After failing to capture audiences on Citytv, Less Than Kind returns for a second season on HBO Canada with showrunner Mark McKinney touting the premium channel as a better fit for the black comedy.
McKinney says a move up the dial grants the Winnipeg-based series greater freedom to push the boundaries than during its limited run on conventional television.
“The show was always conceived to be quite edgy, quite dark and to take a lot of permission with the subject matter, and now that we’re on HBO it just fits like a glove,” says McKinney, seated next to star Maury Chaykin for a round of media interviews.
“It’s kind of where the show belongs, I think, on premium TV. We make use of it, and I don’t just mean by cursing and showing nudity — although there is some of that. It’s about the way you can sort of explore a theme.”
The serial nature of shows on HBO Canada — home to such daring fare as the polygamy drama Big Love and the vampire romance True Blood — allows Less Than Kind to pursue its long story arcs without fear of losing audiences to surprise schedule changes, McKinney says.
He bemoaned the show’s Citytv time-slot — directly after the sensational reality show The Bachelorette — as less than kind to the offbeat series, about the trials of an overweight teen and his overbearing Jewish family.
McKinney says the beauty of premium cable is that schedules are generally a lot more consistent and not as “reactive” as on network TV.