Tag Archives: CTV

Featured, Masterchef Canada

MasterChef Canada returns with plenty of tears

MasterChef Canada is manipulative as heck. With two seasons under their belts, producers Proper Television know exactly how to tug at our emotions. With just one hour of this go-round underway, I was already cheering for finalists like Mary Berg and Jennifer Baglioni because of their backstories, and want them to go all the way to the end.

Of course, I’m supposed to feel this way, and once you just accept it, episodes like Sunday’s are entertaining both in the slick production but the storytelling as well. And with three seasons under their belts, judges Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung and Claudio Aprile know how to inject their own brand of drama into the proceedings too. All three took turns being critical with the first handful of home cooks to shoot for the Top 14, and stated more than once the talent bar had been raised. Thankfully, several contestants met the challenge or exceeded them.

One was Mary Berg, who overcame personal tragedy (her family was in a car accident years ago, claiming her father’s life) to score an apron. Another was Jennifer Bagione, who told her own tear-induced tale. Both parents were deaf and she learned to communicate through sign language. After their mother left, Jennifer took over cooking duties, ensuring Dad had a hot meal to come home to every night. The Maple, Ont., salon manager broke down in tears while the judges communicated through her to her father that she had won a spot in the Top 14.

Not everyone was so lucky. A montage captured several wannabe MasterChef Canada contestants eliminated because their plates were too pedestrian, under-seasoned or just plain bad. Folks like Sean Hickey—he of the bacon-themed headband and apron—bombed out with their audition plate but will battle it out for a spot in the show via kitchen cooking because the judges saw a glimmer of talent.

Who will win the $100,000 grand prize and MasterChef Canada title? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s going to be a fun (and tear-filled) ride on the way to deciding. Tell me who you think will win via the comments below.

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Saving Charlie on Saving Hope

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The news Saving Hope will return for Season 5 may have eased the stress of Sunday’s two-part season finale and pretty much guaranteed Charlie was going to pull through his brain tumour surgery, but it was still a pretty rough go for my nerves.

Would Charlie emerge still being able to see dead people, or would that ability disappear with his tumour? But while it took both episodes, “Anybody Seen My Baby” and “Let Me Go” for Charlie to emerge from surgery with his faculties intact and his ghostly gift excised (he thinks), he and Alex were far from safe. In fact, one of them may very well be at death’s door when the fifth season kicks off.

Yup, the couple who had been through so much already were thrown into the wringer once more—thanks for Adam Pettle’s finale script—when Crenshaw (Travis Milne) appeared at the Fellowship dinner with a gun and fired it when they stood so Alex and Maggie could accept their award together. To say the twist came out of left field is an understatement and a testament to Pettle and his writing staff. So much has gone on this season I’d completely forgotten about Crenshaw. He, of course, never forgot Charlie’s refusal to help get him cleared of murdering his wife and sought revenge.

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It was the perfect wrench to throw into what was for the most part a happy season finale. Yes, there were sad moments—Kristine died and a patient with liver disease lost her unborn daughter in “Anybody Seen My Baby”—but Dawn and Zach are officially an item (after a misstep courtesy of Maggie) and flying between Vancouver and Toronto so they can see Zach’s kids. After everything they’ve been through personally since last season I’m glad the pair are together and truly happy. Not so happy? Cassie, who went from No. 1 to also-ran in Jeremy’s life after his wife, Natasha, jetted in and proclaimed her love for him. Now he’s headed back to California, closing the door on their relationship but opening it up for Dev to make his move.

So what do you think, Saving Hope fans? Did Crenshaw shoot Alex? Charlie? Someone else? Or did he miss? And what did you think of this season overall? Write a comment below or send me a note via Twitter to @tv_eh.

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Motive

Final season of CTV’s Motive begins March 22

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CTV announced today that multiple Canadian Screen Award nominee MOTIVE is set to face its last round of investigations, as the series returns for its fourth and final season Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT beginning March 22 on CTV and CTV GO, following a CraveTV First Look starting March 21. Wrapping production today in Vancouver, the final season brings the story of the series’ dynamic homicide team to a powerful conclusion as they continue to explore what drives the motive behind the murder in 13 unforgettable new episodes. MOTIVE was nominated last month for nine Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Dramatic Series.

In the final season, each member of the homicide team faces pivotal choices about their future, as they set on a course of deciding what they want their legacies to be. Canadian Screen Award nominee Kristin Lehman (THE KILLING) returns as Detective Angie Flynn, who leads the team through a season of big change and evolution: Detective Oscar Vega’s (Louis Ferreira, BREAKING BAD, SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE) new role as Staff Sergeant means adjustments for everyone; Angie and Detective Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny, THE ASSISTANTS) develop a deeper bond; Dr. Betty Rogers (Lauren Holly, NCIS), who is personally involved with Vega, must now mind the boundaries of her personal and professional relationship; and new detectives are introduced to the team.

Building on its roster of incredible guest stars throughout the series, Season 4 of MOTIVE continues to showcase a fantastic line up of seasoned actors with appearances from Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite); Will Sasso (SHAMELESS); and Tommy Flanagan (SONS OF ANARCHY), who guest stars in a recurring role as Interpol Agent Jack Stoker.

MOTIVE also stars Victor Zinck Jr. (THE 100) and Karen LeBlanc (CRACKED), who join this season as new detectives on the series’ homicide team.

In the Season 4 premiere, entitled “The Vanishing Policeman” (Tuesday, March 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO), while Detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Staff Sergeant Vega (Louis Ferreira) adjust to his new role, the suicide of an officer with whom Angie and Detective Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny) worked on a crime scene turns the team’s investigation into a hunt for a cop killer.

MOTIVE is produced by Lark Productions and Foundation Features in association with Bell Media. Executive Producers are Dennis Heaton (CALL ME FITZ, Fido), who also serves as the Season 4 showrunner; series creator Daniel Cerone (DEXTER, THE BLACKLIST); Louise Clark (CORNER GAS, HIGH MOON); Rob Merilees (Stone of Destiny, Brain on Fire); Erin Haskett (THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF VANCOUVER); Rob LaBelle (MENTAL); Lindsay Macadam (Brain on Fire); and Ben Brafman (PERSON OF INTEREST, DEFYING GRAVITY). The series is distributed internationally by NBCUniversal International.

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Saving Hope

Link: Saving Hope finale preview: What’s coming between Alex and Charlie?

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Saving Hope finale preview: What’s coming between Alex and Charlie?
After a shocking end to Season 3, that saw the death of Daniel Gillies’ Joel, the show has shifted focus a bit this season–leaning away from a love triangle, and focusing more on how Charlie’s abilities affect his relationship with Alex. Others, like Dr. Zach Miller (Benjamin Ayres), have felt the repercussions of Joel’s death, but have turned things around as the season has worn on. Saving Hope showrunner Adam Pettle spoke exclusively with The TV Junkies about the show’s new focus, the threat to Charlie’s abilities and why now is the perfect time for a certain pair. Continue reading.

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Cardinal

CTV and Super Écran Light up the North as Production Begins in Sudbury, Ont. on the New Serialized Drama CARDINAL

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From a media release:

CTV and Super Écran, alongside producers Sienna Films and Entertainment One (eOne), announced today that production has begun on CARDINAL, the networks new serialized, six-part, one-hour drama featuring Golden Globe® nominee Billy Campbell (THE KILLING) and the multiple Genie Award-winning actress Karine Vanasse (REVENGE) as series leads. Directed by the award-winning Montréal native Daniel Grou aka Podz (19-2, MINUIT LE SOIR) the cinematic murder mystery begins shooting in Sudbury, Ont., today. The series will also shoot in North Bay, Ont., Atikameksheng Anishnawbek in northern Ontario, and Toronto. CARDINAL is a gripping, character driven drama set to premiere as part of CTV and Super Écran’s 2016/17 schedule.

Also announced today are additional cast members including Deborah Hay (The Anniversary) as Catherine Cardinal, John Cardinal’s wife; Alanna Bale (PRIME RADICALS) as Kelly Cardinal, Cardinal’s precocious and independent teenage daughter; Glen Gould (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) as Jerry Commanda, a police contemporary and friend of Cardinal; David Richmond Peck (ORPHAN BLACK) as Corporal Musgrave, an officer in charge of a tightly guarded investigation; Gail Maurice (STREET TIME) as Dorothy Pine, mother of young murder victim Katie Pine; Kristen Thomson (Away from Her) as Sergeant Noelle Dyson, Cardinal’s commanding officer; and Brendan Fletcher (The Revenant) and Allie MacDonald (YOUNG DRUNK PUNK) as Eric Fraser  and Edie Soames, a young couple.

CARDINAL is adapted from the award-winning novel Forty Words for Sorrow, the first of the John Cardinal Mysteries series, a series of six bestselling crime novels written by Ontario native and award-winning author Giles Blunt. The series begins with the discovery of Katie Pine, a missing 13-year-old whose body is discovered in the shaft-head of an abandoned mine. CARDINAL follows detectives John Cardinal (Campbell) and Lise Delorme (Vanasse) as they attempt to uncover the mystery of what happened to the young girl. But as the case grows in scope and horror, a dark secret from Cardinal’s history threatens to derail the investigation.

CARDINAL is produced by Sienna Films and eOne in association with Bell Media’s CTV, with the financial participation of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the Canada Media Fund and the Cogeco Program Development Fund, and with the assistance of the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Super Écran has commissioned the series for French-language Canadian broadcast. eOne will distribute the series worldwide.

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