The End of Hockey Night in Canada 2026

The renewal of the very lengthy 12 year Rogers NHL contract should have been a clue. Some of the changes were already announced such as Amazon Prime games as well as more Netflix games. Television came to Canada in 1952 and that is when CBC began to broadcast it on Saturdays. Foster Hewitt led the TV broadcast from that year until 1965. It was familiar territory for him as he had been the national radio broadcaster for hockey since 1931. From 1952 to 1965 CBC TV and CBC radio simulcast Hockey Night in Canada.

Everything about hockey broadcasting was as a result of the CBC and it went on to become the most watched sport on a weekly basis across Canada. Alas, the profitability of it made it more difficult for CBC to keep bidding on it and winning. They could have possibly had a partnership and retained some rights but dropped the puck on that. Rogers took control in 2014 and only used the CBC network for its coast to coast broadcast reach as well its talent.

As of June 16, the CBC will not host any NHL hockey on Saturday as Rogers brings it all in house. Both sides, Sportsnet and CBC, jointly announced the end of the arrangement. Neither side as really indicated what comes next aside from the name will change for Rogers broadcasts on Saturday on CityTV, Sportsnet channels and streaming partners like Netflix and Amazon Prime. It will likely cost more to see hockey each year as more things move to streaming.

In the early part of my life, Hockey Night in Canada was on a bit too late for me. By 1968, they were on at 7 in Winnipeg on Wednesdays on CTV and Saturdays on CBC. The French channel broadcast every Montreal Canadiens game Saturday so if, by chance, the Canadiens were not on CBC, the switch was made to French. The Canadiens were on a lot though because they were a winning team with the best players. By 1975 CTV was no longer doing weekday games but individual channels were. Winnipeg was not one of them. Our family only got cable and a colour TV by 1971.

There was only one game a night Saturday even though Vancouver Canucks joined in 1970. Back to back games only happened occasionally when Wayne Gretzky was traded to Los Angeles Kings in 1988. After, when a Canadian team was in LA, CBC made time for a back to back game. It was in 1994 that back to back games became the staple of Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday. It was no doubt because of the frustration in much of Canada that the Toronto Maple Leafs were locked into Saturday night, every night, despite the lack of a winning record.

Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary all came on broad the NHL from 1979 to 1980, the most any western team could hope for was many one or two games on HNIC. This is where the regional broadcasts by CTV and CKND became very important. Many fans of the Winnipeg Jets came to believe there was a curse playing on Hockey Night in Canada and still do. We often performed poorly.

Prior to 1979 though, it was possible to be a fan of the WHA Jets as well a team in the NHL. And there were plenty of those. My dad was originally from Montreal so the Canadiens were a favourite and the fact they were a very winning team meant I liked them a lot. The first NHL game for the Jets versus Canadiens, everyone wore tuxedos and ball gowns. It felt like a royal affair.

To get NHL hockey for the 2027-2027 season, Canadians will have to have pay for a cable or streaming subscription. CBC was free for everyone. It is hard to get regular season viewer numbers but Hockey Night in Canada likely got a base of 500,000 people for the first game of the night and rose higher according to who was playing the Leafs. In the playoffs, Canadian matches could bring in 5 million viewers in Canada alone if a Canadian team was playing.

This was the best year for NHL ratings for playoffs in many years. Live television is still something that can attract eyeballs but the new Rogers contract is more than double the last contract. A licence agreement on CBC is not enough money and certainly more than CBC was willing to pay when it doesn't get any ad revenue from broadcasting it. The grand bargain was that CBC was able to provide studio and labour resources. Rogers took that all in house three years ago. So, coming this fall, there will be no Saturday NHL that is free to watch for Canadians.

The CBC has been instrumental in creating the dynamic of how the NHL, CFL and curling are broadcast. Eventually, these sports became so successful, they longer needed the public broadcasters support. The private networks now want these jewels and it will be to Canadians to see if they want to pay for them. With many people cutting cable, the hunt for sports could take people to many streaming sites. In the end, it might be as expensive as cable was.

Rogers will be going into details about the new name and look and where to find their NHL games. Toronto fans might end up paying the most since they have the most games broadcast. There may be a re-evaluation on hosts, panels and even how the broadcast is filmed. At this point, all we know is it will look different. And if a new streamer is added for the mid-week game, what will that look like? Another subscription? A new broadcast team?

As for CBC, the new program will feature sports on Saturday. The Hockey Night in Canada name will pop up from time to time. More than likely for women's hockey although we might see university hockey for men and women now as well. To be blunt, compared to the U.S., Britain and Australia, we are pathetic for sports coverage. There is superior high school and college sports coverage in much smaller North Dakota. Some of our national newspapers barely cover sports. We are luckier than most in Winnipeg that we have reporters who cover sports for both our newspapers but it has been a long time since The Sun has sent reporters on the road to travel with teams. The Free Press is one of the last newspapers to do that. CJOB does exceptional sports coverage but it is for programs they could rights for.

Our national news media barely covers it. Nada is in the National Post. The Globe has a tiny sports section. The media companies have gutted their local sports departments in radio and TV. Most newspapers barely report on amateur sports even in their own areas. The CBC could have plenty of material in sports they could build an audience in at a fraction of the cost. It has been many a year since ABC and CTV's Wide World of Sports but it does show that one network can cover a range of amateur and professional sports. No one else in Canada is covering these areas and CBC has a proven track record of building an audience for Canadian sports.

I remember watching Jim McKay on Wide World of Sports and so many sports were introduced to me from watching that show. In Canada, Rod Black eventually hosted the CTV version. One of the reasons these sports shows ended is because of the rise of the four professional sports leagues taking up more and more of the schedule. Expansion teams like the Blue Jays in 1977 and the Jets and Nordiques in 1979 and Calgary shortly after in 1980 expanded coverage of those sports. CTV gave up on the Wide World of Sports in the mid 1970s but had other sports they began to cover.

CBC has one other asset that can enhance their newly focused Saturday Night and that is their streaming service Gem. Sports on the network can be mirrored on CBC.ca as well as Gem. In fact, Gem has been seriously underutilized since it was founded in 2018. It seems only now they are realizing they can actually bring older CBC material there that is still popular as well as commission to kids and documentary material. This applies to news and sports. There is no reason that Gem can't be the Tubi or DAZN of the north. It is time the CBC took sports seriously as part of its national mission.

Lost in Space Season 2

I watched the season 1 of Lost in Space Season on Netflix in 2018. Despite the fame of the original series, I never did see it. It aired on CBS and our family didn't get cable with American channels till years later. It also didn't air in syndication locally in the 1970s or 1980s.

And yet, it was hard not to notice the robot over the years. It guested on other shows along with its cousin from Forbidden Planet (a movie I never got to see either until the 2000s). When the big Hollywood theatrical production came to the screen, I was familiar with the characters, storyline and knew all the catchphrases but still hadn't seen the series. It had since aired on TV locally by then but it it had missed its golden moment when I had been young enough to appreciate it.

And the original TV version was indeed aimed at kids...relentlessly so. The writers eventually wrote themselves into a corner with Will Robinson, Dr. Smith and the robot and their zany comedy adventures. In the end their audience outgrew them. And it left little room for growth or things to do for other characters..

As for the movie, it was a hodge podge of being an ode to the show and a big special effects splash but it bogged down on story and character. The special effects also were problematic as many early CGI movies often were. The mostly good cast had little to work with.

Streaming television companies like Netflix pride themselves on analytics. It is why they buy certain TV programs that they know have an audience or are comfort food for those who will watch and re-watch again. Re-visiting these new programs with re-makes can be fairly lucrative.

The first season of Lost In Space had a good cast, good special effects and a reasonable origin story. Indeed, so much goes on in the first 10 episodes that it seems frantic compared to the second season. Ending on a cliffhanger, it was curious whether the series would be able to carry on such a pace. For a network program historically, a series was allowed 22-24 episodes to build an audience. Nowadays, a series is lucky to get 6 to 10 episodes.

I watched the first 10 episodes knowing it had already been renewed. Keeping that in mind, it was a relief that the Lost in Space took a step back to start Season 2. The Robinson family along with Dr. Smith and Don West are in survival mode on the planet. No robot around and the ship too disabled to lift off from a toxic environment. Nine months have passed and they are working well but it is precarious. Methane outside and nasty storms make a disaster seem inevitable and yet division and secrets abound even as the family has never been closer.

Dr. Smith remains locked up as her duplicity and danger to everyone is accepted by everyone even when she has helped save family members when not trying to take over. Husband John feels he has the chance to reconnect with his wife and kids after years of not being there while Maureen feels that they still need to get off the planet because of its obvious dangers. The engine not working, no robot and very little power generated have thwarted efforts.

A desperate plan to float the Jupiter to a predictable electric storm area on the sea is only undertaken when they lose their entire crop to storm and methane exposure. Little do they know till later that Dr. Smith is responsible for the sabotage to change her circumstances as well as the Robinsons.

There are good actors in the show. Molly Parker, Toby Stephens and Parker Posey as John, Maureen and Dr. Smith are all excellent. The young actors that include Maxwell Jenkins are uniformly great.

The second season was far superior to the first season. Many questions were answered and many questioned remain. And yes, the robot returns. Still, I wonder if the story of the Robinsons in space has the power to continue. Netflix wants grand scale and yet the series had it strongest moments when it shows the family working together as a smaller unit for survival. Lets see if there is a third season.

The Purge, The Mist, Lost in Space Reviews

The Purge movies have always been just a little bit more than violence. The politics behind it seems vaguely what an out of control America might do. The movie series introduced the concept and went back and explained a bit how it all started. The TV series gives even more background but delves right into the action with a new Purge just about to happen.

The series from 2018 runs 10 episodes and in Canada was on Amazon Prime. The second season begins this October.

The series follow a number on people who are willing participants in The Purge to those that are the victims of it. No particular actor stands out though a few are known actors. The rest are carrying their first show. Any thought that a long form story would be more compelling is lost by the fact that the actors are not particularly likable. That isn't always a problem but if that is the case, the character has someone you love to hate instead. We don't get that either.

The Purge only take places for 12 hours once a year. Not sure what I was expecting but perhaps it was a better character arc. For example, The Walking Dead first episode really set up a good reason to follow the entire first season. The Purge really didn't do that for me.

By the way, one of the reasons I left The Walking Dead and stopped watching Fear The Walking Dead was that they were relentlessly downbeat. And increasingly they had unlikable characters. And I'm not talking about the villains. The Purge never caught me is that they didn't have characters I wanted to follow. Moreover, they had characters that struck me as too stupid to live. This is a worse crime in my book.

I won't be watching the second season.

The Mist which aired on the Spike Channel in the U.S. and Canada was based on the Stephen King story and the movie of 2007. The series ran an episode run in 2017 and can be caught on some streaming services now. It was cancelled by Spike.

The book, the movie and the series have various difference but the one consistency is that a fog descends on a town and traps people in their homes or for many, a supermarket/mall. Also consistent is that in the mists are creatures that are killing people.

The series started off promising and the ratings indicated a winner. However, somewhere along the show went off the rails. A major departure was that the mist did not only have creatures within it but mind altering visions. While this might have made for interesting back stories, it also raised serious questions.

There were hints that there were chosen people who were immune. This led to persecution or blindly following someone for messianic reasons. The book and the original movie were more clear that people took sides out of fear not and that religion took a part in dividing people. The series took the position that nature was judging humanity. To say the least it was a bit muddled.

What wasn't muddled was the same thing that The Purge was guilty of: no likable characters.

The book left things off somewhat hopefully that somewhere far off there was a place the mist had left alone. Our remaining characters head there. The movie had a Twilight Zone-like ending which I won't spoil. The TV series left things off that our major characters have escaped the mall and are now headed to where the mist all began.

We'll never know what that is cause the show was cancelled. Even if it had been renewed I would have not watched.

Lost in Space on Netflix, not be confused from the TV series of 1965-1969, is a 2018 releases series released on the streamer. Like the series before it, the show is based on the 1812 novel Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss about a family shipwrecked in the West Indies. It has been adapted countless times but putting the story into space was possibly the most innovative. There was also a movie in 1998 that had some seriously questionable special effects and wooden dialogue. The bad dialogue might have been forgivable for sci-fi but not terrible special effects.

A family caught up in extreme circumstances makes for a compelling story. Setting it in space sets the imagination running. The original series went through a number of phases including from black and white to colour and from more serious to whimsical. Some people loved part of the show but not all of it and that varied year to year. And eventually, the show fell into a trap of Dr. Smith, Robot and youngest boy Will Robinson as the central characters. That would be popular and also be its undoing. The robot's phrase of Danger Will Robinson Danger would live on long after the series.

It seems that the space version of Swiss Family Robinson falls into the same traps every time. There is nothing wrong with the initial premise that Earth is facing increasing pressures due to population or catastrophe or hostilities. Colonization and using families as a unit makes sense insofar as cohesion, especially if there is no return to Earth. However, it can make things boring too if you have no outsiders who may be friends, foes, romantic partners, competitors or any and all configurations.

It seems Lost in Space writers have considered this and the reasons previous versions of the show failed. However, ultimately the same Dr. Smith, boy and robot format appears to what is relied upon. In 10 episodes it is surprising how little character depth actually happens. Almost everyone is a cardboard cutout.

There are a few good actors on the show but they hardly seem to have enough that makes standout. The series has been renewed for another season. I'm prepared to see if the show breaks out. It is important to know that many of the best TV series of all time had at least 20 to 24 episodes to show their worth. Still, my patience is wearing with this show.

TV and Movie Reviews Snapshot...Chernobyl

With so many competing streaming services, cable and premium channels and regular TV, it could generally be said peak TV has arrived. Streaming is even competing with movies now with a short window in theatres and then exclusive rights on Netflix or Amazon or whatever.

I occasionally review movies here but don't get to as many as I once did. That's the price of work and also trying to do other recreational things within and outside the city. Time and a budget are always at a premium.

In the days of fewer channels, the shared experience of watching things together at the same time on TV or theatres was huge in its immediacy. Now, only live sports is that immediate. Video recording starting in the 1980s changed things a lot but it was more about the speed than total loss of immediacy. For example, recording TV usually meant you tried to watch the recorded program within a short timespan. The reasoning behind that was that blank tapes were not exactly cheap in the beginning.

TV series were rarely rented or sold on tape as they would take up so much space.  I remember how the only video cassettes I often saw of series were Seinfelds.

Streaming has killed both the video rentals market as well as downloads. The only recordings people make now are with PVRs for TV. Even that is not really owned by you. It is digitally stored and has some limits. It can expire and delete. You can reach maximum amount of storage. It is not the same as having the movie or TV series in your hand. But then again people seem to have accepted that.

My big complaint about cable has been and still is that despite so many channels there is not as much international TV series or movies on it. Netflix and others in the never ending drive to feed content goes everywhere to find as well as fund it. And now other streamers are doing it too.

Truth be told the big studios and broadcasters are all reaching a convergence where they do everything from theatrical releases, DVDs, Video on Demand, network and cable, streaming and downloads. And working with partners to create bigger productions, shared budgets or access to other markets including broadcast and production.

HBO has become more than a premium cable channel. In Canada it is now an anchor for Crave TV in Canada for their streamer. Game of Thrones has been an important part of driving traffic to the channel in recent years. However, it is not the only quality program that has come from there. In some ways HBO originally faced the same accusation that it mostly made money from movie content produced by other studios including its own. If that was once true, it isn't the case now. They have produced their own material from all the way back to the 1980s. In 1983, they produced Fraggle Rock which was filmed in Canada in partnership with CBC.

Following Game of Thrones many wondered if HBO still had the chops to draw eyeballs to their network. That has proved true with Chernobyl.

Chernobyl

This is a five part mini-series based on the real event of the explosion in a nuclear plant in the USSR in 1986. It is by the far the scariest series I have ever seen. The first episode I could only take in short amounts. So deep was my sense of dread that I winced every time a decision was made that was truly and curled up in fear as it unfolded.

There has been a great deal made about how authentic the series is. Complaints and kudos are all over the place. The producers went to great lengths to tell the story and make it look and feel like 1986. However, it is a dramatization and some characters are a composite. And the dialogue is at best a guess as the interactions among the players. 

While there is a large cast, there main focus is on three. The actors are Jared Harris, Stellan Skargard and Emily Watson. Essentially, the represent the political and scientific response to the nuclear disaster. Quite simply the performances by the stars is simply the best are are likely to be forgotten during award season.

As for the story, the first episode starts off with a bang and confusion and absolute terror. That horror comes from the fact that no one seems to know what happened or how bad it is. There is denial even as evidence of people being exposed to huge doses of radiation is exhibited. Once the extent of the continuing disaster happens, the story in future episodes tells what the response is in terms of evacuations, putting the fire out and the capping the damage.

The continued exposure and deaths of those responding to the crisis weighs even as the investigation goes on side by side of the response to the explosion. And throughout this, the oppressive and secret Soviet society denies, covers up or otherwise inhibits the truth until it threatens all the Soviet Union and Europe.

The final episode takes place in a court and re-creates how and why the explosion takes place. It is still frightening but intercut with explanations that make it more clinical. In the end, the story concludes with vignettes about the players in the story.

All in all it is great television. The best. I suspect the ending might have been more conclusive with an a death estimate but even now there is controversy in regards to it all in both the east and the west. Still, great television on a subject you would not expect such great writing and acting from.

Netflix Review: Trapped

It used to PBS that could reliably bring non-North American drama to Canada. The private channels had plenty of U.S. fare to choose from and where mandated, produced Canadian material that was sometimes indistinguishable from the American stuff. CBC, on the other hand, was mandated to produce Canadian drama so material from say, Europe, would have had to have been co-produced for unique reasons.

In recent years more work is done in partnerships and demand for unique voices is strong right around the world. Canadian material has reached such a high level of production in terms of story, acting and location that its audience is no longer limited to home geography.

In today's broadcast world, Canadians see some material from overseas on Canadian channels but it is still very limited. PBS continues to be a powerhouse but skews heavily British. Nothing wrong with that except there has been other exception material missed along the way.

Nordic Noir are the words to describe movies and series coming out of places like Sweden, Norway and now Iceland. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series out of Sweden is some of the best television you are going to find on Netflix. Occupied from Norway was amazing. And now from Iceland we have Trapped.

It is a series that can be found on Netflix and is now into its second season running 20 episodes. It is very binge-worthy. Each season revolves predominantly on one case and the complications that surround it. Agatha Christie being channeled through the beautiful lens of Iceland and story about a dogged police officer and his team.

The story takes place Seydisfjordur, an isolated port town in Eastern Iceland connected to other area by a single desolate road, airport and port. The Chief of Police Andri has left under a cloud from work in Reykjavik but still commands respect despite enemies. His family life is in turmoil. His wife has split up with him and is seeing someone new in the capital. His daughters, who remain with him, are school bullies. To make matters worse his wife is coming to town with the boyfriends to take the daughters away. All of this, of course, is happening under one roof as the weather worsens.

As a blizzard heads towards the town, a torso of a body is pulled from a fishing boat just as a ferry pulls into port arriving from the mainland bringing with it Icelander, assorted Europeans and others. The ship is held as Andri and his team of two officers try to figure out who the culprit is as the storms socks them in. No one can leave and no help can come in. And the murderer is most certainly in their midst.

The title Trapped certainly holds true over ten episodes. Haunting, suspenseful and full of twists, it is hard to stop watching. The writing, acting, production, music and beautiful scenery it makes it far from ordinary.

The second season of 10 episodes doesn't replicate the blizzard conditions but emphasizes how people and society themselves are trapped in patterns that are difficult to break. We catch up with Andri who is back in Reykjavik but who ends up heading back to Seydisfjordur because of an attempted assassination is linked to a militant group in the isolated town.

Once again murder drives the investigation but this time it is also right wing politics, international business, the environment, foreign workers and deep family secrets showing how people are trapped by the past, present and future. And poor Chief Andri has to deal with a daughter whose nose for trouble puts her in the path of a killer.

Old characters are re-visited and some are doing better than others. All of this again is shown amidst the beauty of Iceland and how it continues to try to pull itself up from the economic crisis of 2008. So much has been displaced and for many, such a the sheepherders clad in their Icelandic sweaters, it has brought out the worst in them. But there is more to it all and is rooted in the deep horrible secrets of one family in town.

The two seasons of this show are worth sitting through even with captions. As fine a production as you will find in the world.

Netflix Review: Secret City

There are two seasons of Secret City on Netflix starring Anna Torv as an investigative reporter on one the Daily Ntion based out of Australia's capital Canberra. The term Secret City comes from John le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy, the follow-up to the George Smiley epic Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This should give viewers an idea that the series will have a strong espionage angle.

This series was based on the political novels of Chris Uhlmann and Steve Lewis and their books The Marmalade Files and the Mandarin Code. The main protagonist is journalist Harriet Dunkley working with the Daily Nation who stumbles upon a young man drowned during the course of her morning rowing. Immediately she sniffs a story and leads to a conspiracy that threatens her life as well as others.

A number of series in Australia have explored the feelings Australians have on the subject of big brother and the state. The China and United States dynamic plays a huge role on modern Australia who feel squeezed and vulnerable while their own state monitors its citizens for signs of protest. It is a level of paranoia we don't see on Canadian TV too much as we seem more focused on corporate control on our lives. This could be a reflection of how much corporations like HBC and Canadian Pacific Railway settled huge portions of Canada. Distrust runs deep.

Anna Torv as Harry the investigative political reporter hearkens back to an older journalism that is hard to find today. She is not a TV personality but a writer who is part of the press gallery in Canberra covering national politics. Shot on location in the capital, Secret City really shows off an area of Australia that has largely been unseen by many. The modern capital building has only been in existence since 1988. Netflix has a number of series courtesy of some of the film funding from Canberra government support and the result is seeing a different side of Australia.

Insights into Australia's intelligence organizations works and fear of both China and the United States plays a huge role as Harry investigates cabinet ministers and spies alike. Murder follows her around, some of it very close to her, that leaves her reeling and not sure who to trust. The first 2016 season of six episodes end climatically but with some unresolved issues which set up the premise of the next season.

The second season in 2018 has Harriet being released from prison for crimes related to her news reporting which violated the law. She remains convinced she knows who the traitor working for China bit wants to turn her back on Canberra and almost succeeds. The troubles of her friend from her prison and a job offer to act as an Independent MP's media adviser bring her back to center of action.

It is there that she stumbles upon information revealing a cover-up of a bomb attack in Australia. The deaths of one family is pinned on Pakistan but Harriet gets video showing it was a drone missile from Australia itself responsible for the attack.

One again the espionage and politics of China and the United States pushes Australia one way and the other. She finds that the conspiracy keeps even the new prime minister out of the loop. Uneasy alliances with some Australian intelligence people and side stories of arms dealing keep the story clipping along. Over two seasons the times that Anna Torv plays second fiddle is when Oscar winning Jacki Weaver is on screen first as Attorney-General and later Minister of Home Affairs Catriona Bailey.

A political thriller worth watching for those who like a spy story, action and great acting and writing performances. Hopefully, a season 3 is in the cards.

Netflix Review: The Code

One of the things that many mystery and thriller lovers have gravitated towards is Nordic Noir.  The international fare from Sweden, Norway and Iceland have gripped audiences world-wide. But is this type of noir only limited to the icy north? The Code from Australia would seem to disagree. It was produced in 2014 and Season 1 is on the Netflix now. One more season is expected to be added soon.

Canadians have enjoyed series from Australia before. We just don't see them as often as say Britain who eat up all content from down under. Netflix is now bring more Australian content than ever into Canada.

The plot of The Code is set around two brothers. One of the brother's is a political reporter for an online news organization and the other is an autistic hacker who is barely functional after brushes with the law. The journalist Ned played by Dan Spielman stumbles onto a story in the outback of an accident involving a death that has political implications all the way to the capital. Against his better judge Ned asks his brother Jesse played by Ashley Zukerman to use his skills to clean up a cellphone video that might shed some light on what happened. As per usual Jesse goes too far and while investigating further hacks into a site sensitive to the government setting off a trail of violence that follows the two brothers around. Jesse has a form of autism that makes his adept at computers and not so good with people. His journalist brother has always looked out for him through it has worn him down in terms of not having a life truly his own.

Creator Shelley Birse focuses on a deeply ingrained fear of what the security apparatus of the country has done to Australia's liberties. Canberra features almost like a character in the series for those who have really never seen the capital say versus Sydney. The other beautiful but fly ridden place featured is Broken Hill in New South Wales. It is out in the Outback where a suspicious accident leaves one teenager dead and other suffering an unknown malady.

A blonde Lucy Lawless is a teacher named Alex out in the town of Lindara in the Broken Hill area and senses something is deeply wrong and connects with Ned who has received a tip from an old flame working in the Deputy Prime Minister's office in Australia. Eventually a cellphone video reveals something more sinister took place besides a collision and that the government is involved. The video becomes a McGuffin with people pursuing it and trying to shut it down.

The series taps into a very deep seated fear that seems to permeate Australia about the government, police and intelligence services. If Canadians feel they fixate too much on the United States, they should see Australian TV. The Code builds up the paranoia and fear to a crescendo as the two brothers try to figure out and get out of the mess of cracking the computer code of a government linked Corporation called Physanto.

At six episodes, the series moves at a great clip and concludes with just a little bit of paranoia at the end to make it all worthwhile. A fun series shot in an area of Australia not usually seen in a noir like way not done nearly often enough in Australia. Try catching it if you like thrillers, espionage, conspiracy and murder.

Netflix Review: Occupied

The one thing that Netflix has accomplished with great success is making international fare available world-wide. Long in the past this was pretty much exclusively the domain of CBC and PBS and more recently cable. Generally though, international meant from the U.K. and in English such as Coronation Street and Masterpiece Theatre.

Netflix started in Canada as a streaming service in 2010 and nine years later has become one of the biggest distributors of international fare in the country. It is a far cry from their beginnings when it was majority Hollywood and no original material. That would come slowly in 2012.  Still, Canadians were more apt to game their connection to Netflix by getting their signal from the U.S and that was for years. There was just far more in their library. It was only when Americans tried to get Netflix Canada that this stopped as the company shut it down. In 2019 Canada has the third largest library for Netflix and in some cases material U.S. Netflix clients want but can no longer get because of licensing.

Canadians watch a lot of Netflix and often look for binge worthy series. We in Canada are more likely to watch a subtitled series whereas a lot of Americans will pass it by. One series which was rarely reviewed outside of Europe but has had fans in Canada is Norway's Occupied. Two seasons are available now and a third is in production for a total of 18 so far. The creator is multi-talented Jo Nesbo, an internationally best selling author of mysteries some of which have been made into Hollywood movies.

Season 1 of  Occupied came out in 2015 and seems prescient considering today's political climate. In the year it arrived Barrack Obama was President, Britain was not in the midst of Brexit, NATO was solid and relationships across a broad range of areas seemed more stable. In the series though Norway is recovering from a rather catastrophic time with global warming which allows the Green Party to take over. The United States has turned its back on Europe and NATO and is now energy self sufficient. The Middle East is in conflict.

Norway develops a new technology based on nuclear power and the Greens make the decision to end oil production while promoting the cleaner energy to the world. Europe is suffering an energy crisis and give Russia the green light to seize Norwegian energy platforms and pipelines in a velvet mostly bloodless military invasion. The oil must flow! And all the while Russia tightens its grip on Norway.

This is the world introduced in less than half an episode and it leaves you on edge of your seat. During World War II Germany invaded and occupied Norway. There were those that fought the occupation and those that cooperated. The word Quisling originates in Norway and was the name of the prime minister who collaborated with the Germans and was executed for his crimes after. Today Quisling in any language means traitor.

And so it goes in this modern Norway. There are those who work with the Russians and those who work against.  However, it is never black and white and characters can go through various phases because the actual occupation is something that slowly envelopes Norwegian society.

Occupied has drawn attention because of how gripping it is but also how prescient. The Russian occupation in Norway looks so similar to how Russia took over Crimea in the Ukraine. However, the show was filmed and aired before this ever happened! There was real anger in the Kremlin in regards to the series of how inflammatory it was.  This has to be seen in the context of the Little Green Men who appeared in Crimea and were made out to be locals when in fact they were Russian military.

Over two seasons and 18 episodes Occupied follows an ensemble cast whom I won't name here but I will say they are as top notch as you will find in film and TV. The language ranges from Norwegian to Russian to English but is all subtitled. The show is glossy and is as good or better than any thriller, political or spy series out there. For some it might be as satisfactory or better than Homeland or Jack Ryan.

A third season is planned but Netflix has not committed to air it. Seems that few in Canada have reviewed or are even aware of how good this series in.

Rogers Closing Video Stores in Winnipeg

It sucks if you rent videos or games. The choices are becoming limited to small kiosks for videos and nothing really for games.

We keep hearing this is the wave of the future and that it is old technology, etc. However, as I have pointed out a few times, to access this technology, you need a high speed connection to the Internet, computer or electronic device or cable and satellite connection. Not to mention a subscription to a content provider like Netflix. Video on Demand on cable and satellite is still too limited in its offering, is expensive and has no extras.

People may say: So what? I get all my stuff with free downloads. Well, we have seen that those avenues are being blocked more and more. Could be a time soon when we might not be able to access things nearly with the convenience or lack of consequences.

Rogers Video Plus are the latest to announce a series of closings. Four of their stores are being shut down. It is part of a 40% reduction of their stores in Canada.

If you live in certain parts of the city, there are no larger video rental places left at all. It can be a good thing for an independent willing to stick it out but we have even seen the owner of Movie Village looking to sell.

Here are the stores that are closing.

1853 Grant Ave
Winnipeg, MB R3N 1Z2
(204) 488-4969

756 Pembina Hwy
Winnipeg, MB R3M 2M7
(204) 452-1234

823 McLeod Ave
Winnipeg, MB R2G 0Y4
(204) 654-1234

47 Goulet St
Winnipeg, MB R2H 0R5
(204) 237-7496

There was a point made here that if you wait a while, a DVD will be sold for around the same price as a rental. While that might be true of DVDs, it isn't true of games that they can be purchased so soon for so little. The rental places truly made it possible to check out a game and decide if it was worth it.

I know one thing that has happened since most of the video stores have closed around me: I have not watched as many new or older movies.

Blockbuster Video

We recently saw Blockbuster Video in the Osborne Village close down. It has been something happening across North America although at a slower pace in Canada than the U.S.

Now, we hear that Blockbuster in Canada is being forced into bankruptcy due to missed payments from the parent company. The Canadian operations were used to help finance the U.S. ones. We have seen this type of issue before where Canada's operations were doing better and then the U.S. went under and took the Canadian part of the company down too. Linens and Things Canada was profitable but the U.S. closed the while company including in Canada rather than spin off the division.

I have mentioned the problems for Blockbuster here before. However, their situation in Canada has not been as dire. This is in part due to our slower Internet and that companies such as Rogers and Shaw who are determined to make companies like Netflix super expensive by extra billing if you download high def Titanic from them.

Shaw, Rogers and the other Internet providers are acting in their self interest by pricing their video on demand services at the forefront and pricing everyone else's out of reach.

The advent of video kiosks also has had an impact on Blockbuster. Safeway stores in Winnipeg have them. However, I have found they don't carry a large selection and not as convenient to return since you actually have to enter the store to put the video back in the kiosk. Perhaps if there were a lot more and a large selection, this would be a good option. As it is, it isn't as an attractive option for people who shop once a week at the store.

In recent months, the greed of the Internet providers and the inconvenience and lack of selection of the kiosks has made me appreciate Blockbuster a lot more.

It remains to be seen what the chosen delivery system for entertainment will be. The Internet providers want it to be video on demand but their ever greater gouging turns people off and makes stores like Blockbuster a good option.

It is funny how I think my options for watching a movie at home have become more limited rather the other way around.

Shaw And Data Usage

I wondered back in December if Shaw was going to raise rates with the introduction of Netflix. Their response to going over download limits was to cut customers off. Now, they will charge if someone goes over their limit three months in a row.

Expect more tweaks as more people start accessing television and movies via but the bottom line is that Shaw will charge more and more for their service and act as gatekeeper. Moreover, they will likely try to kill competitive services and direct more people to their video on demand services instead.

Netflix and Television Downloads

The continued makeover of how people get their television and other entertainment is being re-written by Netflix. CBC has made available many of its programs for downloads to PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray players.

The rub is that companies like Rogers will do anything to cripple Netflix by raising Internet fees so that people will choose on demand and pay per view from cable. Essentially, Rogers wants to make Netflix more expensive.

It remains to be seen whether Shaw and MTS will jack up their rates as well.

A big fight is brewing but technology is changing so quickly. The first casualties in the States have been companies like Blockbuster but if companies like Rogers try to kill the new services by acting as gatekeeper, the federal government might not have any choice but to step in.

Blockbuster and Netflix

Follow-up on the DVD rental racket:

Blockbuster has announced that they will have a new unlimited plan for $9.99.

Someone else wrote about the caveats.

1. No new releases. This is the biggest drawback. I think a lot of people would have been willing to pay as much as $20 or $25 for a plan that included new releases. But, since Netflix streaming likely won't have new releases either, this may not be a dealbreaker.

2. No Blu-ray discs. Since we got a Blu-ray player, it bugs me that Blockbuster charges a buck extra for Blu-ray rentals, since buying Blu-ray discs is only marginally more expensive. Not including even older movies on Blu-ray in the monthly pass seems kind of cheap. Annoying, but not a dealbreaker.

3. You can only have one disc out a time. This is the least onerous restriction, I think. Number of discs is a big deal for DVD-by-mail services like Zip.ca, because you often have to wait a long time for each disc to arrive in the mail. That's not an issue with Blockbuster. Once you're done watching one movie, you can go get a new one that same day.

I still think rental kiosks outside their store may be more lucrative.

All of this is being done in anticipation of Netflix operating in Canada. While the U.S. company does not plan on renting videos via mail like Zip.ca, it intends to stream videos directly to homes.

This was Rogers reaction:

Shortly after the online movie rental company Netflix said it would begin offering service north of the border, one of Canada’s largest Internet providers sliced the amount of data its subscribers can download each month.

On July 21, two days after Netflix announced it would offer a Canadian version of its wildly popular and industry-disrupting service starting in the fall, Rogers Communications Inc. changed two of its Internet plans: While prices are not dropping, new users of Rogers “lite” and “extreme” Internet service now have a stricter download limit.

Consumer advocates have spoken out against Rogers’ move, saying it was an anti-competitive action designed to cripple the business model of a potential rival in the online video rental world by making users less able and willing to stream movies online, which take up a lot of bandwidth and could lead to “overage” charges for exceeding capped limits. On the “lite” package, users are charged $4 per gigabyte to a maximum of $50 in one month.

Yeesh, talk about trying to kill the competition while lining your own pockets.

Blockbuster still has opportunities if Netflix doesn`t go with mail and Rogers chops download limits. However, they have to start offering even more competitive service.



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