Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ Season 2 On The CW, Where Maggie Debates Staying In Timberlake As Sully Gets Bad Health News

Last year, The CW landed the Canadian comfort food show Sullivan’s Crossing , based on Robyn Carr’s novel series , and it was one of the few series on the revamped “netlet” to garner online buzz. It’s from the same producers as the Netflix hit Virgin River , which is also based on a Carr novel series, and the two shows have much the same vibe. What’s in store for its second season?

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Opening Shot: After a montage summarizing Season 1, we see Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan running into a hospital’s emergency room.

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The Gist: Maggie had just gotten word that her father, Harry “Sully” Sullivan (Scott Patterson) was found unconscious in his bedroom. It turns out that he had a stroke, meaning that Maggie, who was about to start a new job in Boston, is going to be staying in Timberlake, Nova Scotia for awhile longer.

Sometime later, Sully is on the mend, and Maggie is making plans to go back to Boston, not just for the job, but to restarting things with her former boyfriend Andrew (Allan Hawco), who also is the father of the child she’s secretly carrying. But she runs into Cal Jones (Chad Michael Murray) in the hospital, who still wants to know why she left town just as things between the two of them were getting serious. He then left town when she came back, leaving a note for her with Lola (Amalia Williamson), who worked for Sully at Sullivan’s Crossing; Maggie never got the note.

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Sully’s doctor is concerned with some memory loss and other symptoms that have become evident during his recovery and wants further tests. This, of course, keeps her in Timberlake even longer, though the neurosurgeon has doubts about the local’s doctor’s need for more tests. In the meantime, she gets advice from Frank and Edna Cranebear (Tom Jackson, Andrea Menard), who own the campground with Sully, and have no idea that they’re being foreclosed upon.

She also tells Cal that going back to Boston and Andrew is the best thing for her, even though she says it unconvincingly. But then Sully’s tests come back, giving Maggie even worse news about her father than she imagined.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Given the Robyn Carr connection and the fact that the production team between the two shows overlaps, it’s not a stretch to say that Sullivan’s Crossing and Virgin River are spiritual cousins.

Our Take: Sullivan’s Crossing continues to be a warm bath of a TV series, with fine acting couched in leisurely storytelling and folk guitar on the soundtrack. In its second season, it feels a bit more lived-in than the first, mainly because Maggie is more entrenched in the world she left decades prior, but there does seem to be higher stakes involved, not the least of which is Sully’s health issues.

Patterson is an ace at playing grumpy guys with heart, as Sully is basically a sixtysomething version of Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls . But it seems that creator Roma Roth has given him a bit more of an acting challenge with Sully’s diagnosis. There’s going to be anger and frustration combined with helplessness as Maggie and Sully manage his new normal. It’ll be interesting to see just how that is approached as Maggie inevitably moves back home for good to take care of him.

The rest of the show feels like pretty standard romantic series stuff. Will Maggie choose between the boring but dependable Andrew or the hot “bad boy” Cal? What will become of Sullivan’s Crossing given Sully’s health and financial issues? How much more sage advice will Frank give everyone?

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, aside from Sydney Shandon (Lindura) coming out of the shower in a towel and seeing her new roommate take of his shirt.

Parting Shot: After Maggie finds out what’s going on with Sully, she hears shouting outside the doctor’s office and sees exactly what the noise is about.

Sleeper Star: Tom Jackson’s performance as Frank makes the character more than just the usual sage Indigenous person in the cast of characters.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a subplot where Sully stands up for his hospital roommate, who is in a lot of pain from a broken hip but isn’t getting the care he needs. It’s a good indication of Sully’s empathy, but it’s kind of an overdone way to set up the fact that the hospital is understaffed and will easily bring Maggie on when she inevitably sticks around (though we’re not sure how her medical license can be carried over from the US to Canada).

Our Call: STREAM IT. In a lot of ways, Season 2 of Sullivan’s Crossing has more of the same stuff that we saw in Season 1. And for a show like this, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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