This is How Movies Should Be Made

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I'm not sure how accurate the book was on the industry, this series developed to be more about people than it was about games programming. Most people in the computer industry and gamers know that games are render real-time and all you ever really see them doing is creating cinematic scenes and rendering them. There is never any development of the interface or any demonstration of any control methods.These poorly researched facts just let the series down, they could have picked anything and they chose games programming. They could chosen jpod to have been the pre-rendered cinematic scene department of a larger division and I would not have criticised the series at all on it's realism. The characters however were great, there is some really good acting going on; I think this would have made a second season if they had done their research.

By reading the earlier reviews of unsatisfied viewers, it's easy to see that it was only the first few episodes that did not meet expectations. I personally loved the book and found it's off-beat humour to be hilarious and interesting. When I heard the sitcom was in the works, I was skeptical it wouldn't meet my expectations.Granted, I did not think the first episode was excellent and I worry that too many people judged it right off the bat. It did take the first episode to develop the story but once underway, it is very catchy and one of the few television shows I've had to watch on each new episode day.Jpod is definitely of interest for anyone who is into satirical comedy and a lover of the original novel. Even if you haven't read the book, the show is a huge success in my mind. I crave each new episode each week.

I haven't read the book, but I have read almost every other work of fiction by Coupland and I am a fan of his earlier novels. Coupland's movie Everything's Gone Green was majorly disappointing, so I had hoped for better when watching the first two episodes of jPod. The show has the feeling of Microserfs(Coupland's 1995 book) updated for 2006-2008 - with Coupland once again having his finger on the current culture(ex: googling your co-workers). The young characters who work in jPod are reasonable facsimiles of real people, except for the character of Cowboy. Their work environment in the gaming industry is relatable to anyone trying to be creative while in a corporate climate. I found myself laughing a bit when looking around the office in various scenes, especially in Bree's work area and when looking at the graphics of the game being produced. There are many quirky element that made me want this show to work.But jPod doesn't come off as very original because it has too many elements of Everything's Gone Green: the parents who had lost their jobs and so now grow marijuana, the brother in the real estate business who provides the main character with a free empty condo owned by rich Hong Kong citizens(in case they need to flee China), and instead of the Yakuza in EGG there is a dangerous Chinese criminal boss in jPod which the main character has to contend with. Instead of a potential girlfriend who works as a set designer in the movie business(EGG), the father in jPod is a movie extra, so we can look at bad movies being produced. Alan Thicke is over the top in the role, and I really wish they could of found an actor with a bit more subtlety to work with the wonderful Sherry Miller as the main character's mother. Alan Thicke isn't boring to watch, but all his scenes are excruciatingly terrible.As well, I found the pacing of the episodes to be slow and boring and the main character to be blank(though the main character of many of Coupland's novels are blank while the friends and family around them are more eccentric and interesting). The role of Steve the boss could have been written/or acted better (it's hard to tell who to blame the writers or the actors), because I've seen better versions of this type of character on many British sitcoms who actually manage to make you hate them and feel sorry for them at the same time....instead of just feeling like they do nothing to help the story. I've had bosses who could just be themselves and provide more laughter to the audience and irritation to the other characters that Steve does.ADDENDUM: I stick by what I wrote about the pilot and second episode. Since then, I've read the book and watched more TV episodes. I've discovered that this show has grown on me. The quality of comedy and writing varies from episode to episode, but I have laughed much more than I expected. This is much better than most Canadian made TV comedies(even Corner gas went downhill after the second season),a pity jPod wasn't renewed.

Some elements are entertaining, however this series seems completely out of touch with the industry it's portraying. Working in the games and Animation industry myself I'm aware of the funny and entertaining aspects, and this hits none of them.The series appears to have two tangents, If i was the creator I would focus on the side story involving one of the employees, as the 'work' side of it COMPLETELY misses. Yet another example of a lack of research and advisers.The characters themselves aren't bad, production quality good.Completely out of touch with reality, and not in the interesting and entertaining way.