From The Chronicle Herald:
Jonathan Torrens host and winner at Screen Nova Scotia awards
Jonathan Torrens, host of the inaugural Screen Nova Scotia awards, was also a winner at the ceremony, earning the best male supporting actor nod for his role as the vice-principal in Mr. D.
Screen Nova Scotia, ACTRA Maritimes and IATSE 667 & 849 presented the awards at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax Saturday night. Continue reading.
“I may not have won MasterChef Canada, but I definitely was the best-looking throughout.” And with that, the series said goodbye to Michael, one of the most compelling and entertaining characters in the franchise.
In the early stages of this season, Michael was painted as the villain, a well-dressed home cook with high-end tastes who looked down on his small-town competitors. But as with all reality TV, the story is all in the editing; as Season 2 has progressed Michael not only was shown to be a likeable dude but a valuable team player to have in your corner. Unfortunately, it all came to an end on Sunday after a raw piece of fried chicken resulted in him hanging up his apron for good. It was a shame, really, because Michael would have been great as a finalist. Still, I’m sure we’ll see him as a sous chef for the two competitors who do go into the finale on May 24.
Luckily, Michael was able to show off his skills in a professional kitchen, as “Fine Dining Under Fire” began with the Top 6 ascending 54 storeys to cook in Canoe, Michael Bonacini’s landmark restaurant. It was there the Blue Team led by Cody and with David and Christopher on board faced off against Line captaining the Red Team with Michael and Sabrina.
The results were eerily similar to Season 1’s venture to Claudio Aprile’s Origins: both teams struggled early before getting into a groove and serving up respectable plates to the 60-odd seated in the restaurant. Cody took a more collaborative approach to his leadership and the Blue Team flourished, finishing their service with just a couple of blips. The Red Team never recovered from a slow start and Sabrina stepped in to lead when Line got overwhelmed. It got so bad that Chef Bonacini donned his whites and got in there to help out.
That, paired with plating that was a little off, handed the win to Cody, David and Christopher and sent Michael, Line and Sabrina to the Elimination Challenge, to prepare fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans in just 45 minutes. And though Michael’s chicken breast was the best of the bunch, that raw leg was his undoing.
Next week the finalists get teary when their families drop by for support and to cheer them on.
Notes and quotes
MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.
From Jim Slotek of Postmedia Network:
Jonathan Torrens scores with new YTV series with Daily Show’s Samantha Bee
“Are you a fan of the Norwegian original?†Jonathan Torrens says, straight-faced, before breaking into a smirk.
I’m guessing virtually no one who’s not Norwegian has seen Kampen, the show that inspired YTV’s live-action series Game On with Torrens and Samantha Bee. In it, a 14-year-old boy (Grayson Gurnsey) has play-by-play delivered on his life by an unseen male-female anchor team. Continue reading.
MasterChef Canada, CTV – “Fine Dining Under Fire”
The Top 6 home cooks confront their most difficult team challenge: the Restaurant Takeover. The pressure is raised considerably when the teams learn that the professional kitchen they’re taking over is one of the finest in the country, and belongs to MASTERCHEF CANADA judge Michael Bonacini – Oliver & Bonacini’s Canoe. The losing team then faces a Pressure Test featuring a familiar comfort food that is deceptively difficult to master.
Motive, CTV – “Best Enemies”
Detectives Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman), Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira), and Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny) investigate a murder case in which a photographer, known for his sleazy treatment of women, is the prime suspect. Their efforts to solve the case are impeded by Internal Investigations Sergeant Gavin Saunders (David Lewis, Man of Steel), who interviews Sergeant Cross (Warren Christie), Lucas, and Vega about Angie and her methods.
Big Brother Canada, Global
The houseguests face nomination in tonight’s episode of Big Brother Canada.
Almost four years after becoming a cord cutter, I finally bought an over the air antenna. Until then I’d been subsisting on a diet of Netflix, screeners, network websites, streaming videos from my computer, the kindness of friends, iTunes and Xbox video purchases. My TV habits had quickly turned to binge watching series once they were finally available to me, or catching up next day, and I found to my surprise that it wasn’t a great hardship to give up on shows that aren’t easily accessible to me.
But finally, earlier this year, I decided to replace the antenna I’d had to return back when I first cut the cord, after it started smoking when plugged in — a feature I felt unnecessary.
A friend’s recommendation and then reviews led me to select the Winegard FL5500A FlatWave Amplified Razor Thin HDTV Indoor Antenna. Easily assembled and nearly paper-thin, it sticks on a window, wall, or other flat surface, with either the white or the black side exposed. Plugged in, it offers me seven high definition channels with clear and consistent reception. I get CBC, CTV, CTV 2, Global, City, Radio-Canada and, I think, OMNI. This means I can get various seasons of Murdoch Mysteries nearly 24 hours a day in 2 official languages as well as a wide selection of commercials punctuated by some shows.
If I lived elsewhere I could get US network signals as well, but since Canadian networks love nothing better than to simulcast US programming, I don’t feel the loss. I still sometimes forget I have live TV now, but I’ve been able to watch the Oscars, The Voice, and The Good Wife live and so all is well in my world.
About a month after I purchased my own OTA antenna, Antennas Direct offered to send us a couple of ClearStream antennas to test. Their Micron XG is just as easy to assemble, compact and can sit relatively unobtrusively on a shelf — and gets me the same number of channels as my Winegard. The decision between them, then, was purely a matter of aesthetic preference.
The ClearStream 2V can be used as an indoor antenna as well, but it’s primarily designed for outdoor use and promises the greatest number of channels. Outdoor mounting is impractical for me so when I opened the box and saw the bulk of the antenna, and couldn’t get past the first step of assembly without tearing my hair out, I abandoned the effort. (ClearStream has a toll free number for help but I didn’t think they could do much about “how in the world can I make that contraption fit with my decor?”)
I also have added another tool to my cord cutting arsenal: Chromecast. A thumb-sized media streaming device attaches to an HDMI port on the TV and plugs in, then with a quick setup it can stream from apps, the Chrome browser or from iOS or Android devices. I haven’t played with this as much as I expected, since most of the apps and online streaming are available to me in via my Xbox (which came with my Internet contract), either through the apps or by the video player networked to my laptop. Still, I love how portable the Chromecast dongle is for travel, perhaps, and look forward to experimenting further.
I still intend to see what’s available once cable companies begin offering skinny basic and pick and pay, but with all these gizmos available to me, I feel less and less tempted to uncut the cord.
Do you want one of my test antennas? Comment with your own TV-watching solutions and indicate which of the ClearStream antennas you’d like: the Micron XG or the ClearStream 2V. I’ll draw a winner for each one randomly on May 15 at 5 pm PT.
