Each episode of Wild Cards is inspired by an iconic show or film: Can you guess them all?
CBC crime drama creator Michael Konyves promises that the show ‘is never going to be boring’
CBC's must-watch crime drama Wild Cards is back for a second season and we can't wait to see what happens next.
Our favourite by-the-book detective Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) and spirited con woman Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan) return, each using their unique skills to solve crimes in an unlikely partnership.
The premise of Wild Cards may feel familiar because it draws inspiration from the classic 1982 film, 48 Hours, where a renegade cop, played by Nick Nolte, teams up with a robber, portrayed by Eddie Murphy, to take down criminals. It was one of the most successful films of its time and earned Murphy a Golden Globe Award nomination.
While honouring the film, Wild Cards puts its own spin to the dynamic, featuring a female con and introduces romantic tension between its lead characters.
Keen-eyed viewers will notice that each episode of Wild Cards is inspired by an iconic film or TV show from the past.
Showrunner and creator Michael Konyves says they provide a fun entry point into familiar worlds. "Our first episode [from Season 2], is our Fast and Furious episode where we go into the world of illegal street racing."
When a getaway driver is killed in a high-speed chase linked to a string of recent robberies, Max and Ellis go undercover as a street-racing team where they meet a young couple dealing with a very real family situation. High stakes, fast chases and racing robberies round out a thrilling episode where Max gets to drive a badass fast car!
Konyves is an award-winning Canadian screenwriter who created the Netflix Original series, Bad Blood and wrote the feature film Barney's Version.
"What's great about it is we get to dip into all these different genres and that keeps us on our toes. We don't want to repeat them. And we don't need to. There's countless amounts of things to draw inspiration from," he says.
From Knives Out to The Devil Wears Prada and Yellowstone, these playful homages allow the team to experiment with storylines with a fresh, yet familiar approach. Says Konyves, "Even though you haven't seen it before, it feels like you kind of have, but in a good way."
This approach also allows the show to span diverse locations, play with a range of storylines and bring in a star-studded selection of guest stars over the season.
"As an actor, it's fun because it just makes every episode feel different," says actor Giacomo Gianniotti, who plays Ellis. Most procedurals, he says repeat their visual language, "going in the same alleys with smoke coming out of the sewer grate, finding a dead body.
"Our show looks completely different in every episode. We're in a different world, different characters, different costumes." With each episode inspired by a different genre, he hopes fans have fun trying to spot the Easter eggs.
Wild Cards is a procedural drama — each episode tells a complete story, allowing viewers to dip in and out of the series without committing to the entire season. But regular watchers are rewarded with a series-long story arc where the puzzle pieces revealed along the way culminate into one grand con.
At the end of Season 1, Max cajoled the police into helping her swipe a $33 million egg from her estranged husband Olivier, who also happens to be the man responsible for landing Max's father behind bars. Olivier's capture earned Ellis his badge back and reduced Max's father's prison sentence. But in an Ocean's Eleven twist, it's revealed that Max had been eyeing the egg for months and planned to skip town after swapping it out with a fake.
According to Konyves, reaction to the series has been overwhelmingly positive — the show has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a platform that aggregates film and television reviews. Now that Season 2 of Wild Cards has dropped on CBC Gem, are you planning to dive in and uncover all the past cultural references?
Here are some of the inspirations used: Fast and Furious, Succession, Yellowstone, Rear Window, Challengers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, A Haunting Vin enice, Knives Out, Die Hard, Phone Booth, Best in Show, Real Housewives, The Fabulous Baker Boys.
"Life is hard and life is busy, and the last thing you want is your entertainment to feel like a chore." says Konyves. "Our job is to make sure that we're putting out this kind of show that is never going to be boring no matter what."
Watch Wild Cards on CBC Gem now.
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