The Underrated, Brand New Season Of "Trailer Park Boys"

It may come as a surprise to some fans that a new season of “Trailer Park Boys” exists at all. Since the show began in 2001, we have seen 12 seasons across 2 networks, multiple tours of live theater appearances, 3 feature-length films, and 2 seasons of a spin-off cartoon.

It has been practically 3 years since the end of Season 12, the last live-action season of the show. But right now as fans are scrolling through Netflix to re-watch the vault of timeless old episodes, the crew quietly released a brand new, live-action season of the show to their own independent website. The link will be unlocked right after you finish reading this article.

Here is the trailer of Tailer Park Boys Jail:

The pioneers of "mockumentary" sitcom television 

"Trailer Park Boys" helped set the standard for mockumentary shows, not in an office, or a family home, but in their own gritty, greasy setting; “Sunnyvale Trailer Park.” Following the exploits of friends and partners in petty crime; Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles, this show delivers on both its humor and its heart. For those uninitiated to this long running-cult comedy turned global phenomenon, “Trailer Park Boys” first aired the same year as the original British version of “The Office.”

The show perhaps does not receive its fair dues for revolutionizing the mockumentary genre. This fake-documentary rendition of sitcoms that "Trailer Park Boys" helped establish would go on to become commonplace on popular shows like “Modern Family,” and the U.S. version of “The Office.” Dedicated viewers have followed these characters for 20 years now, from the Canadian network “Showcase,” to the continuation of the show for a global audience on “Netflix.”

After John Dunsworth, the actor behind the beloved character, Jim Lahey, passed away in 2017, it seemed unlikely that the rest of the cast would continue the show. The cast was aging, they had lost an integral actor from their crew, and Netflix had given the show a new home in the form of a cartoon, “Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series.” Just when it seemed the show had passed its hour of twilight, “Trailer Park Boys: Jail” arrived as a pleasant surprise.

Seeing the return of Robb Wells as Ricky, John Paul Tremblay as Julian, and Mike Smith as Bubbles, “Trailer Park Boys: Jail” is a direct continuation of “Trailer Park Boys” that follows the three leads away from the usual setting of “Sunnyvale Trailer Park” to the characters’ home away from home: “Sunnyvale Correctional Facility.” The show maintains its predecessor’s mockumentary style and features returning characters like ‘Randy,’ played by Patrick Roach, as well as newcomer ‘Terry,’ played by David Lawrence.

A peek behind the iron bars

The new setting of "Sunnyvale Correctional Facility” is a refreshing environment for Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles to continue their well-honed character antics. It succeeds in giving the show a bold new dynamic that is well-needed in the absence of John Dunsworth as Jim Lahey. Lahey was the show’s primary antagonist, and without him thwarting the trio’s episodic schemes, it takes uprooting the entire cast and imprisoning them to reach similar comedic heights. But this isn’t a simple “fish out of water” tale. Technically, we have seen Ricky and Julian go to jail a dozen times over the course of the series—but the show’s mockumentary cameras never followed the characters inside. With “Trailer Park Boys: Jail” we are finally getting a peek behind the iron bars.

After Ricky and Julian are locked up for an altercation involving some junk-food, soda-pop, a burning car, and a gun (nothing too out of the ordinary for these lovable delinquents), the stage is set for the usual swearing and scheming the show is known for. Ricky, struggling with the fact that there is no weed, no hash, and no booze in jail, forms an unhealthy relationship with his cellmate, Terry. Julian, in an effort to keep Ricky somewhat sane, is tasked with bribing the guards to smuggle drugs into the jail. Meanwhile, Bubbles holds down the fort back at Sunnyvale Trailer Park and serves as Ricky and Julian’s contact on the outside, helping Julian secure a 65-inch 4k TV for a greedy guard.

Breathing new life into a 20-year-old show

“Trailer Park Boys: Jail” is a reinvention of the original series that has brought us some of the best episodes since Season 7, before the show began its run on Netflix. While the Netflix seasons were not bad, they didn’t fully capture the charm and originality of the show’s first 7 seasons on Showcase. The budget got a bit bigger, some of the ideas “jumped the shark,” so to speak, and making the same old jokes in the same old setting began to wear thin.

There have been other attempts to take Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles on grander adventures outside of Sunnyvale in the spin-off show “Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park,” a show that sees the trio travel through Europe and across the USA. “Out of the Park” is worth checking out for die-hard fans, but it has more in common with Trailer Park Boys’ live theater appearances than it does with the original show.

   With “Trailer Park Boys: Jail” we are being told an existing side of the story that is usually glossed over in-between seasons, so the change of setting and new dilemmas for the characters come completely naturally. This show is an organic continuation of “Trailer Park Boys” and feels like a new era for the characters we have come to love over so many hours of hijinks.

“Trailer Park Boys: Jail” is streaming on swearnet.com