Deception:
"A famed magician uses his skills of deception to assist the FBI in solving high-profile cases."
Pros:
1. There is a great opening with Cameron Black doing a Las Vegas show. It was creative and compelling.
Then it looks like he murdered a woman and he has to prove he didn't do it.
2. The cast:
Jack Cutmore- Scott is the lead as the magician Cameron Black and Jonathan Black. It turns out I saw him on the sitcom Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life pilot. I forgot I saw him then.
He is a good actor here. After awhile, I find him to be cute and funny.
Ilfenesh Hadera is the FBI agent Kay Daniels. She's average.
Amaury Nolasco is the FBI agent Mike Alvarez. He's from Prison Break.
Then we round out the cast with Cameron's team members Dina (Lenora Crichlow), Jordon (Justin Chon), and Gunther (Vinnie Jones).
3. There is great writing. The show was created by Chris Fedak, who was a producer on the TV show Forever, which I like.
There is lots of suspense, drama, conflict, and tension in the episodes:
"Escapology": When an art museum docent is held hostage, Kay enlists Cameron and his team to help rescue her using the art of escapology.
I find every episode to be good. They're very creative. They're also fun to watch with these plot twists to solve murders and other cases. There are disguises, switching around, and elaborate plans.
4. Good ethnic diversity.
5. The mystery of who is the Mystery Woman who has something against Cameron.
Cons: None.
Comparisons:
The straight-laced law enforcement woman paired with a quirky and funny guy consultant:
Castle
The Mentalist
Elementary
The Listener
Limitless - TV show
Writing tip:
A character needs a deep and meaningful reason to help the FBI: Cameron is helping the FBI for a personal reason.
My opinion: I had reservations with this show. I like Castle, The Mentalist, and The Listener. My sister loves Castle and she series record Deception on the DVR. I watched a few episodes and then later watched all of it as it came.
I really liked this show. This was the best TV show in spring 2018 TV season and all of 2018. I was kind of disappointed that it got cancelled.
The older I get, and the more TV shows (and movies) I watch, I don't usually get attached to TV shows like when I was a teen or in my early 20s. All I can say is that I hope all the actors, and writers and producers get more work and produce something as good as this.
At least I got to watch the whole first season.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461812/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Mar. 26, 2019 The Detail: This is my 2nd favorite show of the spring 2018 TV season.
"Three female homicide detectives solve crimes while also dealing with their personal lives."
Pros:
1. The cast:
Shenae Grimes- Beech- from Degrassi and 90210 reboot. She is detective Jack Cooper. She's good at acting and crying. She is a single woman who was dating a guy Marc who ended things.
Angela Griffin- she plays detective Stevie Hall. She is British, but she doesn't have an accent on this show. I have never seen her before, but she's good. She's married with a 13 yr old daughter and 10 yr old son.
Wendy Crewson- she plays staff inspector Fiona Currie.
Ben Bass- plays Marc. (Rookie Blue).
Matt Gordon- plays detective Donnie. (Rookie Blue).
2. There is good writing:
15 min. in there is a crazy plot twist that I didn't see coming.
Spoiler alert: Jack goes to see Marc, and a guy comes to the apartment saying: "Oh, you're Marc's wife?"
Jack didn't know that she was dating a married guy. I was like: "But wait, what if he's separated?"
However, he wasn't separated.
The case was good where it looks like this woman committed suicide, but she may have been murdered.
The husband may have had an affair, and he did. Jack then takes it personal when investigating this case.
3. There is good dialogue.
Jack: My life is moving forward without you, and that's fine. But it is moving forward.
4. Good ethnic diversity.
Cons: None.
Comparisons:
A suicide when it's really murder: It's been done a lot on crime shows like the Lethal Weapon pilot.
Canadian TV shows who talk about abortions: Somewhere Between, Burden of Truth, and The Detail.
All 3 shows were about women who were with married men, got pregnant, and then got an abortion.
My opinion: I really liked this show. There is good acting and writing. I am impressed by it. I watched the whole first season. This Canadian show was on Sun. nights and it came out on spring time when it's less competitive for TV.
CTV seemed to want this show to succeed, but it got cancelled after one season.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6882202/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Feb. 1, 2019 Gordon Hecht: I wrote about this Canadian actor once before:
I first saw him on the TV show Cardinal. Now he is credited for it:
I was watching the TV show The Detail episode "The Long Walk." I see Hecht sitting behind the defendant in the court room. Hecht played one of the defendant's friends. He never says any lines.
He is not credited on The Detail on imdb.com, but I know it's him.
Instinct:
"A former CIA operative (Cumming), who has since built a "normal" life as a gifted professor and writer, is pulled back into his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer on the loose."
It turns out the series is based on James Patterson and Howard Roughgan's novel, "Murder Games."
Pros:
1. The cast:
Alan Cumming - is the lead as Dr. Dylan Rienhart. He is a likeable character because he is intelligent and kind.
Bojan Novakovic- is the detective Lizzie Needham.
Naveen Andrews- as CIA agent Julian. (Lost.)
Whoopi Goldberg- as Dylan's editor Joan.
Casey Cott (Kevin Keller from Riverdale) is in the pilot.
2. Ethnic diversity of a black woman detective and a Latino woman mayor.
3. Diversity: The lead Dylan is gay with a partner.
4. There is good writing. In the pilot, the murderer leaves cards as clues like the King of Clubs.
There's a shootout that came out of nowhere.
5. There is good dialogue.
Dylan: Human behaviour is context-driven.
Cons: None.
Comparisons:
The straight-laced law enforcement woman paired with a quirky and funny guy consultant: (See above).
My opinion: This is my 3rd favorite show of the spring season. This show got renewed for a 2nd season.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4124758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Apr. 6, 2019 The Crossing:
"Refugees from a war-torn country 180 years in the future start showing up in the present to seek asylum in an American town."
Pros:
1. There is a good opening with lots of people underwater. It was compelling imagery. One body is on the beach. Then others. There are lots of first responders coming to help them. There are helicopters and boats. There were no life jackets, ships, or distress signals.
2. The cast:
Steve Zahn as the sheriff Jude who helps people. He was in the movie Shattered Glass.
Natalie Martinez- she plays Reece who is smart and has superhuman strength.
Marcuis Harris- as Caleb who is smart and kind.
Grant Harvey- as Roy who is a guard and kind.
Sandrine Holt- as Emma the FBI agent.
Tommy Bastow- as the townie Marshall.
Kelley Missal- as a future immigrant.
Georgina Haig- as Dr. Sophie.
Bailey Skodje- plays 6 yr old Leah.
I like the cast and all the characters here.
3. The premise is really good. It's about future people running away from a war, and it's a timely issue now like people from Syria running away from their country. There is mass time travel. It's interesting and exciting.
4. The dialogue:
Jude: Trust is earned.
5. There are good action sequences with Reece.
6. It's kind of funny here and there. It's like that time when Reece asked 2 fisherman for one of their rods.
Fisherman: You can give me a massage, and we'll go from there.
Cut to the next scene, Reece has the rods. The Fisherman is helping Fisherman #2 who was beaten up.
There was a time when Jude was talking to a woman Mary who may be from the future.
Jude: Name a Kardashian. Any one of them.
Cons: None.
My opinion: I liked it and watched the whole season. It got cancelled.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461824/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Apr. 20, 2019 The Red Line: I saw this promo and will check it out:
"Follows three Chicago families as they journey toward hope and healing after an unarmed African American doctor is shot by a white cop."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9564862/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
Blood and Treasure: The promo looks kind of like Indiana Jones. It looks fun to watch.
"An antiquities expert teams up with an art thief to catch a terrorist who funds his attacks using stolen artifacts."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7712598/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
My week:
Sun. Apr. 21, 2019 Work: It was kind of busy. Also Ca worked as a hostess today. The last few was this new woman D.
Mon. Apr. 22, 2019 Boston Pizza: I went there and tried the chicken tacos ($14.49) and the fried shrimp tacos ($14.49). It was good. However, I would have picked something more filling. I have tried the pasta and lasagna there before. That's filling.
Writing: I signed up for Just Write Edmonton Meetup group. It was a Sun. morning to attend it. However, I didn't attend it. I felt like writing is not something I'm totally aligned with.
However, instead I went and met up with this guy M and we talked about his script idea. I wrote notes and helped him clarify his sci-fi drama story. I told him about the Screenwriter's Meetup, Filmmakers Meetup, and the Writer in Residence at the Edmonton Public Library who can help him.
Tues. Apr. 23, 2019 Haircut: I got a haircut this afternoon, and there was no wait.
Wed. Apr. 24, 2019 Job interview: I went to this job interview at a fast food place. It was like a job fair where you go there at this time to pass your resume, fill out an application, and interview. I have applied and attended an interview at this place before.
"Woman wakes up from coma 27 years after school bus crash":
Apr. 25, 2019 Greek fast food place: I'm going to write about it so I can deal with it and move on. I attended an interview here and I got hired. The owner A told me the manager Y will be the only one training me. Then that week Y went out of town to train at some other location and I should call back in 2 weeks.
A week and a half later, I called back to ask for the schedule, but A says that Y is going home/ vacation for 3 months and that no one else will train me, and to look for another job. Y emailed A 3 days earlier about his news.
Apr. 26, 2019 "KFC employee in Tilbury calls 911 after recognizing child in Amber Alert":
"BYO- packaging": Today I found this article by Caitlin Agnew in the Globe and Mail. It's about saving the environment:
"Are plastic razors the next plastic straw?": Today I found this aricle by Adam McDowell in the Globe and Mail:
The part of the pitch that really sold me was a sustainability argument of sorts: Owner Seth Harman put a Merkur razor made of brass, zinc and chrome in my hands and said it could last me the rest of my life.
Mon. Apr. 22, 2019 Boston Pizza: I went there and tried the chicken tacos ($14.49) and the fried shrimp tacos ($14.49). It was good. However, I would have picked something more filling. I have tried the pasta and lasagna there before. That's filling.
Writing: I signed up for Just Write Edmonton Meetup group. It was a Sun. morning to attend it. However, I didn't attend it. I felt like writing is not something I'm totally aligned with.
However, instead I went and met up with this guy M and we talked about his script idea. I wrote notes and helped him clarify his sci-fi drama story. I told him about the Screenwriter's Meetup, Filmmakers Meetup, and the Writer in Residence at the Edmonton Public Library who can help him.
Tues. Apr. 23, 2019 Haircut: I got a haircut this afternoon, and there was no wait.
Wed. Apr. 24, 2019 Job interview: I went to this job interview at a fast food place. It was like a job fair where you go there at this time to pass your resume, fill out an application, and interview. I have applied and attended an interview at this place before.
"Woman wakes up from coma 27 years after school bus crash":
A woman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury and fell into a coma when her car collided with a school bus in the United Arab Emirates has woken up for the first time in almost three decades.
Munira Abdulla was involved in the horrific road accident in 1991, having picked up her son Omar, 4, from school in the city of Al Ain.
Omar escaped with just a bruise to his head, but his mother, who was 32 at the time, suffered such serious damage that doctors doubted she would ever open her eyes again.
Twenty-seven years on, she regained consciousness in a German hospital room and her family have now spoken for the first time about her ordeal and miraculous recovery.
Speaking to UAE newspaper The National, Omar, now 32, said: "I never gave up on her because I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up."
Ms Abdulla has been able to answer questions since waking up and has recited verses from the Quran.
According to The National, the family later received a state grant from the crown prince court to send her to Germany for treatment, and she was moved there in April 2017.
Her neurologist at Schoen Clinic near Munich, Dr Ahmad Ryll, told the paper of her recovery: "For years I have dreamt of this moment, and my name was the first word she said."
Ms Abdulla is said to be becoming more responsive all the time, and is now capable of communicating with friends and family "in a very reasonable manner, especially in familiar situations".
Recoveries like hers are extremely rare, with few cases of people regaining consciousness after years in a coma.
Among the most remarkable is Terry Wallis, who was 19 when a car he was travelling in plunged into a creek in southern Arkansas in July 1984.
He was left in a coma and did not wake up until June 2003 - thus missing the entire presidencies of George HW Bush and Bill Clinton.
Apr. 25, 2019 Greek fast food place: I'm going to write about it so I can deal with it and move on. I attended an interview here and I got hired. The owner A told me the manager Y will be the only one training me. Then that week Y went out of town to train at some other location and I should call back in 2 weeks.
A week and a half later, I called back to ask for the schedule, but A says that Y is going home/ vacation for 3 months and that no one else will train me, and to look for another job. Y emailed A 3 days earlier about his news.
Apr. 26, 2019 "KFC employee in Tilbury calls 911 after recognizing child in Amber Alert":
Less than two hours after Amber Alert was issued for a five-year-old boy last seen in Mississauga, he was spotted in a KFC in Tilbury, a location almost 300 kilometres away.
Andrea Taylor, a Tilbury resident, went to the restaurant to pick up her food, where she saw numerous police cruisers in the parking lot. She also caught a glimpse of a little boy playing with a phone in the back of a vehicle.
When Taylor spoke with an employee, she learned that she had been the one to recognize the boy in the Amber Alert.
"They got some food and she said they were sitting and eating, and the mom kept kind of getting up and going to the bathroom and would leave her son in the restaurant kind of thing," Taylor recalled her conversation with the staff.
Taylor said the employee described the woman as "a little bit off."
An Amber Alert was issued at around 5:09 p.m. The boy was located safe at around 6:55 p.m.
In one Facebook post that shared the good news, Mariah Lin who said she is a restaurant general manager at KFC, said her staff will be praised.
"My staff members that were working tonight will be receiving a lot of recognition for this, they handled it so well," Lin wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/kfc-employee-in-tilbury-calls-911-after-recognizing-child-in-amber-alert/ar-BBWjmya?ocid=spartandhp
Apr. 27, 2019 Snow in April: I woke up this morning and it's snowing. I have written about this before earlier on my blog. Does anyone remember in Apr. 2012, it was like snow in one week, and then spring the next, and snow next week?
I remember because I was working outdoors. In May 2015 it snowed. I remember because I went to a job interview.
I remember because I was working outdoors. In May 2015 it snowed. I remember because I went to a job interview.
"BYO- packaging": Today I found this article by Caitlin Agnew in the Globe and Mail. It's about saving the environment:
| When they decided to open a grocery store, Michelle Genttner and Luis Martins knew they didn’t want to go the standard supermarket route. “We both grew up in agricultural communities," Genttner says. “We grew up around having fresh produce and exactly what you needed and not in excess. We wanted to bring that back to the importance and values of what we should have in our community today.” In February, the couple launched Unboxed Market in Toronto’s Little Portugal neighbourhood. Its location previously housed a grocery store that was owned and operated by the same family for nearly 50 years. but today it’s the city’s first zero-waste grocer. |
|---|
| To shop at Unboxed, customers weigh reusable containers brought from home (glass jars and biodegradable bags are also available for purchase on site) before filling them with a range of locally sourced dry goods such as tea, cereal and pasta. Unlike the typical bulk shopping experience, Unboxed Market also offers fresh produce, a butcher counter stocking products from Ontario and a cheese selection, as well as milk, nut butter, personal care and cleaning products on tap. Their hot and cold tables serve ready-to-eat meals prepared daily in the full industrial kitchen downstairs and using ingredients from their own stock. Any packaged goods, such as yogurt or mustard, come in jars that can easily be reused, recycled or composted. |
|---|
| Unboxed Market’s ecofriendly approach has been met with a positive reaction, but isn’t without its challenges. Genttner says she’s continuously hunting for suppliers of specific food types – soba noodles for example – that meet their zero-waste parameters. “I think it’s forever going to be a work in progress.” |
|---|
"Are plastic razors the next plastic straw?": Today I found this aricle by Adam McDowell in the Globe and Mail:
The part of the pitch that really sold me was a sustainability argument of sorts: Owner Seth Harman put a Merkur razor made of brass, zinc and chrome in my hands and said it could last me the rest of my life.
Disposable razors and cartridge blades were intended to make shaving more convenient when they appeared in the 1970s. Consumers eagerly adopted a product that they could just toss in the garbage when the blades got blunt. By 1990, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was reporting that Americans were sending two billion plastic razors and cartridges to landfills each year.
Now, in 2019, many of us have ditched plastic bags, plastic straws and disposable cups in the name of cutting back on plastic waste. Are consumers ready to shun plastic disposable shaving products next?
Julianne Robicheau, a fellow convert to safety razors, hopes so. She’s the co-owner of Eco + Amour, a Toronto store that specializes in selling beauty and grooming products in bulk (the basic idea: Customers bring their own bottles and fill them up with shampoo and so on, thereby reducing the amount of plastic in the world).
