Everything about The Nature of Things, eh?

19-2, Amazing Race Canada, Big Brother Canada, Bitten, Blackstone, Blood and Water, Canada's Smartest Person, Continuum, Dark Matter, Degrassi, Dragons' Den, Featured, Haven, Heartland, Killjoys, Lost Girl, Masterchef Canada, Mohawk Girls, Motive, Mr. D, Murdoch Mysteries, Orphan Black, Polls, Remedy, Rick Mercer Report, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, Schitt's Creek, Sensitive Skin, Spun Out, Still Standing, Sunnyside, The Nature of Things, The Romeo Section, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, This Life, Vikings, When Calls the Heart, X Company, Young Drunk Punk

Poll: What are your favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015?

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UPDATE: The poll has now closed. Thanks to everyone for taking part! You can still let us know your favourite Canadian TV show of 2015 by writing it in the Comments section below.

As the year winds down, it’s time to reflect back on 2015. What a year it was for Canadian TV. Yes, there was some sad news—the cancellation of Strange Empire, Remedy and Rookie Blue come immediately to mind—but there was plenty to celebrate as well.

Sci-fi in Canada is stronger than ever thanks to Orphan Black and newbies Killjoys and Dark Matter, we’re getting laughs from series like Still Standing, Sunnyside and Young Drunk Punk and dramas like This Life, The Romeo Section and Motive continue to entertain.

As we get ready to say hello to 2016, help us celebrate 2015 by voting for your favourite five (5) Canadian television shows of the year. (Vote by clicking the boxes to the left of your favourite shows, then click the shaded “Vote” button located just below and right of Young Drunk Punk.)

UPDATE: The poll has now closed. Thanks to everyone for taking part! You can still let us know your favourite Canadian TV show of 2015 by writing it in the Comments section below.

What are your five favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015?

  • Dark Matter (12%, 7,269 Votes)
  • Lost Girl (11%, 6,777 Votes)
  • Killjoys (9%, 5,766 Votes)
  • Heartland (9%, 5,384 Votes)
  • Murdoch Mysteries (4%, 2,632 Votes)
  • Orphan Black (3%, 2,147 Votes)
  • Tornado Hunters (3%, 2,080 Votes)
  • Rookie Blue (3%, 1,634 Votes)
  • When Calls the Heart (3%, 1,557 Votes)
  • Rick Mercer Report (2%, 1,486 Votes)
  • The Liquidator (2%, 1,279 Votes)
  • Schitt's Creek (2%, 1,227 Votes)
  • Vikings (2%, 1,087 Votes)
  • The Amazing Race Canada (2%, 1,053 Votes)
  • Saving Hope (2%, 1,024 Votes)
  • Property Brothers (2%, 990 Votes)
  • Bitten (2%, 976 Votes)
  • Dragons' Den (2%, 970 Votes)
  • Continuum (2%, 955 Votes)
  • Haven (1%, 791 Votes)
  • Chopped Canada (1%, 786 Votes)
  • 22 Minutes (1%, 783 Votes)
  • MasterChef Canada (1%, 738 Votes)
  • Big Brother Canada (1%, 727 Votes)
  • Highway Thru Hell (1%, 686 Votes)
  • Canada's Worst Driver (1%, 684 Votes)
  • Degrassi (1%, 608 Votes)
  • The Nature of Things (1%, 580 Votes)
  • Love It or List It franchise (1%, 573 Votes)
  • The Fifth Estate (1%, 559 Votes)
  • Motive (1%, 557 Votes)
  • House of Bryan (1%, 549 Votes)
  • X Company (1%, 520 Votes)
  • Still Standing (1%, 480 Votes)
  • Strange Empire (1%, 397 Votes)
  • Marketplace (1%, 394 Votes)
  • This Life (1%, 394 Votes)
  • Hockey Wives (1%, 340 Votes)
  • Backroad Bounty (1%, 321 Votes)
  • 19-2 (1%, 311 Votes)
  • Remedy (0%, 266 Votes)
  • Mr. D (0%, 265 Votes)
  • Blackstone (0%, 262 Votes)
  • Polar Bear Town (0%, 252 Votes)
  • Ice Racer Showdown (0%, 214 Votes)
  • Young Drunk Punk (0%, 207 Votes)
  • Canada's Smartest Person (0%, 198 Votes)
  • Sunnyside (0%, 193 Votes)
  • The Next Step (0%, 174 Votes)
  • Mohawk Girls (0%, 170 Votes)
  • Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan (0%, 128 Votes)
  • Keeping Canada Alive (0%, 120 Votes)
  • The Other Side (0%, 113 Votes)
  • Chef in Your Ear (0%, 104 Votes)
  • The Romeo Section (0%, 99 Votes)
  • Blood and Water (0%, 93 Votes)
  • The Stanley Dynamic (0%, 88 Votes)
  • Make it Pop (0%, 81 Votes)
  • First Dates (0%, 68 Votes)
  • Unusually Thicke (0%, 67 Votes)
  • Open Heart (0%, 65 Votes)
  • Spun Out (0%, 58 Votes)
  • Sensitive Skin (0%, 47 Votes)
  • Max & Shred (0%, 42 Votes)
  • Some Assembly Required (0%, 30 Votes)
  • Crash Gallery (0%, 24 Votes)
  • Tiny Plastic Men (0%, 20 Votes)

Total Voters: 27,337

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The Nature of Things

Link: Meet the puffins. They can cure everything that ails us

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Meet the puffins. They can cure everything that ails us
Puffin Patrol (CBC, 8 p.m. on The Nature of Things) is a delight. Atlantic puffins is the topic and boy, oh, boy, are they captivating. If you want a jaunt on the cute side while learning a lot about the ocean ecosystem, something I recommend highly, then it’s here. Continue reading.

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The Nature of Things explores how sound affects our lives for good and bad

Earlier this year, I watched a stunning documentary called Alive Inside. In it, social worker Dan Cohen shows that music seems to combat memory loss and cut through the fog of Alzheimer’s disease. It was a stunning and hopeful documentary about the power of music, something that’s echoed in Thursday’s new instalment of The Nature of Things.

“Sonic Magic: The Wonder of Science and Sound” jets from Canada to Italy, Australia, England and the United States as scientists, engineers, professors and historians uncover how music is being used to destroy cancer, halt brain disorders like the aforementioned Alzheimer’s disease and even change what food tastes like. Some of the most interesting footage of sound is presented in the first few minutes, as sand and water twists, jumps and wobbles into complex geometric patterns under the affect of sound waves played by musical instruments. (I used to pop the foam covers off my stereo speakers so I could watch the cones vibrate.)

Meanwhile, Trevor Cox plays a saxophone in the London tube to get a read on how architecture changes the way we hear sounds. A interesting example of a building celebrating sound is in Pisa, Italy where The Baptistery of St. John enables an opera singer’s note to resonate for nine seconds. Some information seems obvious—living in a loud environment like a busy metropolis raises one’s stress levels—but how noise can change the way food tastes is fascinating.

And the story of Daniel Kish, blind since 13 months of age using a technique he calls “flash sonar” to navigate the world on foot and on a bike? Simply incredible. 

The Nature of Things airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.
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Comments and queries for the week of November 6

The Nature of Things explores obesity and our guts

Just doing a little fact checking, and the host of the show states there are more microbes in our gut, 100 trillion, than there are stars in the sky. Conservative estimates of the number of stars are around a billion trillion, and a new study from researchers at Harvard and Yale suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion of them, or three times as many as scientists previously calculated. That is a 3 followed by 23 zeros. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion. I wonder if this was just a slip, or is it an indication of a lack of understanding of very large numbers? —Dave

Will this show on obesity and the gut rerun? —Reta

All of the past The Nature of Things episodes can be re-watched on the show’s website.

Georgina Reilly: Why I left Murdoch Mysteries

Dear Miss Reilly: Excuse the pun but, thank-you for “Gracing” us with your performances on Murdoch Mysteries. The show has always been excellent right from the first season, but when your character made her first appearance a few years ago, the fans took notice and endeared you to their hearts both as Emily and Georgina Reilly. Thank you, and I hope you come back someday. Take care. —Rob

Well I can’t wait to see her back as a special guest star and I don’t care that they went off the books a bit … it is still a good show. —Brenden

It’s great that they didn’t choose to kill her off and left the door open for future guest appearances or perhaps a recurring role. As much as I would love for it to, MM won’t last forever. I am sure the entire cast ponders on what they will so when this show ends and how much further they would like to go. Emily can always return in the end. Perhaps for George. I am an avid fan of them as a couple after all. :) —Tibou

I m glad to see Miss Reilly leave Murdoch Mysteries as she was the weak link of the show; best of luck to her. I have watched all the episodes of Murdoch Mysteries and love all the Canadian content. Thanks to the writers and producers for such a good show; Murdoch is my favourite character along with Inspector Brackenreid. —Dee

 

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

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The Nature of Things explores obesity and our guts

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Turns out our gut bugs may be creating oversized guts. That’s one of the suggestions given as to why some suffer from obesity while others don’t. Airing Thursday under CBC’s The Nature of Things banner, “It Takes Guts” posits the 100 trillion microbes living in our digestive system influence obesity in some.

The story begins with Adrianna, who has always battled her weight. Tired of being “the fat girl,” she started an exercise regimen in her 20s and cut fast food from her diet. She didn’t lose any weight. That’s because, according to obesity expert Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta, some bodies are predisposed to being that way thanks to the microbes inside them.

Geneticist Professor Tim Spector is up next, explaining microbes influence how we eat, what we eat, how we get energy from our food, protect our immune system, help us harvest calories and produce key vitamins and nutrients. These super-small spirals, blobs and other shapes are integral in our lives, and aren’t all bad.

“It Takes Guts” offers a lot of information in an interesting way, mixing expert interviews with colourful graphics while explaining how eating processed foods is like dropping a nuclear bomb on microbes—courtesy of Spector’s son, Tom—and what we can do to cultivate and enrich the critters in our gut on the path to better health. And that artificial poop machine at the University of Guelph? Make sure you tune in for that.

The Nature of Things airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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