In the news: Being Erica review

From Joel Rubinoff of the Waterloo Record:

  • Erica3Being Erica means reliving a life gone astray
    “‘My name is Erica Strange,’ says the title character (Erin Karpluk) in Being Erica (9 p.m. Monday on CBC), a fantastical (and near-fantastic) Canadian production that avoids the pitfalls of most time-travel shows by sidestepping soapy drama for a deeper appreciation of the transient forces of destiny.” Read more.
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33 thoughts on “In the news: Being Erica review”

  1. This show was refreshingly real despite the fantastic situation. I don’t watch much TV, but for me this is a must see program.

  2. I found this show very stupid and the lead character unbelievably annoying.

    Who wants to watch a weekly show about “What if”? And it seems as if she lives through every trend between 1985 and 2008.

    CBC hasn’t produced a decent original show in ages.

  3. Couldn’t disagree with you more. I found the lead actress to be incredibly talented and charming. She makes you love the character immediately.

  4. I agree with Sam – CBC TV is unwatchable. Even the people writing the crap know so. A friend who is a writer was hired on the “hilarious, irreverent” “Little Mosque on the Prairie” and suggested they “funny the show up”, but the offer was declined. It’s supposed to be bland. “Being Erica” is cut from the same banal cloth. Unwatchable.

  5. this show does have potential.
    I found though that there were too many awkward scences that made it impossible to watch with the family.
    And the teacher is kinda creeping me out for it is obvious that he was beginning to be attracted to her, hopefully they won’t pursue any farther in that relationship.
    I do like how the therapists quotes many different people.
    I wished though that we could mabey see a bit of a difference in the future to show that redoing something in the past does change some things in the future.

  6. Very good show, looking forward to tonights episode.
    Erin Karpluk was great.
    I would love to find out the name of the closing credit song
    and who sings it.
    Can anyone help me with an answer?

  7. I rarley watch TV except for Hockey and the news but for some reason the ad got me interested and I watched the 1st and then the 2nd episodes. I am hooked. I will watch this series.

  8. I’m over 50 and my wife and I love this show, even though we rarely watch sitcoms or anything other than news. Do we thank Dr. Phil for making therapy so acceptable that it can even be fun?

  9. No wonder all our talent runs for the border! Being Erica is a fresh original take from a talented young lady heading for Hollywood!

  10. Finally a show that I can look forward to watching that isn’t so boring and predicatable I have to turn it off. I haven’t found a show worth watching after the first episode in so long that I had given up on television. I am not interested in realty or crime shows so that doesn’t leave much. Being Erica is a refreshing and original show that takes me back to some awkward moments of my own. I really hope this show survives as I look forward to Monday nights now!!!!

  11. Great Show. I used to watch a lot of TV, but not anymore. Being Erica is one of the few shows I watch. Erin is totally cute, believable and a great actress. I prebought the entire season on itunes already. And looking forward to watching more!

    At first I thought that the time travel element was kinda dumb during the previews. But after i watched the free pilot episode i was automatically hooked. Everyone can relate to her situation.

    Definately a must see!

  12. In the first episode “tricks are for kids” – lauren evans was played while she got the call from that dentist.

    I can’t find that song anywhere. Can anyone help me?

    I’ve tried Amazon, Itunes, Launchcast, rhapsody and it’s no where to be found.

  13. I’m really surprised, but I’m really digging this show. It’s fun. It’s refreshing. And it’s actually entertaining — weird for the CBC. Seems there’s hope yet for Canadian television.

  14. What a fantastic entertaining show! Such a talented cast – though the constant ‘quotes’ from the therapist are starting to get annoying.
    I really like how they make it so Toronto – and I’m from Alberta!
    Trying to find out who sings the theme song?

  15. The song was written and performed specifically for the show by Lily Frost, so it is not available on any albums yet… fingers crossed.
    It would be nice if some people could just enjoy the show for what it is and not just write it off because it’s “the CBC”. I wonder if they might change their “tunes” if it was from CBS instead of CBC.
    I personally love the therapist’s quotes, which make you recognize that a lot of her life issues are timeless. It is also nice that after each episode Erica actually seems to experience growth – she’s no Gilligan.
    My wife and I love the show, we missed the first episode so we watched it on the internet, now we are fully committed. Great stuff.

  16. Brilliant show. Just started watching it and was hooked right away. The tv commercials did this show no justice at all. Had it not been for a friend, telling me about it, I would have passed on it. So glad I listened to her and watched it. This is one of the best written and executed shows on ANY network. I had lost hope in the CBC after seeing just how terrible Little Mosque on the Prairie was, but this show has renewed my hope that CBC has some intelligence left in it.

    How about it CBC, renew Being Erica for a second season.

  17. The March 5th show was very touching, and the lesbian angle was handled with great insight and respect. Erin is a fantastic actress. I am finding the time switching back to the present confusing; I think there have been some plot glitches there.

  18. I live in Seattle and my cable company provides CBC. I rarely watched this channel. For pure chance I found “Being Erica”, and I am loving it.

    It seems a neo-nietzschean interpretation of “eternal recurrence”. Even though she changes one aspect in the past, the new timeline seems to have no impact whatsoever in her choices after that.

    I just think the most interesting Character is Dr. Tom. If I were the author, I would certainly call this show “Dr. Tom”. Then, it would give me the freedom to have infinite plots after that. In Being Erica, after Erica becomes a successful publisher married with Ethan, then there is nothing else to talk.

  19. I’m a viewer from the U.S. and wish this show was on an American network (that’s how much I love it) so at least I could lobby for a second season and know my voice would be counted.
    For what it’s worth, there hasn’t been anything as creative, touching, well-written and well-acted, heartfelt, or as wonderfully-watchable on US television in oh, about a zillion years.
    Being Erica deserves a second…and third…and fourth…and fifth season!

  20. LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!

    “Lara Strange says….”

    I second, third… etc… that statement!!!!!!

  21. As a baby boomer in his late 40’s who hardly ever watches the CBC, Being Erica is a nice surprise. I enjoyed the first season very much, the plots are fun and can be related to, even if you’re not a GenX female.

  22. Live in Kenya. watched the entire first episode. Must admit hilarious and quirky. But does lose steam. Me thinks there shall not be too many mistakes so called errors to correct soon…

  23. This is the only show I watch on TV and I absolutely love it. I put my daughter to bed early every Tuesday evening so that I can enjoy it. I am the same age as the main character so it’s so fun to relive trends from my past. Amazing how well researched and accurate the show is. Love it, Love it, Love it!!!!!!!

  24. I LOVE this show! So glad that CBC came up with something that I actually look forward to every week!

  25. It’s a brilliant idea for a show.

    It’s not a brilliant show.

    It gets weighed down in a treacly mess of incoherent nostalgia (honestly, how many students were wearing military jackets and trying to take over the campus administration building in 1997? And has there ever been, anywhere, a white guy who could wear a Public Enemy sweatshirt without looking like anything more than a complete doofus? I submit that there has not), overwrought Family Drama, and an overdose of every imaginable ratings plumping ploy in the history of television. In just the first ten episodes, there was a wedding, a pregnancy, a baby being born (with accompanying hilarious onset of labor), a lesbian kiss, an unrequited romance that suddenly turns requited: it borders on parody. Add to this the Devil Wears Prada boss, the slutty friend, the effeminate heterosexual coworker (a laff riot!), and the dead brother, and the mind boggles. Plus, the family is Jewish, which affords Dad the opportunity to wear colourful yarmulkes as he shuffles about in the background. She even has a Wise Ethnic Friend (though it would have been better if she’d been from one of the First Nations).

    Then there’s Dr. Tom, who epitomizes the yearning for God in a society that clearly and decisively denies their need for a Supreme Being. Clearly, the good doctor possesses some supernatural powers; his ability to suspend the rules of time and space show that. This God, however doesn’t bring salvation, or hope, or even fear: he sits around, spewing increasingly lame quotes and encouraging this perky young gal to engage in endless sessions of navel gazing, albeit navel gazing that occasionally leads to Insight! and Self-Awareness!

    The show reminds me of the Toronto cultural scene: it looks great from a distance, but the more you get into it, the more you realize that it’s just a big, boring, gloppy mess.

  26. This show has huge potential but the problem is that they cast the wrong person as the lead. She seems to unintentionally have a stick up her @ss or is unhappy that she has to get up every day and play the lead role. All of the other actors are great and if they just replaced the person who plays Erica, it could be a show on a mainstream network.

  27. I feel as if the show has a lot of potential! Not only does it tell compelling stories of a struggling editor striving for a better quality of life, but it also teaches about the roots of the current issues of our lives.

    I see nothing wrong with the lead, if there are any issues, it mainly has to do with the script. She plays the lead role perfectly as described by the writers i feel.

    I feel the main focus of the show isn’t who is casted, or how bad the quality of acting is, but rather the quality of the message being delivered. If that isn’t quality, than what is the point in watching….

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