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.

Poll: Favourite Canadian TV series – SCTV vs. Durham County

This is it Canadian television fans—the final week of battle in the Great Canadian TV Playoff. After weeks of voting, the final two series face off in a drag-em-out five days of voting that will crown one champion.

On one end of the rink is comedy series SCTV. On the other, dark cable drama Durham County. Who will take the title?

Unlike the Stanley Cup playoffs, TV, Eh’s Great Canadian TV Playoff boasts solely homegrown head-to-head matchups of television shows. Through the rest of the month, we’ll pit eight television shows (just like the NHL) from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s against one another until the final showdown to name the top Canadian TV series of all time on May 29.

What is your favourite Canadian TV series of all time?

  • Durham County (82%, 819 Votes)
  • SCTV (18%, 175 Votes)

Total Voters: 994

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Review: And the MasterChef Canada winner is …

After weeks of competition, countless dishes, tough challenges and buckets of tears, MasterChef Canada crowned a Season 2 winner: concrete worker David Jorge edged out Line Pelletier to take the title, trophy and $100,000 grand prize.

“I am the best home cook in Canada and no one can take that away from me,” David said moments after he was named winner, sharing the good news (and more than a few tears) with his wife, mother and two sons. He plans to use his windfall to start his own restaurant.

Master_David

“I’m not going to give up because there is always another road to the finish line,” Line said after her close defeat. The finale was incredibly tight and I have to admit it did look like Line was going to snag the crown. Not only do cooking competitions tend to reward competitors who evolve week to week like she did, but her underdog story certainly made her one of the show’s sweethearts.

But nothing could stop David, whose culinary skills led him to numerous weekly wins and a spot at the top of the show almost every week.

In an interesting twist to what the pair did week to week, David opted for more rustic adaptations for his appetizer, main and dessert while Line went more high-class, proving she could compete with her counterpart. David’s early gaffe, leaving membrane on his sweetbreads, was erased by a stellar pork and seafood entree and layered lemon dessert. Line started off strong with a surf and turf app followed by an elk and potato main that landed a little left of the mark with judges Claudio Aprile, Alvin Leung and Michael Bonacini. I thought her dessert of a cheese plate was a little simplistic, though its multiple ingredients wowed the judging trio.

Unlike some cooking shows where one or more undeserving competitors squeak into the finale, I was pleased David and Line made it. Both definitely earned the right to be there and came off as giving, caring people who were respected by their fellow competitors.

Notes and quotes

  • Guys, is the making a heart with your fingers still a thing?
  • I really wish the editing for this episode had allowed us to see Line make those cool curled crackers for her appetizer.
  • When Claudio is freaking out over time, like he was with David during the dessert round, you know you’re in trouble.

What did you think of this season of MasterChef Canada? Comment below or on Twitter via @tv_eh.

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Link: Blackstone and Great Human Odyssey capture Rosies

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

‘Rosies’ honour Alberta productions, including Fargo, Hell on Wheels and The Great Human Odyssey
Calgary productions and artists took home the majority of top prizes at the 41st annual Alberta Film and Television Awards over the weekend, but the biggest haul went to Edmonton filmmaker Niobe Thompson’s ambitious interactive TV miniseries The Great Human Odyssey. Continue reading.

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Interview: Greg Spottiswood reflects on Remedy’s second (and final) season

This interview with Remedy showrunner Greg Spottiswood was supposed to be a recap of the show’s second season. A look back at the Connor clan’s struggles and a peek forward to what was to come.

Unfortunately, our chat serves more as an epitaph: Global cancelled Remedy the day after we spoke. Here’s what Spottiswood had to say about Griffin’s addiction story and why Sandy ended up being hit by a truck.

At first I wanted Griffin to get past his addiction and move on. But after Dillon Casey touched base with me, I realized Griff’s story is like real life, and there are no easy answers.
Greg Spottiswood: Dillon is very protective of that character. What we aspire to do is make the audience feel towards Griffin the way his family felt. They loved him, they cared about him and were rooting for him but at a certain point they kind of had enough of him. When we decided to go down this road, I told the network and I told [executive producer] Bernie Zukerman that if we were going to do a story about addiction that we would do it as accurately as a television show can, which is never fully accurate. We were going to talk to consultants and define it not as a flaw in this person’s character. A lot of stories about addiction on television are very much individual journeys and while Griffin had a distinct path this season, really the Trojan horse of it is to define the addiction as a family disease and to look at what happens to a family and how their feelings can be corrupted or warped when dealing with addiction. That was really our big project. The real question was, can we get the audience back? He really doesn’t hit bottom until the finale when Sandy tells him to leave the room. He doesn’t have one ally in his family. I feel like we accomplished what we set out to do.

Remedy

By the end of the finale, Griffin was headed to rehab with Frank, PJ and Bruno giving him a ride, and Sandy was OK after that horrible car accident.
Sandy being hit by the truck was a fairly late change to the script. Originally, the design was that Griffin was either going to OD, or something else that was terrible would happen. We had been working on the script—Greg Nelson wrote it—and I came in one day and said, ‘It’s not Griffin, it’s Sandy. Bottom can’t be Griffin hurting himself, bottom has to be Griffin hurting the one person in the family who has never let him down and who he’s closest to.’ And people were uncomfortable in the writers’ room. ‘Really? You’re gonna hit Sandy with a truck?’ ‘I know it’s the right thing to do.’ Everybody got on board. That’s the interesting thing about television. You have this plan and everybody has signed on and then as a showrunner you’re in the shower or driving to work and you realize, ‘No, we’ve made a mistake.’

It was interesting, and effective, to not show the actual accident, but just Sandy being brought into the ER.
There were some interesting conversations about that. Would we show the headlights? Did we want to have a horn honk? And I said, ‘Some people will see it coming, some people will hope it’s not coming, but if we do it right …’ We put Zoe in the ER because we wanted the audience to think she saw Griff so that we could keep the misdirect going just a little longer.

Griffin’s journey as a rough one. Did you sit down and talk to Dillon Casey about it beforehand and give him any advice?
What we talked about at the beginning of the season was that he’d have to take really good care of himself because it was going to get uncomfortable. He was going to go to some dark places and be unsympathetic, which for a lot of actors is very hard to do especially on a network television show. He was embracing it but I told him he’d have to take care of his health because he was playing a very unhealthy guy. He took that to heart and approached the whole season with a great commitment and discipline and desire to understand what this guy was going through.

Remedy_finale

Another plot point I really enjoyed was bringing Allen down into the ER and seeing him as a doctor and inspiration to others. Had that been in the works since Season 1?
No. By the end of the first season, I went to Bernie and the network and said, ‘I don’t think we’re using everything that Rico has to offer as an actor well enough in Allen’s current role.’ I pitched the idea of moving him down to the ER and Bernie embraced it right away, but there was a certain skepticism at one point from the network. I felt like we had this great actor in Rico with great comic chops, great dramatic chops and because of Flashpoint he’s got this father figure position that we exploit. I said, ‘I just want to make him be the underdog.’ I’m really proud of everyone this season, especially of Rico because he relished it. When I went and told him what we were going to do, he blinked once and said, ‘OK, here we go.’

Sara Canning and Sarah Allen were fantastic this season too. Speaking of comic chops, they both have them.
Sara Canning and Sarah Allen as individuals are really stellar human beings and incredibly talented actors. We did chemistry reads when we were casting the show, so we knew that there was something there, but I don’t think any of us would have predicted how well those two have worked together, how close they would become as friends. They have a genuine affection for each other. They’re also very generous actors too. They listen to one another and are sensitive to each other’s needs and trust the writing, and you get this kind of magic.

Do you have a message for the Remedy folks? Comment below or via our Twitter account at @tv_eh.

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Comments and queries for the week of May 22

Lack of love for Between
I agree with everything you said in this review. While the cast and premise sound good, I’m not so sure about the writing. I, too, wanted to shake my head at the considerable lack of reaction when parents were dying. I really wanted to like this but it was kind of really awful. It reminded me of Under the Dome, another horribly written dystopic drama. Both shows kind of made the characters into idiots. This was kind of like one of Stephen King’s telemovies from the 80s and that’s not a good thing. That being said, it’s summer and there’s only five more episodes to watch so I’ll stick with it. Grade D for me. After failing to like other recent shows in this genre such as Under the Dome and Helix and now Between, I’m getting a little bit annoyed. I was hoping for much better. Hopefully CW’s upcoming series, Containment, might prove better. —Alicia


Fave Canadian TV show of the 90s
Looking at old CTF-funded project lists today, I was reminded of one of my daughter’s favoirite 90s shows (she has seen it in syndication and YouTube, of course): The Worst Witch. Somehow channeling Harry Potter (in a low-budget way), this show was truly charming, with great acting. —Suzanne


Picking the best of the West
Gotta go with Stargate SG-1. Ten years, two spin-offs and a second huge hit for Richard Dean Anderson, as well as a great supporting cast. Action, comedy, and even a bit of moving drama at times. —Hallie

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg@tv-eh.com, comment below or via @tv_eh.

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