Letterkenny 2016

Well the show has ended, and while I am truly disappointed it is over, as I looked forward to the 6-7 episode seasons, when a show goes out on a high note, before they drag themselves through the dirt, I can't stay salty.

This show has some of the best wit and dry humor I've had the pleasure to watch. This show has added more interesting and direct phrases to my lexicon (pitter patter is my favorite, what I like about you, yew!, but to be fair and so many others hold their own), my Wife and I use some of them with our kids (again, pitter patter being primary).

If you have not watched this show, WATCH IT, if you don't like it, well, we clearly have different tastes, but this show has a DIRECT line to my funny bone, and outside of a few episodes (and 1 storyline with a pervy BF), this show never strayed from it's path.

Now, let the spin-off's and specials begin (or continue, Go Shoresy), as this show left itself WIDE open for whatever genius they think of next!

I hope to see the cast is more and more stuff, hearing Squirrely Dan in the new Scott Pilgrim show is a great start, as everyone of these people deserve amazing careers!

There are good and bad aspects to this show. If I was rating the first two or three seasons I would have ranked it higher, but as the seasons progress it gets more and more repetitive and the same schtick over and over and over.

Most of the content is pretty hilarious but they wear out the welcome on it rapidly. For instance, the "S" at the end of every word for Squirrelly Dan is kind of funny at first but then it's just obnoxious after a season or two and seems to be ramped up to be even more obnoxious to the point of nauseam by season 4. Sort of like when you use the same joke that got belly laughs from your friends but then keep telling it over and over where it becomes an eye roll then just "get new material, dude" eventually.

This is echoed in a lot of the skits, where they latched on to a funny routine but just beat it like a dead horse over and over again. The hockey players, Jonesy and Reilly had these funny exchanges for 30 seconds with this chain of hockey and workout terms, then it would become a two or three minute non-stop tirade of these. Once that got old the show gave them new roles in the show and wore it out with a different context eventually.

The same problem as the hockey guys is a recurring problem with 1) the two gay gym guys, the first time it was a bit over the top but funny and turned into a long and cringe worthy monologue, 2) the "gay but not gay" preacher, is just too much after you see it once or twice, 3) Stuart and his other skids, funny for a while but well worn quickly, 4) Gail the bartender, funny and disturbing at first then just over the top and stupid as the show progresses.

Everything except the plot of the four main characters is just on repeat almost every episode. I can't think of any other show where the four or five cast members get new plots and material every episode but the rest of the cast does and says almost the same things, it's just like a broken record. You really notice this if you decide to binge watch Letterkenny, perhaps it's not as apparent if you just watch one episode every week or two.

This also gets far more agenda driven by season 3, very political (and one episode is so cringe worthy that I almost pulled the plug because they just really piled on the extreme bias, hard). You can tell they got heavily influenced by several "groups" over time, as they do some very obvious pandering to make them happy.

I still watch the show, but now just as a filler and I fast forward past the most cringe of the content - the problem is that is becoming more and more of the show by season 6.

I just finished the final season, and given the show was what it was, a cultural phenomenon that was essentially about nothing of great importance, the final season was a mixed bag. For large stretches of the first five of six episodes, they moved away from their witty, back-and-forth banter that won them so many fans and dove into actual content that indicated potential future directions for the characters. However, they seemingly gave up on this idea, blew off the apparent changes that might take place in the lives of the characters, and had the show end on a disappointing note, where everyone was still in the same place, doing the same things, they had been in the first episode of the show. There was seemingly very little growth from any of them.

Having noted that I like the actual real storyline they started the final season w/, there were a number of things I questioned about the final season, as well. First, they introduced a number of new characters, something that's never a good idea during the final season of a show, especially an ensemble show such as Letterkenny. Second, they introduced these characters at the expense of other established characters who received little-to-no screen time during the final season. The characters essentially missing from the final season included Joint Boy, Coach, Glen, Bonnie and Mrs. McMurray, Rosie, Tanis, Dax and Ron, Aly and Bianca, Barts, Yorkie, Scholtzy, Fisky, and Boomtown, Mary-Anne and Betty-Anne, the Dyck family, and Anik. Of all these people, some were seen in the final season and had small roles, but most of them either weren't seen at all or had no lines. This was incredibly disappointing, and I don't know why they chose to go this route w/ the final season. Third, in the final episode, Jonesy and Reilly stopped by the produce stand to offer their thanks and respect to Wayne and Dary for all the times they'd stood by one another in times of trouble, and instead of showing any growth from Wayne and Dary, the writers chose to have them chirp the boys the same as they'd done in early seasons of the show. I felt that this was another missed opportunity to give validity to previous seasons. In other words, by not acknowledging Jonesy and Reilly, they essentially said that all the times they'd been there for one another didn't matter, and that was really a shame. I think that writing like that devalued their own show. Fourth, the whole idea of having each of the main characters move on to something bigger in their lives was a good idea, but they scrapped it all over nothing. I will never understand the decision to build this storyline, then forget all about it by disregarding it in its entirety. Finally, they spent a significant portion of the final episode, and the only segment of the season Glen was a part of, rehashing the episode Fartbook. This was really a head-scratcher, as it was one of the most lowest-rated episodes of the entire series as shown by its rating on multiple platforms. It was really a poor choice to include this, and it also said that the writers were really out of touch w/ what their audience wanted and expected from them. You don't see that very often in hit TV shows. The writers and producers usually pay great attention to what the audience responds and doesn't write more of something that failed spectacularly in previous episodes. I really don't know what they were thinking, but it wasn't a good look for the writers.

This show will likely continue to be one of my favorite comedies, but I really felt that the final season could've and should've gone in an alternate direction. They started off really well, and the whole thing imploded in the last two episodes for no reason. I think that they would've been better off simply sticking to their formula and doing the same bits they'd previously done w/out the teaser of having ending arcs for the characters. There really was no character arc for any of the characters on this show. Instead, it was more of a flat line.