Wheeze, Cough, ZoS

I'M BEHIND. DREADFULLY. Every time I get traction on this outline, it dissipates. It's a hard nut to crack. And now, after a few fruitless hours, I have to come to terms with the fact that the likelihood of making any real progress while stopping to hack and sneeze every twenty-eight seconds is 1Y34HERGHR;FWXXXXX...whoops...'scuse me.

Anyway, I've switched to catching up on work-related scriptreading for the day...that's going pretty well, oh, except for the broken glasses that fly off my nose every time I...every time I...ahhh ahhh ahhh...ok. I'm ok.

False alarm.

AnywaIPUBHT3R2IHFD;QLFJDAC goDAMNIT!

... point is there's not a whole lot of joy in Sticksville today.


So the friendly bicycle courier at my door is a surprise. He has a package for me from The Movie Network. The Movie Network, for those keeping score, is the only Canadian broadcaster that does a GREAT job of publicity when it comes to its homegrown stuff. (CBC does an OK job, which is to say, they've gotten better at targeting one or two shows a quarter to promote and getting kits and press releases out for them.)

But today's delivery comes with something unheard of in Canadian TeeVee promotion: a bit of swag.


The kit for ZOS: Zone of Separation, an eight part TMN mini coming in January to Canadian viewers (also presumably to Movie Central viewers out west) comes packaged in a replica of a soldier's backpack.

Sure. It's kind of dorky. If you talked to Brioux or Doyle or Salem or one of the jaded "get this all the time" hacks they would likely not be impressed... but the point is, it's something.

It's a bit of flash begging to cut through the clutter. It's going the extra mile.




Nobody else does it, so it's worth noting for the P.R. challenged Canadian networks:

This is kind of how you do it.

I'll review ZoS closer to the airdate, once I've stopped coughing. Seriously, I coughed and sneezed at the same time about a half hour ago, and I think for a minute there I went to the island on LOST.