2. I am sad at the death of Alexei Leonov. Yes, he was 85, and he'd lived a full life. He was one of the space explorers I first learned to know the names along with the likes of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. The first space mission I have clear memories of watching coverage of on TV was Apollo-Soyuz. We're talking multi-page spreads in the Regina Leader-Post back when they were locally owned - so I want to believe - and not a pawn of Postmedia to serve the international right-wing-big-money movement.

3. I got my hair cut today at the barber shop I've been dealing with since my dad introduced me to their dad. One of the brothers is in hospital and the other is not well yet still working. I fear for them. I couldn't do more than pay for the haircut and wish them well.

4. Enjoyed watching the first two Short Treks, "Q & A" and "The Trouble With Edward".

5. I am still trying to work out some thoughts on the changes to OC Transpo's network that took effect this week.

6. I am not indifferent. I am trying to pay attention.

Am I the only one here subscribed to tv_eh_feed?

I got this via the newsletter subscription for _Script_ Magazine today. Since I'm a fan of Coroner specifically...

https://www.scriptmag.com/features/interviews-features/running-the-show-morwyn-brebner-showrunner-of-coroner

I finally watched the first episode of the new Street Legal series. Looks okay. I admit to not being very clear on the mythology of the original series, but it looks like a good beginning to a new chapter. Six episodes to start.

Let's see how it goes.

sabotabby, fair warning if you decide to watch: I don't think you are going to like Olivia Novak as a character very much.

People I'd like to hear covering "Maybe Tomorrow" AKA "the Littlest Hobo theme": Sarah MacLachlan, BNL, and for some weird constellation of reasons...Jodie Whittaker.

1. I just checked the Facebook Help Centre. I didn't access the stuff that Cambridge Analytica was using, but according to the Help Centre, one person on my friendlist did.

2. And that's it: fifteen years of the Rick Mercer Report, over and done. And for Rick himself, on to the next thing. Whatever it is.

Anyone betting on a sitcom with him and Jann Arden as the leads?

I was going to explore my reactions to Star Trek: Discovery(AKA "DSC") in greater depth, and you may expect that later in this entry. For the moment, a surprising bit of news from closer to home arrived this morning: Rick Mercer's announcement that the Mercer Report will be closing up shop at the end of what will be its fifteenth season CBC Television.

Allow me to share his announcement via his own recording...



I admit that I see this as another sign of something akin to a Canadian Apocalypse. Some of you who've been watching this weblog for a while will be making informed deductions and/or guesses as to what some of the other signs are.

I'm not happy. But it's Rick's choice to make. Not mine. Not CBC's.

Okay, on to DSC.

What we ended up getting on Sunday night, after delays thanks to CBS' contractual obligations to the NFL impacting on BellMedia's obligations to CBS, was the first two episodes of DSC. Aired back to back, with "The Vulcan Hello" followed immediately by "Battle at the Binary Stars". Together they form what you might call either a prologue or a full Act One of the first season's larger story.

Without giving away too much, it's a good setup for whatever else we're about to get this year.

I'm still getting over my bout of design history dissonance considering this is supposed to be happening about a year after the events of "The Cage" and ten years before "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The uniforms, the user interface designs, the starship architecture...all seem a bit out of place with those two episodes of the original series. We're being promised explanations and evolution over time, to be sure. How fast the production team delivers is up to them. Our reactions to that speed - or the lack of it - are up to us.

Just about everything else: the scripts, the performances of the live actors, the visual effects work...all meet my hopes.

That visual dissonance remains. For now, anyway.

One bit of advice to CBS and its production partners: please show the episode titles in the episode itself.

So this happened today at the CRTC:

http://www.tv-eh.com/2017/06/19/minister-joly-appoints-acting-chair-of-the-canadian-radio-television-and-telecommunications-commission/

Is this a decision Canadian viewers, readers and listeners need to worry about? If so, why?