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Strange Empire

Link: Strange Empire a walk on CBC’s wild side

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From Alex Strachan of Canada.com:

B.C.-filmed Strange Empire a walk on the wild side for CBC
My father found me strange,” young Rebecca Blithely (Melissa Farman) tells her would-be surrogate mother figure, Kat Loving (Cara Gee), midway through the first hour of the strange, female-driven period western Strange Empire. Blithely was committed to a mental institution as a child before being rescued by a kindly, benevolent couple who raised her as their own. Now, living an uncertain life in a small mountain town that straddles the Alberta-Montana border in the late 1860s, she’s decided to become a surgeon. It’s a time and place where men rule the roost — good men and bad men alike — and girls are married off at a young age before they become women. Continue reading.

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Ratings, Saving Hope

Ratings: Saving Hope nabs 1.3 million viewers

From a media release:

SAVING HOPE Grows to 1.3 Million Viewers as CTV’s Female-Driven Thursday Night Lineup Reigns

  • With only two episodes left until its Fall Finale, SAVING HOPE leads GRACEPOINT simulcast by double digits

Halfway through its fall event, CTV’s own SAVING HOPE solidly owned its Thursdays at 9 p.m. timeslot last night with an initial audience of 1.3 million viewers, preliminary overnight data from Numeris (BBM Canada) confirms. Along with the Top 2 programs of the night – HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER and GREY’S ANATOMY – SAVING HOPE allowed CTV to claim the Top 3 programs of the night among F18-49 and F25-54, as well as three of the Top 4 programs of the night for total viewers and all key demos.

With preliminary Playback + 7 data now in, last Thursday’s (Sept. 25) female-driven lineup on CTV saw the series premiere of one of this fall’s biggest new series HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER climb to 3.1 million (from 2.4 million), the season premiere of GREY’S ANATOMY grow to 2.2 million viewers (from 1.8 million), and the second episode of SAVING HOPE increase to 1.5 million (from 1.2 million).

Winning its timeslot at 9 p.m., the stand-alone broadcast of SAVING HOPE (1.32 million) led the simulcast series premiere of GRACEPOINT (1.1 million; Global/FOX) by double-digits with total viewers and in all key demos (+19% P2; +25% A18-34; +86% A18-49; +54% A25-54). With only two episodes left before its Fall Finale, SAVING HOPE grew 10% with total viewers and 7% among A25-54 over last Thursday’s episode. SAVING HOPE also more than doubled SCANDAL’s (510,000; City/ABC) audiences with total viewers (+158%), as well as in the key A18-49 (+129%) and A25-54 (+145%).

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Package Deal

Tonight: Package Deal

Package Deal, City – “Sex, Sex, Sex”
Danny (Randal Edwards) and Kim (Julia Voth) are surprised to find they have fallen into a “sex slump” and neither seems to know how to reignite the fire. Meanwhile, Ryan’s (Jay Malone) new girlfriend wants him to choke her during sex – an idea he is completely uncomfortable with. And Sheldon (Harland Williams) is dating a woman who is only happy when they stay in hotels – a habit he can’t afford. The whole gang accidentally converges at a sex shop while looking for answers to their problems, eventually leading Danny and Kim to finding their slump solution in the unlikeliest of places.

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Featured

Comments and queries for the week of Oct. 3

This is my first time at the site; it’s nice to see you review Heartland, which is my favorite show and one of my all-time favourites. It became my favourite when I took a chance and bought the DVDs after having seen many of the commercials for the show but not having watched it on TV at that point.

Jack was reluctant, I think, given how Lou had reacted to their initial considering of marriage (when she was about to be married to Peter), given how the sisters tend to be overprotective of him, and because he is generally a private man. He has told them and others, more than once, that his love life is private, etc. Jack does love Lisa and isn’t ashamed of her or of how they chose to get married, but he is much more old fashioned and private than Lisa is.

As for Tim, he’s a likeable cad–a tamer version of a type of JR Ewing (Dallas) in the sense that he sometimes acts selfishly and in his own interests without thinking of others but he is a loving person. He is super competitive as was revealed in his relationship with Janice and with his ex-lady friend Miranda (with whom he had a son–though she didn’t tell him until many years later). It was definitely not “nice” of him to do what he did but he is very competitive and doesn’t always think of others before he acts.–Pat


On The Marilyn Denis Show, Sebastian Clovis showed how to update old 1980s cabinets with plywood flooring boards. Do you have this on video? I could not record the show.–Vera

Sorry you missed Sebastian’s appearance. Thursday’s episode featuring him will be available on The Marilyn Denis Show website in the next day or so. You can find it here.

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email me at greg@tv-eh.com!

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Featured, Haven

Review: Getting hinky in Haven

We’re four episodes into this latest season of Haven, and I’m getting a little impatient with the whole changing-Mara-back-to-Audrey thing. Sure, now Duke and Dwight know what Nathan already does–if you talk directly to Audrey she can fight off Mara for a bit–but this storyline has become one-note. As if reading my mind, Dwight admonished Nathan for being a broken record about it. Still, there were a few bright spots in Thursday’s newest, “Much Ado About Mara.”

The good
Duke’s gibberish Trouble
I laughed out loud at lines like “Mousie nudged my smelly belly,” “Froggie leg cream,” “Slip the drink in the pink” and “Delicious taco!” which were all lines of gibberish uttered by our favourite scallywag thanks to the Trouble Mara brought out to ease the pressure on Duke’s body. I wonder how many takes Eric Balfour needed to land those bon mots? I only wish the Trouble had lasted all episode.

Dave’s back story
I’m thrilled that we’re learning more about Dave and Vince this season. Viewers were given more insight into Dave’s past. Yes, he was adopted and is originally from the other side, but by episode’s end we learned something came through the doorway–something evil–and the only hint to what it is came via a time loss and the word “Croatoan” scratched on the therapist’s notepad. Croatoan, for those who don’t know, is part of a real-life mystery: the word was carved into a post on Roanoke Island in 1587 after a British colony there disappeared. The idea a historical mystery may be incorporated into Haven has got me jazzed.

The Troubling
Nathan and Mara
This is getting tedious. Nathan’s blind faith that Audrey can fight off Mara is admirable, but he needs to stop with the constant begging to everyone that Mara be saved from death. I sincerely hope the internal showdown between the two women happens soon … and once and for all. If the producers drag this storyline out all season long I’m going to be upset.

The Guard
I’m all for posturing and over-the-top shows of strength on my sci-fi/fantasy shows, but The Guard is becoming comic in their tough talk. I can only assume that once Audrey wins out over Mara they’ll back the heck off too.

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

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