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Blind home chefs compete in AMI-tv’s inspiring, inclusive Menu Match-up

At first glance, AMI-tv’s Menu Match-Up seems like any other culinary competition program. Home cooks have to prepare tasty dishes using secret ingredients in a specified amount of time. Their foods are judged and a winner is declared. What sets Menu Match-Up apart from those other programs? The home cooks are blind or low vision.

Debuting Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv, Menu Match-Up is the latest program—like Four Senses and Eyes for the Job before it—to spotlight blind or low vision people doing everyday things. Now Menu Match-Up pushes things a little further by testing these folks’ skills in the kitchen. They’re not doing it alone. Each blind cook is teamed with a sighted professional chef to pull it all together.

Hosted by Matt Basile of Fidel Gastro’s restaurant and TV’s Rebel Without a Kitchen, Menu Match-Up is executive-produced by Jonathan and Drew Scott of Property Brothers fame via their production company Scott Brothers Entertainment. That’s quite the pedigree for a project on AMI-tv and shows just how much Accessible Media Inc. is committed to creating unique, inclusive television for their viewers. You may have to be blind or low vision to compete on Menu Match-Up but you don’t need to be to enjoy the series. Home cook Dan and Jonny O’Callaghan of Bru Restaurant take on home cook Sylvia and Joe Friday of Calii Love. Who will impress judges Missy Hui of Fabbrica Restaurant, blogger Hubert Leung and Deji Oduwole of The Odu Group and win the trip for two to Niagara-on-the-Lake?

In the beginning moments of Episode 1, it really was up for grabs. With an hour to create an appetizer and a main course, the duos needed to build a partnership quickly. And, with mystery items like chorizo sausage, honeycomb, mustard greens, heirloom tomatoes and jalapeño-flavoured cheese snacks, it wouldn’t be easy. Sylvia and Joe went with a salad and pasta while Dan and Jonny opted for a tomato salad and version of Beef Stroganoff using the sausage. What I immediately like about the first episode of Menu Match-Up is that Sylvia and Dan were not only in on the planning but the execution as well. It would have been easy to have them chop while Joe and Jonny did all the work. That isn’t how it rolled out at all, proving that being blind or low vision doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in creating high-end food. Who wins the first instalment of Menu Match-Up? Tune in to find out!

Menu Match-Up airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv. Check your local listings for where AMI-tv is available in your area.

 

 

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Canada’s Worst Driver and Tougher Than It Looks crash onto Discovery

With the 13th season of Canada’s Worst Driver arriving Monday night on Discovery, I can’t help but wonder if the series can do more for the driving industry. Like Mike Holmes has done uncovering bad builders and lax rules in the housing industry, should Canada’s Worst Driver do the same for driving schools?

On its surface, Canada’s Worst Driver—back at 10 p.m. ET with Andrew Younghusband behind the wheel—continues to spotlight drivers from across the nation who shouldn’t be on the road in the first place. These are folks with bad habits all the way to the downright dangerous and I’ve gone from solely blaming those drivers to the including the people who have taught them. For me, Canada’s Worst Driver ceased to be fun to watch years ago because the contestants seem to be getting worse rather than better. Over 500 names were submitted for Season 13 before producers whittled the group down to eight who are ensconced in the CWD facility.

Once there, they go through a bevy of tests designed to not only entertain (or in my case frighten) viewers but also present the correct way to perform each tested task. The group includes Breanna, a 19-year-old who is, thanks to being involved in a car accident when she was younger, is convinced she’s going to die behind the wheel of a car; Joe, a reckless lad who has floors it at every opportunity and keeps his lawyer employed solely to defend his tickets; Ashley, who can’t drive without crying and was nominated by former CWD contestant Jillian; Shayne, who drives half the posted speed because he was hit by a car while walking; Melanie, who is convinced she can’t do anything; Adam, whose love of driving was derailed by one accident; Julie, who has been in 16 accidents thanks to distracted driving; and Travis, the most timid man behind the wheel of an automobile. All are determined to be better, safer drivers.

Clearly, some of this season’s contestants have major stress issues because of past traumas and are, hopefully, addressing those with a doctor. But all are shown simply not knowing what the rules of the road are. Again, how were they given licences to be behind the wheel of a vehicle that can kill themselves or others if they don’t know what to do at a stop sign?

Much more enjoyable for me is Season 2 of Tougher Than It Looks? which finds Younghusband taking on some of the oddest, strangest tasks in the world.

Monday’s back-to-back instalments, like in the first go-round, put Younghusband’s brain and body up for injury at our expense as he spends 24 hours trying to master something. Learning to ride the waves or a skateboard leads to the usual bumps and bruises on the road to success but being a rodeo clown (in Episode 2) could get you killed. But, unlike Canada’s Worst Driver, Tougher Than It Looks? puts the onus on Younghusband to do the work and, usually, get hurt. The Newfoundland native is game to do anything and it’s his positivity and sense of humour that makes Tougher Than It Looks? so easy to watch.

It’s entertaining to observe Younghusband learn how difficult it is to master balance, first in the controlled environment of a wave rider to the February chill of surfing the surging waves of Lake Huron. As for dropping into a skateboarding half-pipe? Let’s just say concrete and wood are harder than water.

In advance of Canada’s Worst Driver and Tougher Than It Looks? is the debut of Last Stop Garage at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET. The program spotlights the men and women who operate CRB Automotive, a family-owned garage in North West River, Labrador. Using the backwoods resourcefulness needed to get things done far away from the big city, the crew fix and build just about anything for anyone in their remote town of 553 residents.

Last Stop Garage airs Mondays at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET on Discovery.

Canada’s Worst Driver airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery.

Tougher Than It Looks airs Mondays at 11 and 11:30 p.m. ET on Discovery.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

 

 

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Preview: A sequential killer stalks Toronto on Murdoch Mysteries

There are three new faces in the Murdoch Mysteries writing room this season. Dan Trotta, Natalia Guled and Noelle Girard joined the long-running, high-rated CBC drama after Michelle Ricci and Carol Hay departed to create Frankie Drake Mysteries and the untimely passing of Jordan Christianson.

Tonight, Dan Trotta—who most recently wrote and produced on the Omni drama Blood and Water—gets the spotlight with “Dr. Osler Regrets,” directed by Alison Reid. Here’s the official synopsis from CBC:

A spate of murders staged as suicides leads Murdoch to suspect a sequential killer targeting the elderly.

And here are a few more tidbits we caught after watching a screener.

Louise Cherry returns
I’ve read the comments on the Murdoch Mysteries Facebook pages and fans are pretty clear in their feelings regarding Ms. Cherry: they don’t like her. It will be interesting to see what fans think of Ms. Cherry after this week’s instalment because she’s up to her old tricks again.

Kristopher Turner guest-stars
I’ve missed Kristopher Turner since This Life was cancelled—watch both excellent seasons via the CBC site—so it’s a treat to see him in Detective Murdoch’s world as Jack Borden. Also after appearing on Murdoch Mysteries once before as Dr. Lawrence Abbott in “Buffalo Shuffle,” Stewart Arnott re-appears in the role of Dr. William Osler. You can read up on Osler’s real-life achievements here; among his accolades, Osler was one of the founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. We get a nice little bit of backstory with regard to Julia’s education and how Osler factored into it.

Violet gets her hands dirty
It doesn’t take long for Violet to contribute to the team. Within minutes she’s up to her elbows in guts at the city morgue, helping Julia determine a cause of death in the episode’s first victim.

George reveals a timely hobby
Julia isn’t the only one we learn something about. After 11 seasons Crabtree unveils an interesting hobby.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Massive Monster Mayhem runs riot on Family Channel

“What’s the craziest things that kids love and how do we jam them all into one show?” That’s the question Art Spigel was asking himself when he ruminated on his newest project. The answer: a lot. Debuting Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel, Massive Monster Mayhem is a mishmash of genres—live-action game show, comedy, CGI and sci-fi series—delivered at a frenetic pace.

Where else can you create a world where kids teleport to an alien planet or a hot dog can drive a robot? That’s just the tip of the iceberg with Massive Monster Mayhem. Co-created by Spigel, the veteran of kids’ programming recalled all the things he loved as a child—giant robots, wrestling, outer space and winning prizes—and jammed them into a television show.

Each episode is an ingenious combination of technology and old-school, as kids don costumes and become intergalactic heroes, facing off against each other in Intergalactic Battle Alliance challenges. The winner of those tests faces a monster sent by Master Mayhem (voiced by Daniel Davies and performed by Thomas Lorber), who has proclaimed himself “Greatest Ruler in the Universe.” Master Mayhem wants to rule Earth and these kids are our last hope. Shot against a massive green screen, CGI transforms the challenges to a space-based colosseum where Graham Conway and Devon Deshaun Stewart call the action from Wipeout-ish obstacle course to the monster movie-inspired smackdown of a cityscape finale. The competitor that successfully defends the world takes home $1,000.

Spigel teamed with Toronto video effects company Playfight to utilize a real-time CGI environment usually reserved for feature films like Avatar—he likens it to dropping the television cameras into a video game—when creating Massive Monster Mayhem.

But Massive Monster Mayhem isn’t just the competition. Master Mayhem is a shade-throwing, sarcastic fellow who delights in boasting of his powers in comedic segments between tests where he preps to destroy Earth.

“I think the humour is universal,” Spigel says. “As crazy as this is, we want there to be some co-viewing. Parents can appreciate the wrestling parody and kids can laugh because that monster looks funny when he breaks things.”

Massive Monster Mayhem airs Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel.

Image courtesy of Family Channel.

 

 

 

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Comments and queries for the week of October 20

WOW! I live in and have raised two children in an 1,100 square foot home with wood heat, etc. I am amazed at the expense and extravagance of this home of Sarah’s [on Off the Grid]. I feel sorry for all of the young folk out there that aspire to this lifestyle. We need more shows about living more simply and more environmentally sensitively. Beautiful home, Sarah but wouldn’t want to have to clean it or keep it up. —C.K.

Disappointed that her show did not address how to live without ANY connection to hydro. —Brian

I have watched all of the episodes so far and do not see any heating vents or electric registers in any of the rooms. My wife and I built our own home north of Winnipeg over 30 years ago to R2000 standards, which is super insulated with an HRV air exchanger, and passive solar heat gain and forced air natural gas furnace. My question is, are you using solar electric with propane backup with radiant heat in the floors and ceilings? —David

Not sure they know what “off the grid” is. —Gordon

 

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

 

 

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