JPod (TV series)
jPod is a Canadian comedy-drama television series based on Douglas Coupland's 2006 novel of the same name. It premiered on CBC Television on January 8, 2008. Starting with the fifth episode, the show began airing Fridays at 9:00. On March 7, 2008, it was announced that the CBC had cancelled the show due to low ratings. All of the remaining episodes—apart from episode 11, which was skyped and made available online—were broadcast. The show's opening title theme is "Flutter" by Bonobo. Produced by I’m Feeling Lucky Productions for the CBC, "jPod  was created by Coupland and Michael MacLennan. Coupland also co-wrote many of the sole season's episodes. Overview. jPod" chronicles the often shocking lives of Ethan Jarlewski and four of his co-workers at Neotronic Arts as they confront "Chinese gangs, boneheaded bosses, sexual swinging, British royalty and gore-laced video games." The pod was created by a Y2K glitch, which caused workers with surnames beginning with the letter J to be grouped together. The group works in a pod in the basement and were nicknamed jPod by the company. jPod is made up of Ethan, Bree, Cancer  Cowboy and John Doe. The newest member of jPod is Katilin Joyce, who appears to have been hired a day or two before the series begins. The series begins as the Pod receives a new boss, Steve, who instantly begins to change jPod's game. The team struggles to cope with the changes and tries to keep their game afloat. But even with massive changes in the office, they don't ever change their priority: doing as little work as possible and goofing around. Ethan, the protagonist, has bigger problems than changes at work. While both his parents, Jim and  Carol, appear to be normal middle class suburbanites, they both have strange lives and activities. Frequently their activities cause disasters and they rely on Ethan to bail them out. Carol runs a large marijuana grow-op in her basement in order to fund her retirement. Unfortunately problems with dealers, dead and alive, often lead to her calling Ethan and demanding his assistance. Jim is attempting to become an actor but due to his lack of talent, fails to get speaking roles. He has occasional affairs, loves to ballroom dance and mostly hangs out with Kam Fong, a Chinese mobster. Ethan  is very attracted to Kaitlin, but the arrivals of their old flames, as well as ongoing drama in Ethan's life, and chaos at Neotronic, keeps coming between them. As the series progresses, Steve falls in love with Carol and attempts to win her heart. Jim becomes jealous and asks Kam Fong to deal with Steve. Steve disappears and leaves the jPod employees without a boss. Steve is replaced with Alistair, an insane but genius designer, who makes life in jPod miserable. Eventually, Ethan manages to get Alistair to leave the pod alone, in exchange for meeting Alistair's deadlines . Shortly after, Ethan discovers that Jim was involved in Steve's disappearances and demands to know what happened. Jim explains that Kam Fong smuggled Steve to China and he is now working in a factory. Ethan and a coworker, Cowboy, go to China to rescue Steve. They bring Steve back to Vancouver, Canada (The mentioned setting In Episode 1) but realize that after working in the sweatshop, he is addicted to heroin. jPod warns Steve that he either needs to quit heroin or at least become a high functioning addict or he will get fired. He refuses and eventually gets  fired. After a fight with Jim, Carol leaves Jim and moves to a lesbian commune on the Sunshine Coast. As she leaves, she accidentally runs over Steve. She doesn't realize she hit him and drives away. Jim finds Steve's body, realizes what happened and asks Ethan to help dispose of it. They do not want to contact the police as they don't want Carol to know she killed Steve. They bury the body and send a letter to Steve's son to explain his disappearance. After a few weeks alone, Jim decided that he cannot live  without Carol and decides he will do whatever it takes to win her back. To replace Steve, Katilin, a jPod member, is promoted and is placed in charge. But the new position is short-lived. A computer glitch causes jPod to be disbanded and the five must seek new positions within the company. They each begin to work in their 'ideal' sections but find they miss jPod. They decide to put together a farewell to jPod video, composed of all the goriest material they created. They insert the video into a company board meeting presentation and shock the administration of  Neotronic Arts. The pod admits they probably will get fired for this but agree it was worth it. While John Doe, Cowboy, and Bree head off to play a last game of "Defendoids", Ethan finally expresses his feelings with Kaitlin and they share a passionate kiss. When Ethan heads off to get a parting present for Kaitlin, Kaitlin gets one last hug from the hug machine. The machine is connected to a jealous artificial intelligence and crushes Katilin. By the time she is found by her co-workers, she has fallen into a coma. The series ends at this point  and it can be assumed that in either another unaired episode or a second season, the cliffhangers would be resolved. As the series was canceled, viewers are forced to guess whether Kaitlin recovers, whether the pod is indeed fired, if Carol and Jim get back together and what Ethan does with his future. Cancellation. On March 7, 2008, CBC Television announced the cancellation of "jPod". After earning high praise from some critics but little viewership, CBC moved the program to Friday nights, which may have had a negative effect on its ratings. ""jPod" has been in trouble since February, when  CBC moved it from mid-week to Friday night, when viewers are difficult to attract." DVD release. On September 9, 2008, Morningstar Entertainment released a region-free DVD set in Canada containing all 13 episodes of jPod, with bonus features including deleted and alternate scenes, including segments from the unaired pilot, a gag reel, animations and interstitials. A pressing error forces playback of Episode 8, The Last Shot, to be forward partway through the episode to the next episode on the disc. Morningstar soon offered a disc replacement program to those with an affected set. Digital distribution. In Canada, jPod  is available streaming on demand on the CBC's jPod website. A first for scripted television on the network, who previously had dabbled with online distribution with its news programming. jPod is seen as an early step in the CBC's digital distribution plans, which includes releasing programs via BitTorrent. jPod also is available streaming on demand on the relaunch of The WB in the summer of 2008 at TheWB.com. Intellectual property restrictions prevent those without American IP addresses from viewing the series on The WB. The show is also in syndication on local CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox stations  in the US. The show was also released on iTunes . There was originally a file error on iTunes which causes Episode 8: The Last Shot to play in lieu of Episode 9: Fine China. iTunes has subsequently corrected the file contents and released an update to customers who purchased the series. In the UK, the full series of jPod is available on Netflix UK and the Virgin On Demand service in both SD and HD to XL subscribers only, as well as offering the first four episodes on the Virgin Central channel in June 2009. JPod (TV series) jPod is