Plan B: Created by Jean-François Asselin, Jacques Drolet. With Alexandra Petrachuk, Antoine Yared, Lorna Kidjo, Anika Flynn. A controlling husband who wants a successful family goes back in time to try to change the course of events and the outcome of his failing marriage.
Source: Plan B (TV Mini Series 2023– ) – IMDb
OMG, did CBC finally get it right? After so many terrible taxpayer-funded shows, I finally stumbled on one that looks pretty promising. Maybe because Plan B originates mostly from French Canada, it’s not so overtly politically correct or downright stupid as most other CBC attempts I’ve seen.
No, this one is actually okay. For me, anyhow. But then again, I like time-travel shows. Ever since I was a kid the notion of seeing real people in other times caught my attention. I’m still trying to imaginatively “leap” while watching low-key, contemplative shows like The History and Archeology of the Bible. So far no luck, but sci-fi TV is a good alternative. If it works, that is.
One of the main stars of Plan B is the guy who played a fraudulent lawyer on Suits, Patrick J. Adams. Adams went to high school literally a minute’s walk from where I live so it’s always nice to think that someone ‘big’ once walked the streets I currently find myself on. Suits was shot in Toronto, even tho’ it was supposed to be in NYC. So I guess working in Canada isn’t really a stretch or a comedown for Adams, especially if this new series does as well as the Canadian time travel drama, Travelers.
Set in Montreal, Episode 1 sports a few Canadian cliches: The young struggling lawyer getting a home reno while his relationship gets sticky, replete with French in-laws who just love their homemade vino. And yes, it’s hockey playing on the local bar TV.
Yep. That’s Canadiana. But the episode’s solid performances make even these familiar tropes palatable.
So far, no time machines to speak of. Only some New Wave 1979ish-looking employees who for some strange reason violently toss Phillip Grimmer (Patrick J. Adams) into the back of a van after he orders a time travel trip on his phone. One small note on that. Would a smart young lawyer really give out his credit card number to an answering machine selling time travel? And with no specified cost, for that matter?
Fake as hell but we have to suspend judgment here, even if this scene is far more implausible than the actual idea of time travel.
Other than that obvious flaw, I enjoyed the first episode and look forward to more.
As I said in another recent review, there might be hope for Canadian content, after all.
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