Tag Archives: Featured

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron seek a lost city in Atlantis Rising

I’ve been fascinated with things like Bigfoot, UFOs and the pyramids of Egypt from a young age. The same goes for Atlantis, thanks to an episode of Leonard Nimoy’s In Search Of and a little series called Man from Atlantis, starring a pre-Dallas Patrick Duffy.

So I was excited to check out Atlantis Rising, as Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron join forces to find out if the city of myths really existed. I’ve watched Jacobovici in other series like The Naked Archaeologist and The Lost Tomb of Jesus; the latter being pretty controversial. As for Cameron, well, when he’s not directing, he’s exploring the deep sea, most notably the Marianas Trench. The dude knows where and how to explore ocean depths.

The one-hour special Atlantis Rising—broadcast Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Discovery Canada—is an adventure combining ancient texts and cutting-edge technology to tell an entertaining search for a frustratingly elusive target. Jacobovici provides the backdrop to what we know about Atlantis: the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it in 4th century AD; he and Cameron get to work on where in the world to dive for the Atlanteans’ port city of land and sea set in three rings.

The quest begins in Santorini, a Greek island that seems to fit the description; the island looked very different during the Classical Age but was ravaged by a volcanic eruption, not the earthquake and tsunami Plato says destroyed Atlantis. Jacobovici speaks to experts in the archaeological field, relating information and discussing the chances of different locations being the lost city. He delivers everything in a calm, measured tone that makes it easy for viewers to understand and come to their own conclusions. And, after winnowing his list of spots down, he presents his findings to Cameron and the diving begins.

I won’t ruin the conclusion for you, but I can say the journey to get there is a lot of fun.

Atlantis Rising airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Discovery Canada.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Hard Rock Medical

Comments and queries for the week of March 10

For Hard Rock Medical producers/directors … I’m very disappointed that Danielle Bourgon seems to have only eight-second parts to play in this series. She is a superb actor and I do wish you would write her into the series much more than you are doing. HRM is becoming increasingly uninteresting to watch because of “key” players not being featured. Sometimes Danielle isn’t in an episode at all! Why waste this woman’s time? She’s a very skilled actor and not being utilized. Thanks. —Terry

My husband and I used to LOVE watching the Leave it to Bryan show! We loved seeing how he fixed things and the renovation part gave us a lot of how to do it yourself ideas! Since his wife joined the show, we never watch it anymore and we miss it! We don’t watch it because we don’t want to waste our time seeing them argue back and forth about this and that and see all the drama! We just want to see how building and renos are done! Please, just cut out all the “reality TV drama” and get back to showing Bryan do what he does best (by himself!). —Karen

How can we in the U.S. see or purchase DVDs of X Company? —Patty

Unfortunately, you can’t watch X Company anywhere in the U.S. yet but you can buy Season 1 and 2 on Amazon. 

We love this series. So sad but so part of our history; both my father and father-in-law were part of this horrid war. My father-in-law until this day, at 97, will not talk about it even if he could. He was on the frigate boat that sunk one of the last of the German U-Boats. I have thanked them for many years for making our life what it is today. —Bett

 

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

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Featured, Masterchef Canada

Broken stoves and spirits on MasterChef Canada

Season 4 of MasterChef Canada returned with a huge new twist in the audition process, first by having the home cooks create a rice dish at home with just 20 minutes to shop for ingredients and then challenging them to recreate it in the grand kitchen. Within the space of 44 minutes, the original 24 were trimmed to the Top 12. It was an impressive and shocking beginning to what judges Claudio Aprile and Michael Bonacini promise is a dramatic season.

Case in point? Thursday’s episode, “Home on the Range,” began with the usual Mystery Box containing ingredients from the competitors’ homes as inspiration and a chance for viewers to decide who they’d be cheering for this time around. But even that test was altered; rather than an ingredient from the cook’s hometowns, it was an actual item from their homes. In the case of Barrie, that meant his pink pig timer; a piece of wood from Aaron’s grandfather’s property; Justine’s first pastry bag; and Trevor’s pepper grinder.

Early on, I was impressed by Matt (mainly because I interviewed him outside of the Toronto auditions and is insanely prepared), Miranda and her baking skills, Justine and her energy, Jordan and his giggle, gentle giant Aaron, and that Trevor kid, who managed to break a fine German stove made by Miele. Aaron’s attention to detail impressed the judges enough to land him a spot for tasting; his chowder and fish were a hit, as was Miranda’s orange-chocolate cake and Trevor’s pan-seared chicken. As Michael said before making a decision on a winner, these home cooks are a sophisticated bunch turning out food of high quality in Episode 2.

Trevor won, giving him the advantage in the Elimination Challenge as he picked stone fruits for his competitors to use in their next recipe. Miranda was thrilled … until Trevor was handed salt shakers and sugar bowls and decided who would make savoury or sweet foods for tasting. It was a brilliant way to shake up what could have been a very staid Elimination Challenge and showed savvy behind-the-scenes planning. The final stroke of genius was allowing Trevor to save all of the men or all of the women from cooking. By choosing to save the men, Trevor made quick friends of the fellows. I’m betting the girls will have long memories.

Thea was freaking out over her sponge cake and I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t make a crumble with a jazzed-up ice cream or whipped cream. Trying to make a cake when you don’t know how is a bad move in my opinion. Thea managed to pull it off, causing me to wonder if some shady editing made it appear she was more flustered than she really was.

It was clear who scored top marks from the judges: Justine’s peach gazpacho and Miranda’s bison and stone fruit sauce were the taste winners and put the pair in the Top 2, and team captains next week. Thea, Mai and Alice were in the bottom thanks to overseasoning, undercooked meat and an ugly sponge cake; Alice was eliminated from the competition.

MasterChef Canada airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Paranormal Survivor gets spookier in Season 3

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Oh, lucky day! Specialty network T+E (formerly known as Travel & Escape) is available in a free preview in March, meaning potential customers have access to one of the creepiest series on television: Paranormal Survivors.

Returning on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Paranormal Survivor takes a different approach from the usual supernatural series. This isn’t just about turning out the lights and waving technology around in the air, asking questions into thin air. Nope, this project—from Our House Media—interviews people who have been assaulted and abused by entities. As they tell their tale, re-enactments bring it to life, injecting disturbing details and driving home the fact they believe something awful happened to them.

In the first part of the debut, “Dream Home Nightmares,” Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., resident Kirk Wilson and his mother, Colleen, recount their 1987 experience. Moved items, strangely stacked CDs and a feeling of being watched plagued Kirk for months until one night when several “things” came out of his closet. Kirk was determined to ignore the occurrences … but then it got physical. There is no doubt Kirk his mother believe otherworldly stuff happened, and that’s what makes Paranormal Survivor so darned dramatic and, at times, disturbing.

In addition to the episodes on television, T+E has also released a series of one-minute digital shorts called Paranormal Survivor: Evil Surrounds You, available on the channel’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Each video features a one-minute scary scene based on true story. It’s very well done; I was suitably freaked out tracking my way around a darkened bedroom as something came out of the closet in the first clip. (A technical heads-up: the videos don’t work in Safari, so use another browser to witness the creepiness below.)

 

 

 

Paranormal Survivor airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on T+E.

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Saving Hope prepares for a tumultuous goodbye

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Five years. Eighty-five episodes. Regardless of what country it’s been created and filmed in, Saving Hope is a success story. Now we’re saying goodbye to CTV’s medical drama, but the Canadian Screen Award nominee—returning Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT—isn’t going quietly.

Executive producer and showrunner Adam Pettle and co-executive producers Noelle Carbone and Patrick Tarr (the latter two are currently writing Season 3 of Cardinal), sat down with us during a Saving Hope set visit last summer and hinted at the drama Alex (Erica Durance) and Charlie (Michael Shanks) will go through, and what will befall recent lovebirds Dawn (Michelle Nolden) and Zach (Benjamin Ayres). And keep your eyes peeled for our interviews with Nolden, Ayres and Dejan Loyola in the coming weeks.

At what point did you know there would be a Season 5?
Adam Pettle: I think it was October, just after the Season 4 debut. We were still working on the season finale and weren’t sure if we would be writing a series finale or a season finale.

Noelle Carbone: I think every series [in Canada] is in the same boat where you write for a series finale and hope it’s a season finale.

What would have happened if last season’s finale was the series finale? Would it have been different?
Adam Pettle: Yes, and you’ll see it this year. Maybe.

Noelle Carbone: [Laughs.] Yeah, we’re just going to recycle our idea!

I understand you had to close off the street in front of the Royal York Hotel downtown to film part of the Season 5 return. Is that the biggest shoot you’ve done?
Adam Pettle: My feeling was, we wanted to come back and have a different energy and pace to this year’s premiere than last year’s. Last year it was quieter because Alex and Charlie were together and in this domestic setting. We’ve been rooting for them to be together.

Will Crenshaw be back in Season 5?
Patrick Tarr: We’ll definitely be feeling his effects.

You brought Alex and Charlie together … but I understand things may change?
Adam Pettle: Saving Hope is a love story between Charlie and Alex and to have an emotional payoff for fans [is important]. They’ve also had really shitty luck and need to figure out some stuff.

Noelle Carbone: As in real life, having a baby doesn’t always solve your problems. There is a lot of work to be done in solving the fundamental problems of that relationship. Every time they get together something tragic happens. [Charlie] might see ghosts or he might be crazy. Alex has been searching for a cure, suggesting that he have the surgery to remove the brain tumour. She’s not 100 per cent bought into his reality and that’s a fundamental disparity between them. Luke—as adorable as he is and as much as they love him—is not going to solve that.

Patrick Tarr: We have these great lead actors [in Erica Durance and Michael Shanks] and to give them real challenges and real places to go—yearning and frustration—there is a lot more there than in contentment. To give them some scenes to really sink their teeth into was motivation as well.

Adam Pettle: Alex is our hero and I think putting her in a place where she’s doubting herself or having a crisis of faith is identifiable.

I noticed a name on the call sheet that says ‘Ghost Claudia.’ Obviously, having the tumour removed did not change what Charlie can see.
Patrick Tarr: That’s right, and some might say at some point in the season it comes back with a vengeance.

Noelle Carbone: The Season 4 finale did such a wonderful job opening up that spiritual world to what is possible for Charlie. It was so visual and so different … how do we build on that and how do we evolve that experience for him seemed like a natural progression for Season 5.

Dawn and Zach have a solid relationship now.
Noelle Carbone: In the read-through, when they finally got together, everybody cheered. Everyone here is as invested in them as much as a fans are.

Adam Pettle: Even inside of the Dawn and Zach relationship we want to give them obstacles and challenges. We have to keep those characters who they are so that they don’t become soft.

Patrick Tarr: They’re prickly people, so that makes it easy to create some tension in their relationship. They’re both fully-formed people with opinions.

Noelle Carbone: We also threw some professional challenges at them in the early part of the season that I think will galvanize their relationship.

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

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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