Living in the Sea of Meh.

I've been feeling very meh lately. Haven't read a book that inspired me, seen a movie that captivated me (tho I do admit to laughing my ass off at Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle *grin*), even tv is leaving me a little, for lack of a better word, blah.

And sure, the new tv season is starting soon and that's new shows to look forward to (although, it's my already seen favourites that are drawing my attention), but it just doesn't feel like enough.

And then, over the past few days, I found something that enraptured me. Yes, it's tv, and Canadian tv at that, but I watched a show that did it all... I laughed, I cried, I was moved to say "fucking awesome." The show? Slings and Arrows.

The first season had a lot of inside jokes, which as an alum of Theatre@York, I actually got... digs against the Canadian government, the Canadian theatre industry as a whole, even Keanu Reeves doing Hamlet in Winnipeg in the early '90s. (Ironically, this is while I was at York, and right around the time that *we* did Hamlet... it was pretty funny to watch all the pretention of how much better we were than he could possibly be. Esp. when he came to one of our performances...) Funnier still, now that I know Mr. Pink's brother went to school with Keanu and I've heard all sorts of stories about his "hockey career" and his, uh, stoner tendencies *grin*. And it was where I first discovered Rachel McAdams, who is one of my new favourite actors, and tons of other Canadian talent (too many to list here).

But the second season, which if you subscribe to TMN in Canada, is still available on the TMN on demand channel, is just such an incredible study of Shakespeare, of character, of people, of the creative process, that it had me gripped throughout.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I've actually never read the Scottish Play (Sorry, the superstition is still there... can't bring myself to write the name :) ). But I can't wait to read it after watching this show. Watching Geoffrey (Paul Gross) try to understand who the title character was, and how he should be portrayed, was captivating. Watching Geraint Wyn Davies do "Maccers" brought me to tears. Fucking brilliant.

And I got a huge kick, working as I do now in marketing, at Colm Feore's attempt at an advertising campaign.

If only to understand how a director discovers who his characters are, and to watch Paul Gross' descent into and out of madnesss... watch this show.