Why does Canadian tv suck?

Ascension is excellent brah

Oh really, then why is it never discussed on this board?

I like Heartland

Continuum, Flashpoint and Saving Hope are good.

OP, why are you obsessed with Canadian TV shows not focusing their plots on the fact that they are Canadian?

Are you an Aspie?

Fuck, if you don't like the show just don't fucking watch it idiot.

It costs money to produce television programmes and Canadian broadcasters are loathe to spend the money. So, they do it on the cheap. The CBC has had funding cut for decades, so there is no money there. The private broadcasters exist to make money by simulcasting American television shows substituting Canadian commercials for revenue. When CTV began, the American Broadcasting Company attempted several times to make CTV a duplicate service of ABC with Canadian commercials. (Most of CTV's early imports were from ABC in the United States.) The BBG and later the CRTC wouldn't permit ABC to control CTV's programming.

One broadcaster lamented that Canadian content programmes were the price television stations had to pay to operate in Canada.

Canada?

We need a fence up there too.

Yes, we do

Well I'm the "I went to university there" troll.....So I think it's the fact that the government is so involved in everything that's broadcast. There's a million little rules they have to follow. So many characters have to be women or minorities. Along with the production staff. They have to make sure that a certain amount of the writers and other creative staff are Canadian. Plus the Canadians are just a bland, boring, people. Except for Quebec their whole raison d'être seems to be not offending anyone.

They are allowed to play a certain amount of content that is from the states. It always amused me how many of my Canadian friends would think a show made in the states was actually Canadian. The only shows that generated any buzz were American content. Getting your hands on blackmarket US content DVDS was a hobby of most.

What's even worse is the radio had to play a certain amount of Canadian content too.

Is Damian filmed in Canada?

I've noticed some of the supporting actors are so bland.

Canadian writing is too bland and safe.

[quote] It always amused me how many of my Canadian friends would think a show made in the states was actually Canadian.

I don't believe this for a second.

I kid you not. They thought much of the American content was Canadian. I even had one of them tell me "I shop at Sears because I know it's Canadian store."

Sears was a big employer in Canada. But I don't believe Canadians would think American shows were produced in Canada.

Okay, I've seen it exactly ONCE. When that show Passions first started I heard Canadians say it was so bad and amateurish that they thought it was Canadian.

You're full of shit.

Why would I be so full of shit over something so ridiculously unimportant? It's the fucking truth you can believe it or not. I didn't really care. I didn't go to Canada for the scintillating intellect. Since I'm not one either. I just loved the outdoor recreation there. It was great. The rents in Quebec City were dirt cheap. I got to live in a near mansion right near Plage-Jacques-Cartier. It was an awesome time. But if you don't believe what I'm telling you then just ignore my fucking posts. Who gives a shit.

Here's another funny story. There was this big fat redheaded bitch from Toronto. She hated the United States. She used to give me this lecture all the time about how evil we were. One night she was giving me the what for then stopped right in the middle of soliloquy on the great Satan America and said "Oh I've got to run. Friends is on and I don't want to miss any of it."

Orphan Black is a Canadian show. Murdoch is apparently very popular in Britain. Bob and Margaret was also very popular.

SC-TV, Kids in the Hall, Flashpoint. There are some quasi-professional Canadian shows.

DeGrassi Junior High has traveled the whole world as THE classic teen thing.

is Canada Lame or What?

A)Yes!

B) Yeah

PAX (remember that network?) aired a couple of Canadian shows in prime time - and then the network rebranded. MVP, the show about a gay hockey player, aired on Logo for awhile. But Love it Or List it seems to be the most popular Canadian import although they try very hard to mask that it's a Canadian show.

R15 is a nut.

Pax is now Ion and airs a lot of Canadian TV...Flahpoint, Saving Hope, The Listener come to mind.

I watch Motive

The Artful Detective is soooo bad that I have to watch it.

The only Canadian show that I ever truly enjoyed was Kids In The Hall.

Quite a few HGTV shows are Canadian productions.

I liked Codco as well.

At least it isn't Trumpland. yet.

The Listener was an actual Canadian TV show that was picked up by NBC for a few episodes. It was pretty good so I didn't realize at first that it was Canadian, taking place in Canada.

This Canadian movie will restore your faith.

I really enjoyed the Canadian-produced series "The L.A. Complex." It was run as a summer series on The CW (two seasons in one) back in 2012. Simply put, it was about "Six young hopefuls search for stardom in Los Angeles by day and crash at the less-than-luxurious Deluxe Suites Motel ("The Lux") by night."

And it wasn't good just because of the Kal & Tariq gay love story within. I enjoyed most of the characters and set ups.

Someone has compiled all of the Kal & Tariq story on youtube in one video.

Andra Fuller who played closeted rap artist, Kaldrick King, should be a star.

Same with Flashpoint and CBS, r30. I think NBC tried Saving Hope for a bit too.

Is that cop show Rookie Blue a Canadian show, a lot of the actors come off as very Canadian.

R33:

Yes...

It used to be a summer block of Canadian fare on abc along with Motive.

Mrs. D is funny. Comedian Gerry Dee plays a teacher who's not ver good at teaching or life itself. I recommend giving it a try.

Several USA based shows have been filmed/taped in Vancouver and Toronto. Maybe that's what OP or his classmates meant and he or they couldn't articulate it.

R18 I would consider Degrassi one of it's most important exports.

I meant "Mr. D".

R14=hyper sensitive Cannuck.

I love "Trailer Park Boys." It's really funny.

Because Canadians suck? Just a thought.

The male to female ratio is something like 5:1 do that would make sense.

Schitts Creek is really well done- pokes fun at Canadians/townies in a clever way

Where can I watch these shows?

r20 and r26 are correct, the Canadians produce excellent shows of people pretending to buy and pretending to fix up houses.

Canadians are boring. Their TV programs ooops programmes are boring. With the exception of Anne Dorval, Canadians can't act.

Does TV not suck ... anywhere?

I assume that, like the states, many affluent countries also offer some quality TV, but by and large tv is dreck for those of mediocre (at best) taste.

I mean look at tv in Latin America. My GOD.

[quote]I think NBC tried Saving Hope for a bit too.

Yep. They aired the first season in the summer of 2012.

I think IFC or Sundance aired that show The Tournament which was highly praised in Canada.

Twitch City was a Canadian show. I only saw a couple episodes, but I liked that.

Most TV sucks. American and Canadian. Far too many reality shows.

I remember watching TV sitcoms, variety shows and dramas for hours when I was a kid and young adult.

Now, I barely turn it on.

I like Trailer Park Boys.

Love it or List It has moved to the US.

I liked Corner Gas. A bit hokey at times, but it had a lot of truisms, particularly for the prairies.

Corner Gas was hilarious. Too bad the DVDs were such low quality that you can't watch them on any TV made within the last few years.

Because it's too hard to compete with the States. You literally get all the American networks anyway, so there's no American show Canadians can't see. You can't compete with a huge franchise like Law & Order because everyone in Canada can already get Law & Order, and to try and create a competing cop show you need to pour big money into it, more than anyone's willing to spend, with no guarantee of success. I never saw Orphan Black but I think the reason it's succeeded is it doesn't really resemble anything else on TV from the sounds of it. But there's already all these cop shows, medical dramas, legal dramas from the U.S., how do you compete with that?

Also, with big money and coveted projects to be had Stateside, anyone with the talent, charisma, looks or ambition is tempted to try their luck there - look at James Cameron, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Keanu Reeves, Donald Sutherland, Jim Carrey. A lot of Canadian actors actually take speech lessons to smooth out their accent and make their pronunciation more American sounding and start landing parts on American TV.

The best Canadian TV is actually sketch comedy. SNL creator Lorne Michaels was from Toronto (SNL was once funny). Kids In the Hall, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and Codco were all sketch comedy - the latter show (which had to be seen To be believed) is sadly unavailable on DVD, but it made SNL look like kindergarten. Jokes about Tammy Faye Bakker and TV evangelism, bulimia, gay priests, AIDS, poverty....

For example, here is a spoof of Margaret Thatcher they did when she was in power, mocking the political content of her speeches, if you listen closely is actually pretty brutal satire:

TV shows made in Canad basically divide into Hollywood productions made in Canada for financial reasons and Canadian productions for Canadian consumption. Ignoring the former, since it is basically American TV, the latter usually suffers from the lack of money, resulting in shorter series runs and also seem to have more problems with scripting. Often there is one driving creator/actor behind the shows and they seem to run out of ideas. American TV with a more corporate culture has more resources to creative manpower to fall back on. It is interesting to note that Canadian series that do last often tend to sell well internationally. For example, I think Little Mosque On The Prairies has sold to more than fifty countries. On the other hand by international I mean outside the US because very few Canadian series seem to do well there. I think it is probably cultural, with Canadian shows being both quirkier and nicer.

Rita MacNeil had a show on for about five years. IN THE FUCKING 90S.

now that Schitt's Creek is done. Are there any current Canadian shows that are decent?

What a thread to bump, R58

Orphan Black was a very good Canadian show and I've heard that Anne with an E is worth watching.

Canadian television sucks because Canada spends *way* less proportionately than other countries on television projects. The government just doesn't put money in to support the industry that way. Because of this and thanks to funding laws around a certain amount of content needing to be canadian, networks create 'lowest common denominator' shows like 'big brother -CANADA!' or 'American pickers - but IN CANADA!' just to meet those benchmarks, instead of creating new and interesting shows.

The 80's and even early 90's were a great time for Canadian television, though. Comedy is always where they country has excelled and they'd really do well to have more 'variety' shows like they have in the UK - shows like '8 out of 10 cats' for example. Get all the Canadian comedians on there and the rest of the work would be done. It's a real shame.

It doesn't bother me when they don't say the location as toronto or vancouver and pretend it's new york or oregon lol.

Best thing that ever came out of Canada is Slings & Arrows, starring the sublime Paul Gross and his (inexplicable, she looks so much older!) very talented spouse. Brilliant stuff...

[quote]Is Damian filmed in Canada?

[quote]I've noticed some of the supporting actors are so bland.

lol I remember wanting to like that show when it was on. But, yeah the Canadian cast members were bland as fuck and dragged down the show.

The SyFy remake of the UK show Being Human filmed in Canada and Canadian actors who were on the show were very bland.

Bates Motel filmed in Canada, but they managed to mostly cast ok Canadian actors for some of the minor characters. I remember reading some TV blog where the blogger said that the bland Canadian actors were the main reason she couldn't get into watching Hallmark Channel movies during the holidays.

Canada is not an English speaking country, it's officially a BILINGUAL ( French-English) country!

The french were in Canada long before the British!

[quote]now that Schitt's Creek is done. Are there any current Canadian shows that are decent?

I really love Kim's Convenience. It's one of those shows you can put on when you're sad or you're not in the mood for anything heavy and enjoy it.

The show also stars Simu Liu who was tapped to join the Marvel Super Hero universe not too long ago in his own movie as the hero Shang-Chi in, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."

"Rookie Blue" was a pretty good show with a very pretty cast.

Corner Gas, Schitt's Creek, Letterkenny and Kims Convenience are all good shows. I'll look at some of these others mentioned.