Good news: The CW/Canada link is sometimes fun

OK, my faith and optimism have been semi-restored.
That’s my faith in the shaky upcoming TV season. And in the wobbly CW network. And in Canada.
In short, the opening episode of “The Spencer Sisters” is surprisingly good.
The show arrives Oct. 4 on CW, which is one of the few networks to realize that Canada: 1) Is quite close to us, geographically; 2) Speaks a language very similar to our own; and 3) Makes TV shows like the ones we do … or, at least, like we did in decades past.
I’m not talking about the shows that were written and produced in the U.S., but filmed in Canada. Instead, these are ones that were made for Canadian TV, with the rest of the world as an afterthought.
A few have had modest success here – “Due South” on CBS, “Transplant” on NBC, “Rookie Blue” on ABC, “Coroner” and “Burden of Truth” and more on CW, several on cable. The one big success was “Schitt’s Creek,” on the obscure Pop network; in its final season, it swept the comedy Emmys.
Then the new owners of CW hired the former Pop executive and told him to find lower-cost alternatives. His plan includes three Canadian nights this summer and two this fall.
This sounded promising – until I saw some of the shows. The summer’s Monday comedies (which will continue this fall) are a mixed lot; “Son of a Critch” is bland, “Children Ruin Everything” is fairly good, “Run the Burbs” is awful. For Friday dramas, “Family Law” (in its second CW summer) is fairly good, “Moonshine” is so-so. For the Saturday food shows, “Great Chocolate Showdown” barely aspires to adequacy; “Recipe for Disaster” is just silly, and not in a good way.
So I approached “Spencer Sisters” with little optimism … and was soon pleased.
The show ostensibly stars Lea Thompson, 62. She was Marty’s mom in the “Back to the Future” movies and had her own comedy series, “Caroline in the City”; she isn’t Canadian, but she’s from Minnesota, which is close enough.
But the real star is Stacey Farber, 35. Like many talented Canadians, she started on the “DeGrassi” youth drama. She spent six years there and starred in “18 to Life,” a Canadian show that got a brief spot on CW. She’s also had regular roles in several American shows that were filmed in Canada; she was Tara in “Virgin River,” Pam in “Diggstown,” Leslie Larr in “Superman & Lois.”
Now she gets a dandy role as Darby, who loses everything – job, romance, home – in one busy day. The lone fallback is her self-obsessed mom, Victoria. That’s Thompson.
They’re a great combination – the mom in exuberant colors, the daughter ins please-don’t-notice-me bland – solving local mysteries. We soon like Darby a lot and Victoria enough; we also have resumed faith in CW and Canada.