Happy Canada Day! What's your favoutite peice of Canadian made content (Film, TV, music, books, etc...)

[Zan]

Snuck up on me a bit this year, but it's Canada Day! So as such, I wanted to make a thread about Canadian made media. It can be produced, developed or recorded anywhere in this great country, but it has to be at least more than half locally made. (So stuff like Ocean Studios dubs of Anime are not really what i'm looking for this year.) Can be Film, TV, Music or Literature of any type (Novel, Graphic Novel, etc...)

for me, it has to be Corner Gas. Just a comfy show all around. (For the people unaware, it's a Canadian sitcom set in a small prarie town called Dog River, where the humor stems from characters dealing with mundane problems with their own personalities.)

What would your favourite bit of Canadian made media be?

 

[Frankie Williamson]

Kids in the Hall.

It pretty well defined how I looked at comedy when I would sneak watch it on CBC as a kid. Also required my parents to teach me a lot about issues they were definitely not prepared for, like homophobia. Which they did a shockingly good job of.

 

[Vaco6121]

The Red Green Show is my all time favorite Canadian show.

 

[grang]

Lowly American here

I'll always have love for Degrassi: The Next Generation

Celine Dion may be the best vocal performer of all time and I'm so sad A) for her having this horrible condition and B) for myself for never taking the chance to see her sing live

Alanis Morissette is way more badass than she gets credit for

Barenaked Ladies were an incredible band when they had Steven Page in the mix, and are just okay without him, but way underrated imo

 

[Hella]

ReBoot, a kids TV series set inside a computer. It's brilliant and unforgettable, a show of pure imagination.

View: https://youtu.be/ES2_vtJgxT4

Game over.
User wins.


Missed the show? They had an in-universe musical recap in one of the episodes.

View: https://youtu.be/k7SqlwATPeI

 

[Volimar]

Letterkenny and Shoresy are pretty good. Very Canadian.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Schitts Creek is a recent fav off the top of my head

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey


His Name , His credit

 

[Curler]

Pretty much the entirety of the 90s YTV network run. Between all the Canadian shows that were produced by them (sometime co-produced with Nickelodeon), all the import shows from other countries (like the first dubs of Dragonball and Sailor Moon), and just all those in-between commercial segments with the PJs/The Zone, which had free-run with improve
and acted like older brothers/sisters that didn't talk down and baby the audience.

In between all of what I hear is mindless entertainment for kids today with stuff like Cocomelon, and reminded of a time when there was quality entertainment for kids that Canada often helped really pioneer. I'm reminded that Mr. Rogers getting his start in Canada is often omitted/downplayed as well, but mentioned in the Mr. Dressup doc.

 

[AvianAviator]

LOL I guess I can plug 1000xRESIST here

Made by an almost entirely Asian-Canadian development team (sunset visitor), their studio is based in Vancouver. Heavy themes of diaspora, among other things. Best game I've played this year.


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675830/1000xRESIST/

 

[GulfCoastZilla]

CW super hero / Supernatral shows I guess

 

[Volimar]

Oh if we're including games, then I'll add The Long Dark. A great winter survival game that takes place on a fictional Canadian Island made by a independent studio in Vancouver.


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/

 

[PopQuiz]

I guess SCTV because it gave us Rick Moranis.

 

[Royce]

Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a hilarious film where two cops from different provinces need to work together to solve a criminal case. One is an English-speaking cop from Ontario and the other one is a guy from Quebec who's used to speaking mostly French. Lots of cultural and lingual differences pointed out in a fun way. Both languages are actually spoken a lot in the movie.

Then again, I'm European so there was some sense of familiarity in the setting (though I don't speak any French). No idea how well the film would resonate for someone who's only lived in monolingual surroundings.

 

[vacantseas]

Neil Young's output from 1969-1972

 

[Ultrapop]

Thank you Canada for David Cronenberg 🇨🇦

 

[Kurita]

The best there is
The best there was
The best there ever will be

Bret Hart "Hart Attack" Entrance Video

"THE BEST THERE IS, THE BEST THERE WAS & THE BEST THERE EVER WILL BE"

youtu.be

 

[NTMBK]

It's got to be Goodbye Volcano High


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1310330/Goodbye_Volcano_High/

From a Montreal studio, it's an excellent narrative game about finding meaning in the face of the end of the world. Also, the music is excellent

 

[ThereAre4Lights]

As far as TV shows, this was pure comfort food.

 

[Kitschy Kitty]

The Twentieth Century


View: https://youtu.be/204j1n193hk?si=N2jUnyc00XX2YRV5

Biopic that I've heard called a Heritage Minute on acid. Bizarre and expressionist story of William Lyon Mackenzie King's rise to Prime Minister (including by defeating his crippling boot fetish)

My Winnipeg

View: https://youtu.be/aY9BtROpNQ4?si=rxFDqfwuUjMtW-hE
Mockumentary by Guy Madin interspersing real (and fictional) history of Winnipeg with his childhood.

Helicopter Canada
Full Movie here:

View: https://youtu.be/3EY6vii33aM?si=nrJu7Ii5uXVt0pUw
Documentary from 1966 telling stories and showing aerial footage of Canada. Includes a tiny cameo of the Beatles

 

[Raskol]

Game: Mass Effect 2
Music: Rush
Film: Incendies (or anything by Denis Villeneuve that would count)
TV: Trailer Park Boys

 

[mopinks]

Kids in the Hall is canadian culture to me

 

[Adam Tyner]

Sloan's killer streak from Twice Removed through Between the Bridges: one of, if not my very, favorite runs from any band, ever. And while it's been hit or miss afterwards, Steady -- their latest -- definitely falls in the "hit" column.

TV-wise, Big Wolf on Campus will always have a special place in my heart, and I need to get around to fixing my ancient code from bigwolfoncampus.org that's now nearly a quarter of a century old. But Kids in the Hall is the correct answer.

As far as movies go...geez, there's such a rich tradition of horror in particular that I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

[erpg]

Canada put out so many great bands in the 90s and 00s.

I've been revisiting Alanis Morrissette, The Tragically Hip, and playing Steal my Sunshine on repeat.

 

[DrEvil]

Our Lady Peace.

 

[GamerJM]

Carly Rae Jepsen's "Emotion" album is my favorite piece of Canadian art of all-time by a wide margin.

 

[L Thammy]

Zan
Maybe this would be a good place to say, it occurred to me awhile ago that The Smoggies almost eerily fit the description of the Doronbou Gang. It's Canada's Yatterman. Or at least Canada's, I dunno, Mon Colle Knights.

 

[TissueBox]

The Twentieth Century


View: https://youtu.be/204j1n193hk?si=N2jUnyc00XX2YRV5

Biopic that I've heard called a Heritage Minute on acid. Bizarre and expressionist story of William Lyon Mackenzie King's rise to Prime Minister (including by defeating his crippling boot fetish)

My Winnipeg

View: https://youtu.be/aY9BtROpNQ4?si=rxFDqfwuUjMtW-hE
Mockumentary by Guy Madin interspersing real (and fictional) history of Winnipeg with his childhood.

Click to shrink...

Luv these here picks..!! 🥹

 

[gforguava]

Guy Maddin, the greatest of the greats that Canada has bestowed upon the world.

Images from:
Brand Upon The Brain!
My Winnipeg
The Forbidden Room
The Heart Of The World
Careful
Keyhole

And some bonus Brand Upon The Brain! gifs because it is the best of the best:

 

[Shoeless]

For all the Gen-X Canucks waiting for the next TV show to start:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhEYLeh_Ro&ab_channel=ONF

 

[subpar spatula]

Thank you Jesus for giving us Justin Bieber.

 

[prophetvx]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TcuPpgmoNo

 

[BimmyLee]

Kids in the Hall.

It pretty well defined how I looked at comedy when I would sneak watch it on CBC as a kid. Also required my parents to teach me a lot about issues they were definitely not prepared for, like homophobia. Which they did a shockingly good job of.

Click to shrink...

Very happy to see this as the first answer, love those dudes. Also somehow watched a ton of this as a kid and it greatly influenced my comedy leanings.

 

[AaronMT]

Obligatory


View: https://youtu.be/OWFm2qU0k5o

 

[Gr8one]

This is tough. Just for TV comedy there's stuff like SCTV, Red Green, Kids in the Hall, Trailer Park Boys, hell even OG Tom Green Show was something else. Not even including some of the newer comedy shows or drama and animation.

Ok for TV, i'll pick Trailer Park Boys, hm to Due South if it counts.

For movies, I really like Pontypool and just watched it again recently so i'm gonna pick that today. HM to C.R.A.Z.Y., FUBAR (I don't know how this has aged ><), and Les Boys :D

Music: Neil Young Harvest probably or anything from the Tragically Hip, Fully Completely and Road Apples being my favs

Books: Margaret Atwood is one of my favourites. Handmaidens Tale is a classic but Maddadam series is great too.

Happy Canada day Everyone! I'm off to drink cheap Canadian beer and hopefully not get rained on!

Obligatory


View: https://youtu.be/OWFm2qU0k5o

Click to shrink...

Nicholas Picholas. Is that his real name? Shout out to YTV PJ Gord the OG Video and Arcade Top 10 host!

 

[JimD]

KITH 100%

But Letterkenny is real, real close. Especially when the show added a bit more heavy moments towards the latter seasons with the degens/Jivin Pete storylines. Had a nice balance of good performances with their usual fun wordplay stuff.

 

[Gr8one]

I changed my mind. For TV i'm pulling out a forgotten classic: Buzz with Darren and Mista Mo.

This White Trash song from that show is still stuck in my head to this day,


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMs5NQd0UzQ

 

[chaostrophy]

My all-time favorite band, Skinny Puppy:

From Vancouver, formed in 1982.

 

[Zan]

Zan
Maybe this would be a good place to say, it occurred to me awhile ago that The Smoggies almost eerily fit the description of the Doronbou Gang. It's Canada's Yatterman. Or at least Canada's, I dunno, Mon Colle Knights.

Click to shrink...

Now I can't unsee it. When are the Suntots (or whatever the heroes were called) gonna get a gigantic Dog Robot.

 

[Leeness]

It's not a favourite or well known at all lol.

The Burial Society - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

But I'll just plug this because my dad was a part of this film, and I got to visit sets back in the day lol. It's always a point of pride for my dad that he got a film made. It shows up sometimes in syndication on random channels and he's always surprised about it.

I haven't seen it in years, so I don't remember if there's any early 2000s "that's not really appropriate in 2024" type of stuff in it, but hey. Maybe I should watch it again sometime haha.

 

[RealTravisty]

Damn…
I'm going to cheat a little.
Favourite cartoon: Reboot
Favourite TV show: Kim's Convenience
Favourite book: Scott Pilgrim series

 

[chrominance]

A bunch of favourites have already been mentioned here, so I'll just fill in some blanks I think should be filled.

First, for television: Orphan Black. Yes, it's a Canadian production! There are a lot of sci-fi shows produced in Canada but I feel like Orphan Black is a bit more Canadian than most, since it was partially bankrolled by a Canadian network.

For movies, there's the first Cube. There's also a movie I haven't revisited in a long time and can't decide if it's the kind of thing that would fly in 2024: Dance Me Outside. A movie about disaffected First Nations youth beset by a reservation murder where one of the suspects is a white man; starring a number of First Nations actors, directed by a white guy, and based on a collection of short stories penned by an Irish-Canadian. I feel like we're well past the point where these stories should be told by the people in them, rather than by outsiders, but I nevertheless remember this movie quite fondly.

I'm weirdly kind of down on Canadian music; I think I just listened to way too much of it in the 90s and 2000s because it was on the radio all the time. But I will shout out Land of Talk, a Montreal-based rock band that came up in the late 2000s, had a few amazing albums, and then kind of dissolved for many years until leader Liz Powell resurfaced and refashioned the band into more of a personal project, which is still ongoing; BADBADNOTGOOD, an awesome cinematic jazz band; and Luna Li, a psychedelic/dream pop singer-songwriter from Toronto.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q8KSJ_zyzk

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfRxeD34unQ

Luna Li - Silver Into Rain ft. beabadoobee (Official Music Video)

Luna Li - "Silver Into Rain ft. beabadoobee" - Official Music Video Stream "Silver Into Rain ft. beabadoobee", out at midnight: https://lunali.ffm.to/duality...

www.youtube.com

 

[grang]

As far as TV shows, this was pure comfort food.

Click to shrink...

Oh shit is this the show that has an episode centered around a school shooting where like half of it is presented as one take?

 

[Frankie Williamson]

I changed my mind. For TV i'm pulling out a forgotten classic: Buzz with Darren and Mista Mo.

This White Trash song from that show is still stuck in my head to this day,


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMs5NQd0UzQ

Click to shrink...

They read my question on an episode when I was in high school!

 

[chrominance]

Oh shit is this the show that has an episode centered around a school shooting where like half of it is presented as one take?

Click to shrink...

Nope, that's 19-2. They actually did this episode on both the original Quebec version and the English adaptation a few years later.

Spoiler: cw: school shooting scene

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtxiokrYpxw

It's still wild to me that one of the officers you follow through most of the sequence in the English version is also one of the main cast in Letterkenny. The whiplash going from one job to the other must be intense. (The other officer has a recurring role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as an admiral!)

 

[grang]

Nope, that's 19-2. They actually did this episode on both the original Quebec version and the English adaptation a few years later.

Spoiler: cw: school shooting scene

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtxiokrYpxw

It's still wild to me that one of the officers you follow through most of the sequence in the English version is also one of the main cast in Letterkenny. The whiplash going from one job to the other must be intense. (The other officer has a recurring role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as an admiral!)

Click to shrink...

Ah damn, I'd seen it a long while back and remembered it was Canadian, it made me want to watch the whole thing. I'm big into procedurals so I'll add both to my list!

That school shooting scene/episode is intense though, very well made

 

[Volimar]

Nope, that's 19-2. They actually did this episode on both the original Quebec version and the English adaptation a few years later.

Spoiler: cw: school shooting scene

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtxiokrYpxw

It's still wild to me that one of the officers you follow through most of the sequence in the English version is also one of the main cast in Letterkenny. The whiplash going from one job to the other must be intense. (The other officer has a recurring role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as an admiral!)

Click to shrink...

Jared Keeso won a Canadian Screen Award for that role. People who only know him from Letterkenny would be gobsmacked.

 

[jayu26]

Battlestar Galactica and Orphan Black.

Neil Young is pretty solid.

Margaret Atwood continues to be awesome.

 

[TheDestructiveSquirrel]

Video and Arcade Top 10

Ehhh, someone beat me to it

 

[balohna]

LOL I guess I can plug 1000xRESIST here

Made by an almost entirely Asian-Canadian development team (sunset visitor), their studio is based in Vancouver. Heavy themes of diaspora, among other things. Best game I've played this year.


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675830/1000xRESIST/

Click to shrink...

I read that entire Steam page and have no idea what the gameplay is like in the game. Is it a visual novel?