Outrageous Fortune

OK, so I'm loving Battlestar (it's still one of the best shows around ... this final season is starting slow... but that's all right... there are still some great moments to be found).

But... since The Wire is gone, Deadwood never had a chance to be gone, and Friday Night Lights is in limbo (it's supposed to be coming back next season), it was time to find a new obsession. And we found it:

Slings and Arrows.



It's a Canadian series from a couple years back (2003-06) about a fictional Canadian Shakespearean theater company. OK, sounds like it's up my alley (theater and Shakespeare). But there's more: the tone swings from twisted comedy (the artistic director is killed by a ham truck), to pathos (the main character is flirting with--if not bedding--madness), to cynical (its discussion of corporate sponsorship is biting), to self-deprecating (the actors are seen as vain and childish at times), to loving (the actors are trying their best and the play is ALL).

Its view of Shakespeare is spot-on; it gets me excited about Shakespeare, and the language, again.

And it doesn't hurt to have Rachel McAdams as the young understudy in season one (and from what I gather, Sarah Polley in season three [we're also getting glimpses of her in HBO's John Adams as well... ok, tangent time: she also wrote and directed an excellent film last year, Away From Her, that dealt with aging and Alzheimer's, a subject close to us because of Lisa's grandmother, GG]).

So I'm a fan, and last night, Lisa and I watched the penultimate episode of the first season. If it hadn't been 11pm, we would have watched the last episode.

While I key this in, I'm listening to an NPR interview with two of the stars (the insane artistic director and his leading lady) from last year... as it turns out they're married in real life (which would explain their chemistry). Of course, in the midst of the interview, it spoils a question that was left hanging at the end of last night's ep, but it won't spoil the pleasure of tonight's viewing.