Tag Archives: Heartland

Featured, Heartland

Heartland’s tense midseason finale

Talk about a nail-biter of a midseason finale. Sunday’s newest episode of Heartland, the final one of 2015, was unlike any I’ve seen since I started watching the show. Gone were the feel-good, happy endings we’re used to getting, replaced by scary scenes and poisoned animals.

The focus of “A Matter of Trust” was Georgie and Lou’s deteriorating relationship. Heartland hasn’t shied away from portraying the struggles associated with a family ravaged by divorce, but Sunday took another step, first by having mother and daughter wage war over lies, trust and responsibility and then with Georgie running away to Vancouver and leaving her cell phone behind at the ranch. Yes, Georgie is maturing and moving past that awkward phase and taking her first tentative steps into being a woman. She’s not there yet, but she sure wants to hang with and be accepted by the older girls. Everyone can relate to a storyline like that, and Georgie’s feelings. This being Heartland, I’m assuming Georgie will make it to Peter’s door unscathed, but that knowledge certainly didn’t take the edge off that final scene of her alone in the dark and wandering down the street. (As an aside, I hope Michelle Morgan receives a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her work this season; she deserves it.)

Meanwhile, an environmental disaster threatens the life of Phoenix. It’s been awhile since Heartland dealt with that angle, and having Rusty and then Phoenix succumb to poisoned water was tough to watch. Rusty has been treated and is on the road to recovery, but Phoenix may not be so lucky. Georgie’s disappearance means he’s not getting any attention and he needs someone to notice he’s not doing well. Fingers crossed Amy or Ty head back to the barn and discover the horse is in bad shape.

Heartland returns Sunday, January 10, at 7 p.m. on CBC.

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Comments and queries for the week of December 4

Your Favourite Canadian TV Shows of 2015

Heartland is such a wonderful family show! We’ve enjoyed every episode together since it started, and it’s by far MY all-time favourite. —Rachel

When Calls the Heart is a refreshing change from many of the shows. The actors, directors and crew are extremely talented and provide so much employment to our local economy. Would live to see this series picked up on our local station in Vancouver. The new show The Romeo Section is great too. Love the actors that were in Intelligence. —Wendy

Heartland is the current No. 1 show. Touched by an Angel is probably my all-time favourite, but I guess it’s not Canadian. —Terry

TORNADO HUNTERS! (: —Paige

Heartland is the only show that has ever been able to hook me. Usually, shows are take it or leave it with me, but I love, love, love Heartland. =) —DJ

No question about it, Tornado Hunters is my No. 1 choice as the best 2015 Canadian TV show. I’ll give The Fifth Estate a close second place, and for options 3, 4, and 5, I will list The Rick Mercer Report, Dark Matter and This Life, accordingly. —Trina

Love Blackstone. Then my reality shows Amazing Race Canada, Big Brother Canada, Chopped Canada and Masterchef Canada. —Pamela

The Road to Discoverability

With me, word of mouth or I’ll glance through everything when it’s time for a new crop of pilots be it fall or midseason. An ad alone isn’t enough to get me to check out something usually. I’m a big Orphan Black fan but didn’t even know it existed in its first season. How’d I catch on? Commenters going crazy over it on several of the sites I visit, not just the reviewers themselves, and luckily CTV itself was running the same ad about 50 times a day for the Season 1 repeats. (They really overdo it though, the same ad over and over again actually irritates the viewer and could turn them against seeing a show, Comedy Network is especially bad for this).

Same thing happened this year with Mr. Robot. TVLine, The AV Club, Entertainment Weekly, Hitflix, IGN etc. and their readers wouldn’t stop praising it. It took Showcase until the end of the U.S. run to air here but it was great. They need to simulcast it next year for it to be worth anything. A day late equals a dollar short in the new digital world. I don’t usually watch crime shows but everyone is talking about Fargo, Season 2 so I might actually catch up when the season is over.

In terms of Kelly’s point about binge watching and then being a season behind, part of this is the networks themselves. They usually don’t have the current season up for streaming until the next year, and only the last five or so episodes on demand. You finished The Flash, Season 1? Too bad, CTV only has episodes 6-8 online and even then you have to sign in with a cable provider if you want to see them.

They are getting a bit better though. Syfy is premiering a show with a huge buzz and Canadian crew in the middle of December about a week before Christmas. That sounds like a way to kill a show, but they released the first episode online last month, and Space did it at the same time for Canadians with access to YouTube. I watched it because of word of mouth buzz and now fully plan to record both episodes on December 14th & 15th, and the 22nd.

Will TV itself and the broadcasters completely die out? No. This abundance of choice and “golden age of TV” is because of consumer appetite. Can the telecoms act like consumers are restricted to them in the same way we often are for cell phones and internet? No. The broadcasters themselves aren’t who I look to guide me to stuff, other viewers are. They can try and filter shows between them but trying to limit viewers to only what they have when conversations about TV are happening globally is impossible especially as the Internet generations get more buying power. They aren’t competing with just two or three Canadian rivals anymore, they’re competing with everyone.

The Big Four U.S. networks have been in a ratings decline for years now. They’ve only officially canceled one show so far this year (Wicked City) and just let the other weak ones show what they have already made. They know launching a new show in a failed timeslot right away is pointless. Streaming has changed the game and both the U.S. and Canadian broadcasters are going to scramble for a while before catching up. —DanAmazing

For me there is only one answer: word of mouth. In 2015, I don’t see ads really. I listen to podcasts (generally from public broadcasters), I watch Netflix, I PVR, I iTunes, I turn my adblocker off for sites I visit frequently but honestly I hardly notice the ads anyway. The only way I find out about new shows/movies is from sites like this one and from recommendations by people I talk to. Fortunately, my Twitter and Facebook feeds are crowded with actors, directors, producers and writers so I get a lot of recommendations.

Still, there are about 25 shows on my list (yes, I have an actual list) that I try to keep up with. The other problem—equally as large in my opinion—is quality. With so many options, shows have to be consistently excellent to stay on the list. They also have to be reasonable original and not formulaic or repetitive. —Justin

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

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Results: Your Favourite Canadian TV Shows of 2015 are …

18 Comments

Fans of Canadian television shows certainly are a passionate lot, and they’re not confined to our borders either. Of the over 25,000 who voted for their Top 5 shows of 2015, dozens voiced their support from around the world.

Yes, the voting for a few shows took a suspicious jump over the last couple of days, but we’ll chalk that up to super-fans who simply love their programs … and know how to use technology to their advantage. (The voting wasn’t affected that much in the end.)

By the time the tally was taken, the Top 10 Canadian Shows of 2015 are:

  1. Dark Matter (27%, 7,269 Votes)
  2. Lost Girl (25%, 6,777 Votes)
  3. Killjoys (21%, 5,766 Votes)
  4. Heartland (20%, 5,384 Votes)
  5. Murdoch Mysteries (10%, 2,632 Votes)
  6. Orphan Black (8%, 2,147 Votes)
  7. Tornado Hunters (8%, 2,080 Votes)
  8. Rookie Blue (6%, 1,634 Votes)
  9. When Calls the Heart (6%, 1,557 Votes)
  10. Rick Mercer Report (5%, 1,486 Votes)

Aside from the Top 10 vote-getters, I was pleased to see several new programs perform well in the poll. Clearly, viewers love seeing three guys tooling around in a truck capturing wacky weather on film, as Tornado Hunters placed No. 7, not bad at all for a show that debuted late in the year and veteran The Liquidator finished just out of the Top 10.

Thanks again to everyone who voted. Check out the final results; you can still name your favourites in the Comments section at the bottom of the page.

What are your five favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015?

  • Dark Matter (12%, 7,269 Votes)
  • Lost Girl (11%, 6,777 Votes)
  • Killjoys (9%, 5,766 Votes)
  • Heartland (9%, 5,384 Votes)
  • Murdoch Mysteries (4%, 2,632 Votes)
  • Orphan Black (3%, 2,147 Votes)
  • Tornado Hunters (3%, 2,080 Votes)
  • Rookie Blue (3%, 1,634 Votes)
  • When Calls the Heart (3%, 1,557 Votes)
  • Rick Mercer Report (2%, 1,486 Votes)
  • The Liquidator (2%, 1,279 Votes)
  • Schitt's Creek (2%, 1,227 Votes)
  • Vikings (2%, 1,087 Votes)
  • The Amazing Race Canada (2%, 1,053 Votes)
  • Saving Hope (2%, 1,024 Votes)
  • Property Brothers (2%, 990 Votes)
  • Bitten (2%, 976 Votes)
  • Dragons' Den (2%, 970 Votes)
  • Continuum (2%, 955 Votes)
  • Haven (1%, 791 Votes)
  • Chopped Canada (1%, 786 Votes)
  • 22 Minutes (1%, 783 Votes)
  • MasterChef Canada (1%, 738 Votes)
  • Big Brother Canada (1%, 727 Votes)
  • Highway Thru Hell (1%, 686 Votes)
  • Canada's Worst Driver (1%, 684 Votes)
  • Degrassi (1%, 608 Votes)
  • The Nature of Things (1%, 580 Votes)
  • Love It or List It franchise (1%, 573 Votes)
  • The Fifth Estate (1%, 559 Votes)
  • Motive (1%, 557 Votes)
  • House of Bryan (1%, 549 Votes)
  • X Company (1%, 520 Votes)
  • Still Standing (1%, 480 Votes)
  • Strange Empire (1%, 397 Votes)
  • Marketplace (1%, 394 Votes)
  • This Life (1%, 394 Votes)
  • Hockey Wives (1%, 340 Votes)
  • Backroad Bounty (1%, 321 Votes)
  • 19-2 (1%, 311 Votes)
  • Remedy (0%, 266 Votes)
  • Mr. D (0%, 265 Votes)
  • Blackstone (0%, 262 Votes)
  • Polar Bear Town (0%, 252 Votes)
  • Ice Racer Showdown (0%, 214 Votes)
  • Young Drunk Punk (0%, 207 Votes)
  • Canada's Smartest Person (0%, 198 Votes)
  • Sunnyside (0%, 193 Votes)
  • The Next Step (0%, 174 Votes)
  • Mohawk Girls (0%, 170 Votes)
  • Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan (0%, 128 Votes)
  • Keeping Canada Alive (0%, 120 Votes)
  • The Other Side (0%, 113 Votes)
  • Chef in Your Ear (0%, 104 Votes)
  • The Romeo Section (0%, 99 Votes)
  • Blood and Water (0%, 93 Votes)
  • The Stanley Dynamic (0%, 88 Votes)
  • Make it Pop (0%, 81 Votes)
  • First Dates (0%, 68 Votes)
  • Unusually Thicke (0%, 67 Votes)
  • Open Heart (0%, 65 Votes)
  • Spun Out (0%, 58 Votes)
  • Sensitive Skin (0%, 47 Votes)
  • Max & Shred (0%, 42 Votes)
  • Some Assembly Required (0%, 30 Votes)
  • Crash Gallery (0%, 24 Votes)
  • Tiny Plastic Men (0%, 20 Votes)

Total Voters: 27,337

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Featured, Heartland

Preview: Dates and goodbyes on Heartland

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“We’re all going to be OK.” That’s the final line spoken by Georgie in tonight’s new episode of Heartland, and summarizes another week’s storylines fluctuating between funny and infuriating, and tender and tear-filled.

“Reckless Abandon” digs deep into relationships between humans and other humans, horses and humans and horses with other horses. After a couple of weeks of hints, it looks as though Bear is going to fulfill his promising role in the Calgary Police’s mounted unit … and Georgie isn’t happy about it. Georgie, never one to sit back and think things through, allows the possibility Bear might leave to impact her relationship with Amy. Not helping matters? Some bad news from Stephen.

Heartland2

Relationship issues extend to Casey and Tim as well. Tim isn’t the best when it comes to voicing his feelings, and puts his foot in it with Casey, leading to some awkward moments and a possible future that scares the heck out of Tim.

Most Awkward Award of the night, however, goes to Lou. Her attempt to get back into the dating pool with house inspector Carson (Michael Xavier) leads to some laugh-out-loud moments followed by a cringe-inducing situation and Lou jumping to conclusions.

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

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Featured, Heartland

Heartland’s bear-y scary situation, Part 2

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When the “Previously on Heartland” intro rolled before last night’s episode, I was pretty sure that darned grizzly bear was going to show up and cause trouble. I was wrong, but Sunday’s instalment wasn’t without danger.

Seeing Ty tumble off the cliff was certainly dramatic, and he’s lucky he escaped with just a large bump on his head. (Kudos to the producers for making sure they covered the whole concussion thing rather than assuming he was all right.) The male bald eagle rescue itself may have gone without a hitch—I did wonder how he or Amy would get to the top of the tree if the situation called for it—but getting back to the truck didn’t. Note to self: always carry a bag of trail mix with you. Also? Make sure you have a horse like Bear along. The newest equine member of Heartland seems destined for a future on the Calgary Police Force, and that’s a pretty cool gig if you ask me. (Those hoping Amy and Ty will have a baby soon had to make do with the two cradling a male bald eagle rather than a sprite of their own.)

Aside from the drama out on the trail with Amy, Ty and the horses, “Over and Out”—written by Pamela Pinch—had some heart-stopping moments at the ranch and the Reserve. After bonding during their own near-death experience—telling Bob they trashed the ATV—Adam and Georgie seem headed for romance. After all, why else would they be texting after-hours? And how will Stephen react when he returns from the summer? The fact Adam hinted his mother is exerting pressure on him to succeed will likely cause he and Georgie to bond and, perhaps, share a first kiss before the fall leaves fly.

I always enjoy it when Lisa is kicking around the ranch—her feisty attitude leads to some great moments—so I was glad to have plenty of scenes with she and Jack, Katie and Lou. With Lou struggling to keep her packed calendar in order, Lisa stepped in to try and help and a defensive Lou got her back up. The thing with Heartland is, grudges never last long; by episode’s end the ladies were on the same page and Lou even got some alone time with her daughters.

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

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