Canadian Crossing

2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs scoreboard

2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

all times Eastern Daylight Time/+ if needed

Western Conference

(1) Vancouver vs. (8) Los Angeles Los Angeles wins series 4-1
Date	Location	Time	U.S. TV
April 11	Los Angeles 4, Vancouver 2	10:30p	NBCSN
April 13	Los Angeles 4, Vancouver 2	10p	NBCSN
April 15	Los Angeles 1, Vancouver 0	10:30p	NBCSN
April 18	Vancouver 3, Los Angeles 1	10p	NBCSN
April 22	Los Angeles 2, Vancouver 1 (OT)	8p	NBCSN
All games on CBC in Canada.

 

Eastern Conference

(8) Ottawa vs. (1) New York Rangers NY Rangers win series 4-3
Date	Location	Time	U.S. TV
April 12	NY Rangers 4, Ottawa 2	7p	NHLN
April 14	Ottawa 3, NY Rangers 2 (OT)	7p	NBCSN
April 16	NY Rangers 1, Ottawa 0	7:30p	CNBC
April 18	Ottawa 3, NY Rangers 2 (OT)	7:30p	CNBC
April 21	Ottawa 2, NY Rangers 0	7p	NBCSN
April 23	NY Rangers 3, Ottawa 2	7p	NBCSN
April 26	NY Rangers 2, Ottawa 1	7p	NBCSN
All games on CBC and RDS in Canada.

2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs schedule

2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

all times Eastern Daylight Time/+ if needed

Western Conference

(1) Vancouver vs. (8) Los Angeles Series tied 0-0
Date	Location	Time	U.S. TV
April 11	at Vancouver	10:30p	NBCSN
April 13	at Vancouver	10p	NBCSN
April 15	at Los Angeles	10:30p	NBCSN
April 18	at Los Angeles	10p	NBCSN
April 22	at Vancouver+	TBD	TBD
April 24	at Los Angeles+	TBD	TBD
April 26	at Vancouver+	TBD	TBD
All games on CBC in Canada.

 

Eastern Conference

(8) Ottawa vs. (1) New York Rangers Series tied 0-0
Date	Location	Time	U.S. TV
April 12	at NY Rangers	7p	NHLN
April 14	at NY Rangers	7p	NBCSN
April 16	at Ottawa	7:30p	CNBC
April 18	at Ottawa	7:30p	CNBC
April 21	at NY Rangers+	7p	NBCSN
April 23	at Ottawa+	TBD	TBD
April 26	at NY Rangers+	TBD	TBD
All games on CBC and RDS in Canada.

2012 NHL Center Ice/MLB Extra Innnings spring preview

Well, the 2012 spring NHL Center Ice free preview won't be remembered as being the best one. In many ways, it will be the worst.

The MLB Extra Innings preview runs through April 15. The NHL element covers 4 days of the hockey season, except that there are no Center Ice games on Friday and the sport isn't playing on Easter Sunday. On top of that, since all playoff games will appear on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and the NHL Network, Center Ice will carry 0 playoff games.

The 2011 version lasted 10 days and was glorious on numerous levels. The 2012 version is 2 days, and even worse, I will have as few as 6 Canadian feeds.

All games on Saturday except for Ducks-Flames are available on CBC feeds (marked with *).

As for the Canadian feeds I will get this week, only the two games in Alberta on Thursday and all but the Ottawa game on Saturday. Baseball will also interfere on the shared feeds.

NHL Center Ice free preview
April 5 — Tampa Bay @ Toronto; Winnipeg @ NY Islanders; Montréal @ Carolina; Boston @ Ottawa; Vancouver @ Calgary; Anaheim @ Edmonton
April 7 — Ottawa @ New Jersey*; Anaheim @ Calgary; Toronto @ Montréal*; Tampa Bay @ Winnipeg*; Edmonton @ Vancouver*

The 2012 edition of Canada's best and only MLB team, the Toronto Blue Jays, start out in Cleveland before coming home on Monday. Rogers Sportsnet and Rogers Sportsnet One will cover all 162 Jays games.

MLB Extra Innings free preview
@ Cleveland: April 5 (3 pm), April 7-8 (1 pm)
Boston: April 9-10 (7 pm), April 11 (12:30 pm)
Baltimore: April 13 (7 pm), April 14 (4 pm), April 15 (1 pm).

Hope you have better luck with getting Toronto feeds during the preview. For those cable customers with the big C named company where I live, I have 0 Rogers Sportsnet feeds for the entire preview. Sad. If you're a Jays fan in the States, you want to see your hometown announcers. And you can't blame this on baseball, outside of Thursday and Saturday.

'The Firm' showcases more than just Canadian actors

"The Firm" takes place in the Washington, DC area but is shot in Toronto. So you figure that exterior shots will be vague enough to look like they could be anywhere.

When I saw this segment open in "Chapter Eight" from a few weeks back, I thought it looked familiar. Not just that I had seen it, but I had been there at that exact spot.

The W Burger Bar sure seemed familiar, so I double checked the address: 10 College Street, Toronto. I smiled, knowing I had eaten there. I remember the blonde waitress who was jealous that I was from the United States. She wanted to move there; I wanted to move to Canada. If only we had looked alike, we could have switched passports.

We also discussed how they couldn't cook the burger medium-rare because she said that would violate Ontario law. Well, I had better cooked burgers later on in that trip.

This shot is steps away from Yonge Street, the marker between west and east in Canada's largest city. Old-time hockey fans will know that Maple Leaf Gardens is a couple of blocks east on Carlton (College becomes Carlton east of Yonge).

If you saw "Chloe," Cafe Diplomatico is about 2.5 km west of W Burger Bar.

Your other clue that the scene isn't in Washington, DC is "Copy Centre," two business east of W Burger Bar. The "re" spelling makes that Canadian, or certainly not American.

We haven't written much about "The Firm" even after it moved to the dustbin of U.S. TV that is Saturday night. Still, at least NBC is running the episodes.

Previous: 'The Firm' mixes in Canadian actors and settings to Southern legal drama

Can't say I would watch if it weren't for two of my favorite Canadian actors, Molly Parker and Callum Keith Rennie. The show has too many elements going on, and that's for those of us that have watched every episode. Still, if you only watch the scenes with Parker and Rennie, you get great acting and you don't have to spend 46 minutes watching the show.

And if you know Toronto well enough, you might see a bit of the city in the background.

NHL Center Ice February 2012 Canadian commercials

This would have gone up sooner in a perfect world,  but having a day job postponed running some of the cooler commercials on Canadian-based telecasts during the NHL Center Ice free preview in February.

I couldn't find as many cool ads on the Internet as I wanted from this stretch. I did want the spot about Tim Horton's jalapeno mozzarella bagel and McDonald's quality beef. But these are the best of what I could find.

There will be a final preview at the end of the regular season and possibly the playoffs. As soon as we know more, you will know more.

Tim Horton lattes
 

Boston Pizza cookbook
 

A&W $3 Uncle Burger bouncer
 

Jordan Eberle (Edmonton Oilers) taxi ATB Financial
 

Hughes Car Wash
 

2012 NHL Center Ice February preview notebook

While we only had 7 days of the NHL Center Ice free preview, we walked away with some choice tidbits. As for the commercials, we'll catch up soon. My day job will get in the way from time to time.

---

Getting Canadian feeds of Montréal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets games even on NHL Center Ice is not easy. After all, both teams have a limited TV deal with a regional version of TSN. Of course, TSN and CBC carry national games, but local feeds are difficult to come by, even with NHL Center Ice.

However, during the preview, TSN-Habs carried Monday's game against Carolina. My Comcast feed has 14 channels, yet only carried 3 feeds. The only feed not carried was TSN-Habs. We also didn't get the TSN-Habs feed for Friday night's game at Buffalo.

TSN-Jets carried three games this week — Tuesday (home-New York Islanders), Thursday (at Minnesota), and Sunday (home-Colorado) — all on TSN-Jets yet no TSN-Jets feed.

NHL Center Ice in the states will be biased toward American feeds, and there isn't much we can do about it. Yes, if I could get DirecTV, I would consider it given that I've heard you generally get all the feeds.

A preview is supposed to be a sample of what you would get the rest of the time. Very little in HD, and a smattering of Canadian-based feeds on games that involve an American team. That's not a good sign.

---

Toronto at Calgary Tuesday night was supposed to be available with both Leafs and Flames feeds. For whatever reason, the channel that featured the Leafs feed wasn't working. Why? Even if I could pursue an answer, nobody would really know. Fortnately, I was home and paying attention (rare for me to do both) and switched to the Flames feed.

I did miss the Toronto announcers' reaction to the "Go Leafs Go" chant you could clearly hear at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. By the end of the game, with Calgary running away with the score, "Go Flames Go" was much louder.

The fans were just as loud in Edmonton on Thursday and Vancouver on Saturday. A lot of transplanted Ontarians have made their way out west, and it showed.

11 of the 15 teams in the Eastern Conference only have to travel to half of the Western Conference cities each year. But the four Eastern teams from Canada travel to play at Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver every year. While the travel is a sacrifice, the fans really appreciate getting to see the teams make the trip. Imagine if all the Western teams got to see Toronto and Montréal once a year. If it's not too late for the NHLPA to get some sanity, maybe the new scheduling plan could still go into effect.

---

Occasionally in sports, a game won't be televised. So the jumbotron solution comes along to help us see games that no one else can see. But it sure makes for bad TV.

The Ottawa game at Florida Wednesday night was "televised" with a Florida Jumbotron feed. We saw a not-so-great picture, but you could follow what was happening. We had a clock in the lower right-hand corner. Replays were limited. And the audio came from WQAM/Miami and the Florida Panthers radio crew.

Fox Sports Florida carried a college basketball game that didn't involve any Florida-based team rather than carry the Panthers.

You had to be a huge Ottawa fan to watch this. If you tuned in the middle, you had to wait for the radio announcers to tell you what the score was.

The fact that the NHL has a team in Miami is almost as bad a joke as Phoenix. This was a snowbird game, so Canadians living down there would have pumped up the anemic attendance. This should have been a game that Florida should have carried, especially knowing that Ottawa wasn't allowed to carry a game (TSN has an exclusive window on Wednesdays).

Then again, hockey isn't that big in Miami. Yet another team that deserves to be in a real hockey city.

Canadians have better access to Hockey Day in America than Americans

We saw the effort made by the NHL Network in the States to carry most, but not all, of Hockey Day in Canada last week. Now let's see how well Canadians can see Hockey Day in America.

Pittsburgh @ Buffalo
If you get a NBC affiliate from Boston, Buffalo, or Burlington, VT (Montréal viewers), you will see this game. Those living in Eastern Ontario through the Maritimes likely get at least one NBC feed from this area.

St. Louis @ Chicago
This game is available on TSN2 (sim subbing the NBC feed). If your primary NBC feed comes from Minneapolis, you won't have to worry about TSN2.

San Jose @ Detroit
This game is available on most NBC stations (outside Minneapolis) from Detroit west to the Pacific Ocean. So if your NBC station comes from Detroit, Spokane, Denver, or Seattle, this is your game. If not, you could watch the game on NHL Network Canada.

Boston @ Minnesota — the late game — is available coast-to-coast on every NBC station and TSN2.

Perfect? Pretty darn close. Your cable or satellite system may vary, and a lot of this depends on whether you get more than one NBC feed. If you get NBC stations from Detroit/Buffalo or Seattle/Buffalo or Boston/Detroit and you have TSN2, all you needed were snacks and drinks.

Even with one NBC feed and TSN2, you get at least 2 games on your TV. Americans can only get one on their TV regardless of where they live.

While American viewers can stream the games of their choice, flipping back and forth would cause a headache, and even then, you still wouldn't be as well off as Canadians. Though, Americans don't need cable to get their one game.

NBC could have offered the other feeds on digital subchannels, but for whatever reason, that technology has been underutilized on both sides of the border.

While some in the States still can't get the NHL Network, Canadians with cable can get an NBC station and most get TSN2. Those Canadians that get multiple network affiliates from the States on cable are in great shape.

Regardless on which side of the border you live on, if you are picking up Pittsburgh @ Buffalo, you will get the treat of watching the TSN crew of Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro. Ferraro has worked for NBC in the past and Miller has filled in on what was then Versus. Besides, Miller and Ferraro will barely be in the United States. From the HSBC Arena, you really can see Canada.

Former CBC play-by-play guy Ken Daniels and TSN analyst Darren Pang will call San Jose @ Detroit. Daniels will have the hometown call since he is the voice of the Red Wings. Pang's home club, St. Louis, will be in Chicago where NBCSN's second crew, Dave Strader and Brian Engblom, will call the action. The #1 crew — Doc, Edzo, and Pierre — will be in St. Paul for the late game.

Meanwhile, Canadians able to access CBC via antenna or cable, and those lucky Americans along the border got every second of Hockey Day in Canada coverage, which was more than Americans got on the NHL Network.

---

For the second of two years in a row, a Canadian-based team plays in the evening on U.S. TV. Last year, Hockey Day in America overshadowed the Heritage Classic in Calgary. This year, the Canadiens get that honor as they host the New Jersey Devils at the Bell Centre.

Also, like last year, the Canadian game is broadcast on CBC yet Versus/NBCSN have sent a crew to Canada. John Forslund and Andy Brickley will call the game for the NBCSN, since the network has no one left (still better than Joe Beninati). Forslund and Brickley have both been to the Bell Centre this week, as the Canadiens played Forslund's team on Monday (Carolina) and Brickley's team on Wednesday (Boston).

If you are going to truly celebrate Hockey Day in America, and since Canada is part of America, then NBCSN should let the CBC do what it does best, and show Bob Cole and Garry Galley doing the game for the CBC.

---

When NBCSN was in Montréal on Wednesday, Pierre McGuire hung out with the visiting goalie, since RDS controls the traditional Inside the Glass area. Since CBC is also carrying Sunday's game, we will see if Brickley is anywhere on the floor since he will have trouble finding a spot. There won't be enough room to hang out with Glenn Healy and Martin Brodeur's backup.

Seeing the multiple layers of beauty of famous Canadian women

Today is Valentine's Day. And since I'm single, I like to imagine that I meet a beautiful Canadian woman and she takes me to Canada. I had a recent dream where I ran a contest to determine the sexiest Canadian woman.

I have met many non-famous Canadian women who were sexy, cool, graceful, and fun, but mentioning them here wouldn't be helpful to you since you have no idea who they are. So I want to throw out some names of women who I think have that essence du Canada.

Molly Parker: Long-time readers knew Parker would end up on the list. She isn't the classic beauty; I love her freckles, even if others don't. And her pale skin sometimes blends into the scenery too well. All she has to do to get you to notice her is walk into the room. Parker (left) doesn't have to say a word; truly one of the best non-verbal actresses you will ever find. As I described recently, she is a cool center of calmness.

Caroline Rhea: Caroline brings you into her world with her humor and smile. Something about you is drawn to her. Despite her self-deprecating humor, she has some nice curves. Rhea, like most of the women on this list, offers a pretty face and a fun attitude. Plus, her curves can keep you warm on a cold winter night in her native Montréal.

Catherine O'Hara: O'Hara proved that outer beauty wasn't a handicap in being really funny in her days on "SCTV." While she had classic beauty looks, she wasn't afraid to throw that off for a good laugh. And that makes her a good sport.

Clara Hughes: You might remember Clara Hughes from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Hughes is a Summer and Winter Olympian, winning medals in cycling and speed skating. She won two bronze medals in the 1996 Summer Games and four medals, including a gold medal, in three Winter Olympics.

Hughes (left) is the only Canadian to ever win medals in summer and winter. And she'll be back in cycling in the 2o12 Summer Olympics in London at the age of 39. Clara Hughes has also been a role model, increasing awareness about depression, having suffered from depression herself. Hughes is the national spokesperson for the Let's Talk campaign to support mental health services. She's a hero on and off the cycle/skates.

Sarah Polley: Similar to Molly Parker, her sexiness doesn't come from the obvious. She is also a cool center, though in a different way from Parker. On a basic level, she is the girl next door, but you always know she has more layers than the rings of a California redwood tree. Her directing and writing make you want to love her more for her mind. After seeing “Take This Waltz” last fall, I fell in love with her storytelling. And if you see her in “Guinevere,” you would want to be with her for everything else, too.

Jessica Paré: Besides being a good actress (in the right role), Paré’s beauty lies in part that she doesn’t take her beauty that seriously. That is so Canadian. Her two best films are “Stardom” and “Lost and Delirious,” but she also had a lot of fun in “Suck.” Jessica was just as convincing as a hockey player as she was as a model in Denys Arcand’s “Stardom.” Boys and young men can easily get caught up in Paré’s figure, but if you only focus on two things about Jessica, you are truly missing her essence.

Jill Hennessy: Jill is secretly Canadian, though she clearly had that Canadian coolness on her American TV shows, “Law & Order” and “Crossing Jordan.” Graceful, dark-haired beauty would be enough to put her on the list, but you honestly feel like you would love hanging out with her, even shooting pool, even if she wasn't that pretty. As if that wasn't amazing enough, Jill (left) has a twin sister, Jacqueline. For a great but brief shots of the Hennessy sisters, look for “Dead Ringers,” an early David Cronenberg film where Jeremy Irons plays a set of twins.

Sarah McLachlan: Her voice is enough to have her on my list, but her warmth and her laid-back style adds to her charm. Plus, she has a face you could stare at for hours and not get tired. She has such a pretty smile. Her love for animals warms your heart. Even if those commercials to save the animals can drive you nuts, I always watch when her commercial comes on. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

Laura Calder: Calder is still very unknown and seems so aloof, you wonder if she ever wants to have a boyfriend. Her cooking shows have developed a small cult following and I am one of those people. You look at her and think she's pretty. You see her figure and you go “Wow!” You listen to her speak and her voice is extremely cool.

You watch her casually talk about French food for 30 minutes on TV and you want to go home with her, and you realize that your motivations have very little to do with her physical beauty.

The beauty of Canadian female celebrities is that they sing and act and tell jokes. Their beauty lies not just in the lines of the face, but in the way they move, act, and perhaps even breathe.

---

Beauty, inside and out, can be subjective. So while these women didn’t make the top echelon of my list, these lovely ladies might be on your list:

Kim Cattrall, Sandra Oh, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Chalke, Rachel McAdams, Evangeline Lilly, Margot Kidder, Olympian speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes, Natasha Henstridge, Neve Campbell, Genevieve Bujold, Andrea Martin, and Gilda Radner.

Maybe Playboy playmates are your thing, including the late Dorothy Stratten, Shannon Tweed and her sister Traci, Kimberly Conrad Hefner, and Pamela Anderson 1.0, pre-surgery, pre-“Baywatch."

How about Alanis Morissette, Cobie Smulders, Ellen Page, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Helen Shaver, Jennifer and Meg Tilly, Kathleen Robertson, Susan Clark, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Rae Dawn Chong, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rachel Blanchard, Mia Kirshner, and Anna Paquin (born in Canada, but considers herself from New Zealand).

Linda Evangelista, Carly Pope, Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas), Cree Summer, Laura Vandervoort, Nia Vardalos, Catherine Mary Stewart, Deborah Kara Unger, Sandrine Holt.

Canadian women who have passed on: Mary Pickford, Yvonne de Carlo, Fay Wray, and Colleen Dewhurst.

Honorary Canadians (women who married Canadians): Hilary Duff, Carrie Underwood, and Scarlett Johansson

Molly Parker photo credit: CBS

Clara Hughes photo credit

Jill Hennessy photo credit

Laura Calder photo credit

Super Bowl ad notebook: Actual Canadian Super Bowl ads

Your TV choice this past weekend: 4 CBC games and no Super Bowl ads OR no CBC games and all the Super Bowl ads you can muster.

The best scenario is to live along the border on the U.S. side, get the CBC feed and still watch the Super Bowl ads. Canadians get the hockey, but they are primarily shut out of Super Bowl ads.

The CRTC makes Canadian cable systems cover U.S. ads and Canadian ads are run in their place. So if you are on cable or satellite in Canada, whether you tune in NBC or CTV, you get the Canadian feed. Yes, many Canadians and Americans can go on YouTube and elsewhere and see some of the Super Bowl ads. (Full disclosure: My day job is running an ad in the Super Bowl.)

The best way for Canadian viewers to see the Super Bowl ads is to access a NBC over-the-air (OTA) signal. The CRTC can't do anything about OTA signals, though the digital conversion reduces the range of OTA signals. While Canadians receive the U.S. networks via cable, very few of them can get that OTA signal. In the major cities, Toronto has a pretty good shot at WGRZ/Buffalo Channel 2 and Windsor, Ontario is ideal to get WDIV/Detroit Channel 4.

In past years, Canadians might get the ads depending on their location, cable or satellite outlet, and whether all the network feeds were covered. This is a hit-and-miss, and we hope you found success.

Now, many companies run their Super Bowl ads well after the game. Though if it's a sim sub, the U.S. commercials are blocked. And the really cool ads — think Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi one — don't run that much after the Big Game.

This year, Labatt's, which distributes Budweiser beer in Canada, created a Super Bowl ad that was only shown in Canada, not in the United States. As a public service, you can see it in the video above.

For last year's Super Bowl, Hyundai Elantra paid extra to air the U.S. ad in Canada. This year, Hyundai created a separate Canadian ad for the Super Bowl.

Samsung aired its U.S. Super Bowl commercial in the Canadian telecast, continuing its quest to mock Apple customers. (Full disclosure: I just bought a Samsung phone.)

---

You can't mention Super Bowl ads without noting that Canadian acting legend William Shatner's Priceline character was killed off by Priceline. While Shatner may be replaced as the company's spokesperson, you have to imagine that at some point, perhaps a future Super Bowl ad, Shatner's character will reappear, just like characters do in many soap operas.

Shatner's character goes out in a blaze of glory as he saves a bus teetering on the edge of a bridge, and then falls off that bridge.

Canada's best-known NBA basketball player Steve Nash appeared in a Bridgestone Tires ad. And Montréal's Moment Factory and Cirque du Soleil worked on the multimedia production of Madonna's halftime show.

---

Being Super Bowl week, the Globe and Mail had some nice Canadian tie-ins to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is quite popular in Canada from a fan's perspective — third-highest TV audience in 2011 — even with very little actual connection.

New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes was in his 2nd Super Bowl, and had also played in the CFL with the Ottawa Renegades in 2002-2003.

The newspaper also had a bit of fun with what would have happened if New England Patriots QB Tom Brady went with baseball as he was drafted by the Montréal Expos.

The Expos drafted him in the 18th round in 1995, a pick so late because the assumption was that Brady would pick football and go to the University of Michigan.

The Expos were snake-bit in a lot of ways, so you would like to think that a few of these moments would have made a difference.

'The Firm' mixes in Canadian actors and settings to Southern legal drama

U.S. over-the-air television networks running Canadian shows isn't new: just one of the many ways the networks are trying to save money. "Flashpoint" is one recent example.

What we have in the television version of "The Firm" is a hybrid: American and Canadian actors working together in Toronto on a TV series that airs on Global in Canada and NBC in the United States.

Two of my favorite Canadian actors, who have worked together in the past, are front and center in this adaptation. Long-time readers know of my love and respect for Molly Parker, who plays the wife of the protagonist (Josh Lucas). Callum Keith Rennie plays the protagonist's brother, a private investigator with a criminal past.

In the pilot, they have a few scenes together but haven't interacted with each other.

I first saw Parker and Rennie work together in "Twitch City," the TV show from Don McKellar that Bravo showed the episodes (before Bravo became more about "real" housewives) in the United States. Parker was the cool center in a chaotic world; Rennie had a smaller role, running the convenience store.

Parker and Rennie also were in "Trigger," also starring Tracey Wright (McKellar's parter) in her last major role before her death.

As for "The Firm," the scenes take place either in the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC or in the idyllic South Carolina type small town — all shot in Toronto. But since the two scenes are supposed to be very close by, you have to take it as it comes. Our protagonist is such a superhero that he is only missing the cape and tights. The judge thinks he is a super stand-up guy. In the pilot, our hero gets a 14-year-old accused of murder temporarily remanded to the custody of his father.

For a short run of 22 episodes, the show is packing in a lot of secondary plots and flashbacks. It feels crowded, and that was after seeing the 2-hour pilot. I found myself laughing at times during the pilot, and the show isn't supposed to be funny.

When I see Parker in a Canadian movie, she belongs there: smart, cool, fun to watch on the screen. When she has to be scared, as she does in "The Firm," I feel bad for her. Not the character, but the actress. Unfortunately, in a lot of American drama, women are reduced to being the victim or the helpless bystander to the hero. Hopefully, Parker will get more of a chance to prove how good she is.

The closest I have seen Parker do well in an American setting was "Swingtown," a show with its own problems. Parker showed a strong range of emotions, torn between her old suburban life and a new opportunity to let her hair down. She got to be nervous, but she didn't have to be scared.

As for Rennie, he is ideally suited for this role. He isn't always the upstanding guy, and comes across with an attitude. He is good in this role.

While the pilot aired Sunday night, you can catch the rebroadcast of the pilot Saturday night at 8 pm Eastern on NBC. Regular episodes air on NBC and Global on Thursday nights, starting tonight, at 10 pm Eastern. Showcase in Canada is rebroadcasting episodes and the pilot Friday night at 7 pm Eastern.