Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys is very clever sitcom for the following reasons:

• Character development:  It is impossible to get a grip on a Trailer Park Boys character through any one episode.  The characters and their lives are complex.   Ricky, for instance, becomes explicable throughout the series/seasons by exploring his relationship with his father,  which in turn explains his attitudes towards his family.
• Dialogue:  Trailer Park Boys has the cleverest dialogue of any current sitcom.  Each character has their own unique grammar and real thought has gone into everything from their malapropisms to their reserve.
• Acting: Jim Lahey is the best sitcom comedy drunk.  He is a believable drunk. The acting skills of all involved are good, but particularly Robb Wells and John Dunsworth.  They’re as good as the majority of celebrated character actors.
• Plot arc:  Each series has a underlying plot arc beautifully intertwined with each episode.   Each series is like a great album, where each song works well alone, but in sequence makes a thing of beauty.
• Attention to detail:  The set design and costume design is awesome. There is as much background detail as real life.
• Direction:  I suspect a polarising filter, but may be wrong, and it’s such a minor niggle (on a technical point about glare reduction causing increased colour saturation) that I’m a bit of a twat to mention it.  The direction is brilliant.  It’s a faux reality television format, but at no point interferes with the plot or distracts the viewer.

Watch this.  Pay attention to each character’s grammar, background detail, and references to the series plot arc. It’s one of my favourite episodes, called “The Delusions of Officer Jim Lahey”, but bear in mind that one episode of Trailer Park Boys will make less sense in isolation, because of the richness of the plot and characters.    So, if you want some quality entertainment, buy the DVDs, or borrow it on the Internet.  At first glance it looks like a collection of stereotypes, thus proving first glances are bullshit.