Created by Marc Strange So there I am, feeling homesick. And then Marc Strange's Sucker Punch (2007) arrived at my door. As the editor of this site, and a sometime-reviewer, my mailbox is often full of treasures, and nothing delights this Canadien errant more than a package from home, and this one was from Toronto's … Continue reading Joe Grundy
Tag: British Columbia
Michael Flynn (Flynn)
Created by Lyal Brown Another popular series from The Mystery Project on the CBC was Flynn, which enjoyed a 13-episode run in the mid-1990's. In this one, MICHAEL FLYNN is a part-time private detective living on his boat in Vancouver. A middle-aged drop-out from UBC Law School, he now lives on the Blarney Boy, a weather-beaten … Continue reading Michael Flynn (Flynn)
John Collins (Skip Tracer)
Created by Zale R. Dalen "He'll be sure you pay--one way or another!" -- tagline on the VHS edition Hey! Did I just dream this? JOHN COLLINS is the low-key, taciturn debt collector "hero" of Skip Tracer, a bleak, decidedly non-glamourous, low-budget Canadian character study released in 1977. Make no mistake--Collins is no goody two-shoes. … Continue reading John Collins (Skip Tracer)
Donegal Dawn (Secrets of Chinatown)
Created by Guy Morton "You're a white girl -- what are you doing in a place like this?" Dapper Vancouver, B.C. private eye DONEGAL DAWN is called in by the police commissioner, and reluctantly asked to look into the recent rash of "mysterious deaths" in Vancouver's Chinatown after one of the commissioner's own detectives is … Continue reading Donegal Dawn (Secrets of Chinatown)
Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead
Created by A.J. Devlin Got gonzo? Fed up with the pro wrestling circuit and too many chairs to the head, JED "HAMMERHEAD" OUNSTEAD hangs up his tights and goes to work as a bouncer, and helping out with "some of the leg work from time to time" at his dad Frank's Vancouver, B.C. detective agency in … Continue reading Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead
Kevin J. Porter
Created by John F. Parker When Mounties go off the track, they go really off the track... KEVIN J. PORTER was a middle-aged family man with a wife and kids, a well-respected Chief Inspector for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a real law-and-order type, about as straight as you could get. And then, thanks to … Continue reading Kevin J. Porter
Charity Deacon
Created by P.A. Wilson "I'm a P.I. I know that sounds cool and dangerous, but mostly it's just seedy. Every now and then I feel like just chucking it all in, but then someone asks me for my help and I get back in the groove. When I'm in the groove, I follow wandering spouses, … Continue reading Charity Deacon
Dennis Booker (Booker)
Created by Stephen J. Cannell & Erik Blakeney "No badge. No back-up. No problem." God help me. Although it was pretty much universally dismissed at the time as "Mannix for the MTV generation," I sort of enjoyed the absolutely preposterous late-eighties TV show Booker. For some reason, I didn't find it all that bad. Sure, it … Continue reading Dennis Booker (Booker)
Sally Sullivan & Bernie Fox (Mom P.I.)
Created by Chris Haddock Save your snark! Mom P.I. (1990-92) was a sly little gem from Canada's CBC-TV, an offbeat family show that managed to be smarter and more clever than it looked, without sacrificing one bit of heart -- or scaring anyone away. SALLY SULLIVAN was a recently-widowed mother with two kids to feed, struggling … Continue reading Sally Sullivan & Bernie Fox (Mom P.I.)
Nora Watts
Created by Sheena Kamal NORA WATTS is a rookie private investigator, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, who reveals a healthy amount of skepticism and a dark, bitter wit as she goes through her paces. She's also more than a little unstable, thanks to a troubled childhood being raised as a unwanted, biracial ward of the … Continue reading Nora Watts