![]() He also slips in a few puns (“The carvers who can’t hack it will be axed from the competition”) and uses an air horn, so watch out, TJ Lavin.Ī Cut Above judges Katharine Dowson and Ryan Cook, and host Adam Beach (Photo by marblemedia)īecause the process is about removing wood and then refining it, it’s a lot easier to follow than glass blowing, which on Blown Away often left me baffled about how a beautiful thing came into being. Golden Globe-nominated actor Adam Beach brings an awed enthusiasm to his hosting. So far, the challenges have just let the artists work, giving them time constraints, themes, and must-haves, but otherwise letting them be creative, which is so refreshing. The first Quick Carve is clever, challenging, and fun: carving a bowling ball and pins, which the judges test by actually bowling. Power tools allow them to create even more detail, and they finish by burning, sanding, and painting the wood.Īfter the first episode, there are two challenges in each episode: a two-hour Quick Carve, whose winner gets an advantage in the seven-hour Master Carve, the elimination challenge. The artists then use smaller and smaller chainsaws to chip away at their sculptures. Like Blown Away, which is also produced by marblemedia, the various techniques the artists use are explained to us, including blocking, which is the initial cut with a chainsaw to get a shape. Asked in the second episode to produce a sculpture that embodies a hope or a fear, the results range from a haunting portrayal of loneliness to a comic likeness of one of this show’s judges being punched in the face.Ī Cut Above’s chainsaw carving contestants-Joel Palmer, Jesse Toso, Ryan Villiers, Andrew Mallon, Chris Wood, Aya Blane, Sam Bowsher, Brigitte Lochhead, Junior Henderson, Sylvia Itzen, Bongo Love, and John Hayes-who produce great art in each episode (Photo by marblemedia) The contestants are a diverse group, both as artists and people, who take vastly different approaches to the challenges. There are a lot of power tools: The 12 contestants-who come from Canada, but also Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the United States, and Zimbabwe-have access to a shed with more than 30 chainsaws, and dozens of power tools. The producers of A CUT ABOVE have donated to reforestation and carbon offsetting as compensation for use of cedar wood and chainsaw emissions in the series. (It’s also in the credits: “A Cut Above respectfully acknowledges the privilege of filming on the lands of the Squamish Nation.”)Ī Cut Above also acknowledges, in the credits, how cutting up trees using power tools may be antithetical to the setting: #Discovery newsletters tv#Host Adam Beach, a Golden Globe-nominated actor who is a member of the Anishinaabe Nation, starts open the first episode with a land acknowledgement to the Squamish Nation, which is the first time I’ve heard that on a reality TV show. The arena for A Cut Above’s competition is deep in a forest outside Squamish, British Columbia, leading to some rainy and cold days, where the production has created an absolutely breathtaking set for the competition: a circular arena separated by tiered planters, surrounded by logs places into the ground. A drone shot from A Cut Above showing the contestants’ work areas, with circles of sawdust surrounding them. ![]()
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