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

The Real Housewives of Toronto oozes wealth and drama on Slice

You know what you’re going to get from The Real Housewives franchise. Cameras follow a gaggle of ladies as they go about their highfalutin lives, juggling cocktail parties and galas, strutting red carpets and posing for pictures, hanging out and complaining about how simply awful their lives are.

So, is The Real Housewives of Toronto—bowing Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Slice—like all the others? Yup, and that’s just fine if you enjoy it. If that’s not your cup of expensive, shipped directly from the source, organically-grown tea, then you should skip the program altogether.

“When you have money and a fabulous life, lots of people want to be your ‘friend,'” fashionista Kara Alloway warns during the opening tease. (Thankfully, I have never had that problem.)

Set against a poppy, bass-driven soundtrack we meet Roxy Earle, who is equally unapologetic about her body as she is her personality. And why shouldn’t she be? Confident and opinionated, she’s the type of woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, and I love her for it. (If only she wouldn’t refer to herself in the third person.) Roxy’s husband is older than her, her dog has a private chef and is groomed every other week, and she spends weekends in Turks and Caicos.

Then it’s on to Ann Kaplan Mulholland, who lives in tony Forest Hill and started a finance company when she was a single mother. Now it’s one of the biggest in Canada. Ann is a sharp contrast to Roxy; older, married to plastic surgeon Stephen Mulholland, and an avid collector of diamonds.

I won’t introduce the other ladies in the cast—I’ll let viewers enjoy the entrances and backstories of Kara Alloway, Grego Minot, Joan Kelley Walker and Jana Webb themselves—but suffice it to say slow-motion walking, clothes shopping (in Kara’s case, with Jesus as her wingman), smoothies, workouts and lunches are the most stressful events faced by the six in Episode 1.

The Real Housewives of Toronto certainly isn’t Cardinal or Bellevue and it’s not supposed to be. A series like this is meant to be ogled, analyzed and enjoyed like the entertaining confection it is. So go ahead and do it.

The Real Housewives of Toronto airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Slice.

Image courtesy of Corus.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Jade Fever searches for the million-dollar boulder in Season 3

What keeps viewers coming back to Jade Fever? Last year’s Season 2 debut reached a total of six million viewers who tuned in to see whether or not Claudia and Robin Bunce and their team would find the ever-elusive jade in Canada’s north. Why? I know why I check it out: not only to see if they’re successful but the challenges they face along the way.

Returning for Season 3 with back-to-back episodes on Tuesday at 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET/7 and 7:30 p.m. PT on Discovery, the Bunces are in it up to their hips in challenges. The episode title, “Hard Climb,” is self-explanatory, as Claudia practices driving a 65-ton rock truck in preparation for the annual 100-plus kilometre drive east from Jade City, B.C., to Wolverine, their jade mine. Also, new this season? A partner in Peter Niu, a miner who wants the Bunces to seek out jade on Bullion Creek—his gold claim—and share the profits.

No drive into camp is without issues and this season is no different. New equipment, overheating and a super-steep hill plague the mission. By the end of Episode 1, they’ve only made it halfway. Thankfully, by the end of the second episode, “Breakdowns and Meltdowns,” everyone arrives at Wolverine. (As trying as the trail was, I’m sure hearing Claudia’s complaints was worse.)

Now the real, money-making work begins.

Jade Fever airs Tuesdays and 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET on Discovery.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Photo gallery: Saving Hope episode images for “Doctor Dustiny”

With just a week away from the final season of Saving Hope, we’ve snagged the first images from Sunday’s return, “Doctor Dustiny”! Who was shot at the end of Season 4’s dinner? Will Charlie and Alex be OK? Are Zach and Dawn still together?

Here’s the episode synopsis for CTV; check out the images below!

After the gunshot at the end of last season’s finale, Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) searches for an injured Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) in the following chaos, but instead comes across a caterer named Grace (Masa Lizdek, LOST GIRL) who was unknowingly also caught in the crossfire. At Hope Zion, Grace’s mother asks Alex for a priest, but the only person Alex can find is the pious interventional radiologist Dr. Manny Palmer (Jarod Joseph, ONCE UPON A TIME). Together, the two work quickly to try to save Grace’s life. As news of the shooting spreads, Dr. Dana Kinney (Wendy Crewson) arrives at the hospital to lend a hand but ends up consulting on a case with Dr. Cassie Williams (Kim Shaw) involving a male stripper instead.

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Saving Hope returns Sunday, March 12, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Polls

Poll: Which actors and actresses should win a Canadian Screen Award?

3 Comments

The Canadian Screen Awards for homegrown television and feature films is just over a week away—the gala broadcast hosted by Howie Mandel is Sunday, March 12, on CBC—and we want you to weigh in on some of the biggest categories!

This time we’re looking for you to weigh in on some of the key performance categories. Get voting and spread the word!

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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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