Mafia Westside

SO GOOD AND so right on is John Doyle's Globe and Mail TV column today that I have nothing to say today but "go there and read it:"

They are writers. They write the Canadian shows you watch. They are Susin Nielsen (Heartland, Robson Arms, Alice, I Think), Jennifer Daley (Robson Arms and High Drama High, a show in development), Elizabeth Stewart (Falcon Beach and the TV movie Luna), Ken Craw (Robson Arms and a documentary producer), Daegan Fryklind (Cold Squad, jPod), Dennis Heaton (Blood Ties, jPod) and David Moses (Robson Arms).

I met them over drinks at a bar in Gastown, and there was much gossip, joking, complaining and that odd blend of self-deprecation and boasting that such writers exhibit. They won't take offence at that, I know. Actors tend to do the same thing, with more emphasis on boasting and full-throttle exhibitions of insecurity.

Seriously now, these are the most important people in the television racket. Executives may strut and swagger, producers may manoeuvre deftly through the rapids of funding and financing regulations, but they are nothing without a story to put on the air. When anyone sits down to watch TV, they have a basic request - "tell me a story." And the story starts with the writers.

Right now, most of these writers have horror stories to tell. The horror stories are about their own work. In unison, they worry about the lack of creative freedom in Canadian TV. They see production companies and network executives interfering endlessly and pointlessly in the direction of certain shows. They say that a series might begin as a drama with occasional moments of comedy, and then, thanks to battles and conniptions in distant offices, by the fifth episode the series has morphed into a comedy.

They worry that hardly anybody in the industry, apart from themselves, understands what the term "showrunner" means (a senior writer with some executive responsibilities). They point out that the best television in recent years - The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, The Shield and, in Canada, Intelligence, have been driven by writers who control almost every aspect of a production, but in Canada a writer is almost never allowed to follow through on a storytelling vision.

And, specifically, they worry about the lack of series being made in Vancouver.

The full column is here.