Search - Trailer Park Boys: Season 1-2 on DVD

Garbage Art and Flawless Fools

Mark Eremite | Seoul, South Korea | 04/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Long before Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race, there was ... Cops. That's right. Officially the first reality television show to air on national television, "Cops" pandered to the prurient in all of us, the urge to see willful stupidity and irrational rage played out in all of its seamy, accidentally-comedic glory. "Cops," now 18 years old, still plays, eternally banking on society's fascination with train wrecks, especially when those trains are run by boozed, baked, and bewildered boobs. Well, move over "Cops." If you thought real-live redneck morons could make for arresting television (pun intended), take a look at what Mike Clattenburg has done with the wonderful world of make-believe.

A mockumentary of Canada's Sunnyvale Trailer Park and its hopelessly clueless citizens, "Trailer Park Boys" owes as much to Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap as it does to "Cops." Like "Spinal Tap," the show follows three short-sighted dopes around as they try to make sense of their lives, mend strained relationships among those they love, and -- of course -- try out any number of hair-brained (and mostly illegal) schemes to make money fast.

Bubbles is ostensibly the smartest (he quotes Aristotle and Plato ... with accuracy!) and most sensitive of the trio, a cat lover who gets caught up in the shenanigans if for no other reason than because he values loyalty over intelligence and friendship over freedom. Julian, a well-built man who is always seen in a black baby-t, is the only one of the three who harbors dreams beyond his small life in the trailer park. Rarely seen without a drink in hand, Julian is a smart man, but not smart enough to disengage himself from the chaotic orbit of Ricky, a truly crazy, dumb, dangerous, dumb, well-meaning, and just very, very dumb man.

If it weren't for the almost flawless acting, the show could very well be consider nothing more than a protracted and horribly foul-mouthed Three Stooges episode (with a little Jackass thrown in for flavor). However, with the exception of a few characters (Sam Losco, a former veterinarian, is the one that comes immediately to mind), the actors and actresses in this show are truly, and without exaggeration, dead-on in every scene. If it weren't for the ludicrous circumstances and the fact that the camera work steadily loses its shaky, documentary feel over the years, it would be very easy indeed to believe that these are real people. (Adding to the faux-autheticity, whenever the actors make live public appearances, they always remain steadfastly in character.)

Season One introduces us to the gentlemen, Ricky and Julian, as they are finishing up an eighteen month stint in jail. They return to their beloved trailer park, but immediately encounter resistance (and will for the rest of the seasons) in the form of the trailer park supervisor, Mr. Lahey, and his half-naked assistant, Randy. In addition, Ricky must deal with his dwindling relationship with Lucy (with whom he's fathered a daughter, Trinity), while Julian takes on the new trailer park hotshot, Cyrus. Somewhere in there a kindly old woman's dog eats some suspicious brownies, an undeniably white rapper -- J-Roc -- tries to earn money in the amateur adult video industry, and a robbery at a local grocery store goes horribly, hilariously wrong. The Second Season expands the characters, giving us a more thorough look at Bubbles (his affinity for felines and exactly how he makes his money), Cory and Trevor (lapdogs who are to Julian and Ricky what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were to King Claudius), and Mr. Lahey and Randy (the nature of their symbiotic relationship is explored in disturbing detail).

If it sounds dirty, distasteful, stupid, and weird, it kinda is. But the nicely contained cosmos of the trailer park, the perfectly defined characters, the psychologically-sound ties that bind every person in the park together, and the (as I said before) amazing acting make this show not just hilarious, but also ground-breaking and brilliant. For most TV series, that would be high praise, but when you're talking about drugged-up, trash-talking Moe, Larry, and Curly, it's a recommendation of the highest order."

MAYBE "SMALL PLANS, SMALLER BRAINS"?

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 03/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just when you think TV comedy is dead, something comes along to make you change your mind. Like the original "The Office", "Trailer Park Boys" shows up in mock reality style and there the similarities end. The first two seasons exhibit that sort of newness and surprise that makes for priceless entertainment. The story lines, characters and their interactions are almost hard to believe. What can you say about a show with a character named Ricky telling his best friend Julian "I love Lucy" after Lucy has made a pass at Julian? Or Bubbles making his living by restoring stolen shopping carts and, when facing jail time, asks the sincere and poignant question, "Who's gonna look after my kitties"? As preposterous as the people and the situations become, the lads hold it all together with flawless comic logic that usually ends in hilarious parodies of typical TV style, not unlike South Park's addiction to "I learned something today ..." closings. But of course, no-one has or ever will learn a thing. Unapologetically lovable and offensive adventures in love, friendship, gunfights, growing dope and getting drunk. If you haven't visited the Sunnyvale Trailer Park yet, get over there ASAP. And bring a few smokes."