Friday, July 11, 2008
TV Talk
WORKING: So, media are not big fans of Flashpoint.
TREVOR: Surprise surprise.
WORKING: Funny how much you can tell from a simple one-sheet work up: "Oh yeah, this is going to suck."
TREVOR: It's just this never-ending need of Toronto filmmakers to create these high adrenalin concepts. We just don't do that stuff well.
WORKING: Man-o-man, the parallels you can draw in Canadian reality tv.... Let’s face it. We suck at action-drama. Maybe it’s cuz we’re not a dramatic people. Or particularly active, heh.
TREVOR: Well, we just don't have that aggressive high-octane vibe. Americans have it in spades. And when even when it's kinda fake, you still accept it
WORKING: We can be irreverent and funny. We can take the piss outta each other. We GET sarcasm and irony. Maybe that's why it never works when we try to be all serious and action-packed. You can practically see the writers and half the cast and crew rolling their eyes.
TREVOR: It is possible to do a gripping police drama in Canada. Absolutely. We just have to throw away the U.S. templates. That's why we fall short. Everyone has stories and they can all be dramatic.
WORKING: Right. It would be a different kind of police drama. It'd be dry, humourous and dramatic in its sadness, death, loss and disappointment. All that meets bare-bones funding and NO guns-blazing shoot-outs!
TREVOR: Exactly. You may have the tough guy cops who say movie type lines, but then it would cut to the true blue cops rolling their eyes.
WORKING: Like House, character-wise, but without all the fancy equipment. Long wait times would be part of the joke.
TREVOR: I hate how hospitals and labs look like ad agencies. THAT is why I don't like Bones
WORKING: Well, thanks to TV, we picture the FBI, CSI and CIA all kitted out with futuristic, high tech crime solving gear. But 1. that's a myth and 2. it's not our myth. So we can't tell the story as well.
TREVOR: Exactly. We can't base our myths on someone else's myths. It becomes a copy of a copy and by the very nature of that, the quality degrades. Or feels satirical.
TREVOR: or somethin'
posted by Working From Home Today
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