Canadian TV

An archive of blog entries about Canadian TV programmes and production

Thursday’s “In Treatment re-treatment” news

31 March 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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Canadian TV

Review: Good Dog 1×1

28 March 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

Good Dog

In Canada: Sundays, 8pm ET/MT, HBO Canada

Never let it be said that “What have you been watching this week?” has no effect. Last Friday, MoreTears pointed out that a new Canadian show called Good Dog had escaped my notice (I was on holiday when it started, to be fair) and I should give it a try. Well, I have, so here’s a review of the first episode at least.

Now Ken Finkleman is probably a name you won’t know unless you’re Canadian. Amongst other things, he was the creator of CBC’s The Newsroom, which first aired in 1996 and was revived nearly a decade later in 2004. A sort of cross between Larry Sanders, The Office and Drop the Dead Donkey, The Newsroom was a darkly satirical show looking at TV news broadcasting and starred Finkleman as a slightly mild-mannered TV producer called George.

Well, George is back – although this might be a different George altogether, even if he is played by Ken Finkleman and is a TV producer who’s obsessed with ratings – in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hang on, it’s not Curb Your Enthusiasm. Maybe it’s Lead Balloon?

Because we have here something that’s suspiciously like both – so suspiciously, that most of the first episode is about how similar the show is to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Because we’re in meta-land here.

See, George the TV producer has this great idea for a reality TV show in which he and his 30-year-old model girlfriend (Lauren Lee Smith – Riley from one season of CSI, as well as things such as The Listener and Mutant X) are the stars. It’ll follow him and her around, doing their thing. And that’s about the extent of his idea.

As a result, the network is worried. They don’t even live together, so how’s that going to work? Of course, she can’t move in because she has kids and he hates kids, which makes the network worry their relationship won’t last. So to get the show on the road, George proposes to his girlfriend and she – and her kids, her dog, her Austrian nanny and her furniture – all move in.

That causes George all manner of grumbles.

If you’re in Canada, you can watch some clips of it over here, but if you’re not, here’s Ken Finkleman talking about the news for 15 minutes, instead.

Continue reading “Review: Good Dog 1×1”

Canadian TV

Review: Endgame 1×1-1×2

23 March 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Endgame

In Canada: Mondays, 10pm ET/PT, Showcase

“If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an arm-chair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived.” – Sherlock Holmes describing Mycroft Holmes in The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter

It seems that no matter where you go in North America, more and more cable channels (and even Netflix) are reckoning that the key to getting good ratings and making money is to actually make TV programmes rather than simply air re-runs. HBO, Showtime, AMC, Starz: they’re all at it.

Canada’s no different and with CBC currently suffering budget cuts everywhere (and churning out crud like InSecurity instead of The Border ), we have to look to lovely subscription TV to find bolder attempts at quality TV.

Showcase, which has been having a brave stab at quality (with varying degrees of success) with the likes Lost Girl, Blackstone, Moderation Town, Cra$h & Burn and Haven, has now waded into the problematic world of detectives. I say problematic because there have been so many detective shows already. As a result, detectives in TV shows need to have quirks to stand out from all the others – that’s the law. Everyone knows that.

So we’ve had fat detectives, thin detectives, gourmet sandwich-eating detectives, 80s-TV obsessed detectives, detectives with OCD, working class detectives, upper class detectives, detectives that live on house boats with their robots (Riptide, in case you couldn’t place it), detective brothers and more. But generally they’ve all had one thing in common: they actually want to solve crimes. Okay, maybe not Jonathan Creek, but everyone else, largely yes.

So let’s add to this mix a very unique detective: Arkady Balagan, a Russian chess grandmaster with agoraphobia. He can’t leave his hotel so wanders around in his pyjamas and dressing gown all day. He’s also a bit of an a-hole – is that why the KGB have been trying to kill him? But because he needs to pay his hotel bills, he starts solving crimes to claim the reward money rather than because of any sense of altruism.

And he turns out to be quite good at it.

Cue the trailers, one with a particularly funky bit of music, one with a bit more explanation.


Continue reading “Review: Endgame 1×1-1×2”

Question of the week: what do you think of TV at the moment?

16 March 2011 Rob Buckley 19 Comments

So I’m going to assume that you all watch TV still, this being completely the wrong blog to come to you if you’re not. But how are you finding TV at the moment?

I’m finding it harder and harder to summon up enthusiasm for current TV programmes. This isn’t nostalgia for the “good old days”, since the vast majority of old TV shows were rubbish – that’s why I try to give you the cream of the crop. It’s just I’m not enjoying TV as much as I did a few years ago, and I’m not sure why.

Now US cable TV is largely getting better and better all the time, even while mainstream US TV is getting worse and worse – this year’s season has been packed with some indescribably bad turkeys, with no real break-out show on any network. The mid-season replacements haven’t done anything to improve the situation either, with just Shameless, Portlandia and the US version of Being Human catching my interest this season (all cable shows). A few have distinctly come off the boil (Royal Pains, 30 Rock, Burn Notice, Southland, House, Stargate Universe and Chuck, to name but a few, the latter of which is starting to resemble old episodes of Relic Hunter in quality). That just leaves the likes of Community, Archer and Modern Family to really maintain my interest at the moment.

British TV is proving similarly unappealing. While there’s no doubt some great stuff out there, it lasts for all of three episodes before disappearing and every time I tune in to watch something new, it turns out to suck. Being Human (no spoilers please, I’m two episodes behind) has been dreadful this season, Outcasts was painful. I haven’t managed to get through Mad Dogs or Bedlam. I’m still stuck on episode two of The Killing, which is actually really good TV, and they’re up to episode 16 at the moment.

It’s reached the point where reading The Age of Innocence and watching movies is proving more interesting than TV. Now this might be a temporary blip, since there are some appealing pilots on the horizon. But am I getting old or are you finding TV similarly unappealing at the moment?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog

Tuesday’s The Sandman goeth news

15 March 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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