Astrid and Lilly
Jana Morrison (Astrid) is Louisa in AURORA TEAGARDEN MYSTERIES: SOMETHING NEW. It is the nineteenth film in the series, and Aurora (Skyler Samuels), having just left university, is back in her home town working as a teacher’s assistant in a crime fiction class. Her best friend Sally (Kayla Heller) is getting married, and after Sally’s fiancé fails to show for a wedding rehearsal, a body is discovered. When it turns out to be someone else, the missing groom becomes the prime suspect. Brett White of Decider wrote: “…director Jessica Harmon and cinematographer Will McKnight really leaned into Aurora Teagarden’s film noir roots. There are some nighttime silhouettes that are straight up noir, and there are a few Hitchcockian camera tricks, like an immersive tracking shot as Roe makes her way through Sally’s party. This is the kinda stuff you don’t see on Hallmark.” The film can be streamed on Hallmark+.
Morrison also appeared as Rain, one of the bank robbery hostages, in “Inside (Con)Man”, Episode 1.9 of WILD CARDS.
Colin Furlong as Frank Frick
Colin Furlong (science teacher Frank Frick) is Matt in Melanie Oates‘ drama SWEET ANGEL BABY. The film follows Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky), whose secret romance with her coworker Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) comes inconveniently to light, as does her anonymous Instagram account full of provocative photos of herself (e.g. smeared with jam or in front of a moose head). What the film is really about is how the townsfolk react to the discovery. Drew Burnett Gregory of Autostraddle called the movie “melancholy”, and said that “Kurimsky and Tailfeathers both give lovely, powerful performances as two queer women — one desperate not to be an outcast, the other long-accepting the label. Their chemistry holds a pointed distance, the desire present but repressed and restrained. It sometimes makes the film frustrating — which is revealed to be the point.” SWEET ANGEL BABY premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, and can be streamed on DAILYMOTION.
Julia Doyle as Elizabeth Potter in “Engaged to be Murdered” (Murdoch Mysteries episode 17.21)
Julia Doyle (Candace Powell- Lilly’s crush) is Miley in Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard‘s meta-slasher feature HELL OF A SUMMER. The film stars Fred Hechinger as camp counsellor Jason Hochberg, who arrives for work at Camp Pineway unaware that a masked killer is lurking. Isobel Grieve writing for TIFF suggests that some of the characters are archetypal, specifically Ezra (Matthew Finlan), the flamboyant drama queen, Ari the filmmaker (Daniel Gravelle, and Miley the obsessive vegan (Doyle). Gravelle’s portrayal of Ari, says Grieve, is “oddly referential of Timothee Chalamet” in his physicality and wardrobe. HELL OF A SUMMER can be streamed on HULU.
Geri Hall and Georgie Murphy in ‘One More Time’
Jeri Hall (Christine, mother of Candace) is Cynthia, an efficient assistant manager with a suspiciously dark past, in ONE MORE TIME, a half-hour comedy about hearing-impaired, former hockey player D.J. (D J Demers) who manages a second-hand sporting goods store. When D.J. was promoted to manager of One More Time, the guy who didn’t get the job was Carlito (Marito Lopez), who is still bitter about that and now works for a competing store. Sales Associate Jen (Elise Bauman) is training for the Olympics. Her event is the javelin throw, and she has named her javelin “Brittney Spear”. In an interview with showrunner Jessie Gabe, Ann Brodie said: “There’s so many wonderful events that happen, like the ‘break break’ outside and suddenly it’s just full of people just doing nothing but enjoying themselves when they should be working, and the Rocket Richard skates, and the spleen…” All episodes can be streamed on YouTube, and on CBC Gem.
Spencer Macpherson in School Spirits
Spencer Macpherson (Sparrow – Astrid’s crush) is Jacob Landry, youngest child of Delilah and Colton Landry in the Hallmark time travel drama THE WAY HOME. A pond near the Landry’s New Brunswick home is a portal to the past, and it is mainly used by three Landry women: Alice (Sadie LaFlamme-Snow), Kat (Chyler Leigh), and Del (Andie MacDowell). The pond portal is/was discovered in 1814 when one of the Landry’s dove into the pond to avoid being burned as a witch. Jacob first appears in “Long Time Gone” (Season 2 Episode 5). THE WAY HOME airs Fridays at 9/8c on The Hallmark Channel, and can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Macpherson is also Xavier Baxter, son of Sheriff Baxter, in the fantasy mystery SCHOOL SPIRITS, which stars Peyton List as Maddie Nears, Xavier’s girlfriend who disappeared during the first season and is trapped in a very strange afterlife investigating her own disappearance. The first two seasons of SCHOOL SPIRITS can be streamed on Paramount+. The show has been renewed for a third season, which will air in 2026.
Olivier Renaud as Brutus
Olivier Renaud (Brutus, Astrid and Lilly’s guide and trainer) is Texas policeman Randy in Season Two of PARIS, PARIS, a half-hour comedy that tells the story of Phillipe (Benoit Mauffette), an unemployed French teacher in Paris, Ontario who discovers a passage leading from the basement of his home to the stage of a theatre in Paris, France. (When he first arrives, he lands in the middle of a production of “Waiting For Godot”.) In an article titled Paris, de l’ombre à la lumière, Yves Bergeras wrote. “The story…abandons Beckett’s existential questions to dive into a much more dramatic material, Racine’s “Bérénice. The link between the two Parises allows us to explore the duality of the protagonist; the tunnel reveals his choices as well as his desires.” In Season Two, the tunnel connects with yet another Paris, this one in Texas.” PARIS, PARIS can be streamed on CBC Gem and TV5 Unis (French only) in Canada.
