Customer Reviews

Slings & Arrows - Season 2

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If anyone had told me a year ago that my favorite program on television would be a Canadian import about a Shakespearean theater troupe, I would have had my doubts. But Season 1 of "Slings and Arrows" beguiled me. So droll and sophisticated, but with moments of sheer slapstick, I was absolutely enchanted. The writing was so smart, so funny, the performances spot on--including Paul Gross and Rachel McAdams (two of the more familiar actors for American audiences). It ended in six episodes and I wistfully said good-bye to a near brilliant show. I had no idea there was more to come.

So I was delighted when I heard Season 2 was on it's way. But I was also doubtful. Could they really mine the same material and come up with another winner? To my mind, they did that and even more. I enjoyed it every bit as much.

This season there was less back story, so it dealt more specifically about the inner workings of actually staging a couple of shows. The misadventures of producing the cursed "MacBeth" is definitely the highpoint. It might have been the funniest thing on TV last season, seriously. Add subplots about theater ingenues in "Romeo and Juliet" (McAdams says farewell in episode 1, so there's a new ingenue), a romance found/lost/found, and plenty of wit--and you have a delight. One subplot about an experimental advertising campaign to lure new traffic to the theater festival is perfection. As someone who has been a season subscriber in the LA theater scene for over ten years, this was particularly hysterical to me--how much truth there was.

But, trust me, you don't have to be a theater goer or a Shakespeare enthusiast to enjoy this program. But you do have to enjoy smart, sophisticated entertainment with top notch performances. I have shown this series to a couple of friends who would NEVER have sampled it on their own. They were surprised how identifiable it was and how funny!!!

Watch this--and if you haven't seen Season 1, what's stopping you? KGHarris, 9/06.

The first season of Slings and Arrows was the best thing to turn up on English language television in I don't know how many years. The second seasons sags a bit in the middle but recovers wonderfully by the end. The problem has to do with spurious, often unconvincing plot contrivances intended to keep the principal characters busy for six episodes. They seem hastily conceived. The worst of them has to do with an ad agency; others have to do with a tax examination and a couple of romances, BUT: despite these patches of weak writing, the original characters, and a couple of new ones, are as appealing as before, the individual and ensemble acting are superb as ever, and the simultaneously warm and unsparing comedy seems a kind of miracle. The wrap-up, involving Banquo (in the production of Macbeth) and a side-effect of a rescued production of Romeo and Juliet, is wonderfully written and played and seems an augury of better days ahead in the third and apparently final season. I give this four stars only to provide a contrast with the sublime first season. This is still nearly solid gold.

As fine as Season One of this truly wonderful series was, Season Two was, in my opinion, even better. The series takes us even deeper into the characters, sharpens the humor, thickens the plot, and delves even more deeply into Shakespeare than in Season One. Viewing Season One did not make me want to rush out and read HAMLET, but Season Two did make me rush out to read MACBETH.

This ability to multitask is what makes SLINGS AND ARROWS such a wonderful series. It manages to do several things on several different levels remarkably well. I've read several books on Shakespeare, including those by Stephen Greenblatt, Peter Levi, and Stanley Cavell, as well as the wonderful prefaces by Samuel Johnson, but I can honestly say that I got as much insight from many wonderful little moments in this series as in any of those. Cavell is brilliant, but some of his essays are so far removed from the play that I'm not sure what work of art he is discussing (I'm reminded of somebody's--I'm not sure who--comment about James Agee's film criticism that it takes you directly into the heart of a film; Cavell is brilliant, but I never felt Shakespeare's pulse reading him).

As funny as the show was in Season One, it got even funnier in Season Two. The bits about the "rebranding" firm Frog and Hammer are among the funniest things I've ever seen on TV. I always enjoy Colm Feore, but his turn as Sanjay, the head of Frog and Hammer, is the best thing I've ever seen him do. The twists and turns of his character are simply brilliant.

The backstage drama is even more engrossing, as Geoffrey "collaborates" with Oliver in staging a version of MACBETH based on the latter's design for the play. The collaboration consists not merely of Geoffrey pouring over Oliver's notes, but through long conversations with Oliver's ghost. The writing is sharper than ever with wonderful parallels between what is happening in the play (inside the play) and the events in the various characters' lives. Each of the three seasons features some difficulty with the lead actor (Season One with a Hollywood star playing the title role in HAMLET; Season Three with a dying actor in the role of LEAR). This year Henry Breedlove (played by Geraint Wyn Davies, perhaps most familiar from his recent appearance on 24 and as the vampire detective in FOREVER KNIGHT) is a distinguished stage actor who has played Macbeth before and sees no reason to play the role any differently than he has before. Geoffrey's task is to shake him up and make him bring some life to the role, to take some risks instead of doing the same old thing.

The great misfortune with SLINGS AND ARROWS is that we only got three seasons and a total of 18 episodes. But perhaps it is as good as it is because they deliberately limited how much they did. FAWLTY TOWERS is frequently considered the finest comedy series ever (the BBC did a poll on the finest BBC series ever and it snagged the Number One slot). But it was limited to only 12 half hour episodes. Perhaps it is a lesson that more networks could learn that sometimes less truly is more.

Call me superstitious or cowardly or weak
But I'll never play a character
Whose name one dare not speak

I'll play Hamlet
In doublet and hose
Or either of the Dromeos
But sorry, I won't play Mackers

I'll play Richard the Third
With a hump and wig
Or Henry the Eighth
That selfish pig
But sorry, I don't do Mackers

Every soul who plays this role
Risks injury or death
I'd rather sweep the bloody stage
Then ever do
Mac-you-know-who

When I watched the first three episodes of Season 2 of "Slings & Arrows" on the first of these two DVDS I have to admit that I was wondering what happened to the series. Like those of us with a background in the theater, I fell in love with the New Burbage Theatre Festival and its madman artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross). If his bouts with mental problems were not enough, Geoffrey is saddled with a leading lady, Ellen Fanshaw (Martha Burns), who is his once (and perhaps future) girl friend and the ghost of Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette), his predecessor whose sudden death got him his current gig. The first season was all about staging "Hamlet" with a television star as the melancholy Dane, while the second season finds Geoffrey tackling the Scottish play (hence the title song, "Mackers," quoted above). But Geoffrey is running around dealing with not only Oliver's ghost and all those notebooks his predecessor left behind about directing the play, which gives plenty of time for the associated curse to wreck some havoc.

The good news is that when we get to the second half of the season on the second DVD, "Slings & Arrows" is totally back on track, but a bit too late to deserve the same 5 star rating as Season 1. That is because in the final three episodes we finally get deep into the staging of the play in question, as Geoffrey finally makes a connection to the play and connects with the play and then has to find a way to persuade if not coerce his lead, the ego maniacal Henry Breedlove (Geraint Wyn Davies) in to following his direction. The best moments are when Geoffrey gets us to see the play anew. Ironically, at the same time the Festival is putting on "Romeo & Juliet," directed by Darren Nichols (Don McKellar), who is actually back again. Nicholas antipathy for the play is such that he is trying to present the play devoid of all romance to the stunned displeasure of his leads, Sarah (Joanne Kelly) and Patrick (David Alpay). So we have two plays where the director and cast disagree on the performance and for the most part the wrong side is winning the argument, which is somewhat maddening. Especially when who is right and who is wrong on each stage is so absolutely clear, but the great cosmic joke for Season 2 just because people do what you want and just because you are right, does not mean that they are ever going to admit that you were right despite ample evidence proving the point.

Of course there are other things going on at New Burbage to keep everyone occupied. The Festival is having massive financial problems and as a last resort Richard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney) has hired an advertising guru, Sanjay (Colm Feore) who promises a "youth quake" as the result of a bizarre ad campaign that goes out of its way to offend current subscribers. Meanwhile, Ellen is being audited and Anna (Susan Coyne) has caught the eye of a visiting playwright, much to her surprise. But if you know Shakespeare then you know the play is the thing, and it is not until we get to the Scottish play that "Slings & Arrows" is back in high gear, although what is happening with the other play has some interesting moments. Now we have to wait for Season 3 to come out on DVD, it appears that the first line of the final stanza of the opening song sets up what we have to look forward to in the final season:

So gimme King Lear
Cleopatra
Romeo, Juliet
Doesn't mattra
I'll play them all for free
But I'd be crackers
To take on Mackers
You see, I'm skittish about the Scottish tragedy

Not quite as giddily brilliant as Season 1. The ingenues are vapid, and the "villain" one dimensional. And although the writing is as sharp as before, McKinney, Coyne and Martin have bitten off more than they can chew, juggling way too many plotlines. Subsequently, some of them are wrapped up in hasty, unconvincing ways. Personally, I would have preferred some juicy cliffhangers going into Season 3. But there are some delicious bits here, primarily Ellen's tax audit (which culminates in a wild, hysterical twist) and a deeply moving one involving an understudy and his crumbling marriage. Any way you slice it, this is superior television, with some of the most inspired comic performances and moments you're likely to find anywhere. As intelligent entertainment, "Slings & Arrows" could not be bettered.

The second season of this outstanding series only gets better, building on the extraordinary first season. Television would be so much better if it could be half as good as this series. The writing is pitch perfect in every aspect as all the characters are multi-dimensional, a rarity in television. Some of the most beautiful moments of this uproarious comedy, however, are the incredibly insightful looks into the plays of Shakespeare. It is wonderful in every way.

I learned of this Canadian series from a friend, who sent me season #1 to watch as I recuperated from surgery. Promptly, I ordered season #2.
The clever, hilarious series takes us backstage at a fictional Shakespeare festival in provincial Canada. For one steeped in theatre and life in the theatre, it is entirely amusing and satisfying and bears watching and sharing many times over. The actors are superb and the building of the production they will put on, in this case Macbeth, is so funny. The side plot -- a managing director hoodwinked by a charlatan -- is uproarious.

Incredibly, spectacularly, this, the second season, is even better than the incomparable first season. What in the end sets this show apart is the uniformly superb acting. We thought, perhaps, that the first season's ensemble was thrown together by chance but, no, there are geniuses at work here. As a result, we have that rarest of rarities, the perfect second season. No doubt, Canadians have come to expect this kind of thing, namely, wit, intelligence, grace, and subtlety, but here in the States, these features left television long ago. Our shows about thugs and killers have, it must be said, grown more sophisticated, but our comedies have fallen to the lowest possible level, besides possessing the fatalist of all flaws: they are not in the least funny. In "Slings and Arrows" there are all sorts of wonderful features: witty dialog, satire, romance, intellectual content, drama... It's really too much. I am totally addicted to this show and already dread the day when I must say I have seen the entire series.

Is there a profession more superstitious than actors? Sailors, miners, maybe? For those of you who don't know, "MacBeth" is a name that's not often heard inside a theatre--the cast and crew are afraid to say the name. In Scotland, you just don't say the name anywhere--so, it's billed as "The Scottish Play." And I bet you just thought that being owned by a black cat or having an address or phone number with the number 13 in it was bad.

Up til this minute, the funniest take on "Mackers" I have ever encountered was Adam McNaughtan's "The Scottish Song", which boils the plot of the play down to 4 minutes---or less. Leave it to the "Slings and Arrows" to go for the extended play.

Here's just a bit of what happens for Season Two--onstage and off.

Richard Smith-Jones, the General Manager, hires a new advertising guru to help boost ticket sales for the New Burbage Festival. Sanjay has an unfortunate propensity to quote Richard Nixon--and is in many ways, a better actor than some of the cast!

Ellen, our leading lady, is audited by the Canadian tax system. This lady's so unprepared and unaware that she thinks Christmas presents should be a business expense.

Geoffrey, our mad artistic director, thinks he's on his own with MacBeth, but Oliver Welles comes back. This is, after all, his play and his dream, and he wants Geoff to get it right.

Then, there's the playwright Lionel Train, who takes metafiction to a new low.

Of course, there's more. What makes "Slings and Arrows" so fascinating is the interwoven nature of the play and the theatre cast. The show's amusing and literate and is far too short. I'm glad I bought the DVD when I couldn't find the show locally. I will want to watch this again and again. You pick up something new to laugh about every single time.

From all perspectives, Slings and Arrows is genuine, if distilled, more brandy than wine, so it may be an acquired tasts, for people who attended Lit class because they enjoyed it, who liked listening to Ustinov or Burton reminiscing, or who are thrilled and astounded by the talent that brings written words alive--and all withing a range of characters that would typlify any organization rigid at the center and frayed at the ends, zipper stuck, button missing.