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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

Review: Lost Girl goes to the gods

Of course Lost Girl would be the series to give us gender bending Greek gods, Hera and Zeus, with our mysteriously undead Kevin Brown revealing himself/herself as the devious goddess and leaving Zee as the lightning bolt-delivering god. The swap went some way towards explaining my confusion over trying to figure out how Hera was suddenly shooting lightning bolts like Zeus, but I’ll admit I’m slightly disappointed it means we have a dude kicking butt as top god on this lady power loving series.

Instead, Hera-as-Kevin Brown was relegated towards cleaning up the curious Alicia and trying (and failing) to take out Dyson. Though that does make sense if Bo’s guess about why the Ancients have suddenly returned is correct. Hera might be down with sticking up for her team, but not quite to the extent of Zeus—who might technically be Persephone’s father. Though, with the obvious sense that Lost Girl is going way off text when it comes to these fae, there’s no telling what the alliances are or who they’re really looking out for.

It’s a nice idea that the Ancients have returned to rescue Persephone—and maybe that’s why they were so interested in Bo’s “truth,” to find out how she got the candle and where Persephone is. Then again, considering they’ve killed nearly all of Lauren’s employees and devastated the city—along with an elevator of people—and finally, launched Cassie off the balcony of a skyscraper, the Ancients as good guys is a bit of a tough sell.

But if they’re that loyal to Persephone, who’s related to them, maybe they’ll turn out to be as unwilling to harm Bo—assuming they find out she’s one of them as well. Because I’m pretty sure that’s what having Hades as a father should mean. Of course, it’s not really news Bo is bandying about—keeping the list of people in the know about it to the barest of bare minimums—though rightfully opting to let Trick in on the update to what happened to his daughter after he turned her over.

I can’t help but feel like we should be seeing just a little bit more remorse from Trick as the revelations about Aife’s life come out. I understand the need to maintain balance (and that Aife’s a bit scary on a good day), but surely discovering your daughter gave birth in a cage in Tartarus warrants a bit of a pause if you were the one partially responsible. Then again, Trick’s already had to live with that decision for a long time and he did, technically, do what was right. But I’m feeling just a tiny bit of sympathy for Aife as the revelations come tumbling out.

Tamsin was in for her own set of revelations when she got succubumped to the curb by Bo. It was easy enough for us to see—even without the oracles exposing Bo’s heart’s desires—that Tamsin wouldn’t be on that list. But as a Tamsin fan (though not a shipper of the couple) it still hurt to watch her cling to any number of explanations as Bo finally stepped up to tell her the truth. I don’t agree at all with Bo’s assertion that Tamsin is confused just because they’re roommates (having managed to avoid falling in love with any number of my own), but there might be some truth to the fact that Tamsin’s feelings for Bo could be caught up in the complicated history they’ve shared. It doesn’t make breaking her heart hurt any less, though, and I wasn’t too impressed with Bo by the end of that talk.

Maybe giving the oracles one last go around finally gave us a sense of what direction all those “ships” would be “sailing” in before the end, with some kind of Dyson/Lauren/Bo triumvirate being an easy call. But while I doubt Mark’s worthiness in general, even I have to admit watching Vex cope with his attraction to Dyson’s son, of all people, was well worth it. And hey, at least it means we can rest easy in the shipping wars now.

Losing it:

  • Tamsin’s “Shit got real,” is also how I would describe this episode, now that we know what’s going on
  • “No, no, no, but yes.” Was this Vex’s redemption? Because it totally worked for me
  • “You smell good wet.” Was this not meant as an innuendo? Because if we’re talking ships here …
  • “Explains the face.” Evony, upon discovering Mark is Dyson’s son
  • Evony’s big, bad reveal was a big, bad letdown

Lost Girl airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

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Review: Silent treatment on Heartland

Communication is a big thing, whether it be between family, friends, business partners or horses. That was driven home on several fronts during Sunday night’s newest episode. And while the episode may have been called “The Silent Partner,” the subtitle could have been “The Silent Treatment,” especially when it came to Peter and Lou.

It’s no secret that the couple’s marriage has been rocky of late, with him quite happy to be jetting to Vancouver for work, something that gives him a much-needed respite from life on the ranch. And who could blame him? It seems like Lou has got a new bee in her bonnet every week. This time around it was pressuring Peter to find a job in Calgary so he would be closer to home. I thought she was crossing the line by having Amy serve as the go-between to land Peter a job with Tanner Gunn (Patrick Gallagher, Endgame). In the end her plan backfired in a major way. Not only did she fail to communicate her feelings to Peter directly, but she learned the worst news of all via Amy: Tanner offered Peter a lucrative job that he turned down. Now Lou (and we) can only wonder what Peter has planned. Is he leaving Lou, or has he got a business plan cooked up to keep him at home and he’s just getting ready to surprise his wife with the news?

Speaking of surprises, Caleb had a big one for Ty (and Amy). Despite Ty’s advice to the contrary, Caleb is in business with Jesse, which led to windfall of cash for Ty in the form of his initial investment and profits to the tune of over $41,000 in cash. What will the the engaged couple do with all that green? They could certainly pay for their wedding with it, but I’m suspecting a business of their own is in the cards. After all, Amy could train horses and Ty could care for them. It’s the perfect business idea.

Communication was the word of the week for Jack and Georgie too, the former between he and Lisa over planning Amy’s wedding and the latter regarding letting Steven ride Phoenix to take some of the pressure off her mounting responsibilities at school and Heartland.

But back to Lou and Peter for a second. I may complain a lot about Lou’s meddling in everyone’s affairs, but I don’t like to see her hurting. Sunday’s final scene—preceded by a weepfest with Jack—found her the odd (wo)man out, witnessing Peter and her two kids watching Phoenix ride while she wondered where her marriage was headed. Do you think it’s over between she and Peter? Let me know below or via @tv_eh.

Notes and quotes

  • Hey Heartland fans, does anyone know how far Calgary is supposed to be from Heartland ranch?
  • “Can’t a man spend some time in his own home with people thinking there’s a crisis?!”—Jack
  • I could watch Heartland‘s horse riding footage all day long

Heartland airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC.

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Link: ‘Open Heart’ a teen mystery, soap, medical show all in one

From Bill Harris of the Toronto Sun:

I was thinking just the other day about how American TV and movie audiences are obsessed with big, wealthy, dynastic families.

It’s a tradition of story-telling that goes back many decades. There’s a fascination with watching a rich family fight amongst themselves. And in recent years the trend has moved into reality TV as well, making celebrities of the Kardashians and their ilk. Continue reading.

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Link: Women inspired The Book of Negroes author

From Alex Strachan of Postmedia:

Women inspired The Book of Negroes author
In introducing The Book of Negroes novelist Lawrence Hill, filmmaker Clement Virgo, producer Damon D’Oliveira and actors Aunjanue Ellis, Lyriq Bent, Louis Gossett Jr. and Cuba Gooding Jr. at the winter meeting of the Television Critics Association, BET Networks president Charlie Jordan Brookins gave a shout-out to “our friends at eOne” for helping put the miniseries together, but somehow neglected to mention CBC. Continue reading.

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