Thursday, July 22, 2010

This Boston Globe columnist is tired of Canadian shows that look just like American cop shows. But he likes THE BRIDGE.

It all started a couple of seasons ago, when CBS picked up “Flashpoint," a series about a Toronto police SWAT team that was popular in Canada. “Flashpoint" celebrates everything the Canadians say they hate about us Americans: It’s gratuitously violent and stupid, with the Kevlar-vested lads in blue armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry. They cruise the world in caravans of gas-guzzling, black Chevy Suburbans, just like Canada’s favorite son, Kiefer Sutherland, in “24.’’ They even use the phrase “set up a hard perimeter,’’ which I thought had been trademarked by the lazy writers on “24.’’

Here’s the thing. Absent the gorgeous scenery and the occasional glimpse of an Ontario license plate, you would never guess this was a Canadian show. The cops work for a “big city police force,’’ with no identifying uniform or cruiser markings. Toronto-based logophobe Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo,’’ would approve.

I disagree about FLASHPOINT, which is after all the sniper show where they try not to shoot people. But I am down with the idea that maybe some Americans wouldn't mind seeing shows about Canada.

Labels: reading

3:23 PM

3 Comments:

I'm a big fan of DaVinci's Inquest, not only because it's a good cop show, but because it's distinctly Canadian in parts, and so much about the real Vancouver that it wouldn't work genericized.

The Bridge has a lot of the same writers, and I wonder if it will survive now that CBS isn't airing it.

By  Scot Boyd, at 3:21 AM  

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By  Anonymous, at 4:56 AM  

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By  Root, at 11:12 AM  

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