jPod
Posted by Skrud at Thursday, January 31st 2008 at 7:32pm
I’ve been watching the jPod TV series since it starting airing on CBC a mere four weeks ago. I remember seeing the ads for it and thinking “I should probably watch that show … it was a great book!” but of course I never bothered to take notice of when it was showing. The first episode caught me off guard since I stumbled home one night and it had just started, and it was actually funny. I was entertained throughout the first 10 minutes, but then I had to leave to meet some friends and just watched the episode later when it was finally “available” for download. Compared to the book as I remember it, the TV show is pretty close adaptation. It’s better by far than any book-to-movie adaptation I’ve seen.
jPod or Microserfs?
I enjoyed jPod a lot, since it felt to me like an updated Microserfs, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I loved Microserfs. Both are written by Douglas Coupland, but Microserfs is easily one of my all time favourite books. I first read it (according to my blog) in January 2004, and I’ve re-read at least 4 times since then. Each time I read Microserfs I get so much more out of it. The book is chock full of references to nerd culture and geekdom, yet all tied together in such a meaningful way. When I read Microserfs, I felt like it was a book that understood me.
jPod was a similar style of novel to Microserfs, but it never resonated with me as strongly. I always felt that jPod was simply too over-the-top and exaggerated for me to relate to the characters. jPod is also full of nerd references, but I think it’s to a fault. At one point it feels like the references are simply there for the sake of paying lip service to something that the readership will recognize, chuckle silently to themselves and shrug. Basically, jPod felt to me kind of how xkcd feels to Nick.
jPod on TV is so much better!
The funny thing is that I’m completely taken by the TV show. I love it! I’ll watch an episode over breakfast with my morning coffee and be in an enlightened mood for the rest of the day. I think part of the reason is that the wackiness and over-the-top-ness work so much better in live action than in prose. The same things that turned me off from the novel make for a lively and entertaining television-viewing experience. It’s as if jPod were meant to be televised. The novel lends itself easily to the kinds of amusing, unlikely scenarios that make sitcoms work, but at the same time it’s infused with the social commentary and searching for meaning that Coupland’s characters do so well.
This is the first TV show that I’ve followed in ages. I’ll keep watching. :)
