Third-episode verdict: Satisfaction (CTV)

10 July 2013 Rob Buckley Canadian TV, TV reviews 2 Comments
The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 2

In Canada: Mondays, 8pm, CTV

Time for a third-episode verdict on CTV’s latest sitcom, Satisfaction, in which three twentysomethings – a couple (Luke Macfarlane and Leah Renee) and his old college room-mate (Ryan Belleville) – who all live together in one flat end up going through all kinds of wacky twentysomething dilemmas.

And surprisingly, three episodes in, as we found with the first episode, it’s still quite funny. Yes, it’s attachment to the situation in ‘sitcom’ is still negligible, preferring to just give us loosely connected funny incidents. Yes, it has a roster of stereotypical ‘freaks’ to support the main, normal cast. And yes, it’s not going to win any awards for the subtlety of acting.

But despite all that, it’s actually pretty good, garnering a pretty good laugh quotient each episode with absurdity and the occasional piece of well observed satire, including last week’s fake TV programme, The Horse Doctor, and this week’s “guy who gave up his job saving the world so he could become a hipster who designs fonts because it’s more meaningful”. It has some good lines, the characters are reasonably fleshed out and likable (although could do with some development), and it can even be quite clever

Give it a go.

Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Should get another season, assuming CTV doesn’t cut back its original programming budget again

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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