In a dismal time, Mark Critch's childhood tales have brought us a bit of comfort
CBC
There are secrets to the universe that I hope to unlock in this life. Among them: what exactly is Malcolm McDowell's accent on Son of a Critch?
McDowell plays Pop on the sitcom based on Mark Critch's childhood, which earlier this week wrapped up its first season on CBC.
McDowell, who became a film icon five decades ago with the menacing mascara and bowler hat he wore in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and whose career truly has been legendary since, is such a hoot on the show. A saucy senior who shares a room with his grandson, he's a townie's townie … although his accent is a bit of a mystery to these townie ears.
No matter. As I've learned with Son of a Critch, you just go with it.
I read Critch's book Son of a Critch: A Childish Newfoundland Memoir when it came out a few years ago. It's a great chuckle of a read, as he related growing up in the shadow of "VOCM Valley" on a then-isolated Kenmount Road, and going to Catholic school at St. Theresa's on Mundy Pond Road.
In January, the television adaptation started airing.
It turned out more than just townies have found the show intriguing. The show had the best ratings for a comedy in Canada since Kim's Convenience launched in 2016. A renewal for a second season came in February.
I remember having a chat with my colleague Janet, who lives outside Toronto, about how the show has delighted her. The nuances that local audiences scour for (the fictional "St. Bridget's" school is shot at the real St. Bon's) are not relevant for her; she's all in on the characters and writing.
"It's not just the place, but the people … the warmth, charm, humour, unique turns of phrase," she told me.
I think the timing of the show's launch was a factor in its success. It was not just winter, but an Omicron winter, the descent of a new variant in a pandemic that will not end. Comfort television was needed, and Son of a Critch delivered, like Ted Lasso, say, or Schitt's Creek, a fellow Canadian show that found a massive American audience in its final stretch.
While the book covers the childhood of Critch, who was born in 1974, the TV show focuses on an 11-year-old boy who is already an old soul. Moments that took place in the book over a broad spectrum of years collide on the screen.
One of the riddles of the show is this: what year is this anyway? After all, storylines have involved the St. John's visit of Charles and Diana (which took place in 1983), the Sprung greenhouse (which produced its first English cucumbers in 1988) and the scandals of sexual abuse among priests and then at Mount Cashel (these broke in 1987 and 1989, respectively).
In the end, the precise times don't seem to matter. The show's pan-'80s backdrop is like a carousel, spinning around so much that the details all seem to blur together. Aren't our memories like that, to some extent?
And hasn't the pandemic itself been a time warp all along?
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