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There must be a reason why the podcast and subsequent book is so beloved by Canadians, because this series must seriously be selling short that vision.

The book was written by someone involved in politics, who lived and breathed it. But whoever wrote these scripts was certainly not the author, as the whole nuance of the work is missing something.

McClintock, who was formerly married to a well-known feminist, with a passion for water quality, would not be a man to be trifled with. He seems reduced to a warm and fuzzy eccentric engineer. Parkinson, who ran five times against a man with a 90% approval rating and with a passion for the individuals effect on the political process, seems to be dulled by her association with the nursing home. While it is implied both of these characters are bitey, as one would expect, neither really delivers anything particularly incisive or sharp. However, Raoul Bhaneja needs to be given credit here as the standout, as Chief of Staff Stanton, he injects energy, direction and insight that seems lacking from the other characters in the series (possibly down to mediocre direction).

And while the script has its moments and political insights, like the ridiculous way polling is analysed, the show doesn't seem to make up its mind whether to cruise in under the radar with the subtleties of Yes Minister, or hit viewers over the head like Thick of It or VEEP. Rather, it decides to do neither for the most part and feels more like a weekly soap opera that could be slotted into one of many genres...hospital, police, etc etc. Which if it were a 24-episode season program would be fine, but miniseries require fast character definition and a sharp script; this show has neither.

It really is a huge shame for Canadians that this celebrated book wasn't done better, it must be well loved for a reason, and Canada seems to lack TV dramatic works focused around politics.

Not to be confused with the Reese Witherspoon film or any of the other dozen movies with the same name, this Best Laid Plans is a 6-part miniseries from the CBC and based on the novel by Terry Fallis. We follow Daniel Addison (Jonas Chernick), an intelligent but awkward speech writer for the opposition leader of the Canadian parliament, who quickly gets demoted to a small local campaign where our series narrative picks up, and we follow his struggles and learnings as he reassesses his priorities and values. Very like Veep in vibes, but not so in quality, the series never really seems to commit to any depth, keeps most political statements fairly neutral, and any character growth comes via being told or introspective revelations, rather than learned through experience. There's a lot of directly addressing the camera by the lead, which just didn't work for me, and I didn't find Chernick had the charisma for me to care much about his character. The writing was meh, though the acting was fine, it was believable, just somewhat boring. Like all the politicians in this show, what we're left with was pretty mid.

The one critic so far that reviewed this series had very little good to say about it. I guess that shows the hypocrisy of a lot of critics. They think that if they don't rip apart everything they review no one will pay attention to them. As a comedy it is not a constant stream of belly laughs but there are some. Instead it is a delightful story that is just fun to watch. Even though the ending is predictable it's great to see all the odd ways that gets there. I have avoided any spoilers here because I always steer clear of them them on anything I watch. Instead I will just say I highly recommend it and I think most of you will agree with me.

The book failed to captivate me but entering this show I though CBC was going to bring new life into the idea. Boy was I wrong, this show fails on every level, because of the pandemic I have been consuming more media but after this I feel like I need to take a break. Saying this show is a boring is an insult to the word boring. I believe the we need to take a step back and asses how the hell CBC made this dumpster fire. 1 star was for Angus because he was funny once.

Whimsical, well-characterised, witty and charming. Well worth your time. I had read and loved the book, and was delighted to trip over this series by accident. I will watch it again, and read it again.