"The Listener"
Two and a half stars
9 p.m. Thursday, WMAQ-Channel 5
By Paige Wiser, TV Critic
pwiser@suntimes.com
It may very well be that I am jealous because I don't have any special skills, aside from rudimentary baton twirling. "The Ghost Whisperer," "The Mentalist," "The Closer," "Medium," "Lie to Me" ... They all have some special gift. And they all use their powers for good.
It's getting a little old, isn't it?
Now meet Toby Logan. He can hear people's thoughts, and receives the occasional psychic cry for help. He tries not to eavesdrop on everyone, but as he explains, "When God hooks you up with free cable, you gotta think he expects you to do a little surfing."
He works as a paramedic - the better to save people, of course - and it's nice to see him use his telepathy to kiss up to the boss. But Toby keeps getting sucked into solving crimes.
Craig Olejnik, the Canadian who plays Toby, is down to earth and likably mumbly. His light blue eyes are so piercing you may forget that his special skill isn't X-ray vision. But he's supported by writing and characters that may induce eye-rolling.
Take this line, delivered by Colm Feore as Toby's mentor: "You don't have to read my mind to know that I'm worried about you."
And I challenge you not to be endlessly distracted by Lisa Marcos, who plays Charlie Marks - or "Detective Delicious," as the boys call her.
Oh, she can talk tough to criminals, all right. But it's hard to be intimidated when Charlie shows up in a mass of auburn ringlets, her eyebrow arches almost painfully plucked, wearing a red wife beater on the job. On the second episode, she went with another wildly inappropriate outfit, an ill-fitting bra and a side ponytail.
Is she hoping to jiggle the suspects into a confession?
The show has an eerie feel - lots of whispering in the background indicates the thoughts that Toby does his best to shut out. And there is an intriguing backstory about why Toby had to take on an assumed identity as a child. And what happened to his similarly gifted/cursed mom?
Overall, though, I'd say that listening to someone's thoughts is probably the easiest way to solve a crime. It's cheating. It almost makes you yearn for "Law & Order," where the cops stumble their way through a case by asking questions and collecting evidence. Poor saps.
This is the best show i have ever seen so why take it off of the air? I can't believe NBC would be as ill conceived as to thinking that it wasn't worth airing any longer. I hope that it is picked up by another channel so that I, and the many other viewers, can watch the rest of it. Maybe SY FY will pick it up? More commonly known as SCI FI. I hope the can find the room to pick it up because many people want to find out what happened to toby's mom.
how dare u not say that the listener is the most amazing show EVER! I LUV THAT TV SHOW AND I LIVE TO WATCH IT! TAKE IT BACK! IT IS THE BEST SHOW EVER!