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Forced to Watch: Gas Jokes
Who says Canada can't produce a decent sitcom? Brent Butt's Corner Gas pumps out laughs.
When reading reviews, one must account for the Canadian factor. Reviewers generally want to be supportive of local product. This often leads to grade inflation. In order to determine the true worth of a Canadian feature, it is sometimes necessary to knock one-and-a-half stars off the review.
All of which made Jason Chow's review of Corner Gas particularly surprising. The National Post TV critic was not too impressed with Brent Butt's new CTV sitcom, set in a fictional Saskatchewan town. Chow picked away at the portrayal of Prairie life and pronounced Corner Gas, which airs Wednesday at 8 p.m .on CTV, a missed opportunity to find true Canadian comedy on the plains.
OK, Jason. Good for you. You have broken the co-dependent cycle of fawning critics who enable lame Canadian TV projects. But the thing is-Corner Gas is pretty funny.
People actually tuned in
CTV reported an initial audience of over a million for its new sitcom, which makes it a bona fide Canadian hit out of the box. Will it hold that audience after the initial promotion dies down? It deserves to. With the help of a solid writing team, Butt has translated his laid-back comedy into a very likeable ensemble show.
Butt is the award-winning Saskatchewan-born, Vancouver-based stand-up comic who long hosted weekly comedy nights at the Urban Well. In addition to writing and co-producing the series, Butt stars as Brent Leroy, gas station proprietor in Dog River, Sask.
Gabrielle Miller plays Lacey Burrows, a big city gal who has returned to run the coffee shop and attempt to introduce big city innovations like Wing Night (locals think it's a tribute to the sitcom that was "the Dharma and Greg of its day") and Pilates (locals are suspicious-after all, Pilates was the guy who killed Jesus).
Fred Ewaniuk is Hank the wacky friend, and Eric Peterson plays the Brent's irascible dad, Oscar. Oscar's people skills are such that he chases a customer out of the gas station for attempting to take advantage of the "Take a penny, leave a penny" tray ("What are you," he barks, "some kind of communist?"). His parenting philosophy includes the belief that 13-year-olds ought to be able to hold their liquor. Meanwhile local cop Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) works on the town's most troublesome cold case-who painted "Grad '68" on the water tower? (Turns out it was the dyslexic Class of '86.)
B.C. populates the plains
Many of the cast members are West Coast locals, but the show is filmed in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. Very authentic, but perhaps we should be concerned-this sort of runaway production may be an ominous sign for our local film industry. It's when Rouleau stands in for Vancouver that we'll know we have a serious problem.
Corner Gas aims for a slightly surreal brand of comedy and often nails it. It's gentler than the current champ of Canadian TV comedy, Trailer Park Boys, and yup, it has clunky moments. But not enough to really knock you out of the flow. Corner Gas is a welcome entrant from CTV, a network not frequently known for its dramatic output.
So kudos to you for your bold criticism, Jason Chow. We could use more such scathing honesty in the Great White North. Next time, though, aim your guns at The Mike Bullard Show. See how your CanWest Global masters like them apples.
Forced to Watch is an occasional column at The Tyee about what's good and not on television, and widely published writer Steve Burgess is hogging the control. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Nick Benoit (not verified)
7 years ago
I must be the only one who finds this show unfunny. The jokes are predictable and unoriginal, the acting is really bad, and the story lines are weak. This is the same lame kind of humour that spews from other Canadian hits like This Hour and Air Farce...unfunny and unwatchable, but on because it's Canadian. Give me reruns of Seinfeld...even give me reruns of the King of Kensington over this garbage. It's sad that there are really funny Canadians out there, but because the standard of sitcoms, especially Canadian ones, is so low, we get programming like this. Pathetic.
Daryl Haaland (not verified)
7 years ago
?!?!?!!! I just read Nick Benoit's comments and am thinking he must not understand english and that his scathing commentary was translated for this forum by babelfish. Either that or he just simply does not have any one rural in his life what-so-ever. Perhaps that is just exactly it, you need to understand what it is to be simple and uncomplicatedly human, to understand the immense humour in this show. It does poke fun at the simple rural life but also in doing so, it tickles simple urban life as well. That it portrays, seeming incongruously intelligent and or sarcastic individuals at the same table setting as sterotypes is not unusual at all nor does it make it any less funny. All of us I am sure have run into those few individuals, who are living exemplars of a sterotype, and like an 8 year old with a slotracing set most of the fun is in setting up the scenario for an impressive crash. Returning again to the inspiration or this missive, I am struck by something profound, the single unsarcastic example, Seinfeld, of what Nick considers to be good programming is something I have never been able to endure even for one episode, I would spend an hour attempting to watch exactly 3 seconds of every channel in succesion rather than endure a whole sentence of Jerry Seinfeld's whiny tone. So maybe it's just a personality thing, just like its a personality thing that had me write that it's a personality thing, instead of writing all those "yer show sux" letters to Seinfeld. I was more direct I didn't watch it, and since NBC and CTV are both private corporations they ain't gonna promote something that people aren't watching, Advertizing dollars doncha know.