All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

HGTV Canada’s real estate expert risks it all in Buyers Bootcamp with Scott McGillivray

From a media release:

Investment property specialist, Scott McGillivray, is taking his passion to the next level by teaming up with renovation rookies for the opportunity of a lifetime in the new Canadian original series Buyers Bootcamp with Scott McGillivray (10×60). Premiering Sunday, April 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV Canada, the series follows Scott as he works with first-time house flippers and invests his own money and expertise to renovate rundown homes. Along with his new partners, Scott will work night and day to get each renovation completed on time and on budget. If they succeed, they split the profits, and if they fail, they fail together.

After years of successfully transforming properties into income-generators, this time Scott is offering his knowledge to newbies in a high stakes, real-life training ground. In each episode, Scott tours two potential partners’ homes to identify what needs to be done to earn top dollar when it hits the market. Scott takes into account the total budget, the time required, as well as the skills and sweat-equity each homeowner can offer. Once the partner is selected, Scott puts his money where his mouth is and personally invests in the project. He then leads the charge in tackling the renovation, giving his new partners invaluable hands-on lessons to successfully overhaul a home in time for an open house.

CIBC continues its five-year partnership with HGTV Canada and Scott McGillivray as the series’ exclusive sponsor. The financial institution will provide viewers with helpful tips on how they can make the most of their own home investments through digital content on the series’ website and weekly videos posted on HGTV Canada’s social media platforms, in addition to organic integrations throughout the show.

New episodes of Buyers Bootcamp with Scott McGillivray will be available On Demand and at HGTV.ca each week after broadcast. Later this spring, catch Scott as he returns for Season 3 of HGTV Canada’s Home To Win, premiering Sunday, April 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Buyers Bootcamp with Scott McGillivray is produced by McGillivray Entertainment in association with Corus Entertainment’s HGTV Canada and Scripps Networks Interactive.

 

 

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Children's Programming

Lights! Camera! Classroom! Family Channel’s Backstage returns

From a media release:

It may be March Break for most fans, but class is back in session at Keaton School of the Arts as Family Channel’s popular tween drama Backstage returns for its second season. Premiering Monday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT, the highly anticipated second season debuts as a full week event, with new episodes airing daily at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT until Friday, March 16, and an advance preview on The Family Channel App. The all-new season headlines Family’s March Break programming lineup, which includes the return of the out-of-this-world competition series, Massive Monster Mayhem and new movies every day!

Backstage follows a group of exceptionally talented teenagers as they face the challenges that come with attending the prestigious Keaton School of the Arts. Season two welcomes a brand new school year for the students with the emergence of new rivalries, friendships and a multi-school arts competition. The series, which is filmed in Toronto, features an all-Canadian cast and all-original musical score, with episodes directed by some of today’s most notable music video directors including RT! (Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul), Director X (Drake, Rihanna, Zayn), Wendy Morgan (Dragonette, Janelle Monáe) and Warren Sonoda (Johnny Reid, George Canyon). Following premiere week, Backstage moves to its regular timeslot, Fridays at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Season two of Backstage premieres as part of Family Channel’s March Break lineup, a can’t-miss programming event for the entire family. The fun officially begins on Friday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT with the network premiere of Daddy’s Home (starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell) and features must-see movies daily at 7 p.m. ET/PT, from March 10 – 18. Movie titles include: The Smurfs, Astro Boy, Hotel Transylvania, Monster House, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Away & Back, Open Season 3, Surf’s Up and The Peanuts Movie. The festivities also include the return of Massive Monster Mayhem, a laugh-out-loud comedy that pits real-life kids against all-star monsters in the most grueling and toughest challenges known to mankind. New episodes will debut on Monday, March 12, Wednesday, March 14, and Friday, March 16 at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT, before the series moves to its regular timeslot on March 24, Saturdays at 9 a.m. ET/PT.

 

Family Channel’s multi-platform offerings will also be joining the March Break celebrations with new episodes of Backstage available on the The Family Channel App beginning March 9. Immediately following each episode’s broadcast premiere, fans can head to the App to watch the next episode of Backstage, one day early! Those looking to catch up on past episodes can take advantage of the App’s Free Preview, which currently offers the entire first season of Backstage and the first part of Massive Monster Mayhem to users without a subscription throughout February and March. New episodes will also be available on Family OnDemand, with a sampling on Family.ca.

Backstage stars Josh Bogert as Miles; Aviva Mongillo as Alya; Mckenzie Small as Scarlett; Devyn Nekoda as Vanessa; Alyssa Trask as Carly; Colin Petierre as Sasha; Matthew Isen as Jax; Julia Tomasone as Bianca; Romy Weltman as Kit, Kyal Legend as Julie, Adrianna Di Liello as Jenna and Madison MacGregor as Cassandra. Joining the cast for season two are: Thomas L. Colford (Center Stage: On Pointe) as Beckett; Joshua Kilimnik (Odd Squad, Bruno & Boots movies) as George; Stephanie La Rochelle (Heartland) as Frances; Sydney Kuhne (Dino Dan) as Azadehl; Robert Bazzocchi as Aidan; Corteon Moore as Matteo; and Hailey Fauchere as Mindy.

Commissioned by DHX Television, Backstage was created and developed by Fresh TV. The series’ executive producers are Brian Irving, who also serves as producer; Lara Azzopardi, the series’ co-creator, show runner, writer and director; Jennifer Pertsch, also co-creator; Tom McGillis and George Elliott. Mario Azzopardi (Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits, Degrassi) also directs. Backstage is internationally distributed by DHX Media.

 

 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Skindigenous celebrates the heritage and importance of Indigenous tattoos

People who get tattoos usually do it for a reason. For some, it’s to salute a band or loved one. For others, it’s a way to express a mantra. For the folks documented in Skindigenous, it’s to remember the heritage of Indigenous people around the world.

Debuting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET on APTN, Nish Media’s Skindigenous is a 13-part adventure that takes viewers into the lives of tattoo artists and their unique culture to discover the tools, techniques, symbols and traditions that shape their art. At its origins among ancient cultures, tattooing was only practiced by those with special standing in the community. Today, modern-day tattoo artists use their art to re-connect with the heritage of their ancestors and to ensure that their stories are not lost.

Gorgeously shot, Episode 1 travels to the green hills of the Philippines to visit a woman and her grandnieces who keep the ancient tattooing tradition alive. Forget the whirring needles and bottles of colour you see in any Canadian city; 100-year-old Whang-Od Oggay (pictured below) and grandniece Grace Palicas practice the hand-tapping technique handed down through generations of members of their Kalinga tribe. Dubbed “the islands of the painted ones,” by Spanish explorers 500 years ago, the Phillippines’ tattooing traditions, as Whang-Od explains, surrounded marking men who killed or wounded opponents during ancient tribal wars.

As narrator Candy Palmater outlines, Whang-Od’s first tattoos were made in the 1940s on those who had fought against the Japanese in the Second World War. Now nature serves as inspiration for Whang-Od’s art via stylized mountains, rivers, centipedes and python scales that signify spirituality and strength. Tattoos in this culture can represent a number of things, including beauty and social status. The show’s producers use CGI brilliantly, showing the intricacies of the tattoo patterns and key locations where they are placed on the body.

Thousands of tourists visit Whang-Od’s small town of Buscalan every year, injecting the local economy with much-needed money. Determined to keep the economy of the area up and continue her art after she passes, Whang-Od has taught grandnieces Grace and Elyang the old traditions. Made from charcoal scraped from the bottom of a cooking pot, placed in a coconut husk and mixed with water and sweet potato, the ink is applied using a thorn of the pomelo tree tapped against the skin.

Upcoming episodes of  Skindigenous travel to Indonesia, Alberta, New Zealand and Hawaii, continuing the stories and art of Indigenous tattoo artists.

Skindigenous airs Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

Images courtesy of Nish Media.

 

 

 

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Featured, Murdoch Mysteries, Orphan Black, Web series

Kristian Bruun says goodbye to Murdoch Mysteries in The Book of Jackson

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Spoiler alert! Do not continue reading unless you have watched the Season 10 finale of Murdoch Mysteries.

As much as I love Murdoch Mysteries, I didn’t like the way the show said goodbye to Constable “Slugger” Jackson. There was a lot going on in the Season 10 finale and Season 11 premiere, so his loss felt a little shoved to the side for fans. But now I feel like we—and the most lovable lug in Station House No. 4—have gotten a proper sendoff thanks to this season’s Murdoch Mysteries web series The Book of Jackson.

Written by Noelle Girard, the six-episode series—available now at CBC.ca—kicks off with the members of Station House No. 4 continuing to grieve the loss of Constable Jackson as they pack up his belongings. But the arrival of a distraught woman looking for the deceased Jackson and the discovery of a hidden notebook filled with a secret code lead Murdoch, Crabtree, Higgins and Watts working to unravel the case Jackson was working on in secret before he died.

I spoke to Kristian Bruun about playing Jackson for so many years and what it was like to return to the Murdoch Mysteries set to film The Book of Jackson.

I’ve watched The Book of Jackson and it was nice to take the time to really have a heartfelt goodbye for Slugger Jackson. He was taken so suddenly at the end of Season 10, it was hard to really grasp his exit.
Kristian Bruun: Yeah, it was nice. At the beginning of Season 11, we’re worried about Murdoch being framed for murder and that Crabtree is OK. They did have a nice little salute to him at the end of the episode that misted me up when I watched it. But it was so nice for me to have the opportunity to put the uniform back on and say goodbye my own way. I was pleasantly surprised and honoured to come back and put the uniform on.

What was the production schedule like? When did you film The Book of Jackson? It sounds like it was after Season 10 wrapped.
It was sort of similar to how we did the previous year’s web series, Beyond Time, which I was a part of as well. It’s best to film it when the season is up and running when everybody is around, the sets are in order and nothing has been shut down for the winter. Basically, they use the weekends to film the web series, so it’s extremely daunting for the cast and crew that are there all the time because they’ll shoot the regular work week and then will come in on Saturday and Sunday to shoot the web series, followed by another work week. It creates two straight weeks of super-long days. I think we shot this in November, so it was already near the end of the [filming] season and everyone was exhausted. And they fit so much into those two days. I mean, I remember working on the last one and trying to cram so much time travel jargon into my brain. It was such a blast but it’s a whirlwind.

So, I came in in November—I’ve been living in Los Angeles for a year now—and at the end of Season 10, we had a feeling one of us was going to die. We filmed the season finale and didn’t know who it was going to be at the time. I wish I’d known it was going to be me at the time because I would have taken the opportunity to say goodbye to the cast and the crew. But, they wanted to figure out what would be best for the fans and the mystery. I wanted to come back because I love the show, but I also understood that logistically I was the one actor who had moved away and that was just a timing thing because of my career and looking for the next thing after Orphan Black. I knew I was on the chopping block but I was hoping it wouldn’t be me. [Laughs.] But that’s the way it goes.

I was very sad to get that email from Peter Mitchell. He’s such a funny guy. He was like, ‘You’ll land on your feet, don’t worry.’ He wasn’t worried at all; meanwhile, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do? I had two shows but they just ended at the same time!’ It was stressful, but having the chance to say goodbye this way and see the crew one last time … who knows, maybe this isn’t the last time. Who knows? But it was certainly nice to come back and do some flashbacks with everybody.

It must have been emotional to return for those two days after time away and reunite with the cast and crew working that weekend.
There were a lot of strong hugs. [Laughs.]

It’s interesting to hear the circumstances surrounding your departure from Murdoch. I did think perhaps you asked to leave because you were heading to L.A. on the heels of Orphan Black ending.
I was a little bit concerned people would think that; that I had left the show for so-called greener pastures. That’s absolutely not the case and I want the fans to know that. It was a story decision and if I were to do that, I would have released a statement. It was not my decision but it’s one that I fully understand. [Laughs.] It was almost like, ‘Sorry we killed you off, here’s a web series!’

I was sorry that the relationship between Jackson and Watts wasn’t explored more fully before Jackson’s demise.
Daniel Maslany and I are good friends now because we’ve gotten to work together and because I’m really, really good friends with his sister, Tatiana, of course. I loved working with Daniel because we just had so much fun together with the dynamic between Jackson and Watts. They are two very different characters, which always makes for good TV. We were just starting to find our stride as those characters and having fun working together.

Jackson is a wonderful character. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is fiercely loyal to his friends.
They really gave me the opportunity to make him more human. Getting a chance to grow a character is an honour and you don’t always get that chance. Jackson started off as this rival constable from another station way back in Season 5 and grew into another member of the gang. In the memorial to Jackson and the picture up on the wall, they don’t forget him.

Watch all six episodes of The Book of Jackson via CBC.ca.

Were you happy to see Jackson back in the world of Murdoch Mysteries? Do you have a message for Kristian Bruun? Let me know in the comments below.

 

 

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