Saving Hope


Saving Hope is a Canadian supernatural medical drama television series set in Toronto in the fictional Hospital Hope Zion. The series stars Erica Durance and Michael Shanks. The show's premise originated with Malcolm MacRury and Morwyn Brebner, who are both credited as creators and executive producers. Saving Hope aired on CTV for five seasons from June 7, 2012 to August 3, 2017, with the first season airing on NBC.

Plot

The protagonist of the show is Dr. Alex Reid, a doctor whose fiancé, Dr. Charles Harris, is in a coma after a car accident while on his way to their wedding. The show follows the life of Charlie in his comatose state and Alex dealing with her patients, all the while hoping that he will survive. Dr. Reid is the Chief Surgical Resident while Dr. Harris was the Chief of Surgery until his accident. Dr. Harris recovers at the end of season 1, but in subsequent seasons he continues to be able to see the spirits of comatose and dead patients.
The show also stars Dr. Joel Goran, an orthopedic surgeon and Alex's former lover. Reid also works alongside Dr. Shahir Hamza, a neurosurgeon, Dr. Maggie Lin, a third year surgical resident on rotation in the General Surgery department, Dr. Gavin Murphy, a psychiatry resident, Dr. Zachary Miller, the ER doctor, OR nurse Victor Reis, Dr. Tom Reycraft, Dr. Melanda Tolliver, and Dr. Dawn Bell, a cardiologist, who is Charlie's ex-wife.

Cast and characters

Main

The series premiered on June 7, 2012 on both CTV in Canada and NBC in the United States. On July 25, 2012, CTV ordered a second, 13 episode season for the summer of 2013. NBC, however, pulled the show's final two episodes from its broadcast schedule and made them available on their official website. On November 16, 2012, CTV announced they had increased their episode order for season 2 to eighteen episodes. On November 7, 2013, CTV ordered a third season of Saving Hope that consisted of eighteen episodes and aired in 2014. On November 10, 2014, CTV ordered a fourth season of Saving Hope that consisted of eighteen episodes, and premiered on September 24. 2015. On December 17, 2015, CTV ordered a fifth and final season of Saving Hope that consisted of 18 episodes.
In 2014, Ion Television announced that they had secured the American broadcast rights to the show.

Home Media

DVD TitleRegion 1Region 2
The Complete First SeasonJuly 1, 2016
May 21, 2013 		October 28, 2013
November 28, 2014
The Complete Second SeasonOctober 7, 2014 December 8, 2014
April 10, 2015
The Complete Third SeasonSeptember 13, 2016
February 9, 2016 		October 7, 2016
The Complete Fourth SeasonMarch 7, 2017
June 7, 2016 		N/A
The Complete Fifth SeasonOctober 24, 2017 N/A

Production

Conception

Malcolm MacRury and Morwyn Brebner devised the concept of the series. MacRury had previously co-created the comedy series Republic of Doyle for CBC, while Brebner had previously co-created television drama Rookie Blue for the Global Television Network. Canadian broadcaster CTV had picked up the pilot episode in November 2011. Executive producers of the show went to Los Angeles, California, to pitch the series to U.S. broadcasters. Their efforts convinced NBC to pick up the series for airing in the United States. CTV and NBC ordered 13 episodes for the first season.
The Los Angeles Times claimed that MacRury and Brebner are trying to "combine a doctors-in-love medical soap opera modeled on Grey's Anatomy with something completely different, a paranormal ghost story with elements of A Gifted Man and Ghost Whisperer. Principal photography for the pilot episode took place in Toronto, Ontario in the spring of 2011.

Reception

Ratings

In Canada, the premiere figures were the highest recorded for the summer season in 2012. The American premiere attracted 3.1 million viewers on NBC, which some critics were unimpressed with.

Reviews

Saving Hope received mixed reviews on Metacritic with a score of 49 out of 100 based on 15 critics' reviews. Verne Gay of Newsday stated the series "is modeled out of particularly sturdy, comfortable and reliable material." He added that it is "a sober, intelligent, placidly paced drama as only the Canadians can make." The Chicago Sun-Timess Lori Rackl said the series "has some fun, clever and emotion-stirring moments, but they’re handicapped by cheesy montages and one too many scenarios designed to remind us of the importance of having hope." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called Charlie Harris' "spirit walk" around the hospital "an interesting solution to the problem of telling stories we've seen a million times before. But doing it this way ultimately does more harm than good." He added: "It's not bad so much as tired." The San Francisco Chronicles David Wiegand called the series "a lukewarm stew of ideas from other shows... and films... with stock characters and situations that occasionally jerk a demi-tear or two, but with absolutely no authenticity. The sloppy sentimentality is cheap and unearned."

Broadcast

In September 2014, the U.S. television network Ion Television announced a partnership with eOne to have exclusive broadcast rights for current and future American television seasons. In Australia, the series premiered on SoHo on February 6, 2015.