Now if buying Canadian meant having better options. Crave is the only Canadian streaming platform I know of and on top of giving money to Bell, it’s… not great.
Now if buying Canadian meant having better options. Crave is the only Canadian streaming platform I know of and on top of giving money to Bell, it’s… not great.
Science fiction, medical/police/similar dramas, the occasional sitcom, etc. The Big Bang Theory, for example, is not on CBC. Star Trek is not on CBC. The Expanse didn’t originally run and currently doesn’t rerun on CBC. Chicago PD/Fire/Med isn’t on CBC. Grey’s Anatomy isn’t on CBC. Even ER isn’t on CBC. I’m sure they have original Canadian content that tries to be similar, but if you have to literally flip through their catalogue to try to find a show that checks off vaguely similar boxes, that’s most of the problem. Most of the shows I listed are on Netflix, Prime or Crave. Or if you’re strictly buying Canadian, Crave.
You realize that you’re talking about “buying Canadian”, but dissatisfied that the Canadian broadcaster doesn’t have American shows, yes?
It’s more I’m disappointed in the quality of the Canadian shows. But also, watching American TV on a Canadian platform is still buying Canadian. Bell already paid the Americans for the rights.
The first three seasons of the expanse are on CBC Gem.
I don’t watch many police/med procedurals (or much of what you’ve listed) but they seem to have a few procedurals etc, I think Republic of Doyle is one? Oh, Luther is a detective series and solid stuff, not sure if that scratches your itch? A couple others I don’t know much about… Kind of different and I do love Natasha Lyon so I’m biased but Pokerface seems like a fun take on the procedural.
Mr D is a sitcom, seems on par with Big Bang? Also, they have Portlandia which is sketch comedy but hilarious.
Might be a but highbrow but Reservation Dogs is great stuff.
To each their own though, good luck!
The other half of the series is only on Prime.
Yup. I don’t think you can fault CBC gem for not, I dunno, pirating a prime “original” series. (Prime bought the rights once the sci fi channel or whatever it was called cancelled it.)
Oh, I’m not faulting anyone. It’s just an example of why this whole thing is lowkey dumb. If you’re on a strict “buy Canadian” diet, you get half a good TV series. Having watched the whole thing before things got lowkey dumb, that’s kind of a ripoff.
I find that the CBC gem newsletter helps. CBC Gem isn’t a full replacement to all other streaming platforms but it does help reduce usage of the other ones. It’s hard to switch over to Canadian options all at once. Another factor is how difficult it is to hear about content that isn’t popular on social media. Even with content that is on a large streaming platform, people will come across it months of years later wondering why people didn’t mention it before
CBC gem has a lot of pretty good procedural type shows (ex. police dramas), especially when you mix in the content from the UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand. There are some good sitcoms too. Schitts Creek and Kim’s Convenience are popular, but there’s also content from american networks like Animal Control.
I’ve seen Schitts Creek and Kim’s Convenience. They didn’t keep my interest.
That’s unfortunate you didn’t like Schitts Creek, I think it’s solid for what it is. Maybe not top tier, but watchable. Never got into Kim’s Convenience but did see a couple eps.
Have you heard of Letterkenny? It’s like growing up in small town Ontario but it’s great. Kind of a mix of Trailer Park Boys but more up-brow. I’ve started a Lemmy community for it !LetterKenny@sh.itjust.works. Just a few clips so far, but hopefully people will find it and share some interesting Letterkenny content 🤓
I keep meaning to watch Letterkenny, but always end up getting distracted by something else. Perhaps I’ll give that a look.
I may or may not also be from small town Ontario, which may or may not be how I heard of Letterkenny.
May or may not be your thing, but Colin from Accounts and Pen 13 are both critically acclaimed.
They aren’t Canadian shows but are both on gem.
I’ll look them up. Wanna give me the Cliff’s notes?
Pen 13 has 30 year olds playing their teenage selves against actual 14 year olds. Aside from the writing this “gimmick” in itself works and is totally hilarious. It really captures highschool adolescence.
Colin from Accounts is a TV romcom that works. Written by a real life couple playing the romantic leads. They come together over the shared custody of a stray dog that gets injured because the mail lead hits it with his car after the female lead randomly flashes him. Very sweet and touching show.
They sound unique enough that I’ll at least give them a look. And the fact that both leads in Collin from Accounts are a real-life couple makes it interesting on its own.
Fair enough, they’re pretty different in format from traditional sitcoms. I had to look them up to confirm if they were even considered sitcoms.
I did also come across this list, although I haven’t tried the vast majority of these: https://friends.ca/takeaction/how-to-stream-canada/
Definitely saving that link!