Obviously we love our Quebec TV, hello. We adore it, we devour it, we overanalyze it, we dissect it, we X-ray it and bring it to life in our text messages and Messenger conversations.
Posted at 8:15 a.m.
But sometimes, like Mégane and its $6,500 saddles at Double occupation, our good Quebec TV kid us. Yes yes. And it irritates us for banal elements which, by accumulating, end up pinching the big nerve.
So here is a non-exhaustive – and evolving – list of tips, details that make us sigh, crown or drop out of our favorite series.
First accused on the bench: the duplication of actors in competing series. It was very weird this week to see the mega dedicated Solène (Stéphanie Germain) of 5e Rank pamper and protect poor Jean-Michel (Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi), who has eaten a hell of a thrashing at the hands of his father.
It was even stranger to see, the next day, the same two actors form another couple, Justine and Nicolas, in the TV series Cerebrum, also broadcast on Radio-Canada. Someone in the cast obviously slept on gas here. It is certainly a coincidence, which still makes us wince.
Another example of duplication mixing? Everyday scenes Indefensible of TVA where the criminal lawyer Léo MacDonald (Sébastien Delorme) receives for dinner his best friend investigator Maxime (Mathieu Baron). Wait a minute. Are these scraps of District 31 where Poupou clashed with Nick Romano over the death of Gabrielle Simard’s husband? OK, no. It’s a new series.
To add to the confusion, actress Geneviève Rochette landed a pivotal role in the early storylines ofIndefensible. The same Geneviève Rochette who played the wife/widow of our national Poupou in District 31. In STAT, Laurent Cloutier (Patrick Labbé) is dating Stéphanie Malo (Virginie Ranger-Beauregard). There is something to be mixed up.
Second thing that’s irritating these days: these actors unable to articulate their lines. It’s a scourge on the rise, which encourages you to stick the remote control on the wall, if I believe your hundreds of angry messages. We already had this discussion several years ago, and the message against soft diction still doesn’t get through. So, here it is again: we ar-ti-cu-le, please. And we make ourselves understood by viewers, thank you.
Hey, we’re not asking you to declaim in an exaggerated way like in an institutional theater. Just pay attention to the enunciation of the words.
This phenomenon of incomprehensible “mumbling” is global, don’t worry. It is particularly raging in England. Now, local producers, directors and decision makers, listen carefully and avoid adding thunderous music over whispered dialogue. We can’t stand stepping back and back again to hear what is being said in our series.
Third annoying element, but less epidermal, this one: the empty containers in the programs. Who of a tray containing four giant hot lattes, who of a coffee cup without spot or droplet, it seems that these accessories are empty – or filled with air, if you will. The viewer sees that it’s very light, very light and that the actors, who never spill anything, pretend to drink.
A few factors explain why dark drinks no longer fit in tray cups. First, the production wants to avoid accidentally dirtying the costumes and also to make sure that all the scenes “fit together”, so that the level of coffee does not vary considerably between shots. Oh, empty cup here, oops, full cup two seconds later, continuity must not be broken.
Several reality shows now use stainless steel — or completely opaque — wine glasses so you don’t have to worry about liquid amounts while editing episodes. It’s not stupid. Still, if an actor is really a good actor, his Stanislavski method, learned the hard way at the Conservatory, should convince us that his cup is always full, which is not the case for everyone, unfortunately.
Fourth point under study: self-promotions or advertisements that eat up the last seconds of episodes broadcast on conventional TV. Noovo regularly plays this trick on us in Between two sheets. The last scene begins with the final credits and then boom, a commercial goes full screen, relegating the dialogue and the image to the background. This is inappropriate. It’s no, no, no.
Fifth and final complaint: the lack of politeness on the cell phone. All the soap operas plead guilty to this offense, that of hanging up without saying bye, without greeting each other one last time. The conversation ends clean, sharp and dry.
Very often, as was the case in District 31, the character does not press any key on the screen of his laptop to end the conversation. Clac, we put the phone on the table, upside down, and it’s over.
This list could go on for eight screens. Why is parking always plentiful and easy on TV shows filmed in downtown Montreal? Why don’t people ever take off their winter boots when entering a house?
Obviously we love our Quebec TV, hello. That’s why we allow ourselves to tease her, like the characters in The breakaway who go to bed while it is still light outside, come on!