Everybody! Out of the Water!

Further to the below, tonight Canwest Global tries to re-establish its original production bonafides with an adult-aimed action series.

VINAY MENON has a positive review of The Guard in today's Toronto Star. An excerpt:

A car has plunged into the water.

From a steep embankment, a man points and screams; his wife and two children are trapped inside the submerged vehicle. Responding to the emergency, a Coast Guard boat powers toward shore carrying its four-person crew: duty captain Miro Da Silva (Steve Bacic) and rescue specialists Andrew Vanderlee (Jeremy Guilbaut), Carly Greig (Zoie Palmer), Laura Nelson (Claudette Mink).

As the Cape Pacific boat cuts its throttle and bobs in the chop, the urgency accelerates. So begins The Guard (Global, 10 tonight), a new drama about a search-and-rescue team in the Pacific Northwest.

There is much to admire about The Guard, not least of which is its ambition. Shooting on location in Squamish, B.C., couldn't have been a breezy endeavour. But by not replicating conditions on a soundstage, the fictional Port Hallet is imbued with authenticity, from the pewter skies that hang over Howe Sound to the jagged coastline south of Whistler.

Many scenes are visually arresting, including the frantic opening sequence that eventually has Andrew under water, undulating toward the upturned car as rays of sunlight strobe into the abyss. Or, later, as a rescue chopper sweeps the water, its tracking beam slicing through the darkness like a flashlight in a Spielberg movie. (At times, it's tough to tell if this is a TV show or a recruitment ad for the Canadian Coast Guard.)

Any show shot on water is insanely, insanely ambitious, and it sounds like they've managed to pull off the Squamish, B.C. action sequences with some aplomb and polish.

The main knock seems to be some of the writing -- but in an action show, I don't see how you avoid at least some of the conventions.

I mean, where would Jack Bauer be if he couldn't say something quiet, then repeat it more loudly? WHERE WOULD JACK BAUER BE IF HE...

okay, enough of that.

Hopefully, as the actors relax into their characters, and we get beyond the nervous pilot stage, The Guard will come into its own on that score, as well.

After all, Canada's got a lot of coastline.

The Guard premieres at 10:00 p.m. on Global -- except out east, where it runs at 8:00 p.m. due to the all important simulcast of...something or other.