Letterkenny: How Are Ya Now?

If there is anything that the ongoing pandemic has taught me, it's to keep an open mind when it comes to television viewing choices.

Back in March, 2020, when many of us were starting to bake bread and marvel at the toilet paper shortages, my husband tuned into Crave, a Canadian streaming service, and wondered what series he should start watching. Having been down this road before with him a few times and knowing once he started watching a show, there'd be no end to it until he'd watched the whole thing, I braced myself, hoping that what he'd choose would be at least somewhat to my taste.

"Letterkenny?" was the first question I had when I saw him press play. "What's this?"

Simply put, it's a coarser, more profane, and Ontario-based version of the Saskatchewan classic Corner Gas. There's something uniquely appealing about small towns on television as they are either significantly stereotyped or the people watching the depiction of said small town will instantly recognize something they know in that fictionalized small town. #Letterkenny is no exception and definitely fits the profile of small town. While its opening card almost always states that #Letterkenny is a town with 5,000 residents and that these are there problems, the appeal of the small town is there in almost every episode.

The characters seem to know each other and everyone else as though they'd all gone to the same small school, which they probably did. They congregate at the local bar, Modean's 3, and are fiercely loyal to the hypersexualized and gruff bartender, Gail. There's the town beauty, #BonnieMcMurray, whose brother McMurray enjoys a polyamorous relationship with his wife, known only as Mrs. McMurray. There are the hockey players, #Reilly and #Jonesy, who are stereotypically thickheaded. There are the Skids, #Stewart and #Roald, who are predictably stoners. Finally, there are the Hicks, #SquirrellyDan, #Dary, #Katy and #Wayne. These are all caricatures of individuals we all likely already know from our own smalltown existences, and that's the backbone of the show's appeal.

Wayne, played by the show's creator #JaredKeeso, is the de facto leader of the Hicks, and the self-proclaimed toughest guy in Letterkenny. He is fiercely loyal, particularly to his kid sister Katy (#MichelleMylett), and doesn't play around too much in shades of gray. Things are the way they are, and while his friends Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) and Dary (Nathan Dales) are successful in getting him to see things from other points of view, Wayne is still fairly single-minded in his approach to most things in life.

The thing with Letterkenny is that even when the plot occasionally falters - at times, it's very much as though each plotline in the episode is almost separate from the others, particularly in the later seasons - you're still rooting for these characters. These are not idealized versions of people in smalltown Canada; these are fully realized, flawed individuals that are entirely relatable because they are so human. These are individuals you likely grew up with and either came to love or hate, and that's okay - that's what connects you to these stories and in many ways, to the memories that this show might generate for you. Perhaps Keeso and co-creator #JacobTierney, who plays #PastorGlen, knew that when they first started creating this piece of Canadian comic brilliance. You root for these characters in the same way you do your friends and family members, and that's what's so appealing about Letterkenny.

There are now nine seasons airing on Crave and on Hulu. If you haven't seen Letterkenny yet, grab a #Puppers and pitter-patter.