Ask any Canadian, any American, and we’d agree that our national characters are different. How? Well, that’s where we shrug and resort to stereotypes. Sure, I might apologize to the lamppost when I run into it, but that’s just habit. My American friends might talk a little loud and break stemware in restaurants, but I’m sure that was just the wine.
One irrefutable difference between our nations is that while House is successful in the United States, it kicks the competition's ass in Canada. In these early days of the new fall season, House has been on top of the Canadian TV ratings heap by a significant margin.
It may have been created by a Canadian, but trust me, that’s not an explanation. We’re conditioned to assume Canadian content is inferior. Besides, David Shore was not a household name here before he went south and channeled his apparently not-so-inner bitter sarcasm into his most famous creation.
My theory: Canadians are repressed Dr. Houses. Even more than the usual vicarious thrill the audience as a whole gets from someone saying exactly the thing we wish we'd had the guts and brains to say, we see ourselves in the stubbly guise of Hugh Laurie, with the distanced-from-humanity biting wit and keen intellect. Stop laughing. We are so like that.
Dr. House would seem to be the opposite of the stereotypical Canadian. He's brash, rude, loud, and definitely not a peace keeper. Due South, the Paul Haggis series where Shore toiled pre-House, had fun with the stereotype in the impossibly polite Mountie Benton Fraser (Paul Gross), and Canadians lapped it up. But not nearly as much as House.
Article comments
1 - Nat le Gros Monstre
Well, we did kick her and send her to Vegas didn't we?;-)
2 - alessandro
"He's brash, rude, loud, and definitely not a peace keeper."
I could have sworn Canadians have become so much more like him now!
And yes, we don't support our own until they are validated by Americans and when they become bigger than Al Waxman we shoot them back down.