I just received an e-mail from Apple with a subject line that actually grasped my attention. I usually delete every e-mail I get from Apple because I don't care about the newest upgrades or nifty things that Apple has come out with just after releasing something equally nifty the day before.
I always kick myself for making the mistake of signing up for those subscriber lists. I still get e-mails on a daily basis from Travel Cuts and Sephora. I've tried to unsubscribe but some evil genius is preventing me from doing this.
Anyways, the subject line of this particular Apple e-mail read; "Great TV shows now available on iTunes Canada." I became very excited because alhtough you can download TV shows quite easily the quality is not always the best. And it can be stressful to doneload things. It requires a lot of patience and I find myself checking on my downloads every half hour or so. These are precious moments I could use doing something else like watching TV, checking Perez or creeping on Facebook.
So the arrival of this new time saver made me quite excited. In retrospect I should have known that the words "Great" "TV shows" and "Canada" do not belong together. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about the TV shows iTunes has decided to advertise with are "Corner Gas", "Degrassi; The Next Generation" and "Dragon's Den." Now, don't get me wrong Corner Gas is an awesome show. Me and my brother went through an entire season of that and the short lived "Wonderfalls" on a car trip to Sugarloaf. Although we both asked ourselves, "Why did we watch this garbage?" the important thing is that we watched it. Corner Gas is funny in a sad Canadian way but I wouldn't classify it as a "Great Show." The same goes for Degrassi. That show was amazing back in the day and to be honest the "New Generation" is just as awesome. Me and my housemate would become irate if we discovered we had missed it. It's good mindless crap that should be watched.
Still, it is not something I would EVER buy on DVD or admit to others that I actually watch. As for "Dragon's Den" what the fuck is that? It makes me think of Dungeons and Dragons which is never a good thing. Also, the promo photo features a bunch of scary ass dudes in suits and a fugly redheaded woman with a single white stripe in her hair. Only Alexandra Cabot from Josie and the Pussycats could get away with that look and even that traumatized me as a child - "Is she a skunk?" "Is she old?"
So to sum it up, being a Canadian sometimes sucks. We're stuck with shitty shows that often fail and shitty shows that somehow succeed. And then, as if we haven't been insulted enough, these shows are used to introduce a feature that was previously only available in the states. But, I'm not complaining. It just makes me sad to think of the people who will pay to have "Robson Arms" and "Instant Star" readily available on their iPod. Somehow that's more embarrassing than admitting you actually enjoy these Canadian guilty pleasures. For now I'll just keep pushing my new computer to complete endless downloads and use up it's valuable hard drive.
