Friday, June 28, 2019

Canada Sitcom Update

YESTERDAY HERE I mentioned I was, for the first time, going to give Canadian sitcoms a try. I haven't really even heard of any Canadian sitcoms until stumbling into Marc Maron's podcast yesterday with Brent Butt, who created/wrote/starred in Corner Gas, Canada's most popular sitcom ever. According to him, Canadians mostly just watched American tv. Here's my review of the three I watched:

CORNER GAS - fantastic. The scenery & sarcasm are intoxicating. The characters are just sraight-up funny, and the show enjoys setting up tropes as early as possible to become running gags. Will definitely keep watching this.

NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW - Some funny moments, but way too zany for me. One of the guys was subtly funny, the other was just too much to take. One episode is enough.

WORKIN' MOMS - funny, plus I've always had a massive crush on the main star Catherine Reitman, who also created/wrote the show. The only thing is, there's nothing about it that even remotely hints at it being set in Canada. It could pretty much be in any city in America. And Reitman was born and raised in LA, so....anyway, pretty funny, will definitely keep watching.

Of course when I say I've never watched Canadian tv I'm only partially correct. I got hooked on The Red Green Show while living in Oxford in the mid-90's. From Canadian PBS, Red is a "handyman" who usually resorts to fixing everything with duct tape, "the handyman's secret weapon." Or sometimes he calls it "the universal adaptor." Here's a great clip, enjoy.

No comments: