Don McKellar's success in the Canadian entertainment industry amazes me. He's one of the few Canadian actors that has become as successful as he is while remaining an indigenous talent.
Why he chooses the projects he does, though, is beyond me. There's the Don McKellar that won a Cannes Prix de la Jeunesse for his debut directorial effort Last Night and has become a familiar figure in arthouse cinema. There's also the Don McKellar that lends his voice talents to Odd Job Jack, one of the most badly written and miserable "adult" cartoons I've seen in recent years. He's a charismatic actor, but he's essentially played the same low-key slacker character for years - he's 42 and still plays slacker archetypes - and has a limited range. Still, he's one of Canada's success stories, which means he gets series like High Definition almost by default.
High Definition is a radio program trying to explain the relationship between television, its viewers, and the wider world. It's a good idea - O'Reilly on Advertising recently applied media criticism to the advertising business, and the result was one of the more entertaining CBC Radio programs in recent years. At the same time, programs like Definitely Not the Opera - and keep in mind I'm pitching ideas to this program, for the sake of disclosure - have produced some of the worst pieces on popular culture I've ever had the displeasure to witness, airing couldn't-tax-the-brain-of-a-recessed-hamster segments like "Celebrities on Helium" that prove how funny pitchshifting is. (Hint: it's not.) High Definition is the middle ground between the two programs.
Taking February 18's program as an example, the episode description comes across as a typical, condescending DNTO segment given 24 minutes. To wit:
Tune in this Saturday for a special episode of High Definition...On Ice. Host Don McKellar asks "Is figure skating the best soap opera on TV?" CBC Radio One's new program about television ventures into the dramatic world of figure skating and tries to understand why it's the most watched television sport after football.
Keep in mind, the previous two programs dealt with the topics of "Is Oprah REALLY saving the world?" and "How does 24 relate to the actual world of terrorism?" These topics are covered in the usual CBC style - the analysis is slight to mildly probing, and McKellar isn't really explaining how television works like Terry O'Reilly did advertising. O'Reilly's program gave a true insight into how advertising works, while McKellar plays his usual "detached observer" role.
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