Alright Canada, How Do We Feel About the New Adult Swim Channel?

Is it worth the added cable bill?

Canada is easily one of the greatest places in the world to live in. Besides the free health care and recreational cannabis, we have Tim Hortons and hockey. Our country has it all, and a lot of that is thanks to our proximity and relationship with our neighbours to the south (or, how it was eloquently put in the latest episode of The Simpsons, the Homer Simpson to our Flanders). However, there are some slight sacrifices that we are forced to make to live above the 49th parallel. And, it mostly boils down to simple release dates and coverage of the popular entertainment that the US boils over to us.

The great white north is fortunate enough to get access to nearly everything that American media can produce. But, notice how I am forced to say “nearly everything”. Additionally, there are often times when we are forced to wait for months to catch up on something that Americans have already forgotten. While some media sources are quick to release to Canada, as if we count as the 53rd state, there are others which ignore us entirely (looking at you DC Universe). Probably most insulting of all is the companies that provide us with a “Canadianized” version of their services. Like, seriously Netflix, we can’t share the same content?

The one channel where this has presented the most considerable headache has been Adult Swim. The cable network has been producing some of the best comedy shows as far back as 2001. However, in Canada, we only received glimpses of the content through the now retired Teletoon at Night block on Teletoon. Later this Adult Swim spill-over was transferred over to Cartoon Network, and the two channels shared the content up until most recently. Unfortunately, several of the shows that were celebrated on Adult Swim was decidedly absent from Canadian programming. Further, we were not fortunate enough to witness any new releases and would need to wait for, at minimum, a season to finish before it made its way north.

Maybe we complained enough, or perhaps our big brothers finally threw us a bone, but on April 1, 2019, Canada was finally privileged with Adult Swim Canada. A channel dedicated to round the clock Adult Swim programming. And, it turned out that it wasn’t even an April Fool’s prank like the network has become notorious for. Heck, most of us were hoping that this would be the first time that we ever received a Rick and Morty episode on release (at least legally). Fresh Rick and Morty may not have come to pass; however, the channel did give us the gift of a free one-month free trial for anyone subscribed to a cable network.

So, what did we think?

Well, for one, we didn’t really get anything new, or unseen in Canada before. In fact, the only series that we had never seen was the newly released Lazor Wulf. To be fair, it was pretty good, and it was nice to be included in a brand new series finally. I should also mention that this was the first time that the third season of Rick and Morty was officially aired on cable in Canada. But, most of us who wanted to watch the beloved show has already found our ways within the last year.

Maybe unsurprisingly, nearly 80% of the programming Adult Swim Canada offered was reruns of Fox shows that we have already been privy to. The daytime schedule is filled with old episodes of King of the Hill, Family Guy, and if you are lucky, a couple of episodes of Bob’s Burgers. As lovely as it is to have these shows playing in the background while you putter during the day, it’s not as if we couldn’t find these shows elsewhere.

All of this may seem like the channel is not worth whatever your cable provider decides to start charging. However, there is one reason that the more passionate of adult animation fans may choose to cough out the extra bucks. Adult Swim Canada will now be the exclusive channel for many of the programs that we have come to love. If you developed a love for the aforementioned Lazor Wulf you’re gonna have to pony up. Adult Swim is releasing plenty of programs this year where this will be the only place that you can watch the day-of release of new episodes including The Jellies, Squidbillies, and Final Space.

Of course, the most significant temptation to subscribe to the new channel is the eventual release of fresh Rick and Morty episodes. There is still no official release date for the highly popular cartoon, but we do know for certain that the show has signed a deal for 70 episodes. This means that if you are Canadian, and you want to be ready to watch that first episode as it is released, you are going to need Adult Swim. If you love that show as much as I do, this alone may be worth the cost of admission.

All in all, it is difficult to say if Adult Swim Canada is worth it for you. There are a lot of variables. Depending on your cable provider adding the channel may cost you almost nothing, or more than you could expect. It also depends on how important watching the great new content is to you, and how savvy you may be at sourcing episodes for yourself. Only you can decide which way the scales tip when you weigh new Rick and Morty against constant reruns of American Dad.

Let us know what you think. Will you be adding Adult Swim Canada to your cable listings? Was it worth Adult Swim to even attempt a Canadian takeover? Do you even have a cable anymore? Don’t we all stream everything nowadays?