Black Harbour's Back
October 22 , 1997
By Jeff Craig, Edmonton Sun
Canadians are widely regarded around the world for leading the charge against landmines - but it's no secret we've been guilty of setting off a number of bombs when it comes to television.
That ugly legacy has been changing, and one of the dramas partly responsible returns tonight at 9 on CBC for its second season.
Black Harbour was well-received by critics and audiences alike, for the skills shown on both sides of the camera. The story of a successful L.A. restaurateur named Katherine Hubbard (Rebecca Jenkins) returning to her Nova Scotia home town with her disenchanted filmmaker husband, Nick Haskell (Geraint Wyn Davies), and their two children caught on from the first episode. And co-creator/executive producer Barbara Samuels says the show's popularity has soared even where it doesn't appear on television, thanks to an elaborate underground of videotape trading (called a tape tree) and the Internet.
"It's really quite remarkable," Samuels said recently from her home in Ontario.
"Even in the off-season we're getting five or six e-mails a day ... that's for a show that's not shown anywhere. The responses are emotional, too - from all over the U.S., Hong Kong, Australia, the U.K. The show is extremely popular in Finland. People tell us they identify with these characters. We're certainly hoping that increases."
Samuels partnered with Wayne Grigsby as an executive story editor on E.N.G. and is a co-creator of North of 60. It's in comparing Black Harbour to North of 60 that Samuels sees the show's key.
"North of 60 is about a very specific time and place," Samuels says. "Black Harbour may be about a small town on the south shore of Nova Scotia, but everyone feels they know the place and the people. That's because it's a show about taking stock of who you are and where you belong; to discover what it means to be from somewhere.
"I think a lot of people in their late 30s, early 40s, come to the place in life where they think that they want to wipe the slate clean and try to start over again. The story's about a small town, but, ultimately, all the best stories are about small towns - whether they take place in a Nova Scotia south shore town or in a cop shop like NYPD Blue or in a hospital emergency room."
If the show did endure some criticism in its first season, it was over the dark tone many of the episodes took.
But Samuels defends this as necessary.
"It's about a woman (Jenkins) who has to come back to her birthplace to care for her mother and the family business; her husband's Hollywood career is failing and there's tremendous resentment from their oldest daughter at having been moved away from L.A.
"There's nothing melodramatic about it - that would be a lot of emotional pressure threatening to blow the whole thing apart."
At the end of last season, Nick returned to L.A. to take a directing job and it appeared that the marriage could be over.
Davies, who plays the husband, lives in California with his family in real life but Samuels says that no matter what happens in the plot, the popular actor will remain a part of Black Harbour.
He directed tonight's season opener, for one.
"Geraint's very much a part of this show," Samuels says. "And he's been in the Black Harbour family as much as ever."
He's behind the camera for several more of this season's episodes, and his character will be prominent as the show takes a new twist, Samuels says.
And that twist is?
"Nice try - I'm not going to give that one away."
That's just as well. Who would want to spoil the surprise for all those Black Harbour fans in Hong Kong, Australia, the U.K., Finland, or even Canada?
Back to articles
October 22 , 1997
By Jeff Craig, Edmonton Sun
Canadians are widely regarded around the world for leading the charge against landmines - but it's no secret we've been guilty of setting off a number of bombs when it comes to television.
That ugly legacy has been changing, and one of the dramas partly responsible returns tonight at 9 on CBC for its second season.
Black Harbour was well-received by critics and audiences alike, for the skills shown on both sides of the camera. The story of a successful L.A. restaurateur named Katherine Hubbard (Rebecca Jenkins) returning to her Nova Scotia home town with her disenchanted filmmaker husband, Nick Haskell (Geraint Wyn Davies), and their two children caught on from the first episode. And co-creator/executive producer Barbara Samuels says the show's popularity has soared even where it doesn't appear on television, thanks to an elaborate underground of videotape trading (called a tape tree) and the Internet.
"It's really quite remarkable," Samuels said recently from her home in Ontario.
"Even in the off-season we're getting five or six e-mails a day ... that's for a show that's not shown anywhere. The responses are emotional, too - from all over the U.S., Hong Kong, Australia, the U.K. The show is extremely popular in Finland. People tell us they identify with these characters. We're certainly hoping that increases."
Samuels partnered with Wayne Grigsby as an executive story editor on E.N.G. and is a co-creator of North of 60. It's in comparing Black Harbour to North of 60 that Samuels sees the show's key.
"North of 60 is about a very specific time and place," Samuels says. "Black Harbour may be about a small town on the south shore of Nova Scotia, but everyone feels they know the place and the people. That's because it's a show about taking stock of who you are and where you belong; to discover what it means to be from somewhere.
"I think a lot of people in their late 30s, early 40s, come to the place in life where they think that they want to wipe the slate clean and try to start over again. The story's about a small town, but, ultimately, all the best stories are about small towns - whether they take place in a Nova Scotia south shore town or in a cop shop like NYPD Blue or in a hospital emergency room."
If the show did endure some criticism in its first season, it was over the dark tone many of the episodes took.
But Samuels defends this as necessary.
"It's about a woman (Jenkins) who has to come back to her birthplace to care for her mother and the family business; her husband's Hollywood career is failing and there's tremendous resentment from their oldest daughter at having been moved away from L.A.
"There's nothing melodramatic about it - that would be a lot of emotional pressure threatening to blow the whole thing apart."
At the end of last season, Nick returned to L.A. to take a directing job and it appeared that the marriage could be over.
Davies, who plays the husband, lives in California with his family in real life but Samuels says that no matter what happens in the plot, the popular actor will remain a part of Black Harbour.
He directed tonight's season opener, for one.
"Geraint's very much a part of this show," Samuels says. "And he's been in the Black Harbour family as much as ever."
He's behind the camera for several more of this season's episodes, and his character will be prominent as the show takes a new twist, Samuels says.
And that twist is?
"Nice try - I'm not going to give that one away."
That's just as well. Who would want to spoil the surprise for all those Black Harbour fans in Hong Kong, Australia, the U.K., Finland, or even Canada?
Back to articles