Friday, June 24, 2011

Trailer Park Boys

More TV!  Yes, I’m inspired yet again, and by yet another “mockumentary” show.  This is a Canadian show (eh) about three very low class Canadian males: Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles.  There have been 10 seasons (season 11 approved) and three full-length movies, of which I’ve seen seasons 1- 6, the three movies, and the European series (8 episodes).  The show takes place in a trailer park in Nova Scotia, Canada.  The Canadian flag is fairly prominent in many scenes.

 Ricky is kind of stout, has a poofed up hairdo, huge sideburns and a semi-goatee, usually wearing flashy but trashy clothes.  He’s usually either smoking or toking or drinking and almost always up to no good.  Ricky is a brash, arrogant fast-talker who blames everyone else for his problems.  I’ve yet to see him take responsibility for anything.  His brief bits of normalcy were mall security cop (butting heads with Bubbles over shopping cart theft) and completing the 10th grade.  Jail is a very real possibility for him, and he’s no stranger to the orange jumpsuit.  When he’s not in jail he’s usually living in Julian’s old car, a full-size American car missing the front passenger door.  His romance with Lucy was broken up by jail the first time – arrested at his own wedding – and later he hooked up with her former roommate, Sarah.

 Julian is more well-adjusted, but he’s simply hiding a more devious criminal mind behind a mask of complacent conformity.  He usually wears a plain black t-shirt, has well-groomed black hair and goatee, and is rarely seen without a glass tumbler of rum & coke in his hand (even while driving).  I’d say he’s the most likable of the three.  By the end of the first season he’s scored a 1976 Pontiac Firebird as his ride, with a matt maroon finish, black interior, Rally II wheels, and aluminum dash.  By season 6 he's driving a mid-80s Monte Carlo.

 Bubbles is just plain…weird.  He wears Coke bottle glasses which magnify his beady eyes, mumbles, swears, lives with cats, and hustles shopping carts – steals them from one chain, fixes them, and then sells them to the competing chain.  He reminds me of Milton from “Office Space”.

 Trevor & Cory.  This pair are always up to no good, and are easily the dumbest crooks in the park. Cory has dreadlocks, Trevor just has longish hair.  Usually they act as incompetent backups to RJB’s plans.  They idolize Ricky and Julian, who in turn abuse them and constantly bum cigarettes from them.

 Lahey & Randy.  Lahey is the unpopular and rarely sober Park Supervisor, a failed ex-cop with a chip on his shoulder.  He’s the consistent nemesis of Ricky and Julian, vowing to put an end to their criminal exploits – if he can emerge from a drunken stupor long enough to do anything.  His assistant, Randy, is a chunky doofus who never wears a shirt.  (All the episodes take place in warm weather – what does Randy do during the winter?).  Despite the conflicts with Lahey, there is a “devil you know” deal with him, so when Sam Losco tries to get elected park supervisor, the boys rally behind Lahey to clean him up and discredit and defeat Losco.  

 J-Roc and T.  T is a black guy who teams up with J-Roc, who is white but talks and dresses like a rapper.  Every other sentence from J-Roc is “knowwhatI’msayin’?”  Unlike Trevor and Cory, J-Roc usually brings the goods, so to speak.  He tends to be Ricky and Julian’s go-to guy for nefarious deeds, be it setting up a nightclub in the trailer, getting Julian his Firebird, or framing Sam Losco in an amateur porn film to shoot down his engagement to Lahey’s ex-wife (who actually owns the trailer park).  Although he’s partners with T, T has practically no lines and doesn’t seem to do anything.   

 Ellen Page shows up in Season 2 as Lahey’s daughter Treena.  Although she was about 14 at the time, she looks more like 10.  Even today she still looks like a teenager.

Alex Lifeson is in TWO episodes: first as himself when Bubbles tries to get Rush tickets and Ricky ends up kidnapping him - so Alex is wearing HIS clothes; then in a later episode he plays a local vice squad cop in drag, but I recognized him anyway.  

 For years I have never thought there was a “Canadian” accent, per se.  To my ears, most English-speaking Canadians speak with what I would consider a normal “American” accent.  But here I hear a few items:  the word “about” pronounced “aboot”, and “Car” consistently pronounced “cah” (like in New England).   But none of these guys sound like Kennedys. 

1 comment:

  1. But none of these guys sound like Kennedys....But One Could Be Teddy's Love Child

    ReplyDelete