The Best Years: Yankee Swap?

THAT DIANE KRISTINE is a wily one. Here I was, all set to write an article musing about the contrasting critical receptions The Best Years received in Canada (where it carries the "Canadian" flag, and therefore is subject to every reviewer's feelings about Cancon and the 'proper' execution of Canadian culture) and the USA (where it was reviewed as a show aimed at young people. Period.) and what all that could mean...

...and she's gone and written it already.

The show, a co-production between the N network in the US and Global in Canada, started airing on Global about a month before hitting US airwaves. The reviews at that time were nearly universally lukewarm to negative. The most positive Canadian review I found was by Dana Gee of the Vancouver Province, who tried to put herself in the shoes of the intended audience — teen girls — and decided they’d overlook its flaws.

When the show was about to premiere in the States, on the other hand, the reviews were nearly universally positive. Sure, there was a review or two that sounded a lot like Gee’s. And even the positive reviews didn’t consider the show flawless. But from the New Jersey Star-Ledger to the Hollywood Reporter, American reviewers liked the show.

The New York Times even wrote a baffling piece about The Best Years’ take on the class divide that didn’t actually get into whether the show was good or not, but you have to assume they wouldn’t have put out that many polysyllabic words on a show that wasn’t worth the effort.

(You can see all the reviews at TV, Eh? At that link, you’ll be seeing everything on The Best Years from newest to oldest, so the American reviews will be first, Canadian reviews towards the end.)

By clicking the link above, you can read Diane's full article and even see the difference for yourself. (She links to most of the articles.)

And even though Diane goes out of her way to say she's not trying to prove something, I think the comparison probably does prove something's up in the whole reviewing firmament in this country.

That being said, even though I'm way less afraid of the broad generalization than Diane is, I'll end with a few disclaimers of my own:

• this is not an excuse to go whinge about a bad review.
  
• there are just as many reviews that give the benefit of the doubt to Canadian shows when maybe they shouldn't.
• maybe the problem here is that you can't trust the reviews of Canadian shows at all because there's always some sort of weird agenda flitting around the edges.
• we need better writing about television and media in this country.

Enjoy.