Canadian comedian Mae Martin has a new series out on Netflix — but it's not a comedy.
Wayward is an unexpectedly dark thriller, where Martin stars as a cop investigating a small-town school for troubled teens, where everything is not as it seems. It's set in the early 2000s, and it co-stars Toni Collette as the school's shifty headmistress.
Today on Commotion, culture critics Niko Stratis and Rachel Ho join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to share their thoughts on Wayward, and unpack just how Canadian the show really is, despite its Vermont setting.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Elamin: Niko, you mentioned [Sam Roberts'] Brother Down, which is very, very funny. I love that song. The show is set in 2003, and then, really, is located that way musically-speaking, right? So, Alex goes jogging. He's playing Brother Down. You know, the bro-y high school boyfriend is blasting Our Lady Peace. Like, there's a location in time and space in 2003. Tell me about how the music helps build out the world of storytelling here.
Niko: Well, it reminds you that it is in Canada, 'cause there are those CanCon drops. You mentioned Our Lady Peace. There's Sam Roberts. Thrush Hermit shows up, I believe, in the second episode. There's some Canadian music drops that put it in a place and time, and give it that little CanCon-ness. But it also creates this environment, right? … Especially in the first episode, we're talking so much about the masculine energy of all these things. And there are a lot of dude rock bands — you know, Weezer shows up in there.
I love when music is used as part of the show, not just in the running mix or playing in somebody's car. So often shows like this, the needle drops are just done in the background. But here, it feels like an integral part of the storytelling of the world. It makes me really interested. I love when I'm so excited to watch a show partially because I just want to know what other songs they're going to drop into it to give the world its setting, you know? Like, once Thrush Hermit appeared, I was like, "Oh, all bets are off."
Elamin: Anything could happen here. Skye Sweetnam could show up. Rachel, this series is a part of Netflix's big push to invest in more original Canadian content. There's been some criticism, I think, about how committed they are, but that's for a whole other show. With putting out the show, Netflix put out a press release talking about how this show was shot in Ontario [and] contributed millions to the Canadian economy. I'm curious if you can see the Canadian connections show up on screen as well.
Rachel: For sure. I mean, they mentioned Vancouver, which— I think, Canadians, we're very silly. We were like, "Oh my God, they said a Canadian city. That's so amazing."
Elamin: They shot Toronto pretty warmly in the pilot, I think. You know?
Rachel: They did, and it's shot … in other parts of Ontario as well. And it does look— it is meant to be in New England-y territory, which looks Canadian as well. But in terms of the actors across the ensemble, so many Canadian actors…. I was so surprised when Sarah Gadon pops up, and then Patrick J. Adams comes in, Jay McLaren, Joshua Close, Patrick Gallagher. I was so impressed with how many Canadians there were. I had just seen Dinner with Friends, which is Sasha Leigh Henry's movie, and two of the actors from that film are in this series as well. And so I was like, look how Canadian it is.
I think we're just really starved for Canadian content sometimes in Canada, which is I suppose in part what we're hoping Netflix, Prime, everybody else jumps onto, because we do love it. It doesn't have to be a selling point that it is a Canadian Canadian, but it is fun for us, I think, when we see our own people up on screen.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Jean Kim.
[SRC] https://www.cbc.ca/arts/commotion/just-how-canadian-is-mae-martin-s-new-netflix-series-wayward-1.7647939
