I accidentally recorded The Jane Show tonight, expecting to get an episode of the American version of The Office… and for once I’m glad the Zap2It listings are so often wrong for Canadian stations.
I’ve always liked Teresa Pavlinek, who created, produces and writes for the show as well as starring in it as Jane Black. She’s got a dry, sharp sense of humour—which I have a feeling is natural, although it’s certainly been developed through Second City, History Bites, the comedy troupe Women Fully Clothed, and the like—that works well in the (semi-autobiographical?) role. The two other main female characters, played by Patricia Zentilli and Kate Trotter, are also strong and well-written, if tonight’s episode (Thursday Night Rules) was any indication.
As befits its title, the strongest part of The Jane Show is its depiction of Jane: her life, her relationships and, from time to time, her inner thoughts. She’s not wacky, or bigger than life, or too clever for her own good… she’s just Jane, that kinda-cool, kinda-weird, kinda-normal girl that you see on the elevator every couple of days. Off the top of my head I can think of at least ten friends, acquaintances, and co-workers who fit the Jane mold surprisingly closely.
The show is nominally a sitcom, fortunately sans laugh track, that’s centered around an office—I didn’t catch exactly what the company does, but does it really matter?—but I found the scenes set in that environment to be the weakest part of the episode. (I’ll admit I did find some of the copier bits humourous.) I didn’t find the male characters quite as well-formed as the women either, and didn’t really recognize or identify with them, with one small exception that has the feeling of being a running theme.
There’s even an online extra: Jane, the ex-aspiring writer-turned-office-drone, has a blog. So far it’s pretty mundane, but I hope (as with the show) that we get to see a little of Jane’s aspiring writer side. Actually, even more than that I think what I’d really like to see is Teresa blogging as herself, about herself; everything I’ve read about her suggests she’d have a lot of interesting things to say.
By the way, the show is Canadian, top to bottom; with a bit of promotion (and luck) I think it could be Global’s answer to CTV’s Corner Gas. Apparently, also like Corner Gas, The Jane Show was bounced around for a while before finding a home; I wonder who at CBC English Television is kicking him/herself for missing this one too?
The Jane Show is a keeper. Perhaps the best recommendation I can give is to say that I’ve set up my PVR to record The Jane Show whenever it’s on… deliberately this time. 🙂
