All posts by Eleni Armenakis

Eleni Armenakis is a die-hard fan of all things Canadian, including television. She spent almost two years as a critic for TV Guide Canada covering some of her favourite CanCon, including Republic of Doyle, Orphan Black and Rookie Blue (plus guilty pleasure Bitten). When not hooked up to the little black box, she can be found freelancing, growing her collection of Canadian music or snacking.
Featured, Saving Hope

Review: Alex’s awkward return on Saving Hope

3 Comments

My biggest fear going into the third season of Saving Hope with Alex on the operating table was that she’d spend most of the season in a coma, expanding on a premise set up in Season 1. Thankfully, Alex woke up after only two episodes. Less fortunately for her, she might have a bit of a mess on her hands—assuming she remembers anything.

I can’t think of an episode of Saving Hope that has managed to put together as many awkward moments as this one. Just as Alex and Charlie seem to have made up from the fallout of last season’s reveal and decided they wanted to have a baby together, Joel decided to go in for the Sleeping Beauty kiss and we were left wondering which of the two (if any) were responsible for waking the good doctor up. In between this and last week’s fisticuffs, I’ve got a feeling our quietly simmering love triangle is about to explode—at least on the men’s side of things, that is, since we don’t know how much of her time with Charlie that Alex is going to remember, or if she’s even aware of Joel planting one on her.

Hopefully her subconscious will at least do Dawn the service of forgetting about her early morning routine. As adorable as it was to watch her sing to the pet she grudgingly took on to help one of Gavin’s patients, I couldn’t help but feel like this was some gross violation of her privacy. And while it’s not the first time Charlie has tried using a ghost to get intel on someone in the hospital, I was a bit surprised Alex went along with it. Maybe she was expecting something as simple as an early morning nap, and maybe she’ll keep that info to herself, but a woman should be allowed to sing a lullaby to her guinea pig in the privacy of her own office without her ghost of a colleague butting in. Or at least she should be, if there’s any decency in the world.

Also high on the awkward spectrum was almost the entirety of Maggie’s day, now that she’s got a new doctor in the form of Degrassi’s Stacey Farber (also lately a troublemaker on Rookie Blue). While I was enjoying Dr. Katz’ directness, especially about the Kalfis debacle, it was definitely throwing Maggie off in a way I appreciated after she not only broke up with Gavin (understandable under the circumstances) but then kept twisting the knife in. I was really hoping that split would be a blip in things after losing the baby, but her strange elevator proposition to Joel—along with her new residency on the couch—are starting to worry me. Not only does it spell the end of my favourite Saving Hope couple, but I suspect it just might put a damper on Gavin’s trademark sass.

As for the two cases of the week, Joel had a gruesome (and I do mean gruesome, thanks to the graphic effects) infected plate to deal with—before opting out of an amputation to try and save the leg of his drug addict patient. Meanwhile, Maggie and Katz were trying to convince David (Vampire High’s Joris Jarsky) to keep his wife on life support long enough for their baby to live. With Charlie’s help, David finally conceded that as much as he hated people (and kids) he just might like his own, but unfortunately Joel’s string of bad luck only continued. Now that Alex is back, things just might turn around for him, but it’s far more likely he’ll be ending up with another black eye.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Saving Hope

Review: Saving Hope delves deep

3 Comments

Well the good news after that Saving Hope cliffhanger season finale is that Alex isn’t dead. The bad news is she’s still in a coma and Charlie seems pretty happy about that. Things picked up right where Season 2 left them, with Alex’s body on the operating table and Dawn and Maggie scrambling to save her, while spirit Alex and Charlie tried to figure out what this new situation meant.

I’ll admit I got a kick out of Dawn repeatedly telling Charlie to stop talking—although I wish someone had taken it one step further and demanded to know just who he was talking to when the supposed love of his life was nearly dying in front of him. It was one of a handful of lighter moments that balanced out the very dark place Alex went to almost immediately after her short bonding session with Charlie.

While the whole coma-meets-alternate-life isn’t a new thing to television, I do appreciate the direction Saving Hope went in—instead of giving Alex a glimpse at a life (and husband?) she would wake up wanting, we got a shocking look into her past when it eventually came out that Alex had witnessed her father’s suicide. If it came as a jarring transition as her fictional daughter turned into her, I missed it because I was completely caught up in Luke’s return.

If there was anything I would have wanted to come out of Alex’s attack, it would be a chance for her to see her brother again—though ideally not with their dead father suspended next to them. But as the two finally got to talk again, the possibility that the two siblings could spend the rest of eternity hanging out in their childhood home and having barbeques seemed like a nice alternative to recovering from a brutal scissor stabbing and diving back into the complicated mess that is Charlie’s unique set of abilities and a very unresolved love triangle. Then again, maybe I’m just really partial to Luke.

Because as soon as Alex disappeared from Charlie’s sight, that love triangle was kicked into high gear. While I should probably preface my feelings on Charlie deciding to beat up Joel with an admission that I’m hands down Team Joel, that wasn’t a particularly mature or constructive way to deal with the horrifying things happening at Hope Zion—and it certainly wasn’t going to do Alex any good.

Not that Joel needed a physical pummeling to go with his emotional one when he got hit with the double whammy that his patient was the one who stabbed Alex (while he was asleep, no less) but that said patient then went on to throw himself off the hospital roof. And despite how hopeless it was, Joel and Zach were doing all they could to save the guy until he demanded Joel let him sleep—the kind of medical decision I’m sure wouldn’t fly in court, if anyone ever checks up on this. I’ve got the feeling making that call will be sticking with Joel for a while, and not just because he was being tailed by a ghost.

More Hope-ful moments:

  • “Maggie, are you crying? Because if you move, she dies.” Dawn is probably not the most reassuring person in a crisis.
  • “Godzilla, Mothra, do you want to shake paws and call it even?” What Gavin didn’t say was who was who?
  • “Mothra didn’t have paws, man. She was a moth.” I am pleased to report there was also plenty of Reycraft in this episode.
  • “That’s disgusting. What are you, like a teen hooker?” Dawn on Gavin’s sugar to coffee ratio
  • “I read in a paper that we’ve reached peak beard, but I’m not so sure.” Zach should definitely take advantage of his Armenian half and really show us what peak beard is.
  • Charlie: “I can see you, and I’m glad.” Alex: “I’m in a coma, Charlie.” Basically says it all.

Saving Hope returns to its regular time period on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, The Listener

Review: Mystery lingers in ‘Listener’ finale

6 Comments

There was a definite sense after last week’s episode of The Listener that the finale would have plenty on its hands—the IIB was faced with one stunner of a weekly case while Tia and Oz still had to provide closure to the series’ longest running mystery. While Becker’s storyline offered up a meaty intrigue, things fell a bit short when it came to Toby’s reunion with his mother.

The Rookie Blue fan in me was excited to hear Noam Jenkins would be appearing in the finale as the Becker-thwarting baddie, although his tense posturing quickly tipped me off that we didn’t actually have two dirty cops on our hands, or even one. But the incriminating evidence Griffin (Bruce Gray, All My Children) was able to build up had me wishing this sort of investigation could have gone on for a bigger lead into the finale, especially when Becker had to negotiate how much he trusted his new team with how important it was to protect an old friend. He and Michelle have been getting closer throughout the season, but despite all his talk it wasn’t until this episode that Becker and Toby finally sorted their issues out.

As for Michelle, after the expectation she’d had at the beginning of the season that she would become head of the unit, it was interesting to see how she ran the team once given orders to investigate Becker. Much as I lost most of my respect for Griffin when he dangled that promotion back in her face, at least she finally got her chance to lead before the show wrapped. And I would not have wanted to be Griffin considering her expression after he threatened her family, guaranteeing that however they might stack the evidence against Becker, Michelle wouldn’t just roll over. Of course, with the way things ended Michelle seems to be going a more traditional route by clocking in two months on the road with her family instead of leveraging her big bust—but after four years of high–intensity work, she’s probably earned that vacation. How long she’ll be able to keep herself in vacation mode is another matter entirely.

In fact, even though this has been Toby’s show from the start—he and Oz being our mainstays over the past five years—the finale felt more like it belonged to Michelle, or even Dev and Alex, more than our teal-sporting lead despite the big reveal at the end. What the episode did show us was how far Toby and Michelle have come as a team as he trusted her when she asked him to read Becker (not to mention a few episodes back when she trusted him to read her). Outside the office offered more as Tia, taking advantage of Dev’s open computer, finally found Toby’s missing mother only to be misled into believing she was dead. After all these years, that couldn’t possibly have been the ending, so Maya’s perfectly-timed reappearance in Toby’s life didn’t surprise me as much as it did him.

But instead of offering the answers about why the pair had been split up for so long, or what role The Institute had to play in everything, the two sat down for tea as The Listener rolled to a close—leaving us with some mysteries still unsolved. Given the way the show changed over the years, it’s entirely possible the writers weren’t interested in going there anymore, but without any resolution that half of the conclusion felt more rushed. Even Dev and Alex suddenly and awkwardly admitting their feelings and running off to the dance floor together at least had enough build to it that Alex’s “that took way too long” came from us as much as herself. Then again, in a world where a mind-reading paramedic can end up cracking the nation’s highest-ranking corruption ring, maybe there are only so many answers we can expect.

What did you think of The Listener finale? Let me know in the Comments below!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, The Listener

Review: The Listener goes undercover

There was plenty going down in this week’s The Listener—including a revelation that Toby’s extra-aural abilities might be a family affair—but I don’t think I’d be doing the episode any justice if I started with anything other than the amazing undercover outfits the IIB team pulled off on such short notice. After Dev’s wig and stilted lawyer-speak and Michelle’s turn as a car jacker’s winking goth girlfriend, I really wanted Toby’s stint in the big house to stretch on long enough for the whole team to stop by. Maybe Becker in baggy pants and a sleeveless top, or a matching lawyer outfit for Alex?

Understandably, Toby was less keen on that idea after Vince and McManus decided to get proactive about blocking up a leak that was going to foil Borman’s desperate final attempt at freedom—even if he showed off some impressive fighting skills while deflecting the attack. I was expecting a few more moments with The Incredible Hulk‘s Grant Nickalls as Borman, especially after the buildup about him in the beginning, but I guess since he wasn’t actually the mastermind of the coup, Nicole taking centre stage during the interrogations made more sense.

And I did really enjoy watching Michelle and Becker work together on a case again—in part because while she and Toby are a well-oiled savant team, there’s an extra sense of accomplishment between Becker and Michelle when they suss out a secret on their own, or pull off a sting the old-fashioned way. This season, despite taking on another revamp, has done a great job of giving Toby and everyone else plenty to do—building up to what I hope is going to be a satisfying finale for all the characters.

Because what was really hanging over “An Innocent Man” was the sudden news that this was the second-last episode of The Listener, ever. So even as the case of the week added tension and some undercover twists, a part of me was looking for the first signs of closure that next week’s finale should bring. Namely that Alex was back and she and Dev still haven’t made any progress with their not-so-secret crushes on each other’s brains (and, presumably, faces).

Or more importantly, the resolution over Toby’s history with The Institute and the mysterious whereabouts of a mother he’s not all that interested in finding. I know it’s all coming to a head next Monday, but I was left wishing Tia’s mysterious tip would have led to something more. Instead, it seems like Maya might have the same abilities as Toby but is leading a far less risky lifestyle—or at least one that’s seen her successfully stay one step ahead of ominous cable vans in the years since she and Toby split up.

And that’s putting a lot of pressure on the finale for fans like myself who were expecting The Institute’s resolution to play a much bigger role in the show’s conclusion. It’s looking like Toby’s going to have his hands full with internal problems at the IIB along with whatever revelations Tia and Oz bring—and how exactly he’ll handle the news that both his girlfriend and his best friend went behind his back on this after he told them not to is just one more mystery to add to next week’s pile.

The Listener finale airs next Monday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail