jPod is my favorite new CBC show since This Is Wonderland. I just wanted to get that out of the way quickly to make sure it was clear. Admittedly I am not much of a TV person, coming into the fall Television season I was down to a mere handfull of shows that I watched regularly and until now nothing had been added to the list, but if jPod can maintain what they achieved in their pilot they've got me. One of the things that turns me off of most shows is that I've already seen them. The majority of what's on television (other than news, current affairs and documentary) consists of one dimensional characters moving through predictable, formulaic plots.
jPod, at least in the pilot, has characters who are quirky, deep, multi-dimensional and interesting. The plot was neither predictable or formulaic. Having to help your mother hide a body so the police don't find her gro-op is bad enough without having to move the body twice after that. Having to help you father hide his affair is bad enough without the affair being with a girl you went to high school with. The show even took the time to give you reasons to like the characters who seemed the least like-able.
For those of you who don't know jPod is based on the novel by Douglass Copeland. It is out the adventures of a team of video game designers working in the sub-basement of "Neotronic Arts, a Vancouver-based video game company."
From the KW Record :
A spirited cross between Chuck, The Office and Corner Gas, this satirical battering ram -- in its delightfully unselfconscious way -- revels in the quirks not only of overaged eccentrics whose lives are a complete fiction, but of a generation of 20-something outcasts for whom titles like "gore specialist" carry the same cache once accorded to brain surgeons and rocket scientists (at least among the under-14 set).
From the Toronto Star:
As I've said before, the litmus test for any television pilot is simple: will it leave viewers wanting more? Well, as the closing credits rolled on my review DVD for jPod (CBC, 9 tonight), I sat in the widescreen glow and found myself craving – craving! – a second episode.
From Media In Canada: (article about the show's website)
One of those sites is the Internet giant eBay. jPod is the first TV or film production to hook into the auction house's new application - eBay Neighborhoods - through which users can buy objects related to the show, such as vinyl action figures, funky sneakers, gaming hardware and hydroponics paraphernalia. The series, based on the Coupland novel of the same name, features a team of videogame designers who spend a lot of time and money online.
As for the rest of CBC's new shows: MVP I have no interest in and likely won't mention it again. The Border I can't comment on, I was at Eyes on Toronto Monday and missed it. Sophie I really wanted to like, but it never grabbed me. Fifteen minutes into the show I was yawning and thinking about my "to-do" list for the next day. I'm still greatly looking forward to Fortune Hunters, but it's doesn't premeire until 6:30 on Saturday and it's a news/current affairs show so - different criteria.
1 comment:
Hi all, Raugi Yu here. I play Kam Fong on jPod. Okay, so you have heard that jPod has not been picked up for a second season by CBC. I got the call a couple of days ago about it.
At first I was upset and disappointed and immediately thought of the great times and experiences I had shooting jPod and how much I would take from that…There was one problem though…I kept wondering why. Why not have a season 2? I started to hear what others were saying. I heard anger, resentment and frustration. So many of you my friends along with thousands, yes thousands, of strangers have expressed outrage over the cancellation of jPod.
I got angry too.
One may think that, “Sure, I’d be angry too if I lost a steady gig like that”. Well that’s not what I’m angry about. Gigs come and go. It is no huge hardship for me to go back to auditioning and booking and living my life as an actor. It is my passion. No. It angers me that the CBC our nation’s television station (yes I know among other things) chooses to cancel a show that is so cutting edge, fun, smart and CANADIAN. So many viewers have gleaned joy from watching jPod week after week. We look forward to it; I dare say we yearn for it.
I’d like to go down swinging. Many of you, who know me well, know that I am quite a loner and I don’t ask for help often even when I need it. I guess I‘m asking now.
I’m a pretty chilled out go with the flow kind of guy, but I recognize that there are times in my life when I’ve got to fight. In surveying the land I recognize that I need a lot of help.
If you feel you can, please call CBC at: 1-866-306-4636, choose option 1 for English programming and choose option 1 again for the “Attendant” then ask for “Audience Services”. Audience Services will answer and at that point tell them how you feel about jPod being cancelled and how you would like to see a season 2.
OR
E-mail them at http://www.cbc.ca/contact/
I alone can reach out to all of you and if all of you can reach even 2 people and we get that people ball rolling…we could possibly be jamming up some phone lines at CBC. Am I being naïve and hopeful? I hope so; it feels better than lying down and taking it.
Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all of you for watching the show and for all the great things you’ve all been saying about it.
Longevity and persistence is the key. Phone or e-mail, if you can do it everyday.
I send my love to you all and just to be clear, that love stays whether you phone, e-mail, write or not.
Thank you all!
Raugi Yu
A.K.A Kam Fong
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