From Etan Vlessing of Reuters:
- CBC comedy “Erica” off to strong start
“On Monday night, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. comedy “Being Erica” bowed at 9 p.m. with 575,000 viewers, according to BBM Nielsen Media Research. That’s a strong opening, given that it aired against the World Junior Hockey Championships on the Sports Network, which saw 3.7 million viewers tune in to see Canada defeat Sweden — the most-watched program on Canadian TV since last September.” Read more.
Being Erica is the strongest entry for Canadian drama in years. It’s smart, real and completely lacking in the candy coated phoney television world that American television provides. It’s refreshingly adult while being candidly youthful. Simply put, I love it and will continue to watch.
Andre
I love this show. I completely connected with the story and the main character, Erica. I identified with so many things about her and liked that the show didn’t try to wrap things up in a neat little unrealistic bow as most shows do. I can’t wait for next weeks show!
My wife and I are really enjoying “Being Erica”. Thanks to CBC for repeating the first episode on Sunday January 11 – we were hooked almost immediately by the intelligent script, thought-provoking situations and delightful characters. The second episode was as good or better than the first so Monday nights at 9 are now “taken” in our family. Well done Temple Street Productions! (and thanks for not Americanizing it for south of the border audiences).
Cool show my wife (marylynne) and even my daughter watch it every show.
I am watching the show on DVD.
I like it a lot, but it’s still rather Americanized.
Erica’s first speech, leading off Episode 1, has 2 US pronunciations. In later episodes, we get a character named the Z(ee)-Man, as opposed to the Z(ed)-Man; people “lay” down on the ground (only Americans don’t know the difference between “lay” and “lie”); and then there’s the guy who works for the “railroad” but apparently hasn’t worked there long enough to know that we only have railways in Canada, not “railroads”. That’s what Americans have, not us.
Irritating little details. This is the sort of sloppiness you expect in a CTV production, not the CBC. The CBC is supposed to care enough about Canadianness to worry about the small matters.
Our heroines refer to items that appear to be made out of paper as “napkins”. That’s either low-brow or American-brow, take your pick. Our characters can also be clearly seen wearing shoes in the house. That is as utterly un-Canadian as you can get. They may do that in the States; they even do that in Britain; but in Toronto? Forget it.