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Herc Says No Viewer Need Eavesdrop On NBC’s THE LISTENER!!
I am – Hercules!!
A bland Canadian “Dead Zone” knock-off from writer-producer Michael Amo, “The Listener” follows a Toronto paramedic who secretly uses telepathy and clairvoyance to fight crime.
The resulting show is undistinguished, leaden and pedestrian, especially considering it’s about a guy with superpowers. “24” vet Colm Feore plays Toby the Listener’s mentor and confident, so not all the acting is bad, but lead Craig Olejnik is both pretty and pretty stiff, and the same can be said for Lisa Marcos, who plays his gorgeous cop adversary.
A piece of me wonders if NBC picked it up to make Matt Parkman and “Heroes” look a lot better by comparison (which it does).
You’re advised to switch over to sister channel USA for the far more entertaining “Royal Pains.”
Entertainment Weekly gives it an “C-minus” and says:
Finally, a convincing reason to move Jay Leno to 10 p.m. … This guy Toby the Listener wouldn't even qualify for NBC's Legion of Substitute Heroes.
USA Today says:
… even if The Listener were the only choice, this half-baked Canadian import still wouldn't be worth choosing. Badly acted and cheaply made …
The New York Times says:
… a ponderous exercise in the paranormal. … feels like late-night cable for an insomniac …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… It's a promising enough premise, if a bit silly, but it gets very muddy, very fast. …
The Chicago Sun-Times says:
… It's getting a little old, isn't it? …
The Washington Post says:
"The Listener" lists, and finally tips over. Except for some appealing qualities in its young star, Craig Olejnik, the new NBC series premiering tonight is just another loopy downer … Near the hour's end, Toby laments of his gift that "all my life I told myself . . . 'Make it go away,' " and many a viewer will be wishing the same thing for the series.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… lacks any of the requisite elements -- the charm of "The Mentalist," the characters of "CSI," the twisty stories of "Law & Order" -- that encourage viewers to come back for more. … That's the thing with procedurals: They must have a hook that's rooted in something more than a gimmick (e.g., telepathy); even some minor but noteworthy character elements would help. But "The Listener" is tone deaf to that need.
The Boston Herald says:
NBC gives us another excuse to close our borders: the Canadian import “The Listener,” a dumb drama that stretches a squib of a story across an hour. … When the mystery is finally explained, you’ll be left wondering - if you haven’t found the energy to hit the remote - why so many people would behave so stupidly. …
The Boston Globe says:
… a show so stunningly derivative that it feels a little bit insulting: They really think we have the bandwidth for another one of these? …
Variety says:
There's nothing wrong with U.S. networks picking up the occasional Canadian import, but to have a chance at working, such a show can't be as bland and colorless as "The Listener" … …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… a serviceable supernatural drama with legitimate narrative potential that's undercut by its visually bland presentation and geographically nonspecific execution. … the kind of stock procedural that can only be described with such words as "solid" and "workable," and it can't really be liked or disliked. It's anywhere and nowhere.
9 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
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Galactica: The Complete Series
Galactica: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
The New Book From The Guy Behind THE WRATH OF KHAN, THE VOYAGE HOME And THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY!!
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What a garbage show...
Being from canada i have no problem saying that anything produced up here has a 90% chance of total suckage. hah. -
will work well with ghost whisper and medium type crowds. Not that i watch those programs.. but i recognise that people do.
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and just managed to make it there.
Blah. -
*He smells your guilt
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Nicholas Meyer wrote a book about directing "Trek II" and "Trek VI?!?!?!?" Probably the first thing I've ever pre-ordered through a website link. You should really, really make this a top story or something if you want to start banking Amazon cash. I had no idea such a book was coming and goddamn, if I'll bet it will be awesome. Beyond directing, Meyer's just a great, great screenwriter, so I'd imagine his storytelling here will be fabu (though isn't the word that he pretty much just hangs in Malibu and listens to film soundtracks all day while typing and has kind of turned his back on all that Hollywood bullshit?).
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It sound so dumb I am surprised it was taken itself seriously.
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Like, this guy can discern perspiration and knows you're, like, lying. Or something like that.
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Antonio Banderas' reading of a line from The 13th Warrior. When asked how he learned the Viking's language, he replies, shouting: "I LEES-END!"
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Flared. His nostrils know.
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That's a solid rule for Canadian TV. I mean if w a show grabs 25 thousand viewers and is called a "huge hit" then you should really just avoid our TV shows all together. I'm looking at you Little Bigoted Mosque on the Racist Prairie (whitey is dumb haha!).
Canadian TV sucks because the people green lighting stuff are still coasting the 'success' of Beachcombers. -
all over it
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Heroes ripped off pretty much everything else
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You know you want it!
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Show sounds terrible. USA stations should have brought over Corner Gas during the last strike (when they brought over Flashpoint). That show was way funnier than 95% of American sitcoms from that season. Seriously, can anyone out there sit through a whole episode of 2 and a half men? That show is horrible, yet it is the number one sitcom.
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(why all seasons are not on DVD is a shame)Never had a chance to see
"The Newsroom" in full but the couple of episodes I did catch were great. "Slings & Arrows" is quite funny too. -
One of the few things I regret about moving South: no Red Green on PBS down here.
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like "Four on the Floor" and "The Kids in the Hall".
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Twitch City, The Newsroom, old Counterstrike (well, it was cheesy as hell, but I grew up watching it).... not much else.
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Twitch City was great. Less Than Kind is a newer canadian show that is wonderful, plus i did enjoy a lot about the defunct jPod. this Listener show, however, is complete crap
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shows, why not show something that is actually good, like 'ReGenesis'?
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The show looks silly as hell, but I will give them props for having it take place in Toronto instead of filming it there and pretending it is a American city somewhere.
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Need I remind everyone that "Dead Zone" was a Canadian movie?
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...next time you open your lazy mouth try watching some Canadian TV. There are plenty of good examples given above.
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If NBC buys a show about a psychic working mom who talks and acts like she's permanently on Valium, why can't we sell them another, cheaper, crappier version?!
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Once in a while we actually make a good show. The latter seasons of DaVinci. The latter seasons of Cold Squad. Corner Gas. Friday The 13th: The Series (my personal choice for a BSG style revamp). Heck, I'd love to see a remake of Seeing Things with Jason Alexander as Lou Ciccone - he's got the George Costanza rant chops to pull it off.
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Our national Canadian newspaper thinks it sucks ass too!
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Hehe. I couldn't resist
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It actually does take place in Toronto. Just caught a few seconds of a random episode on Space (not sure if it was the pilot or what), and was surprised to see shots of the CN Tower and such. Watch them edit all of that stuff out for you guys in the US
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What am I ignorant of? Every show mentioned aside from Kids in the Hall (minus the last two seasons) sucks or sucked. You're just a stupid fuck with no taste or ability to recognize originality and quality.
Pull your head out of your ass. btw BSG is only shot in Canada. So is Supernatural. They're both amazing but NOT Canadian. The Newsroom was that old fart whats his name coming back to Canada after failing to make it in American TV. Didn't know that? Yup...that fat fuck who did Coner Gas (sucked!!!!) also couldn't make the cut in America. Canadian TV sucks. You can't argue it. -
it does indeed, suck. Coming from someone who admittedly thought it was cool seeing a slick CSI-styled Yonge Street
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I wanna see her in that suit goddammit!
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its really bland, but good for canadian tv.
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...Jimmy Fallon on Late Night.
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and she knows fuck all about TV. Poor thing.
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"Plodding"
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But Canadian tv isn't all that bad. Regenesis, Flash Point, Gas corner are much better as 80% of the present US-shows. But then when I think again... 80% of all US-shows is garbage.....
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saw commercials on local stations and it just screamed canadian made, had that cheap look our tvs have. but then i saw commercials on NBC or whoever is airing it in america and thought it might be american afterall. but yeah it does look cheap. canada must use cheap cameras and film or something because all our tv shows look crappy, regardless if the show is actually good.
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Fuck any new show they have...Heroes is the worst...I won't rant again like I did when they canceled Life but seriously, the execs. over there deserve a day in Harry's pants w/his sweaty balls...
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So, appearing in less than one half of a full season of a show makes you a "veteran"?
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This guy can sniff out farts a mile away, and get the killer.
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...but that filmed in Toronto, shot by CTV cameras, looks like every other Toronto show, jaundiced look. Like there's some contract between CTV, the city and the camera company.
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Although Kenny vs Spenny can be good for a few laughs now and then.
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wish puppets who kill was still around bill the ventriloquist dummy was hilarious
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