TV/Movies Megathread

[Valmy]

It only went one season

Ah well shouldn't be too hard to find now that I know the name.  This will be the most Canadian thing I have ever done, and once I drank a Molson while watching Hockey at Tim Horton's.

[viper37]

It only went one season

Ah well shouldn't be too hard to find now that I know the name.  This will be the most Canadian thing I have ever done, and once I drank a Molson while watching Hockey at Tim Horton's.

if you do find it, let me know.

[viper37]

I don't understand why a Canadian show would have to be Canada-free to sell internationally.

Because most Americans will think of it as a science-fiction show, in some strange new land they never heard of? 

[Malthus]

And they do - some production companies are quite skilled at producing shows that strip any hint that they were made in Canada from the screen in order to sell them into the US and world market (think Flashpoint, Rookie Blue, Motive).  But because they're designed to look like American shows, it's hard to think of them as "Canadian" tv shows.

Never heard of any of those, but then again I don't really watch TV.

I don't understand why a Canadian show would have to be Canada-free to sell internationally.

I don't know why - it's just the way it is.

I can't really think of a single Canadian show that was even a minor hit in the US that made a point of putting the setting in Canada.

Apparently, Murdoch Mysteries is an international hit show - here's an article lamenting that fact (the author is sad more people aren't watching the more "edgy" show Strange Empire) - and it very recognizably Canadian - its plots play on the fact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/can-the-dark-strange-empire-ever-touch-the-success-of-cozy-murdoch/article21500089/

[Barrister]

It only went one season

Ah well shouldn't be too hard to find now that I know the name.  This will be the most Canadian thing I have ever done, and once I drank a Molson while watching Hockey at Tim Horton's.

How were you drinking a beer at a coffee shop?

[Barrister]

And they do - some production companies are quite skilled at producing shows that strip any hint that they were made in Canada from the screen in order to sell them into the US and world market (think Flashpoint, Rookie Blue, Motive).  But because they're designed to look like American shows, it's hard to think of them as "Canadian" tv shows.

Never heard of any of those, but then again I don't really watch TV.

I don't understand why a Canadian show would have to be Canada-free to sell internationally.

I don't know why - it's just the way it is.

I can't really think of a single Canadian show that was even a minor hit in the US that made a point of putting the setting in Canada.

Apparently, Murdoch Mysteries is an international hit show - here's an article lamenting that fact (the author is sad more people aren't watching the more "edgy" show Strange Empire) - and it very recognizably Canadian - its plots play on the fact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/can-the-dark-strange-empire-ever-touch-the-success-of-cozy-murdoch/article21500089/

Your article doesn't say anything about Murdoch being an international hit.  It doesn't even use the word international at all.

[Grey Fox]

It only went one season

Ah well shouldn't be too hard to find now that I know the name.  This will be the most Canadian thing I have ever done, and once I drank a Molson while watching Hockey at Tim Horton's.

Of 39 episodes! D'iberville didn't do THAT much to warrant a 80 episodes run, even in 1968.

[Malthus]

And they do - some production companies are quite skilled at producing shows that strip any hint that they were made in Canada from the screen in order to sell them into the US and world market (think Flashpoint, Rookie Blue, Motive).  But because they're designed to look like American shows, it's hard to think of them as "Canadian" tv shows.

Never heard of any of those, but then again I don't really watch TV.

I don't understand why a Canadian show would have to be Canada-free to sell internationally.

I don't know why - it's just the way it is.

I can't really think of a single Canadian show that was even a minor hit in the US that made a point of putting the setting in Canada.

Apparently, Murdoch Mysteries is an international hit show - here's an article lamenting that fact (the author is sad more people aren't watching the more "edgy" show Strange Empire) - and it very recognizably Canadian - its plots play on the fact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/can-the-dark-strange-empire-ever-touch-the-success-of-cozy-murdoch/article21500089/

Your article doesn't say anything about Murdoch being an international hit.  It doesn't even use the word international at all.

It is described as a "Canadian calling card abroad" and a  "success" for airing in "109 foreign countries".

The series is also a Canadian calling card abroad: It airs in 109 foreign countries, which helps cover its costs. Can the much more dramatically ambitious Strange Empire ever hope to touch this kind of success?

[Valmy]

How were you drinking a beer at a coffee shop?

I had to wash the taste of their coffee out of my mouth

[Barrister]

And they do - some production companies are quite skilled at producing shows that strip any hint that they were made in Canada from the screen in order to sell them into the US and world market (think Flashpoint, Rookie Blue, Motive).  But because they're designed to look like American shows, it's hard to think of them as "Canadian" tv shows.

Never heard of any of those, but then again I don't really watch TV.

I don't understand why a Canadian show would have to be Canada-free to sell internationally.

I don't know why - it's just the way it is.

I can't really think of a single Canadian show that was even a minor hit in the US that made a point of putting the setting in Canada.

Apparently, Murdoch Mysteries is an international hit show - here's an article lamenting that fact (the author is sad more people aren't watching the more "edgy" show Strange Empire) - and it very recognizably Canadian - its plots play on the fact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/can-the-dark-strange-empire-ever-touch-the-success-of-cozy-murdoch/article21500089/

Your article doesn't say anything about Murdoch being an international hit.  It doesn't even use the word international at all.

It is described as a "Canadian calling card abroad" and a  "success" for airing in "109 foreign countries".

The series is also a Canadian calling card abroad: It airs in 109 foreign countries, which helps cover its costs. Can the much more dramatically ambitious Strange Empire ever hope to touch this kind of success?

Point conceded.

[Eddie Teach]

I can't really think of a single Canadian show that was even a minor hit in the US that made a point of putting the setting in Canada.

Forever Knight may not have been a 'hit' but it lasted a while.

[Malthus]

Point conceded.

The Globe article, though, epitomizes why Canadian TV so often sucks (I mean, beyond simply being a small market) - it is that it listens to critics like this.

Now, I haven't seen "Strange Empire", and it may be wonderful for all I know. However, it is clear that the critics (and there are more than one with this opinion) love the show because it is "edgy" and features "cutting edge" issues of racism and sexism as part of the "complex and ironic" plots. The contrast, lamented in the article, is with Murdoch, which is merely consistently entertaining and funny (here derided as "cozy").

The contrast is between making shows that Canadians ought to like, and making shows Canadians do like. If even Canadians don't find the show entertaining, why on earth would people in other countries? 

[Admiral Yi]

Critics can't determine a market if they are out of touch with consumers.  Maybe the problem is that Canadians as a whole have shitty taste.

[celedhring]

Murphy's Mysteries is on the Catalan telly every afternoon. My mother loves it.

What was that Canadian show with the hot sucubbus girl and the whole underworld of mythical characters? I used to watch that one, plenty of hot chicks.

EDIT: Lost Girl it was called.

[Queequeg]

You guys are crack heads.  Independence Day is Mars Attack! played straight.

Sort of.  That whole 'computer virus for alien computers' was hard to take seriously.

I took it as a homage to War of the Worlds, where a real virus kills the aliens at the end; this is the "modern age version" where a computer virus kills the aliens. The whole film is full with homages/ripoffs to other alien flicks.

Yep. And also who cares? It does its job.

That's always my first point in why people who notice plot holes just shouldn't watch films

Honestly my main complaint is that most of the aesthetic for the Aliens is lifted from better movies and indistinguishable from Stargate.