Yearly Archives: 2015

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Slice looks for singles for First Date Canada

First Dates Canada Logo

From a media release:

Force Four Entertainment and Remedy Canada Productions, in association with Shaw Media, are proud to announce the start of production on First Dates Canada, a new Canadian documentary series scheduled to air on Slice in 2015. Based on the hit format from Warner Bros. International Television Production, First Dates Canada brings viewers a compulsively watchable look at the attractions, the heartaches, the connections, and the perils of a first date.

Filmed on location in Vancouver, each episode of First Dates Canada documents a restaurant of single men and women who have been paired up for a first date with someone they’ve never met. The restaurant is fitted with more than 40 hidden cameras capturing every moment of the ensuing, and sometimes cringe-worthy, conversational foreplay. Honest and observational at its core, First Dates Canada is a real-life romantic comedy where the players direct themselves.

Online applications for First Dates Canada can be filled out by visiting www.Slice.ca/First-Dates-Canada. Applicants must be 19 years of age or older, available for filming in the Vancouver area, and must provide a headshot of themselves. The casting site also allows people to nominate friends or family for the show through the same online application process.

Originally produced in the U.K. by Twenty Twenty for Channel 4, First Dates has become an international hit, with local versions produced in a number of other territories including Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. First Dates Canada is a co-production between Force Four Entertainment and Remedy Canada Productions, in association with Shaw Media and Slice.

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History goes for a ride with Gangland Undercover

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From a media release:

HISTORY is taking viewers inside a covert operation in the new, fact-based drama series, Gangland Undercover, which chronicles infiltrator Charles Falco’s (Canadian Damon Runyan) mission inside one of America’s most notoriously violent outlaw motorcycle gangs. Giving a rare look inside this historically infamous organized crime gang through the eyes of an undercover investigator, the six-episode series premieres on HISTORY Monday March 2nd at 10pm ET/PT and is based on Falco’s 2013 memoir, “Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws: My Infiltration of America’s Deadliest Biker Gangs.”

Joining Damon Runyan in the cast are fellow Canadians Paulino Nunes (The Firm, Haven), James Cade (Copper, Rookie Blue), Don Francks (La Femme Nikita, Hemlock Grove), Melanie Scrofano (Warehouse 13, Edwin Boyd), Ari Cohen (Small Town Murder Songs, Maps to the Stars), Stephen McIntyre (Less Than Kind, Haven), Ian Matthews (Lost Girl, A History of Violence) and Patricia McKenzie (Cosmopolis, Mirador).

The series follows Falco’s three-year mission living a double-life as an ATF informant planted inside one of the most historically dangerous motorcycle gangs, the California-based Vagos – a criminal group involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering and murder. Falco initially took on the assignment out of self-preservation, to avoid 20 years in prison on drug charges, but his outlook soon shifted, becoming a quest to achieve justice. Operation 22 Green, as it was known, ended in March 2006 with the arrests of 25 gang members.

Drawing on the wealth of material from Falco’s book, along with broader documented historical research of inter-gang rivalries, the series captures the reality of outlaw biker counter-culture: a world in which freedom is equated with the right to carry guns and trade drugs with impunity, a world in which respect can be earned through fear.

Gangland Undercover is produced by Cineflix Productions in association with Shaw Media and Stephen Kemp. Noel Baker (Hard Core Logo) is the lead writer. Neil Rawles (Manson, 9/11 State of Emergency), Carl Hindmarch (The Somme, Holby City) and Stephen Kemp (Dangerous Persuasions, Locked Up Abroad) are the directors. Charles Tremayne and Kim Bondi are amongst Cineflix’s Executive Producers. A+E Networks will distribute Gangland Undercover outside of North America under the A+E Studios International banner.

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Chopped Canada sets dramatic Season 2 table

It may not have had the stress of competing on Chopped Canada–returning for Season 2 on Saturday–but having lunch with two of the show’s judges was still pretty daunting. Would John Higgins and Anne Yarymowich–he the director of George Brown College’s Chef School and she an instructor there–note my nervousness and trepidation surrounding the collection of forks in front of me?

The setting for our late-November sit-down was The Chef’s House, George Brown’s student-run restaurant where those enrolled in the Chef School program not only work in the kitchen preparing dishes but at the front of the house too, taking orders and passing plates to paying customers. As for how I fared in front of Higgins and Yarymowich? Passed with flying colours. Hey, I can devour food with the best of them. As we chowed down on tasty treats (I went for the country paté appetizer and braised beef main), we chatted about Season 2 of Food Network Canada’s culinary competition.

Both admitted to having many of the same reactions I do watching chefs struggle to create edible offerings out of the mystery ingredients. Their first thought is always, “What would I do with that?” followed by “What are they doing?!?!” as questionable decisions are made as time starts to tick down. The challenge for the competitors will be made even harder, I was told, though the structure remains the same: more chefs from across the country compete for $10,000 in front of Higgins, Yarymowich and fellow returning judges Susur Lee, Lynn Crawford, Michael Smith and Roger Mooking, and new panelists Massimo Capra, Antonio Park and Eden Grinshpan.

Saturday’s return finds Carol Christie of Sooke, B.C., Brian McKenna of Langley, B.C., Mario Spina of Calgary and Keith Hoare of Mississauga, Ont., challenged by a Middle Eastern ingredient in the appetizer round, monkfish in the entrée round and tofu for the dessert. The tension in the challenges have been upped to new heights, with themed episodes scattered throughout the 13 episodes, including a Viewer’s Choice competition on Feb. 7 spotlighting prairie oysters, ketchup chips, Gefilte fish and squid ink.

Higgins and Yarymowich were mum on winners, promising only that Season 2 is more dramatic than the first. I can’t wait.

Chopped Canada airs Saturdays at 9 pm. ET/PT on Food Network Canada.

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Tonight: Marketplace, Fifth Estate, Sports on Fire

Marketplace, CBC – “Repairmen Unplugged”
Fed up with an appliance on the fritz? Wondering why they just don’t last like they used to? Marketplace is kicking off 2015 by revealing five secrets appliance makers might prefer you didn’t know. Marketplace hears from a lot of Canadians who are frustrated by appliance breakdowns. So now we’re calling in veteran repairmen to diagnose the problems and tell you what’s really going on. After all, there’s a lot at stake: we spend about $4-billion a year on major appliances. Host Tom Harrington talks to insiders and joins a repairman on a house call, showing you the problems and how you can protect yourself.

Fifth Estate, CBC – “Putin’s Long Shadow”
A joint investigation by the fifth estate and PBS Frontline probes Russian leader Vladimir Putin: allegations of criminal activity and corruption, with a secret personal fortune said to be in the billions. Gillian Findlay reports on the dark side of one of the most powerful men in the world.

Sports on Fire, HBO Canada – “A Cold War”
Viewers are taken back in time to 1972 to revisit the historic Summit Series between Canada and Russia. We know the Summit Series is the stuff Canadian hockey legend is made of, but SPORTS ON FIRE takes a unique approach by compiling unfiltered viewpoints from athletes, historians, and journalists in fast-paced hard-hitting style that’s made for pay television.

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Comments and queries for the week of Jan. 9

3 Comments

Three TV shows and one story took hold of readers this week. There was lots of praise for Donald Sutherland’s Pirate’s Passage and The Book of Negroes but Lost Girl fans have started to lose faith in the final season. Meanwhile, readers weighed in on D.K. Latta’s piece for The Huffington Post. Check out the link to read one particularly insightful observation.

My wife and I just watched Pirate’s Passage. Wow, that really was very good, very top-class and well done. I’m 64, and I wish we’d had Canadian stories like this to read and on TV and as literature studies in school when I was growing up. Thanks to all for Pirate’s Passage! Please do lots more.–Steve and Tracy

I just finished watching Pirate’s Passage, and already I want more. This is a wonderfully produced project; I cannot recommend it enough to anyone wanting to enjoy a good old Canadian story.–Brandon

The Book of Negroes looks fantastic and I can’t recall such a great miniseries being made in Canada since Anne of Green Gables came out. Sure, there have been attempts, but for the most part there’s been political thrillers or issues-heavy miniseries that only appealed to niche viewers and failed ratings-wise. I am curious how The Book of Negroes will do in the ratings. There’s been plenty of promotion and the trailer is very enticing.–Alicia

The writers have not given the relationship between Lost Girl‘s Bo and Lauren much dignity. In the second show in which they were a true couple (Season 3), the writers had them flinging sarcasm at each other; not a good start for a relationship. When Bo went through the trial of the Dawning, when she emerged, there was no embrace or kiss with Lauren. Lauren was just standing there with all the others, there was no indication of them as a couple. Then shortly after that, the writers had Lauren ask Bo for a break in their relationship. She goes off to join Taft. In the 4th season, Lauren joins the Dark and foils the Morrigan, which to me indicates that Lauren wanted Bo all along, that she was trying to gain Bo’s favor by her actions against the Morrigan. And now in Season 5, they are “exes”? When did we get that discussion??–Sue

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

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