Patrick J. Adams stars in CBC’s new drama ‘Plan B,’ a fitting followup to his ‘Suits’ stint

There are a couple of different types of time travel going on in new TV drama “Plan B”: the make-believe type that happens in a van that drives backwards, and the kind that stars Patrick J. Adams and Karine Vanasse had to do in their heads on set.

The CBC series, which debuts Monday, about a man who uses time travel to try to save his relationship, required a lot of mental time jumps by Adams and Vanasse. And that was harder than you might think.

“We shot on location (in) a limited amount of time,” explained Adams, the Toronto-raised actor who is probably best known for “Suits,” in which, yes, he starred opposite Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex.

“So we’d shoot everything at the office (location) and everything at the house and everything at the apartment. And that meant that on any given day you’re shooting 10-plus scenes but from different timelines,” he said in a Zoom interview.

“It’s like, in this timeline have we already had this conversation? Have we had this fight yet? So it’s not just physically demanding the way that most productions are these days, but it was also just trying to keep track of where we are and charting the course through the emotional trajectory of the show.”

And that was important because the emotional arc of the series holds far more significance than the time travel part.

In the first few minutes of the first episode, we see the instantaneous, powerful connection between aspiring lawyer Philip (Adams) and aspiring musician Evelyn (Vanasse) when they’re introduced by her brother Patrick (François Arnaud).

When we meet them again six years later, Evelyn might still be the love of Phil’s life, but he’s so consumed by their home renovations, propping up his alcoholic brother (Joshua Close) and landing a big contract for his struggling law firm that Evelyn is no longer top of mind.

So she leaves and Phil, drowning his sorrows at a bar, spots a flyer in the men’s room that reads: “Need a second chance? Too many regrets? Get the ultimate escape with Plan B.”

After he drunkenly calls the phone number, punches in his credit card number and answers some questions for the perky automated attendant, twins show up at his door the next day — in identical black suits, platinum Mohawks and impassive expressions — and toss him into the back of a white van that drives backwards and takes him two days into the past.

The whole sequence lasts about 20 seconds.

The trip back resolves some things but also creates unexpected developments, which lead to more trips and more outcomes that Philip can’t control.

“There’s a certain surrealistic part of it,” said Jean-François Asselin, who co-created the series as well as the French-language version that preceded it in 2017.

He said he and co-creator Jacques Drolet wanted the time travel device to be “so absurd and so fast that the viewer will have to be with us on that.” But mainly, the series is about a man going back in time because he thinks it will fix everything, only to realize that every choice has consequences.

“I thought it was so brilliant,” added executive producer Louis Morissette, who not only produced the French version but starred in it. “There was something really special about it where people could relate. There are so many times in your life that you’re asking yourself, ‘What if I had made different choices? Met different people at different times in my life?’”

But the jumping back and forth in time aspect of “Plan B” meant it took seven years to sell the pitch the first time around.

“People were interested in the pitch, liked the idea, but when they were reading the scripts, at first they … thought that people would be lost in translation,” said Morissette. “So that’s where I kept on fighting and saying, ‘No, it will work, just believe me.’”

Vanasse, a Quebec actor known for the American show “Revenge” and the made-in-Ontario drama “Cardinal,” was a believer.

“I saw the original version when it came out in Quebec and, as a viewer, it’s seamless,” she said. “You’re just transported through that story, but you don’t feel everything that Patrick has been describing … you don’t think about all these little details of, ‘Oh, at that moment he’s supposed to know that, but he doesn’t know about that future decision that he will have to make.’

“The story takes you and you just follow it.”

For Adams, who has also appeared in series including “Friday Night Lights,” “Flashforward,” “Orphan Black,” “Legends of Tomorrow” and “The Right Stuff” (as astronaut John Glenn), following Morissette in the role of Philip was daunting but also comforting.

“What was special and helpful about it was having somebody who had also been through shooting something like this as fast as you have to shoot it. It’s a marathon that you have to run …

“Day one, before we started shooting, he was like, ‘Are you ready?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready. I’m good to go. I love working hard.’ I saw the look in his eyes. He’s like, ‘This is tough, what you’re about to do.’”

In fact, Morissette and Asselin had a bet that it would take five days on set for Adams to ask them if they were crazy.

“I think it was Day 15 of production I pulled JF (Asselin) aside and I was like, ‘JF, this is crazy,’” Adams said. “And he was like, ‘I’m impressed you made it to Day 15.’”

The biggest challenge, in Asselin’s view, was for Adams and Vanasse to “create that believable couple and create a chemistry really quickly (so) that we root for them … And I think they did an amazing job.”

Debra Yeo is a deputy editor and a contributor to the Star’s Entertainment section. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @realityeo

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