Being Erica Premiere Tonight

Just a reminder to everyone that the CBC is premiering Being Erica tonight at 9 p.m. (EST). It basically goes like this Erica Strange, a single woman from Toronto who is experiencing a mid-life crisis (although she looks a bit young for mid-life) meets a hypnotist who allows her to travel back in time and fix her mistakes. So, sort of a variation of 'It's a Wonderful Life' but a series.

So far the reviews have been mostly pretty positive: If you're interested follow the links to read a bit from Macleans, Macleans.ca, Dead Things on Sticks, TV Feeds My Family, the Calgary Herald and John Doyle (Globe and Mail).

The teaser/trailer looks something like this:


I do have two criticisms, neither of which have anything at all to do with the show itself. First of all, if the CBC wants to compete they need to stop putting their new shows up against the top rated programs on the US nets. Most of the time, even during prime time, there is nothing on television and tonight is no exception, but next week Being Erica will be up against 2nd part of 24's 4 hour season premiere. The CBC has an unfortunate tendency to put new Canadian programs up against things like 24, Lost, and Heroes. I don't know if it's bravado or what but it doesn't make much sense.

Bitching point #2 is that the premiere of Being Erica is not national news. The CBC is one of the elite news organizations in the world, but while watching Newsworld today they kept mentioning the Being Erica premiere like it was a news story. Run ads for it on CBC news all you want, that's fair game and a good idea, but running an ad and pretending it's a national news story diminishes an asset the CBC is known for around the world.