Keep telling these stories. Canadian TV, cinema, and radio don’t have to be in a death spiral. But it means doing things besides microwaving American TV.

Heated Rivalry proves that’s utter nonsense. This show was produced on a shoestring budget, with no pre-established stars, and became a smash-hit worldwide anyway because it was telling a story different from the ones our feeds are filled with, and it did so incredibly well.

I’m not Canadian, but I spent the most formative years of my life working in radio and TV there. The gravitational pull of America and its far larger audience and fatter production budgets mean that there is often a sense that Canadian stories aren’t worth telling, that they just can’t compete.

I looked it up and the actual cottage they filmed in is not only NOT in the Lanaudière it is in fact not even in Québec at all (it’s in Muskoka, Ontario)

😍