>>PREVIEW
WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING ALONE
Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.
CBC
WHISTLER
Sundays at 9:30 p.m.
CTV
Man, how I long for the days when amateur talent searches were relegated to high school gymnasiums and community centers. Well now, thanks to the runaway ratings success of American Idol, they’re a primetime fixture on all of the major networks. The One (ABC & CBC), Rockstar: Supernova (CBS), Canadian Idol (CTV), So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) – how many purported "star-making" vehicles do we really need?
The most unwelcome new entry in the talent search genre has to be America’s Got Talent (NBC). Regis Philbin presides over a competition series where animal acts, precocious kids belting out show tunes and, seemingly, every whack job with some semblance of a novelty act can take to the stage.
Fortunately, our two major Canadian networks have each developed shows that are fresh, engrossing and, more importantly, not frigging vocal competition.
CBC’s What it’s Like Being Alone is a darkly comic and innovative stop-motion animation series that takes viewers inside the Gurney Orphanage, a ramshackle haven for some truly bizarre characters. Amongst others, there’s a mute Cyclops with much love in his heart, an alcoholic fish boy, a terminally depressed goth female and a self-assured, grey clump of clay with lethal flatulence known as Princess Lucy.
The princess is a truly ingenious comedic creation. She’s a shameless self-promoter that keeps bouncing up no matter how often life kicks her in the face. In a hilarious episode titled "Do Orphans Dream of Electric Parents," Lucy deals with her jealousy of another orphan’s robot parents by creating a potato mommy and daddy that selflessly see to her every need.
What It’s Like is lovably twisted and laugh-out-loud funny. Here’s hoping the show is extended past its initial 13-episode run.
Over at CTV, the ambitious primetime soap series, Whistler, which debuted in late June, has been renewed. Set in the upscale Whistler ski-resort community, this show went Twin Peaks in episode one by opening with the discovery of a high-profile corpse. The dead dude turns out to be flamboyant Olympic Snowboarding gold medalist Beck McKaye (David Paetkau). Shortly after Beck’s body is buried, his younger brother Quinn (Jesse Moss) does some amateur sleuthing and quickly uncovers a blackmail plot that may have heralded his famous sibling’s demise.
The slowly unfolding mystery is just one of the ongoing dramatic threads Whistler has going for it. There’s also the professional and romantic misadventures of Nicole Miller (Holly Dignard), a headstrong beauty who is determined to do what it takes to take care of both herself and her troubled younger sister Carrie (Amanda Crew).
Whistler is far from high art. Much of the dialogue is overly clever and contrived, and some of the characters seem particularly one-note. Still, the show does its job. It creates a dramatic web that viewers can easily get caught up in. The unusual storytelling decision to have the late Beck McKaye cryptically and frequently reappear to his little brother is a solid one. The series can also be pretty sexy, as an early season elevator make-out fantasy scene amply proved.
Whistler, like What It’s Like Being Alone, is proudly-rendered, homegrown product that serves as a vital alternative to the current flood of made-in-the-USA reality-show shit. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.