Starring Don McKellar, Daniel MacIvor, Molly Parker, Callum Keith Rennie, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney

Written By:
Directed By:
Studio: Video Service Corp
Buy on Amazon.com link

If you’re not Canadian, you won’t have heard of Twitch City. Even if you are Canadian, you still probably have never heard of one of the greatest Canadian television shows ever. And Video Service Corp’s super-crappy release may not help that.

Already delayed for over two months, this is some of the shittiest packaging ever. The cover looks like one of those last-minute releases, and the description of the show seems like it came from someone who had never seen the series. The most confusing thing is that the front says The Complete Series’, which fans will know is 13 episodes, and yet the run time listed on the back states 104 minutes’. And nowhere does it say that it really does have all of the episodes that run time would last for about 5 of them. The actual runtime is more like 275 min or so. The worst part is that they split the show onto two discs, but on the first disc is the entire first season plus the first episode of the second season…for no reason! The first season was six episodes long and the second was seven. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that maybe seasons should be on the same disc.

Anyways, beyond the stupid packaging, the show looks great, and especially because it’s a cult Canadian show from the late 1990s, I’m so glad to see it finally on DVD. I had missed it on its brief run on CBC and wanted badly to see it because it was created by actor/writer/director Don McKellar (Last Night, Childstar, Waydowntown, The Red Violin, etc. he’s in everything Canadian) and directed by Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Roadkill, Highway 61). Not to mention the amazing cast and guest stars: Callum Keith Rennie (Memento, Hard Core Logo, Battlestar Galactica, Due South), Molly Parker (Deadwood, Men With Brooms. Hollywoodland), Daniel MacIvor (Whole New Thing, Wilby Wonderful), Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall; they play the same character in different seasons!), plus guest appearances by Snake from Degrassi, the angry guy from Cube, Jennifer Jason Leigh, the dude from Ginger Snaps, the King of Kensington, and the guy from Train 48. The show is pretty much one Sarah Polley away from having everyone and everything to do with Canadian cinema and television.

But back to the show itself. It centres around Curtis (McKellar), a shut-in who watches TV all day long, specifically a show called the Rex Reilly show, which is a parody of Jenny Jones and the like. Each episode is named after the title of each episode of Reilly (played by McKinney/McCulloch). Curtis’ roommate Nathan (MacIvor) is about to ask Curtis if his girlfriend Hope (Parker) can move in with them when he goes out to buy cat food for their starving cat and accidentally kills a hobo with the cans of cat food. And so it begins. The show is absurd, clever, and about as Toronto-centric as it gets.

The show is constructed very much in the Brit-com vein. Two short series with distinct endings in sight, rather than the never-ending American sitcom. In fact, the show reminds me a lot of Spaced, which is one of the greatest shows of all time. And Twitch City came first….hmmmm. Either way, it has some great laugh-out-loud moments, and it only rarely resorts to scatological or perverse humour. And even then, you can let it go. Or at least I can.

It’s a shame that a show like this really never did and never will get the recognition it deserves. It is a fascinating look into late 1990s pre-internet television-obsessed culture, and it knows that; the concept of television is central to the flow of the show, and plays a unique part in each episode. You don’t need to be Canadian to understand the humour (there are no Celine Dion jokes, I promise!). I don’t know if it’s available yet in the United States, but it’s well worth seeking out if you like your television funny, irreverent, and unflinchingly postmodern. Ignore the shitty packaging. The show itself more than makes up for it.

Features:
-wrong information about just about everything
-a couple of commentaries, apparently. I couldn’t find them.

Audio:
-it has audio

Video:
-full screen

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: I Look Like Joyce DeWitt, Killed by Cat Food, Klan Bake, The Planet of the Cats (cat lovers will LOVE this episode) , The Life of Reilly
Rating: NR
Running Time: 0 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: