Billable Hours is a new SHOWCASE series that premiered in Canada on Sunday night. It's set in a law firm, and concerns the neo-leisure (ie: slacking) pursuits of young lawyers in a firm. So, yeah, it's The Office meets Ally McBeal minus the cases in Ally McBeal.
The show stars co-creator Fab Filippo, (Queer As Folk, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Jennifer Baxter and Brandon Firla -- two faces very familiar to Canadian viewers because they do a ton of commercials -- and Dov Tiefenbach, who was, and is, the titular star of CBC's troubled yet-still-active This Space For Rent.
I won't really say too much about the content here -- I'd love to hear from any Canadians who saw it. What I will say is that I thought the Act-Outs were weak, there were plot turns (and turns back) that didn't really progress so much as come out of nowhere, and the main A-Plot was resolved through coincidence, and not any concerted effort by the main character. Reviews have ranged from Canadian-kind to middling. I think the setting is fine. The story area is as good as any other, but the scripts are not as strong as they need to be and I'm not sure they've nailed tone. In the office sitcom genre, 21st century style, there's the anarchic tone of Andy Richter's failed (but still sorely missed) Andy Richter Controls The Universe, or the more painful, small, and well-observed minutae of The Office. I'm not sure Billable Hours knows its tone yet.
Seeing Tiefenbach show up in the show, though, was the more distracting thing for me. One of the problems of doing such short orders of series is that the actors don't work for very long, so they're both free to take other series work, and pretty much have to do so because they haven't made enough money to survive for the year.
In Tiefenbach and This Space For Rent's case, it's a double whammy. Not only is Dov one of the ensemble of Billable Hours, but his castmate Rainbow Sun Francks is on Stargate: Atlantis. So there's Tiefenbach, a regular on one show while a second CBC venture goes for two more pilots (for a total development time of two or three years? I don't blame the guy for taking other work.)
Last year, CTV ran a comedy-drama in an apartment block called Robson Arms. One by one, every member of the Corner Gas cast showed up.
The woman who played Reena, one of the main characters in Charlie Jade, was also a lesbian bartender on Showcase's Naked Josh.
And just recently, CHUM picked up Murdoch Mysteries for a series. When they did it as a series of movies, Peter Outerbridge was the star. They're probably going to have to recast the role for the series. Why? Because Outerbridge is the main character on Re:Genesis.
Then there's former Kid in the Hall Mark McKinney...you could break your TiVo trying to keep track of the Canadian series he's in: Slings & Arrows, Hatching, Matching & Dispatching, Robson Arms, and Corner Gas (and that's just 2005!)
I think this kind of thing is a pretty intractible problem in the Canadian industry. It's tempting to put it down to lazy casting agents, and I'm sure that's part of it...you can't tell me that the same twelve people do all the commercials in Canada because there's only twelve good actors...but I don't think you can put it all down to them, either.
If you're doing short episode runs, and you're available, and you have to work, then why wouldn't you work? And actors also (rightly) fear becoming too identified with one role. So you can't blame the actors. And budgets are so tight that you can't really do more than 6 or 8 or 13 a season, so you can't blame the Producers for going with someone who they know can deliver.
But the net result is: it's impossible to build a show's identity in people's minds. How can you get a show to stand out if it stars the same people as all the other shows? Guest leads, episodic leads, sure -- but series leads? The same faces from show, to show, to show? How can that not dilute the product?
The Trailer Park Boys guys don't pop up in every other show -- and that's why they hold some sort of mystique. (their premiere, by the way, was hilarious, as usual.)
If Edie Falco showed up playing someone other than Carmela in a series, it would be promoted as a special deal -- a cool appearance...but what if she was on SVU, CSI, LOST, and BOSTON LEGAL all in a four month period? What would that do to how you saw Carmela?
Of course, she won't. Because they pay her very well to be Carmela, so she doesn't have to take everything that's offered.
Like I said -- I'm honestly not sure that there's a solution to this. I just feel in my bones it's yet another of the daunting problems we face in trying to create Canadian TV.
What about the UK, where they do lots of 6-8 ep runs. Do actors show up in shows over and over? And is that a problem for audiences trying to keep them straight?
6 comments:
I thought most good Canadian actors solve the problem for us by buggering off to LA the moment they have the credits?
Interesting and a unique "problem". I certainly don't see Jaime Murray and the rest of the cast of HUSTLE showing up in other shows. (course I'm not about hunting for appearances either)
Yeah, how can you brand your show as unique when it has everyone you've seen in other shows that year in it?
-- widen the casting nets?
-- counter it with guest stars? (Who's going to show up this week on Billable Hours? Tune in and find out!)
-- work on the brand identity in other ways - the look, the writing, the music, etc...
??????????????????????????
Good post, as always. Unfortunate choice of example, however. Edie Falco was on the Sopranos and Oz simultaneously. Your point is valid though because I kept being distracted, thinking Carmela was moonlighting as a prison guard...(what woud Tony think?!?!)
Actually, in the back of my head, that's exactly why I chose Edie Falco.
Her prison guard, Diane, on Oz, was very much an ensemble player. When the flashier role of Carmela came along, she chose -- She was written out of Oz at pretty much the next available opportunity.
If you note the timelines, you'll see that Falco didn't appear on OZ past 1999 -- the same year The Sopranos premiered.
Now, Alex -- you're being a bit glib there, boyo, aintcha?
Most of the actors who go south at the first opportunity are the pretty boy and girl types. If we need to build our shows around "ugly people" like they do in Britain, so what?
There are plenty of gifted actors who haven't flown south -- and plenty who could be hits here before they went.
If anything, the problem is that unlike in UK or even Australia, the people DON'T get attention here before they go -- they have to go south to get discovered. Not cool.
I'm an actress in toronto in this crazy business and you nailed exactly what drives me crazy in Canada.
You can't get a series unless you've been in a series.
Casting agents don't like using new people here. It's almost impossible to get an audition for a lead. One theory is they're afraid that once you get on set you won't be able to handle a whole series. So if you have one under your belt you've proved yourself. Another is the building of the star system; seeing the same people over and over again makes them stars.
I think they take more chances on unknowns in the States while here we go with what worked last week even though the show from last week got canned.
The two hours of Billable Hours I've seen have sucked. The debut episode was so manipulatively written to engender sympathy for the hero that I found myself rooting for the bully. And I tuned out the second episode after hearing the dialogue about "shit-eating grins", which was just third-rate warmed-over Seinfeld. Get it off Sunday night and bring back Kenny vs. Spenny.
Post a Comment