Continuum, Lost Girl, Orphan Black

Canadian scifi gaining attention

12 Comments

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From Sean Sullivan of The Gauntlet:

Screen Time: Why we should be excited about Canadian television
Two years ago, if I listed off my favourite shows, not one of them would have been Canadian. As a Canadian, I would still have rather watched American television than Canadian television. But that has changed recently. A handful of Canadian shows have been getting attention, two science fiction shows in particular.
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12 thoughts on “Canadian scifi gaining attention”

  1. Yes, more sci fi please. More cancon in general actually. Oh miss Diane lady person, since you run Canadian television, can you make another bunch of continuum shows? Oh and get rid of sim-subs.

      1. Perhaps a Continuum spin-off in which we learn that Kiera Cameron was actually born in 1984 and was brought forward in time as an infant and covertly switched with another baby. Something like Smallville.

        Diane, the author of the article you featured seems totally ignorant of Blackstone and also apparently is unaware of Cracked to be shown on Reelz. Granted, the article does mostly focus on sci-fi but it is allegedly about all of Canadian tv. You titled your post somewhat more how the author you featured should have titled his article. :D

        Thankfully the author isn’t aware of Cat. 8 because that really is not one of Muse’s better productions, at least in terms of the script. Well, maybe the idea of declaring the guy who saved the planet last night to this morning be a threat to the American national security does actually seem normal these years. Normal is the watchword.

        1. The article is really about the author’s recent awareness of some Canadian scifi – and it’s always great to hear about that awakening. But yeah, it’s a limited focus on one student’s favourite shows. (The Gauntlet is the University of Calgary student newspaper.) Canada has had a reputation for genre TV for quite a while, but the US media attention now that a few of those shows are airing on Syfy and BBC America means even more Canadians are becoming aware of them too. It’s all great, but I agree, I didn’t find the headline represented the article very well.

          1. For my money, the real point about Continuum and Orphan Black isn’t that they’re Canadian shows that are good SF. It’s that they’re currently the best SF shows on the air anywhere in the world.

            Canadian SF has certainly come a long way since (ugh!) The Starlost.

          2. Mind you, criticize Starlost if you will (and even as a kid I thought it had problems!) give it props for ambience. I miss the days when SF series were SF — taking you out of the everyday with wild sets and where a costume designer’s job entailed more than just raiding Value Village. For good or ill, Starlost clearly made an impression. I wonder if people’ll still be referencing Continuum and Orphan Black 40 years down the line?

            And while discussing Canadian SF — I suspect Borealis will long be lamented as having had the potential to be the best Canadian SF series that never was.

          4. This is actually the first I’ve ever heard of Starlost. But I just looked it up and I wasn’t even born yet when it aired.

      1. Yeah. I should’ve been clearer. I meant that Shaw would be issuing a press release about the show being picked up again in the States.

        1. Ah, right, though they usually tie that kind of news with something else rather than releasing a separate release. Like a braggy ratings release … so it might come after the finale if they can spin the finale or full season numbers.

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