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In Canada: CTV. No airdate yet
In the UK: Sundays, 8pm, FX
In the US: Thursdays, 10pm, NBC. Starts June 4

This is all very bizarre.

Firstly, The Listener is a Canadian TV show about a guy who can read minds. What is it about Canada and mind-reading, particularly mind-readers with really odd blue eyes? There’s Scanners back in the 80s, with Stephen “Appropriately Named” Lack cast really only on the grounds of his odd eyes rather than acting ability; now we have this, starring Craig Olejnik, which looks like it’s Serbian or something for “has really odd blue eyes”.

So that’s bizarreness one.

Bizarreness two is that despite being a Canadian TV show, The Listener‘s been picked up by NBC for primetime airing over the summer in the US. NBC showing foreign shows in primetime? Blimey. It’s like the world has stopped turning on its axis and taken us back to the 1960s – it’s even bought in the BBC’s Merlin of all things, too. Still, that’s cost savings for you. TV drama: very, very expensive to make these days.

Bizarreness three is that despite being a Canadian TV show, it’s not being shown in Canada until later in the year. Instead, Fox International is showing it in 180 other countries, including the UK, first – a move that seems to have worked a treat in terms of ratings.

That last one was actually bizarreness five. Shall we have a look at the show itself to see why?

Continue reading “Review: The Listener 1×1”