Tag Archives: CTV

Featured, Motive

Review: Motive scores stellar guest stars

1 Comment

I feel like guest casting is a science. Score the right person in a role and you get gold. Nab the wrong person and it can ruin a storyline or episode. Motive has always been great at finding the right people to come and play; last season’s standouts for me were Brooke Nevin (Cracked) and Jason Dohring (Veronica Mars) both playing against type. This season Motive has been firing on all cylinders and Sunday’s newest episode was no exception.

“Oblivion” featured two veteran actors portraying characters opposite from what we’ve traditionally seen from them to great effect. Stephen Lobo, who often plays jerks—most recently as Kellog on Continuum—was the good guy this time around. His Isaac was fiancé/developer Isaac, who had his life turned upside down when Robin dumped him and disappeared. By the time Angie and Vega showed up at his office Isaac was beside himself with grief, wondering what had happened to the woman he’d loved so much. Shockingly, Isaac had nothing to do with the murder of Jeff Armstrong, a city planner who stood in the way of Isaac’s next project getting off the ground.

Instead, it was Robin herself who murdered Jeff by swapping out his scuba tank of oxygen for one filled with nitrous oxide. Former Gilmore Girls lead Alexis Bledel was simply stunning as Robin. She was cold and calculated in her dispatching of Jeff and at first I’d assumed she’d done it—and made like she’d been murdered to throw off the police—because she was so devoted to Isaac that she’d do anything for him.

But in a great twist, Robin and Jeff had once been together and a car accident had killed their unborn baby and rendered Robin sterile. Furious that he had moved on with his life—and that he was in the way of Isaac’s project going forward—she killed him. I was totally sympathetic to Robin and her feelings, and understood her rage at Jeff’s insensitive comment that she move on. It was easy for him to say—he had a baby on the way with his new gal pal while Robin could never conceive—and for once I cheered for Motive‘s murderer of the week.

Well done, Motive, well done.

Notes and quotes

  • “I keep expecting original recipe Cross.”
  • I like Vega’s new glasses. And though he passed the shooting test, I worry he’s got an eye issue that may jeopardize his career or put someone in danger.
  • The slamming of that door into Angie’s desk cracks me up every time.
  • “Helping a murderer. That’s love.” — Vega
  • This Montgomery fellow seems like a bad dude.

Motive airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Masterchef Canada

Review: Tumble from the top on MasterChef Canada

You’re only as good as your last dish. Michael Bonacini’s point was certainly driven home on Sunday when David found himself in the bottom two next to Kwasi. It was a pretty stunning fall for David, who has up until this point wowed the judges with his creative take on several recipes, earning him challenge wins and spots as team captain.

And yet it almost ended during “One Potato, Two Potato,” first when his red team and Sabrina’s blue team lost the Team Challenge to Line’s ragtag group of misfits on the green squad. I was sure that David’s bacon-topped poutine would win him votes from hungry University of Guelph students, and they very well might have if the contest had taken place right after the campus pub closed for the night. Instead, the kids—seemingly sober after a day full of classes—opted for Line’s butter chicken on fries and she walked away with the win and safety for her team.

That meant strong chefs like Michael, Christopher, Sabrina and Cody battled it out in the Elimination Challenge re-creating tortellini for the judges. And though Cody, Sabrina and David were confident their flavours would triumph, all three were criticized for lacklustre attempts. Luckily for them, Kwasi’s African and Italian-inspired pasta filling confused the judges, leaving them the easy task of sending him home.

Notes and quotes

  • I had no clue the University of Guelph had that agricultural program. Is it too late for me to enrol as a mature student?
  • Michael Bonacini can talk about “perfectly seasoned gravy” all he wants. University kids aren’t picky when it comes to scarfing down poutine after a night at the campus pub.
  • “Grab your potatoes!” Alvin makes everything sound dirty.
  • Alvin is the huggiest judge of Season 2.
  • As a judge, I’d be worried there was finalist sweat in my food.

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

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Motive

Review: The relationship’s the thing on Motive

Taking nothing away from what makes Motive such a compelling show—the crime and the guest stars—but so far it’s been the Season 3 relationship twist that has been entertaining me the most.

Heck yes I was thrilled to see Ally Sheedy and Bonnie Somerville in “Calling the Shots,” battling toe-to-toe over money invested in a Ponzi scheme that led to murder. Did I have a crush on both at points in my life? Why yes I did. (I still miss Somerville’s Kitchen Confidential.) Having Sheedy play Stephanie Carson, an uptight mom who viewed the death of Somerville’s Erica Gray as not only dispatching a rat but also helping further her own daughter’s chances at scoring a gymnastics scholarship? Immensely entertaining.

But it was the relationship between Angie, Lucas, Vega and Betty that had me grinning with pleasure the most. And why not, thanks to back-and-forth conversations like the following?

“The proof is in the pudding,” Vega opined to Angie upon learning a prison inmate was killed over the creamy dessert.

“The plot thickens,” Angie shot right back.

And later, during the murder investigation and subsequent clearing of a virgin who Erica had given the bum’s rush to meet with Stephanie: “Are you ready for this? They had rhubarb pie and watched Doctor Who,” Vega exclaimed to his partner. It’s exactly that witty dialogue that sets Motive apart from other shows in the genre and keeps me tuning in.

The cherry on top of this Sunday night confection is Lucas. It’s only taken the rookie detective six months to go from babbling young cop to confident crime-solver—four solves in four cases—something that has put Angie on her heels. She’s used to being the lead and not having to clear anything with Lucas. But now she has to, and it’s definitely going to be a learning curve. I hope her education continues so that we get more awkward morgue scenes between the four like we did this week.

Motive airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Masterchef Canada

Review: MasterChef Canada winner returns

Competing on a show like MasterChef Canada is an exercise in skill and humility. You may be excellent at what you do, but if you show up your competitors too much or—even worse—the judges, you will get burned for it.

Such was the situation Michael and Cody found themselves in on Sunday night.

Michael, who has never shown a lack of confidence in anything he’s done, was once again slapped down by Michael, Alvin and Claudio for his pretentious plating during the Elimination Challenge. Roasting three vegetables, creating a cylinder of truffle mashed potatoes and grilling a hunk of lamb and placing them on a long white plate may have looked cool, but it made him a target. Claudio especially took umbrage with Michael’s plating and ripped him for salty potatoes.

Cody, meanwhile, one-upped Michael in his douchebaggery by nullifying his Mystery Box win and participating in the Elimination Challenge. Why? Because he really wanted to cook with Season 1 winner Eric Chong’s favourite ingredient: truffles. Clearly riding an adrenaline high, Cody’s decision to compete was a slap in the face to the judges who had given him the win. Dude, if the judges tell you you’re safe and to go to the gallery … YOU GO TO THE GALLERY. Instead, Cody tried too hard to impress everyone and was on the verge of going home.

Thankfully for he and Michael, Kevin once again crashed an burned with an insipid-looking egg and asparagus dish that had a smattering of truffle on it. Kevin, the chef who included puff pastry wrapper in one recent recipe, was shown the door.

Next week, team captains David and Sabrina lead their teams to the University of Guelph where they’ll make poutine for a bunch of students.

Notes and quotes

  • I would have made a pizza with caramelized onions, roasted garlic, brie, smoked gouda and proscuitto on it.
  • When did Cody injure/burn himself? I either missed it or it happened off-camera.
  • “Essence of unicorn… angel tears…” — Jennifer mocking Cody
  • “They seem like they’re just overpriced little turds.” Quote of the night from Kwasi
  • “That’s like me … yellow magic.” Um, what, Alvin?

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV; the show is pre-empted for the JUNOS this coming Sunday.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Motive

Secrets keep Motive rolling into Season 3

Motive is all about the mystery. Who is the victim and why did they become a chalk outline? Who committed the crime? It’s a show that delves into hidden stories and—most of all—secrets.

Turns out Motive‘s lead, Kristin Lehman, has been keeping a little secret of her own.

“I cut my hair and I wear a wig on the show,” Lehman divulges during an in-person interview, sporting a closely-shorn ‘do. The Vancouver-based actress is doing press for Motive, returning Sunday, March 8, on CTV.  The drama series that introduces the victim and the killer within each episode’s opening minutes and then spends the ensuing instalment linking the two, bows with the same core characters, though two find themselves in different places.

Sunday’s return, “Six Months Later,” finds Det. Angie Flynn (Lehman) out of the homicide department and interviewing cop wannabes. She’s stuck in a small office with high windows far away from Det. Vega (Louis Ferreira), Sgt. Mark Cross (Warren Christie), coroner Dr. Betty Rogers (Lauren Holly) and Det. Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny), who is the lead in Sunday’s case.

Motive‘s unique storytelling technique, coined “whydunit,” enables the Vancouver-shot project to feature notable actors and actresses as witnesses, victims and murderers, and Season 3 is no different. “Six Months Later” boasts Victor Garber, Jessica Lowndes, Tony Plana and Luisa D’Oliveira with Alexis Bledel, C. Thomas Howell, Ally Sheedy, Chris Klein and Dylan Walsh all participating in future storylines. Lehman loves the opportunity to have guest cast to interact with because it ups the game of the regulars on the call sheet.

Though the victims and criminals rotate every week, some things never change. Vega and Angie, for instance, will never become romantically linked like so many characters do on long-running series. Lehman says it’s something she and Ferreira have talked about at length.

“These two people are so aware of their limitations in their personal lives that they’re conscious the degree of intimacy they have with each other is the most valuable relationship they have,” she explains. “We’re both playing characters that are in their 40s and there is a strong codependence between them. We’re taking out the sexuality, but we’re enhancing the intimacy.”

That intimacy and familiarity between Vega and Angie will likely be tested this season. Lehman teases Sunday’s storyline becomes a story arch that echoes through the 13 episodes and keeps veteran thespian Garber around.

“In the course of doing so, it provides for a little bit of space for Angie and Vega to continue exploring how they are with each other personally,” she says.

Motive returns Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail