I'd missed the first season of Robson Arms, because it was swept into the "never heard of it" vortex before I started paying attention to Canadian TV. I tried to watch the episodes CTV helpfully put online recently, but couldn't get them to play smoothly so gave up trying to catch up.
Anyway, season two premiered tonight, and I really enjoyed it. It was more of a straight comedy than I was expecting, given the fact that it's been called a dramedy, and yet with a bit more depth than I was expecting, given John Doyle's comments. Based on those, it might be a good thing that I started season two with no way of comparing it to season one.
Jeff Ltd. made me want to poke my eyes out.
Both shows, however, reminded me of the jarring reality of paying attention to Canadian TV: there's, like, five actors who play all the roles.
No, not really, but among other familiar faces, John Cassini plays major roles in both Robson Arms and Intelligence, and I'm pretty sure I spotted at least one other Intelligence face in the show tonight (the big guy who served Leslie Nielsen with papers for running over the dog I think was Bill the snitch, who Mike Reardon had killed). Jeff Ltd. features one of the main women from Rent-a-Goalie prominently.
I can't begrudge the actors for making a living, but it definitely makes it seem like a small, small world. And with the close proximity of the shows, I half expected Yuri the superintendent to make arrangements to whack the guy in the wheelchair and then retire to his strip club office. Disconcerting.
