STAT and Reasonable Doubt already renewed

Before diving into the third season of the breathtaking thriller Reasonable doubt from Radio-Canada, here are some gifts to unwrap, taken straight from the red pocket – and not blue, thank God – of good old Santa Claus.

First, actress Suzanne Clément signed a new contract to play in the third season of STAT on Radio-Canada, scheduled for next fall. When this daily medical series was launched in September 2022, Suzanne Clément, who plays the energetic emergency doctor Emmanuelle St-Cyr, had only signed for two seasons.

This actress, winner of a Gémeaux trophy for her compelling role in STAT, is rarely linked to television projects over a long period. Hence his brief stint of one year, no more, in Unit 9 in the guise of the sexy and provocative prisoner Shandy Galarneau.

Then, Radio-Canada renewed Reasonable doubt for a fourth season even before the third hits the airwaves.

It goes to show that the public broadcaster loves, like us, this police thriller, which gets better from year to year and which stars Julie Perreault and Marc-André Grondin. I tell you about it (with passion and detail) in two paragraphs.

Finally, here is another star who will knock on the doors of the house-studio of Big Brother Celebrities from Noovo on January 7: Charles Hamelin, 39 years old, ex-short track speed skater and four-time Olympic champion, reports to me from spies.

Charles Hamelin, who did not respond to my interview requests, hung up his skates in spring 2022. The queen mother of Rouge FM, Véronique Cloutier, should confirm his identity on her show Veronica and the Fantastic this week, I am told.

Back to Reasonable doubt 3, which starts on Monday, January 8 at 9 p.m., the action picks up shortly after last year’s finale, where investigator Fred (Marc-André Grondin) caught his colleague Alice (Julie Perreault) in the act of webcam olé olé, hello Desirinda! Now, no more naughtiness: Detective Sergeant Alice Martin-Sommer throws away her erotic material and erases her electronic traces, but you guess that a serious addiction to flirting with a “cam girl” doesn’t disappear by turning off the computer . Another obsession will replace it. But which ?

At the Investigation Group on Sexual Crimes (the famous GICCS), a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student, Aida Roussel (Victoria Leblanc), claims to have been raped by four classmates, including the “nice” Manuel Roy (Samuel Gauthier). Story already seen?

No way. Screenwriter Pierre-Marc Drouin revisits the fateful evening, camped in a university residence, by changing the points of view two and even three times, which immerses the viewer in a state of constant doubt, hence the title of this captivating series criminal. It’s skillfully done.

The great investigation of Reasonable doubt 3 concerns a psychopath who attacks joggers, in the middle of the night, in a park that resembles that of Mount Royal. The “phantom” maniac knocks them out and attacks them, leaving no clues or traces of DNA. Crucial detail: all the runners raped are racialized women.

The mystery around Alice, which explains her coldness, her perversions and her fear of intimacy, will dissipate in this third opus of Reasonable doubt. At the end of the first episode, Alice does what she has never done before: she meets, in the flesh, a man who upsets her. His name is Rémy Deblois (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) and he works as a real estate agent. So confident and in control at work, Alice loses all her means in the personal sphere. She becomes clumsy, shy and unstable. Yes, Alice gives pleasure to men, hidden behind a mask and a screen, but is she capable of receiving it in “real life”, without artifice?

This is where we take Reasonable doubtin addition to exploring other complex cases, and that promises.

Big gala, small numbers

The cinema marquee decor was magnificent and the host Jay Du Temple, agile, not too acidic and benevolent. And despite a confusing introductory vignette, the 25^e Gala Québec Cinéma was not razor sharp, unlike the painful previous years, but its audience ratings continued to plummet.

Sunday evening, barely 308,000 diehards watched this ceremony lasting more than 2 hours 20 minutes, which could and should have been tightened, especially since only 12 metal RoboCop shins were put back (Iris, in the language of the trade).

This is 160,000 fewer people than the last Gala Québec Cinéma (468,000 viewers), broadcast by Radio-Canada in June 2022. The public broadcaster pulled the plug on the cinema festival a few months later, before Bell Media (Noovo) and the government of Quebec, which injected $600,000, resurrected it and moved it to mid-December.

Noovo’s most popular Sunday show was Christmas Eve Big Brother Celebrities with its 442,000 addicts, a lower score than the final ofDouble occupancy Andalusia (488,000).

TVA took first place on Sunday with its episode filmed behind the scenes of Masked singers (1,052,000).

On the Radio-Canada side, 807,000 followers took communion at the Mass of Everybody talks about it. And can you believe people denounced the presence of the three dog “parents” from the show’s final segment?

It’s ridiculous to spend so much money on an animal whore! Quebecers are starving during this time. Calm down, let’s see. We can easily love four-legged animals and feel compassion for the most deprived. It’s not “doggie” anything in life.