Bias and The Border Redux

REMEMBER LAST WEEK? You know, the debate over whether the portrayal of American government activity in The Border was OTT? (Wedgie Fulford and Jim Henshaw said, 'yea,' I said, 'not so fast.')

From the 'not-so-fast' file...here's an example of the kind of beefs that we're speaking to with the show...

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: (excerpt...for the full article click the link above)

'Prince of Pot' given prison time

B.C. man says U.S. sentence is a political muzzle

Last updated January 15, 2008 10:04 p.m. PT

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

A Vancouver marijuana activist, whose arrest and pending extradition for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet outraged many Canadians, says he's cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Seattle and is going to prison.

Emery had been facing a mandatory minimum term of 10 years and up to life if convicted in U.S. District Court for a crime that's rarely prosecuted in Canada.

In 2002, Emery -- who once ran for mayor of Vancouver on the B.C. Marijuana Party ticket -- bought a table for a presentation by White House drug czar John Walters and proceeded to heckle him throughout his presentation at the Vancouver Board of Trade.

"Three days later, I was under investigation," Emery said.

As support for his allegation that his prosecution was politically motivated, Emery prominently displays on his Web site a statement from Karen Tandy, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration at the time.

To the dismay of the federal criminal justice establishment in Seattle, Tandy issued a statement after Emery's arrest in July 2005, saying: "Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group -- is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also the marijuana legalization movement.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

Greenberg last week rejected Emery's assertion that the prosecution was political.

The depth of concern on the part of many Canadians over the arrest was revealed by the massive response to a CBC documentary about Emery.

"I am incensed at the obvious infringement of our national sovereignty," wrote one viewer of the documentary to the CBC Web site. "If the U.S. tried this crap in China, it would be WWIII!"

Another viewer wrote: "We need to keep the influence of the American government at bay in Canada. This is OUR country, and OUR values are a lot different than America. It's wrong to send someone to jail for so long for something that is not considered to be a crime by most Canadians."

Canadian Sen. Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver and a former narcotics cop, told the Seattle P-I that it is "a rare, rare occurrence that anybody would be charged with seeds in Canada."

"If they extradite him to the States, there will be total outrage. The offense he is charged with carries virtually no penalty here in Canada. This is so characteristic of the drug war in your country and the hyperbole and over-the-top statements. It would make a great comedy show."

Or the basis for a drama show, maybe? Just sayin.

Reprint: It's All My Fault

IN RECOGNITION of my first episode of THE BORDER going to air, this Monday, Jan 21st, at 9pm, I'm reprinting this report from the very first day of shooting. (Bodies on the Ground, though it airs third, was actually the episode of the series we shot FIRST, after the pilot, which was shot eight months earlier.)

SO, HERE'S how the story ends:

OSHAWA -- No, a plane did not crash in Oshawa on Thursday.

The twin-engine aircraft sitting in the middle of Stevenson Road was there as part of a shoot for a TV miniseries -- but the unusual sight did prompt a few concerned phone calls.

"We've had a lot of calls from the media and some people out walking around were wondering what happened," said Stephen Wilcox, manager of the Oshawa Municipal Airport. "Today is the one day it's OK if you see a plane on the road."

from newsdurhamregion.


At one point yesterday, 680 News radio was actually reporting that a plane overshot the runway. Way to go on the local journalism, guys.

Now that that's out of the way, and the Director and his heap godlike awesome crew mercifully got our day, here's how the story starts:


My standard joke about Canadian TV production is that if you call for someone to drown in the ocean, they'll ask you to make it a bathtub.

Then the next day they'll come down and tell you you can't have any water.

So it was that when I came to craft my first episode of THE BORDER, I started thinking in terms of a long, distant CGI shot. I mean, a plane? C'mon.

I've been through two series in a row where the challenge was always, always thinking big while writing small. And you naturally assume that's how it's going to go.

But THE BORDER is a different kind of show for Canada. It's an action adventure show. It's about high-stakes and skullduggery along the United States-Canadian border, and the plucky squad of agents from Immigration and Customs Security who keep us safe from all manner of baddies looking to smuggle drugs or guns or objets du terreur across what used to be called "the longest undefended border in the world."

Of course, since 9/11, that border has gotten a lot pricklier, and the Americans have gotten a lot...weirder. And so THE BORDER is about that too. The show went through five years of development under Executive Producers Lindalee Tracey and Peter Raymont. A pilot shot last fall. I've been working on the series since early May.

Anyway, back to the story. This episode I wrote, "Bodies on the Ground" will run third in the series, but it's being shot first. So this is the big one out of the gate.

The first surprise I got was when the Director, John Fawcett, (at right) shook his head and immediately discounted the idea of the CGI plane. And in that way that writers never think of, he had the A-1 simple reason why:

It's a hand held show.

Ulp. I didn't think of that. But part of the energy and excitement of Fawcett's pilot is that it, indeed is shot all hand held. The camera's always moving. The pace is fast. There are lots of cuts. And to drop a shot of a distant CGI plane into that...well...

It wouldn't work.

So it came to be that I found myself sitting quietly in the corner of meetings as they talked about the logistics of shooting near an airport, finding a road where you could tow a small jet to the middle of the road to make it look like the plot of the story -- where a small jet puts down with fugitives in a lonely stretch of Quebec road.

The night of the first "plane" conversation I went home and sweated through my sheets. It feels like having the power to curse someone. You mean, I just write something down, and it happens? Is no one going to tell me 'no?' Someone always tells you no.

(pic above: not quite dead)

And so it went. Through all the planning sessions, the boarding and the scheduling, you see the sequences sitting there, ready for the jet day and part of you thinks, "they're not really going to do this, are they?"

And the funny thing is that the Jet isn't the only "big" part of the episode. There's gags with bullet hits, and stunts, and oh yeah, I think a car blows up too.

Nobody said no.

I scripted in JTF2 commandos. And on the day, suddenly there they are. And ... um... there sure are a lot of them. More than I pictured.

But nobody said no.

Every show, big budget or small, marshalls its resources. Battlestar Galactica and 24 are two shows I've noticed which are particularly good about harnessing and amortizing their budgets. You'll see a few episodes where lots of big stunts or CG happens, and then there's a few smaller character episodes. X-Files used to do this really well too.

Part of the brief of doing a big action adventure episode like this means that down the road you need to have different types of eps, where the drama is intense but the staging is easier. We've already got a couple of those episodes of The Border scripted, and they're great for totally different reasons. The next episode I write will probably be one of those kinds of eps, too. It's a chance to flex different muscles in your writing -- funny clever, not so much boom boom.

But while they're prepping the boom boom, I gotta tell you, heap god, it's a thing of beauty.

As I stood out on a road in the middle of Oshawa yesterday, watching the crew and actors who'd braved the rain and the heat to make 6 2/3 big pages happen, it was kind of awesome.

Less awesome? All the fingers pointing at me as someone said, "this is the guy who ordered up the plane."

Aw. Um...wait...I...uh...

Now, there's nothing I can do. I'm the high rolling writer. I'm the guy who demands planes in the middle of the road.

Actually, there's two planes in the episode...and two more that we don't really see...uh...but that's perhaps saying too much.

A few days before we started shooting, the cast gathered in a board room at the production office and read the script aloud for the first time. Producer Brian Dennis was there too, reading all the action descriptions, and as he read aloud, I got to hear things like, "the plane sits in the middle of the road....DENIS." And "the car explodes....DENIS."

Sigh. Nobody said no.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Because there's a search plot in the episode, at some point along the process somebody wanted a scene where we saw the JTF2 commandos ready to go in with dogs. And so I wrote one in.


And Brian came to me one day and told me how much the dog would cost. And I got a "take it out." And a couple of askance looks from people saying, "can you believe the guy? asking for a dog?"

I didn't even bother mentioning that the dog hadn't been my idea in the first place. And I took it out. And taking that dog out made me feel just a tiny little bit better. I swear, I slept a bit better that night.

So to review, plane in road, second plane, commandos-a-go-go, squib hits, fake blood, police cars with windshield gags, fireballs and stunts: A-Ok.

Just don't write in a dog.

I don't understand this business at all.

(pic above: Co-Showrunner David Barlow blames me for the plane, too.)


The Border premieres on CBC Television in January 2008.

Deal Or No Deal?

SO OVER AT United Hollywood there's the first reaction I've seen to the content of the DGA settlement with the AMPTP.

The big question is whether there's enough here to get the WGA to end the strike.

There are a lot of caveats attached up front. People are trying to take the temperature a bit. And anybody who's ever negotiated a contract, or heard stories of a period that cost ten million dollars knows that when a summary raises questions, the only thing you can do is wait for the long form contract and see what the thing actually says.

What seems to be the emerging consensus, at least from the few reacts I've read and the WGA members I've talked to: there's some good stuff in here, and there's a lot of bad stuff in here.

The AMPTP was never very serious about negotiating with the writers. They never did table a full, serious offer, and when they walked out of the negotiations 42 days ago, it was with six poison pill conditions -- one of which they just unceremoniously dropped in making the deal with the DGA.

There's already posts you can read being all impressed that the DGA did in six days what the WGA hasn't been able to do with a three month strike. Suffice it to say that I have my doubts that anyone making this point could ever exist for five minutes in a writing room, since they clearly don't have the sort of intellectual vigor needed to parse labor strategy. What concessions the DGA have gotten from the AMPTP in their deal -- and there were some -- was only possible on the back of that three month stoppage. They can spin it however they want -- they talked to the adults, whatever...but the reality is that the scuttlebut says that the AMPTP only realized that they had to talk about some of these serious issues when the DGA got a backbone and said they wouldn't make a deal without them. That resolve was bought on the backs of three months worth of writer pickets.

The New York Times gives its take on the deal here. The boil-down: the DGA did make inroads, but also punted -- they think that online revenues won't amount to a lot before 2011.

The problem? Repeats. Writers can definitely see the possibility that repeats will shift entirely from broadcast, to the internet. Which means that a payment for reuse that used to be 20K will now be $1200. Not good. That doesn't affect Directors the same way.

Some of the formulas are things that I didn't think they would ever get. I didn't think anybody was going to give up compensation based on ad dollars derived from streaming.

That being said, the length of promotional windows feels long to me; the 100 000 threshold for downloads before a better rate kicks in seems high, and there does seem to be quite a few outs and figures that don't really gibe to me.

In short, it's a start. But I think it's only a start. My only hope is that it's enough to get "informal talks" restarted with the AMPTP.

My "Border" Preview

MONDAY NIGHT on CBC, my first ep of The Border airs. There's a preview now up on YouTube.



The Episode Description is as follows:

A top-secret U.S. 'rendition flight', transporting Muslim detainees to a secret detention camp in Romania, crash-lands in Northern Quebec. Now three terrorists and a hostage are on the loose. As the rest of the team tries to keep the lid on the story, Gray and Layla must track and recapture the fugitives before the U.S. military takes matters into its own hands.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be reposting a couple of blog entries I made from around the time the episode was initially shot. Monday night or Tuesday, I'll post a few words about how the story for the episode developed. If you watch and have questions about any aspect of the writing, fire em away and I'll try to answer best as I can, then.

There's a lot of great action in the ep, and I really tried to bring humor out, too. I've seen it screened twice and it's gotten a generally positive reaction. Here's hoping the general public follows the preview audiences!

CBC hangs on

WELL, THIS IS interesting. On a second night dominated by American Idol, CBC managed to quell the haters -- at least for the moment.

Little Mosque did 910 000.
Sophie, at 8:30, did 625 000 -- essentially retaining its audience from the week before.

Interesting.

The DGA Makes a Deal

I GUESS NOW we see.


EDIT: Details are up here. If you're looking to read tea leaves of how good a deal it is, or whether it's likely to be acceptable to the writers, check out www.unitedhollywood.com -- not Variety, which has continued to write the most breathtakingly, FOX-news level biased bullshit all week.

Step Away From The Shiny

IF YOU LIVE long enough, hopefully you'll amass a series of good friends who know exactly when you're likely to lunge for the crack pipe. The crack pipe, in this case, being metaphorical, a stand-in for whatever badass thing you can't resist but probably should: the lure of gambling, bacon, performance sedans, actresses, ketamine, tequila...

For me it's the shiny.
Like say, oh...the Macbook Air. Mmmm.

Good thing I have friends.

H/T to Sandy McMurray.

Not a Lot of Pod People

SO APPARENTLY J-Pod's second week's numbers were not good. As it ran smack into the juggernaut that was the return of American Idol, the numbers tumbled from a 472 000 start to 250 000 for Episode 2. A 50% drop in one week is ... uh ... problematic.

Canadians, also showing that perverse propensity to trail the edge a little bit, went in the opposite direction from Americans when it comes to the aging karaoke warblefest. In the U.S. Idol was down from its premiere a year ago. In Canada it was up.

I watched J-POD on Tuesday. I had been a little underwhelmed by the premiere. I liked Episode 2 a lot better - it was funnier, and had a couple of laugh out loud moments.

What I'm wondering is -- what's the demos like? Did all the young people flee to Idol, or is there hope that somewhere in a less blown-open slot, that the show could build?

Yeah, I'd Stay Away From The Tilapa.

NOT THE USUAL foolishness we talk about here on Dead Things on Sticks, but here's a story I just surfed across on the series of tubes:

Jan. 17, 1966: H-Bombs Rain Down on a Spanish Fishing Village

By Tony Long 01.17.08 | 12:00 AM

A hydrogen bomb is recovered from the water, 80 days after it fell into the Mediterranean Sea near Palomares, Spain.
Photo: U.S. Navy

1966: A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collides with its refueling tanker jet in mid-air over the Spanish coast. Its four hydrogen bombs fall to earth near the fishing village of Palomares.

The bomber collided with the KC-135 tanker at 31,000 feet. Exploding fuel completely destroyed the tanker, killing all four crew members. The B-52 broke apart, spilling its payload -- four Type B28RI hydrogen bombs equipped with 1.45-megaton warheads. Three hit the ground near Palomares while the fourth fell into the Mediterranean Sea.

Three members of the bomber's seven-man crew were killed in what became known as the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.

And it goes on.

Um.

WHAT?

Was this widely reported at the time? Is this something that people in the village joke about? The story goes on to tell about a fisherman who saw one of the H-bombs fall into the sea, and he helped the U.S. Navy get it back and then went to New York and demanded salvage payment.

Is that a movie or what?

Am I just showing my age here? Do 50 and 60 year old people know about this?

Thanks!

SEEMS THAT IN Week Two, The Border drew 600 000 viewers across Canada. That's only a 15 percent drop from the premiere. Now it may seem a little too Canadian to crow about numbers that went down, but Monday actually wound up being a pretty tough night, up against the inexplicably popular American Gladiators (I mean, really, people.) and part two of the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Oh. And that dancing thing. Yet we managed to actually improve our demos, which means more younger people watched. Which for some reason gives the advertisers a bit of a boner.

So thanks for that. Makes me feel good to think that maybe that means some people will be sticking round for my first episode next Monday, which I think is actually pretty kickass and action packed. (Complete with planes and explosions, oh my.)

If you enjoyed the show, be sure to tell people -- the haters aren't shy about letting their views be known -- neither should you be.

Wherein The Barn Door Hits the Horse's Ass On Its Way Out

AN UNBELIEVABLY toothless, utterly impotent, completely Canadian decision from the CRTC today:

from CBC.CA:

CRTC imposes cross-media ownership restrictions

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 | 3:45 PM ET

CBC News

The CRTC has brought in new regulations to restrict cross-media ownership as a way of ensuring a diversity of editorial voices in the same market.

The broadcast regulator said on Tuesday that, in future, a person or entity will only be permitted to control two types of media outlets in a single market.

But...it's not retroactive. So, hear that, citizens? You'll now be protected from that thing that's mostly already happened. Aren't you glad they held hearings so your voice could be heard?

The ownership restrictions followed hearings last year into the issue of media concentration and the diversity of voices following two high-profile media deals — CanWest Global's purchase of Alliance Atlantis Communications, and CTV's acquisition of Chum Ltd.

The new rules are not retroactive and will not require any change to the current media ownership picture in Canada.

"The commission recognizes that, at the present time, it does not appear that any one person controls all three local media in any Canadian market," it said in its ruling.

The policy change would, for instance, effectively prevent CTV and CanWest Global — owners of TV and radio stations in many markets — from buying more local newspapers.

CTV already owns the Globe and Mail and CanWest Global owns the National Post. But the CRTC said it considers the Toronto-based newspapers to be national rather than local.

Media unions critical

The new policy fell far short of what media unions had hoped for.

The CRTC ruling "allows the big players to become bigger, and does very little if anything to limit media concentration in Canada," said Peter Murdoch, vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.

"The new policy does nothing about media empires that currently have a stranglehold on some large markets, such as Vancouver, or about what happens on a national level," he said.

Having lived in Vancouver for four months last year, I can attest that the situation there is dire. Vancouverites are as poorly served by their news media as most small markets in the States.

Pathetic.

When is a Theoretical Market not Theoretical Anymore?

I'M GOING TO go out on a limb here and say, "Oh, About five minutes after Steve Jobs announces it from the stage of Friggin' Macworld."

"It's too new! We don't know how to make money!"

From Today's San Jose Mercury News -- "Apple Makes a Big Bet on the Digital Living Room."

SAN FRANCISCO - The digital living room has been a tough nut to crack, but Apple is giving it another try.

As expected, CEO Steve Jobs announced a new digital movie rental service today at the company's Macworld conference here. Unexpectedly, the company will offer movies - including some in high definition - from all the major studios. And consumers will be able to order the movies directly from their TVs using an updated version of the company's Apple TV device.

Consumers will be able to start renting movies through the company's iTunes store by the end of February, Jobs said. The company will send out a software update to Apple TV products in two weeks that will make it compatible with the new service, he said.

At launch, the rental service will offer 1,000 movies, including 100 that will be available in high definition. Movies will be available 30 days after they come out on DVD. Apple will charge $3.99 for a new movie and $2.99 for older ones - and $1 extra each for high-definition versions.

The reports and rumors surrounding the rental service in recent weeks had Apple signing up one, maybe two of the major studios to the service. That Jobs was able to get all the studios on board is "staggering," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a tech consulting firm. Few digital video services to date have found such widespread support.

"What Steve did today is show he is the master broker," Bajarin said.

But they can't make a deal with the people who create the content.

"Pffffffft."

Deals and Wheels Within Wheels

SO HOLLYWOOD IS abuzz with fresh rumour that the DGA will announce a deal with the AMPTP today -- a deal that includes a formula for residuals for new media. This could signal a deal that through pattern bargaining, might serve as a template for the WGA to settle. In a perfect world, the DGA -- who are known for being pushovers, and who foisted the notoriously bad 4 cents a video formula on the world in 88 -- actually got religion after commissioning a 2 million dollar study on New Media. If the deal's any good at all, it'll give the WGA a life preserver, and the AMPTP a chance to say they negotiated with a "reasonable union" and spin the jackass behavior they've been engaged in for three months.

Hollywood responded by shedding lots and lots of writer deals yesterday. Business goes on. Yawn.

By the way, another plug for Jeffery Stepakoff's Billion Dollar Kiss here. If you weren't there for the writer gold rush in the 1990's, the book lays bare the leadup to this strike. These brilliant businesspeople who are holding up a deal that even Wall Street says is fair? They're same guys who spent money like a chocoholic at the Hershey factory all through the 90's. Bad management that they now want to fix on the backs of labor. Sound familiar?

If the DGA deal is crap, or if there is no deal -- this one's going on for a while.

One interesting thing that will merit attention -- one of the side deals the WGA made in the last couple of days wasn't with a traditional "producer" at all.

LOS ANGELES – The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and MRC, the independent film, television, and digital studio, have reached a comprehensive interim agreement that forges a new alliance between writers, producers, and financiers in the production of feature films, television shows, and digital programs.

"This is an exciting agreement that will open up opportunities for writers, especially in New Media," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East. "We know that Guild members will be eager to be a part of the MRC creative team."

"MRC operates from two basic concepts and this agreement is a natural extension of that ethos: we treat talent as our partners and we maximize distribution across all digital, film and television platforms," said MRC co-CEO’s Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk. "As with all of our partnerships, we could not have accomplished this agreement without creative talent. In this case, we especially want to thank our colleague Seth MacFarlane for helping pave the way with the WGA and also to the leaders of the Guild who worked with the utmost professionalism."

The Media Rights Capital deal grew out of a deal with Seth McFarlane for Family Guy webisodes. And I believe they're also the group that last year announced some obscene deal for Sacha Baron Cohen's next film. This is the real potential game changer, because they allow creators to retain all rights. Hmm....While everyone tries to figure out the endgame, something else is happening here.

Out of the ashes comes the future.

Me, I'm still on my couch reading scripts.

The Border Bias?

SO A COUPLE of interesting articles in the last few days take on the subject of THE BORDER and its politics and approach. First, there's Robert (Wedgie) Fulford, writing in the National Post. Canadians' anti-American tendencies is one of Fulford's favorite subjects -- he wrote pretty much the same column about Intelligence earlier this year:

While Americans typically rush toward reckless judgements, Canadians are like McGowan's solid, level-headed Major Mike Kessler. Our guys move with care and consideration, lest they make a mistake that might harm someone.

The Border, which started its season on Monday, is the kind of show that makes you proud to be a Canadian -- especially if, like McGowan's Mike, you're also really, really boring. The script expresses what J.L. Granatstein, the historian, described the other day (he was writing about Liberal and NDP policy on Afghanistan) as the "sanctimonious, opportunistic anti-Americanism" that crops up so often among Canadians.

Peter Raymont, the executive producer of The Border, has said his show resembles Kiefer Sutherland's 24 -- "but with a conscience." You can't get any more CBC-sanctimonious than that.

Among TV heroes, Mike is a straight arrow. He's a solemn, one-dimensional and painfully upright leader of Immigration and Customs Security (ICS). He has the official rule book, and probably the Charter of Rights as well, engraved on his brain pan.

This is the third anti-American drama on the CBC schedule this season, the others being Intelligence and H2O, a miniseries that unveils two new programs, jointly titled The Trojan Horse, in March and April. All of them depict public-spirited Canadians fighting off the influence of greedy or just plain vile Americans. Apparently, our immigration department's real enemies aren't terrorists or smugglers. They're Americans.

It's strange when someone looks at the world and leaves out the most important part. I'm sure there are those (I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest, oh, say, a few Albertans) who will agree with Fulford 100%. You don't need a lot to activate the bleating of "left wing bias! left wing bias!" from Canada's own contingent of Bill Reilly wannabes.

What Fulford's leaving out, of course, is the current context. At this point, dramatizing Americans as the bad guy can't simply be construed as knee-jerk Anti-Americanism -- not in the six years since Abu Ghirab, extraordinary rendition, Valerie Plame, signing statements, Scooter Libby, Cheney's secrecy, illegal wiretaps, Patriot act extensions, Gitmo, The Unitary Executive, Iran saber rattling and a failed war that recognizes neither the reality on the ground nor the lessons of history. For John Bolton at the United Nations alone, we are in a despairing point in history where most of the world, and even, now, a majority of Americans think the USA is going in the wrong direction.

Divorcing that reality from the context of The Border isn't just tone deaf, it's irresponsible. The knock on Canadian dramas in general and the CBC in particular is that they never seem fresh or now -- they're period pieces, or feel like they've sat on a musty shelf for a year or more. (Most of the time, because they have.) Say what you want about The Border, because of course there are flaws -- but you can't say it's not current. And it's a little hard to sell the notion that the show itself is anti-American -- at least to yours truly, born New York City, voted in every Presidential Election since 1988..)

Interestingly enough, you can see the evolution of the kind of treatment extended to the Americans not on The Border, but on another TV program readily available on DVD. Though for the sake of shorthand, a lot of press has drawn comparisons to 24, the show that the writing staff of The Border was most inspired by was MI:5, the British spy show known as Spooks in the UK.

If you track the evolution of the American presence over the years on that program, you see a much clearer shift in the storytelling zeitgeist. In Season One, the main character had an assignation with a comely CIA agent assigned to the American Embassy. Many of the stories revolved around the U.S. in some way or another -- but they were crazy, outside elements of U.S. society, not the government itself.

In subsequent seasons, the American presence in the show has gotten much darker. The MI-5 squad has had to deal with meddling in internal British politics, and cleaning up American-made messes. I'm watching series 5 right now, which has just been released on DVD, and the transition is complete: an American trade ambassador at a summit is the villain of an episode, and the U.S is portrayed as an arrogant hyperpower, sacrificing short term strategic gains for long term horror.

Now, is that anti-American, or is that following what a lot of people, you know, read in the newspapers?

If anything, The Border's vision of American interference is still far more benevolent. Sofia Milos' Bianca LaGarda character is not monolithic, and she takes some surprising turns as the season progresses.

And it's not like Canadians get off scott free, either. In next week's episode, the first that I wrote, there's even a sneaky subtext running through the whole piece. As much as the U.S. creates a mess and wants to smash it with a hammer, the Canadians are shown as, well, a little bit underequipped and underprepared to deal with it. Which, you know, is the reality a lot of the time.

A similar, if slightly more interesting take on the show came from Jim Henshaw last week. The whole post is really worth reading, but I'll just excerpt this part below:

More to the point, while I'd been assured "The Border" signified a new dawn for Canadian TV, what I saw was the same smug "we really are better than Americans" cant that I've endured from Canadian programming all my life.

I've written about the Canadian Superiority Complex before and despair that we can't finally cough up that vile hairball and get on with defining who we are instead of constantly reminding everybody of what we're not.

But, no, the message from CBC drama and comedy is always the same. We're nicer than they are. We're smarter than they are. We're more compassionate and caring and accepting.

But we're not. No more than Canadians are better than Australians, Swedes, Afghans or anybody else. And pretending that we are is one of those obscene lies that reveals just how immature and uncertain of ourselves we really are.

Jim at least places The Border into a context that Fulford does not: in the light of the hope sparked by Obama's Iowa win, (a result that met with incredulous coverage from print media in Europe) what does that bode for the future of that back and forth, that American viewpoint in the show?

It's an incredibly intriguing question. And a great problem to have.

What's more, I agree with Jim -- up to a point. Part of living your life in Canada when you're an American means that you see some of the standard American jingoism through Canadian eyes. Americans say a lot of things that make Canadians crazy -- even Obama, when he says, "this could only happen in America!" made a few Canadians I know bristle. It's maddening to think that the same kind of weird optimistic, confidence-based-on-nothing that's led the USA down a dark road in the last few years, the same thing that allows them to think, "we're number one!" when things are falling apart -- is exactly the impulse that leads to American greatness. But there it is.

Americans assume that they've got the best way of doing everything, and are disturbed when they finally figure out that they don't. Contrast that with Canada, where when outside validation, like say, a U.N. Report calls the country the best place to live in the world -- everybody beams. And when the next report knocks Canada's position down a peg or two, there's actual chagrin.

Living in Canada with a somewhat American sensibility means being able to see Canadian myths and tropes for the fictions they are, too. And where Jim's right is -- them tropes don't evolve much. And pointing them out to Canadians, even in a friendly way, well -- it does NOT go over well.

All of this swirls down to one creative question, for me: how do you frame and tell mythic stories to speak to a culture that isn't really sure what it is, that wants outside validation so badly? Do you tack toward that validation, or away from it?

I'm really jealous that The Arcade Fire and Tragically Hip and Broken Social Scene don't have this problem. But there you go.

I'm fairly certain there isn't a whole lot of objection to the portrayal of Americans in MI-5 in the UK. But then again, they also stuck it pretty good to Tony Blair, too -- whereas in Canada, we can have former Prime Ministers investigated for outright fraud and sleazy bribery and nobody really blinks an eye or gets their dander too far up. It's weird.

Writing in The Globe and Mail, John Doyle comes at the cultural question from another direction today in his column about the return of Degrassi:

It's been a most interesting 10 days in the Canadian TV racket. CBC delivered four new shows. Some people watched them and others just rolled their eyes, acting all "Canadian TV drama? Who needs that hopeless stuff?" Yep, even with a writers strike stopping the flow of the usual American network fare, there's a bunch of people who just won't watch Canadian-made TV. It's U.S.-made or nothing. Even inside the TV racket there's doubt and self-loathing. Are these shows good? Would a U.S. broadcaster air them? In a few weeks, in some room in Ottawa a hearing will start about the merits and the problems with the Canadian Television Fund. Arguments will go back and forth about whether Canadian TV productions should be given seed money by cable companies and taxpayers. Some cable companies who have accumulated vast profits by simply delivering U.S. channels and shows to Canadians, will argue that the CTF hasn't done a bit of good. What they mean is that the Canadian shows don't look American enough. The thing is this - as usual, when in doubt, we crave endorsement of our pop culture by the United States. Hardly anybody says it out loud, but we see the legitimacy of our popular culture as being derived from U.S. acceptance.

Doyle goes on to categorize that Degrassi works in the U.S. because it is, in fact, distinct. American audiences appreciate the seriousness and dignity with which teenage issues are addressed, with a candor that would never be possible on U.S. tv.

Because Canadians don't have the same myths about teenage life as Americans do.

Here's the rub, though. Even when we punch through those myths, with a Degrassi or a Corner Gas or a Trailer Park Boys, you're still going to have some yahoos here running them down -- whether it be Jim Shaw, or Bob Fulford, or anyone else who wants to drive whatever tortured agenda they can through. It's not enough for The Border or MVP or anything else to be a good show, or an enjoyable show....it has to carry the flag, too. It has to somehow maybe be noticed -- but not too noticed.

At least Doyle gets down on The Border a bit for being "obvious" and not "subtle." Which at least is a criticism based only on content. (Though I'd have to ask: is it less subtle than, say, oh, 24 or MI:5?)

Canadians crave U.S. validation and success. We resent it when the U.S. ignores us. We hate it when we put out a show that's a copy of a U.S. show. Some of us hate it when we do something that's different. We sell a show abroad to say, "see! it's good!" And the part of the homegrown audience that shrugs, goes, "we don't care, because you don't have U.S. stars and glamor." And if we do? Shrug. Whatevs. It's a completely schizophrenic reaction, that makes it very, very, very hard to program to.

In the USA, you have all sorts of groups that will greet any show through whatever prism they choose: ethnic or religious, or regional or economic or sexual or demographic. You can pretty much guess what prism which group will view the show through.

Not so in Canada. We have all of those prisms -- plus we have people who want to make shows to prove something. And we have viewers who are highly ambivalent about approaching the show because, well, it's too American. Or...It's not American enough...

It's...it's....

...enough to give you a big, big Advil headache.

Which is why, in the end, I just default to:

Do I think this is entertaining?

Because I can't think of any other way to negotiate the crazy that is Canada, Canadian culture, Canada's attitude toward the USA, and Canada's attitude toward the USA's attitude toward us.

Oh my God. I just reread that last sentence. Never mind the Advil. Hand me the Bourbon.

(-Why Bourbon? Isn't Canadian Club good enough for...

No. NO it isn't. Now get out of here. Daddy has to rest.)


THE BORDER continues -- with the introduction of Sofia Milos -- tonight at 9pm on CBC.

[*NB* I should note that the above, like everything on this blog, represents my opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of anyone else connected with the creative of The Border]

Degrassi!

RETURNS TONIGHT on CTV at 7:30 p.m. (Gotta put it in early prime, can't disturb those U.S. shows, dog!) Degrassi is one of those shows that has always done better in the USA than here. Canadians, it seems, are slightly embarrassed by it. But it's one of our most significant cultural imports. Nice to have it back.

New Corner Gas, this evening, too.

So, Then.

TWO WEEKS GONE in 2008. Anyone else sick? I've been sick. It's a lot of fun.

Let's ease into the week with a few links, shall we?

It looks like Story2oh is up and running, with a rather all-too-revealing post from Simon Beals. The many Facebook friends of Simon and Ali were shocked yesterday to see her relationship status go from "in a relationship" to "single." Simon didn't waste any time. But maybe he should have checked his equipment first...

Story2oh is fun and diverting in ten minute increments, just like the Internet. There are those who don't get it, but I gotta say it's kind of fun to get email from imaginary people. I mean, let's face it, some of my Facebook friends feel a little imaginary already. Diane deconstructs the user experience here.

Striking writers, becoming impatient, might just go the Mary Pickford route....Mashable has an interesting article here.

The group of disaffected WGA members, led by Aaron Mendelsohn, are now pushing for an independent, writer-owned venture, called “Virtual Artists,” to be launched sometime later this year. The NewTeeVee blog reports that the new coalition is currently seek startup capital of $30+ million to begin the development of film features and television programming.

If anyone needs any reminder that the locus of creativity has shifted away from the networks, get a load of the downsized Golden Globes results. Mad Men, Damages, Extras, Longford....Jesus, when a bunch of whores like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are hipper than the Emmys, you know you got some strange mojo going on.

Finally, Jon Robin Baitz, who I gushed over here, has got the third part of his "Leaving L.A." series up at Huffington Post here, wherein ABC cancels his deal and fires him off the show he created. This is a fun business, chickens. If you're gonna suit up, wear a cup.

Sophie En Francais

BELOW, COMMENTER "J-POD" (yes, I know that's a little confusing) wanted to talk SOPHIE, specifically, what he/she thought was missing in the translation from the Québécois original, "Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paqin" (The Ups and Downs of Sophie Paqin):

And if you're thinking that I cynically promoted this comment just to have another chance to run a picture of the lovely Natalie Brown, well, you're only partly right, there, Smuggy McSmugson.

"Reducing the golden source material from one hour format to a condensed half killed the joy that the original French version had. "Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paqin" ... has smarter casting in that the token gay best friend was immediately given depth and purpose and Estelle's [the remaining client played by Sara Botsford in the remake] character was unadultarated fun and over the top with her artificial Parisian accent and her regalesque sense of entitlement. The addition of a few more scenes eased the viewer into the story; introducing Sophie's frost-biting mother and deadbeat brother provided the series with a sense of continuation and ultimate purpose. "Sophie" missed the beat by making the title character a little more slapstick than her Québécois counterpart. And to answer your question, yes, seeing the black baby was funny -- after an hour of buildup.

I was disappointed with this outing and with the decision to make this series a half-hour comedy. I guess I was spoiled by the original.

Ah, the perils of adaptation. Do it right and you've got All in the Family. Do it wrong, you've got the American Coupling, or Cracker.

What I find immediately interesting about the above comment was the example of Estelle. I believe in one of the reviews I read it mentioned this character who talked in an English accent for no good reason. But if you look at the above, you can see the cultural translation.

For a Quebec audience, a person speaking French with a faux Parisian accent means something very, very key. It suggests putting on airs, an unearned sense of cultural superiority. It's a rich character detail.

Lost in Translation.

It's tricky, boy.

I confess to not worrying too much about the black baby at the end, and being eager to see the relationship between Mother and Daughter. I do think, to be fair, the English SOPHIE needs to be given a few weeks to find its feet. Remember, in the beginning even adaptations that people consider great -- like the U.S. translation of The Office, take a while to find their way. U.S. Showrunner Greg Daniels admitted as much to me when I talked to him in Banff.

I don't know if Sophie Parker will ever hold a similar place in the hearts of TROC (The Rest of Canada) as Sophie Paqin does to the Quebec audience. But I do know this: the premiere got 636 000 viewers in Canada -- which means it kept 80% of its lead in from Little Mosque on the Prairie. That's not bad.

Maybe Sophie will grow on us. I hope so.

Of course, next week she & Mosque go up against a little show called, Idol something or other...

Who Is Simon Beals?

OUR ESTEEMED CANADIAN pilotologist, Jill Golick, is dipping her toes into the realm of alternative storytelling, along with a number of other Canadian creatives.

They've come up with Story2oh, which you can read about on the linked site.

Simon Beals has video podcast about his adventures in dating. Ali Barrett blogs called about knitting, relationships and sex. Their lives are about to collide. Is it the beginning of a great romance or a disaster in the making?

The story really gets underway this Monday, but already people on Facebook are getting to know some of the characters through their profiles and wall posts. It's neat -- kind of like you're hanging out with the characters before the lights go down and the movie begins.

As Golick explains it:

Story2Oh! is an experimental form of narrative. While it negotiates all kinds of new terrain, it also draws on skills the creative team has honed over the years in our work in television, film and other media.

The Web’s social networking sites have a wealth of media potential. It’s easy to add video, sound, photos, art, text. But using these sites and their capabilities for storytelling is uncharted territory.

Story2Oh! isn’t just a multimedia project, it’s multiplatform. We’re inviting participants to leapfrog through the Internet with us, following a trail of links, RSS feeds and twitters. This gives Story2Oh! an anarchistic quality because it doesn’t belong to any one web site. The story exists across them.

It is also a project that is demanding of the audience. They are participating, clicking ever deeper to uncover the story, searching for more parts of it. Getting your story fix from books, TV and movies is a more passive experience. But social network users like to move around. In a month, Facebook users look at more than 500 pages and MySpacers look at about 650.

Story2Oh! participants will be able to enter the story at many different points and experience as much or as little of it as they choose. They can move through the narrative in a multiplicity of ways, skipping big chunks, seeing it through a single characters eyes, focusing on what they like best or mining the Web for every last drop they can find.

We will try to make every Facebook wall-to-wall and FlickR album rich with drama and character so that every click will be a fulfilling story experience that propels you deeper and deeper. You’d call it a real page-turner if it were a paperback, in Internet terms we’re aiming for twitchiness. Using the same techniques that keep viewers addicted to shows like 24, Lost, Heroes and daytime soap operas, we will keep the story twisting, turning and hanging from cliffs, so that our audience keeps running back to the computer to check if anything new is up.

Check out the Story2oh page here. There, you can find out how to follow the narrative via Facebook and other venues.

What's interesting about this to me is that it's storytellers who are already professional, already successful, translating what they know about storytelling from old media to new. I can't wait to take the trip.

I've Restrained Myself

BUT COME ON, I know you wanted to hear more about the WGA strike. Luckily, for where it sits right now, there is merely the excellent Robert J. Elisberg's Writer's Strike Primer, (via Huffington Post.) Go read. It's even funny.

And while you're there, Roger Wolfson has a very clearheaded article, too:

The stakes are far higher than either side admits publicly.

The surprising reality of the Writers Strike is that the Companies truly believe they had no choice but to force the writers to strike. This is not because the Networks want to write off a bad season in 2007, or because the Companies want to void expensive overall deals. That money is chicken feed compared to what is truly on the table.

Here's what's going on, and it's chillingly simple: by forcing Writers and Actors to accept a fraction of their rightful share of DvD sales twenty-odd years ago, the Companies saved over ten billion dollars. If the Companies can do the same with the Internet, they stand to save that amount many times over. The Companies are employing a cold but somewhat logical strategy. In foregoing a certain amount of current revenue - perhaps as high as the value of an entire season of TV - they hope to save tens of billions in the distant future.

Before negotiations with the Writers began, the Companies said to their negotiator, Nick Counter: "This is how much of our future profits we are willing to share with the Guilds, and this is how long we can wait before we have to get back to work." And then they concluded, "between now and that certain deadline, get the Guilds as far below our maximum as you possibly can."

So Nick did his usual dance - pretend to negotiate with Writers, and then try to cut a deal with Directors that can be used against the Writers. Why does Nick prefer the Directors Guild? Because it is more reasonable or powerful than the other Guilds? It's not necessarily either of those things. No, Nick prefers the Directors simply because they are the least expensive Guild. Half of the DGA's members don't depend on residuals, as do all of WGA and SAG. Nick has given DGA preferred status over the years, granted it early negotiations, and declared it "powerful," simply so he can try to use DGA deals to apply pressure on WGA and SAG.

And just as Nick tries to use DGA as a front to pressure the Writers, he tries to use the Writers as a front to try to weaken SAG. SAG is Nick's ultimate quarry, not just because it is large and beloved by the public - but because it's the most expensive Guild. Every residual WGA gets, SAG contractually gets three times more. Nick's cynical strategy of using the Directors to force a bad deal on the Writers, so that the Writers deal will apply to the Actors, has worked more or less perfectly for thirty years.

So what's different this time around? The stakes. Just as the Companies are looking at higher stakes than ever before, so are the Writers. This time around, probably to the consternation of the Companies, Nick has gone too far. The deal he laid before the Writers is bad in the short run, but in the long run, disastrous. "New Media" is an inaccurate term. It's no longer new, and in a few years, it will encompass all Media. By trying to cut writers out of New Media, Nick has declared that he wants to cut them out of the business altogether.

But as many wars have taught us, imperial powers routinely underestimate what people will do to protect their homeland. While the Companies are only fighting to avoid sharing profits that the writers will earn for them in the future, the Writers are fighting for their professional lives.

The clock is quietly ticking toward the secret deadline the Companies gave Nick. That deadline could be February, or, God forbid, September, depending on how much the companies have decided to invest in this strategy. But it will come. And for every indication that Nick's old tactics may be working, there are ten never-before-seen indications the Writers are stronger than ever.

Can MVP Make It to the Third Period?

A FEW YEARS back I found myself in London for work, and as I always do when I have a spare moment, I flipped on the telly. You learn a lot about a country when you watch their telly. (In L.A., this one time, I turned on the TV expecting to see a slow speed car chase and instead saw my first ever ad hocking "vaginal rejuvenation." Brr.) Anyway, on this show I saw a bunch of tarty women fighting. It was all good fun. Bit of sex, bit o'drugs, lots of bad behavior -- even, dare I say it, murrrrdaaaah!

The show was called Footballer$ Wives, and, as the title promised, it tracked the off-the-field shenanigans of a team of English soccer players and their wives, mistresses and girlfriends.

MVP has obviously taken a page from the wives. Dubbed "the secret lives of hockey wives," the show is a soapy, fun, occasionally bitchy look into that world from a Canadian viewpoint -- tracking the off-ice shenanigans of a bunch of NHL players.

In the first episode, two main events collide -- the team captain takes a header off a balcony and expires under mysterious circumstances, and the team (called the Mustangs, here) sign a million dollar rookie from small town Canada. (Loon Lake, to be precise....now why would I make that up?)

All that's dressing, though, to introduce the characters who will take us on our soapy journey: the rookie, his small town girlfriend, the sleazy enforcer, the captain's widow, his slutty daughter, the heartless team manager, etc.

There's no point arguing or protesting originality in a show like this. Original isn't the point. This is cheeseburger and poutine television -- and if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know I mean that as a compliment.

There's much to recommend the first episode. There's a bit of sex, there's fun stuff with the new captain's pursuit of a virginal schoolteacher. There's the beautiful Charlotte Sullivan, from my Across The River To Motor City, vamping it up hard as a determined puck bunny. There's Matthew Bennet, just a little less sleazy here than as one of the Cylons in BSG.

The show, Hallelujah, manages to use needle drop music in an effective, ironic, and pleasing way. It's bright and colorful.

Which isn't to say that it's perfect. There are a few troubling construction elements that give one pause and makes me worry if they can sustain the goofy interest of the premise. First, the act curtains are extremely weird. I found myself being surprised by where they went to commercial. All drama has to have good act outs in my book, but for a soap they're drop dead essential. You don't go to commercial without a juicy turn or a big reveal. Also, there's not a single line in the pilot that's got that campy, awesome, this-is-gonna-be-fun feel. (Vide: "Welcome to the O.C., bitch.")

The second concern is a sneaking feeling that they haven't pushed the characters as far as they could -- also essential for a soap. The malevolent enforcer type doesn't seem as threatening or as sleazy as he should be -- and considering this show's going to rise and fall on its female viewership, I'm disappointed that they go out on Deborah Odell's widow character with her down and out -- not with a sense of how she'll scheme to get back. I wanted more Heather Locklear in Melrose Place. (Let us all take a moment to worship the excellence that was the character of Amanda. Ahhhh.)

Soaps are tricky beasts. They're the magic shows of television. Don't look here, look over there, BAM, see how we got you? There's always got to be a new rabbit coming out of the hat, or people lose the groove and get bored. People who sniff and roll their eyes at a nighttime soap usually don't have a grasp of just how deftly the best ones are constructed. The problem is that it's a high wire act. You can go down a bad road, quick, and get into the weeds. Look how quickly the brilliance of those early episodes of The O.C. hit the rocks. (Oliver? Come on.)

Then there's the other obvious problem: Nighttime Soaps are the shows that are most directly in competition with, and potentially supplanted by constructed reality shows. The makers of MVP would be wise to study Laguna Beach and the Hills, rather than the Melroses of the past. Your audience now expects that level of shock, crass, boom boom reveal and drama...If you're not willing to push things that far, that fast, then you're not even gonna get out of the box.

I will be dropping the hockey metaphors now.

For what it gets right, MVP is a positive step forward for CBC. Let the stick-in-the-muds wail and cluck -- soapy fun on Friday night is just what the Doctor ordered for our sickly national broadcaster.

Long live the puck bunnies. May MVP get its stories straight, bang out some great plots and good soapy writing, maximize its very pretty cast, and entertain for many winter nights to come.

(Oh, one more thing. I was gonna run a picture with this entry...But man, the gallery shoot for this show was not good. New pictures. Stat.)