The Rez

This short lived series was based on characters created by W. P. Kinsella, who also wrote Shoeless Joe(which was filmed as Field of Dreams). It was spun off from Bruce MacDonald's very good film "Dance Me Outside" and retains much of the same cast. A very good 1/2 hour program it jumped between serious issues and humour very well. The last episodes had the cast actually leaving the rez and travelling to Toronto. Unfortunately the CBC canceled the show and we never got to see what happened next.

I think this series is a good continuation of the film "Dance Me Outside". Although I do believe that Adam Beach SHOULD HAVE REMAINED as Frank Fencepost throughout the series as well. I really like Darrell Dennis too but I don't think that he should have replaced Adam Beach as Frank. Its just not the same. I've been always wondering why the show's producers and directors chose to pick Darrell to replace Adam as Frank. Who knows! :D

Well............ anyways............. this is how I see this series. Thanks a lot once again for allowing me to post these comments! :D

... you've got to visit "The Rez". The Rez is set in a "Rez" ("Indian" Reservation) in Ontario. It is a gritty half-hour show that gives a realistic, if somewhat gritty, portrayal of everyday teen life in a reservation. The dialogue is realistic. Anyone who liked Madison, Northern Exposure, North of 60, or even Due South should find The Rez to their liking...

I live in the US in NJ, so this show was never on TV here, but when i saw the advertisement for it on my comcast on demand, i immediately went to see what it was about. I was so happy to finally see something about natives that didn't have to do with annoying stereotypes, or the "white vision" of what we are, and unlike most things on TV about natives, it takes place in the present on a reservation, instead of that "in the old days" documentary type things, which seem to imply that we've just faded away. Anyway back to what i was saying, I loved this show, I have to admit the first few episodes were'nt that great, but i kept watching for the reason that it was a modern native show, and I'm glad i did, once you get past the first 3 episodes the show gets better and better, especially because of Tamara Podemski ^_^ , also from episode 7-17 they bring back one of my favorite native actors Adam Beach. The thing was, the show was a continuation of the movie, "Dance me outside", which i had never seen, I've just finished watching the last episodes of "The Rez"...which i wish could've kept going for a lot longer than it did, and now i've bought the movie, and am going to watch it! I recommend this show to all, but especially other American Indians who want to see a refreshing change to how we are usually portrayed on TV and in movies.

A spin-off series of the earlier film Dance Me Outside, which I had originally watched just as a precursor to this, and glad I did, the series is quite good. Honestly I enjoyed it even more than the film, but that's true for most series. Following a group of late teens on the rez somewhere in Ontario, we get a lot of familiar young adult drama with relationships, parties, and general listlessness, with plenty of life lessons in the subtext and episode take-aways. Like the film before was produced by Bruce McDonald, and the writing was quite good, although the acting was often hit-and-miss, and they also never really addressed the events of the film before it, not that they had to I guess. Ryan Rajendra Black as the lead, Silas Crow, was pretty good, and was fun seeing both young Tamara and Jennifer Podemski, who I knew from smaller roles in the more recent Reservation Dogs. Gary Farmer also appears, who is always a treat, and surprisingly even David Cronenberg shows up for a small role, which was quite fun. Only two short seasons, if you like these kinds of dramas, this one was pretty good, I'd say check it out if you can find it.