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Prairie Giants and Suchlike
Mar. 14th, 2006 09:42 pmIf you ever get a chance to see Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, do it. It's four hours of your life that'll be well spent.
I spent the last two nights watching this thing, a story of a man who was -- is -- venerated by many across Canada in general, and my birth province of Saskatchewan in particular, for a great many thoughts and deeds, medicare chief but nowhere near alone among them. It suffers from the usual problems of docudramas that try to cover decades in as short a span as two to four hours. But it gets the broad strokes, and does it well enough to suit me.
The last half-hour did not leave me with a dry eye, I'll admit that right off. The story of a man who didn't have to become Prime Minister to win his battles.
Update: I've learned from Antonia Zerbisias' blog at the Toronto Star that the first installment got 950,000 viewers, with 750,000 coming back the next night for part 2. Not bad at all.
I spent the last two nights watching this thing, a story of a man who was -- is -- venerated by many across Canada in general, and my birth province of Saskatchewan in particular, for a great many thoughts and deeds, medicare chief but nowhere near alone among them. It suffers from the usual problems of docudramas that try to cover decades in as short a span as two to four hours. But it gets the broad strokes, and does it well enough to suit me.
The last half-hour did not leave me with a dry eye, I'll admit that right off. The story of a man who didn't have to become Prime Minister to win his battles.
Update: I've learned from Antonia Zerbisias' blog at the Toronto Star that the first installment got 950,000 viewers, with 750,000 coming back the next night for part 2. Not bad at all.
