Retrospective 2023 | Taylor, Céline and Moman

Overview of a year filled with subscriptions to digital platforms, supersonic pop songs and iconic television returns.

Celine is alive !

Since announcing her illness (stiff person syndrome) last year, Celine Dion has disappeared. For months, the Charlemagne diva gave no news to her fans. Then, at the end of October, the singer attended a Canadian game in Las Vegas and met the coach Martin St-Louis, who, of every imaginable subject, spoke to him about the dove and the pope. A few days later, at the beginning of November, Céline and her twins swayed at the Katy Perry show, in the American capital of vice. Céline seems to be doing better. But will we see her again on stage in 2024? As long as she doesn’t make another cinematic rubbish like Love Againwe are takers.

The beautiful discomforts live

Martin Matte, who turns everything he touches into gold – even Maxi’s grocery baskets – learned the hard way in the fall that presenting a talk show is a completely different job from that of a comedian. Expectations were extremely high for this new TVA show, presented live every Thursday evening. From week to week, audience ratings plummeted, stabilizing around half a million. It’s good, but not good enough for a star of Matte’s stature. And a talk show requires the host to step aside to highlight their guest rather than using them solely as a training bag for acid gags.

Gemini’s quirks

Geneviève Schmidt, aka surgeon Isabelle Granger in STAT, obtained a well-deserved Gemini award. Suzanne Clément, our beloved Emmanuelle St-Cyr, won a statuette that she did not steal, far from it. The director (Danièle Méthot) and the author (Marie-Andrée Labbé) were also noticed by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. After such a raid, which series was crowned best daily of the year? Indefensible of VAT, against all expectations. Incomprehensible. Three months later, this incongruous decision still does not make sense. The inner workings of this TV party are causing a lot of discontent in the industry. To bring peace, could we, like at the Emmys, reintroduce separate categories for men and women?

Swiftmania in madness

His tour Eras, whose tickets sell out in seconds, breaks records and will soon become the most lucrative tour in music history. The filmed version of this show will be released on all digital platforms on December 13. Taylor Swift, 33, has dominated the pop world in an overwhelming way. The improved release of his album 1989 (Taylor’s version) flooded the charts Billboard of songs dating back to 2014. And her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has boosted American football ratings (the Swifties’ strike force is incredible). How can you not fall for this talented singer-songwriter?

Everyone has their own platform

While general television is coughing and choking in cutbacks, digital platforms are multiplying and costing more and more. Prices are going up, our credit cards are filling up and we still have the impression of having visited Netflix and Disney+. In our country, Club illico, Extra de Tou.TV or Crave still do not match the penetration rate of American services like Amazon Prime Video. This migration to digital will not slow down in 2024 and will certainly lead to the disappearance of some specialized channels, which have been surviving for several seasons.

We calm down on the force-feeding

In 2013, Netflix imposed a binge consumption model that changed our viewing habits. A series like House of Cards came out and, go! we were scrambling to finish it as quickly as possible. Ten years later, television bingeing is losing interest and several platforms, including Apple TV+ and Crave, are releasing episodes of their star series every weekday, like in the good old days. Honestly, I don’t miss those binge-watches. We get drunk so quickly that we end up forgetting large parts of it. And there are prestigious productions like The White Lotus Or Succession which are enjoyed slowly, from Sunday to Sunday. We can thus speculate on the plot, discuss it with our friends and impatiently wait for the next chapter.

The ups and downs of reality TV

Sorry to its detractors, reality TV is not going away. In 2023, this popular genre has had its ups and downs, such as a couple’s relationship If we loved each other. Among the nice surprises, let’s note the Quebec version of Survivor on Noovo, which didn’t look cheap compared to its other incarnations. Patrice Bélanger did an excellent job there. The interest in Big Brother Celebrities And Get me out of here! does not waver either, the one for The island of love takes a break. For Double occupation, the comeback after the bullying controversy was not a resounding success. Close-knit people who love each other don’t make for good TV, except for Louise Sigouin.

The resurrection of the classics

Two cult shows from the 1990s experienced a media resurrection in 2023: The little life And A boy a girl. And the return of the Paré family had a big surprise in store for fans of the sitcom : a surprise appearance by Serge Thériault as Moman, a gifted actor whom we hadn’t seen for 14 years. For their part, Guy and Sylvie left the suburbs to resettle in Montreal, a city that changed a lot during their exile in the 450s. In fact, it’s the 1990s that don’t seem to want to let go of us, as much in music and fashion than on TV. Olivia Rodrigo didn’t invent wide-leg pants, after all.