Dipping My Toe into Durham

SO LAST NIGHT was a dip back into the thrall of the Toronto media thing scene. Which sounds about as fun as it is, but heyo, it's a living.

At a club in West End Toronto that used to be a lot more fun when it was The Mockingbird, the CFC held a launch party and panel discussion for a new original Canadian series called Durham County.

Durham County is a six part, one hour mystery/police procedural series that will premiere May 7 on Canada's premium pay cable channels, Movie Central (Western Canada) and TMN (Eastern Canada.)

TMN/Movie Central are getting aggressive about raising the bar on their original programming, and after some highs (they were first in for Slings & Arrows) and lows (sorry, Terminal City, which recently proved the difference between a format sale and a program sale) they are really doing their level best to complement all that sweet sweet stuff they pick up from HBO and Showtime.


Durham County has a lot going for it. I first heard about this show last year. Then, I got to work with Holly Dale, (who directed Episodes One through Four) out on Blood Ties. The buzz has been good. So I settled in last night with fingers crossed. I've liked some of Back Alley's shows in the past (Talk 16, Drop The Beat) and been lukewarm toward others (Straight Up, Bliss) but from the moment I walked in, you could tell that straight from the graphic image treatment, they definitely know their mood.

They only showed clips, but the clips I saw seemed fine indeed. There's some first rate actors in this, including a lot of actors who are working in English, rather than their native Quebec French. Laurence Lebouef, who plays the daughter, and Patrick Labbe in particular are huge, huge stars in Quebec.

It's worth a chuckle to know that yup, in fine Let's All Hate Toronto fashion, this is the second series we've talked about this week that is set ostensibly here (Durham County is North East of Toronto) and filmed somewhere else. (Durham County was shot in Montreal.)

Gosh, we can't even play ourselves anymore...SEE! We ARE like New York!

On the panel was Adrienne Mitchell, one of the Executive Producers (with Janis Lundman, who wasn't there,) the writer of all six episodes, Laurie Finstad Knizhnik, and stars Hugh Dillon and Laurence Leboeuf.

Hugh Dillon is amusing and great on screen. Very charismatic and wounded....in the opening episode, at least -- which is the only one I've seen so far, he's got a quality to him that you see on the best of those British Crime dramas, like Cracker or Touching Evil or Prime Suspect. Like everyone these days, people on the panel gushed about The Sopranos, but DC doesn't strike me as being quite that operatic. It's smaller, quieter, and more sinister -- it really does have that British crime thriller feel.

Which is awesome. I love those shows.

Anyway, I'm always going to be endlessly grateful to Hugh Dillon, not just for his rock and roll past and Hard Core Logo and his great charisma on screen, but for the fact that I got to sit in the audience and hear him swear constantly at this launch event. I mean, like, Fleet Week swearing. I think I saw a couple of delicate flowers jump in the back row -- especially when he said a word that I don't think we've ever heard on a panel discussion in Canada, anywhere. He's the perfect antidote to Canadian fussiness, and he brought it bigtime last night. Good on him.

It's interesting to see these panel discussions, having seen so many of the damn things in the past and even having had to cover a few. It's like when it comes to Canadian shows, we're not fully media trained, and getting things across clearly and succinctly seems to be a stretch. The most impressive speaker was probably Leboeuf, who was very eloquent in talking about how the portrayal of violence is handled in the show.

It's clear that everyone had Virginia Tech on their minds, and as Leboeuf struggled to contextualize the drama, you could see that everyone was still continuing a conversation that they'd obviously had many times on set.

DC forces you to be a voyeur to violence...it implicates you straight off the bat -- the opening five minutes are difficult to watch. But that's kind of the point. As the setpieces slowly unspool, it becomes clear early on that what you're watching isn't really a whodunnit, so much as a whydoneit. That's really appealing to me. I pitched and tried to make Across The River To Motor City more of a whydoneit last year, and met resistance. We ultimately wound up changing it but I'm intrigued to see how DC handles the brief. It's kind of like the road not taken.

Being an event about Canadian tv, someone inevitably asked about the financing. In this case, it seems like DC benefited from TMN/Movie Central + Rogers Fund + CTF + Canwest Global + money upfront from Granada, the international distributor -- based on the scripts. THAT's interesting, in a "you know, huh..." kind of way.

As for the rest of the event, everyone seemed delighted (maybe a trifle too delighted) that the show's turned out as well as it did. Every time my American angel hears too much hype, my Canadian angel gets embarrased and says, "really, just let people see it for themselves...don't make a fuss." This is why I am never happy, maybe.

It was nice to ease back into the scene with a low key event. There were the usual party suspects. Some welcome familiar faces, and some new ones bold enough to introduce themselves (I got asked twice how I liked Grindhouse, and was puzzled at first til I realized I had, in fact, written about going to see the movie yesterday. I enjoyed it lots, thanks for asking. I wonder if this is how Paris Hilton feels about getting caught not wearing underwear?)

There were writers only too happy to plant themselves at the periphery with me and ogle the Dead Things -- not on sticks, for once, more like in little bowls. There was shrimp, though.

It's completely clear to me that I need to psych myself up to bring my A-game for the Canadian Screenwriting Awards Monday. I'm going to need to pre-load a few conversation sparklers. And I have to enjoy myself, since it looks like my little work furlough is going to be short-lived. Again, more on that later.

As for Durham County, I'll be posting a full review of all six episodes closer to the premiere date. This is one I want to savor a bit.

You know, like the shrimp. I don't mind if you say I'm being a little shellfish.

Okay, now I'm just ashamed.