Canadian TV Sucks and Why Anyone Should Care

After being thoroughly disappointed by awesome potential of The Border I decided to check out some other current Canadian TV shows and they all seem to have had the entertainment sucked right out of them by Political Correctness. I was watching another CBC show called Little Mosque on the Prairie and it blew. It was scene after scene of wise, tolerant Muslims putting up with blundering bigoted white people stupidly misinterpreting everything they do and suspecting them of terrorism. You can practically feel the Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship nudging you in the ribbs going; "see, see, they're not terrorists, stop being such a racist".

This heavy handed brand of programming is patronizing, dangerous and in no way productive. In my opinion, one of the best movies for the empowerment of women was Aliens. In the multi-million dollar Sci-Fi classic Aliens the character Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) takes command of a squad of Marines because she is the best qualified to do so in that situation. There is no long, dramatic discussion about it, there is no cliché redneck who opposes the idea out of bigotry and later realizes the fault of his position when the woman/minority ends up saving him. People look to the culture to guide them and this was the way it ought to be. On a similar note, the most empowering moments for Sikhs was in the Sopranos when one of the mechanics in the garage was a turban-wearing Sikh and no one mentions it, they just talk to him about the car. Folks will never react well to these patronizing, overly sensitive, contrived portrayals of life - if you want to send a normalizing message about Muslims in Canada just portray them as normal people.

As long as Canadian TV continues to suck civil, honest discussion of issues on the CBC will be hampered, the CBC (controlled by the Canadian government) will have a lower ability to impact on society and Canadians will continue to turn to the US to be entertained.

On a more positive note Irish TV still seems pretty decent - check out this clip from The Panel. I love their attempt at American accents.