Wonderful Movie

Sorry, this movie sucks

Fresh and Exciting

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This Canadian TV series is fantastic. I saw the full first season without leaving my couch. It is impossible to stop watching, that's how good this is. The dialog is intelligent and full of surprising humor, a masterful use of language and theatrical sparks. Actors play the scenes with total involvement, they construct and maintain the atmosphere, the dialog and their glances tie them together in a perfectly directed story. Of course, Paul Gross is bewitching. His screen persona, his voice, his whole act, are so good - a delight. All of them are so good, though. And last, but not the least: the plot is great. You can't help but thinking that this show reproduces in a theater, what is happening on the political stage in the US. People with no taste or culture, but who control the money, try to buy and sell artists. Absolutely the greatest TV series in many years.

Why is this series so homophobic? Not in a loud, overt way; it doesn't ridicule or preach against gay men, it just erases them. (Spoilers follow.)Season One: Oliver Welles is said to be gay, but who is the only person he sleeps with? The leading lady. Season Two: At last, an openly gay character, young Patrick (David Alpay). But what happens? Playing Romeo induces him to sleep with Juliet. Apparently, the producers of this series have found the "cure" for homosexuality: join a theater troupe! (Is this some sort of Canadian joke?)Yes, there is one gay couple among the cast, the two old queens who sing the opening song, but while we see every other couple in the show having naked sex, we never even see these two at home together...and I'm betting that sooner or later they'll turn straight, too, because that's the only function gay men have on this show.

I don't have much to say about this series other than it is one of the best television series of all time! Anyone who has the slightest appreciation for Shakespeare or the theatre in general will get instantly hooked on this series, each season having one of Shakespeare's major tragedies at it's focus. Paul Gross proves himself to be one of the most underrated actors working to day as the brilliant Geoffrey Tennant, and his real life wife Martha Burns is wonderful as star actress Ellen Fanshaw. Stephen Ouimette Steals every scene he's in as the ghost of former Artistic Director Oliver Wells, and in season one there's excellent work from Luke Kirby and a pre-Notebook Rachel McAdams. If you haven't seen this series yet, go buy the DVD immediately!

And, if I may, supplement them with my personal joy that a second season has now(May, 2006)begun, and I am able top enjoy this one both as a theater-lover and as a retired tax man.Since that is all the "spoiling" I wish to do, I will only add that the old characters are better than ever, the new characters and their sociopathologies are fascinating, and the current (only Chapter 3, I believe) plot lines are more fun, more complex, and even less pre-guessable than those of the first season.Vive le festin de Burbage! (One year of high-school French, about 55 years ago.) And how can I get tickets for next summer's season?