Revisiting a TV Favorite: Being Erica

Throughout August, I spent time rewatching the four seasons of the Canadian comedy-drama Being Erica, which aired its first three seasons here in the United States on the now defunct cable network SOAPnet. While the fourth season of the series aired in Canada, North American audiences missed out on what would become the show’s final season.

Ironically, the show was never “officially cancelled” by its home network in Canada – CBC Television – but the show’s creator, Jana Sinyor, told TV Guide while the 4th season was airing (back in 2011) that the show “had reached a natural conclusion” and she (Jana) had “no plans” to write or produce a fifth season. Luckily for viewers, the final episode of season four brought the lead character to a good place in her life, which was very different from how the show started.

Being Erica focused on Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk, who went on to star in the Canada series Holly Hobbie and was a recurring character in the ABC tearjerker series A Million Little Things),who was 32 year-old, single, Jewish, and well-educated. But, she was an underachiever who has been perennially unlucky in her career and her love life. After accidentally consuming a drink with hazelnut flavouring, to which she was allergic, she woke up in the hospital and met Dr. Tom (Michael Riley), who claimed that he could help her fix everything that was not going well in her life. Although initially reluctant, she soon learned that what he was offering was the ability to go back in time to relive and even change her deepest regrets.

NOTE: It should be noted that Erin won the Gemini Award (basically the Emmy Awards in Canada) for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role for her role in Being Erica in 2009.

Thus started the journey for Erica Strange over four seasons of coming to terms with the regrets in her life; much of the time changing certain events in her past – not always for the better but sometimes so – and eventually moving on to group therapy and then becoming a doctor herself. The show literally brought Erica full circle, taking on the job of becoming Dr. Erica. [You’ll have to watch the four seasons of the show to learn how that all happened.]

RELATED: Being Erica

From 2009 to 2011, Being Erica included among its cast members those in Erica’s family including:

* Gary Strange, her dad played by John Boylan, a former hippie and marijuana enthusiast-turned rabbi;

* Barbara Strange, her mom played by Kathleen Laskey, with whom Erica had a pretty rocky and tenuou relationship; although that did improve over the seasons;

* Samantha “Sam” Strange, her younger sister played by Joanna Douglas, a surgeon who was married for a time to recurring character Josh McIntosh, but after their divorce she became domestic partners with Lenin Crosby (played Brandon Jay McLaren who went on to appear in shows like Graceland, Falling Skies, Ransom and The Rookie), with whom she had her first child, a boy named Leo (named after his uncle);

* Leo Strange, her older brother played by Devon Bostick (who went on to appear in The 100 and the Netflix Arnold Schwarzenegger-led series FUBAR), who the family lost in a tragic fire 13 years prior.

Then there were Erica’s friends:

* Ethan Wakefield (played by Tyron Leitso), her best friend since their days at University, who ended up marrying (then divorcing) his college sweetheart Claire LeDuc (Laurence Leboeuf, who can currently be seen in the Canadian medical drama Transplant). He was a 4th grade school teacher and ended up being Erica’s love interest until the end of season two;

* Judith Winter (played by Vinessa Antoine, who went on to star in General Hospital and Diggstown), her best friend since high school. She was an attorney, was married to Anthony and mom to baby Max;

* Jennifer “Jenny” Zalen (played by Paula Brancati), who was one of her closest friends since childhood, despite a very bumpy road in their friendship later in life. She was flirtatious, a bit immature and far too keen on partygoing, but she turned her life around and won back her friendship with Erica, becoming a real estate agent.

* Julianne Giacomelli (played by Reagan Pasternak), who started out as her overbearing boss and nemesis, but soon became her business partner and one of her closest friends;

* Kai Booker (played by Sebastian Pigott), who was a barista and server at the local coffee shop, who ended up being a time traveler – just like Erica – and was her on-again, off-again love interest over the course of the show’s latter seasons;

* Adam Fitzpatrick (played by Adam Fergus), who was a former enforcer for a loan shark turned landscape architect, but was also one of the people in Erica’s group therapy. He went on to become Erica’s main love interest, who she ended up preparing to move in with in the show’s final episode.

Other notable recurring characters in the show were:

* Dr. Fred (played by Dewshane Williams, who went on to appear in Defiance, In the Dark and a number of holiday movies), who was Kai’s therapist;

* Dr. Arthur (played by the one and only Graham Greene), who seemed to be the supervisor of the other therapists – although that was never fully explained;

* Rebecca (played by Melanie Scrofano, who went on to star in the lead role in Wynonna Earp), who was one of the other people in Erica’s group therapy;

* Brent Kennedy (played by Morgan Kelly, who went on to recur in the sci-fi series Killjoys), who was Julianne’s former assistant-turne book editor-turned nemesis to Erica and Julianne then became not only an editor at the business that Julianne and Erica opened together but also Julianne’s current boyfriend;

* Antigone Kim Morris (played by Mayko Nguyen, who is a current cast member of the Canadian police series Hudson & Rex), who was Erica’s Universtiy nemesis;

Cassidy Holland (played by Anna Silk, who went on to star in the lead role in the sci-fi series Lost Girl), who was a very close friend of Erica during their University days;

* Rachel (played by Jadyn Wong, who went on to star in the CBS hit series Scorpion), who was the admin person at Julianne and Erica’s business and became an editorial assistant for them;

* Ryan (played by Dillon Casey, who went on to appear in Nikita, the medical drama Remedy, Designated Survivor and the sci-fi series Another Life), who was her on-again, off-again boyfriend in the earlier seasons;

* And, last but not least, Sarah Wexler (played by the one and only Tatiana Maslany, who, of course, went on to star in Orphan Black and was recently the lead in She Hulk), who played Dr. Tom’s long-missing, heroin-addicted daughter, who would eventually become Erica’s first patient (like I said Erica’s life came full circle, going from patient of Dr. Tom’s to becoming a doctor herself, and then helping Dr. Tom’s daughter).

If you get the chance to binge watch anything (since fall TV is pretty much non-existent this season), make sure to check out the 55-episodes of Being Erica on Hulu.

In the meantime, you can check out a promo trailer for Being Erica from when it was set to debut on Canadian TV here: