I still watch Canadian TV content, and although I enjoy a lot of what the CBC offers, I generally detest all of its scripted shows (except for
Being Erica and several others). If I had to pick one CBC show to keep alive, it would be
Marketplace (consumer affairs series).
As bad as some of the Canadian TV content is, it still manages to provide opportunities for some very talented Canadians (which often allows me to overlook the poorer overall quality of a specific show and thus still enjoy the viewing experience).
I only listen to AM radio on my boombox (or sports talk radio and music on the Internet), so once the CBC moved to FM, that was it for me (the few bedroom radios I've had, all lost FM reception due to faulty switches). My other working radios are a little bigger and work perfectly, but since I can live without FM radio and prefer AM radio, I still stick with my No-FM, Sony boombox in the bedroom.
Onscreen TV clutter (bugs, snipes, etc.) is on virtually every channel. The CW (hello, America) is one of the worst examples of onscreen clutter. For Canadian TV, CTV is one of the worst thanks to those huge waving pieces of fabric covering up content (thankfully, the CTV online content is clutter free and the commercials can be skipped during its Canadian content - with adblock extensions).
Australia's TV content has improved over the years, so watch your back Canada, the Aussies are coming.
Now that I have access to the world's
fresh content through the Internet, I enjoy sampling some of the poorer attempts at entertaining an audience, just so that it's easier to recognize greatness, or gradual improvement.
My favourite TV content from around the world, in order of greatness:
1. USA (has some of the
best AND
worst content in the world)
2. UK (still suffers from some repetitive and dull scripted-comedy content, but
PhoneShop is one of the black-comedy or farcical gems that has quickly improved).
3. Canada (still room for improvement, but due to its foreign-partnership-scripted content deals, things are looking up ... Canada also still manages to often outshine Australia in the infotainment or group/individual comedy series/specials genres).
4. Australia (its independent-scripted TV content is now often better than Canada's, but some of the scripted content is still below average and worse than some of the sub-par CBC original content)
5. Ireland (very intense crime dramas)
6. New Zealand (still very weak overall, but the scripted, new series
Step Dave is even good enough to be compared with some of the high-quality Australian content).
As for the Made-for-TV movies, the order of greatness is the same, except I'd probably move Australia ahead of Canada, even though both countries rarely produce any TV movies worthy of being called great.
For most of my life as a Rogers cable tv subscriber, I have felt like a prisoner in a third-world country (but with better plumbing), but now that I've stumbled across the wonderful world of Internet piracy, the world's content is at my fingertips.
It's a shame that those in power can't work together more efficiently to let the sun shine more often than it already does, instead of punishing our curiosity for fresh content by imposing so many rules and regulations on us, that many of us just eventually give up and turn to the clever Internet pirates to help rescue us from our forced isolation.
The word
Internet should always be capitalized because it's the capital city of the world ... even though every individual country tries to limit the Internet's reach and claim ownership of everything on it.
Chances are, if you use the Internet long enough, you will eventually be guilty of some copyright violation. Whether it's intentional or accidental, you are still guilty in the eyes of the world. However, since we live in Canada, it's the Canadian eyes that we have to pay most attention to, and that's why we are all curious about what the CRTC and our government, plan to do about competing with the vast reach of the Internet.
To make things better than they are now, they would either have to embrace piracy, or work together with other countries to provide us with the FRESH content (not just the channels) that we deserve.
Content drives curiosity ... Curiosity drives piracy ... Piracy drives the Internet ... The Internet is the child that the world's governments want to raise by fighting for sole custody, rather than accepting the fact that shared custody tends to be better for the child (unless one of the parents is North Korea).
Unfortunately for us, since
Money makes the world go round, and common
sense is more often based on common
Cents, it appears that money drives everything ... even the Pirates.
The Internet is a terrible thing to waste. Netflix knows that, but the world doesn't. The
world is the disgruntled parent in this battle for sole custody of the Internet.
Bottom line: The game is over before it has even begun. Netflix was a valiant attempt at saving the Internet from itself. Netflix vs the World; my money is unfortunately on the World.
Sincerely,
Broken Record Drama Queen