Everything about Featured, eh?

Comments and queries for the week of Nov. 7

I literally jumped up out of my chair and applauded when Inspector Brackenreid laid down the law [on Murdoch Mysteries]: no leaving the church until the ceremony was complete. Finally! Now to get Crabtree & Edna Brooks together.–Sue

It seemed to me like they played the wrong music for Julia’s walk down the aisle. The one played was Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March,” which is usually played after the ceremony. But I loved the show!–CW

In a series where Murdoch’s faith seems to be an integral part of his actions, it struck me as extremely bad writing to have them talk all the way through their vows and tell the priest to hurry up! I could see them realizing who the culprit was and leaving the church in haste after the ceremony and everyone in the dark as to why they left, only to reappear at the reception with it all solved and taken care of.–Merle

Got a comment or question about Canadian television? Send it to greg@tv-eh.com!

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Review: Darkside Seekers return to Haven

I should have known the Darkside Seekers would be Duke’s last ditch effort when it came to solving the puzzle of Nathan’s … spirituality. Unfortunately, it was just Seth who arrived in town during Thursday’s episode, “Exposure” (no Anderson meant no possible Masterson family reunion) to communicate with Nathan and possibly cure what ailed him.

“I take it from your desperate phone call and baffled expressions that you are are in dire straits,” Seth began. “Fear not. The calvary has arrived.” He quickly explained that Anderson wasn’t there because of he’d become rich and moved on before the trio got down to business.

How far would you go to be reunited with the person you love? We’ve seen just how far Nathan will go, and “Exposure,” echoed his journey through Morgan, the dead guy who was supposedly helping Nathan get them back to the land of the living. I say supposedly, because Morgan had no interest in actually returning because it meant his cancer would consume his body again. So desperate to keep this from happening, Morgan killed Glenn and was focused on doing the same to Nathan. I definitely felt for the guy. Another sharp-eyed reviewer supposed that Amy, the woman taking pictures at the market, was not only behind the Trouble affecting these folks but was Morgan’s wife. That proved to be true on Thursday–the original Trouble had evolved from affecting an artist and his painting to photography–and Amy took a picture of Audrey so she could go in and help save Nathan.

“Why do you get to be with the one you love?!” Morgan screamed as his plan to reunite with Amy went downhill. It’s a fair point, and drove home to Nathan just how single-minded (and selfish) he’s been all along when it comes to Audrey.

Duke and Mara, meanwhile, had a drunken heart-to-heart discussion about the former’s memories of his mother so that the latter would reveal her take on the photography Trouble. And while I appreciated the writers giving us insight into Duke’s upbringing–his mom was a deadbeat who only showed up to collect welfare cheques–I was disappointed more time wasn’t spent on him. Duke is a fascinating character with a pretty screwed-up family (remember his serial killer brother?), and we haven’t had a lot of background into what really makes him tick. We did discover that he had to fend for himself from a young age, but that was pretty much it. How did he get his boat? Where does he get his black market supplies from? Does he have cable TV? Questions I wish we had answers to.

Maybe we’ll get more information later this season. “Exposure” was jam-packed with other stuff after all, including Dave and Vince freaking because the secrets of Haven may come out. Sending off a sample of Dave’s leg wound to a lab for testing prefaced the arrival of  Centre for Disease Control’s Dr. Charlotte Cross (Laura Mendell), who showed at the Grey Gull to lurch the Troubles story in a new direction.

 Notes and quotes

  • “Here we are. Miss Marvel, Dave Navarro and the token geek.”–Seth
  • Is Duke letting Mara change her clothes or shower? Isn’t she getting kinda funky by this point?
  • I’m not sure I like the implications of Duke subconsciously saving Mara for himself. Wasn’t he madly in love with Jennifer, like, two weeks ago?

Haven airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.

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Review: Republic of Saul

I always like it when Jake is challenged by someone on Republic of Doyle. Kevin Crocker and Maurice Becker jump immediately to mind as two dudes who’ve rubbed our P.I. hero the wrong way and insulted his intelligence to great effect and made for noteworthy scenes. So I’ve been thrilled with the addition of Vick Saul and Alisha Maracle.

Wednesday’s episode, “The Driver,” was particularly fun because Jake was literally at the beck and call of Alisha, who took insane pleasure in treating Jake like a dog. With Sloan constantly in danger of being killed by Saul if Jake didn’t do the man’s bidding, Jake was instructed to work with Alisha to steal a cache of weapons from Alex Marshall (Justified‘s A.J. Buckley) and deliver them to Saul. I was hoping Buckley would have a little bit more of a role in the episode, but I had to make due with Alex appearing in the latter half sporting a Danny Crowe-esque Southern drawl.

I also had my fingers crossed that Saul and Alisha would stick around for more instalments, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards either. By episode’s end the guns had been captured by the police and Saul’s biggest rival was arrested, clearing the way to him to claim the east coast as his sole criminal domain. The result? He called off the threat on Sloan.

Meanwhile, Leslie is attending her therapy sessions, but it looks like Dr. Ronan may have ulterior motives when it comes to them. I couldn’t help but suspect he was working for someone else when he used his phone to demand all the files the precinct had on Jake. On second thought, Dr. Ronan may be tied to the crooked cop everyone suspects took Brogan’s laptop and wiped it clean of footage clearing Jake in Clark’s murder. Krystin Pellerin turned in a strong performance in Leslie’s scene between she and Brogan. She vowed to find out who tipped him off that she would be at Clark’s and would ensure he’d never get out of prison.

Notes and Quotes

  • It was good to see Christian pop up at episode’s end. The announcement that he’s getting married will no doubt lead to a shocking revelation of who his wife-to-be is. Will it be someone from Jake’s past? Probably.
  • “Des, let’s go be stupid outdoors.”–Mal
  • Did anyone else find the scene with Alisha taping the wire to Jake a little steamy?
  • “You’re my bitch today.”–Alisha to Jake
  • “Why do I picture you with a whip and one hand and some guy’s pride in the other?”–Jake to Alisha
  • “Elaborate, stunjaws!”–Mal to Jake
  • Do you think Lola Tash looks a little like Demi Lovato?

Republic of Doyle airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Review: Women … and Tim … Tell All on Bachelor Canada

This is my first go-round at a Women Tell All special. At least, the Canadian version. I’ve seen several of the U.S. Bachelor tell-alls and have been amused by the cattiness, sniffs and the side eye delivered in front of the live audience.

This being my first-ever watch of the Canadian instalment, my immediate questions were as follows: Would the truth behind Lisa’s makeup session come out? Would Natalie defend her return to the show or admit it was a mark of desperation? What would former frontrunner Kaylynn say to Tim Warmels? And would Tyler Harcott show up to host the darned thing?

The first revelation delivered was that yes, Harcott was the ringleader for the episode, wrangling jangled hearts and raw nerves with aplomb. After what felt like an endless recap of the season’s highs and lows–anyone who has watched the year already knows what went down–Harcott got down to business with hard-hitting questions regarding their first thoughts on Tim (“Price Charming,” Sonia exclaimed), how Sonia felt being the “most mature” woman in the mansion at 42, and whether Rileigh was jealous of the other girls in the house. I always hate it when the ladies or men are interviewed en masse like that; there are quick edits and mere snippets of conversations that really don’t reveal anything of substance.

Things got more interesting once Kaylynn made her way to Harcott’s Hot Seat. There were some mildly testy moments during her segment, most notably Kaylynn saying she’s not that emotional in real life, followed by the first eye roll of the night courtesy of Sachelle. The thing that struck me about the first few minutes of the Women Tell All was how upbeat Harcott was and how flippant his comments were regarding the girls’ feelings. Kaylynn’s crying jags were underplayed by the host, which I thought was a bit of an injustice and bordering on disrespectful. Kaylynn cried a lot, so why not explore why that was? I’d have been a lot happier if the producers had dumped all of the replayed footage and really explored the reasons why the girls thought they were dumped and their feelings about the process overall.

Natalie was up next and stated the producers had not asked her to return to the show, but that it has been her own decision. She also announced–and I was actually caught off-guard by this–that she knew Tim wasn’t going to keep her around and had only returned to cause drama amongst the remaining girls. The fireworks started to go off, with Lisa critiquing Natalie over her decision to come back and Renée-Anne accused her of putting on an act. I was actually surprised by the vitriol directed at Natalie for her actions, actions that I didn’t think were unwarranted.

The highlight, of course, was when Lisa took the stand her spot on the couch. If Natalie felt attacked by the ladies, Lisa must have felt like she’d been through a war. However, jabs from Sachelle (backed by audience applause) and comments from Natalie didn’t faze the season’s villain; she just shrugged her shoulders and blamed the free booze. She also blamed the demon in the bottle on her smoochfest with the Italian bartender, an incident that was galvanizing during the episode but barely covered on Tuesday night. Lisa said she regretted the move, but I wanted more of an explanation. Alas, none was given.

Sachelle relived the horror of being dumped after her hometown date, but the arrival of Tim on the couch meant they had some closure and no hard feelings. Tim also didn’t have any harsh words for Lisa; he accepted her apology and moved on. I was a little underwhelmed–I had been expecting harsher criticism of Tim by the ladies who had been dumped–but that stuff was either left on the cutting room floor or ignored in favour of bloopers and lighter moments on the show followed by an extended sneak peek at the two-part season finale. That’s too bad. I was really hoping for more serious discussion with the girls–especially the ones eliminated early and received no attention other than being introduced at the beginning of the show–over their experiences with Tim.

The Bachelor Canada two-part season finale kicks off next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on City.

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TV, eh? podcast episode 169 – Shomi the Killer Whale

This week Anthony, Diane and Greg discuss just what will be available when Shomi launches Nov. 4 for Shaw and Rogers customers, the implications of Vice building its own studio in Toronto and launching a channel with an aim to target millennials. Also on tap: is television on the cusp of its first-ever indie scene, the Canadian International Television Festival is just over a week away and we’re still not sure what’s happening there, and Murdoch Mysteries reaches an impressive milestone.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to become a Patron of the Podcast? We’ve got a Patreon page where you can donate a small amount per podcast and get a sneak peek of each release.

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