Hollywood out / Canada in
The writer’s strike that’s put pretty much every television show on your viewing schedule on hiatus getting you down? Well fear not, there’s always Canadian television. Typically a four syllable word “Canadian” television no longer equals terrible.
For the most part.
Starting tonight is The Border on CBC [cbc], which is about an elite team of border agents the Immigration and Customs Security Squad (ICS). Shades of CSI? Spend a few minutes on the official site and it’s hard not to shake the overall slickness of the show which is a hallmark of the CSI franchise.
Tomorrow night, also on the CBC, is the premier of jPod [cbc] the err…. sitcom based on Douglas Coupland’s novel of the same name. We mentioned this a few months ago [mbv] and I still have the book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, but it seems to be infused with the whimsical quirkiness that pervades pretty much everything Coupland does. It’s that sort of willful uniqueness that people either embrace whole heartedly or hate with a passion of a million burning suns. How much of that personality will make it into the show remains to be seen, though the CBC generally is better towards creators than Hollywood networks.
Also coming from the CBC this week is Sophie, which looks like a show about attractive quirky people sleeping with each other. Friends without Central Perk.
On Friday is the start of MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives [cbc], a show about hockey wives. This is a Canadianization of a popular show type from England the best example of which is Footballer’s Wives [fbw]. Essentially blond women and fit young men sleep with each other in a game of musical beds until someone dies of a drug overdose.
Who said everything on television in the UK was a genius comedy hit like The Office or Extras?
Of course we should not forget the king of Canadian television drama Degrassi: The Next Generation [ctv]. Beloved both by Kevin Smith and generations of Canadians the show isn’t just a teaching aid for safe sex, it’s a smart teen drama that shames me for my secret love of The O.C.
So if we want our comedy and drama doses over the next few months, we’ll have to start thanking the Liberals for keeping Can-Con requirements. Otherwise I’m sure Global [gtv] will have something from down south, a show about stars dancing with hobos or something. That is unless the ICS stops the show at the border.
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You gotta be kidding me! The Liberals have never done much to enforce any type of CanCon quota (the Green Party, for example, calls for mandatory 60% Canadian content, a proposal that I, for one, fully support).
I’d like to have more domestic content (like British TV), but the Liberals, my friend, have done precious little in that respect.
I am all for Canadian content.
Werner:
When the Green Party get into power and starts governing we can thank them for their 60% Can-Con rules. Until then what little we do have, and what CBC funding there still is, is mostly thanks to the Liberals. Certainly if you’re picking between then and the Tories, the lesser of two evils, the Grits win out.
Has enough been done? No. I’d actually like to see Can-Con extended to theatres, forcing a theatre to play at least 10% Canadian produced films. But when we do get good Canadian television it’s really hard to credit the Green Party for it.
I’m all for the type of TV tax like they have in the UK. Helps sponsor all that fantastic programming.
I enjoyed the Jpod premier. It was pretty solid for CBC primetime, in terms of writing and budget.
I have the jPod premier recorded, I just haven’t had a chance to watch it. I saw a bit of it, it had Allan Thicke in it, which does worry me. I mean where has he been since the ’80s?
Up to no good, I’d imagine.