By April MacIntyre Jun 4, 2009, 1:59 GMT
"The Listener" features actor Craig Olejnik as Toby Logan, a telepathic EMT with a Dickensian past, and like HBO's Sookie of "True Blood" fame, he is inundated by the ambient thoughts of everyone.
A tad distracting when you are trying to focus on saving lives and getting about your day.
On a recent phone interview, Olejnik noted the difficulty in keeping his character from being swamped with input, "Like most people dealing with my own thoughts is room enough, there’s barely enough room in my head for my own. So this guy’s got a lot of thoughts, a lot of images, a lot of everything else that doesn’t necessarily need to be there. It’s the mental - it’s the sanity I think would be the down part of it all. If you can’t control what comes in then it could be an unenjoyable place to be," shared Olejnek.
"The Listener" has already aired in Canada where it was produced, and is a nice part for Nova Scotia native Craig Olejnik, who plays Toby with enough subtlety about him that fits the nature of this role well.
For me it was network drama at its most average pace, with fairly predictable story lines and outcomes. No vampire sex here.
The premise is centered on Toby who hides his gift, especially from an irksome character played by Lisa Marcos, Detective Marks, who snarls at Toby every happenstance meeting. This is one of those cases where you don't know if it is the fault of the writing or the capabilities of the actor, but there needs to be a defter hand in both her scripted words and action here.
Toby cruises the scene with his pragmatic partner Oz Bey, played with a nice touch (and perfect chemistry) by Ennis Esmer, and he is shadowed by his Svengali of sorts, Dr. Ray Mercer (Colm Feore) who helps him fine tune his telepathic powers. Only two episodes to "review" gave me enough of an inkling that there is much more to Toby's past and their connection, almost an X-Men feel, and the mystery of Toby's similarly "blessed" mother who is seen in brief flashbacks will be revealed at some point.
The show is stylish, lensed well and the crafts departments do respectable work in bringing this show to life. Sandra Kybartas, the production designer, who is working with art director Armando Sgrignuoli and set decorator Andrew Kawczynski, have done excellent collaborative work that looks a lot richer than what I am sure was a tight budget. Not easy to accomplish.
It would be nice to see more fleshing out of the other female character, Toby's flirt, - the hot-cold E.R. doctor/ex-girlfriend Olivia Fawcett (Mylène Dinh-Robic) who is either being done a disservice by the script or is lacking in something to make the sparks fly; again, this is a tough show for the women.
"The Listener" was developed by award-winning Shaftesbury Films and Canadian broadcaster CTV and produced in association with CTV, FIC and NBC.
This series will be the last drama to air at 10 p.m. Thursdays on NBC for a very long time, as Leno takes that spot in the fall.
The Listener preview courtesy of NBC
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