- So Far, The Guard Treads Water
"You know how sometimes you meet someone, and you ask them how they are, and they tell you? They spill about their recent depression, and how their cat just died, and their father never loved them, and they're sure their headaches are a sign of a brain tumour. You know that guy? The Guard is that guy." Read more.
The simple answer is that it didn't, exactly. What it did was emphasize the ways in which my TV viewing habits are already changing.
Sure, it took away my House for an extended period, and Pushing Daisies, The Office, and 30 Rock, but I didn't consciously look for replacements for my favourite shows, either. TV is pretty easy to live without.
But during the strike draught, even as I was crazy busy with work and other diversions, I caught up with The Wire and rewatched Slings and Arrows on DVD. I adore the ability to watch TV at my own pace, and to see shows that air on channels I won't pay for.
I always try to sample Canadian shows since I've put myself in that world with the TV, Eh site. But very few have actually captured my attention, and that's true of the new season's shows too. And yet I've stuck with some for longer than I normally would - I'm usually a one-episode trial kind of girl - because there's nothing else on my PVR. I save them for when I have more time and end up catching up on my emails, web surfing, cleaning the apartment, responding to the demands of my cat, etc. while the TV is on in the background. That's true during non-strike times, but it's usually The Office or 30 Rock or whatever happens to be on at the moment in that wallpaper role.
So that's why I've made it to The Guard's fourth episode, even though if it were competing with my favourites on my PVR, I would have abandoned it after two. When my favourites are back, there won't be room for a show I'm so on the fence about. So the strike can take credit for that.
But to me the more important point is how my new normal of TV watching helped make me feel strike-proof ... if I ignore the House withdrawal. More commercial-avoiding PVRing, more DVDs, more video on demand, more downloads, more TV as wallpaper. I'm not alone in any of it -- that's the new normal for many people. These TV watchings habits of mine have been emphasized, maybe even accelerated, by the strike, but not caused by it.
I also talked with the CBC folks about how the strike affected the Canadian industry. I was less negative than I have been here, but I repeated the point that none of these new shows have come out of the gate with ratings to brag about -- though brag they do -- considering the lack of competition. Plus, those ratings are not going to hold up in the face of a fuller post-strike schedule. I did point out that they've done better than most Canadian shows in recent years, which is a good step, at least.
Responding to a question about the shows that have been sold to the US lately, and whether Canadian shows can hold up against American fare, I said our best can compete with anything. But while the American sales are undeniably a good thing, we really should be more concerned with Canadians watching Canadian shows rather than Americans watching Canadian shows. And then I repeated my disbelief that American audiences would have any interest in The Border with its blatant anti-Americanism, though I stopped short of promising to eat my hat if that rumour was anything more than a publicity ploy.
There are so many reasons to be happy the WGA strike is over -- the biggest is the toll it's taken on those who work in the industry, including the writers themselves -- but one small happy side effect is that maybe those who work in the Canadian TV industry will shut up about how they can take advantage of the American market while, yet again, ignoring what their own is telling them.
