The 2025 Canadian Screen Awards nominations were announced this week, and 433 homegrown television and digital media titles are competing in 119 categories this year. In response to readers buying Canadian who are requesting an all-Canadian edition of Weekend Watching, here’s a one-off highlighting five CSA-nominated shows, TV movies and digital series, and where to find them on Canadian-owned streamers.
Allegiance, CBC Gem
In CBC Gem’s Allegiance, Suprinder Wraich, left, plays a Punjabi Sikh police officer whose father, the minister of public safety, is arrested for treason in the pilot episode.Darko Sikman/CBC Gem/Supplied
Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent got the most CSA nominations of any television show this week – but this series set in Surrey, B.C., also produced by Vancouver’s Lark Productions and up for best drama, is worth a look if you feel a little conflicted about police procedurals. It centres on Sabrina Sohal (Suprinder Wraich), a young Punjabi Sikh police officer whose father, the minister of public safety, is arrested for treason in the pilot episode. The CBC show – the first two seasons are available to binge in full on Gem as of last week – provides a case-of-the-week while trying to avoid being “copaganda,” and that internal tension makes it interesting. A pulpy central story about a creepy serial killer will feature subplots about systemic racism, abuse of power and suicide by cop. Allegiance shares with CTV’s old series Flashpoint both showrunners and Enrico Colatoni, whose grounded performances elevate all the shows he’s currently on (English Teacher, The Trades).
Wynonna Earp: Vengeance, Tubi
Wynonna Earp: Vengeance is being resurrected as a TV movie for Tubi.Tubi/Supplied
Canada’s tradition of making solidly entertaining, modest-budget sci-fi and supernatural shows has nearly dried up in recent years. The cult western-plus-demons Wynonna Earp, however, was resurrected from the dead once more this fall for this special made for the free-with-ads streamer Tubi. Up for best TV movie, Vengeance sees the “Earp heir“ Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano), her paranormal pistol and the ageless Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) return to the town of Purgatory to help Sheriff Nicole (Katherine Barrell) and her wife, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) send a coy killer (the sly Karen Knox) and her demon dogs (extras in burlap sacks) back to hell. The tongue-in-cheek script by creator Emily Andras – full of self-referential dialogue about reboots and “Hallmark moments” – is a fine example of a genre that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is more enjoyable for it. (The original four seasons of Wynonna Earp are on Crave.)
Who Owns the World, TVO Today, TVO Docs YouTube channel
Documentary series Who Owns the World?, which streams on TVO, is up for best factual series at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards.TVO/The Globe and Mail
At a moment when we’re trying to wrap our head around why eggs are so expensive in the United States that its democracy is in peril, what it might mean to cut off the cross-border flow of electricity in a trade war and what a Canadian product truly is, this documentary series (up for best factual series) that came out last fall provides a useful zoom out to consider the control and cost of essential resources from a global perspective. The four-part series covers energy, food, transportation and land – and demonstrates how precarious the supply chains of civilization really are. This is public television that definitely feels like public television – well researched, presented without flash and neutral in tone. Though TVO is owned by Ontarians, the public broadcaster’s content is accessible across the country.
My Dead Mom, Crave
My Dead Mom on Crave is a dark comedy that explores the long tail of grief and how the pandemic hindered that process.Crave/Supplied
Created by Wendy Litner (How to Buy a Baby) and directed by Chandler Levack (I Like Movies), this seven-part series focuses on thirtysomething Emmy (Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Lauren Collins) who finds herself haunted by her overbearing, highly critical mother, Fern (Megan Follows), three years after her death from cancer. The dark comedy explores the long tail of grief – and how the pandemic hindered that process for many – and its best scenes involve Emmy interacting with her understanding brothers, beautifully played by Daniel Maslany and David Reale. When it first landed on Crave in the fall in seven shortish episodes of uneven length (anywhere from 10 to 18 minutes), I had a hard time with the casting of Anne of Green Gables herself as a Jewish mother who was very, very, very stereotypical. But a) I’m a gentile so who am I to say and b) those who like it, like it a lot, as evidenced by the fact it leads CSA digital media categories with eight nominations.
Geek Girl, StackTV
Geek Girl is a 10-part British-Canadian adaptation of Holly Smale’s 2013 popular young-adult novel of the same name.Ray Burmiston/Netflix/Supplied
TV for kids and teens is traditionally one of Canada’s strong suits – and, indeed, this YTV show hit the top 10 of the Netflix charts last spring and ended up in the top 1 per cent of most-viewed shows on the streamer globally in the first half of 2024. Based on Holly Smale’s 2013 popular young-adult novel of the same name, this British-Canadian 10-part adaptation follows a shy and awkward 16-year-old Brit named Harriet Manners (Emily Carey from House of Dragon) who is scouted to become a model at London Fashion Week and experiences gentle struggles with the jealousy of friends, a crush on a male supermodel and her own neurodivergence. You might not even realize Geek Girl was co-produced by Toronto’s Aircraft Pictures and Nelvana if it weren’t for a pair of episodes shot in that noted fashion hotspot, Ottawa; there’s a sweet, romantic sharing of a Beavertail by the locks of the Rideau Canal and a prominent cameo from Louise Bourgeois’s Maman outside the National Gallery. Up for best children’s or youth fiction program or series.