Slings & Arrows: Season 1

A compilation of the marvelous six-episode 2003 first season of the comedy series from Canada (shown in the U.S. on the Sundance Channel), Slings & Arrows: Season 1 chronicles the backstage machinations—both personal and professional—at a struggling Shakespeare festival. The plot is set in motion when the outfit's artistic director is killed just as he's beginning to mount a production of Hamlet featuring a narcissistic Hollywood film star, after which a former protégé of the director—an erstwhile Hamlet himself, once driven mad by the role and still rambunctiously unpredictable—is drafted as the dead man's replacement. Meanwhile, a brusque American businesswoman representing the festival's major sponsor schemes to seize control of the operation (in collusion with the troupe's wimpy general manager). Of course, there are also multiple romantic complications among performers and staff (and the deceased director makes regular reappearances—Six Feet Under-style—to bedevil his successor). Co-written by Mark McKinney (of The Kids in the Hall fame, who also plays the sniveling manager) and boasting a stellar cast (including Paul Gross, Don McKellar, and Rachel McAdams, who's since gone on to Hollywood stardom), this is a sharp, witty show—easily on a par with most of the British programs broadcast on PBS—that deftly uses many of the themes of Hamlet as the springboard for its own sometimes farcical, sometimes melancholy twists. DVD extras include a blooper reel, extended and deleted scenes, and productions notes and cast filmographies. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)