Hoser heist

Canada’s favourite potty-mouthed degenerates
go drinkin’, robbin’ and kitty savin’ in Trailer
Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day

BOOZY BUNCH: The Trailer Park Boys

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

If the old adage is true and comedy really is just tragedy plus time, then maybe the Trailer Park Boys franchise hasn’t aged enough for me yet. I found the television series entertaining largely due to the physical comedy and one-off mutterings of Mike Smith, who plays bespectacled Bubbles. Yet as a few years have passed since I last watched the show, my time away from Sunnyvale brought about a realization. The bulk of TPB’s appeal had to do with the free-flowing profanity and no-budget gags the production team put together week after week as the gang repeatedly clashed with drunken landlord Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth). Charming, sure. But certainly not groundbreaking.

As one should expect, there’s no shortage of conflict or tragedy in Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day as Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Ricky (Robb Wells) and Bubbles have a bone to pick with Mr. Lahey following the two-year incarceration that was the send-off of 2006’s Trailer Park Boys: The Movie. Yet Julian, who could charitably be referred to as the brains of the bunch for those not familiar, is willing to leave this discretion in the past and start living on the straight and narrow by opening an auto body shop out of his garage. Bubbles is, as always, on board, but Ricky has had enough of playing second fiddle and feels his time has come to lead the pack. He’s going to sit his Grade 12 exam and then—watch out world!

Having spent the past couple of years in relative quiet, Mr. Lahey is not keen on seeing his dysfunctional adversaries return. In fact, he’s gone ahead and finalized plans for a sewer system to be laid, one that would necessitate the dismantling of Tremblay’s modest abode. In one of the funnier scenes, he attempts to buy off his tenant with $1,400 cash and $700 Canadian Tire money for the dilapidated trailer. Tremblay, however, won’t bite.

To make matters worse, the gang is in dire need of cash—and not just for a beer run. The SPCA has caught wind of Bubbles’ 27 “free range” felines while the boys were inside and seized the lot of them. If the gang can’t come up with $3, 200, the cats will be destroyed. And we all know how much Bubbles loves his fucking cats! When it becomes apparent that Julian’s enterprise is doomed to fail, the group plan a bank heist to come up with the dough.

While I can only recommend TPB 2 to diehard fans of the series, there are some universally lowbrow chuckles in the final reel as the boys walk into the bank adorned with duct tape “bulletproof” vests and walk out with the loot. It should go without saying that the motley crew bungle the job, but not without leading the RCMP on a not-so-high speed chase in which Ricky and Mr. Lahey coast down the street while pissing at each other’s cars. And that, for better or for worse, is the charm with TBP 2. The gags come off much like the production values of the hit show did: cheaply.

TRAILER PARK BOYS: COUNTDOWN
TO LIQUOR DAY OPENS THIS FRIDAY,
SEPT. 25