The Communist's Daughter
The Communist's Daughter is a Canadian comedy web series, which premiered on CBC Gem in 2021. Set in the 1980s, the series stars Sofia Banzhaf as Dunyasha McDougald, the teenage daughter of communist activist parents Ian (Aaron Poole) and Carol (Jessica Holmes) McDougald; after the family moves to a new neighbourhood, she falls for school jock Marc (Kolton Stewart) despite being an outsider in her new school's social hierarchy, only for her father to mount a municipal council campaign against incumbent councillor Rod Bigmann (Chris Locke), Marc's father. The cast also includes Ryan  Taerk, Nadine Bhabha, Zoe Cleland, Vieslav Krystyan, George Stroumboulopoulos, Neema Nazeri, Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, Nadine Whiteman Roden, Sandra Battaglini, Jacob Soley, Shaina Silver-Baird and Jesse Camacho. The series was created by Leah Cameron, incorporating some aspects of her own real upbringing in the 1980s. It was funded in part by a Kickstarter campaign in early 2019, and went into production in the fall. It was released on CBC Gem in March 2021. Critical response. John Doyle of "The Globe and Mail" praised the series as "a very droll farce that really has no point apart from fun, frolics, jokes  about the 1980s and the ineffable struggle of a teenage girl who wants to fit in but is held back by her communist parents. It doesn’t make a blind bit of sense but that’s fine. It’s deranged enough to detain you for a splendid escape." Freelance television critic Bill Brioux gave the series "mixed Marx", writing that the series reminded him of his own experience making low-budget community channel comedy programs for Maclean-Hunter in his youth and praising the fact that Cameron got the opportunity to make it, but stating that he wished it was  funnier. He further wrote that "it is so apples and oranges, but I also can’t help but compare this series to "Never Have I Ever", an exceptional Netflix sitcom that premiered last year featuring Mississauga teen Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. It is also a fish out of water story set in high school, a clash of Indian culture and Americana. To be fair, "The Communist’s Daughter" was probably made for the craft services budget on "Never Have I Ever"." Awards. The series also won 20 awards from web series festivals throughout 2021, and was named the winner of the 2021  Web Series World Cup as the most awarded web series of the year.