I don’t know about you, but for me, comedy and Canada aren’t words that go together like hand and glove or horse and carriage. They are such reasonable and unassuming people, those neighbors to the north. If I would imagine a homegrown Canadian comedy, however, it would be very much like “Corner Gas.” Season one is out on DVD.
Set in the unpromising flatlands of Saskatchewan in the appropriately named hamlet of Dog River, “Corner Gas” is a situation comedy about low expectations in a small town. Droll and mildly sarcastic, snappy in an easy going and self-deprecating way, the series features cranky townsfolk who exclaim “good gravy” when the gas station breaks ground by renting videos (the DVD apparently hasn’t reached Dog River). When a Toronto gal reopens and redecorates the town’s only coffeeshop, she is greeted with some opposition to change. “I’ve got two words for you,” says the town’s hotheaded dim bulb. “Boycott.”
Maybe it's hard to embrace change when time passes as slowly as it does in Dog River. With nothing else to do, the two-person constabulary train their radar guns on passing sparrows. Who knew they could fly at 40 kilometers per hour?
