‘Slings & Arrows’ S3: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is the end of a great show

April 3, 8:04 AMTV on DVD ExaminerJohn Stahl

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Artist, poser, and businessman

The third of the three seasons of the Canadian dramedy “Slings & Arrows” is the final one in the DVD set of this exceptional show.

This series is about the struggles of a Canadian Shakespeare festival to survive financially in the “American Idol” era and the related battle that the characters fight between art and commerce. One character summarizes this cynically by stating that the actors do not understand what they are saying and the audience does not comprehend what they are watching.

The season starts out with open hostility between the young cast members in a production of the Shakespeare tragedy “King Lear” and their counterparts in a new musical “East Hastings,” that is also being produced as part of the festival. The Shakespearean actors understandably resent the temporary presence of who they perceive as interloping hacks.

Much of the comedy of this season comes from strait-laced business manager Richard “Big Dick” Smith-Jones becoming intoxicated regarding his success in stretching his artistic muscles. Other humor relates to a Bolivian folk music group that is stranded at the festival because of a coup back home.

The third season is very good but has a darker tone than the first and second ones. Like the character of Lear, the traditional aspects of the festival is losing strength and facing a serious youthful threat that the musical represents. The impending death of one character and the deep depression of the one who died at the beginning of the first season add to the more serious tone. 

The way that the show ties up its loose endings is another notable aspect of it. The audience learns the status of the main characters in roughly one minute without the tired technique of reading text that is placed over a picture of them.

This is one show that deserves a resurrection at least as a special. I would love to see a Christmas episode in which the festival produces the play “A Christmas Carol.” I can already see the ridiculously elaborate effects and a real ghost playing the part of Marley, who died regretting how he had lived his life.

Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding this “must-see” show as additions to this entry or as e-mail to tvdvdguy@gmail.com. I do hope that perchance I will dream of it as I slumber this night.