Everything about Rookie Blue, eh?

Between, Rookie Blue

Tonight: Rookie Blue, Between, The Liquidator

From network episode descriptions:

Rookie Blue, Global – “Uprising”
A riot breaks out at a women’s correctional institute while Andy, Juliet, Nick, and Gail are there to transfer prisoners. They end up separated and in a lock-down situation that finds Andy and Juliet trapped with a woman desperate to prove her innocence.

Between, City – “Crossing Lines”
Tensions escalate in Pretty Lake when the power goes out, cutting off all communication to the outside world. Plus, Wiley (Jennette McCurdy) has a plan to escape and enlists Adam’s (Jesse Carere) help, but when they stumble into a trap, their relationship starts to crumble under the weight of Wiley’s secrets.

The Liquidator, OLN – “Floor Your Friends”
Jeff hopes to get a great deal on a huge load of seized hardwood flooring from his old pal Sheldon, but Sheldon knows all of Jeff’s tricks and isn’t falling for any of them.

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Cracked, Featured, Rookie Blue

Review: Cracked actor makes an impact on Rookie Blue

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I miss Cracked. CBC’s dark drama starred David Sutcliffe as Aiden Black, a Toronto detective who teamed with psychiatrists to help folks with mental issues. Sutcliffe returned to primetime TV during Thursday’s new episode of Rookie Blue, where he made an immediate impact as a father with a pretty strict belief system.

“Perfect Family” was in stark contrast to last week’s return, focusing more on circumstances outside the precinct rather than inside, though Dov and Marlo’s continuing investigation into the evidence room bombing uncovered a link between a missing munitions contractor and the force itself. Also, a tearful Andy confirmed to Swarek she’ll stick around to help raise his and Marlo’s baby, the spark between Juliet and Nick burned a little brighter and Dias is getting in deep with Jarvis.

But the bulk of “Perfect Family” was a character study and analysis of changing times and family values viewed as out of date. Written by Adriana Maggs, the script spotlit a missing 16-year-old girl named Hayley Hill (Orphan Black‘s Zoé De Grand’Maison). Bringing her family in for questioning revealed some interesting little tidbits about her father, Lloyd (Sutcliffe). The boss of the house, Lloyd was religious, believed in abstinence and wasn’t above doling out punishment with his belt or making Hayley sleep in the garage. None of what he was doing was against the law, but it was certainly disturbing.

I caught myself shaking my head at Lloyd’s backward thinking before I quickly realized there are people who think that way, and raise their children without cell phones, banning them from wearing revealing clothing and demanding respect from their elders. In Lloyd’s eyes, the world is going to hell and he was making sure his family wasn’t going along for the ride. Was what Lloyd was doing out of line? Not in his own eyes.

But by the end of the episode the blinders were off his wife’s eyes and she was ready to face him in court over his actions, which included making Hayley sleep in a freezer when she misbehaved. (I knew right away that son Jeremy would poison his sister’s pop; the way he looked at her when she drank it betrayed his actions.) Lloyd’s arrest after he beat the crap out of Connor, the boy trying to save Hayley from harm, closed the door on the case, but cemented in Swarek and Andy’s minds the type of parents they want to be—and not be—for the baby.

Notes and quotes

  • I love the jangly rock music that started the episode.
  • Travis Milne has a gift for physical comedy. That scene where he was checking Jarvis’ wife’s car had me snickering.
  • Andy wishing she was a fish so that she wouldn’t feel emotions was alternately heartbreaking and hilarious.
  • “People talk. Screw ’em.” Amen, Dov. Amen.
  • “I know how to Skype a Thai hooker if I’m so inclined.” —Dov
  • This is the second week in a row that Gail hasn’t had much to do. Fingers crossed that changes next week.

Rookie Blue airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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Between, Rookie Blue

Tonight: Rookie Blue, Between, The Liquidator

Rookie Blue, Global – “Perfect Family”
Andy debates her future with Sam after learning the heart-breaking news that Marlo is pregnant with his baby. But Andy’s ideas about what makes a perfect family are put into perspective when she meets an out-of-control teen who needs to be protected from her own conservative family.

Between, City – “Who’s the Boss”
The remaining residents of Pretty Lake collect the dead in hopes that the quarantine will be lifted once the bodies are burned. Wiley (Jennette McCurdy) plans to leave but she first needs to collect the hush money she was promised. Meanwhile, Melissa (Brooke Palsson), Wiley’s older sister is collapsing under the effort of looking after Wiley’s newborn and taking care of Pretty Lake’s children at her makeshift orphanage.

The Liquidator, OLN – “The Blind Side”
Jeff risks thousands on a truck full of furniture he buys sight unseen – will he end up with the best deal in town, or a bunch of very expensive firewood?

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Continuum, Featured, Killjoys, Murdoch Mysteries, Orphan Black, Remedy, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, Schitt's Creek, Strange Empire, Sunnyside, Vikings, X Company, Young Drunk Punk

Remedy showrunner urges support of Canadian TV

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It was the news Remedy fans had been dreading. After two seasons, Global announced it was pulling the plug on its medical drama.

And while the show’s fans, cast and crew took to Twitter to vent frustrations and/or say goodbye, showrunner Greg Spottiswood had a different message on Monday morning. He took to social media to champion Canadian TV shows and urge people to tune in and talk them up with friends.

Remedy_1

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Will you watch more Canadian TV because of Greg’s message? Comment below or via our Twitter account @tv_eh.

 

 

 

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Featured, Rookie Blue

Review: Dipping back into Rookie Blue

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Confession time: I haven’t watched Rookie Blue regularly since Season 2. Not because I didn’t like it, respect it or love all of the folks involved, but because I was writing for a magazine and website that covered both U.S. and Canadian series, I was assigned other stuff. Time passed … and here we are at Season 6.

So, as I did with Heartland fans, I’d ask veterans of Rookie Blue to be gentle with this relative newbie to the series. And though I didn’t tune in weekly, I did happen to check out a few instalments last season, including that explosive season finale. Picking up a month following the events of the cataclysmic event in the evidence lockup, the members of 15 Division were getting back on the job.

I’ve always enjoyed the relationships Rookie Blue features. Yes, it’s a cop drama with crimes and ongoing investigations, but nothing stands in the way of character growth … and the odd little roll in the hay like we were treated to via Swarek and Andy to kick off “Open Windows.” The pair have been on-again, off-again since those early days of Season 1 and I appreciate the fact RB‘s writers keep throwing up obstacles in their way without making it all seem like they’re pressing those diversions. And this year boasts one hell of a roadblock: Marlo being pregnant by Swarek. Four months into it, the next five or so promise to be rocky ones for everyone involved. Swarek will wrestle with how much he wants to be in the baby’s life, Marlo needs to figure out what she wants from him and Andy needs to fit in there somehow. It don’t know how it’s all going to shake out, but I’m definitely intrigued.

Traci being the target of a serial rapist was a curve ball I didn’t see coming. And while the Sex Crimes Unit is worried the guy has skipped town, I don’t think so. I suspect the criminal is the coffee shop guy who tried to pin the attacks on someone else. He fits the profile described—he lives with his mother, who served as his alibi during the attack on Andy at Traci’s—and knew all too much about 15’s detective.

Chloe is a character that I have quickly fallen for. Things may be over between she and Dov (He painted over their wall in white? Ouch indeed.), but I’ve got my fingers crossed she finds a new love soon. She’s quirky, kind and cute as a button. Speaking of Dov, I’m enjoying this tougher, more serious version of him. His work into the rapist storyline was impressive and it appears he and Marlo are going to make a formidable team in identifying how the bomb ended up on the evidence locker.

Meanwhile, newest member of the squad Juliet Ward (Erin Karpluk) came off like an innocent, precocious gal but clearly has an agenda of some kind. Is she a mole, sent to keep tabs on 15? Are she and Russ (Dayo Ade) members of Internal Affairs? It’s too soon to tell, but I’m looking forward to finding out the results of that, and more, this season.

Rookie Blue airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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