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Featured, Saving Hope

Review: Full circle for Saving Hope

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“I’m dying. Please don’t tell my wife.”

Is it a doctor’s job to tell someone their significant other is dying against that patient’s wishes? Where do you draw the line from keeping your personal feelings and professional job from intersecting? Both issues were the highlight of Wednesday’s Saving Hope, with Zach in the middle of a man’s wishes to keep his wife in the dark about Stage 4 lung cancer.

Seeing how happy and in love the couple were–because it takes a real couple to camp in a yert together–it was only a matter of time before one of the two were diagnosed with something terrible. Turned out it was the husband, Mike, who Zach discovered was hiding a pretty bad cancer diagnosis in order to live out his last days as happily as possible. Unfortunately, hiding something like that can be pretty difficult when a guy passes out in the middle of a hospital foyer. The struggle was easy to comprehend, but I still found it ridiculously wrong of Zach to defy Mike’s wishes and bring his wife into his hospital room while Maggie was in the middle of draining his lungs. The move felt cowardly to me, like it was the easy way out of his tough spot, and it didn’t seem like anyone was giving Zach enough flack for the move. After finding out Zach went through a similar situation as a teenager with his dad I understood his decision more, but still didn’t agree with it. But hey, at least he was able to bring the Northern Lights to the couple in that adorable closing scene.

While Zach was hit with the feels, Alex and Charlie were given a patient with the most original storyline of the night. I didn’t understand what the problem with Travis was right away, other than the fact that he was yelling way too much for me to enjoy and was going to jail for some reason. Turned out I didn’t understand what was wrong with him because the issue was internal; he swallowed multiple packs of cocaine to try and smuggle and sell in jail, one of which ended up exploding after he fell. Normally I don’t have a real appreciation for the surgery shots, but seeing Alex pull the little baggies out of Travis’ stomach and seeing one rupture was pretty cool and not something I’ve ever seen on a medical drama before.

While Charlie aided Alex he was also getting to the bottom of his own mystery: the spirit of a guy convinced he knew Alex from somewhere. I really loved how he ended up being the taxi driver who was driving Alex and Charlie in the pilot episode (that’s some bad luck you’ve got there, buddy), but more so I loved that he was holding Alex’s wedding vows in his pocket the whole time–despite how farfetched it is he’s had them chilling in his pocket the whole time.

She’s been hinting it for the past few episodes, but seeing Alex have the flashback to them kissing and with the wedding vows popping back up, it’s more clear than ever that Alex is leaning towards Team Charlie, a team that appears to be just as interested in Alex. But naturally, it also appears that Joel is suddenly feeling much more confident about his feelings for Alex–so much so that he ended the night by buying a ring. For his sake I hope the ring has a return policy, because if he plans on proposing anytime soon I don’t think he’ll like the answer he gets.

Notes:

  • No, you didn’t watch too much eTalk today. That really was Ben Mulroney, possibly making coffee for the first time in his life.
  • Only Shahir would make a birth spreadsheet.
  • The storyline with Joel felt ridiculously overdone, but at least it did have that nice moment between a daughter and father.

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

Thoughts? Hit us up below or via @tv_eh.

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Book of Negroes, Featured

Review: Canada gives a chilly reception in The Book of Negroes

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Canada gets her starring turn in the fifth episode of The Book of Negroes, and she’s not ready for her closeup.

Nova Scotia was, at the time of the novel and mini-series events, part of the British Empire and where some United Empire Loyalists settled, including those who were named in the historical book of Negroes. In our fictional world, Aminata lands to find the promised land is instead an inhospitable land, in climate and in temperament.

The new arrivals are cold to the point of taking a coat from a dead man, hungry enough that a dog is led off-screen by a man with an ax, crowded enough that cholera runs through the makeshift Birchtown, where the black inhabitants are segregated, waiting for the land they were promised.

Aminata’s character is shown when she tries to return some potatoes dropped by a white couple, though she’s told to keep them by a woman who ends up nursing her back to health — but she loses her newborn son while still separated from Chekura, whose ship had landed elsewhere.

This episode deviates from the novel significantly, permanently shedding Aminata of a child and reuniting her with supposed-to-be-dead Chekura for the voyage to Sierra Leone. I’m neutral on such changes from the source material — different media have different storytelling needs and strengths — and I can see why they wanted the love story to form a through-line in the mini-series. I  occasionally feel as if the cohesion of the series suffers from the opposite: taking too many incidents from the novel and jaggedly gluing them together.

Louis Gossett, Jr. and Jane Alexander make memorable guest stars in this episode as something of a church and community elder in the former’s case, and something of a racist harpy in the latter’s.

The black residents are segregated and paid less for the same work — if they can find work — and so subject to slavery, indentured servitude or crippling debt.

Aminata remains their storyteller, writing the abolitionists in England for assistance. Her erudite letters earn her a job in the print shop of Maria Witherspoon (Alexander) where she witnesses that woman’s disdain for black people (though she magnanimously calls Aminata “one of the good ones”).

When Aminata is accosted by Witherspoon’s son, Jason kills him in the ensuing struggle, setting off the woman’s rage. The town is unhappy, to say the least, not just by the black presence, but by their ingratitude in making them look bad to the British.

Aminata’s old boss Clarkson (Ben Chaplin) arrives in response to her letters to offer the freed slaves a new promised land: Sierra Leone, where they need a community to stake their empire’s claim. He promises farm land where they can grow food and be free. Reminded that was the promise of Nova Scotia as well, Clarkson says “yeah, my bad.” OK that’s not an exact quote, but a number of the Birchtown residents, including Aminata, choose to believe again and return to the continent from which they were stolen.

Reunited with Chekura thanks to Clarkson — making him a bit too much her saviour in my eyes — the couple sail toward the new hope and the final episode.

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Featured, Industry News

A not-so-Super CRTC ruling

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If I were in charge of the Canadian TV industry … well, I’d likely run it into the ground, but it would be well-meaning. No matter what suggestion for improvement – or defense of the status quo — there’s a chorus to say why it can’t be done, shouldn’t be attempted, is a terrible idea.

It’s not all naysaying. Our homegrown industry often seems like it’s held together with frayed string and a prayer, and one nudge would have it collapsing in a pile at Jean-Pierre Blais’ feet.

The CRTC chairman recently ruled that after 2016, simultaneous substitution — the practice of airing Canadian commercials over the US feed — is banned during the Super Bowl.

Our inability to see American Super Bowl ads is the number one complaint made to the CRTC each year. Seriously? The ruling is several years too late, given the complaints could be addressed with: “Learn how to use your internet browser, people.” The ads are online.

As Kate Taylor of the Globe and Mail pointed out, the commission has not made policy here, it’s made an exception. Ban simsub or don’t ban simsub, but it makes no sense to ban one instance of simsub.

Bell Media tells Cartt.ca that it will lose $20 million for each Super Bowl, and they apparently have the rights through 2019. Some say the money would have gone into Canadian programming — I’m not entirely sure networks ever spend more than they’re legally required to on that, so I’m skeptical, but that data isn’t freely available. In any case, it’s a big hit for a broadcaster to take, particularly when they would have calculated their bid for the game rights with the expectation of that simsub revenue.

I don’t care about football. I’d like to see simsub eliminated entirely (though that declaration will start the chorus of naysayers, who will have legitimate points).

There needs to be a business imperative for a Canadian broadcaster to invest in Canadian programming. No external carrot or stick, but a raison d’etre. The central question I come back to is: why would I care if I have Global or CTV if they air shows I can get on US networks? There are answers, of course. Local news, for one — which I haven’t watched on TV in about 20 years. Not everyone has cable or lives close enough to the border for an over the air antenna to pick up US channels, so for some people, CTV is the only way they can watch the Super Bowl.

But wouldn’t a better answer be because Global and CTV’s business model depends on making content, not rebroadcasting it? I’d like our television regulations to make that model the path of least resistance.

Yet the CRTC’s decision on Super Bowl ads moves us no further to a redefined broadcast system, as they promised to examine. It is as arbitrary as it is punitive. It’s only pro-consumer in the most superficial way, with potentially more cons than pros in the long term. Bell may decide to put the game on TSN, and Canadian broadcasters would be loath to buy the rights after Bell’s contract expires,  leaving those without cable Super Bowl-less … never mind whatever that disproportionate financial hit will do to the one broadcaster the decision affects.

If I were in charge of the Canadian TV industry I might accidentally run it into the ground, but I’d like to think I’d  do it with a logical consistently. With this decision, the CRTC appears to be trying to do it capriciously.

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Featured, Mr. D

Review: Mr. D hits a home run with Roberto Alomar

When Mr. D executive producer Mike Volpe told me a few weeks ago that Baseball Hall of Famer—and former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman—Roberto Alomar would be guest-starring this season, I was giddy.

How would he be worked into the storyline, written by my former classmate, Anita Kapila? Would it be baseball-related? Would it involve Gerry knowing Alomar somehow or at least acting like he knew him?

In an interesting twist in “President Jimmy,” Alomar didn’t even appear on-screen with Mr. D at all. Instead, he was part of a secondary storyline involving Robert, Trudy and Malik. See, every year during Xavier’s student council elections, someone plasters the school with posters with Alomar for President emblazoned on them. Fed up, Robert banned all Alomar posters and pins from the premises. And still they magically appeared. The way the storyline rolled out, it was assumed Trudy was behind the whole thing, until the episode’s closing minutes when Alomar appeared on-screen, helping Malik post more election signs.

“I just retired, and I get bored. So I drop by the schools and I mess around,” Alomar said to the camera. (Alomar’s acting skills from those McCain fruit punch commercials paid off.)

It should be noted that Mr. D‘s filming style changed for “President Jimmy,” with cameras capturing the action like a mockumentary. It made for several funny moments (like Alomar’s admission), especially when it came to scenes involving Jimmy, Mr. D, Lisa and new librarian Miss Terdie (Kathleen Phillips, Sunnyside). With the elections in full swing, Lisa’s class project was to record the process for posterity and they captured democracy in all its glory. Like Mr. D convincing Jimmy to run for president because Gerry didn’t want Natalie to three-peat as president.

The best part of the instalment for me—aside from Alomar—was footage of the ongoing feud between Lisa and Miss Terdie. Both ladies have their quirks—the former neatness and cleanliness and the latter a deep love for books and their fair treatment—so when Lisa didn’t put books she’d pulled off the shelf on Terdie’s “To be shelved” cart, it was war. Terdie drew a caricature of Lisa on her classroom board, titled it “Demon Mason” and removed the erasers from the class so Lisa couldn’t eliminate it.

I miss Mr. Leung, but Miss Terdie promises to be a memorable character as well. Especially if her feud with Lisa continues.

Notes and quotes

  • How many teachers use Wikipedia as their source material? I’m hoping not many.
  • “He’s a Golden Glove-wearing baseball slugger.” I love Robert’s sport savvy

Mr. D airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.

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Featured, Saving Hope

Three thumbs up for Canadian broadcasters

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There are times — many, many times — when I prod our Canadian TV industry to do better. Make more original shows. Schedule and promote them more wisely. Believe the Internet isn’t just a fad.

But sometimes, kudos are in order. This last week a few small actions made me cheer loudly:

  1. A few years ago, the previous CBC regime decided against picking up a weirdly hilarious pilot called Gavin Crawford’s Wild West. Like many a failed pilot in Canadian TV, it aired almost surreptitiously at some point, because a requirement of funding is often that a produced episode must see the light of day. Well, it’s back, less surreptitiously, in a smart use of existing content for their Punchline website. It’s been chopped up into sketches and given a second life, sitting alongside made-for-the-web series such as Bill & Sons Towing and online extras for CBC comedy series such as 22 Minutes and Schitt’s Creek. Check out Punchline here.
  2. In the battle of the online streaming services, Netflix wins for me hands down given it’s the only one accessible to me. It also has shows I can’t see anywhere else. For years I’ve pointed out that original content is the currency of the changing TV business and that Canadian networks were being left behind. But Bell-owned CraveTV has been doing something savvy with the content they do own. They may never want to produce originals just for the streaming service — Canadian broadcasters like to maximize their spending by spreading shows across all their properties — but they can entice Saving Hope fans to sign up for the opportunity to see episodes a day before they air on conventional television. Smart programming for a new platform.
  3. Sure, Bell gets a lot of credit for its Bell Let’s Talk campaign that raised over $6 million this year for mental health causes. But shomi, the streaming service owned by competitors Rogers and Shaw, gets the good sportsmanship award for joining the conversation:

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