Everything about Featured, eh?

Featured, Saving Hope

Comments and queries for the week of Feb. 13

There was a lot of interesting discussion regarding Rebecca Tucker’s piece in The National Post “At the Canadian Screen Awards it really is an honour just to be nominated.” Readers also weighed in on Diane and my discussion in our new column, He Said/She Said where we tackled Standalone or Serialized television shows and the latest episode of Saving Hope, which is headed for a two-part season finale.

I liked Strange Empire but I didn’t love it and part of the problem was because I found I cared more about certain storylines and characters than others and sometimes I found it didn’t flow well–relationships and characters weren’t developed enough to support a particular plot. For instance, I didn’t buy very many of the relationships on the show (i.e., Kat/Caleb, Briggs/Chase and the relationships between Kat and her adopted children) as they seemed too rushed or contrived and manipulated to suit the story.

There weren’t enough little moments, especially with Kat’s character, to make me a real fan of certain characters. There are benefits to sticking standalone episodes into a serialized series, numero uno being that standalone episodes often help to promote character growth by showing the little moments between characters. Just look at another Western drama, set in the same era, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which had plenty of standalone episodes but plenty of character growth at the same time which really helped viewers invest more in the season-long arcs that occurred.—Ally

No idea what I would have done in Zach’s position [on Saving Hope]. Doctors are supposed to keep their personal feelings at back while they’re at work but I think a person has every right to know if their spouse has such little time left. Travis’ story was interesting but can’t agree more that he needed a huge chill pill. Shouting like that isn’t going to get you discharged any sooner.

Nice twist on the taxi driver ghost. Not that I expect Alex would say yes to Joel (I’d be beyond shocked) but it will be interesting to see if Charlie or Joel gets to talk with Alex first next week.—Hallie

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? greg@tv-eh.com or head to @tv_eh.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Mankind’s origins mined in Great Human Odyssey

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Why have homo sapiens emerged as the only hominid left standing, capable of settling the world? That’s the goal of Gemini Award-winning anthropologist Niobe Thompson’s ambitious, gorgeous three-part The Great Human Odyssey.

Debuting Thursday with “Rise of a Species” as part of The Nature of Things, Thompson’s energetic narration can’t help but keep you interested as he traces mankind’s origins back to Africa and the cradle of life, where our ancestors battled for survival among other beasts in sometimes inhospitable conditions. Why did homo sapiens survive? Thompson—who has no qualms about putting his own life on the line for his studies—joins the bushmen of Africa’s Kalahari Desert where he witnesses how water is gained by watching where elephants quench their thirst and how harvesting grubs that live among the roots of a deadly tree gains poison for their spears and arrows.

Filmed over the course of 18 months, Thompson’s adventures are stunning to witness, a riot of colour, action and education. He and his crew of 22 cinematographers braved some of the most hostile sections of the planet, including Siberian winter, African deserts, remote islands in the Pacific and the ice of the Bering Strait.

Excavations that occurred during filming uncovered a treasure trove of new research. Among the new information gathered is proof that South Africa’s Cape Coast is the source of man’s earliest use of language, art, jewelry and projectile weapon making, and samples of human remains from the Russian Arctic show humans settled far earlier in that area than previously believed.

The Great Human Odyssey airs for three weeks under The Nature of Things banner on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Review: A mother’s touch on Saving Hope

Mother’s Day seems to have come early for the Saving Hope crew.

Wednesday’s all-new episode, “Fearless,” put matriarchs front and centre in the action (as moms rightfully deserve to be), as some end-of-pregnancy thoughts made Alex ponder the type of mother she’ll be and the poor relationship with her own mother, one she hadn’t even shared the pregnancy news with.

Of course, whenever Alex has something going on in her life, there always seems to be a medical storyline that coincides with it. Cue the world’s most rude mother. Theresa (if I caught her name right) was a real piece-of-work, bitter about the way her life and two daughters (who seemed perfectly normal on all fronts) turned out. It only took Theresa’s comment about throwing Alex down a flight of stairs to terminate her pregnancy for me to quickly realize no one would be able to reason with her all night, which was quickly proven the case. Yet, somehow, her two daughters were able to put their mother’s baggage aside and stay by her side throughout her hospital stay, which included trying to command nurses to take her to the operating room and nearly dying after surgery.

If Theresa’s daughters were able to put aside the angst with their own mother, Alex could try with hers, right? Wrong, although I wish we could’ve actually heard the conversation the two had rather than just see Alex crying over it. Despite being shut out from the actual conversation, at least we were given some context to the rocky relationship the duo share through Alex’s conversations with Joel and Dana, which only reiterated the support system Alex has with her hospital friends.

Speaking of Joel, let’s be thankful he didn’t go through with his seriously dumb plan to pop the question to Alex. However, it seems everyone in the hospital now knows his intentions (not the smartest idea carrying the ring in your scrubs, buddy), which means sooner rather than later that news will probably travel to Charlie. Other than nearly making the biggest mistake of his life, Joel helped save the life of a young hockey player named Hayden involved in a car accident. Joel did a great thing for the boy, but I really didn’t agree with his decision to listen to Hayden’s girlfriend and lie to his face that his best friend, Shawn, had also died in the accident.

Naturally the sprit of the best friend was what Charlie was dealing with predominantly, although Shawn seemed like a really cool dude–minus the texting and driving offense. And Shawn was able to appeal to Charlie’s good nature and help convince Joel and Shahir they could repair Hayden’s back so he wouldn’t be paralyzed. (Has Charlie ever really said no to a ghost’s request before? Can Charlie say no to anyone?)

The most intriguing storyline of the night, however, came when Sydney’s fiancé, Herschel, checked himself in to the hospital, believing he was dying. First of all, I forgot Sydney even had a fiancé, what with her fling with Maggie. The two had zero chemistry together, which was another obvious sign that Sydney shouldn’t have been marrying him. Luckily, Sydney came to her senses and came clean to Herschel that she was gay, and although I don’t blame him for being upset with her, there was no better thing for her to do for herself. And hey, maybe Hershel was just upset that he just had a tapeworm pulled out of his nose.

Will Sydney and Maggie become a thing? Will Alex make a final choice between Joel and Charlie? Will the gang pass their medical boards? The season finale is almost upon us, so expect these questions and more to be addressed as Alex gets set to head into labour.

Notes:

  • That tapeworm might have been the worst thing I’ve ever seen on this show.
  • Alex: “These are the most beautiful flower cupcakes.” Maggie: “Actually these are vaginas.”
  • If Herschel didn’t realize his fiancée had the hots for another lady from the amount of personal information Sydney shared with him about Maggie, he needs to open his eyes a little bit.
  • Congrats to star Erica Durance for giving birth on Tuesday!

Saving Hope airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV.

Thoughts? Hit is up below or via @tv_eh.

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Book of Negroes, Featured

Review: Book of Negroes takes a bow

It’s a shame for CBC that one of their biggest ratings successes lately is six episodes and done, but it’s a sign of hope that an expansive co-production based on Canadian literature could make such a splash.

Clement Virgo’s adaptation of Lawrence Hill’s novel comes to a close with an episode that sees Aminata reclaim her story once again.

It begins the Nova Scotia contingent still not so free in Freetown, the town they built from scratch, guarded by British soldiers who want them to stay in their little piece of Sierra Leone.

Their past flashes before their eyes as new captives stream past their town on the way to a life of slavery. Moses is killed trying to free a child, a grim reminder of the danger still around them.

Aminata remains determined to return to her village — the village Chekura helped steal her from, and he’s not terribly enthusiastic. “Why do you always make me chase you? We can love each other right here.”

He relents, as do the British slave traders who can help them with passage to the interior, and who sip tea from silver pots as their slaves scrabble for food among their sick and dying.

“Why do you trade in men?” she asks. “Everybody’s doing it” is the less than impressive answer, both for its moral emptiness and its slightly clunky dialogue. “Was it really that bad for you?”

Captain Clarkson is one who knows how bad it is, and who encourages her to return with him to London to convince the government to abolish the slave trade. “We need your story and we need your voice.”

Though Aminata is determined to return to her birthplace, she learns it no longer exists just before she and Chekura are confronted with a group of captives they have the power to free, just as they had hoped someone would help free them as children. Chekura sacrifices his life for their freedom, and a prostrate Aminata is rescued by nearby villagers. “I seem to have trouble dying” she tells them in something of an understatement.

She and Clarkson bond over classic English literature like Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe, and Aminata’s story is at least as epic a stranger in a strange land story as either of those, even when she returns to her birthplace.

With no ties to Sierra Leone anymore, she goes to England to meet William Wilberforce and his abolitionists, eager to hear the gory details of her life — and shape the narrative to best suit their purposes. Instead she pens her own story — The Book of Negroes — and helps them abolish the slave trade (though not slavery itself). In another last act of atonement, Solomon Lindo reappears with her long-lost daughter May, reunited with her now-elderly mother, as Aunjanue Ellis has played her convincingly over an expansive age span.

A weakness of the mini-series has been the compression of an eventful lifetime into 4.5-ish hours. But it’s been a captivating journey despite its flaws.

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Featured, Open Heart

Review: Open Heart goes for the heart

It’s been four weeks since the debut of Open Heart on YTV, and after being impressed with the first double-dose of episodes on Jan. 20, I decided to sit down and revisit the series. Not that I haven’t been watching—I have a day or two after the fact via PVR—but I wanted the series to simmer for a bit, for the characters and story to evolve before breaking it down and analyzing it. Are the characters still compelling? Is the mystery still interesting? Is anyone getting on my nerves? Has Open Heart kept up the drama it promised in Night 1?

Absolutely.

“In Plain Sight” picked up seconds after last week’s instalment, with Dylan making a quick list of the people who most likely knew about the drugs her father was taking. It was a short list: Nana, Papa, Mom and a big question mark after London. (Can I take a second to throw some kudos towards the on-screen messages that flash up every time Dylan is on a computer, tablet or cell phone? It’s an ingenious way of storytelling without wasting a camera shot over her shoulder all the time.)

What a doozy of an episode to pick to review. By the time the half-hour had closed out Dylan and London confirmed Richard was schizophrenic, taking meds and seeing a psychiatrist, they learned their mother was sleeping with Dr. K and Wes told Dylan he loved her.

It was a lot for Dylan to take in and I can’t help but worry for the girl’s health, both mental and physical. Discovering she could inherit her dad’s issues was bad enough, but uncovering his secret place—jammed with maps, sketches of a soldier, numbers, keys and the name Agent Sheppard scrawled over and over again—clearly rattled her. Luckily, London was there to support her both in the storage locker and when they confronted Jane about what she knew.

Speaking of London, I didn’t take any pleasure in her decking Dr. K. He had, after all, asked Jane to reveal their relationship to the girls. K just happened to be there at the wrong time and bore the brunt of London’s rage.

And while I’m happy Wes revealed his feelings to Dylan, I think Mikayla was too hasty when she told him to do it right away. With so much on her plate right now, Dylan could push Wes away until she can fully process her feelings toward him. Don’t get me wrong. I was thrilled that he built up the guts to do it—with some help from those cute seniors and Casablanca—but I worry she’ll spurn him and he’ll back off completely.

Notes and quotes

  • Despite initial reservations (I thought he was too geeky), London and Seth have turned into a fantastic couple.
  • I may be a little out of touch, but I’m pretty sure Mikayla was wearing Nikki Sixx’s pants from Mötley Crüe’s Theater of Pain tour.
  • I cried a little bit when Mikayla and Wes didn’t know what a VHS tape was.
  • “What happened to ‘Eat all the fries London?'”
  • “What in the hell?” I’d been waiting for that reaction from Dylan ever since Jane’s phone said she was at a hotel.

Open Heart airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on YTV.

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