TV North and South of the 49th.
The Listener premiered tonight on Space (and I am bemused by the fact that this show a] has already aired in its entirety in other countries, and b] is airing on Space before it airs on CTV; there's just so much strangeness about those things), and, of course, I watched it, because--yet again--I'm me, and I have a Thing. (My list of TV-related Things is legion. Legion. [...was that proper grammar? Suddenly I'm unsure.])

First off, I would like to say that I feel all adrift and bewildered, faced with a Canadian TV show whose entire lead ensemble I do not recognise from other things. In that respect, this example of CTV's scripted CanCon is a far, far cry from what I'm used to, and quite frankly, I'm a little frightened. Hold me? *clings* I tell you, if Colm Feore weren't in this thing, I don't know how I'd cope.

Anyway.

It wasn't bad. The procedural/crimesolving elements weren't good, per se--there was one scene in particular that provoked gales of laughter when it was trying for nail-biting DRAMATIC TENSION!!!, which...yeah, no--but the characters are generally likeable, and it looks like there's gonna be a decent attempt at a mytharc, so I'm willing to stick with it.

--Toby's pretty. Craig Olejnik's a leetle bit wooden at times, but...pretty. *g* His best scenes were the ones he shared with Colm Feore (and his worst were the ones with Lisa Marcos, more on her momentarily), which is reassuring: it suggests he's one of those actors who's good, but still finding his feet as a lead, and therefore performs to the level of the room in any given scene. I have hopes for improvement from him as the show progresses.

--I hope we get to see more of Olivia, and that, when we do, she gets to be more than Toby's Frustrated Kinda-Girlfriend and Exposition-Spouting Doctor. I don't hold out much hope, though, sadly.

--Lisa Marcos, whose Detective Marks--I'm assuming--we're going to see having a much larger professional role than Olivia, needs to get comfortable being in front of a camera. She had promising moments, but they were mostly overshadowed by the industrial-strength Tough Chick Cop persona she kept putting on like a bad suit. (And if she's supposed to be a viable potential love interest for Toby...um. Maybe not?)

--Oz amuses me. Also, Ennis Esmer has very high energy, which helps offset Olejnik's occasional down moments.

--Colm Feore...is Colm Feore. (A familiar face! WOO!) And playing a professor of pseudo-science, a subject to which he is able to lend waaaay too much gravitas. *g*

--It's a very pretty show (and I'm not just referring to Toby, here). Like Flashpoint, it makes no bones about being set and filmed in Toronto; also like FP, it does this thing with lighting and focus that makes the city look urban while also making its colours pop, sometimes into a weird, almost-pastel range. (I checked, and the two shows do not share cinematographers.) All in all, it makes for a nifty visual style.

So, yes. I'll be tuning in next week, and not just because it's summer and nothing else is on. :)

*~*~*

I've been pondering the final week of In Treatment, trying to come up with something to say about the way the show ended this season, but I've got nothing. Not because the show ended badly, or because I wasn't engaged by the final week of eps, but because, for me, IT's the kind of show that's just always going to end with an anticlimax. While each patient's story is told ep-by-ep, the show as a whole is about Paul--and the meat of his story is in how he deals with his patients and how they impact and influence him. Therefore, the patients all have their breakthroughs or breakdowns in either the second- or third-last week so there'll still be enough time left to see the fallout for Paul...which is fine, except that it makes for a relatively quiet final week of episodes.

I mean, it's a good final week. Just...quiet.

*~*~*

Burn Notice! Tonight! Well, I'll be watching it on Saturday, for myriad reasons (including but not limited to: I'm going to Stratford to see Nick Knight Henry Breedlove Geraint Wyn Davies and the insouciant David Kaye Tom Rooney in Julius Caesar! *twirls*), but the rest of you can watch tonight! Because it's BACK!!!!!

Seriously, scheduling this show's three-month hiatus to coincide with the final quarter of the regular TV season was a glorious, glorious thing for USA to do. It feels like I've had to wait no time at all!