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Reviews
An American in Canada (2002)
Pretty funny and too short-lived
I was sorry to see that this series didn't get renewed, as it was really just starting to find its feet. I'm an American living in Canada, and I really enjoyed it even though it was about a guy who wasn't here by his own choice and was constantly looking for ways to get "back home". At the end of the season (in what now seems to have been the final episode) we saw that Jake was finally getting past the stage of looking at Canada as a temporary annoyance, and was starting to think of it more as his new home and was finding many things about it that he enjoyed; now he's not even sure he'll take the job back in the States that he thought he wanted so badly. A highlight was Jake's frequent conversations with the wise, inscrutable middle-eastern owner of the doughnut shop; rather a more sophisticated version of the relationship between Tim the Tool Man Taylor and his over-the-fence neighbor Wilson, it also allowed us to watch our hapless American grow from selfishly considering him just someone to dispense his coffee and listen to his whining, into realization that he (and everyone else he knew in Canada) was a real person with life experience, and had something to teach him if he would shut up and listen.
It's really a shame that so many clever satiric Canadian programs don't have the big budget that American cookie-cutter schlock has. The writing is better and the ideas are fresher because they aren't simply trying to copy what worked on another show. If they ever got a chance, American audiences would probably enjoy "Made in Canada" or "An American in Canada"; instead they keep getting force-fed the same stuff over & over (whether it's called "Friends", "Will and Grace", or whatever) and they'll never know what they're missing.
Smallville (2001)
Clark Kent's Creek
This show is not bad at all when it sticks to the subject at hand--exploring Superboy's growing into his powers and learning about his past. But it all too frequently meanders into generic teen angst territory and becomes as bland as vanilla pudding. Lana boo hooing about her illegitimate father, Chloe in general (a completely wasted character who exists only to create a Joey/Dawson/Pacey triangle). The spaceship giving Martha and Jonathan a miracle baby just so it could be killed off before it was born--how tacky was that? Pete Ross is woefully under-used, they only let him onscreen when Clark needs someone to drive the getaway car or bury some evidence for him. And has anyone noticed Martha's amazing reverse aging since the beginning of the show? It could be a much better show if they'd stop trying to make it a clone of other WB fodder.
Lex is the most intriguing character of all. It's fascinating watching him fight against his father and his own darker side to try and be a good man; since we know he will ultimately lose this battle, we can appreciate the bitter irony of his struggle even as we are vainly hoping maybe he'll make it after all.
All in all, the show has a potential to be a consistent 9 or 10 but rarely makes it past 7.