Butch Patterson: Private Dick

Butch Patterson: Private Dick was not funny at all. I would say it is easily one of my least funny shows that ever aired on The Comedy Network, which is saying a lot when you realize that's the network that aired Gutterball Alley, Kevin Spencer, Comedy at Club 54 and reruns of Air Farce (the only thing worse and less funny than Air Farce is old reruns of Air Farce).

The main character (obviously Butch Patterson) wasn't funny and he wasn't a very good actor. The jokes were all very juvenile and you could see them coming from a mile away. The worst part of the show was the cheap, amateur production values.... I know that Canadian shows all have that same problem because of funding but it just looked bad. It all could have been forgiven if the show was funny but it just wasn't at all.

This series is innovative and exceptionally clever, with most of the humor deep under the surface, mocking several genres and sacred cows at the same time. What first appears as extremely juvenile humor, reveals itself over time to be an insightful social and psychological critique with a chilling message: personal control and ambition may be the seductive mantra of the day, but they lead to a disconnectedness from others which can cause the ceiling to fall on you and the floor to drop out from below. And in this series, it happens to characters who are convinced that they are just about to grab the brass ring.

The acting is intentionally terrible--for some of the cast, this is a reflection of weak abilities (I had never heard of most of these players before this series and haven't seen them since), while for others it clearly has taken hard work and concentration to 'act down' to this level.

The main character, Butch Patterson, is a remarkable hero, someone who seems shallow and transparent, motivated by the most basic of male instincts. This is someone who everyone thinks they know and understand, both for the cast and for the audience. Personally, though, I have never met anyone like this and hope I never do. Underneath the irritating but beguiling exterior, revealing itself through incidents of 'unbelievable luck for such a dumb guy', is a deep, dark and calculating character who gradually sucks all of the supporting characters into a vortex of disaster. He gives most of them a chance for redemption until the final stroke but does not help them to achieve it. In a Biblical context, Butch is a Fallen Angel who lets self-assured people reveal just how spiritually naked they really are.

This series is well worth looking at again if you had negative feelings about it the first time.

You'll hate it or love it. Entirely self effacing main character with no scruples beyond getting drunk and getting laid. Lawrence's dialogue is brilliantly obscene and the main focus of a show with the most threadbare of plots. Whenever you start to empathize with Butchy, Lawrence takes it away by plumbing even greater depths of debasement and depravity. The other characters are cartoonish except perhaps Blanche, but the show works. Don't expect great season enders, as the entire series is a merely vehicle for Lawrence's brilliant humour. Show ran for three seasons with at least a dozen episodes each. Pretty good for Canadian fare, you'll walk away or laugh and pour yourself a drink.

I watched season one and part of the next season. The big problem with this show is I think they ran out of ideas. I'd give the first season 6.5 out of 10 if it was on its own which is very high compared to other shows on the same Canadian Comedy Network which were pretty well universally awful. Unfortunately season two dragged it way down. The acting was nothing special but the lead guy was OK and got some laughs, again you have to compare it to other like shows on the same Canadian Comedy Network, if so you see that it deserves a bit of a bump. If they had not done a second season or just waited until they were ready or had better ideas, the show would have held up a lot better. Maybe their budget got slashed or something, who knows? Worth checking out if it ever comes on in reruns again.

I remember this show fondly from the Comedy Network. It was a parody of those old detective movies where the gruff private eye would get hired by a sexy young woman to look into a crime and basically come to her rescue. Some funny stuff and the actor was good.