Despite this recent crushing week that has gripped all of Quebec, let’s not forget that the fall fairy will soon be sprinkling her pumpkin spices on every imaginable type of meal at Starbucks, where parents in Patagonia jackets will (unembarrassingly) use their children for photo sessions in the orchard and that candles with the scent of “wood fire and strawberry fir” will burn in several very hygge living rooms.
Posted at 1:38 p.m. Updated at 7:15am.
Yes, it’s back to school, it’s time for soothing soups, chunky knits, Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums, tuques worn indoors, giant scarves that swallow our heads, Gilmore Girls-style fall underwear, you name it .
It’s also (finally!) the start of the TV season in Quebec, and that’s a lot less sad than watching the November rain fall while listening to Bon Iver and crying over the summer when apparently nobody got really pretty.
Not surprisingly, I can’t wait to sit down in front of therapist Louise Sigouin and her singles again on Monday in search of a) an ass-washing toilet, b) a better inner world, and c) a platter of charcuterie that I can enjoy in bed, in silk pajamas, with Émily Bégin and Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge.
Of course, I can’t wait to vibrate with the millions of viewers tuning in to STAT and Indefensible simultaneously on Radio-Canada and TVA. This is an almost unique phenomenon in the world as the two most popular feature film series on screen in Quebec air daily Monday through Thursday.
The overwhelming appeal of STAT and Indefensible shows that while generalist Quebec television is slowing down, it still manages to create connecting events that spark many telecommuting discussions we used to call coffee machine talk.
Watching TVA’s and Radio-Canada’s fall programming, one observation catches the eye and dangles from Jean-Philippe Wauthier’s wrist like a friendship bracelet: the two major broadcasters are happily resorting to their pay-for digital platforms to garnish their TV nights .
TVA published Club illico Les temps des framboises (Wednesday at 9pm), Mégantic (Tuesday at 8pm) and the second season of Portrait-robot (Tuesday at 9pm). Very good series that deserves better exposure. And you don’t have to pay to put them on.
The same goes for Radio-Canada, which is beefing up its extra de tou. tv offers the fourth season of Plan B (Wednesday at 9 p.m.) and the series Fragments (Tuesday at 9 p.m.) by Serge Boucher. Nothing is lost, everything is recreated – without a subscription!
Before the new Quebec wave hit us, I had time to record several American and foreign series, including Who is Erin Carter?, one of the most watched titles on Netflix in three weeks. How do you say ?
PHOTO SAM TAYLOR, PROVIDED BY NETFLIX
Scene from “Who Is Erin Carter?”
It’s bad. In that sense: You start the first (of a total of seven) episodes of this action thriller and know immediately that you will make it to the end despite the silly and bizarre plot. It is like it is.
We meet Erin Carter from this British miniseries while she is a substitute teacher at a private school in Barcelona. Nice suburban house, nice nurse husband, the beautiful Erin leads a normal life until one day she gets involved in a supermarket robbery by accident. Suddenly our sweet Erin turns into a violent Killing Eve type spy who meets Jason Bourne.
Where is Erin from, destination? Who trained this secret agent? Which agency does she work for? In French and English, the seven episodes of Who is Erin Carter? are full of stunts, fights, wild chases and it’s irresistible even if it’s not at all plausible.
Still on Netflix, I devoured the second season of Selling the OC, Selling Sunset’s little beach sister, in one sitting. Honestly, this romantic real estate reality show is being consumed like a bag of chips. Quickly and with great regret.
In fact, it is a soap opera disguised and written as a documentary reality. The original and lively recipe for Selling the OC (Sun to spare: Orange County) never moves: the moving camera shows us ultra-luxurious seaside villas while the real estate agents, all straight out of a TV perfume ad by Jean Coutu, argue about terrible brushed metal desks.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NETFLIX
Sell the OC. Starring Polly Brindle, Gio Helou, Brandi Marshall, Jason Oppenheim, Alex Hall, Austin Victoria, Kayla Cardona, Brett Oppenheim, Alexandra Jarvis and Tyler Stanaland
Bonus: a few appearances from evil twins Jason and Brett Oppenheim, the two bald dudes who run the real estate agency at the heart of the big-quote “plots.”
We have a feeling that the producers of Selling the OC pushed the machine further to provoke conflicts between the agents, who only talk about money, how much they make, how much they spend, it’s borderline obscene.
But hey, there’s also office gossip, telegraph romance and professional breakups to general pop music. How can you not love that, seriously?
Also, the sun-drenched images of Selling the OC somehow prolong the summer until the arrival of Fall Fairy #$%@ from the Pumpkin Spice Latte, help detain her at customs.