jPod TV series

aftu

Let me preface this by saying I apologize for quasi-whoring on my first post, but that I have been a long-time Penny Arcade reader and lurker on the forum.

I thought this might be of interest to some of you. Douglas Coupland, author of jPod, has turned the book into a new TV series. jPod is about a bunch of people who work in Vancouver, BC at a large gaming studio, Neotronic Arts.

I am actually one of the actors in the show, and I'm really damn proud of what we made. As far as I know, this is one of the first TV shows that directly deals with the gaming industry (I'm sure someone will prove me wrong in that regard :P). At any rate, I thought that a site that prizes both the technological and the literate might find some interest in what we've done. Some of you have maybe even read jPod the book.

Basically, we've got lots of cool shit going on. In addition to video gaming, we've got grow-ops, Chinese gangs, heroin addiction, adultery, big guns, spontaneous combustion, drunken karaoke, people smuggling, and lots of promiscuous sex.

And Alan Thicke is in it. ALAN THICKE, PEOPLE! I'd go into a longer list of credits and credentials, but then I'd feel like an extra big whore.

So far we're only confirmed to air in Canada. The premiere is January 8th, 2008 at 9pm on CBC. More info at cbc.ca/jpod

So yeah... anyone excited for this? Or are we alone, stewing in our own awesomeness? Flame away or discuss.

ege02

A show about gaming industry, you say?

Surely there are at least a few jabs directed at that Jack Thompson guy.

In any case, I see that your cast has some pretty girls in it. This must be an inconsistency. Everyone knows that pretty girls don't design games, much less play them.

--

Sounds like an interesting concept though. I never read the book, but I'm looking forward to the TV series. I sure as hell hope CBC can design a better site than that one however. It looks awful and is a pain in the ass to navigate.

The Cheese

I liked the book and I will watch this show.

aftu

Oh come on, it's TV land! It would be disappointing if the girls weren't pretty.

Or at least... I'D be disappointed. Makes going into work that much easier early in the morning :P

ElJeffe

If your show winds up being Grandma's Boy in sitcom format, I will hunt down and bludgeon all involved. It would be nice to see a treatment of gamers and game development that isn't just OH HO ANTI-SOCIAL DORKS and OH LOOK THE GUY SINGLE HANDEDLY MADE AN EPIC, BEST SELLING CONSOLE GAME IN HIS BASEMENT.

Sam

ElJeffe wrote: »

If your show winds up being Grandma's Boy in sitcom format, I will hunt down and bludgeon all involved. It would be nice to see a treatment of gamers and game development that isn't just OH HO ANTI-SOCIAL DORKS and OH LOOK THE GUY SINGLE HANDEDLY MADE AN EPIC, BEST SELLING CONSOLE GAME IN HIS BASEMENT.

I flipped through the book, it's pretty bizzarre/postmodern

And the work is supposed to be somewhat soul crushing cause it's that much workmanship and creativity over something that's stupid

aftu

Nah, I promise that the dorks are all very social and three-dimensional characters. While the show in some cases deals in stereotypes (very consciously), it doesn't in the case of the game creators.

One of the things I really love about it is that it's part comedy, part drama. It's funny, but each episode is an hour long, so we're afforded more breathing room for character and story development.

The book is indeed very bizarre. Season One of the show follows the trajectory of the story from the book for the most part, but goes off on a lot of new tangents and changes things up a bunch on the way. I wish I could reveal more in this regard, but I'd get in a whole lot of trouble

ED!

The book wasn't really "postmodern" so much as total Coupland. That said, while reading the book I thought that it totally would work as a mini-series of sorts on HBO or some such, but as a series - I don't know. There are some fairly good character developments that I wouldn't want to sit around and wait for. But then I don't know Canadian tv so I don't know how all of that works on that side of the Americas.

It is a good idea though, but at the end of the day it really is just "The Office" but with video-games (complete with the clueless boss).

EDIT: Whoa, those actors look nothing like I would have envisioned them, and when someone mentioned Alan Thicke - I totally pictured him as Steve, not as Ethan's dad. And is it me, or do I remember Ethan's mom be well-proportioned?

Alpine

I loved this book, good on CBC for picking it up. I'll be sure to try and catch it when it comes on.

Irond Will

I was underwhelmed by Microserfs and therefore didn't pick up jPod. Generation X wasn't too bad, though. Coupland seems to kind of have a way of overloading his characters, relying on melancholy introspection, and falling short in the plot department. This doesn't seem especially promising in terms of a TV adaptation, but it might work out for a show if there's a staff of actual writers.

I'm in the US anyways, so I doubt this show will really make it over here, but I'd give it a look. Regardless of my criticisms of Coupland, he's very likely a much better author than your average TV scriptwriter.

Mahnmut

The way the author figures into the story is extremely awkward even in a book which has got his name on the cover. I think it will ruin everything if they try to carry that plot into television.

aftu

I don't think it's giving away too much to say that Coupland does not appear as a character. I'm not quite sure how that would work on TV if we did try to pull it off.

And yeah, we've got a whole staff of really awesome writers. The overall style stems from Coupland, but there are a lot of different voices in the show. I think they've done an amazing job of adapting the book to work for TV. While the book is the framework, there's a whole ton of new elements that make it work in a different medium. The show is its own animal.

As far as showing in the US goes, I guess we'll have to wait and see. It's possible that the current writers' strike could allow some Canadian programming to get a foot in the door. I'm not involved in that part of things though, so I don't know what they have in the works.