Douglas Coupland’s new novel JPod will be turned into a 13-part TV comedy series on CBC.
According to CBC Arts,
The quirky novel JPod follows the lives of a group of video game developers as games are created, twisted into a new shape by the marketing department and eventually cancelled without seeing the light of day.
The main character has a father trying to break into the film business and a mother who runs a grow-op.
The comedy series is expected to incorporate Coupland’s witty take on corporate culture and has been compared to the TV series Weeds or Arrested Development.
Sounds like my kind of thing. I haven’t read the novel (Coupland jokingly refers to it as “Generation Xbox”) but the setup vaguely reminds me of another book I thoroughly enjoyed, called Lucky Wander Boy. JPod is purportedly based on the experiences of disgruntled staff at Vancouver video game publisher Electronic Arts. And the TV series is going to star… Alan Thicke!
There was a strange piece on the project in Playback last week which originally hinted that a JPod video game was being developed. That bit was later edited out, leaving the article “JPod extras in the works” without any “extras” to discuss.
Probably just as well – the official JPod website makes my head want to explode.
(And in case you were wondering, one blog commenter helpfully points out the JPod has nothing to do with a particular grouping of whales.)
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For the record… my colleagues - the developers here at Radio3- are a far, far stranger bunch than the characters in JPod. I say this with love btw.
That JPod website may just be the best website ever made.
How is this any kind of podcast?
It’s not, I was just (ill-advisedly) trying to be clever… JPod broadcast… I toyed with “CBC to shoot the J” but figured nobody would get it. Ah well.
So, has anyone out there read the book? How is it?
CBC managers are exactly the kind of people who think Coupland deserves his own TV show. He’s a riotously successful and simply awful writer. Obviously someone with that much money and clout could really use a boost like this one. Heck, who gets 13 episodes on the CBCanymore?
Now, how is the evaluation of those freelance pitches coming along? No budget for them, right? But let’s throw another six figures at Coupland.
Sour grapes much, Joe?
The few Canadians who manage to become “successful,” where such is always defined as “attractive to Americans,” are exactly the last people who merit 13-episode TV series on a public broadcaster. Coupland can sell it to one of the damned American cable networks.
Have to agree with J.C.
We all love Coupland but his novels are unreadable and boring. Maybe he’s ahead of my time but I could never finish any of them.
And now a radio show of a novel?
That’s going to be hard to keep up with unless it becomes downloadable.
Joe: I don’t get why you think that managing to achieve some level of international success makes you ineligible to be on the CBC. You seem to be under the impression that the broadcaster should either be an incubator or a rest home. We should be doing more of this kind of thing, not less.
Actually, I think most series in future will be 13 parts or 26 - just like the rest of the world. It’s part of the new concentration on drama. Gives the audience an opportunity to engage with the series, thus the turn away from mini series and one offs. Easier to promote too.