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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Review: Is The Amazing Race Canada too difficult?

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Almost every week of this season, I’ve remarked at how difficult The Amazing Race Canada challenges have been. It’s made for some pretty compelling footage, but after this week and last I have to wonder: did the producers make things too hard?

For the second week in a row—this time in Saskatoon—more than one team chose to take penalties rather than stick with the challenge at hand. And in the case of Neil and Kristin, it meant they were eliminated. I may make a similar decision in the heat of the moment—after frustration or thirst has set in—but from the safety of my couch I’d rather keep going rather than rely on other teams to stumble along the way.

One need only look as far as Ope and Simi for proof of that. Rather than team up with the other pairs at the airport to work out the 25-hour flight formula, they figured it out themselves. Rather than get frustrated with each other, they played cheerleader. The result? They came in second-to-last place and continue, proving to the other Racers that they’re a team to contend with.

Amazing_Race1

Meanwhile, birthday boy Brent and his brother Sean celebrated the big day with a first-place spot. The siblings smartly played their Express Pass to skip the flight-time challenge and dry-heaved their way to the mat in front of Jon Montgomery. This was Brent and Sean’s first-ever top spot, though not for lack of trying. They gamely soldier on, scoring consistent Top 5 finishes.

As for Gino and Jesse, the Race‘s strongest duo to date blew through this Leg’s tests with flying colours and placed second to Brent and Sean.

Here’s how the teams finished this Leg:

  1. Brent and Sean (used the Express Pass)
  2. Gino and Jesse
  3. Dujean and Leilani (penalty)
  4. Brian and Cynthia
  5. Nick and Matt
  6. Simi and Ope
  7. Neil and Kristin (penalty, eliminated)

Notes and quotes

  • “I gotta take off my shoes to count past 10.” — Brian
  • I wanted to hear more of Ope’s story about wanting to be a pilot.
  • Cynthia and Brian’s plan to have more fun sure backfired, didn’t it?

The Amazing Race Canada airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Mr. D

Gerry Dee keeps it real in Season 5 of Mr. D

Mr. D is headed into its fifth season on CBC, and series creator and star Gerry Dee isn’t messing with success. He’s sticking with the formula that keeps viewers coming back every week: keeping it real.

“I always try to bring authenticity to the show,” Dee told Sirius XM radio hosts Humble & Fred during an appearance Monday morning. That authenticity continues in Season 5, when Dee’s small-screen alter ego, Gerry Duncan, experiences a student teacher with stage fright, educational assistants, a mother who can’t believe that her son is capable of pushing other students around and an odd item brought for Show & Tell.

“A friend of mine had this Grade 1 class and a kid brought in a vibrator for Show & Tell and thought it was a rocket ship,” Dee recalls. “So we shot the episode where a kid comes in and says he has a rocket ship and that it buzzes when you turn it on. I try to grab it and it falls and breaks. He’s trying to zoom it at my face and everything. Those are the stories we get from teachers sometimes.” Dee taught in a private school for 10 years before committing to stand-up comedy full-time. Now, a decade removed from the classroom, he brings teachers into the writers’ room to mine details for possible storylines alongside what he and his writing staff come up with.

“Things have changed. In Season 4 we did an episode called ‘Lockdown,’ which is something that’s, sadly, common now in schools but I’d never heard of,” he says.

With Season 5 of Mr. D set to return on CBC in the winter and Season 4 re-airing on City in November, Dee’s plate is pretty full. Aside from his homegrown sitcom, Dee is writing for other projects—like My Scottish Family for CBC—and is constantly touring, with dates in Toronto, Ajax and Mississauga, Ont., lined up in September and October. Those dates, he reveals to Humble & Fred, are in preparation for his next big stand-up goal.

“I want to do the Air Canada Centre within two years,” he says. “I sat down with my tour manager and looked at the ticket sales and it’s all adding up to 10,000 tickets. It may be a big mistake and I’d have to stay on television within the next two years. I’m planning to do that and tape it as my next special.”

Listen to the rest of Dee’s interview with Humble & Fred (his chat is during the last 20 minutes).

Season 5 of Mr. D returns in the winter on CBC.

Season 4 of Mr. D airs in a second window on City starting in November.

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Featured, Haven

Showcase’s Haven cancelled

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It’s the end of the road for Haven. After five seasons on the air, the Showcase/Syfy supernatural drama has been cancelled.

The news came down Tuesday afternoon via TheWrap.com, where showrunner Gabrielle Stanton revealed the show’s creative team had viewed this super-sized season of 26 episodes the series’ last.

“I’m sure as a fellow TV fan, there’s nothing more annoying than when a show kind of feels like it might be wrapping up, but they just don’t address it, they don’t come to any kind of satisfying conclusion,” she told the outlet. “I always think that’s cheating the audience a little bit, of a nice satisfying ending. So we really looked at these 13 episodes as if… If we were indeed going to end, what would be the best ending we could possibly do for Haven?”

Based on Stephen King’s short novella, The Colorado Kid, Haven focused on the odd goings-on in the fictional town of Haven, Maine, where FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) became involved in the supernatural lives of those in the community. Lucas Bryant portrays Nathan Wuornos, Eric Balfour is Duke Crocker and Adam Copeland is Dwight Hendrickson. Created by Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst, Haven has called Canada home: the series has shot in and around Halifax and Chester, Nova Scotia, since its pilot.

The first half of Season 5 has aired on Showcase; the last 13 instalments of the co-production will be broadcast beginning Sunday, Oct. 11.

The cancellation follows Syfy’s shift in focus to shows with a more traditional sci-fi element, like 12 Monkeys, Dark Matter, Killjoys, Defiance and Dominion.

Video: check out Lucas Bryant during last year’s Showcase Fan Expo panel

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