For the longest time, Canadian actors had to travel Due South (pun totally intended) to be able to ‘make it’ – but more and more it seems that this isn’t the case. They can stay up here, freezing in the wonderful country of their birth and make it pretty big, too.

The great part is that viewers like us have more and more quality Canadian shows to view while huddled under blankets in front of the fireplace. It really is an exciting time for viewers like us. Between ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie‘, ‘Being Erica‘, ‘The Listener‘ and the now defunct but still re-running ‘Corner Gas‘, Canadians have more than enough great Canadian TV to watch (we would have even more if they would re-run ‘Due South’, but that’s a whole other can of worms). Perhaps I am biased, but I find that these shows are not only entertaining, but they still fulfill that all important role of making us think. Which, as anyone who has been reading Sahar’s Blog long enough knows, I like doing.

Right now, the Canadian shows that make me think the most are ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie’ and ‘Being Erica’. I already talked about ‘Little Mosque on my blog (here, here and here), so let’s take a little time to talk about ‘Being Erica’.

Or perhaps I should first let ‘Being Erica’ speak for itself in this promo:

I think it’s pretty obvious why I like this show, since society seems to be teeming with regret, be it about personal issues, family issues or, for the very eager, societal ones. As Martha Beck wrote for O magazine, regret is: “the forehead-slap of hindsight, the woeful fuel of country ballads, the self-recrimination I feel for eating a quart of pudding in a crafty but unsuccessful attempt to avoid writing this column.”

Not that I ever did that, trying to write a post for this blog…

Everyone knows that regret is a hard thing to get over, although it’s a vital part of moving on and (hopefully) moving up. After all, something we regret can also be an important, life-changing lesson. But how do we go about actually getting over our regrets, especially when, as in Erica’s case, they become crippling?

There are plenty of self-help tools available (including Martha Beck’s article, which you should definitely read if regret is holding you back) and now, there is a TV show. Yes, ‘Being Erica’ can be a great way of opening up a conversation with close friends about regrets and tackle some of your most crippling ones. I got together with a couple of friends recently; we put on a couple of episodes of ‘Being Erica’ (which, if you live in Canada, you can watch on the CBC website) and spent the entire night talking about our own regrets and how, not being blessed with a Dr. Tom, we were going to start getting over them.

To understand that last bit about Dr. Tom, and perhaps to start your own road to leaving regret behind, perhaps you should watch Being Erica. Enjoy!