Son of a Critch

Upon watching, you are inevitably drawn to make comparison with The Wonder Years (original) but also notice the differences that makes this stand out on it's own.

It has all of the comical absurdity that revolves around a typical family type that most will recognise.

Great performances all round, with particular note for Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Malcolm McDowell (in his best role for years).

It is silly and of course absurd but oh so delightfully so, partly because of the Canadian elements attached.

SON OF A CRITCH seems to be a very promising new sitcom for CBC. The plot follows along the lines of YOUNG SHELDON and the new WONDER YEARS except it's a Canuck childhood recollection. Hopefully, they treat it with respect and keep it on the air, at least until the young actor playing Mark graduates. I could easily relate to the setting, having grown up and gone to school in Canada (albeit Saskatchewan, not Newfoundland), and a decade earlier. The show is full of quirky Canadiana: the Wayne and Shuster lunch pail, the Rich Little poster, the moose headline. The creator of the show, Mark Critch, plays his father on the series. A nice surprise for me was Malcolm McDowell playing Mark's 80 year old grandfather with whom he shares a bedroom. I am looking forward to enjoying many years of this show, tickling my funny bone and reliving memories of being a nerdy kid in Canada.

This series started off a tad slow for me, I wasn't sure if I was going to persevere with it. But.... as it got going it just got better and better.

I don't know anything about Newfoundland apart from other TV series I have seen which have been mainly really dramatic, so this was a wonderful change.

Great to see the sets from the 80's too. A lot of people are making comparisons with The Wonder Years and Young Sheldon, but I think this stands on its own, and indeed, it's based on the Father's real life experiences growing up. The humour is wry and self deprecating, not in your face laugh out loud although there are a few of those too.

I see it has been renewed for Season 3, so I'm definitely looking forward to that!

I was already a high schooler but kudos to the set dressers because the sight of a push button cable box on a tube TV with an Atari connected to it took me back. The characters are so real and played to perfection by the actors it pulls you into their world seemlessly. I'm team Fox already because she's portrayed as such a vulnerable "bully" and I find myself hoping her character develops throughout the series. Having survived 12 years of Catholic School this show is like looking at a documentary of my childhood.... I was in elementary school in the 70's and high school in the early 80's so that time frame remains something special...

I'm only 2 episodes in but as someone who relates to this pre-internet era and has spent a great deal of time in rural NFLD, I love it so far. I'm looking forward to the next episode each week. The set designers have really nailed this, and the cast is superb (Sophia Powers as Fox especially!)