mojotastic

So, on the awesome recommendation of nyonyo I decided to check out Slings and Arrows. It's an awesome Canadian show about the theater and since I had a free month of Netflix I figured: Why not?

Well, it just turns out that the show is one of the BEST THINGS EVER.

So now I demand that the rest of you watch. And to entice you? PICSPAM! Complete with hilarious videos! And Trailers!


Geoffrey Tennant: This is about theater ethics.
Oliver Wells: Theater ethics? That's like saying "whorehouse morals."


The show is literally one of the funniest and most smartly written shows I've seen in a long, long time. I got through all three seasons in maybe a little over a week. It's just amazingly and lovingly written. There's literally nothing I don't like about the show.

So what is this show about, my gentle flisters? It's about a Candian theatre festival called New Burbage. It begins with Oliver Wells, getting ready to direct Hamlet. Of course, he never gets to because, after drunkenly calling his former best friend Geoffrey Tennant, he falls asleep in the middle of the road and is run over by a Pig Truck.

....Still with me?

So now Geoffrey is hired to take over Oliver's job, even though he went nuts seven years before on stage during a production of, you guessed it, Hamlet.

He now has to direct his former love Ellen. And a movie star who's out of his depth. All while dealing with a little problem. He still has conversations with Oliver.

Actually, this pretty much sums up the first season pretty well:


Then of course there's the second season, which is just as awesome, where Geoffrey has to direct Macbeth and my favorite plotline like, ever. The rebranding.


Not convinced yet? Well here are some awesome reasons to watch the show.

Paul Gross as Geoffrey Tennant:



Geoffrey Tennant: They've asked me to be the artistic director.
Ellen Fanshaw: What?
Geoffrey Tennant: Well, interim artistic director while they search for a real one, but you know how long that process could take, weeks, months, years, ...
Ellen Fanshaw: You can't come back, you're insane!
Geoffrey Tennant: Now, apparently, that doesn't matter in the theater.

Maybe one of my favorite characters ever. It doesn't help that I'm now in love with Paul Gross. Geoffrey is self-deprecating, funny and insane.

Also he gave birth to one of my favorite TV plots ever. Geoffrey's uncontrollable weeping. Espically when asked to speak in front of crowds of people. I tried to find a Youtube video of it, but I think maybe caps tell it better:





Anna Conroy: How are we today?
Geoffrey Tennant: We are fine, we haven't cried ... yet, but it's still early.

HEE! I still laugh even thinking about it. Paul Gross is AMAZING.

Rachel McAdams before she became famous!



I've always loved Rachel McAdams but I never knew that she was *so* good. She just hit it out of the park as Ophelia in Hamlet. It really made me want to see the whole play with the show's actors in it. She made the character of Kate sweet without being cloying, which was really refreshing to see.

Also, there's this hiliarous scene:


Then there's her relationship with the movie star brought in to play Hamlet. It's sweet without being annoying. They plan when they're gonna screw! :)


And she teases him about being a geek when he was little! And they both get stoned and go see one of his movies. It's cuteeee!

Ellen/Geoffrey OTP!

Geoffrey/Ellen/Oliver were all like a great big OT3 of friendship. But then there was a falling out.




Sloan: Okay, so why'd you kick another guy's ass for disparaging a girl you're not even with any more?
Geoffrey Tennant: Do you love Ellen?
Sloan: Fuckin' right!
Geoffrey Tennant: Well, if you feel the same way now as I did seven years ago, then you're going to spend the rest of your life kicking other people's asses for her whether you're with her or not. That's just how truly horrible life can be.
They have such a wonderful relationship. It's full of pain but is never overly angsty. I love this show and Geoffrey/Ellen so much I literally don't have the words to express the LOVE. Then he takes her through the day when he went crazy onstage! And my favorite thing about that episode I couldn't even find a cap of! Geoffrey is shown being pulled out of a lake with feathers all over him.

Geoffrey: Then I just felt like throttling some swans. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Hee! And then he and Ellen hide in a Swan-boat:

Really, there's so much to love about the two of them, I don't even have the words.

Geoffrey and Oliver: Favorite Dead Person Ever?


Anna Conroy: [holding Oliver's skull] It's not that heavy at all!
Geoffrey Tennant: It's much lighter without the ego.

Despite the fact that Oliver dies in the first episode, he continues to haunt Geoffrey. Causing Geoffrey to have lenghty conversations with someone who isn't there. Which doesn't really add to people thinking he's sane. He always interrupts Geoffrey while he's speaking or directing or...giving interviews with the press.


Then in the third season Geoffrey decides to go to therapy, but Oliver only wants to talk about himself. Hee!

Mark McKinney (of Kids in the Hall!) as Richard


Richard Smith-Jones: Anna, I can't comfort you right now - I'm on hold.

Richard Smith-Jones: Darren, everybody cries when they get stabbed. There's no shame in that.

Sanjay: TRUTH is the new LIE!
Richard Smith-Jones: Fuck it, your hired!

I always loved Mark McKinney on Kids in the Hall but guess I never really thought that he had as much acting chops as it turns out he does. He's just....I laughed everytime he was on screen. He was amazing. He also got some of the funniest plot lines, espically in the later seasons. I laugh every time I think of the "rebranding" campaign. Or his love of musical theatre. Or the musical New Burbage eventually puts on about a crack whore who just wants to be heard. Amazinnnngggg!

And of course, the number one reason to watch Slings and Arrows?

DARREN NICHOLS:

Darren Nichols: I am Darren Nichols. Deal with that.

Geoffrey Tennant: What is it you were directing again?
Darren Nichols: A musical, based on Humpty Dumpty, very dark, the Dutch went crazy for it.
Geoffrey Tennant: Oh, those Dutch.
Darren Nichols: I must say, I've fallen in love with the musical genre. It's the art form of the common man. If you want to communicate something to the proletariat, cover it in sequence and make it sing. It's noisy, vulgar and utterly meaningless, I love it.

Richard Smith-Jones: There must be something you can use from Darren's design. I seem to recall seventeen thousand dollars worth of pyrotechnics.
Geoffrey Tennant: It is Hamlet, it's not Tommy!

I don't even have words for how much I love Darren Nichols. I do, however, have hiliarous youtube vidoes. Thank me later:

Geoffrey challenges Darren to a DUEL!

Darren: What is your obsession with breakfast? I was STABBED! By a MAD MAN!
Richard: Don't you want anything?
Darren: It's quite alright I had a crueler in the hospital.

Geoffry: Ah Darren.
Darren: Geoffrey I decided to meet you in a large room to allow for maneuverability, in case you have another one of your "episodes".

You can find most of the episodes by searching slings and arrows on youtube. There are also torrents for seasons 1 here and here.

If you're not convinced that Slings and Arrows is awesome by now....well it is. So there.


And honestly? Guys? IF you watch only one of these VIDOES? YOU MUST WATCH THIS ONE:

"Take the picture! I can't even look at it! You break a leg. You break your legs!"

~Morgan