Saving Me is a Canadian-American Science Fiction Animated Sitcom created by New York Times bestselling science-fiction author Aaron Johnston, who is most famous for his work on Ender's Game with Orson Scott Card. The show’s production was handled by Montreal-based animation studio Sphere Animation, with international distribution handled by Canadian kids' TV juggernaut WildBrain.
In the far future of Star City, 61-year-old Gadgeteer Genius Bennett Bramble has become the greatest tech mogul on the planet. But even despite his success, wealth, power, and genius, he is ultimately a lonely and unhappy man. To become who he is, he had sacrificed all his relationships and shown no kindness or care for anyone around him, not even his family. Now, he has nobody beside him except for his faithful Robot Buddy EDEE 34. And in the twilight years of his life, Bennett regrets his behavior and wishes he could have done better.
But there is hope. While Bennett hasn't mastered time travel, he has recently developed the next best thing — a machine that will project him into the mind of his 11-year-old self and communicate with him. This past Bennett is already a Child Prodigy, a promising young inventor who has already built the first version of EDEE but is held back by his self-centered and dismissive attitude towards his family. While the younger Bennett is initially skeptical of his future self, the two managed to form a partnership, with the older Bennett serving as The Conscience to his younger self (who is the only able to see the future Bennett's projection).
Together, the two Bennetts work to build a better future for themselves. Putting their technological genius together, Bennett does his best to mend and improve his relationships with his parents Mark and Carla, his older brother Liam, and his younger sister Sophie, often making use of various inventions of his own creation to try and solve problems. But his prideful stubbornness and lack of experience, combined with the older Bennett's jaded surliness and inexperience with being the better person, naturally lead to all kinds of trouble. But in the end, both Bennetts will find ways to make things work out while also picking up a few lessons and a newfound appreciation for their family along the way.
The series debuted on October 1, 2022 on BYUtv in the United States as the channel's first original animated series, later arriving to Family Channel in Canada on March 15, 2023. A second season also debuted that same month on BYUtv. You can watch the show for free on the BYUtv app or just by clicking on this link.
This series provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Star City is depicted as this, with drones and holograms being a part of everyday life for many. However, it's not so far into the future as to have technology as advanced as that housed in The Vault.
- Action Mom: Carla Bramble is quite handy in a fight, being a DGS Guardian, dealing with whatever mayhem the Bennets accidentally cause in a given episode, and contending with the occasional hostile alien.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In one episode, Young Bennett builds a robot to appeal to his friend's interests, only for it to imprison said friends and hack a weather satellite in order to bring about an ice age. In another episode, Bennett's AI political candidate somewhat predictably decides humans can't be trusted and tries to take over. Thankfully averted in the case of EDEE and his successors.
- Alternate Timeline: Some quick throwaway lines in a few early episodes suggest Old Bennett's Mental Time Travel creates this whenever he's guiding his younger self (thus avoiding any potential Grandfather Paradox the premise could create). This is supported by how his timeline mostly remains the same whenever he returns (the main difference being simply him having learned something from his adventure). However, in later episodes, he also ends up creating more of these when his advice to his past self goes awry, including one where he's a successful chocolatier and another where he ended up marrying Penelope Snodgrass. Naturally, such episodes see him attempt to return to his original future.
- Berserk Button: Three of Future Bennett's are the words, 'moist', 'mayonnaise', and 'ointment'.
- Brutal Honesty: EDEE 34 comes in two modes - Brutal Honesty and Optimistic. Old Bennett switches him between modes depending on what he needs to hear, but sometimes, EDEE exhibits both modes at once.
- Cliffhanger: Both seasons actually.
- Season 1's finale, "Rebel with a Cause", ends with The Reveal that Carla is the Mystery Soldier and Young Bennett discovering the secret rooftop elevator to The Vault.
- The second season finale, "The Vault", ends on an even bigger one. Old Bennett Bramble has become disillusioned with his goal of going back in time to give his younger self advice on how to fix their lives because of all the new problems he created because of the changes to the timeline, despite the progress he's been making. Meanwhile, Young Bennett, despite being warned to trust his parents about the secret elevator in their room, decides to try to get into the elevator; his parents catch him, and he tells them he has some questions.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: Due to tampering with the past. Future Bennett returns to a timeline where he created a chocolate factory not unlike Willy Wonka's, complete with scaled-down EDEE 34's with Oompaa Loompa color scheme. They even try to sing a moral like the Oompa Loompas.
- Child Prodigy: Young Bennett is only 11-years-old, but already a brilliant inventor who has already constructed his own Robot Buddy. His rival Penelope Snodgrass is pretty similar, although she definitely has some help from her father already owning a tech company.
- The Conscience: Old Bennett is essentially trying to be this to his younger self. While he's somewhat inexperienced in guiding other people to do good by his own admission, he manages to make it work nonetheless.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Reginald Snodgrass, who is interested in locating the origins of the technologies from The Vault for his own ends. He owns numerous properties around Star City, including the school the kids attend and is always interested in acquiring more to increase his wealth and power. Old Bennett reveals in "Genius at Work" that it was his internship with Snodgrass technology company that helped him begin his climb to success and power.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Bennett Bramble is a tragic deconstruction of the Child Prodigy. On paper, he's a genius prodigy with a bright future ahead of him. Bennett comes from a good family with loving parents who care about him and an older brother and younger sister who love him, and he will become one of the world's most successful and influential men. But in his old age, he's burned bridges with his friends and family and became one of the world's most hated and lonely old men. Bennett is very regretful about where his life went, and he made a time machine to change his fate; he went back to his younger self to guide himself into being a better person. And as we see the younger version of Bennett Bramble, we see that he's a good enough kid who does love his friends and family; he's also selfish and inconsiderate, causing him to neglect his family and be selfish with his friends. And from what we can take from the comments from Bennett's little sister Sophie and his friend Nira, it's rare for him to be overly affectionate with his friends and family. And it's not that he's trying to be cruel to his family and friends. It's just that he's not considerate of them and takes them for granted. This shows that a kid like Bennett Bramble may be a prodigy and may have a bright future, but without someone to guide him into being a better person, his genius will cause his negative traits to increase, which would eventually cause his relationship with his friends and family to deteriorate leaving him alone and bitter as an adult. Showing that a child prodigy is still a child in need of guidance so that he can learn from right and wrong and be a better person as an adult.
- The Federation: Season 2 reveals the DGS is affiliated with one, the Inter-Galactic Alliance. They use Earth as a top-secret storage facility for all their weapons and technology, counting on the humans to keep it secure and Earth's relatively primitive status to ensure it remains unnoticed by their enemies.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The Season 2 premier "Grounded" sees Young Bennett perform this with his friend Nira to sneak out and get parts to rebuild Edee. Notably, the episode averts the mental voices trope, with Nira and Bennett still talking like their usual selves. Also important to note that since this is a mind swap, Old Bennett's mental projection is swapped over to accompany Young Bennett in Nira's body as well.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Whether old or young, Bennett Bramble is a master inventor who has developed countless technologies.
- Gone Horribly Right: The two Bennetts invent an anti-fear helmet to remove Sophie's fear of the monster in her closet. They end up making her so fearless she charges into open traffic and tries to take down a group of thieves despite being only armed with a bat. And that's just the first episode!
- Good Parents: Carla and Mark Bramble do their best for their three kids and do their best to encourage them while also finding time to bond with them and even going Mama Bear or Papa Wolf when they're threatened.
- Great Offscreen War: As season 2 reveals, the Inter-Galactic Alliance, whom Earth is secretly allied with, has been at war with a hostile alien race that's been rampaging across the universe known as the Gundrene, for an indeterminate amount of time.
- Grumpy Old Man: Old Bennett tends to be rather surly and jaded, especially when he interacts with his younger self.
- Happily Married: Mark and Carla are very consistently shown to have a strong relationship with each other and they're still very much passionate for each other.
- Implausible Hair Color: Bennett's baby sister Sophie has pink hair.
- In Spite of a Nail: No matter what alterations Old Bennett accidentally creates in the timeline, his mental projection time machine is always present and he always lives in the tallest building in Star City.
- Intangible Time Travel: Old Bennett's usage of projecting his mind into the past is effectively this. He can float and phase through walls, but the only person able to communicate with him is his younger self.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In an example of Character Development, Young Bennett starts the series off as a Jerkass Insufferable Genius, but thanks to Old Bennett's efforts, he eventually becomes this. While still stubborn and short-tempered throughout the show, he grows to become more caring and grateful towards others, especially his family.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: As a mental projection, Old Bennett is able to transport his younger self into a mindscape of sorts, but in the episode "Mind Trip", both Bennetts head into the deeper parts of Bennett's psyche to find memories involving their mother to make a Mother's Day present.
- Lonely at the Top: The entire premise of the show is that Bennett in the future becomes one of the wealthiest and most powerful men on Earth, but in the process, he ostracized everyone he was every close to until he was all alone with only EDEE 34 as a companion.— Past Bennett: One day when I'm at the top, I'll make something really amazing. (Future Bennett appears)— Future Bennett: Yeah, well here's a dose of reality, kid: The top ain't great.
- Only Friend: EDEE 34 to Old Bennett. His Optimistic and Brutal Honesty modes allow him to always give Bennett exactly what he needs to hear.
- The Men in Black: Mark and Carla secretly work for an organization called the DGS, which works to safeguard alien artifacts for The Federation.
- Mental Time Travel: This is how Old Bennett's time machine works. He can't interact with his surroundings as a result, but he can speak with his past self and bring the two of them into a mindscape if he wills it.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
- In the second episode of season 1, Bennett builds a robotic ninja moose for his brother Liam... for context. It's related to a game Liam likes to stream about a ninja moose. That ninja moose is not a robot, however.
- In the season one finale, a robot-vampire-dentist is created to draw out the Mystery Soldier.
- Noodle Incident: While it's easy to assume Future Bennett simply broke apart from his family over time due to his selfish behavior, he often hints at a major incident that forever destroyed his ties with his parents and siblings. Understandably, he really doesn't want to talk about it.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In "Man's Best Friend's Enemy", Old Bennett explains that changes in the timeline do not alter his memory when Young Bennett asks him why he simply can't remember how the events of episodes play out.
- Robot Buddy: EDEE-1 for Young Bennett, and the improved EDEE-34 who's Future Bennett's only friend.
- Samus Is a Girl: Upon Bennett hearing about and witnessing a mysterious, voiceless Super-Soldier in blue in a flying suit who saved his and various additional lives, he does some investigating on the soldier and assumes that the person behind the mask is a man. Turns out the man behind the mask is actually a woman... and his own mother, no less!
- Secret Government Warehouse: The DGS's primary objective is to protect the Vault, a storage facility filled with all manner of alien artifacts from The Federation — backups of alien DNA, alien weapons and technology, dangerous alien flora and fauna, you name it.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Old Bennett's motivation for using time travel to help his younger self become a better person, as in his present, he's completely miserable and alone.
- Ship Tease: Penelope Snodgrass and Young Bennett, to the point that in a possible future, Future Bennett is married to Future Penelope.
- Show Within a Show: An in-universe show called "Unicorn Commandos" is popular with the Bramble kids, and used by Old Bennet to help illustrate the moral of the episode to Young Bennett.
- Shout-Out:
- In the first episode, Young Bennett speculates that his older self came back in time to protect him from robot assassins from the future... sound familiar?
- When Liam does his Moose Ninja walkthroughs, he uses a moose hand puppet that voices in roughly the same manner as Bullwinkle J. Moose.
- Due to tampering with the past. Future Bennet returns to a timeline where he created a chocolate factory not unlike Willy Wonka's, complete with scaled-down EDEE 34's with Oompaa Loompa color scheme. They even try to sing a moral like the Oompa Loompa's.
- Time Travel: Not literally, it's more like Quantum Leap where Old Bennett appears as a quasi-holographic mental projection to Young Bennett.
- Wham Shot: The end of the first episode reveals that Mr. Bramble works for a secret government agency. And at the end of the last episode of the season, we learn in earnest that the Mystery Soldier is Carla, his wife!
