The Canadian National Newspaper: Metropia shows Canada's cross-cultural vitality

Metropia is an exciting new drama series about a group of multicultural, multi-ethnic, hip and happening, twenty-somethings living in a funky district of downtown Toronto. Centred around a bohemian community of artists, musicians and entrepreneurs, the series deals with young adult contemporary themes. The diverse storylines cross all boundaries and leave no taboo ignored. The episodes touch on a variety of current issues such as drugs, crime, family relations, university, jobs, social and cultural issues and of expressive sexual themes.

The network that brings us multilingual broadcasting has delved into the creatively competitive world of drama.

Rogers OMNI has launched into territory unfamiliar. The culturally diverse channel that began it's programming based on ethnically rich Toronto has plated a new item on it's already full menu: Metropia.

The show reflects Toronto's diversity and urban landscape. The show includes the stereotypes that plague its socio-culturally diverse characters. "We knew we wanted every skin tone possible in our cast. We wanted the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the characters to somehow play in the stories we were telling. And we wanted new Canadians, first, second and third generation Canadians in the mix," explained Jill Golick, Executive Story Editor for the series.

Golick indicated that as far as story development: "We were shameless. We ripped off the headlines, people on the streetcar, small children. We also stole incidents from people's lives. It's a genre that wants to take the audience through every emotion. We believe Metropia is a funny, sexy take on the soap genre, but there are all kinds of stories running through: romance, crime, family, drama and so on."

With several main characters introduced into the main plot it offer a lot to digest in one half hour sitting. There are diverse storylines running creating a creative mixing of plots that emulates the complexity of people interwoven lives.

"We want to explore issues of culture and ethnicity and certainly racial slurs are part of this. We hope we're showing these incidents in a well-rounded way," explained Golick.

The idea of television reflecting the cultural mix of this country is as exciting as it is long over due. Unfortunately, Metropia has the vision and quality of an interesting Canadian inspired drama.