The Trailer Park Boys are household names in Canada; the central characters even more than the show itself. The mockumentary TV series has been a cult sensation since its inception in 2001, right through its seven seasons and two feature films. Here is the introduction to Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and other charmers from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
To praise this show seems nearly redundant as its worldwide success and popularity certainly stands on its own. Nevertheless, this truly is a show that should be praised for managing to have brilliant subtle humour amidst the very loud and lowbrow style of humour it is best known for. As well, there is a certain level of Pathos that one might not think possible from such a motley crew but alas, many of us know people eerily similar to these lads, and can see their natural drive to avoid a painful life and strive for true happiness….yes, yes, all the while growing marijuana and robbing places.
The lead actors should be praised for truly owning their characters, thus forever being identified with them no matter what they do in the future. Without their devotion, more than half the jokes would fall flat, but Ricky, Julian and Bubbles are their own entities and their reactions are perfectly natural and frequently hilarious.
Video
Fullscreen 1:33:1. The footage has just about as much clarity as one could hope considering the purposefully shoddy equipment used to make it seem like a truly low budget documentary.
Audio
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Obviously one looks past the bumping feedback of the midcrophone as our mock crew follows the boys through armed robberies and other less-than-legal misadventures, as they are inserted on purpose. The dialogue is very clear, which is necessary as there are hundreds of tiny jokes that you do not want to miss within the ‘script.’ That, and you get a crisp sound from the many snaps of gunfire.
Special Features
None, which is too bad.
Final Thoughts
These six episodes are tease for the promise of more adventures to come. As a complete story, it is well done, but those that know of the many seasons to come on DVD will be thrilled to see more of this rich assembly of odd characters. Six episodes seems a perfect length to get affiliated with the characters, allowing for longer seasons to follow where we can simply have a good time with them.
