Why does Canadian TV always suck?
I think Coupland should have put crappy television production in to his "Souvenirs of Canada" books. It's part of our national shame just as much as our impotent military the fact that most famous Canadians promptly move to the United States.
What gets me with jPod is that a group of my countrymen, have taken the work of one of my favourite authors and turned it into a two-dimensional b-class production that makes us all look like a nation of high school students. I can't quite peg down one reason why this show is so bad, and maybe that's the problem; if there was only one reason, it wouldn't be so awful. Everything from the black greasepaint smears on the faces of the Chinese boat people to the condescending theme music that plays incessantly in the background (often so loud that you can barely hear the dialogue), wreaks of a lack of effort. I kind of get the feeling that everyone on the show spends so much time patting each other on the back that they don't have time for more than one take of each scene. It's as though the production of an entirely Canadian television program is so rare that it merits nothing more than a round of high-fives... and sadly, it does.
I'll continue to perform my patriotic duty and watch this show, always silently wishing that they'd hire someone from HBO to take it over. But I can't say that my allegiance will last too long... the writers strike can't last forever!