12. Murdoch Night in Canada

[Lucy]

Murdoch probes the death of the Toronto hockey team captain.

[hannikan]

Here is more info: "In the penultimate episode of series five, an argument after a hockey practice leads to team captain Archie Simpson being knocked out by Eddie Driscoll, a bombastic and popular new player. Though he wakes from unconsciousness, he's later found dead in the locker room. Murdoch, Constable Higgins and Dr Grace examine the body of Simpson, who died from head injuries likely sustained in the fight. Dr Grace is surprised, and none too pleased, that the player sharing details on the argument is her former fiancé, Jerome Bradley who proves very happy to see her again."

[catymurdoch]

Again an other one with Emily Grace having quite a big role in it because her ex fiance is around to bug her. It was not my cup of tea, I suppose and I will have to rewatch it , may be!!! because I recorded it first and watched it too late and I kind of fell asleep while watching it. I suppose, with what I recall seing , it was ok.
I liked all the George scenes, he is such a nice guy but it is really annoying when they concentrate on Emily Grace at the morgue. I missed seing Julia again. Season 5 has been really irritating and extremely disjointed with so little Julia.
I hope next week episode will make up for Julia's absence during all season 5. I hope she is in the next one full time and helping William on a case because she is so bored and can't stand being around Darcy anymore. I hope she will tell William that her and Darcy don't live together anymore and that she moved out. Then, she is free to spend all her time on the Murdoch cases with William.

[petunia]

A small bit of information on the title. Hockey night in Canada which currently runs on CBC is probably the longest running TV show on canadian TV. It started as a radio show in the 1930s and was one of the first TV broadcast in Canada. It currently features a very colourful commentator. I am wondering if Murdoch night in Canada will have a bit of a spoof on it. Even though Julia is not in this episode, I am quite looking forward to it due to the hockey theme.

[hannikan]

^ Do you think Don Cherry will appear? His fashion would be a little avant garde for the Victorians I'm looking forward to watching it once this crazy principal calls me back!! I've been waiting since 2:30 to get a call back for this phone interview. I've left messages. It was already rescheduled once due to him forgetting the time before. If I wasn't so desperate I wouldn't even consider it. I know he's the only on site admin and is swamped but Good Lord! I'm supposed to be going in tomorrow for a panel interview and lesson demo but I have to find out the details for that, too!

[catymurdoch]

Good luck Hannikan for tomorrow.

[CosmicCavalcade]

well, what can i say about this ep?

Was it interesting? Not really. but then again, i don't like sports much. so i'm probably biased in that regard. but at least i didn't fall asleep like Caty. ;D

Was it predictable? yes and no. but i did think it was rather obvious that he was probably wearing skates at the time of the murder if he used a hockey stick to kill Simpson and it was only a half hour after the practice. Strange that it took until the end for Murdoch to figure this out.

Was it funny? yes. There were several funny moments, pretty much all in relation to George. my personal fav was when he appeared out of nowhere, from the rafters no less (and yeah, i get that he didn't actually), to attack that guy. didn't know George's ninja spy moves were quite so good.
The end scene was pretty good cuz they were like little kids on the street.

Was it dramatic? I guess, but all the stuff with Emily's ex was rather over the top. what a psycho. what happens when he gets released? I had actually been hoping that she would fall for him again and get married and then leave the show. but apparently the writers are hell bent on having her end up with George, even though i think there's less than zero chemistry between the actors.

Is it worth watching again? Probably not. At least, i doubt i ever will.

Anyways, the cherry on top was when it said Harper was the inspiration for this episode. I went, "Oh that explains everything." Not only is he a bad politician but he's ruining one of my fav shows. Thanks a bunch, sir.

And I'm very wary of next ep but at least Julia will be in it. can't believe the whole season is almost over already.

[hannikan]

Murdoch Night in Canada was a really fun episode. And I'm not a sports' fan either but my husband is so I caught a lot of the jokes. I loved the jokes about "it'll never catch on in America" and about paying the players. I'm sure that was a big issue then as regional sports' teams were beginning to get more popular as spectator events. It was also really fun to see Cedric Smith from Road to Avonlea as the hockey owner. And his granddaughter's name was Felicity, like his daughter on RTA! That was a nice inside joke for fans of both shows. Dr. Grace's ex was very creepy, which was kind of an interesting sub plot. It was interesting to find out she comes form a working class background. I wouldn't have thought that originally. Maybe we'll get some more back story on her with regard to that. George was her hero like William has been for several ladies. It was interesting to see another side of Giles. It was fun to see them all play hockey at the end of the episode, too. I thought it was funny when the carriage came through, they yelled "carriage" and had to pick up their street hockey net like people playing do when cars pass. I have to say I'm really apprehensive about the finale. I hope it doesn't turn out to be something ridiculous.

[catymurdoch]

I shall watch it again then. I think I missed to many scenes.

[hannikan]

Someone pointed out that the part with moving the net was probably a Wayne's World reference. I didn't catch that but I'm sure that's true. Wayne and Garth play street hockey in part of the movie. Mike Myers is Canadian and a big hockey fan. I just remembered something else for RTA fans. Cedric played the Avonlea Avengers coach in that show's hockey episode. I guess he moved up from coach to owner.

This is totally off topic but I've noticed that Dr. Grace never seems to check the stomach contents of the deceased except with the snake. Julia spent so much time with that so I noticed it. I wonder if Bradley will show up again as a stalker. That could be an on going plot for her if the character sticks around. It was interesting to get just a bit of George's past, too. Driscoll said "the best man won." Based on his and George's facial expressions, he was referring to beating George in the past for Lydia's affections. But now that he has cheated on her she may come looking to rekindle something with George. I wonder whether she followed Driscoll to Pittsburgh or if she stayed behind in Toronto.

[catymurdoch]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that Lydia. I thought she was a nice lady. I feel sorry for her with her stupid husband. George was right to step in and warn Murdoch and Thomas that Driscoll was a dishonest man . I must now just watch that episode again.
I suppose I don't understand anything about Hockey, therefore it didn't appeal to me. Let's give it another try.

If I remember , Julia didn't check the stomach content once and William was not very happy. It was in shade of grey, if I remember because she didn't want William to keep investigating Doctor Nash.! Emily 'd better check the stomach content if she wants to keep her job.

Something else I noticed. Has William any power on Emily's job? because when he turned up at the morgue and saw her with her former lover, he was really angry and told her off big time because she was bending the rules . A suspect should never be allowed at the morgue, so he said!!. Does it mean that he could have her fired if he wanted too or not?! I am just wondering!

[murdochic]

Such a shame S5 went back to being mediocre and boring. The crime was a yawnfest, and the Emily subplot was a case of 'who cares'. Emily isn't ingrained enough in the show to get a massive subplot to herself, it didn't help expand her character and she came off as a cold fish. George rescuing was a boringly predictable way of making them a romance. Stop just stop. They seriously have no chemistry, infact George had more chemistry with those hockey sticks.

I was hoping last weeks episode was a sign S5 had finally gotten good. I didn't expect Julia in this so that's not why I didn't like it. as I really liked Murdoch at the Opera without her. I just didn't find the episode interesting at all crime wise or main character wise, except the cute hockey game at the end.

The rest was them trying to make Emily seem three dimensional. It's not really working though is it? I don't quite know what the problem is but she still doesn't fit in. Higgins feels more a part of the show that her and he only got one scene. I don't know what they can do to make her seem part of the dynamic, they need to really think of a good way before S6 if she's sticking around as we can't have another series of her being shoehorned into things. One more complaint, why wasn't Higgins in the hockey game? he should have been there and I was sorry not to see him. He needs his role expanded in S6.

[hannikan]

I wondered why Higgins wasn't playing hockey with them at the end, too! Maybe the actor wasn't available when they filmed that scene. I read the guy who plays Constable Whorsley (the redhead) has played a hockey player in several movies. William's reactions to the fanaticism of the game were pretty priceless. I don't think you have to know much about the game, just about the scope of professional teams in general, to think they were funny. I don't think William would try to get Emily fired over that incident where Bradley showed up in the morgue. It was very clear she was trying to get him out of there and if he'd talked to her further he would have seen that. Esp once he found out what happened later. Oh yes and apparently the dog they showed at the end is one of Yannick Bisson's dogs.

[barbarama]

I won't say much about this episode but I did like some parts.

I did like the pumpkin bit even if it reminded me of the watermelon scene from season 1. I did like the fact that they play at the end, that was fun.

Also Giles is really on Murdoch and Brackenreid case about what happened last season, however it is consistent to his character that he holds a grudge after all they did break the law.

Now regarding the Dr.Grace storyline; at the beginning of the story about her getting out of a marriage I thought to myself (she had the courage of doing the thing Julia didn't do) but the difference is that as far as I know Darcy is not a crazy stalker like the one we saw in this episode. As of Emily, she seemed affected by the situation but she again seemed (to me anyway) very cold during the episode, I really try to get attached to her but so far to no avail.

Now for the main story, I only went to 1 hockey game in my life when I was living in Montreal and i really enjoyed the ambiance in the stadium because it is Canada #1 sport but I just couldn't get interested in the game so I can say that I didn't get interested in that part of the episode as well.

I would say I am a little disappointed by this episode because since episode 6 the stories have been getting better and better and last week's one was outstanding and I feel that with this one we are back to the beginning of the season with episodes such as 3 or 4 that I really didn't care much for.

I am also anxious for next week episode as it is the last of the season and I hope I won't get frustrated at the end of it (how are they going to resolve W/J/D issue? what will be the deal with the time travel? etc...) I don't mind that the finale leaves us with question(s) as long as I won't want to scrap my hair waiting for January and season 6

[CosmicCavalcade]

They seriously have no chemistry, infact George had more chemistry with those hockey sticks.

ahaha! totally agree! ;D

This is totally off topic but I've noticed that Dr. Grace never seems to check the stomach contents of the deceased

gah! now that you mention it, this is gonna bother me a whole lot! well, it's possible that she has been checking it but it's had no relevance to any of the cases so they didn't bother having her say anything about it?

I did like the pumpkin bit even if it reminded me of the watermelon scene from season 1.

lol, yes, i was like, "Watermelon scene much?" they even had the whole debate on whether they'd be crouching or not. Yet somehow didn't seem to think about wearing skates at all.

Also Giles is really on Murdoch and Brackenreid case about what happened last season, however it is consistent to his character that he holds a grudge after all they did break the law.

yeah, this might be consistent but it's super annoying! EVERY time they show his character, he's always rubbing it in that he knows what they did but just can't prove it. it's getting to be rather tiresome, even if he's only had a few scenes this season.