The mind-bending, heart-rending sci-fi drama returns with a whole new cast and a whole new story of one cop’s futile attempts to turn back the clock and save a life
The platinum-haired twins with their time-travelling white van are back for a second trip. After a first season that followed young businessman Phillip (played by Suits’ Patrick J. Adams) as he struggled to use the mysterious “Plan B” service to jump back in time and save his relationship, CBC’s poignant drama resets with a new lead character, offered the same tantalizing yet inherently fraught opportunity.
This time, it is police officer Mia Coleman (Vinessa Antoine) who discovers the ability to alter the future by going back into a not-so-distant past. When Mia and her partner Tyler (Patrick Emmanuel Abellard, who reprises his role from the French-speaking version of the anthology series) intervene in a domestic dispute between Paul (Vincent Leclerc, who also reprises his role) and Keri (Sarah Booth), it nevertheless ends in tragedy. When Mia comes across Plan B, she thinks she has found the tools to avoid the incident altogether.
But, as we have discovered in past time travel narratives, changing the past is really an exercise in introspection. “I think, at the beginning, Mia is hyper-focused on changing the crime that she feels she is responsible for, and she feels a need to protect the people and get the bad guy and make sure this crime doesn’t happen,” says Antoine. “Over time, she starts to realize that there are some things within her that need changing — and perhaps there are things about her that are very similar to the person that’s committing the crime.”
The in-real-life more cheerful Antoine, best known for her roles on Being Erica and Diggstown, was in the case of Mia drawn to her character’s anguish. “I latched onto her pain,” she says. “The writing was so compelling, and it felt so personal and so authored — and, at the same time, I connected with it and knew people in my life that I could draw from.” And despite the short timeframe in which the show operates, Mia goes on quite the journey. “She goes through such a big change,” says Antoine. “In the beginning, she is dealing with a lot of anger, a lot of unresolved past trauma that she hasn’t taken a look at. We’re seeing the totality of her life. We see her as a child and then she ends as a grown woman — and she’s a completely different way. By the end, she is beginning to understand that she can’t change anything except herself.”
Science fiction may be a great selling point, but to executive producer and star of the original Québécois version, Louis Morissette, this show is more of a character study than a tech exploration. “Plan B explores different aspects of a psychological journey,” he says. “It asks the question to people at home: ‘What would you do? How would you react if you had the chance to have this Plan B?’ So, the [narrative] device brings the psychological journey elsewhere, hopefully.” Even the time travel apparatus is something the masterminds behind the show hope viewers find funny. “I don’t like sci-fi when it’s about the sci-fi machine,” says creator Jean-Franois Asselin “We tried to find a simpler version, and it almost becomes a bit of a joke. You call that number and two twins come to your door, throw you in the van, the van goes backwards, and that’s it! For us, it was kind of a way to say to the viewer, ‘Let’s go in the van together.’”
By design, each season has a new cast and a different tone, with as little overlap as possible. “Each time, we get to renew ourselves and we get to go somewhere else,” says Asselin. “As a writer, that’s the challenge we give ourselves every year — make sure we don’t repeat ourselves. Otherwise, we will stop.” Furthermore, Asselin likes that this format allows a viewer to jump in at any point — noting that the story told in season two of this English adaptation was actually the basis for season three of the French show. “You can have not watched season one and step into season two, and you’re going to understand it,” he says. “Maybe for those that saw the season before, we give little [nods] — but that’s it. If you watch it in order, you’re going to get more stuff, but I think both ways work.”
The series, for those involved in its creative process, has become a bit of an existential exercise, that in turn has been passed on to viewers in the different countries where Plan B has been adapted: What, if anything, would you go back and change? “I thought about it all the time,” says Antoine with a laugh. “I still think about it. I wouldn’t go back to a place where I could be at risk of not getting married and having my babies. But I would go back and maybe play the lottery, make some investments. It’s tough — even when you think about going back and maybe not starting a relationship with this person, or not doing this particular move or business venture, it inevitably is a domino effect and potentially could change everything in your life.”
Plan B, streaming Sunday, August 11, on CBC Gem