‘Trailer Park Boys’ is still strong after 18 years
Just when you thought the “Trailer Park Boys” would retire after 18 years of constantly spitting out new seasons, movies, live shows, game apps and even Swearnet, the boys have returned once again — but this time in a spin-off series titled “Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series,” where all the people of Sunnyvale are recreated in animated form. Talk about continuity!
Season 12 ended with the characters turning into cartoons after taking a large number of drug-enhanced mushrooms. . After Johns Dunsworth’s unexpected passing, they managed to get over the hurdle and continue with the show regardless of no Jim Lahey (played by John Dunsworth), no Lucy (played by Lucy DeCoutere), no Trevor (played by Michael Jackson) and no J-Roc (played by Jonathan Torrens). Also, for the sake of giving Mr. Lahey the proper send-off, turning the new season into an animated series makes a lot of sense.
The gags from the previous incarnations are kept the same, such as Julian (played by John Paul Tremblay) always tightly gripping a glass of rum and coke in his hand, no matter the situation he finds himself in. And don’t worry —the Rickyisms, aka Ricky’s (played by Robb Welles) mispronunciation of words, are still a huge part of the new series, too.
Before you jump right into the new animated series, consider revisiting those early seasons, specifically season one to seven. You’ll appreciate how great the show was before Netflix picked it up and became a soulless, greedy television show created by money-hungry producers — though, the Netflix seasons are definitely still watchable.
The old “Trailer Park Boys” was great and authentic — there was room to improvise and characters were able to grow and learn from their mistakes. In the world of animation, however, it is different — these guys can do whatever they want, push the boundaries and get super weird, such as getting a pet tapeworm and space weed.
Ultimately, each episode of “Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series” after another slowly becomes a competition of how more ridiculous the guys can get from the previous episode. It becomes a total circus — they go full-blown crazy, and they’re not afraid of it. Somehow, Ricky’s clumsiness has gotten even worse and the storyline has gotten more far-fetched. But with the original live-action series, they were able to at least keep one foot in the realm of reality — giving the show an authentic touch.
Nonetheless, there is an overall meta reference in this new season. The characters know they are in a cartoon world, and it’s a cool twist on the mockumentary genre.
Reviewing only from episode five, I am willing to give it a chance and finish the rest, but my expectations are as low as they can be. It will definitely be interesting to see how they plan on taking this new direction, and opening up more doors for the mockumentary genre — a very meta-animated mockumentary. Here’s to hoping it will work out.
