Tag Archives: Featured

MasterChef Canada: And the winner is …

After a three-hour marathon that included their fellow competitors and family members watching from the sidelines, Thea and Trevor did battle in a three-course non-stop cook for the ages to win the $100,000 grand prize and title of MasterChef Canada.

By the time the dust steam had settled on Thursday night, Trevor the plumber/gas fitter from Edmonton had emerged victorious. Thea, the insurance broker from Vancouver, came in second place. Things may have been very different if the tamale ball Thea served chef Claudio Aprile hadn’t been raw in the middle, but the devil is in the details and that one ruined her chances of winning. Judges Alvin Leung, Claudio Aprile and Michael Bonacini awarded Trevor the trophy, explaining that his three-course meal presented the best story of the two.

“Winning this has kick-started my food dream,” Trevor told producers after the confetti had fallen. “My life is changing as we speak. Goodbye plumbing, hello cooking!”

“I’m really happy for Trevor,” Thea said in defeat. “I still feel like a winner. This has been the best journey I’ve ever had and nothing is going to stop me from pursuing my food dream right now.”

MasterChef Canada continued to be groundbreaking in its challenges this season by presenting a doozy of a final one: Thea and Trevor had three hours to create an appetizer, entree and dessert and the clock would not stop running. This meant the pair would not only have to stay focussed while cooking but have excellent time-management skills. Thea’s take on Mexican food with street corn panna cotta, pork cheek tamale and orange sponge cake played to her strength of having bold flavours while Trevor’s octopus and chips, lamb two ways and deconstructed chocolate mint ice cream cone showcased his sophistication in taste and plating.

There wasn’t a ton of drama during the hour-long episode—despite producers injecting dramatic music to suggest there was—and it all rightly came down to taste for final judgement from Claudio, Alvin and Michael. A frontrunner from Week 1, the only way Trevor was going to lose was if something catastrophic went wrong with one of his plates. As soon as the trio went off without a hitch his win was sealed.

What did you think of this season of MasterChef Canada? Did the right home cook win? Let me know in the comments below!

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AMI-tv digs into DIY with debut of Eyes for the Job

It makes total sense for the folks at AMI-tv to follow up their cooking series Four Senses with Eyes for the Job. Aside from cooking, home renovations take up a lot of our time so why not launch a do-it-yourself series?

Debuting Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv, Eyes for the Job is designed for viewers who are blind or low vision by having hosts Chris Judge and Rebekah Higgs describe what they’re doing while it’s being done. That’s evident in Episode 1 as the pair turn an old piano into a showstopper bar and tile the kitchen at Higgs’ home; they give a step-by-step description of exactly what they’re doing as they do it.

Shot and produced in Halifax by Clerisy Entertainment, the 13-episodes spotlight the skills of Higgs—an accomplished singer, songwriter and do-it-yourself mom—and Judge, who was born blind. That didn’t stop him from catching the DIY bug from his father.

“My father wasn’t trained carpenter, but he did it all of his life,” Judge says on the phone from Halifax. “As a kid, I was always getting in his way. I was out in his workshop putting my hands all over everything and asking him more questions than I’m sure he cared to answer.” Judge honed his skills in junior high by taking industrial arts, first embracing woodworking and then, as an adult, turning towards handyman jobs. Judge has always had an uncanny knack for being able to dismantle and rebuild things; he once shocked friends by putting together a barbecue grill just from feel.

Still, there were parts of Eyes for the Job that him pause: painting. As Judge, an assistive technology trainer at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind recalls, he wasn’t sure how a blind person could successfully paint walls to the standard a sighted person could. But with Higgs’ help, he not only learned how to do it but do it well.

Eyes for the Job isn’t just an excellent DIY series for its intended audience, it’s a fantastic renovation series period, something producer Dale Stevens strived for.

“What a great bar to set on this project, if we can make this not only for the audience at AMI but for anybody on any network,” Stevens says on the line from Dartmouth, NS. “I think we’ve created something that—regardless of what visual state you are—you’re going to watch this show and you’re going to like it.”

 

 

 

Eyes for the Job airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv.

Image courtesy of AMI.

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Dark Matter’s Anthony Lemke guest stars on Private Eyes

Attention Dark Matter fans! With the June 9 return of the sci-fi adventure on the way, star Anthony Lemke drops by Private Eyes to shake up Angie’s world. Thursday’s newest episode, “Boardwalk Empire,” written by Marcus Robinson and directed by Rob Lieberman, also introduces fans to Zoe Chow (Samantha Wan), who goes from client to employee in the blink of an eye.

Here’s Global’s official episode synopsis:

The tenacious Zoe Chow hires Shade and Angie to find out who has broken into her apartment in the Beach. It looks like their client may be imagining things – until they uncover a real-life conspiracy to tear down Zoe’s eightplex and replace it with a massive condo tower.

And here are some spoiler-free notes we gleaned from watching the episode.

Samantha Wan as Zoe Chow

Zoe makes an impact on Angie and Shade
It’s not so much the case that attracts Angie and Shade to Zoe, but her personality. She’s quick-thinking, exuberant and quirky as all get-out. As stars Cindy Sampson and Jason Priestley told us, hiring Zoe means Angie and Shade can spend more time in the field. We love that. Also, check out Wan in Second Jen, the hilarious comedy series she and Amanda Joy created for City.

The mystery is solved
Remember the envelope Shade found taped to the bottom of Angie’s dad’s desk? It contained a key to a safety deposit box and Angie opens the box before episode’s end. That sends her and Shade’s business in a new direction.

Anthony Lemke slimes it up
Lemke is the big bad in this week’s instalment. We don’t want to give anything else away, except to say Lemke isn’t your typical villain.

A change of scenery
The episode begins with Angie and Shade in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood and that area of the city will play a big part in the rest of Season 2. I’m excited about the opportunities that will give the show going forward.

Private Eyes airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

Images courtesy of Corus.

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TV Eh B Cs podcast 66 — A Cardinal Point with Jennica Harper

Jennica Harper is a Vancouver-based TV writer/producer. Recent credits include Season 2 of Cardinal for CTV, the ABC thriller Somewhere Between and the fourth and final season of Motive. Jennica also wrote and produced on the hit kids comedies Some Assembly Required for YTV and Netflix for which she won a WGC Screenwriting Award, and Mr. Young for YTV and Disney XD.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to support TV, eh?’s work? Become a Patreon!

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Photo gallery: Season 3 of Dark Matter

With less than two weeks before Dark Matter returns to our screens, we’ve got ahold of some glorious cast shots ahead of the Season 3 debut. Check them out below!

Created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, we were left wondering who survived the destruction of EOS7 in the Season 2 cliffhanger. Space says Dark Matter’s third season opens a compelling new chapter of the spellbinding series. Joining the cast this season are Ayisha Issa (12 Monkeys) as Solara Shockley, Mishka Thébaud (Bitten) as Adrian and Andrew Moodie (Trust No One) as Teku.

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Dark Matter returns Friday, June 9, at 8 p.m. ET with two back-to-back episodes before settling into its 9 p.m. ET timeslot the following week.

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