The Boys

Years ago, I took a chance and saw a film I knew nothing about--Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.  I thought it was quite funny.  Only later did I discover it was originally a TV series.

Lately I've been checking out the show on Netflix.  I'm still in the middle since there are twelve seasons of the original (though that only adds up to 102 episodes).  I just finished season five, so I have a pretty good idea how things work.  In fact, I think I've caught up to the movie, which was released during the TV run.  When I finish the regular episodes, there's a Trailer Park Boys mini-series set in Europe and another in the U.S., as well as a couple of specials.

Trailer Park Boys is, to put it simply, a sitcom about trailer trash.  It's about life in a Nova Scotia trailer park and is shot in documentary style--the characters often refer to the film crew, in fact.  It's apparently based on a feature film (not the one I saw several years later) created by Mike Clattenburg, who also created the show.

The three central characters are friends Ricky, Julian and Bubbles.  Each season has an arc which generally involves the guys getting involved in some crime scheme and ending up in jail.

Ricky is dumb and violent, but knows what he likes, which is mostly smoking, getting high, getting drunk and eating pepperoni and chips.  He's also capable of talking his way out of bad situations with the police.  Julian is the "brains" of the organization, which in this group simply means he reads books, thinks coherently and is capable of planning for the future.  He also always has a mixed drink in his hand. Bubbles is sort of the odd man out.  He lives in a shed (which isn't that bad considering Ricky lives in a car), wears coke-bottle glasses, loves kittens and Rush, and makes money stealing shopping carts and selling them back.

There are a lot of characters surrounding the trio.  Their nemesis is alcoholic trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey and his assistant/lover Randy, who has a huge gut and never wears a shirt.  Lahey's ex-wife, Barb, owns the park.

Ricky's got a dad, Ray, who pretends to be wheelchair bound to get disability payments.  Ricky also has an on-again off-again relationship with Lucy, who lives in the park.  The two have a daughter, Trinity.  Lucy's friend is Sarah--in general she's no fan of Ricky.

Then there are Cory and Trevor, two guys who idolize Ricky and Julian and will do whatever they're told.  There's also J-Roc, a white guy who lives in his mom's trailer and thinks he's a black rapper.

The show is fairly raw, but entertaining.  It's about a world where no one has a college education and just about everyone smokes a lot of weed and/or drinks a lot of alcohol.  In fact, when they're not settling their differences, no one thinks about much more than getting drunk or high.

Few have regular jobs.  Most are involved in crime, and the boys are sometimes quite successful--before they're caught and thrown back in jail.  Beneath it all there is some humanity shining through, though not so much that it slows down the action.  There's also a surprising amount of gunplay, though no one ever gets seriously hurt.

Maybe I will get tired of the show eventually, but right now I plan to keep watching till the end.