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Remedy

Review: Mothers and children on Remedy

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After a couple of weeks where Allen was a big part of its episodes, Remedy really opened up the floor for the rest of the cast to shine.

“Life in Technicolour” jumped ahead three weeks in time from last Monday. Mel and Cutler are a major thing—she’s addicted to sexy times with him and ignoring her co-parenting responsibilities with Sandy—and Griff has advanced from pills to cocaine. Monday’s storyline also featured the return of Rebecca, who played a key part for all the wrong reasons.

I’ve been a fan of Martha Burns since Slings & Arrows, so I was giddy to see her get some major screen time, even if things didn’t turn out so well for her. Who else felt badly for Rebecca when Maya tumbled off the change table and onto the bathroom floor? As Sandy said at the end of the episode, it could have happened to anyone. But not everyone has the track record Rebecca does; her history of alcoholism had everyone on the attack. Dudes, she felt badly enough. Cut her some slack. Luckily, Maya turned out to be OK, but I’m not sure Mel is ready to give Rebecca another chance at babysitting.

If anything, the incident has re-focused Mel. Sure, rolling around with Dr. Stubble is fun (just how does he get that stubble so perfectly trimmed?), but her job is to save lives, not let her hair down (literally) in a storage room whenever she feels the need for some wiener. As an aside, I really did enjoy “rocker” Mel in the O.R. Listening to alternative rock and cutting without a guide was cool to see, but it’s clearly not who she really is. She could have killed the guy after going ahead and trying to remove that tumour without help or a consult.

Of course, the complications meant Sandy was able to seize the day and smooch with Gord, Mr. Spleen’s friend. I noticed Gord (Falcon Beach‘s Steve Byers) is around next week too, so expect a little more between he and Sandy. She needs that kind of attention after devoting the last eight months to taking care of Maya. No dates does not a pretty young lady make. (The writers may throw us a curveball with Gord. He kissed Sandy, but why is he listed as Mr. Spleen’s sole emergency contact?)

Finally, we have Griff. Yes, he redeemed himself by the end of the night by dumping his coke and pills down the toilet, but if it wasn’t for Leona and Zoe, I wonder how far he would have gone? His attempt to have the estranged women reconnect was thwarted by Zoe, but he learned a valuable lesson about love and loss from Leona. That knowledge cut through Griff’s high and he realized he needed to stop what he was doing before it led to a lifetime of regrets.

Notes and quotes

  • “You are a bad influence. You are one of the bad kids.” Of course Mel likes a bad boy. Who doesn’t?
  • “Put some makeup on. You’re starting to look splotchy.” Rebecca, always with the great lines.
  • “Anal singeing” is a term? Cool.
  • “Why is your hair down like that? You look like you’re in a shampoo commercial.” — Sandy
  • “This is what it’s like dating me. It’s not all incredible sex. I hope you’re up for it.” — Mel, to Cutler

Remedy airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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Second City jumps from stage to web to TV

Sketch comedy is enjoying a TV renaissance of sorts thanks to the major Canadian broadcasters. CBC has Punchline, where comedy fans can go online to check out original material, Bell’s Comedy Network offers up Letterkenny Problems and stand-up specials, and City has Sunnyside.

Now Shaw is getting in on the action with The Second City Project, an online entity that grabs the primetime spotlight on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. The TV project celebrates the long-running sketch troupe with never-before-seen sketches and comedy pieces from the company’s cast—alumni writer-performers Marty Adams, Tim Baltz, Caitlin Howden, Sam Richardson, Kayla Lorette and Steve Waltien, along with showrunner Bob Martin—in a half-hour special.

The Second City Project has a companion piece in a YouTube channel (check out one of the segments below) that embraces all things out-there while skewering social mores. Online clips include a wheelchair-bound werewolf—played by Adams—who finds it hard to hunt down victims because he can’t gain access to buildings, and a skewering of network executives who tell Martin one of the girls on the cast has to dye her hair blonde.

“The one about the hair was actually a real conversation we had with the network,” Martin says with a laugh. “They did come up and say, ‘One of them has to change their hair because they look too much alike.’ We had this whole awkward conversation and I had to go up to  Caitlin and Kayla and say, ‘The network would like one of you to become a blonde.'”

Martin is a hot property right now. In addition to The Second City Project, he’s begun work on the second season of HBO Canada’s Sensitive Skin with Kim Cattrall and Don McKellar, and CBC’s reboot of Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays. But he jumped at the chance to flex his sketch writing muscles alongside comedy veterans like Adams, who sees Canadian networks committing to online content as a backdoor to getting funny stuff on TV.

“I think the only way to get on TV as a sketch production is to have already done stuff online,” Adams says. “You have to go on YouTube and get a million or 2 million hits to prove it can be successful. Sketch series have been a hard sell for a long time. You have Saturday Night Live, but now with shows like Key & Peele, it’s booming now. But you have to prove yourself to the network. They won’t sink money into a project just because they liked your showcase.”

Adams and Martin note sketch has advanced in the way it looks thematically, with Martin explaining the goal for The Second City Project was to make all of the content looks great online and on TV. Martin also wanted the sketches to be standalone vignettes with no through lines or characters recurring between segments.

“I love Portlandia, but I don’t want to play the same characters,” Adams says. “Unless it’s a rich character that you can mine, you can beat it to death.”

The Second City Project airs Sunday, April 19, at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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Review: Allen saves the day on Remedy

I’ve been a fan of Enrico Colantoni’s for a long time. I had the incredible luck of interviewing him when Veronica Mars first hit the small screen (I nervously called it “Victoria Mars” during our interview), then a couple of times during Flashpoint‘s run. He plays characters you can’t help but cheer for, get behind and support. I think that’s why it’s been so fun to watch him portray Allen on Remedy, especially this season.

I’m not sure if it was Remedy‘s showrunner, Greg Spottiswood, who deserves the credit, but demoting Allen to the emergency room was a masterstroke in storytelling. I referenced the long-running NBC medical drama ER in last week’s review and I’ll revisit it again by saying my favourite part of that show during the first season was seeing the ER through Dr. John Carter’s eyes. Now we’re getting that on Remedy with Allen.

“Blood and Guts,” written by Ellen Vanstone, spent a lot of Monday’s episode tracking Allen as he went through stages I’m sure all doctors do. He was viewed as a hero by the staff when he massaged the heart of a gunshot victim, got a kick to the ego when he accidentally put his finger (gulp!) through the guy’s heart, then was bucked back up again and feeling pretty good about life when the man made it through surgery. Because I care so much about Allen, I’m right there with him, laughing when his shoes get sprayed with puke, or worrying when he’s stressed over a mistake.

Weirdly, I just didn’t connect with Zoe’s storyline this week. It’s not that I don’t care about Zoe—I think she’s great for Griff and her back story makes my heart ache—but I wasn’t emotionally invested in her struggle over whether to help Leona or not. Maybe it’s just me, and I’d love it if readers let me know how they feel.

As for Griff, I couldn’t be any more pissed off at him right now. Back on drugs, he just couldn’t help but meddle in the life of Tommy because of his own issues with Allen. The fact he got in the father’s face was so over-the-top I wonder if that will come back to haunt him. I get that Griff is taking pills to numb the pain he’s feeling from Jayne’s death but come on man, get it together!

Finally, we all knew this was coming, didn’t we?

Remedy2

Yep, we did.

Notes and quotes

  • Enrico Colantoni is known most recently for his dramatic television work, but he’s got comic chops too. That short scene of him carrying the plant had me giggling like a fool.
  • “You gonna eat that or put it under your pillow?” Nice zinger from Sandy.
  • Kudos to the effects folks who made that human chest look so realistic, complete with spraying blood.
  • Those numbered coffee room mugs are cool. Anyone know where I can get some?

Remedy airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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Video: Are You Afraid of the Dark? reunion on ET Canada

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It’s been 15 years since Are You Afraid of the Dark? went, well, dark, but a generation of fans have been missing it ever since. Now ET Canada is bringing it back. Sort of.

Global’s primetime newsmagazine series kicks off Canadian TV Week with an Are You Afraid of the Dark? reunion. Sangita Patel sits down with former cast members Elisha Cuthbert, Ross Hull and Daniel Desanto to look back on what the super-spooky series meant to their lives and television careers. Dark‘s cast also included JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Rachel Blanchard, Vanessa Lengies, Jay Baruchel, Ajay Fry, Emily Hampshire, Jewel Staite, Gregory Smith and Aaron Ashmore.

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store on tonight’s instalment. Upcoming segments include Street Legal (Tue.), Danger Bay (Wed.) and Due South (Thur.).

ET Canada airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. ET on Global.

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Review: Relapses and regret on Remedy

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Back in 2000, an episode of ER shook me so much that I think about it every once in awhile. “Be Still My Heart” guest-starred David Krumholtz as a man who everyone brushed off in the ER. I felt dread during the first storyline, as Paul Sobriki (Krumholtz) showed signs of paranoia and instability and only Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) knew something was amiss. By the end of that first episode, Paul had killed Lucy and John Carter (Noah Wyle) was stabbed in the back and clinging to life.

I drew an immediate parallel between “Be Still My Heart” and “Playing Doctor Conner,” Monday’s latest episode of Remedy, not because of the violence but because of the growing dread and ultimate shock I felt by the end. Having Griffin re-trace the steps he took with Jayne Baugher (Christine Horne) mounted up the tension. Slow to build the relationship between them—both were once in med school and in both cases “complicated” situations surrounded their departures—by the time Griff presented her file, and the diagnosis she had sarcoidosis on the road to progressive fibrosis, they had established trust.

I knew things would end badly for Jayne, but I didn’t expect what came next. After leaving Jayne alone for minutes—I’ll get to that in a second—Griff returned to find her missing. Deciding she didn’t want to burden her family with a long, drawn-out descent into death and her own awful experience of drowning in her own lungs, Jayne cut her wrists and faded away as Griffin watched. It was a tragic scene both because of what Jayne had done and—ultimately—what it forced Griff to do. Rather than tell Zoe the pain he was feeling and hand over the painkillers Linda had surrendered, he popped two.

Speaking of Linda, “Playing Doctor Conner” marked the evolution of her character. She may be a cold-hearted bitch, but she’s deeply troubled as well. The fact Griffin kept her secret—he was meeting with her when Jayne made her fatal decision—will build their relationship and for that I’m glad. It’s always nice to have a one-dimensional character to hate, but I prefer them with some substance too. (Let us also acknowledge the performance by Raoul Bhaneja as Eric, Bethune’s lawyer. I’ve never wanted to punch a TV lawyer harder in the mouth, so kudos to Bhaneja for that.)

Almost lost in the shuffle were the other storylines of the night. Allen once again proved older is wiser when he was able to diagnose a man suffering from chronic neck pain, giving Cutler a much-needed comeuppance and education in listening to patients rather than rushing them out the door. And who else cheered Sandy when she told Mel to back off regarding hiring a nanny? Mel needs to focus on something else. Like maybe Dr. Stubble?

Notes and quotes

  • “I’m starving. We should order Chinese. You’re not veggie, are you?” Eric was trying to come off like a nice guy …
  • “I’ve always been an early riser.” TMI, Griff.
  • “This is Butch. Boot to the groin. You’re welcome.” Cutler is fitting in just fine.

Remedy airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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