Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service

Published: Saturday, August 29, 2009

SUNDAY

The moral behind the Degrassi: The Next Generation movie event, Paradise City: Degrassi Goes Hollywood, is that the Hollywood life is not all it’s made out to be.

No way!

Way.

Paradise City: Degrassi Goes Hollywood plays like one of those Disney Channel movies — Hannah Montana Goes Hollywood — and it’s aimed primarily at a teen-and-tweener audience, despite its prime time spot Sunday on CTV.

There are differences, though.

Kevin Smith, the Clerks filmmaker in real life and director of the fictional Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh? in Degrassi’s world, has a prominent cameo, along with his Jay and Bob sidekick Jason Mewes.

The plot of Paradise City is easy enough to follow. Degrassi regulars Manny (Cassie Steele), Jay (Mike Lobel), Peter (Jamie Johnston), Danny (Dalmar Abuzeid) and others head to Hollywood as part of the annual spring migration of Canadian aspiring actors and musicians hoping to land a paying gig during TV pilot season.

Paradise City won’t leave you feeling as if you’ve landed in paradise, but it’s a reasonably entertaining diversion on a late summer Sunday evening. (Sunday on CTV)

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blog: http://www.canada.com/tvguyThree to see

– True Blood, the second last episode of the season, is called Frenzy. You’ve been warned. Another caution: The final episode, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, won’t air for another two weeks. (Sunday on HBO Canada)

– The lost-in-time crime procedural Cold Case goes retro in a major way in Sunday’s repeat from December, after the remains of a flight attendant who disappeared in 1960 are found in an old hotel. Seventies TV icons Lee Majors, Adrienne Barbeau and Mariette Hartley guest star. And if the songs sound familiar, that’s because they’re by the Chairman of Board himself, Frank Sinatra. Now you know. (Sunday on CBS)

– Vanessa Williams, of Ugly Betty fame and infamy, hosts the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, honouring the best in soap opera and (daytime) TV talk shows. Live in the East, tape-delayed in the West. (Sunday on The CW)

The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2009