More Than Kin but Less Than Kind

ACT TWO is a bitch-mistress. She taunts you as you go forward, back, rewrite, and contemplate whether novel-writing in Mexico IS actually all that impractical.

As I make peace with my inevitable weekend of writing, I could be depressed by stories like this. Okay, I am depressed. But I can't bear to write about that subject again today. That fight can come next week.

For now I want to seize upon something good.

Last night, twenty or thirty Toronto screenwriters got together for Jill Golick's periodic screening sessions. This is a chance for Toronto-based creatives to gather and geek out a bit over the writing of new programs coming down the pike. The event is sponsored by the Writers Guild of Canada, and isn't a public screening -- but neither is it strictly for WGC members.

What it IS is a chance to network a bit, and familiarize yourself with new work; hear how it came to be, and the common challenges to making it, from the screenwriter's perspective.

So it was that last night a little over two dozen people got a sneak preview of an episode of an upcoming Canadian comedy series.

Less Than Kind is the creation of Marvin Kaye and Chris Sheasgreen. It's the first series for both. Both men come from an acting background. Marvin has also worked in several story departments as a story coordinator -- The Newsroom, Little Mosque on the Prairie, to name just two.)

The show (based on a play by Kaye) was a featured project in the NSI's Totally Television program a couple years ago. It was subsequently picked up by CHUM Television, and was greenlit just before the fallout of the CRTC decision that led to CTV divesting itself of the Citytv stations.

After a tense couple of months of wait and see, Less Than Kind passed to the Citytv stations (now owned by Rogers.) The first season of thirteen episodes shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba last winter. They will air sometime this fall on the five Citytv stations in Canada. (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg)

The guileless dynamic duo were led through a pre-screening conversation by Golick. Then the lights dimmed and the show began.

Almost immediately, there was kind of an electric thrill in the room. Because the show was funny. Really funny.

Patriarch Sam Blecher (Maury Chaykin) runs a driving school in Winnipeg. His son, Josh, has returned home, penniless after two years on a Canadian show called "Thunder Bay, O.P.P." The family's going through financial problems, and in the words of Kaye, "the only adult in the family is sixteen-year old Sheldon Blecher."

Sheldon is too fat, too Jewish, and too...much. He refuses to get his license, because he doesn't want to get into the family business. He just wants to get the hell out of Winnipeg. It's a family comedy with both heart, and a lot of edge.

The laughs were deft and character-based. The pacing was brisk, the performances grounded in reality and pathos, never over the top. As Golick observed, "the show managed to be both edgy and yet, have a sweet, family friendly vibe to it."

There were murmurs of delight and recognition as Shaun Majumder showed up in a guest role. He was very funny. The laughter was steady and constant. No stony silence in this room.

By the time the lights came up, the room was impressed. Let this be the start of the buzz.

Some interesting facts came out of the screening:

-Kaye and Sheasgreen both credited the acting pool in Winnipeg for offering them some real finds. Several actors who were cast locally 'popped' so much that they were written into subsequent episodes. (A happy circumstance that was possible because the later scripts were being written as the earlier ones were being shot.)

-They always intended to shoot in the winter, but a push in filming put them dead into the heart of the coldest winter in Winnipeg in years. Some nights they were filming in -48 degree weather. I can definitely say that this is the most authentically Canadian looking Canadian series ever. It looks cold.

-There's a sweet visual gag about Sheldon's High School that's just too good to spoil.

-The scripting process was particularly meticulous. Even when episode outlines were already written, they were brought to the table and rebroke, in a process that could sometimes last two days per episode. (It shows. The shows are structurally tight.)

-The writing room featured some top shelf talent, including creative producer and Showrunner Mark McKinney (currently on tour again with The Kids in Hall) who really drove a lot of the precision in the comedy. Kaye said that it was not uncommon to have Mark push them to work and work on a proper punchline for an hour, finding exactly the right construction. Along with McKinney was Gary Campbell, who has several seasons of MadTV under his belt. Campbell had to work on another project halfway through the season, so in addition to writer and former standup Jenn Engels, the end of the season brought Rob Sheridan (Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie) to the room.

-Having someone on set all the time was key. After the first few shows, someone from the story department was always on set -- which probably accounts for the consistent, manageable tone. Many Canadian series spoil the broth by going "too big." Both creators were constantly on the prowl to dial it back.

I should jump in here and add that I did do an early round of Story Editing on their first scripts, and Marvin and Chris are friends of mine. I've also seen cuts of two other episodes, and I can say with confidence that they're of the same level as the completed episode screened last night.

The Globe's John Doyle and others have observed that the kind of homegrown comedy that connects with Canadian audiences is often rural, and about lovable losers. Well, you can add an urban version to that. Glorious Winnipeg, welcome to the Comedy map.

Less Than Kind is a real winner. Production companies Breakthrough Film and TV and Buffalo Gal Pictures should be thrilled. Chaykin has never looked better. Several of the cast members, I predict, are going to break big off this show. Post Production on the first season continues in Toronto now. A second season is currently in development.

One never wants to jinx anything by saying something that rhymes with, say, "the text mourner pass..." but one hopes that when Rogers finally schedules the show this fall that they find a way to get it on more than the five Citytvs -- and they promote it with enough gusto to let people know it's there.

Craft + Precision + a lot of hard work has resulted in a winner. Less Than Kind is your good news Canadian TV story of the week. Watch for it this fall.

And thanks, as always, to Golick and the WGC for hosting, and to Citytv for letting the episode be screened.