Ahead of a new episode of hit Vancouver crime drama Motive on CTV tonight, here’s Lauren Holly (NCIS) as lead medical examiner Dr. Betty Rogers on set for last week’s Out of the Past at the Ash Market downtown. I didn’t know she was in the cast then or that I’d photographed her in an egg blue rain slicker in the October rain on my way to the Vancouver Film Festival.
Dr. Betty Rogers determines that the killer slashed shop owner Hank Cousineau’s throat when he was sitting in a chair at the back of his news shop and then watched as the victim bled to death. A particularlyunpleasant killer.
CTV promoted Vancouver crime drama Motive from Sunday nights to Thursday nights this week, with downtown Vancouver playing Toronto in the sixth episode of the whydunit The killer in Detour is a Toronto police officer named Barry Ketchum (Aidan Devine) who commits the murder on the west coast and is tracked back to Ontario by Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flyn (Kristin Lehman). Crew filmed a scene on Homer Street last December of Ketchum arriving home from the airport in a prop Toronto taxi with the Victorian Hotel as his Toronto apartment building. And filmed other scenes of Detective Flyn confronting Ketchum inside Belkin House as his Toronto police station. Add a few green screens of the CN Tower and Motive did a credible job of faking Toronto in Vancouver.
The murder is just the beginning. There’s always a motive and Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) will find it. Filming wrapped last Friday on Motive’s thirteen-episode first season.
Motive debuted in a prime but delayed post-Super Bowl slot on CTV to 1.23 million Canadians, the culmination of an unprecedented publicity campaign by CTV for a Canadian show. Normally, only CTV’s American simulcast shows get this scale of rollout. And in a sweet twist, American network ABC has picked up the Vancouver crime drama for broadcast this summer.
Ratings held steady after Motive’s move to its regular 9 p.m. on Sundays slot, dipping for the second episode but rising back over one million for the third episode, to give Canada’s #1 new drama a series-to-date average of 1.06 million viewers.
Instead of a regular whodunit that focuses on who did the crime, Motive is a whydunit that focuses on why the crime was committed in the first place. The Killer and The Victim are revealed to the audience at the top of the show and we follow detectives Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreria) as they uncover the reasons behind the murder.
Sunday, February 3rd – The Murder is Just the Beginning. An unprecedented ad campaign for Vancouver crime drama Motive, starring Kristin Lehman and Louis Ferreira, ahead of its debut on CTV after the Superbowl. My post for Vancouver is Awesome.
Friday, February 1st- Supernatural films for a second afternoon and evening in Queensborough on Duncan Street at a riverfront industrial property.
Friday, February 1st – Vancouver’s cop-from-the corporate-future series Continuum films in Squamish.
Thursday, January 31st – Supernatural films in Queensborough on Duncan Street at a riverfront industrial property. Impala spotted on set.
Thursday, January 31st – Bates Motel films on its motel/house set in Aldergrove for fourth day.
Wednesday, January 30th – CBC airs Arctic Air 2×04, with lots of hookups, including one — Bobby & Krista — I didn’t expect to see so early in the season.
Wednesday, January 30th – The CW airs Arrow 1×12 Vertigo featuring Seth Gabel as “The Count” with key scenes filmed on the Front Street Parkade in New Westminster.
Wednesday, January 30th – ABC picks up Vancouver crime drama Motive to air this summer.
CTV has given the debut of its new Vancouver crime drama Motive a prime spot on its schedule — the post-Superbowl slot this Sunday. In a new twist on procedurals, Motive reveals the killer and the victim at the start of each of episode or as the show’s tagline puts it — The Murder is Just the Beginning. Then we follow along with “feisty female Vancouver detective” Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and her partner Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira) as they investigate the case and discover what motive drove the killer to murder.
The Foundation Features and Lark Productions series created by Dexter writer Daniel Cerone began filming thirteen episodes in the city last September and wraps its first season late next month. If I hadn’t heard that Kristin Lehman had been cast as single mother and damn fine detective Angie Flynn, I might not have recognized her in Olympic Plaza at The Village on False Creek last October. There’s very little of her haughty blue-blooded political campaign consultant Gwen Eaton from The Killing in this new character sporting a leather jacket, kickass boots and permed hair.
Sunday, January 13th – Once Upon a Time 2×12 The Outsider has Rumple finding a way to cross the town border without losing his memory of his son Bae, Hook stealing Bae’s cloak, a Rumple vs Hook showdown and then a big twist involving Rumple’s beloved Belle.
Sunday, January 13th – CTV airs a promo for Vancouver detective series Motive during the Golden Globes with the tagline: The Murder is Just the Beginning. Debuts on February 3rd after the Superbowl on CTV.
Sunday, January 13th – The CW president Mark Pedowitz says new version of Vancouver-filmed pilot The Selection still in contention for pilot order. Tells TCA winter press tour that he loves the new script.
Friday, January 11th – Fringe 5×11 The Boy Must Live – the third-to-last episode features naked Walter in deprivation tank and father-son bonding between Walter and Peter and between September and his son, the child Observer! Oh, and someone must die for the plan to work.
Friday, January 11th – Supernatural Fraturday: films overnight again inside Century House in downtown Vancouver.
Friday, January 11th – City releases promo image of sitcom Package Deal, featuring Randal Edwards, Julia Voth, Harland Williams and Jay Malone.
Thursday, January 10th – Sitcom Package Deal tapes in front of live studio audience in Burnaby.
Thursday, January 10th – Once Upon a Time films at Deer Lake Park with Charming, Snow & Henry on set.
Thursday, January 10th – Arrow films at the PNE
Thursday, January 10th – Supernatural films inside Century House in downtown Vancouver.
Thursday, January 10th – Red Widow panel at TCA winter press tour. Debuts March 3rd on ABC.
Thursday, January 10th – News via @Lemon_Buzz that feature film Ninja Turtles closed its Vancouver production office and opened a NYC production office = Vancouver loses another feature film.
Thurday, January 10th – Premier Christy Clark’s BC Jobs Plan boosts several industries but not our declining film & TV biz. Click on the SAVE BC FILM petition and sign it to let her know the cost to the province of losing film & TV productions to places with better tax credits.