Returning for a second season, Haven
is a Showcase Original series about a somewhat haunted female FBI agent and some super-strange shenanigans in small-town Maine. It also stands as one of the all-time most unique and audacious adaptations of the works of Stephen King. Loosely based on the horror master’s 2005 unsolved-crime novella The Colorado Kid
, the series’ creative first season cooked up a secondary level of psychic mysteries — an entire town’s worth — to surround the original story of King’s ‘Kid,’ an unidentified adult male whose body washed up on Haven’s shore two decades ago. Season one ended with the town’s ‘troubles’ being (mostly) explained, but the process of resolving various puzzle pieces uncovered a whole new problem: Not only is it likely that FBI Agent Audrey Parker has all-along been related to the Colorado Kid, but she also might not actually be FBI Agent Audrey Parker in the first place. Confusing yet captivating? Of course it is. After all, it’s Haven. Welcome back, you’d better sit down for this.---------------------------------------
HAVEN, Season 2 - Blog #1:
All's Still Weird That Ended Weird: A Brand-New Season in Haven
by Gary Butler
Dear Haven, so glad to see you made it back alive. Because if you didn’t, I was going to kill you. (But I’d never leave you!)
Actually, the way Haven’s first season ended, I was wondering if anyone ever really left the place, save in a casket. Season 2 premieres tonight on Showcase. The confluence of psychic phenomena in the town whose full name is “Haven for God’s Orphans” -- which only further raises the question of identity, central to not just lead character Audrey Parker but, ultimately, every one of Haven’s ‘troubled’ misfits -- was nothing short of staggering. Clearly everyone had congregated there for a reason. And as for portentously titling the final episode of the first season “Spiral” [WATCH IT AGAIN HERE]: Haven gave us plenty of escapism, but did not give its characters an escape.
So, this spring, I did what any loyal fan would do: I found out where Haven was being filmed -- Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, and surrounding areas -- and headed down to the set to find out what I could do to help honourable thief Duke Crocker, nigh-invulnerable policeman Nathan Wournos, and psychic-friendly FBI Agent Audrey Parker. Well, I was mostly interested in Audrey, actually.
Haven is like any other small town in terms of guarding its secrets from outsiders, which is why it has taken so long to resolve (resolution’s still pending, mind) the core story based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid. But little did I suspect that Haven was like any other small town in another very particular way: IT WAS GOSSIP CENTRAL. Maybe they were just happy to see some “new blood,” or maybe I really am the charmer that mom always told me I’d grow up to be... No, it was the new blood thing.
Regardless, I met and spoke with Haven’s three main actors/characters:
Emily Rose/Audrey Parker
Lucas Bryant/Nathan Wournos
Eric Balfour/Duke Crocker
And I met and spoke with Haven’s two new actors/characters:
Jason Priestley/Chris Weekly
Vinessa Antoine/Evidence “Evi” Ryan
As this blog rolls out over the course of this season, I’ll share boatloads of that gossip with you, including:
--What Emily actually believes
--Duke’s superpower
--Why Lucas is funnier than Emily (according to Lucas)
--Who has read The Colorado Kid
--How Haven happened in the first place, and how long it could go on for
Again, the show (re)starts tonight, picking up where the finale wrapped -- with a second, and entirely different, FBI Agent Audrey Parker arriving on the scene. Did I get to the bottom of that when I visited Nova Scotia? I sure did. Here’s a single-word clue for those of you eager Hav’ers out there savvy enough to read this blog before the show airs: FRAUDREY. Confused yet captivated? Of course you are. After all, this is Haven. Aren’t you glad to be back?
And now... a contest!
If you need to catch up on Season 1 of the show, you can stream it in our video centre or buy it on iTunes. You can also ENTER TO WIN one of five copies of the Season 1 DVD set, courtesy of Entertainment One by telling us the original, full name of the fictional town known as Haven, Maine. E-mail us at webmaster@showcase.ca with your full name, address, and "HAVEN DVD" in the subject header and we'll pick five winners at random. Good luck!
(Click here for full rules and regulations.)