There are plenty of sci-fi TV shows made up in Canada. The Stargate series comes out of Vancouver -- as does Fringe. There's a proud ongoing fantasy tradition deeply rooted up there.
But, the city's local newspaper insists the best show in production in Canada's Pacific Southwest isn't on broadcast TV. It's a web series called Riese. The Steampunk-themed action series is set in another time in the kingdom of Eleysia. The title character (Christine Chatelain) battles through the countryside with a wolf avenging the death of her family.
She's fighting off a crazed, fundamentalist religious group -- the Sect. So, you can set your watch by how long the tunnel-vision crew over at Big Hollywood jumps on Riese as some sort of attack on traditional religion. (It's not.)
The candy manufacturers had better watch out, because as Halloween is approaching, TV shows have been coming up with their own candies, inspired by some of the more colorful, interesting characters. Take a look at this list, and see which are treats and which are tricks. And, listen, tell us what kind of candy your favorite TV characters might inspire!
8. How I Met Your Mother - Robin Scherbatsky's Canadian corn
Oh, Canada. Slutty pumpkins aside, Robin had to convince her American friends that Canada not only celebrates Halloween, but Canadian corn is the best Halloween candy ever. That's right, Canadian corn. It's like candy corn, only it's orange on the top and white on the bottom. It also tastes like pancakes because it isn't made with corn syrup; it's made with maple syrup.
I'm not familiar with the Canadian sub shop chain Mr. Sub, but their new commercial is rather interesting. It features a husband and wife who have several children, and one night at dinner the husband has a big announcement to make.
Sure, it's a shocking announcement, but this guy is all about family values. I mean, the entire family is at the dinner table at the same time. You don't see that much nowadays.
[via Adfreak]
There's a battle right now over President Obama's plans for healthcare, but the battle isn't going to be as funny as this one between Daily Show correspondents Samantha Bee, John Oliver, and Wyatt Cenac (well, it might be as funny, but in a sad, shake-your-head sort of way). I never want to see back-testicles ever again. (Video also here.)
Variety has an article up about how many of the TV pilots are fleeing L.A. to film in other locations such as New York and Canada. Could this be the start of a bigger trend? Is Hollywood losing its grip on the entertainment industry?
Obviously, the biggest factor is cost. At first, the expense of filming in New York City didn't quite compute with me, then I read about the 30% tax credit given by the state, along with an additional 5% for filming within the city.
Americans might be running out of money, steady jobs and patience, but Canadians are dealing with an equally depressing depletion.
And no, it's not beer. A shortage of Canadian beer would be a blessing, not a curse.
Variety reports that the land of milk and hockey is low on laughs because the CTV network hasn't produced a new hit sitcom that has won the nation's maple syrup pumping hearts.
In what may be the biggest foray of an entertainer into politics since Governor Schwarzenegger and President Reagan, William Shatner is eyeing the office of Canada's Prime Minister. The odds are that this idea he put forth in a letter will never gestate into truth, but wouldn't it be cool if it did? Canada would be led by Captain Kirk. Talk about major bragging rights. I know I'd be jealous.
I love that he declined the role of Governor General in Canada because he feels he'd be a better Prime Minister. It's typical Shatner to only want the top spot. That's what made him such an iconic starship captain.
Seriously, it's not a bad idea. Boston Legal is done. Chris Pine is taking over the role that made him famous. Priceline.com can only film so many commercials. The man has a lot of spare time on his hands. I say go for it.
I didn't even realize that Fringe was filmed in New York City. Maybe because the show is set around but not filmed in the Boston area and is a little X-Files-ish, I always assumed that it was either filmed in California or in Vancouver, the way The X-Files did for most of their run. Now it looks like the show really is going there.
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that for the show's second season (if it has one, which is a good bet), the show will move to Vancouver and film there, because of the production costs. Seems the program for getting shows to film in New York proved to be more popular than they thought it would be and they've run out of money.
At what point do these competitive reality television series become ridiculous? Alex Trebek has been tapped to host a new Canadian television series called Canada's Next Prime Minister. The premise of the show being that a panel of former Prime Ministers will pick the next one. The CBC has already sold the show's format to the BBC.
Obviously, it won't be too long before we see America's Next President on some channel (my guess would be Fox) with a panel of judges consisting of Bill Clinton, (the late) Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George W.
Is it me, or does this seem to trivialize the office of leadership to a country? On the other hand, it seems that running for political office is a bit of a circus anyway. Perhaps electoral processes should be handled this way from now on.
I don't see how the winner of this competition would actually become Prime Minister as a result of the "victory". Of course, television creates fame so maybe the person will announce his/her candidacy shortly thereafter.
UPDATE - just for clarification, the show doesn't pick the ACTUAL next Prime Minister of Canada, but rather young people who would be good candidates for the position based on the judges' opinions.
One of the most frustrating things of blogging about US TV series is the fact that I can't watch episodes or most of the webisodes on the official network sites because I live in Canada. I can't even have access to content on Hulu and the like because of International Internet laws (or lack thereof) and distribution rights issues. I don't know all the legalities behind this but I find it weird that on my basic cable set up I have access to US-based channels for all major networks (except The CW) and yet, I can't access the full content of US-based network websites.
Since I've started blogging here on TV Squad, I've read many comments from international readers saying that they can't watch episodes or videos we embedded in our posts. It's irritating to follow a link to a video and see "This episode is currently only available to viewers living in the United States." Therefore, I researched the web to find websites where Canadians could watch US TV series online and in all legality (of course, people in the US can watch episodes online at AOL TV, Hulu, etc.).
Here is a list of "Canadians welcomed" websites that stream US TV shows. You can thank me later.
If you are not a Canadian, you probably didn't know we had federal elections in mid-October. However, Canadians know very well the U.S. election is going on right now and that the vote is today since we are neighbors and because American economy affects Canada's.
This past year, and especially since Obama and McCain really started to campaign a few weeks ago, the news airing on Canadian TV stations have all included some type of coverage and updates about the U.S. elections. Some of the 24-hour news stations even had special shows that lasted hours, for example, during the first presidential debate, to update us on the goings-on of the American election. So it's no surprise if that there is some sort of U.S. election coverage on Canadian TV channels tonight.
Why should Flashpoint get a break while an interesting, quirky and outside-the-box drama like Swingtown may not? It's disheartening to me that CBS is searching for a cable network to take Swingtown, while a "safe" crime show like Flashpoint doesn't have that concern.
As someone who owns their comedy album Great White North (pictured) as well as their movie Strange Brew, this is exciting news. The characters are pretty much timeless since their humor never depended on a particular era. They only depended on Canadian clichés.
Dave Thomas talks live in the preview and notes that due to their advancing age, Bob and Doug work best nowadays in animated form. Based on the preview, the series looks like it would be perfect for Adult Swim (are you listening Cartoon Network?).
(S03E16) Bless the peapickin' little hearts of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. All week, they've been setting us up, telling us about the return of Robin Sparkles, saying that we were going to get an episode full of eighties and nineties goodness, complete with James Van Der Beek, Tiffany, and Alan Thicke. We even got a video (full video is after the end of the review) as a taste.
But all of it was a ruse. A week-long ruse to distract us from realizing what was really going to happen in this episode. Since I don't want to spoil it for anyone, come with me to the after-jump portion of our review and then we can talk.
Since the JAG series finale, many fans have been waiting for David James Elliott to return to TV. The actor eventually did when he landed the role of James Conlon in the CBS series Close to Home. His stay on the show was cut short when the series was canceled at the end of its second season (DJE appeared in 22 episodes of the series). Since then, the actor vanished from the small screen and fans have been patiently waiting (and watching reruns of JAG) for his return. But fans can now rejoice as Elliott returns to TV this week. The catch? It airs on a Canadian network!
There are plenty of sci-fi TV shows made up in Canada. The Stargate series comes out of Vancouver -- as does Fringe. There's a proud ongoing fantasy tradition deeply rooted up there.
Variety has an article up about how many of the TV pilots 
Americans might be running out of money, steady jobs and patience, but Canadians are dealing with an equally depressing depletion. 
In what may be the biggest foray of an entertainer into politics since Governor Schwarzenegger and President Reagan, 
I didn't even realize that Fringe was filmed in New York City. Maybe because the show is set around but not filmed in the Boston area and is a little X-Files-ish, I always assumed that it was either filmed in California or in Vancouver, the way The X-Files did for most of their run. Now it looks like the show really is going there.
At what point do these competitive reality television series become ridiculous? Alex Trebek has been 
All right, let me say this up front and without equivocation: if CBS picks up Flashpoint and cancels Swingtown, I'm going to be ticked off. I'm not down on Flashpoint. 
There was talk of this years ago but it looks like Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas 
(S03E16) Bless the peapickin' little hearts of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. All week, they've been setting us up, telling us about the return of Robin Sparkles, saying that we were going to get an episode full of eighties and nineties goodness, complete with James Van Der Beek, Tiffany, and Alan Thicke. We even 
Since the JAG series finale, many fans have been waiting for 
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Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
