PIXEL 51 - STIMULI (The Blog)

LOST GIRL NOTES – Anna Silk’s 1st Film & the Orphan Black Connection

May 242013

Colin Cunningham and Anna Silk in BREAKFAST WITH SCOT

Dean Peretti (Shauna MacDonald) being questioned by Bo in O KAPPA MY KAPPA

Anna Silk‘s first credited film role outside of television was as Mia in the 2007 film BREAKFAST WITH SCOT. (Silk doesn’t appear until near the end of that film – in the Christmas Party scene.) Shauna MacDonald (Dean Peretti in Episode #3 of LOST GIRL) also had a small part (Joan).

This year, MacDonald will be Tru and Kate Trotter (The Norn) will be Alice in TRU LOVE, which finished shooting in Toronto on 16 May and should be out later this year. The film’s Facebook Page offers this synopsis: A widow, recovering from the death of her husband, comes to the big city to spend time with her daughter, but instead she forges an unlikely relationship with a commitment-phobic lesbian with whom her daughter has a past.

Felix (Jordan Gavaris) in his rather complex living quarters on ORPHAN BLACK

THE ORPHAN BLACK CONNECTION

Shauna MacDonald and Fiona Reid in BREAKFAST WITH SCOT

LOST GIRL’s Art Director Kim Karon (25 episodes) and Set Decorator Andy Loew (24 episodes), and Production Designer Ian Brock (28 episodes) all work for ORPHAN BLACK as well. ORPHAN BLACK’s co-creator, John Fawcett, directed five episodes of LOST GIRL, the latest being episode #34, Into the Dark. (Fawcett also directed 6 episodes of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS.)

MOTIVE’s Angie Flynn – The Next Great Detective

Motive No Responses »

May 232013

MOTIVE – Season 1 Episode 1 – SPOILERS

Lauren Holly as Dr. Betty Rogers, Vancouver Medical Examiner

Detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) discusses the case with
Staff Sgt. Bloom (Roger R. Cross)

A classic Oldsmobile pulls up at a taped-off crime scene. A tall blonde emerges slowly from the car and draws herself to full height with a slight toss of the head. She moves through the crowd that has gathered, watched by everyone, with the air of a casually dressed film star returning home and discovering the crime. Then a uniformed cop greets her and identifies her as Detective Flynn. It was a nice introduction of the character.

There are three important characters (so far) in MOTIVE. The aforementioned Detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman), her partner, Detective Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira), and Dr. Betty Rogers (the Medical Examiner, played by Lauren Holly). These characters make you want to look at them and listen to them. They’re not the sort of pretty people usually found in TV shows. Their faces and voices are beautiful, complex, distinctive, and engaging.

Louis Ferreira as Detective Vega on MOTIVE

The important stuff (for me) wasn’t so much the revelation of the killer’s motive, although that was done in a rather interesting way, by alternating scenes from the investigation and the crime itself so that the audience gained information at much the same rate as did the detectives. The important stuff was learning about Detective Flynn and Dr. Betty. Not much has been revealed thus far about Vega, but I am assuming there will be more about him in later episodes.

Crystal (Allie Bertram) prompts a discussion of her boobs on MOTIVE

Two scenes were quite illustrative about Flynn. In the first, she comes home after a hard night’s crime fighting to find her teenaged son Manny (Cameron Bright) lying on a couch with his arms around his similarly reclining girlfriend Crystal (Allie Bertram) who is not quite topless. Flynn asks her if her boobs are real, and finds out they aren’t. When Crystal asks if she wants to see them, Flynn is a bit flummoxed, and says “no“, “maybe” and “what did they cost” in quick succession. When her son asks if Crystal can stay for breakfast, she asks: “Can her boobs make coffee?”

Later in the episode, Flynn lets her son use that wonderful Oldsmobile of hers in a sanctioned drag race. (The boy has had two speeding tickets. The drag race is to get speeding “out of his system”.) While watching the race (which the Olds wins handily) Flynn has a Gregory House-style epiphany and solves the case.

Dr. Betty (Lauren Holly) at the crime scene.

Dr. Betty explains her character effectively in two lines. Flashing her ID at a handsome cop and looking him over suggestively, she says: “Medical Examiner. They told me you had a body, and I see they were right.” Later, as she is doing the autopsy, a detective tells her it’s his first time watching such a procedure. “Always glad to be someone’s first,” she quips.

MOTIVE airs Thursdays at 9pm on ABC.

NOTES

Lauren Holly (Dr. Betty) will be Ruth in the HOOVEY (the movie), based on the book, Rebounding From Death’s Door, by Jeff Elliott, about a basketball player’s recovery from a brain tumor. The film is due out in 2014.

The Lamplighter Pub is referenced in the episode.

Roger R. Cross is also Travis Berta on CONTINUUM (season 2 of which will premiere on SyFy on 7 June.

Best Body of Proof Episode Runs Day After Cancellation by ABC

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May 152013

BODY OF PROOF – Season 3 Episode 12 – SPOILERS

Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) persuades fugitive that the guy he plans to shoot is not the killer.

Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) trying to persuade gunman that the guy he plans to shoot
is not the killer.

Brooke Lynn Howard - may have been another assistant driven away by Megan (scenes apparently cut)

Brooke Lynn Howard – may have been another assistant driven to quit by Megan
(scenes apparently cut)

Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) did aggressive investigative work, didn’t apologize once, and physically stopped cowboy cop from shooting somebody. She solved the case, revealing in the process that the District Attorney was corrupt, and saved one innocent person from prison and another from death (and a bad marriage).

Unlike in other recent episodes, the issue of who Megan is dating never came up. We do learn that Hunt’s address is 2900 N. 14th Street. There is no such address in Philadelphia, but the address does exist in nearby Wilmington, Delaware.

This was the best episode of the show’s three seasons. It was supposed to air quite some time ago (see previous posts) but ABC chose to air it a day after announcing the cancellation of BODY OF PROOF. The show was cancelled, not because no one watched it, but because too great a percentage of viewers were older than 49. It seems advertisers lose interest in potential customers once they hit 50.

Tracy Middendorf as Stacey Ramirez

The villain of the piece, Stacey Ramirez, is played by Tracy Middendorf (whose middle name is also Lynn).

GOING TO CABLE?

There has been talk of selling the show to a cable network, most probably TNT. They already have RIZZOLI & ISLES, but that’s 15 weeks a year, and leaves plenty of room in the schedule for another Medical Examiner. USA Network is another possibility.

There is an interesting bit of confusion about a guest star in this episode. Originally, Brooke Lynn Howard was listed (and still is on IMDB) as playing one Laura Elizabeth Iler. Laura may have been another investigative assistant that Megan either induced to quit or was fired. Such a person is mentioned in the episode, but never seen. I suspect her scenes have been cut.

LOST GIRL NOTES: Emmanuelle Vaugier – 2 Old Films and a New Website

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May 102013

The soon-to-be-released DVD of HYSTERIA

Emmanuelle Vaugier as Maria Alcobar on HIGHLANDER (27 November 1995)
– her second TV appearance.
On the right is Stan Kirsch

Vaugier’s first film, HYSTERIA (1997) which starred Patrick McGoohan and Amanda Plummer, will soon be released on DVD for the first time and can be pre-ordered from Amazon. In the film, brain implants are used to create a collective consciousness among the inmates of an asylum in an attempt to turn them into model citizens. The film received a nomination for Best Picture from the International Fantasy Film Awards in 1998.
In 2009, Vaugier was Eve Pretson in a made-for-TV movie called REVERSE ANGLE and her co-star was Anthony Lemke, who later would be Ryan Lambert in 5 episodes of LOST GIRL. The only LOST GIRL episode in which both Vaugier and Lemke appeared was episode #28 (Table for Fae). Amazon has a zone 4 (Australian) version of the DVD available from third party sellers.

The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier) captured and threatened by Vex (Paul Amos)
at the end of Season 3

STUDIO FREDERIQUE

Recently, Emmanuelle Vaugier started painting. Her first effort was a “moody, black and red butterfly”. She has launched a website called STUDIO FREDERIQUE (Frederique is her middle name) to sell giclee canvas prints of some of her work to benefit animal welfare charities. The charity will change every few months. The current charity is TRAINING RACEHORSES OFF THE TRACK, which helps retiring racehorses adjust to life as a pleasure or show horse. Prints are available in rolled canvas or gallery wrap and in three different sizes.

One of the paintings offered on
STUDIO FREDERIQUE
– Red Butterfly

She has posted some photos on Twitter of “works in progress” that seem quite interesting.

THE MORRIGAN

On LOST GIRL, Vaugier is Evony Fleurette Marquise, leader of the Dark Fae, and has appeared in only 9 episodes of the show. Because The Morrigan appeared in the very first LOST GIRL episode and in the most recent; and perhaps because of Vaugier’s effective portrayal, The Morrigan seems at least as important as her Light Fae counterpart, The Ash, whose various incarnations have appeared in 21 episodes. (LOST GIRL shows a definite bias toward the Light Fae.) At the end of Season 3 Evony was captured by Vex (who was working undercover for Hale) and she seemed quite terrified of the possibilities.

The way Vaugier interprets the character is reminiscent of the way Meighan Desmond played Discord on Xena – as someone who enjoys her position of power but would rather be doing something else.

Meighan Desmond as Discord
in XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS

Vaugier as the unbelieving gypsy Dr. Ava Nicolae on CHARMED in 2002
– with Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs.

The Morrigan is a Leanan Sidhe (lan-en shee), a celtic muse who, if Y.B. Yeats is to believed, sucks the life from the artists she inspires. In his book FAIRY & FOLK TALES OF IRELAND (1892) Yeats said that “The Leanhaun Shee seeks the love of mortals. If they refuse, she must be their slave; if they consent, they are hers, and can only escape by finding another to take their place…She is the Gaelic muse, for she gives inspiration to those she persecutes. The Gaelic poets die young, for she is restless, and will not let them remain long on earth.” (Yeats must have found another source of inspiration. He died at the age of 73.)

In episode #34, Into the Dark, Evony displayed the ability to suck the ‘talent’ from individual cells, reducing an organism to a puddle of undifferentiated protoplasm.

And Kenzi still owes her a favour.

Lost Girl Notes – More About Sarah Jackson (Elle in The Ceremony)

Lost Girl No Responses »

May 032013

Sarah Jackson in her film debut as Raquel Lake in DARK REPRIEVE.

Sarah Jackson in RESCUE ME.

Sarah Jackson was Elle in the LOST GIRL episode The Ceremony (episode #44). She was the leader of the pack of underwear models that Bo refused to eat. Her image recurred in various scenes during Bo’s Dawning.

Jackson’s first TV appearance as someone other than herself was in RESCUE ME, episode #51. She was credited as ‘gorgeous woman’. Her feature film debut was as Raquel Lake, a murder suspect in the 2008 film DARK REPRIEVE, which is now out on DVD. She has appeared in one other film, THE DOGFATHER (2010), a family comedy about bumbling mobsters, which can be streamed on Netflix.

Jackson as Miss Carrington in the 2010 comedy THE DOGFATHER

Please follow The Farmhouse, our new adventure, opening in 2 weeks. Barrie’s prime waterfront destination @farmhousebarrie @oscarsbarrie

— Sarah Jackson (@onlysarahj) April 7, 2013

Judging from the above, and other related tweets, Sarah Jackson is somehow involved with THE FARMHOUSE, a recently opened eatery which describes itself as the best waterfront patio in Barrie, Ontario (an hour north of Toronto). The restaurant grows micro greens and fresh herbs on site with an indoor greenhouse and serves fresh pressed juices and cocktails.

THE FARMHOUSE has a website that is currently under construction.

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