CBC Pilot Burn-Off Time | B Team
In the year and change I’ve written about television for URBMN, CBC has never aired a standalone pilot that has gone on to become a series…until now. B Team (CBC: Buffalo Gal Pictures/Company Name Here Productions/Vérité Films, 2009) has made series, as InSecurity.
I’m not sure if B Team is a preview of what will air on CBC in 2010-11. If it is, then I don’t have hope for InSecurity. B Team is an unfunny execution of a surprisingly good concept.
B Team is set at the Canadian Intelligence and Security Establishment, the fictitious government organization du jour. CISE has functions similar to other spy agencies. Alex Taylor (Natalie Lisinska) leads her team into mediocrity, though no fault of her own.
Alex is too nice, allowing herself to be pushed around by boss Janet Brown (Veena Sood.) The pilot helpfully points out every character’s role and/or personality traits. Karl Lesage (Rémy Girard) is The Civil Servant. Burt Lancaster (Matthew MacFadzean) is The Wiener. JoJo Lum (Jeananne Goossen) is The Translator. Lisa Hampton (Carolyne Maraghi) is The Friend, and so on.
In B Team‘s pilot, Alex is stuck monitoring a Chechen shoe salesman. Her job isn’t glamourous, as Alex’s ex-husband Peter McNeil (David Jones) leads the respected, well-funded team. Alex’s team mistakes yellow plasticine used on the Chechen’s model train set as C4 explosives.
Peter’s team somehow interprets the model as prelude to a real attack, and the situation devolves from there. The espionage part of B Team isn’t that strong, the show relying on an ensemble cast to carry it. For an action-comedy, B Team contains very little action and tons of desk jockeying.
I respect B Team for its intricate plotting, but the pilot is just not funny. It’s the typical CBC sitcom – predictable, no laugh track, underacted in places. B Team‘s underlying concept is solid, yet there’s little in the way of satire. Espionage should be rife with satire. B Team has no excuse for being as weak as it is.
I want to like B Team, but I can’t. It’s safe, bland and almost stereotypically “Canadian.” It’s as if B Team wants to talk about surveillance, and yet avoid the issue altogether. That’s like Pure Pwnage not showing Jeremy pwn n00bs. I sincerely hope InSecurity isn’t as bad as B Team, as the pilot doesn’t afford me much hope.
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Pingback by Tweets that mention CBC Pilot Burn-Off Time | B Team | URBMN -- Topsy.com — May 12, 2010 @ 12:56 am
CBC, has, of course, aired pilots that have become series in the last year – they just air them as part of the show’s regular season (Republic of Doyle, etc.) InSecurity is almost certainly going to be retooled significantly or they wouldn’t be burning off the original pilot with a different name. They’re contractually obligated to air it but they clearly don’t want it closely associated with the series. Which doesn’t mean it will be better … but it definitely means it will be different.
Comment by Diane — May 12, 2010 @ 4:51 pm
For the purposes of the article, I was referring to pilots that air as standalones. The review has been updated to reflect this.
CBC also has a different way of airing pilots than APTN. CBC’s pilots are, as Diane says, contractually obligated to air. APTN floats pilots to judge audience reaction.
I’m not sure about other networks and cable channels. I’m not sure when their pilots are burnt off, if they even have pilots.
Comment by C. Archer — May 12, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
Incomplete list of standalone CBC pilots I’m aware of, aside from B Team:
Memory Lanes
My Life and a Movie
Tangled
The Call
The Cult
The Dead Beat
The Good Germany
Throwing Stones
Any others I’m missing? Tangled hasn’t aired yet, IIRC.
Comment by C. Archer — May 12, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
Exactly, my point was they air as standalones with no fanfare *because* they haven’t been picked up … which is why I’d bet the farm that B Team will differ substantially from InSecurity.
Any pilot that gets funding agency money must be aired – APTN uses them in a different way than CBC though, a way I wish all networks would!
Comment by Diane — May 12, 2010 @ 6:05 pm
Whoops, forgot Altar Boy Gang.
Comment by C. Archer — May 12, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
Two more to add to the list:
The Dark Room
Town Beat!
Comment by C. Archer — May 12, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
[...] CBC Pilot Burn-Off Time | Tangled Filed under: Happy Pilot Burn-Off Time,TV Reviews,URBMN 2008- — Tags: Bill Ward, CBC, CBC Pilot Burn-Off Time, Colossal Entertainment, drama, espionage drama, Leslie Hope, Pilot Burn-Off Time, Salient Point Productions, Sarah Wayne Callies, Shaftesbury Films, Tangled, TV Review — C. Archer @ 9:06 pm When I published an article about Tangled (CBC: CBC/Shaftesbury Films/Colossal Entertainment/Salient Point Productions Ltd., 2010) last week, I figured it would get a slightly above-average number of readers for a day, then flatline. Pilot news and reviews generally don’t do well on URBMN, with the exception of B Team. [...]
Pingback by CBC Pilot Burn-Off Time | Tangled | URBMN — July 28, 2010 @ 9:22 pm
Well, you certainly called this one right. ‘InSecurity’ could be the most banal, inane and unfunny comedy ever produced. And that’s saying something after watching the equally dreadful ‘Men With Brooms.’ And to think the CBC has script approval.
Comment by William — January 19, 2011 @ 3:50 pm