BACK IN THESE parts, we sometimes joke that having a show on the Citytv stations is sort of like being in the Canadian Television Witness Protection Program.
Less Than Kind is a winning comedy that premiered earlier this year.
The ads and promo for it were spotty, so don't worry if you haven't heard of it. Even if you did tune in, chances are you didn't see it the way it should have been seen -- this show had the most unlikely, unlucky series of technical glitches I've ever heard of -- with audio tracks run out of sync, episodes swapped, aspect ratios being wrong -- the whole magilla of possible screw ups.
Well, now you can overcome all that and watch it at your leisure.
Less Than Kind is online.
8 comments:
Awright! I saw the premiere of this by accident months ago and thought it was great - so great I didn't even realize it was Canadian. That is until I realized they were in Winnipeg.
Wow. Just checked out the site. The aspect ratio is STILL all over the place. Depending on which episode you choose, the image is either 16 X 9, a badly-cropped 4:3 or (the worst) a 16 X 9 that isn't actually the 16 X 9 image but a cropped 4:3 image that's been STRETCHED OUT. Yeesh.
I have seen the series in its entirety and can vouch for its quality -- the kind of show that would feel right at home on HBO. It stumbles a bit in its depiction of high school life, but when it sticks to the family, the dysfunction is delectable.
It's nice to see this show get a second season.
I doubt that would have happened had not CityTV hitched to a two-year run beforehand, though. It can give Less Than Kind a vote of confidence by giving it two seasons, but the promo for it is anemic. I have to wonder how much CityTV wants this show to succeed.
Still...those kinds of technical glitches in this day and age is just unacceptable, really.
I can look past the surface and appreciate good writing, performing when the production values are expected to be low (student/indie projects)....but anything on a major TV network better have its prod and technical shit together or no one will care about the 'quality' of the creative.
It can contribute to that prevailing 'Canadian shows suck and look cheap' attitude we're constantly up against.
Yes, imagine -- you go through all the trouble to make it and get it right and then...boom.
some guy in Master Control hits a B instead of a a and -- poof....
"See it must be Canadian - it looks like shit."
ggggghhhhhhhaaaahhh!
It also didn't help ratings that its start time was 'off' a bit due to following (very stale) reruns of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I'm sure CityTV meant well, probably assuming that an HBO series--any HBO series?--would be exactly the high-profile hit they'd need to lead into a Canadian success story.
Uh, no.
Curb has outlasted expectations, but only as a niche success, primarily a critical darling. It's not Seinfeld just because it's from the cocreator of Seinfeld.
Less Than Kind, on the other hand, is very much in the spirit of populist Canadian sitcoms like Corner Gas. It's coarse, but in this country viewers can take it; and may even expect it, after the likes of Trailer Park Boys.
Hopefully reruns will hit Showcase and more viewers will discover it. In the meantime, episodes online are a very pleasant surprise (though I can now verify I did catch them all in first run on City).
Canada has it's revenge on Americans.
I am unable to view the video in my current location or country.
Damn. Here you go and get a real honest-to-God American to want some of your content and I'm not allowed to see the episodes that weren't available on torrent.
Now I'm gonna have to work out some kind of proxy.
How long until it hits DVD?
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