After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Charles Macurdy

Charles was born and raised in Vancouver. For over a decade, he worked as a chef before leaving the industry to attend university. Charles has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from UBC. He has written on a range of culinary topics, such as food trends and cooking to restricted diets, and has published numerous original recipes. He has also written extensive criticism, covering television, film, and music, with a particular focus on television comedy as a developing art form. His most recent work is as a culture critic and humorist in his blog, The Red Couch Report. Charles is committed to fostering respectful, intelligent, and rational democratic discourse. Failing that, he is prepared to supplement the conversation with jokes.

Network television’s comedy conundrum

This season will be the last for NBC’s version of The Office. Not many shows run for nine seasons. Seinfeld ran for nine seasons, M*A*S*H for eleven. Typically, it takes a truly great show to make a...

'The Neighbors' is as bad as advertised

Over the last few years, ABC has made a big impression in the world of television comedy. Its flagship show, Modern Family, is so successful that ABC had to give every full-time cast member on the...

Brolin in Community, Hind in Game of Thrones and more awesome casting

Each year around this time, networks announce some of their most high-profile castings. This year, they’re spoiling us. Below is a run-down of some highlights which ought to be especially exciting to...

Fall comfort: a gluten-free mac and cheese recipe

Delicious gluten-free macaroni is easy to make at home.

First look at new TV comedies this fall

Well, it’s that time again. A new television season is upon us, along with cooler temperatures and the inevitable Vancouver rain. What better on a grey September evening than a bit of well-wrought...

Canadian comedy is alive and well... on cable

Canadian comedies rarely enjoy high profile success. Other than ensemble or sketch comedy shows,  What’s more, far too many Canadian comedies are tainted with a distinctly Canadian, and all-too-...

Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom on HBO imperfect but powerful TV

So far, Aaron Sorkin’s ambitious new HBO drama, The Newsroom, has received its fair share of mixed reviews. Critics and audiences alike have found the show preachy. The characters are mostly familiar...

Summer television: Falling Skies offers an enjoyable, if superficial, apocalypse narrative

Last summer was the summer of sci-fi. We got the first seasons of Alphas and Falling Skies, the vastly under watched Outcasts, a new season of Torchwood, and an especially good season of Doctor Who....

Australian comedy Laid offers quirky, dark comedy

Alison Bell plays Roo, a young Australian woman with a unique ex-boyfriend problem.

Game of Thrones repays fan loyalty with one of television’s greatest battles

Throughout the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, there have been grumblings that, while the show remains very good and the plot continues to advance, it has become too talky for a fantasy epic...