Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park

Trailer Park Boys out of the park is a new, different show. If the Original Trailer Park boys show was a mockumentary of 90s era "reality TV", then the "Out of the Park" show is a mockumentary of 00s era "reality TV"

The boys, they are the same Trailer Park Boys we know and love. Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles characters are brilliantly acted as always.

At first, things just don't feel "right". There is no Mr Lahey. There is no Randy. The never ending hamburger and liquor fueled feud has come and gone.

Instead, the boys have a new enemy, a dark and ominous force has arisen to torment them. They are low on fuel. They have no comforts of home. All they have is each other.

Its a fresh and new TPB for the modern era. Just as vulgar, stupid, immature as before, but, in a shiny new bottle. I miss many of the supporting characters, but, the new show is magnificent. I love every moment of it.

I enjoyed watching seasons 1 & 2. Not nearly as good as the original, but what can be? It is near impossible to bring back the magic after the original is over (e.g., Arrested Development, Will & Grace, Netflix TPB, etc.)

I won't say that I hate this series, as I found it amusing, especially season 2. However, the one thing that kills this for me is the guy from SwearNet that is in charge of giving The Boys their tasks. Tom Mayhue? Not sure of his name. However, he is such a rank amateur, and such an a**hole, that I find myself having to fast forward through any parts that he is in. And this is not just because he is an a**hole to the boys. He's just the type of guy that has a most punchable face. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why The Boys have not beaten him to a bloody pulp. I would seriously rather have Cyrus giving them their tasks.

This spinoff takes the boys out of the park and into unfamiliar territory while they complete tasks for Swearnet in the hopes of winning cash. The first season sent them all across Europe as they struggled to just feed themselves. Personally I thought it was hilarious as the boys were clearly out of their element and the tasks were increasingly ridiculous. Even something as basic as the boys not speaking the native languages was funny because that meant anything was bound to happen. Ricky's humor by far shines here as he's in the territory of endless legal dope yet as no money to score some. Julian however imo dragged down the season. He didn't do any of the tasks and just wanted to sit and drink the whole time in the background. Usually he's the chief leader and optimistic, so it killed the fun with him taking the backseat and whining the whole time. Meanwhile I felt pretty bad for Bubbles. The other 2 kind of screwed him over while he did a lot of the work on the various tasks.

Contrast this with season 2 which made a lot of changes. It's obvious the shows creators heard the fans feedback and tweaked accordingly, and yet this season just comes off weaker. They removed the annoying swearnet host which is great, but the ironic downside is now you almost forget the boys are doing the tasks to compete for money since there's no one to guide them/egg them on. They gave Bubbles a bigger arc however now he comes off really selfish right from the start. And it is not a good luck on him. Whereas the audience could easily sympathize for him in season 1, in season 2 he's frankly a jerk that ruins it for Ricky and Julian. The show quickly becomes all about Bubbles and his dreams instead of doing swearnet tasks to make the boys money. He also drops the ball on a lot of task which turns the audience against him. Honestly it made me wonder why they even bothered doing the tasks if the whole focus quickly turned into Bubbles trying to go to outer space or become a country music singer. I'd Julian thankfully has more of a roll instead of just whining in the background.

While it was cool seeing the boys in the USA, it just didn't have the same humor as the first season. Again a bit of the humor was the boys being totally confused by the food, customs, and foreign languages of Europe. Here that's gone since everyone speaks English, eats the same food, knows the same celebs etc. This season is also oddly censored. Nudity is blurred which it's whatever but it just seemed weird that Netflix is in charge of both seasons and was fine with full frontal in your face nudity in season 1 but then blurs it in 2. The overall tone too also just felt more censored. Less sex stuff, less focus on drugs other than one specific scenario, even the tasks are not as racy or extreme. They're definitely more fun, but in a way that anyone would want to do them and not like season 1 where it was almost like fear factor with the raw shock value of omg I can't believe they actually did that?!?!. There's still plenty of swearing, but beyond that this season felt very PG13.

Overall tho, out of the park is definitely a funny twist for the boys with good humor and scenarios. I just wish they didn't tone down season 2 as much.

The original series was lowbrow comedy gold and gave birth to some great original characters, but this is something different. You have to get past Tom Mayhue and he is not an actor... The version of himself that he plays on this show is reprehensible and I kept hoping Ricky and Julian would "dispose of him," the way they disposed of him the way they disposed of Conky, but unfortunately he's in it for the longhaul. He is the WORST part of the show and if I had quit watching, it would have been because of this vile little man. When he's not on camera it's still a funny show. No, they did not spend 5 minutes throwing up because they didn't "like canned fish."Surströmming is basically rotten fish in a can that tastes like moldy blue cheese, but the Swedes seem to enjoy it. Most people would puke at the smell of that stuff, so the person equating it to regular old canned fish should probably get out of the park themselves.

The difference between a good season of TPB and a great one can be illustrated by missed opportunities. The episode with the 200mph task should have focused on time travel, period. A full episode devoted to the boys thinking they went back i time could have been an all time classic, but instead, it's just a momentary gag. Also, the hangover scene was only a gag but it should have been an epic finale to the season. What happened last night? It was long forgot a couple minutes in. The guest stars absolutely elevate, but aren't always hitting the mark. The basketball player for instance just kind of shows up and stands around for a few. Cool and all, but it could have been more.

Overall though, plenty of good. Season 2 is better than Season 1. It's not among the best of TPB, but it's certainly an addition to the catalogue i'm glad to have.