January 07, 2012

Arctic Air reviewed

Beach grabbed right boarding pass

By Brad OswaldArctic Air suffers more than its share of narrative-logic lapses during its maiden flight, but there's enough potential in its rich cast of characters and captivatingly cool setting to have many observers rightly making the suggestion that this series could become CBC's next North-of-60-sized drama hit.

It might be a bit of a bumpy takeoff, and it won't reach cruising altitude unless the show's producers and writers tighten up the storylines, but Beach is right--one look is enough to make you understand why he decided to grab this boarding pass.

3 stars out of 5
For more on Adam Beach, see Beach Calls Out Wannabe Actors and Adam Beach's Defining Role?

Below:  Pascale Hutton and Adam Beach in Arctic Air.

1 comment:

Rob said...

Another take on Arctic Air:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jj-mccullough/canadian-television-_b_1283908.html

Big Brother Makes for Crappy TV

[J]ust as the most garish propaganda seeks to mask inner weakness with over-the-top pomposity, Arctic Air's real-world support has proven to be shakier than Gaddafi's. Though the CBC and other Can-con apologists did their best to spin the numbers favourably, the show's January 10 debut yielded barely over a million viewers, a showing so poor that it failed to even crack BBM Canada's top 30 of the week. To be fair, Arctic Air did briefly sneak into the #27 slot during the last week of January (narrowly edging out a re-run of CSI New York), but has remained absent ever since.

Why Canadians aren't warming to the CBC's latest taxpayer-funded opus is hard to say. In typical Canadian fashion, no mainstream publication appears to have tasked anyone with actually watching the show, meaning most coverage has simply been of the "local boy makes good" variety. One can only presume the subject matter, which centers around a gang of moody misfits attempting to run a rural airline in the Northwest Territories, somewhat lacks mainstream appeal, despite Beach's insistence that bush flying across Yellowknife "speaks volumes about what it is to be Canadian."