Trailer Park Boys: The Complete First Season

Apparently, the notion of white trash acting idiotically is universal, as evidenced by this beloved Canadian TV series centering on a trio of mindless, intolerant miscreants. Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay), and Bubbles (Mike Smith) live in the Sunnyvale Trailer Park on the outskirts of Nova Scotia. Ricky and Julian have just spent 18 months in jail and are looking to get their lives back on track. Employing a mockumentary style, director Mike Clattenburg tries to infuse as much comic criminal mischief as possible into the half-hour episodes, many of which focus on the get-rich-quick schemes and antisocial behavior of the three leads (sample episode: a pre-marriage bout of cold feet entitled “I'm Not Gay, I Love Lucy…Wait a Second, Maybe I Am Gay”). The fictional cast and crew who are making the program routinely interact with the players, creating a memorable meta-experience that comments on the ridiculous nature of reality TV. And, yes, the show targets the overdone areas of sex, drugs, and, uh, armed robbery, but there's some very funny stuff here. Compiling all six installments from the 2001 debut season, this guilty pleasure is recommended. (B. Gibron)