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Children's Programming, Featured

Eric Leclerc plays magical pranks in YTV’s Tricked

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Eric Leclerc had me totally befuddled. He performed two magic tricks less than two feet away from where I was sitting, and I still have no clue how he pulled them off. (You can check out the video below.) I was still talking about his performance days after he’d done them, and you’ll feel that way after tuning into YTV’s new hidden camera show.

Debuting Monday on the network, Tricked stars Leclerc—a two-time Canadian Magic Championship winner—as he messes with the minds of everyday Canadians going about their business in and around Vancouver. Monday’s bow tracks the energetic Leclerc while he approaches folks in Granville Public Market. There, he pulls off several food-related head-scratchers, correctly producing favourite snacks, fruits and a wedding ring from the most unlikely of places and using a cell phone to make juice. I don’t want to give away the tricks themselves, but Leclerc’s targets were as amazed and confused as I was. How does he pull off intricate magic that involves, well, possibly reading one’s mind?

Tricked

“We spent five months in Vancouver filming, and performed 300 tricks,” Leclerc says during a press day in Toronto. “It was the first time in my career where I was doing magic that I wasn’t choosing to be put out there.” Adapted from a series in the UK, Force Four Entertainment auditioned hundreds of magicians before picking the Ottawa-based Leclerc. He and a team of magicians came up with all-original tricks, created and worked with him to perfect them before unleashing the brain-twisters on the public in 20 episodes. Having your angles covered is an important feature of magic, and Leclerc reveals well-placed production assistants and TV camera coordination blocked off key sight lines to keep the magic intact.

And yet, with all of that said, I still don’t know how Leclerc pulled off the trick he performed with a woman’s wedding ring at the end of Episode 1.

“When you experience magic in front of you, you know it’s not a trick,” Leclerc says. “Her reaction was real and that’s what this show is all about. It’s about their reaction when they trust a total stranger who says, ‘Lend me your wedding ring and let’s try something cool.'”

Tricked airs Monday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.

Images courtesy of Corus.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Rick McCrank explores empty lots in Viceland’s Abandoned

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Growing up in Brantford, Ont., there were lots of abandoned places to check out. There was one just a short bike ride away from my house, a crumbling house hidden in a forest and purportedly haunted. My friends and I stayed well away from the place—even during the day—more because it was tumbledown and disused than reports of ghosts. (That came years later, in an empty sanitarium next to the Trailer Park Boys set.)

In Abandoned, debuting Friday on Viceland, Vancouver skateboard legend Rick McCrank boogies right on into empty places to check them out. In the first episode of 10 of the Canadian original, “Ghost Mall,” McCrank enters what used to be Randall Park Mall in Cleveland. As McCrank explains, the area the mall was in used to enjoy strong economic times, but those are long gone.

McCrank doesn’t just shuffle through darkened hallways filled with dusty old benches and broken glass; he gives a nice history on the modern shopping mall, a creation born in 1950s America, gleaming, convenient spots where families could spend hours dropping money on clothes, electronics, housewares, food—the sky was the limit—all under one roof. Shopping malls hit their stride in the 80s, a ubiquitous sight in cities. But the good times ended when online shopping became more popular, and the sprawling complexes began to close.

Accompanied by photographer Seph Lawless, who captured images inside for his book Black Friday—The Collapse of the America Shopping Mall, McCrank wanders around Randall Park Mall, observing not only the decay but how quickly nature is reclaiming the land with life.

Two things struck me as I watched “Ghost Mall.” The first was how misty-eyed folks got remembering the time they spent in these now-shuttered behemoths. The second? How I totally related to what they felt. Growing up as a child of the 80s, I spent copious time in my local Lynden Park Mall, poking around Coles bookstore, Sunrise Records or sitting in the food court hanging out with friends. Lynden Park Mall is still there—it’s changed a lot on the inside—but I still get that pull in my heart when I drive by.

I guess that’s the point of a show like Abandoned. McCrank tours defunct properties around Canada and the U.S., showing how life rolls on while milestones of the past crumble. Upcoming episodes find McCrank in east coast fishing towns, empty schools in St. Louis and flooded missile silos in the Pacific Northwest.

Abandoned airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Viceland.

Image courtesy of Rogers.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

The Amazing Race Canada crashes in Cape Breton

It’s ironic that a beautiful section of Canada like Cape Breton was the most physically demanding on the remaining teams. And yet that’s what happened during Tuesday’s new episode of The Amazing Race Canada as Steph and Kristen battled Jillian and Emmett at the front of the pack while Joel and Ashley fought Rita and Yvette at the bottom.

The odd team out, and that may play to their advantage, were Frankie and Amy. As Emmett said just before he U-Turned Rita and Yvette, he viewed the mother-daughter team as physically weak and therefore the ones to keep in the Race. And while I do agree with him to a point, Frankie and Amy surprised me with their physicality during the Leg and have the smarts to outwit in a mental challenge.

Amazing_Race

In what’s become a usual sight in Season 4, Steph and Kristen were neck-in-neck with Jillian and Emmett, swapping between first and second-place pulling mannequins from the water during the Canadian Coast Guard College challenge, the brutal Feel the Burn Detour involving the caber toss, farmer’s walk and stone’s throw, and final challenge, to push six heavy barrels through Fort Louisbourg to the cannon. It was a cool bit of history to watch as a viewer, so I’m glad Emmett—despite Jill’s protests—took the time to drink it all in.

With the Double U-Turn hanging over all, Steph and Kristen chose Joel and Ashley as the team to complete both Detours, putting them in direct competition with fellow U-Turned team Rita and Yvette, who’d already faced a setback in the Speed Bump after placing last in Cuba. The sisters stamped Christmas Island on letters quickly—if a little messily—and had a good laugh over the situation. The laughs turned to gritted teeth once they were U-Turned.

Jill and Emmett made it to the Pit Stop—the Louisbourg Lighthouse—mere steps in front of the girls, landing a trip for two to Mexico and making the east coast proud. I can’t wait to see how Jill replaces the shoe she lost; I’m pretty sure she didn’t pack and extra pair.

Rita and Yvette made a game of it and battled back from the Speed Bump, but weren’t able overcome the setback and were eliminated.

Here’s how the teams finished this Leg of the Race:

  1. Jillian and Emmett (trip for two to Mexico City)
  2. Steph and Kristen
  3. Frankie and Amy
  4. Joel and Ashley
  5. Rita and Yvette (eliminated)

The Amazing Race Canada airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Slasher, What Would Sal Do?

Future of Super Channel originals Slasher, What Would Sal Do? and Tiny Plastic Men in limbo

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UPDATE: As per a feature in Playback magazine, New Metric Media has found a new home for What Would Sal Do? The series has been acquired by Bell Media and will air on TMN and HBO Canada.

It wasn’t the news the creators and producers of Slasher, What Would Sal Do? and Tiny Plastic Men wanted to hear. Making a television show in Canada is difficult enough, but it’s impossible when the company responsible for broadcasting your series goes into creditor protection.

That’s the sad scenario facing the trio of original Canadian productions after Super Channel’s parent company, Allarco Entertainment, was granted creditor protection for 30 days under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in early June. Now, two months later, things are dire. All three properties have been released back to the production companies to be shopped around to new broadcasters. Because the case is still in the courts, the series’ creators, showrunners and producers aren’t able to comment, but Super Channel did provide an official statement regarding What Would Sal Do?

“Unfortunately, we will not be moving forward with the series at this time,” Melissa Kajpust, head of creative development, said. “Due to our recent CCAA filing we have had to do some financial restructuring and unfortunately this was one of the projects affected.” That, to put it frankly, sucks. Shot in Sudbury, Ont., Sal stars Dylan Taylor as entitled underachiever, Sal, who is challenged to be a good person when he discovers he’s the Second Coming of Christ. The modern day parable also stars Jennifer Dale as Maria, Sal’s mother, a virgin and devoted catholic, Ryan McDonald as Vince, Sal’s best friend and Scott Thompson as the career driven Father Luke, Maria’s friend and confidant. TV, Eh? visited the set while cameras were rolling and we’ve seen the first couple of episodes and it’s not only damn funny and boundary-pushing, but it’s heartfelt. Taylor, in particular, is splendid as Sal.

Sal is written, created and executive produced by Andrew De Angelis alongside writers Kurt Seaton, Mark Forward, Alex Levine, Mark DeAngelis and Brandy Hewitt. Sal director Samir Rehem has been nominated for a Directors Guild of Canada Award for his work on the pilot episode, an additional kick in the crotch for a series that has eight instalments filmed, edited, in the can and ready for broadcast. And yet it has nowhere to be broadcast. New Metric Media is currently seeking a home for the series.

If there is a second season of Slasher, it won’t be on Super Channel. Created by Aaron Martin, the horror series—filmed in and around Sudbury and Parry Sound, Ont.—starred Katie McGrath as Sarah Bennett, a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centrepiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the widely known, grisly killings of her parents. Slasher co-starred Brandon Jay McLaren, Wendy Crewson, Steve Byers and Dean McDermott. The series’ production company, Shaftesbury, couldn’t comment on what was happening with regard to a sophomore season.

Tiny Plastic Men, meanwhile, was in the middle of production on Season 4 when the filing shut them down. The Canadian Screen Award and Canadian Comedy Award nominee, from Mosaic Entertainment, stars writers Chris Craddock, Mark Meer and Matt Alden as Crad, October and Addison, three man-boys who test bizarre toy prototypes in their playroom of an office at the eccentric Gottfried Brothers Toy and Train Company.

Fingers crossed things are sorted out for all three.

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Featured, Motive

Motive says goodbye

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This is it, Motive fans. The last episode. The final crime. And what a way to go out. As showrunner Dennis Heaton told us back in March, the finale idea was to “err on the side of cool,” and we certainly get that. But viewers get much, much more. The relationships between Angie, Oscar, Lucas and Betty are celebrated, a partnership that for the most part went on long before we tuned into their world.

Now it’s coming to an end with “We’ll Always Have Homicide,” which CTV teases with:

In the series finale, Detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) brings an unsolved homicide case to justice. She searches for the killer with help from Detectives Paula Mazur (Karen LeBlanc), Mitch Kennecki (Victor Zinck Jr., THE 100), Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny), Dr. Betty Rogers (Lauren Holly), and Oscar Vega (Louis Ferriera).

After watching a screener, we can offer up a few more tidbits of the instalment, written by Sarah Dodd and Dennis Heaton.

The one that got away
Yes, the series finale revisits the murder of Judge Rodman and the fact the killer got away was never far from Angie’s mind, even if she is nabbing bad guys in Paris. As Oscar told Angie last week, there’s no statute of limitations on murder. That’s good because, three years later, we catch up with the team in Vancouver. Of course, they haven’t been mulling over the Rodman case all that time, but it certainly has ties to the death Mazur and Kennecki are currently investigating. Yup, Kennecki is back on homicide.

“The craziest f–king murder weapon we’ve ever used.”
Dennis Heaton wasn’t kidding when he told us about the series finale’s murder weapon.

Lucas is working Internal Investigations
That’s no surprise—it was revealed he was heading that way last week—but we do get a peek into Lucas’ personal life … and who he married.

Vega has an offer for Angie
Angie’s up for a renewal of her secondment in Paris, but will she choose her old partner over The City of Light? It’s so great to see the pair reunited, sharing a laugh and a smile. Their relationship is deep and intimate without being sexual and we love them for it. Their final scene is perfect.

What are your thoughts on the last four seasons of Motive? Comment below or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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