Here's a tricky situation... Canadian readers please play along and don't spoil anything... Being Erica returns in the U.S. on SoapNet tonight for the premiere of the third season. It's tricky, because the show has already aired in Canada, and I get CBC.

For two seasons, this has been one of my favorite shows, and it proves itself again with the entry into the third season. It's rare for a show to be this serious while playing up rather fantastic elements, and Being Erica is the perfect balance of not only its themes and components, but also of the bravery to shake itself up and the talented writing to bring such shake ups home while somehow maintaining the same feel and flavor.

For the uninitiated, Being Erica revolves around Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk), and the curious events that follow from her dissatisfaction with her life. She meets up with Dr. Tom (Michael Riley), who is a magical, self-help guru, or angel, or something, and he gives her the chance to go back in time to key points in her life, and fix things that she regrets.

When last season closed, Erica's life was more up in the air than ever. In fact, most of the "work" she'd done over the last two seasons had netted her nothing. She broke up with her boyfriend, lost her job, and wasn't even particularly sure where she stood with Dr. Tom.

This season, we kick things off much like the early part of last season, by changing the game. At least, from Erica's perspective. I don't want to give too much away at this point, but the move is really a good spin for the show, especially given its unique theories on progression through life, and I suppose through being Erica. I will say that there are new faces to get used to, and that Erica has her work cut out for her. Just when she thought she'd been through the ringer enough with Dr. Tom, she has an entirely new set of challenges, and will have to make a lot of choices when it comes to how she is going to get all facets of her life to "work."

With a recent announcement that the show is being remade into both an American and British version (see link below in related articles), I encourage you to catch up, and join in for the third season. I am not in favor of the remakes, by the way, mainly because Erin Karpluk cannot be replaced in this role.

The show has two very solid season under its belt, and perhaps the most likable character television has ever known, and third won't disappoint. If there is any justice in the world, I will one day be announcing the start of season ten, and this is one of the few shows that I've ever hoped would last that long.

Tune in tonight, and catch a couple of clips below.

BEING ERICA - "The Rabbit Hole" - In Season Three, Erica finds herself overwhelmed with trying to start a new business with Julianne right after breaking things off with Ethan. But her biggest surprise comes when Dr. Tom springs a new therapy on her. The season premiere of "Being Erica," airs WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26 (11:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m., ET/PT) on SOAPnet. (TEMPLE STREET PRODUCTIONS/STEPHEN SCOTT) ERIN KARPLUK, ADAM FERGUS

(TEMPLE STREET PRODUCTIONS/STEPHEN SCOTT) MICHAEL RILEY

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Related articles

• CBC's Being Erica to get U.S. remake (cbc.ca)

© 2011, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.

CBC announced its fall schedule today, and had a smashing red carpet celebration (I hear tell) in honor of the fact. The even was packed with some of Canada's biggest stars, Erin Karpluk among them, and as you may know, I'm a big fan of Being Erica.

And, since talking with Erin back in September, I've been a pretty big fan of hers as well.

The CBC schedule didn't change all that much, apparently coming off a strong season, but there's an interesting new show coming, Men with Brooms, based on the film. A film I loved, by the way, and who hasn't been waiting for a show about curling?

Of course, the key thing to remember is that Being Erica is returning for its third season, and is hot off several Gemini nominations, and a win for Erin.

I wasn't at the event, but wanted to get the info out about who was there (because you may be able to get more elsewhere... now that you know to look), and I wanted to put out the new schedule.

I may not have been able to attend, but I said, "Get me Erin Karpluk pictures!" Oddly enough, some showed up. Oh yeah, membership has its privileges... or something.

Take a look, and get your own schedule worked out.

At the Fall Preview Red Carpet Event -

• Richard Stursberg, executive vice president English Services, and Kirstine Stewart, general manager of CBC Television
• Kurt Browning and cast members from BATTLE OF THE BLADES
• Cast of MEN WITH BROOMS and executive producer Paul Gross
• Debbie Travis, host of DEBBIE TRAVIS SHOW (working title)
• BEING ERICA star Erin Karpluk
• David Suzuki, host of THE NATURE OF THINGS
• George Stroumboulopoulos of THE HOUR
• Kevin O’Leary of DRAGONS’ DEN
• HEARTLAND star Amber Marshall
• Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman of STEVEN AND CHRIS
• Kary Osmond, host of BEST RECIPES EVER
• Geri Hall from 22 MINUTES
• Ron James, star of THE RON JAMES SHOW
• 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ on CBC broadcaster Scott Russell
• Hana Gartner and Bob McKeown from the fifth estate
• CBC NEWS: THE NATIONAL’s Peter Mansbridge and Wendy Mesley
• CBC NEWS personalities Diana Swain, Heather Hiscox, Mark Kelley, Kim Brunhuber, Aaron Saltzman and Marivel Taruc
• Patti Sullivan and Mamma Yamma of Kids’ CBC

Here's the full schedule - (all times ET):

Monday

8 p.m. Battle of the Blades - results
8:30 p.m. Men with Brooms
9 p.m. Just for Laughs

Tuesday

8 p.m. Rick Mercer Report
8:30 p.m. 22 Minutes
9 p.m. Being Erica

Wednesday

8 p.m. Dragon’s Den
9 p.m. The Tudors

Thursday

8 p.m. The Nature of Things
9 p.m. Doc Zone

Friday

8 p.m. The Ron James Show
8:30 p.m. Rick Mercer Report (repeats)
9 p.m. Fifth Estate

Sunday

7 p.m. Heartland
8 p.m. Battle of the Blades - performance
9 p.m. The Debbie Travis Show

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© 2010, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.

You may have had your fill of my talking about Being Erica already, but the second season kicks off tonight on CBC, and having had a chance to watch there second season premiere, there's no way I could keep from throwing out my impressions.

You may know that we left off season one in fairly tricky circumstances, and Dr. Tom and Erica's entire relationship was up in the air. Season two opens with a whirlwind episode that I think I can safely say is the most interesting and best-developed second season premiere I've ever seen. When I talked with Erin Karpluk, she mentioned that she thought the second season was more engaging than the first, and it seems she was not just cheering from the field.

One of the key difficulties of Being Erica is that its general premise necessitates a certain amount of serious reinvention on an almost constant basis. However many regrets Erica may have walked into Dr. Tom's office with, skipping off to the past to set things in a new direction only works for so long in the most straight-forward terms. After the tenth or twentieth regret on your list, you're going to have a bit of trouble figuring what else threw your life of course.

The second season finds us with an Erica who is making strides, and has developed as a person to a great degree because of the trips into the past she's made already. Moreover, she is an Erica who is learning that maybe there is an end to blaming everything on things that didn't go quite perfectly, and there is something to be said for a character who grows and changes significantly over the course of a dozen or so episodes.

Tonight at 9:00, and Tuesdays at the same time thereafter, Being Erica becomes a whole new show, with new characters, serious twists, and an attention to writing progression that is possibly unparalleled. Do not miss it for anything. There is nothing on television I am more interested to see than the rest of Being Erica.

Being Erica also stars: Michael Riley, Tyron Leitso, Reagan Pasternak, Kathleen Laskey, John Boylan, Joanna Douglas, Vinessa Antoine, and Sebastian Pigott.

Are You Screening?

© 2009, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.

I recently talked with Erin Karpluk of Being Erica, and it was a great interview.  I first covered the quirky, pseudo-sci-fi, Canadian show when it hit Soapnet back in February, and it has only sucked me in more as the episodes have rolled out.  Catch my initial Being Erica coverage here. A new season is coming to CBC starting September 22nd, and running Tuesdays at 9:00 pm.  Unfortunately, those episodes won't be coming to America via Soapnet until an as yet undisclosed date in 2010.

If you haven't caught the show yet, it follows Erica on her adventure of trying to deal with her life and her decisions, with the little twist of a "therapist," Dr. Tom, who sends her into her own past to have another go at some of the decisions/events she has regretted.  As odd, and shticky, as it may sound (and playing on Soapnet might give some people the wrong impression as well), the show plays out wonderfully, and Erin Karpluk's Erica is a brilliantly real, laid bare character the likes of which it is difficult to find in today's television.  The show was also recently nominated for nine Gemini Awards (Canadian television awards).

Here we go!

1. Being Erica is a quirky show, but almost accidentally, would you say you lean toward such shows in your own viewing?

Erin was quick to jump on a positive reaction to this question, throwing out examples Pushing Daisies and Ally McBeal.  She expanded on the general theory behind the question, pointedly making the case that she most definitely liked shows that had a little spin to them, without overplaying things.  We were one moderately odd question in, and I was already convinced that Erin truly loved being a part of the show, and were she not the star, she would be its biggest fan. While in some respects this perhaps seems not the most interesting of statements, it is more worthwhile to note than you might expect when you come across an actor/actress who really makes you believe that they love their show, and the fact that it is their job. In this sense, the conversation reminded me of the one I had with PSYCH's James Roday, but in his case you would be hard-pressed to doubt he had the same love for showing up to work.

2. Obligatory question, but with a spin - if you could go back and be a bigger fan of a show when it was originally airing, what show would you choose?

For good or ill, Erin had a pat answer for this one - Twin Peaks. Apparently a "Peak Freak," Erin did not come by the title in the earliest days, citing a variety of takes on the misfortunes of youth as being responsible for this missed opportunity.  Thus, the perfect answer.  For the curious, there was much mention of the various accoutrement of this semi-secret society, including (as I understand it) an assortment of collectibles.

3. Suppose people only know you from Being Erica, and thinking about how that character would come through to people - what shows or movies do you really love that would be surprising to fans?

In order to confound my efforts further, Erin had a pretty quick answer here as well - Entourage, which she called hilarious and smart.  She didn't leave her answer lie though, because she was fairly willing to throw out the whole bit about only knowing her as Erica. Even if you knew her in real life, you might be surprised by the extent to which she enjoys Entourage, and there is apparently no shortage of evidence to back this up.

On a more general note, Erin threw out the entire Action/Adventure genre as something she is likely more connected with than people expect. Using the time-honored scapegoat of opposite-gendered siblings and their friends, Erin confessed she is a bit more of a tomboy than Erica, and suggested people might not expect her to be quite so into the more action-filled movies and/or shows.

This took me a little off-guard to tell the truth, and I'd love to hear comments from others who are familiar with the show. I actually get a pretty solid tomboy vibe from Erica, though it may in many ways be that of a tomboy who runs a bit incognito at times in order to manage the expectations of those she works with and for.  More interesting, perhaps... (we'll see), I had the idea going through the first season that it was her relationship with her brother that led her not only to have a male best friend, but to a somewhat tomboyish nature.

But, I gress.

4. Are there any shows that you have working in the back of your mind as partial guides for how you create Erica?

No.

5. If you could pick a guest star to come in as the key part of one of your flashbacks, can you give me a couple of names you'd love to work with?

Seriously, her answer to the last question was just, "No."

She had some answers to this pretty quickly though, and listed off Anthony Hopkins (and in order to put a little star by his name, proclaimed herself a big fan), Meryl Streep, and (and you've got to love her) Sarah Polley.

6. What are the best three movies you've seen recently, whether in the theater or not?

Always a question to stall the mightiest, I finally managed a pause from Erin.  She'd recently watched Gran Torino, and that made the list.  After some hesitation, she was able to add the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, and Se7en.  Both of these were films she'd watched several times, and both obviously favorites.  Se7en especially held a special place in her personal film history, due in no small part to the physical and emotional drain of her first screening. I wish I could go into further detail with respect to how she went on about the movie, and her deep appreciation of how movies in general have the ability to rend, release, and reinvigorate people... but in the main, that is mine, and this is yours.

7. If there was any movie from this year (or about to come out this year) that you could take over and be the star, what would it be and why?

Back to her somewhat childish game of throwing out answers as though she'd had the questions beforehand, Erin let out with, "Oh. Oh," practically before I was done asking the question, but she meant Amelia, and got there in a hurry.  In fact, if she could keep going in time, she might move to just take over Hilary Swank's career altogether.

8. Favorite movie that it seems like no one has heard of?

As you might guess, Erin had no trouble coming up with an answer, but in this case that answer was She's Having a Baby. I wasn't sure if I was going to let her get away with that as a film that no one seems to have heard of, because like it or not, that one has been mentioned here and there.

We moved on to bigger things though, and since the lesser knowns were not having a good showing, we decided to go for a couple of bigger names.  She put Dances with Wolves on the table, and though we didn't discuss it in detail, I got the impression that it was a serious favorite.  She also wanted to make sure and list Legends of the Fall as a favorite, and she did go on quite a bit about that one. Apparently (if you can believe her about such things) filmed near where she grew up, this one really has a special place for Erin, and it was truly a joy to talk with someone who had such a fondness for film.  Not that I don't speak to those with great passion about movies on a regular basis.  I do, of course.  But, talking to someone who could relay a film's effect on them with better-than-average sophistication, who wasn't, in a sense, talking about the film itself, was a treat.

9. Dr. Tom. Relationship. New season. What's up?

Though not my normal course, if you know the show, you can probably understand that I had to see if I could get any information about the upcoming season. In a specific sense, I could only manage to discover that Dr. Tom will indeed be back... sort of... I guess... or something.  Other than that, the season will take some new turns, with new characters and a more wordly Erica exploring the nature of her time travel jaunts. She takes a new approach at certain points to the very idea of what it is she's doing, and tackles the possibility that there may be more to gain in the big picture than merely sorting out her own alleged problems.

Moreover, Erin gave me to understand that this season is, "more compelling," and I'm inclined to take her at her word on that score.  After about thirty minutes talking with her, her recommendation strikes a chord with me.

10. Erica's Blog?

I also really wanted to know if we were going to get more of Erica's Blog/Vlog to go with the show, and the answer is yes.  I don't know at this point just how they will coincide with the episodes. I assume they will be released shortly before or after airtime of the show, but they are going to be there.

That's it.

I want to thank Erin very much for taking the time to chat.  She was a real pleasure to interview, and I think if anything (and you viewers can back me up) it turned out that Erica is perhaps a pretty decent window.

I hope you tune in to Being Erica starting September 22nd at 9:00, and for those in America, keep your eyes and ears open for its return to Soapnet.

Are You Screening?

© 2009, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.

It would be absolutely impossible, if you knew me, to guess that I would like this quirky CBC show, and the fact that it was picked up by SOAPNET certainly wouldn't help matters.

Temple Street Productions/Stephen Scott

A girl with a life in shambles, who is just dripping with "issues," goes to a very odd "therapist" who sends her back in time for a shot at doing over key moments of her past, is not the kind of show you're going to put me in the ring with.  Not if you have any idea what you're doing.

But, Being Erica is not quite as easy to dismiss as its summary blurb and choice of networks might imply.  Though the pilot lead-in starts off pretty rough, the show gets going quickly, and it turns out that somewhere on the spectrum there is acceptable kooky-cuteness.

Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk) is the woman who regrets just about everything she's ever done in her life.  She's 30-ish, alone-ish, and generally stuck in a rut no matter what spoke of the life wheel you're looking at.  When things come crashing down on the really horrible, very bad, no good, etc., etc.... a strange Doctor appears and offers her a chance to turn her life around.  Because she happens to stumble into his office, she decides to give the therapy thing a whirl.  What's the worst that could happen, it turns out to be one more bad decision?

Temple Street Productions/Stephen Scott

The mysterious Dr. Tom (Michael Riley), who endlessly tosses around quotes, gets Erica to make a list of things that went wrong in her life.  The bad decisions, mistakes, and regrets from the last twenty years or so that Erica can't get over.  He then demands a serious commitment to change her life, and the next thing you know Erica finds herself back at her prom.

Now the stage is set for her to relive at least one horrible moment from her past, and she can prevent herself from being the girl who passed out drunk on the dance floor.  The question quickly turns around on itself though, because Erica soon learns that the fix doesn't lead to anything really wonderful anyway.  In fact, MyPast 2.0 might turn out to be one of those not so stellar upgrades.

On paper the show is just riddled with sap, and you have to expect it to play out like the worst offerings of Lifetime, but it somehow dodges the bullets it aims at itself.  It somehow accepts its goofiness, rather than trying to rise above it, and that ends up working.  Look, the show says, here's a bit of fun that's at least a little clever... and, what the hell, it's kind of fun.

If you're in Canada (or otherwise get CBC like I do), you're already deep in at about episode 9, but in the U.S. on SOAPNET, the second episode is airing tonight.  Check it out, it's rather a good time.  The show also gives you Erica's Vlog (or whatever) at the website, wherein Erica rambles at various people in her life.  "Webisode 1" included below.

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© 2009, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.