Slings and Arrows

Go to Amazon.com right now and register your vote for "Slings & Arrows" on DVD! This series has been amazing to watch (it's starting a repeat run on Sundance Channel this Sunday night, Sept.17th) and has reminded me how much I loved Shakespeare long ago. Paul Gross is a wonder to watch and even if you aren't "into" the Bard, you will want to see his performance. All of the performances are top notch and the writing is very real. You can recognize these characters as people you know. The script doesn't allow for easy answers to the questions raised, but gives the characters complexities that I have not seen in a mini-series before. It is smart, well observed and funny as hell! Amazon is looking for "votes" to gage interest in production of a DVD of the first series. I urge you to go there now! You will definitely want to watch this show over and over again.

I can not praise this show enough. It portrays every character and situation with a cutting accuracy, which may seem ludicrous at first glance, but is actually not exaggerated in the slightest. A director who just doesn't care about the details, an actress who's the star of the show... and knows it. A holier-than-thou leading actress who's missing one thing- talent, a lonely understudy and a movie star trying to prove himself; what else can you ask for?

Paul Gross's performance is stunning, and for those of us who saw his 'Hamlet' (which he actually acted in at the alternate reality setting of the show- the Stratford Festival) laughter abounds. People who watch Slings and Arrows will laugh. Actors or Theatre Goers who watch Slings and Arrows will be rolling on the floor within seconds.

Two thumbs up and a standing ovation- Paul Gross, I applaud you to the very echo.

I found this terrific series by accident on The Sundance Channel. I watched the first few minutes, was completely sucked in and then ecstatic when I discovered it was an actual series and there were more episodes than the one I had just watched! For those of you out there who loved Paul Gross in the Tales of the City mini-series you must watch this show!! He is wonderfully lost and adorably manic as Geoffrey Tennant returning to a world he thought he had come to hate, but in essence loves so much he can't live without it. But he is not the only gem on this show. All the characters, although they seem like clichés at first, are in truth, impeccably written and wonderfully acted. Shakespeare lovers, or just theater lovers in general will drown in happiness when watching this look behind the curtain.

I quite enjoyed watching 'Slings and Arrows' on TMN this past season, and must say - it was a delight to finally see something strikingly original and drop down funny on the telly. It was well received, by the audiences who knew of its existence, but lacked any sort of advertisement and flare that HBO shows get. It's been too long since something like this has been tried, and it sure as hell stacks up to the HBO shows any day. Paul Gross has finally shown he as as good an actor as he is a looker. The characters are thoughtfully developed and the plot line is kept alive by the fast-moving pace of this Stratford-like festival. A perfect score all the way.

"Slings and Arrows" is a Canadian comedy in the vein of those great six or eight episode miniseries that British TV does so well. Take all the good bits of a thirteen or twenty-two episode season and condense them into six or eight hours, perfect for a couple of DVDs.

Maverick theatre director Geoffrey Tennant learns that his alienated mentor has died, and he returns to his stomping grounds, the moribund New Burbage Shakespeare Festival. There he reluctantly takes over directing the latest in a line of bloated, limp productions of Shakespeare plays that nobody watches.

The corporate sponsors want to turn the festival into a venue for musicals, his Hamlet's previous experience is action movies, his Ophelia thinks being insane is the same as being stoned, his Gertrude is his ex-lover who hates him, and he has no money for sets or costumes. As if that wasn't enough, there's a chameleon prowling around the theatre and Geoffrey's mentor his haunting him.

The plot is loosely based on Hamlet, of course: a man returns home and finds it overrun with corruption, hypocrisy and indifference, setting off an existential crisis. This time the crisis is about the point of doing live theatre, when both the actors and the audience are going through the motions. As Geoffrey's rival observes, "More people listen to the radio than go to the theatre, and nobody listens to the radio." The biggest problem is that Jeffrey's production isn't the revelation it's supposed to be. The non-sets, the lack of special effects and anachronistic costumes, doing it the way the Bard did it at the Globe, isn't terribly original. When the action star does Hamlet's soliloquy, it's just a handsome guy saying the words.

At any rate, the backstage rivalries, romances and reconciliations are what we're really here to see. Even the secondary players get to shine in fine parts: a corporate bitch bent on turning the festival into ShakespeareLand, an egomaniacal theatre director with a fake injury, a passive-aggressive theatre journalist, a pizza delivery guy/motorcycle racer who courts Jeffrey's ex, a wise backstage manager, a Greek chorus of two old theatre queens, a pair of owlish undertakers, and more.

It's both funny and compelling, and I look forward to the rumored second season.