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.
Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Timber Kings returns for heavenly Season 4 on HGTV Canada

If money was no object, I’d get the men and women of Pioneer Log Homes to build me a house. There’s something about the warm, inviting and rustic homes they create that gets me jazzed. They’re also stunning works of art. I’m betting I’m not the only folks who have this dream, judging from the popularity of Timber Kings.

Returning for Season 4 on HGTV, Sunday’s premiere is a two-parter beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT—Timber Kings moves to its regular timeslot next week—that begins with an instalment entitled “Heaven’s Gate.” Of course, building heavenly projects involves a lot of hellish conditions and this is no exception. This season of the show features international build locations in Germany and Scotland, but things kick off not too far from Pioneer’s headquarters in Williams Lake, B.C.

Rossland is the site of Bryan Reid Jr.’s construction of the Hadley home, a four bedroom, three bathroom project with a special connection: it’s replacing the home the family lost to fire. Homeowners Jenn and Rob tearfully recall how they were watching television, unaware the roof was ablaze until neighbours came running. Scary stuff. Now the family wants what they had recreated.

Meanwhile, in Anaham, B.C., Peter is doing God’s work, creating an overhang for stairs at the front of a church he helped construct almost 10 years ago. The problem? He has three days to do it and has been asked to keep the foul language to a minimum. And a time crunch is also facing Beat, whose son guilts him into creating bunk beds for him even though Dad has other stuff on the go.

My favourite part of Timber Kings has always been the construction, that intricate ballet of swinging logs into place, edging them into position and hammering them home. Witnessing a pile of curved wood transform into a stunning shelter. My least favourite part of the show? The producers’ need to inject false drama into situations by having deadlines stack up. We know the jobs are going to get done, so let them get to work and just do it.

Coming up in future episodes, the crew builds big projects like luxury log homes, a fishing lodge and stunning post and beam boathouse, and smaller items like a deluxe smoker, wooden outdoor kitchen, log greenhouse, log pool table and a miniature man-cave.

Timber Kings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV Canada.

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Featured

Comments and queries for the week of March 3

Loving Cardinal

Great writing, character development, filming, acting and setting, looking forward to next season. —Whatever

Really good show. Glad it’s being renewed. —April

Great show, would love more. —Alexandria

Not crazy about the torture, but the rest of the show is quite brilliant. How about a shout out to the fantastic music by Todor Kobakov that builds the suspense and sets the tone? Yes the snow, in the fields, or piled by the side of the road, is like another character. —Kerry

This is a great series! Started watching last night and continued today. Can’t wait for the finale. Wonderful acting by main characters—subtle—nothing over the top. Real as is the sets. Am rooting for John and want for everyone to love and appreciate his talents, including Delorme. More people should be commenting on this series! —Judy

More Lovecraft on Murdoch Mysteries

“Master Lovecraft” was well cast, played by Tyler East. He has an interesting face and played the deadpan quirkiness to subtle humour. Hope to see his character again! —LR

 

Got a question or comment? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Chuck & Danny’s Road Trip goes on a cross-country cookout

I always suspected Chuck Hughes and Danny Smiles would be fun dudes to hang out with. Sure, they’re serious chefs (at Garde Manger and Le Bremner), but when it was time to leave the kitchen behind I figured they’d be the first to grab a bottle of bière and sit around a campfire.

That’s exactly what you get from Chuck & Danny’s Road Trip—debuting Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada—a rip-roaring road six-episode vacation that sees the duo climb into an RV and travel the country connecting with the people who visit local farmers, chefs and entrepreneurs and create a meal for them. The debut instalment tracks the boys east of Toronto to Prince Edward and Hastings Counties, where they meet with Justin Cournoyer, owner/chef of Actinolite who shows them how to forage for natural ingredients like sumac, juniper and … crickets.

We got Hughes and Smiles on the phone to talk about the show, their experiences and who snores the loudest.

Danny, you and Chuck have been friends and co-workers for a long time, but how did the TV show come about?
Danny Smiles: I’ve had the opportunity to do previous road trips with Chuck in Newfoundland and Italy and we’ve had a lot of time to talk in the car. We developed this idea to do a show on the road, developed it, chose some places to go and then went with it.

Chuck Hughes: It’s something we wanted to do for a long time, and it was an opportunity to see the country and cook. The camping aspect of it and being outdoors in a setting completely different from where we cook in our restaurants was really interesting; to connect with nature and have a more primitive cooking experience. It’s not as controlled and is a little more authentic. It combines a lot of things we love and wanted to do.

In the debut, you cook a 43-pound chunk of beef on coals. If your timing is off, people are showing up for dinner and the meat isn’t done.
Chuck Hughes: Exactly. There is a TV aspect to a show and a real aspect to the show and that, for us, was a way to keep us honest because, yeah, you’re cooking a 43-pound roast for people coming over. We’ve never cooked a roast in that situation, so you trust you instincts and try to make it happen. We are outdoors and the sun will set eventually, so there is a whole bunch of pressure because of that. And, you’re cooking for the people who grow the food, harvest it, raise it and you want to really respect the product and make them happy with what you did with their food.

How did production work for filming last summer?
Chuck Hughes: We lived the RV lifestyle off and on. We would drive the RV from one location to the next, set up camp and cook. We got to live the real lifestyle and then go back to our real lives quickly and then come back. It was a great way to spend the summer and discover the country.

Could either one of you adopt that RV lifestyle?
Chuck Hughes: Yes, yes, yes. I’m trying to figure out a way to leave it all behind and do that.

You visited three national parks during Season 1. Which park was the most beautiful: Rouge National Urban Park, Fundy National or PEI National?
Danny Smiles: I have to say Fundy National. It was about 50 feet above sea level and you could see the whole Bay of Fundy when you woke up. It was pretty epic.

Chuck Hughes: Fundy was great but I have to say PEI National. We were cooking right there on the beach. PEI is a completely different world for sunsets. You’re on the beach, you just cooked a really big lobster boil and the sun is setting. It’s something you can’t describe; you just have to go to PEI and live it. I hope this show will inspire people to do exactly that. Go camping for a few days or just go to a park for the day.

Last question: who snored the loudest in the RV?
Chuck: Danny.

Chuck & Danny’s Road Trip airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada.

Images courtesy of Corus.

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X Company

Links: X Company

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: X Company: Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern talk “Naqam”
“We were inspired by some stories we had read about schools for Hitler youths and how the instructors would allow the boys to pit themselves against each other. They were all about letting the pack eliminate the weak among themselves. It was something you tended to see among the boys’ organizations so we extrapolated that the girls would have done similar things.” Continue reading.

Link: X Company: Madeleine Knight on Heidi’s fate 
“We had such a great time together and a lot of fun together, especially on long days. We would get very delirious and got along really well. She has so much television experience, and this is one of my first TV gigs, so she was so helpful and I learned a lot from her. I really appreciated that.” Continue reading.

Link: X Company’s Aurora Luft: The feminist icon you need to know
Aurora Luft isn’t a name that many television viewers know and, frankly, that’s a travesty. In fact, it’s one of the biggest reasons why my emotions run the gamut of feeling fortunate, sad, frustrated and everywhere in between when I think too much about how, outside of Canada, no one really knows the brilliance of Aurora or X Company. The CBC WWII drama about Allied spies is one of those rare shows that is perfect from the top down every week. Continue reading.

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Featured, Masterchef Canada

MasterChef Canada returns with a shocking Episode 1 twist

1 Comment

After four seasons of a reality competition program, it’s easy to grow accustomed to the format. MasterChef Canada is, after all, about home cooks competing against each other (and themselves) for the chance to impress judges Michael Bonacini, Claudio Aprile and Alvin Leung on the road to winning $100,000. How different can that be going into Season 4? Very.

Returning on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, MasterChef Canada launches out of the gate with one heck of a twist to the audition process: 24 finalists receive a box of rice in the mail and have just 20 minutes to figure out what they’ll create. That happens before the contestants even set foot in the MasterChef kitchen. Once they get there the stress level only increases; this may just be the most dramatic and challenging season.

Here’s what Michael Bonacini and Claudio Aprile had to say about Season 4 of the show.

I was literally on the edge of my seat watching the first challenge.
Michael Bonacini: It was a great twist and it’s been fun unravelling these twists before the home cooks’ eyes and seeing the sheer shock on this faces and the vibe that you pick up from being in that kitchen in the moment. It is priceless.

Claudio Aprile: It really set the tone for the next 11 episodes because it was very intense, unpredictable … no one had any idea what was happening until it happened.

I loved the curveball in Episode 1 because, at this point, in the franchise’s history, contestants think they know what’s going to happen.
Michael Bonacini: It’s exactly that. Even you, as a viewer, think you know the rhythm and the routine. Every once in a while we’ll throw in a humdinger that turns it on its head and reinvents it, and leaves you gasping for breath.

What keeps you coming back as judges every season? You all have restaurants to manage, so why do it?
Claudio Aprile: I really enjoy it. I’m aware that it’s really rare to be on a show like this and when you arrive on set you realize just how special it is. I get to work with an amazing crew and have been a big fan of Michael and Alvin forever. We have a lot of fun. Sometimes we just pinch ourselves that we’re on this aspirational show which, I know it sounds cliché, has changed people’s lives.

Michael Bonacini: It’s a real joy to be a part of. I was scared to death the first time I showed up on set and saw the magnitude of the set and the number of cameras and the crew. I felt so small and insignificant. It put the fear of God into me. You push yourself to do a better job each time every time to do a tasting or visit a cook’s station. You really want to be able to communicate how things taste and the technique they’ve used and hope viewers latch on to that as well. It’s not just the road of excitement of the show but what is going on in the mind of the cook. It’s truly a joy to be a part of this and to hang out with a couple of dudes like Alvin and Claudio is a bonus.

Are you still looking for the same high bar from these home cooks? Has that changed in Season 4?
Claudio Aprile: For me, it always boils down to one thing and that is making food that is delicious. Nothing else matters to me. When I’m at that podium and the home cook presents their dish, all I’m looking for is deliciousness. Presentation and creativity is important but if it doesn’t taste good, the presentation and creativity become irrelevant.

Michael Bonacini: I think, as the seasons progress, there is this for me, the next group of home cooks to be that much better than the season before and so on. That’s tough to acquire and find and part of getting to that spot is part of our responsibility in terms of critiquing, the comments and the challenges. But there are definitely moments within every episode, every season, where home cooks exceed those expectations. There are disappointments, but when someone exceeds your expectations it just blows your mind.

MasterChef Canada airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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