Letterkenny’s hockey-centric spinoff wraps up its third outrageous season
Small-town Canadian life has provided plenty of fodder for sitcoms over the years. From Dog River in CTV’s Corner Gas and CTV Comedy’s Corner Gas Animated to Mercy in CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie and, of course, the titular town of Schitt’s Creek, it is always a pleasure to see the quaint side of Canadian life, even if the often-rural locations are fictional.
One such fictional locale that gained international acclaim in this department is the eponymous town of Letterkenny, first created by actor and screenwriter Jared Keeso (19-2) for a series of comedic episodes on the YouTube channel Letterkenny Problems, beginning in 2013. Three years later, Bell Media’s streaming service, Crave, launched the full-scale series of the same name, which has gone on to win 22 awards, including three Leo Awards, two Writers Guild of Canada Awards and 10 Canadian Screen Awards in a variety of categories.
Perhaps of equal importance to Canadian sitcom fans, however, is the fact that Letterkenny gave way to Shoresy, the No. 1 Canadian series on Crave. Now coming to the end of its third season, Shoresy streams its finale this Friday, the same day the season launches, in its entirety, on Hulu in the United States.
Shoresy follows the titular character (introduced as a side character in Letterkenny, and also played by Keeso) as he joins a Sudbury, Ontario, senior AAA hockey team, called the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs, and vows to ensure the team never loses another game ever again. And while the first season typically focused on the games the Bulldogs played against rival teams, season two began to unveil more about the characters themselves.
In the second season, Shoresy and the team competed in the National Senior Tournament, “facing off against teams from across Canada, like the Charlottetown Reds, Brooks Barrelmen, Vaughan Canadesi, and SOO Hunt” (per Bell Media).
Like its flagship predecessor, Shoresy has become known for its quirky characters and special guests, the latter of whom have included French-Canadian singer Marie-Mai, DJ/songwriter Eva Shaw, ex-MMA fighter Steve Bossé, Transplant star Laurence Leboeuf, 19-2 actress Maxim Roy, Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson, sportscasters Jay Onrait and Tessa Bonhomme, fellow Letterkenny actors Kim Cloutier and Vanessa Matsui, podcasters Lysandre Nadeau and Rear Admiral, and professional NHL players Pierre-Luc Létourneau-Leblond, Brad Bonello, Nick Laporte and Danick Paquette.
For Keeso, the rousing success of both Letterkenny — which ended its 12-season run late last year — and now Shoresy has provided a sense of vindication for an actor who was best known for his dramatic roles in 19-2 (playing a Montreal cop) and playing Hockey Night in Canada legend Don Cherry in two CBC biopics.
“It’s also 10 years of the grind, 10 years auditioning,” he explained in an interview with Bell Media’s The Lede. “A successful actor might book 30 per cent of the auditions that they get. So that’s 10 years of hearing ‘no’ a lot. So when I find myself in this very fortunate position, it’s not lost on me, the time spent. It’s a very fresh memory, the time spent working my way up, and grinding in that life. I’ll never take being at this stage for granted, because yeah, it took me awhile to get here.”
While Shoresy has gained legions of fans, both in Canada and in the U.S., he was asked about the possibility of a Letterkenny movie at some point down the line.
“Crazier things have happened. I think just about anything is on the table,” he said, but maintained that Shoresy is his main focus at the moment.
“Right now, I’m pretty focused on the road ahead,” he added. “But yeah, I think all of us would be very interested in that, as a prospect.”
Shoresy, streaming Friday, June 21 on Crave