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.
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Shaw Media greenlights Season 4 of Chopped Canada

From a media release:

Shaw Media has green lit a super special fourth season of Food Network Canada’s hit series Chopped Canada. A country-wide casting call for the high-stakes culinary competition series is underway, searching for amateur chefs to compete in the prestigious Chopped Canada kitchen. Produced by Paperny Entertainment, in association with Shaw Media, Chopped Canada Season 4 includes six Juniors episodes (ages 9-13), five Teens episodes (ages 14-17), and four themed specials featuring grandmothers, firefighters, celebrities, and Chopped Canada judges. Broadcast details for the new season will be announced at a later date.

Chopped Canada is looking for grandmothers who rule their families’ kitchens, firefighters with a fiery passion for cooking, and young chefs between the ages of 9 and 17 who cook like pros. The series will be filmed in Toronto this Spring and all Canadians or permanent residents are welcome to apply. Online applications for Chopped Canada can be filled out by visiting choppedcanadacasting.ca. Deadline for applications is April 11, 2016.

Chopped Canada Season 4 sees Brad Smith return as host alongside the series’ esteemed panel of rotating judges – Mark McEwan (Top Chef Canada), Lynn Crawford (The Great Canadian Cookbook), Michael Smith (Chef Michael’s Kitchen), Susur Lee (Top Chef Masters), Roger Mooking (Man Fire Food), John Higgins (George Brown College), Anne Yarymowich (George Brown College), Antonio Park (Park Restaurant in Montreal), Massimo Capra (Restaurant Makeover), and Eden Grinshpan (Eden Eats).

Winners of the celebrity and Chopped Canada judges specials will each receive $10,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. Winners from each of the themed and teens episodes will each be awarded $10,000, and the winners of junior episodes will each receive $5,000. Celebrities and Chopped Canadajudges competing in the new season will be announced at a later date.

In each episode of Chopped Canada, four chefs compete before an all-star rotating panel of three expert judges. Armed with skill and ingenuity, the chef competitors race against the clock to turn the mystery ingredients from their iconic baskets into an extraordinary three-course meal. Course-by-course, the judges decide which competitor host Brad Smith will “chop” from the competition until only the winner remains.

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Featured, Wynonna Earp

Melanie Scrofano gets fired up for Wynonna Earp

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Melanie Scrofano attended a convention once before, but nothing was like her experience this past weekend at WonderCon. The Canadian actress, who has appeared in The Listener, Being Erica, Degrassi: TNG and Pure Pwnage, was blown away by Wynonna Earp‘s passionate fans, especially because the series—based on the comic books created by Beau Smith—hasn’t debuted yet.

“A lot of them are fans of Beau, who is like a god, a lot are fans of [showrunner] Emily [Andras] because of Lost Girl and a lot of them have seen the trailers and are into what they’re seeing,” Scrofano says. Bowing Monday, April 4, on CHCH (Earp debuts Friday, April 1, on Syfy) the project revolves around the great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp, Wynonna (Scrofano), a smart-talking young woman who returns to the burg of Purgatory, Alberta, on her 27th birthday. There she not only runs into typical small-town attitudes, but learns the family curse she thought was a myth is real: the folks Wyatt has killed are returning to Earth as demons. Armed with great-great-grandad’s gun and impressive fighting skills, Wynonna does battle against those who would prefer to see her dead. But where Wynonna is fast on her feet and great with a gun, Scrofano is, well, not.

“Apparently, I have heavy hands,” she explains. “I’m not very good at not punching people. There is a way to fight on TV so that you stop short. I go right through. The only thing about me doing my own stunts is that someone else is going to get hurt. I did punch my stunt coordinator right in the face. He didn’t love that.” (Stunt performer Holly Raczynski tackled the more physical demands.)

When she’s not returning demons to their rightful place, Wynonna is rebuilding her relationship with sister Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), and establishing one with Agent Xavier Dolls (Shamier Anderson), who has come to Purgatory to recruit Wynonna for a secret government task force that takes down supernatural baddies. Scrofano says Wynonna and Dolls bond over what they get into over the next 13 episodes, and viewers learn Dolls has a vested interest in making the bad guys go away. Will there be love between Wynonna and Dolls? No comment, says Scrofano.

There certainly appears to be no love lost between Wynonna and her great-great-grandfather’s best friend. Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) appears in Season 1, but seems to have aligned himself with head demon Bobo Del Rey (Michael Eklund) rather than acquaint himself—and side with—Wynonna.

“I can say that, just like all of us, Doc is neither 100 per cent good nor 100 per cent evil,” Scrofano says carefully. “We’re all just shades of grey and trying to find our way. Doc’s past is really, really complicated. He’s 133 years old and has had some issues. No matter what way he goes, you can’t help but love him.”

Wynonna Earp debuts Monday, April 4, at 9 p.m. ET on CHCH.

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Slasher

Link: Blood and secrets permeate new series Slasher

From Captain John K. Kirk of Popmythology.com:

Blood and secrets permeate new series Slasher
“When you grow up in a small town, everybody knows each other’s weird business. There’s a lot of weird stuff that goes on in small towns that you don’t hear about because they’re small, but they can be just as weird as big cities. But big cities are more anonymous – you don’t get that in a small town – everybody knows. So I wanted to get that sort of a weird, claustrophobic feeling yet in an idyllic setting.” Continue reading. 

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Wynonna Earp

Links: Wynonna Earp at WonderCon

From Max Nicholson of IGN.com:

WonderCon: Who is Wynonna Earp?
“She is a real person and she has done some bad stuff in her life — not living up to the Earp name, I would say — but now she’s being forced to become a hero.” Continue reading.

From Erik Amaya of BleedingCool.com:

Cast and crew reveal Wynonna Earp at WonderCon
Upon sitting down for a panel focused on his creation, Wynonna Earp, creator Beau Smith first thanked the faithful fans of the character for keeping the idea going these past twenty years, but he said the idea first came to him in grade school when he drew pictures of Wyatt Earp fighting monsters. Continue reading.

From Erik Amaya of BleedingCool.com:

Beau Smith talks Wynonna Earp original and her Television Reinvention
“It’s really helped me out writing this [new] series. When I’m writing Wynonna, I can see Melanie [Scrofano] saying it.” That sense also extended to Tim Rozon’s Holiday and Shamier Anderson’s Dolls. Continue reading. 

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Cardinal

Link: Revenant actor hospitalized after gun scene goes seriously wrong on Sudbury set of CTV miniseries

From Ben Leeson of Postmedia Network:

Revenant actor hospitalized after gun scene goes seriously wrong on Sudbury set of CTV miniseries
An actor was hospitalized after an incident involving a firearm on a TV set in Sudbury this past weekend, an Ontario Ministry of Labour spokeswoman has confirmed.

The actor, reportedly 34-year-old Brendan Fletcher from Comox Valley, B.C., was hurt while filming Cardinal, a CTV crime drama, during a scene where he was to take a discharge from a firearm into his mouth, according to a report received by the ministry, which is investigating the incident. Continue reading. 

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