Cavalcade of Writer Randomness

I WISH I could, with a button, cause it to snow. Just because seeing flurries swirl violently out there, obscuring Lake Ontario and the Gardiner expressway, just makes me want to not go anywhere and hunker down and work. Yes, I know that this would terribly inconvenience and add to the daily misery of my fellow Torontonians, but do you hear me it means I could get more work done.

So after the mid-afternoon pause for Obamawa, I've got to psych it up for another session that I hope will take me through to 30 Rock. But in the meantime, a few random little bits for the day:

1. I'm not entirely sure why, but one of my favorite parts of the day is when fellow screenscribe Matt Neffer, Boy Spotwelder calls me and we talk and it always ends the same way -- with me feeling a whole lot better and him telling me that he's hanging up because I've ruined his day, sapped his will, and driven him into a deep depression. I think this says a whole lot about both of us, and is also proof of why our bromance will never die.
   
   
2. I watched Being Erica last night out of a sense of slacker duty, but kind of wound up enjoying it. Interestingly enough, it's also another ep where they mixed up and riffed on the original theme. Erica goes back not to a day that sucked but a day that she remembers as perfect. And of course, it wasn't, til it was. Good emotional stakes, nice acting, fun and diverting and a good payoff that still left room for ambiguity.
   
   
3. On the same topic, tonight is the show's premiere on ABC Soapnet down south in the USA, which means we now have some U.S. reviews. Here are the three bits that most caught my eye: from Variety:
   
   

   "Being Erica" is also refreshing in the sense that it's one of the few shows filmed in a Canada that isn't pretending to be the U.S. -- though the show's heritage is notable only in casual drug references, and a slightly cheekier and more risque treatment of life's more awkward moments.

   Karpluk, as Erica, is like a Canadian version of Jennifer Aniston -- a plucky girl-next-door type who can morph easily between sexy and silly.

   Even in her cosmic do-overs, Erica makes mistakes, begging the question whether or not she needs to go back and change some of these moments in the first place. With that in mind, writer and creator Jana Sinyor seems to be suggesting that Erica's wasting her life on regrets when she should just be moving forward.

   If the premise is that easy to figure out in the first episode, it doesn't leave much wiggle room for the future of the character, or the show.

   Which is a criticism you've heard here on this blog, and elsewhere too, I think -- and also why the show this week and the Bat Mitzvah ep (where another actress plays Erica as a 13 year old) were the ones I liked best -- because they stretch the world of the show just a bit. It needs it.
   
   Look what the Boston Herald had to say:
   

   Here’s the thing about shows not emanating from the United States: The characters look more real. Maybe it’s less Botox and plastic surgery. Maybe it’s less time in makeup and hair. Maybe it’s because they aren’t a size 0. The characters on “Being Erica” look like people you could know.

   There it is again...the very thing that Americans respond to in Canadian shows are the things that self-hating Canadians point to and hate. (Or executives try to avoid, like, um, calling Toronto Toronto.) Oy vey. In this new world order of Canadian-shows-trying-to-sell-to-Americans, which audience do you please? Maybe we should forgo a CTF injection or two and buy our fellow Canadians some Zoloft, make 'em feel better about themselves. Seriously, we could slip it into the water supply. Who would know?
   
   I'm not even going to link to the U.S. blogger who talks about the "prestigious" CBC. Seriously.
   
   You can follow other U.S. takes on Erica by visiting TV-eh. They're all there.
   
   
4. Tv-Eh? also has the deets on the worst-kept secret in the Canadian TV biz for the last month -- CBS has picked up its second cop show from CTV, The Bridge. This one's from Alan Di Fiore and I believe several friends of the Dead Things are on the staff, fine Writer Mafia types all...so congrats!
   
   
5. From great news to the old-usual, Canwest just sent out a press release bragging about ratings for M*A*S*H reruns. No. I'm not kidding:
   

   TORONTO, Feb. 19 /CNW/ - History Television delivered all-time record
   ratings for the channel with an all-day marathon of popular M*A*S*H* episodes,
   making it the third-ranked English channel in Canadian television on Monday,
   February 16, 2009. This triumphant victory also sets the record for the
   highest single-day audience (2+) in Canadian specialty viewing.* The day's
   audience averaged 234,000 viewers (2+), and pulled in 130,000 viewers in the
   coveted A25-54 category.

   Um. Yeah. Wow, History. Congrats. You should be very, very proud. Way. To. Go.
   
   
6. Jamie Weinman has a good little piece that raises a point I've thought for some time -- that the once-invaluable cast panels presented at the Paley Festival (which I've been visiting since it was the Museum of TV and Radio in NYC) have just become a photocopy of the Upfronts. Which sucks.
   
   
7. John Doyle has posted his semi-annual "Why TV is better than film" rant, which I always love to read, and sincerely hope is enough to drive Canada's own Diablo Cody, Karen Walton, back into the loving and embraceful arms of the bitch goddess that is Canadian TV. Help us, oh Inky one, you're our only hope.
   
   
8. When I get around to it, on further thinking and (someone else's) crunching, there's stuff to say on why that 1:1 foreign to domestic spend the CRTC proposed isn't what you think. Not saying it's bad...it's just not the bombshell change you think it is...and it might require a lot more due diligence on the part of people who don't think quasi-on genre, 25 year old reruns are the ultimate cause for celebration.
   
   
9. My current read: "How We Decide." It's utterly fascinating.
   
   
10. Yogurt is quite delicious.