This week I finally got off my duff and contributed some viewership to a good cause: Canadian Television. There are way more selfish reasons to be choosing or not choosing to watch shows from Canada, but I include supporting the industry and the thousands of jobs it generates here. I can understand that participating on the continuing dialogue of the Canadian identity doesn’t rate as high on the priority list as, say, engaging in a show that actually captures your imagination regardless of where it was made, and that’s why it’s so important to keep digging around to find something that jives. Trailer Park Boys was a great discovery, Intelligence too, I’d even count This Hour Has 22 Minutes as one too. I suppose this is why I got so excited after watching Republic Of Doyle and realising that I’d really like to watch it again.
When I first saw the ads for this show, I thought it was a Canadian production of a story taking place in Ireland somewhere. Goes to show how far astray I’ve gone from my roots since moving to the West Coast. Yeah, this dramedy police procedural is set in St John’s, Newfoundland – except it’s St John’s is painted with a bit of a Boston brush – or at least the Boston the world knows from The Departed; lots of musical accents that bear a suspicious resemblance to The Dropkick Murphy’s “Shipping Off to Boston”, assorted shady characters, all of whom know each other, stuff like that.
The Doyle of this particular Republic is bit of a scoundrel named Jake who makes up one third of a family run private detective agency. Much like Han Solo, Doyle has a cool conveyance (it’s a 1968 GTO instead of the Millenium Falcon), a charming swagger and a tendency to succeed despite mild ineptitude. He’s got women problems in the form of his unstable wife that he’s in the midst of divorcing, and the attractive police constable that hampers his investigations while rebuffing his romantic advances. It might be trying a little too hard to be sexy – its write-up mentions Rescue Me, and I think that’s an unrealistic comparison to make as far as raciness. Regardless, the jokes are on the nose and they keep coming.
The show is funny, fast paced and unspeakably East Coast. Republic of Doyle’s got everything going for it The Beachcombers had, and more. They’ve even got a revolving door of Canadian guests stars (I think all the 22 Minutes cast get a chance at bat, and Intelligence’s Ian Tracey is in the too) so they can maintain the cancon an still deliver an original shuffle of familiar elements to create something new and fun. If there’s one thing the Newfies know how to do it’s finding humour in the midst of tragedy, so could a comedy about a murder sleuth have a better setting than this.
And the best thing about it? It just got renewed for a second season. Meaning that beyond the remaining 6 episodes of the first season left to air, there’s another 12 or so to come after that.
You can watch Republic of Doyle on CBC on Wednesdays at 9, or head on over to CBC’s website to watch whole episodes online.
Great review! Your comments about the accents are confusing though — most people from there really do talk that way, you know? (If anything, some of it is pretty toned-down).
Thanks Michael! Actually when I mention musical accents, I was refering to the use of music to accent the performances. Things like the use of fiddles and steel flutes. Yeah, I’ve known more than afew Newfies in my time, and you’re right – the accents definitely get a lot thicker than that. Do you think they toned the accents down on purpose to reach the rest of the country?
Oops, sorry about the accent / accent mix-up — the perils of reading things too quickly, I suppose!
I think they’re walking a fine line with the dialect, and doing a good job of it. There’s pressure to both “accurately” portray local culture (especially in a way where ‘they talk funny’ isn’t the punchline of the joke), but of course the show also has to be comprehensible to people who may not be familiar with Newfoundland.
I don’t think they’re toning things down per se, but they’re probably conscious of trying to hit the ‘right’ middle-level, enough to be ‘exotic’ and ‘interesting’ without being caricatures or requiring subtitles. They do throw the odd bone to the die-hards, though — I remember, in an early episode, Malachy calls Jake a “sleveen” and I (a Newfoundlander stuck in Ontario for the time being) couldn’t help but clap my hands and exclaim “yes!”
It’s nice to see a nationally broadcast show which isn’t trying to hide Newfoundland’s distinct culture and language, but which also doesn’t make it the punchline of the joke — it feels unforced and natural, which I’m sure is very much a deliberate thing on the part of the people who make the show.
I think it’s really important to have a show that pushes the NL culture out to the rest of the country. With the number of shows that have come out of the East coast, like Codco and 22 Minutes, they’ve been sketch shows that don’t really explore the outside world or help outsiders understand what it’s all about.
They’ve been doing a good job lately of bringing out shows that speak to parts of the country that might not have been seen as much over the years, by which I mean places that aren’t Toronto. Heartland, Wild Roses, Intelligence (maybe even North of 60) have all done a great job at showing distinct areas of the country and letting people know its not all one big homogeneous mass North of the 49th.
What’s a “sleveen”?
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