Son of a Critch, Canada’s most popular sitcom, had a problem in 2025. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who plays young Mark Critch circa 1990-ish, had grown into a teen sensation.
First, HBO Max hired him to work a few episodes of House of the Dragon. Then there was a little project, based on a Nintendo videogame, called The Legend of Zelda (premiering next April). Ainsworth, who turns 18 Sept. 25, nabbed the starring role as Link.
My kids, now both in their thirties, ate, drank and slept Link as adolescents. This is a big deal; I have the cosplay photos to prove it.
Not wanting to hold up Ainsworth’s career, Mark Critch pushed the return of his pride and joy, Son of a Critch, back one entire season — the fifth and final season. All to work around Ainsworth’s schedule. The first of 12 new episodes premieres tonight on CBC and can also be seen on CBC Gem.
That is a big consession, but Critch had to do it. What else could he do — replace Ainsworth with Jonathan Torrens? Son of a Critch, as fans know by now, is about Mark’s own path to showbiz success. Having turned Ainsworth into a star, he could hardly deny the lad his own big break or two.
Earlier this year therefore, the cast and crew reassembled in St. John’s, Newfoundland, for a final dozen shows crammed into a hurry-up schedule. The first new episode, “The Regatta,” airs Tuesday night. The Regatta to St. John’s is sort of like the CNE in Toronto — a late summer outdoor fest where beer and hot dogs and even baloney are all part of a sacred ritual. There are sculling races on the water and crowds of people on the shore and field. I had a first hand view of it two years ago when I was invited to St. John’s to witness production of Season Four of this series.
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Really what I saw was how the folks who make this show, and the local community, embrace it and revel in it. I saw a residential street sealed off to local traffic to shoot a house party. In Toronto there would be cones, cops and bitter neighbours. In St. John’s, it was all part of the party.
Written by Critch and directed by John Vatcher, The Regatta finds the Critch family all in on the annual event — all but young Mark, who tries to sleep in as Seals and Krofts’ “Summer Dreams” plays in the background. Nonsense says local radio news legend Mike Critch (played by Mark), who gives his lazy son of a Critch a job as the Wild Bologna mascot.
Never mind that there never really was a Wild Balogna mascot back when Mark the writer and actor was Mark the dreamer. Balogna is part of the “Skreeched in” cult down east, right up there with kissing a Cod. Anyway, the girl who was supposed to wear the pink mascot suit was too drunk for duty, so, promised fifty bucks, young Mark is skreeched into the suit.
There is a brief fantasy scene in this episode, which somehow evokes Silence of the Lambs. It is part of the point that being a human baloney is not baloney, it is serious.
“You know what’s in a baloney?” dad Mike asks young Mark. “Lips and arseholes?” guesses Mark. “Guts” says his dad.
It takes guts to be a weiner. Mascot Mark gets battered by bullies, humiliated in front of his girlfriend Fox (Sophia Powers) and attacked by a German Shepherd (played by one of the stars of Hudson & Rex, which also shoots in St. John’s). Could this show get any more Canadian?
Pops (Malcolm McDowell) is up to his old tricks, putting thr fix on an archade game. Mother Mary (Claire Rankin), casn’t get anybody to kiss the cod at her booth but finds another way to fish folks in.
By the end of the episode, there is the usual moral of the story, as articulated by dad Mike: “The rewards you actually earn taste all the sweeter.” Written and delivered by Mark Critch, who finally got his final season started. He did it with his cast and crew of hard working friends all doing what they love — all guts, no baloney.
