TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 1043
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Children's Programming, Featured

Nick Cannon’s Make It Pop dances onto YTV

K-pop is invading Canada. The South Korean musical genre that celebrates a riot of visuals set to an addictive beat grabs the spotlight in YTV’s Make It Pop.

Debuting Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back episodes, DHX Media’s fast-paced tween series follows four freshman at Mackendrick Preparatory who are determined to win spots in the art school’s musical. There’s Sun Hi (Megan Lee), a sometimes overconfident gal who records every move she makes for her fans; Jodi (Louriza Tronco), a gifted choreographer; Corki (Erika Tham) a home-schooled bookworm who values her privacy; and Caleb (Dale Whibley), a clumsy but lovable dude and brilliant musician. Co-created by Nick Cannon and Thomas Lynch, Make It Pop already launched in the U.S. in Nickelodeon last summer; the sophomore go-round of the Canadian-American co-production is filming now.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some K-pop artists in the past in Korea and that’s how I was introduced to the world,” Cannon tells us from the Degrassi set where Make It Pop is filmed. “I’ve been working in youth television for awhile and said, ‘This would make interesting television.’ I got with my mentor, my guide, Tommy Lynch who has been doing this for many moons and we started to discuss this.”

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Wednesday’s debut is jammed with dance and musical performances—during the opening assembly for the new school year and when Sun Hi goes back to the dorm room to retrieve her cell phone—and laughs, from Caleb’s blissfully bombastic creation of beats to Mr. Stark, Mackendrick’s over-the-top theatre teacher played by Matt Baram, from Sun’s unbreakable positivity to Jodi’s biting sarcasm.

“Everyone is wild around me and then I have the one sarcastic line that brings everything to a halt,” Vancouver’s Tronco says with a laugh.

But make no mistake, Make It Pop has a message for its young viewers: follow your dreams. A veteran of kid’s programming via such projects as The Nick Cannon Show, All That, Star Camp and Incredible Crew, Cannon may have a laid-back air about him while slouching in a chair and sporting sunglasses, but he’s dead serious about his responsibilities to young TV viewers.

“We grow up on shows like Degrassi or my stuff from my Nickelodeon days, that’s when content and entertainment mean the most,” he says. “That’s when you’re the most inspired and informed by things. It more important to you because that’s all you have. Adults use entertainment to escape, but when you’re a teen or tween it’s helping shape you.”

Make It Pop airs Wednesdays at 7 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.

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Lost Girl

Link: ‘Lost Girl’ Talk: Michael Grassi on “44 Minutes to Save the World”

From Emily Gagne of Cinefilles:

‘Lost Girl’ Talk: Michael Grassi on “44 Minutes to Save the World”
“Interesting you bring this up because it was a big conversation in our story room. Hades is many things, but we don’t think he’s a liar. Of course, everything he says can be open to interpretation. His idea of “make things better” might be different than yours or mine.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Highway Thru Hell hauls into Season 4

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There’s something horrifying about watching a tractor trailer, weighed down with supplies, sliding slowly off an icy highway and into a ditch. It’s a bit of a mind-blower to witness the effect millimetres of frozen water has on such a big beast. But it’s something Jamie Davis and his staff see almost every day during winter travel on the Coquihalla Highway and he’s made a career out of it.

This Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery, Highway Thru Hell rolls on with 13 new episodes, documenting the successes, drama and disappointment that involves Davis, his staff and competitors. It takes a special type of person to go into the freezing cold and pull rigs off chunks of highway with nicknames like “The Smasher,” but it’s just another day for Big Al, who’s at the helm of Quiring Towing; within minutes of the Season 4 return he’s helping the occupants away from their smashed car, worried they’ll be injured by a sliding rig.

Meanwhile in Lac La Biche, Davis is busier than ever, and has expanded his fleet to cover not just the oil fields but Edmonton itself.

And while you can rest assured the Coq gets slippery in winter, there are changes afoot in Season 4. Davis’ right-hand man, Howie, left to work for a city-based towing company to be closer to his family, and Adam cut ties to work for a rival outfit in B.C., meaning Colin has to step into the role. Colin’s first job? To pull a tractor trailer upright using the rotator, a tougher machine to operate than a tow truck, and newbie John has two decades of towing on his resumé, but must prove he belongs on the B.C. team.

What I like about Highway Thru Hell is the lack of extra fluff. Sure, we learn the personal stories of the folks working these snowy strips of asphalt, but the focus is almost always on the men and women putting their lives on the line to help others out of a tight spot. (And kudos to the producers, who often include a quick science lesson as to how these trucks ended up in their precarious positions.) I may not have the skill-set to drive a tow truck and haul rigs around, but I can certainly appreciate and salute those who do.

And man, does it look stunning in HD.

Highway Thru Hell airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Discovery.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Discovery’s Fool’s Gold takes time striking it rich

I enjoy watching shows about guys who are more manly than me. Dudes who go into the woods and put life and limb on the line trying to eke a living out of the earth. Real men like the fellows on Discovery’s Fool’s Gold, returning Tuesday with two back-to-back episodes at 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET.

I only wish the guys would spend more time working to find gold than talking about it. Back for the sophomore season is boss Todd Ryznar, head of Shotgun Exploration, and his crew of men—foreman Roj, builder extraordinaire Jimmy and workers Grizz, Matt and Mike—who meet up nine months after the last mining season in Atikokan, Ont., northwest of Thunder Bay.

The bills have piled up and Todd is desperate to find gold to pay them. His solution? Spend $16,000 on a hammer mill that will extract gold flecks from rocks more quickly and efficiently on Straw Lake. But to reach the 100 ounces of gold Todd aims to mine by the end of the season—enough to pay everyone and those pesky bills—he needs all of the equipment to work flawlessly. That, of course, doesn’t happen … leading to plenty of frustration for both team members and viewers. There’s a lot of bleeped expletives, befuddled expressions and thrown shovels as the hand-made trommel and newly-purchased hammer mill both crap out.

By the end of Episode 2, everything is back up and running smoothly, but a lot of time was wasted on a needless competition pitting Roj and Jimmy against Matt and Mike to see which pair pulled the most gold out of the earth.

The boys of Shotgun Exploration manage to score gold, but I wish they’d stop fooling around so much.

Fool’s Gold airs Tuesdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET on Discovery.

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