CBC Gems

“I’ll just lie down here in my couch and enjoy all these TV soap operas until I fall asleep,” said a dear friend when she retired from teaching. I thought that she deserved to rest and relax as she pleased after decades of working hard to help relatives get their college degrees.

As for my own retirement, I thought I could just read or write all night and sleep all day, or perhaps volunteer all day and sleep all night. But now with all these CBC Gem shows online, I’ve recently found myself sometimes glued to the screen if not multitasking in my spare time.

How could I resist traveling across Canada without leaving the house with Johnny Harris’ Still Standing? How about LMHO (laughing my heart out) with Halifax ComedyFest? Son of a Critch with Fil-Can actor Mark Rivera and Run the Burbs with a diverse cast are equally relatable. Kim’s Convenience and its larger-than-life characters were hilarious. Sad to see them go after a fifth season. Want to solve mysteries? There’s the Coroner, Frankie Drake, Murdoch Mysteries, and Sherlock. Want to see what you already know about the judicial system? There’s Diggstown and Burden of Truth. Want some family drama? There’s All Creatures Great and Small, Call the Midwife, Heartland, and When Calls the Heart. Best of all, there’s The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, now in its 62^nd year! Who’s not in love with science? Who’s not thankful for David Suzuki, now in his 86^th year as an animal on Earth? Yes, David reminds us that we’re all animals. And when we say that animals are in danger, we mammals are all in danger, too. Now let me get offline and save some animals. MLJ/20/06/2022