All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.

Preview: Blood, Sweat & Tools celebrates DIY disasters

I was a little confused when the first few seconds of Discovery’s latest home building competition, Blood, Sweat & Tools—debuting Monday on Discovery—started to roll. As the narrator explained, the most inept handymen and women had been collected from across the country to compete in construction challenges. Um, hadn’t this already been done by Andrew Younghusband and Discovery on Canada’s Worst Handyman?

Like that show, competitors have weeks to improve their skills in hammering, nailing, sawing and building. Also like Handyman, the competitors are judged on their work by three experts in Rob Koci of Canadian Contractor magazine; fourth-generation tradesman and carpenter, Helder Brum; and power tool expert Hillary Manion, who deem who gets to stick around in the competition. The big twist that sets this apart from that? A $50,000 grand prize, viewers deciding who gets to take the windfall home and … the competitors are teams of two.

Filmed in Ontario’s cottage country, each duo is assigned a ramshackle cottage and a bunch of tools to help them fix the buildings up. In Monday’s bow, the teams are tasked with three challenges: build a worktable, construct a fire pit and swinging bench, and install a toilet, all while showing workmanship, planning and teamwork. But before the teams can even start on the projects they have to get into their locked cottages. That has the expected result: teams try to use brute force to get into their cabins as quickly as possible rather than show any kind of forethought in how they do it.

I find shows like this focus mainly on what teams can’t do rather than what they can and Blood, Sweat & Tools is no different. Fun is poked at husbands who can’t manage a straight cut, women who forge ahead on projects without thinking and the general ignorance of people when it comes to some of the most basic of renovation tasks. It’s easy to get out of your depth. I know because it’s happened to me.

Thankfully, Koci, Brum and Manion are there not just to shake their heads in disbelief at these dunderheads but to actually give them instructions, plans and an education in construction with an extra helping of safety thrown in so that no one loses a finger and slaps production with a lawsuit.

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer looking for tips to success with your own projects, Blood, Sweat & Tools is for you. If you just like watching people scream and yell at each other while they mess up basic home renovations, this is definitely up your alley too.

Blood, Sweat & Tools airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery.

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Video: Are You Afraid of the Dark? reunion on ET Canada

It’s been 15 years since Are You Afraid of the Dark? went, well, dark, but a generation of fans have been missing it ever since. Now ET Canada is bringing it back. Sort of.

Global’s primetime newsmagazine series kicks off Canadian TV Week with an Are You Afraid of the Dark? reunion. Sangita Patel sits down with former cast members Elisha Cuthbert, Ross Hull and Daniel Desanto to look back on what the super-spooky series meant to their lives and television careers. Dark‘s cast also included JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Rachel Blanchard, Vanessa Lengies, Jay Baruchel, Ajay Fry, Emily Hampshire, Jewel Staite, Gregory Smith and Aaron Ashmore.

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store on tonight’s instalment. Upcoming segments include Street Legal (Tue.), Danger Bay (Wed.) and Due South (Thur.).

ET Canada airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. ET on Global.

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Review: A MasterChef visits Canada

If it was me, I’d be too star-struck to make an omelette, much less anything high-end for Graham Elliot. And yet that’s exactly what was expected of the Top 8 on Sunday night. “Good Things in Small Packages” showcased not only the finalists preparing a dish utilizing ingredients the MasterChef U.S. judge had selected, but Canada as a cooking nation. Elliot was quick to celebrate the talents of this season’s home cooks, a fact that was cemented at the conclusion of the Mystery Box challenge when he, Michael, Alvin and Claudio tasted four plates rather than the usual three.

In something that has become a trend of this season, David impressed with his stuffed quail (he had expertly boned it prior to stuffing it) and won immunity from the Elimination Challenge.

Every season in the MasterChef franchise seems to feature that odd-looking, phallic sea creature known as the geoduck, and this year was no exception. The suggestive shellfish was one of three sea creatures David could choose to saddle his competitors with and he went with sea snails as conch. That move made perfect sense to David—assuming no one had prepared conch before—but he was dead wrong: Christopher and Jennifer both had recipes ready to go. Things might have turned out quite differently if the judges didn’t throw a massive twist at the finalists: after choosing their ingredients everyone had to move one station forward and use the ingredients chosen by their competitor instead.

What followed was mass confusion until the clock started to tick. Then everyone buckled down and got going—they only had 45 minutes to make something—and I was most impressed with Jon. Despite being a huge, burly CFLer, he showed great restraint and finesse with his sea snail and conch fettuccine with mushrooms, which was a hit with the judges. Christopher once again proved to be a tough chef to beat, wowing everyone with his paella and scoring the top dish of the night. Michael’s conch fritters were a close second.

Someone had to be on the bottom, and that fell to Tammy and Jennifer for their sub-par offerings. Tammy was shown the door.

Notes and quotes

  • As soon as Line said she hoped Tammy would be in the finals I knew the mother of six was toast. There was no reason to have that comment in the episode if it didn’t foreshadow what was to come.
  • “I’m going to be out of my comfort zone working with these itty-bitty ingredients.” — Jon
  • The look on David’s face when Jon slapped his butt was priceless.
  • I’m sorry guys, but the making a heart out of your hands is done.

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.

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Link: Canadian Film, TV Tax Credits Drying Up As Provinces Seek To Balance Budgets

From Michael MacDonald of The Canadian Press:

Canadian Film, TV Tax Credits Drying Up As Provinces Seek To Balance Budgets
Camera operator Andrew Stretch remembers the day in 2013 when a campaigning politician looked into his camera lens and promised to help create jobs that would allow more young people to stay and work in Nova Scotia.

The politician was Stephen McNeil, now the province’s premier.

Stretch says McNeil broke his word last week when he tabled a budget measure that effectively kills a tax credit that most other provinces are still offering the film and TV industry. Continue reading.

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Link: Canadian filmmaker Paul Almond dies at age 83

From Marian Scott of the Montreal Gazette:

Canadian filmmaker Paul Almond dies at age 83
Canadian film legend Paul Almond, creator of the Seven Up! British documentary series and author of the Alford novels, has died in Malibu, Calif., at age 83. He died of heart disease Thursday, about 10 days after being admitted to hospital.

“After a graceful, thoughtful and tenacious fight, Paul made his transition, surrounded by his family,” his son Matthew Almond said.

News of his death spread quickly in the Gaspé region, where Almond had deep roots and lived part of the year in an ancestral home in Shigawake. Continue reading.

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