12/5/2023 0 Comments Trickster cw![]() ![]() The novelty of the show’s setting allows the show to maintain interest in a way the pacing doesn’t, and there’s a vein of dark humor that helps as well. None of these elements is impacted by a storytelling rhythm that I’d politely describe as “choppy,” a momentum-sapping lack of flow that left me unsure if the first two episodes were taking place over three days or three months.Īll the while I was getting distracted because CBC, Trickster‘s Canadian home, thinks swearing is kosher and The CW disagrees - so you have the peculiar double standard by which The CW has no issue with teenage alcohol and drug use but needs to drop audio and pixelate mouths if somebody says “shit.” ![]() Jared’s new neighbor and potential love interest Sarah (Anna Lambe) is a window into an Indigenous activist community (and seems to be surrounded by glowing embers or fireflies), while his mother’s junkie boyfriend Richie (Joel Thomas Hynes) offers another glimpse into the drug epidemic hurting the community. Though I might not be able to tell you what the supernatural or mythological forces are surrounding Jared, I have a good sense of the context of the community - especially the economic forces at work, including the threat of an incoming oil pipeline. ![]() The plus side of the pacing is the opportunity to establish the world of the show, a rural blue-collar community that looks like almost nothing you’ve ever seen before on American TV. Or maybe Jared’s unrest stems from the arrival in town of motorcycle-riding badass Wade (Kalani Queypo), who used to be close with Jared’s parents and has a very personal connection to the night of Jared’s birth - one that, like everything else in the series, is mighty creepy. It’s a lot of stress, and maybe that’s why Jared is struggling in school - he gets an ironic C+ in chemistry - and also why he’s experiencing very strange hallucinations including talking crows and a creepy doppelgänger of sorts. Jared works at a local fast-food restaurant, which doubles as a front for selling drugs that he cooks up at a cabin in the woods. High schooler Jared (Joel Oulette) has been struggling with his parents’ divorce and with the need to suddenly support both sides of his split family, including manic alcoholic mother Maggie (Crystle Lightning) and father Phil (Craig Lauzon), who has battled addiction himself. Trickster is adapted from the YA novel by Eden Robinson, a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations, and set in the North Coast region of British Columbia (though it was filmed in Ontario). Aspects of the show deserve the spotlight. But for my own part, while it’s impossible to separate Trickster from Latimer, I think there’s value in recognizing much of what remains valid in the show - especially when it comes to the cast, most of whom will be complete unknowns to American audiences. It’s a conversation that seems worth having. Latimer’s subsequent resignation from the Trickster production team has raised questions about how appropriate it is to champion the rest of the show, which features an unprecedented number of Indigenous actors and crew members across the board. ![]()
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