This week on Mohawk Ironworkers, we head to Six Nations, outside of Brantford, Ont., to visit the Hill brothers. These three siblings have logged more than 83 years of ironwork between them, but their efforts have affected their long-term health. The entire episode focuses on the physical demands that this highly-skilled trade places on your body.
Rodney Hill, the eldest, retired 10 years ago but his time as an ironworker continues to take a toll. Years of hard labour had compressed several vertebrae in his spine, causing excruciating pain and numbness in his limbs. Following several surgeries, he was left paralyzed and is now relies on either a wheelchair or walker to assist in his mobility. Spending countless hours in physiotherapy, Rodney is slowly regaining the use of his legs. His brothers, Mike and Gary, remain by his side just as they did when they all walked iron together.
In addition to the actual physical loss of his legs. Rodney must also cope with the psychological repercussions. Once a strong, vital man bravely walking the iron high above the city skylines, he must now cope with his reduced mobility. For many men, this is almost as debilitating as the paralysis itself. Rodney, fortified with the same courage he showed in his career, will only be satisfied when he can walk with only the aid of a cane.
Throughout, we learn of the very close familial ties ironworkers have, both within their blood family and within the ironworkers unions.
Mohawk Ironworkers airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m. ET on APTN.
And just like that, one of the early favourites to win Jasmine’s heart has been eliminated from the competition. Yup, the man known as Sexual Tongue on Night 1 of The Bachelorette Canada—a.k.a. Thomas—got the short end of the stick at the closing of a dreaded two-on-one date with Mike. Thomas’ only crime was having a gypsy lifestyle full of international modelling gigs and Jasmine couldn’t figure out where she fit with that.
Instead, the rose went to Mike, who offers a more stable life for Jasmine and something she’s craving. I was sad to see Thomas go; not only was he a good-looking dude with a sense of humour, but he had a thought in his head too. But I was happy Mike remained and has a real chance of being around until the end.
Meanwhile, the next Bachelor Canada could very well be Drew. After not receiving a rose at the cocktail party, he went on an expletive-filled rant, calling Jasmine an idiot and vowing the show’s ratings will tank once he’s gone. He did, however, express interest in starring in The Bachelor Canada.
Frankly, the rest of Tuesday’s episode in Marrakesh, Morocco, was a bit of an emotional let-down. Benoit, the frenetic Frenchman, had his first-ever one-on-one date with Jasmine and was given a rose, but that wasn’t a surprise, really. Jasmine has liked him from Day 1 and her only worry going into tonight was whether or not Benoit had any concrete plans for the future. Once he assured her he was in for the long haul, she handed him the coveted flower.
Of course, no episode of The Bachelorette Canada would be complete without Drew acting up and he didn’t disappoint. The V.P. of sales boasted about the attention being on the program would get him and that it will lead to business deals. He also opined he’d like to score some acting gigs. Ug.
A rainy day tea date wth Drew, Kevin W., Mikhel and Kevin P. went well enough and they learned how to do the tall pour. Kevin W. reacted badly to sharing Jasmine with the others and Drew spent a lot of his time with her … talking about himself. When Kevin W. did get some one-on-one time with Jasmine, he admitted she was the only thing worth sticking around for. By the time the tea had gone cold, Jasmine had handed a rose to Mikhel.
The rose ceremony was a flurry activity, with Drew stealing Jasmine away immediately … to talk about himself. Kevin P. used his time wisely, lowering some emotional walls and collecting his first smooch of the season. Kevin W. hates cocktail parties almost as much as group dates and made that known before complaining Mikhel was given a rose instead of him. It was very interesting to see Jasmine put Kevin W. in his place and explain he wasn’t any more special than the other guys.
By the time the dust had settled Kevin P. and Kevin W. got the final two roses, bringing Drew’s reign of terror to an end. I only wish had stuck around long enough to see it.
Were you glad to see Drew sent home? Comment below!
The Bachelorette Canada airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.
This week’s podcast begins with Greg recounting his experience screening the first episode of Showcase’s new Canadian original, Travelers. Developed by Brad Wright and nine students at the Canadian Film Centre’s Prime Time TV Program, the sci-fi project stars Eric McCormack.
Greg and Anthony cover the next two weeks of Canadian TV programming, followed by Bill Brioux’s news about ratings for Kim’s Convenience and Murdoch Mysteries and finish discussing Greg’s upcoming set visit to YTV’s Anne of Green Gables TV-movie.
Who was driving the black car shadowing Daisy all episode long? That was just one of many questions asked during Episode 2 of Shoot the Messenger on Monday night. By the time the hour had come to a close, the driver stepped out of the vehicle, but only his shoe and leg were shown. I’m guessing hoping we get an answer next week.
Written by Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland, the second instalment furthered the drama introduced last week, as an injured Hassan attempted to lay low and heal, but that wasn’t happening. Meanwhile, violence on the street escalated, as Khaalif sought to avenge Khalid’s murder by targeting a member of a rival gang for the killing. Instead, a young girl was killed in a hail of gunfire and Kevin collared Khaalif for the crime. Pair that with Hassan wanting to meet up with Daisy, and there was a lot going on with that storyline.
I’m quickly realizing that Shoot the Messenger is definitely not the type of series you can just air in the background while reading emails. Not only do the storylines command attention with their intricacies, but the visuals are stunning. Sweeping views of the city at night, a dead girl’s head being slowly pulled out of a congealing pool of blood … you have to watch.
The characters are becoming more fleshed out and complex too. Kevin is a by-the-book cop in some ways, but his relationship with Daisy causes him to push boundaries, perhaps to the point of putting his gig or life in jeopardy if he’s not careful. Daisy, meanwhile, seems to be using her feminine wiles to get her way; she slept with Simon because—as she said—she was “curious.” Now Simon is conflicted—he is engaged to be married, after all—about his feelings for the rookie reporter.
Squeaky-clean Simon seems headed for some dirt too. In a bid to chat with basketball star Orlandio Spence (Jamaal Magloire) about his relationship with Khalid, Simon made a deal with his cousin, sports agent Greggor (Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson) to leak a document to The Gazette‘s sports reporter pressuring the team to sign Orlandio to a new contract. (As an aside, Robertson may not be an actor, but he’s very good in Shoot the Messenger so far.)
Shoot the Messenger has a lot of balls in the air right now and things threaten to get a little confusing. But I’m enjoying the ride I’m being taken on and am excited to see where it goes.
Shoot the Messenger airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.
Talk about a dramatic conclusion for Murdoch Mysteries. After setting up Julia’s potential demise at the hands of a ghostly Eva Pearce, William struggled to save his wife from the flames as The Great Fire consumed Toronto.
Also unveiled during “Great Balls of Fire, Part 2”? Crabtree and Nina are still going strong, so much so he invested in Sam’s garage, William has staked out him and Julia’s dream home and Henry learned his cigars were not the cause of the fire.
In the first of our season-long discussions with Murdoch Mysteries‘ writing staff, we broke down Monday’s episode with showrunner Peter Mitchell and got a hint into Episode 3.
Was there ever any talk that “Great Balls of Fire, Part 1” and “Part 2” be a two-hour movie instead of two episodes?
Peter Mitchell: Briefly, but I don’t think seriously. It easily could have been done, but it never came up as a serious request.
The scenes that involved fire were impressive. It looked as though you used a combination of CGI and real fire. Was that the case?
It was probably 70-30 real fire.
Safety would have been an issue, no?
It was dicey because, though you do a certain amount of flame retardant, there is always the fact that the bones of the set have been around for quite some time, so there is always a flammability factor in play. Not so much danger to the actors because long lenses and flame bars can disguise proximity. There is a bit more distance between the actors and the flame than the eye would tell you. There is always a tiny risk anytime you do anything, but our main concern was that we didn’t actually start The Great Fire of Scarborough. But we had fire engines on hand and all that stuff.
Did you build extra sets onto the original set that was part of the fire?
We built additions on to the existed set that could be used, especially for the after-effects of the fire. They were sort of modular pieces that could be put into play and then removed. We built a couple of sets that, even though they looked damaged, were remarkably undamaged after the fire effects were done. The CGI that was done after the fact lent to the slightly greater carnage.
I really enjoyed the moment where Brackenreid was narrating the toll of the fire while sepia-toned footage of fighting the blaze was shown. Did you use actual footage from the intermixed with the cast acting it out?
We used as much archival footage as we could find. There is actually some film of the fire from the time. We used the archival footage that we found and then shot some elements and then aged and treated them to look like they fit the archival footage.
Was it a challenge to not focus too much on the fire and stick to the murders when the fire was such a big event?
Quite frankly, the amount of resources it would have taken to do a full episode about the fire would have been beyond our abilities. I liked the idea of using the archival stuff and thought it worked really well. Because it is a murder mystery and it is a fairly well-known event, we acknowledged the one victim of the Toronto fire. We didn’t want to create a falsehood that the fire was used to cover up a murder. We wanted to be more journalist that storyteller in that moment.
Because of the extent of the blaze in real history, will it be referenced at all going forward?
We see that from time to time, in some places. If you look at the actual city maps and the areas that were affected, it was certainly considerable but there are large parts of Toronto that weren’t affected by the fire. We didn’t really want to do Murdoch Mysteries: The Dresden Files. [Laughs.]
What about Julia’s mental state? By the end of this episode, she recognizes killing Eva was necessary. Has that story closed for good?
I think it’s pretty much closed. It was a good opportunity to deal with it, but I think it runs its course. There’s always the danger when you have strong female characters of turning them into a damaged character. I want to stay away from that. Brackenreid got better after being screwed up two years ago; there’s no reason Julia can’t.
It was a nice full-circle moment when Julia told Elizabeth that killing will change her.
We all compartmentalize, right? Who knows, maybe it will pop out sometime, but not in the immediate future.
Crabtree and Nina seem to be going strong, especially after he invested money in Sam’s garage.
Crabtree is on the up part of the roller coaster right now. Then it goes down. [Laughs.] But then it goes up again! And down. What we’ve enjoyed about that is opening up that Star Room set to us. It allows us to have our cops because they are red-blooded males, someplace to hang out and give us some visual colour. We get to use the burlesque routines as a bit of commentary on the show. There is a debutante routine in the first part and a firefighter routine in the second part, which are just fun little bits and very much what burlesque vaudeville would have been at the time.
We got to see William’s plot of land where he’s planning to build the house. Will we spend much time watching it built?
I think there is enough of that on HGTV. [Laughs.] And things don’t always go as planned.
What can you tell us about next week’s episode?
George may be on the way to finally finding love, Julia may be on the way to being healed and Murdoch may well be on the way to a crushing mortgage.
