Six reasons to get excited
Crave TV releases new episodes about life in a small Ontario town
As sure as God’s got sandals, Letterkenny is back for a second season.
Fans who have been waiting since February for more snarky small-town Ontario adventures from Wayne (Jared Keeso), Daryl (Nathan Dales), and Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson), received a nice gift in their Christmas stocking. Six new episodes are now available on CraveTV.
Letterkenny seems to thrive on holidays and big occasions. It premiered last February after the Super Bowl and The Comedy Network later scored with a Letterkenny marathon on Canada Day.
Producer Mark Montefiore thinks the Christmas drop is brilliant.
“If it was two years ago and it wasn’t on Crave, I would have been, ‘You’re out of your mind.’ Now, I think we’re the first to ever do this. It’s awesome.”
Anticipation for the new season is keen. A promotional clip is already up to over a million views on CraveTV’s Facebook page.
Even though the series isn’t on a U.S. carrier yet, there are fans stateside who are also saying, “Pitter-patter, let’s get at ‘er.”
“The traction it has got in the States is mind boggling,” says Keeso, who co-created Letterkenny with writer/director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky).
Keeso’s not too concerned at this point if Americans are streaming the series illegally.
“I’m just happy some Americans have got their eyes on it and grow the show and create more demand.”
A sale to the U.S. is the goal of most Canadian producers and New Metric Media co-president Montefiore says he’s working on it; so is distributor DHX Media.
For now, Montefiore and Keeso and the others are simply thrilled Letterkenny has had such an impact on CraveTV. In today’s competitive world of Peak TV, a buzz-worthy original such as Letterkenny is an important programming tent pole.
In season 2, hockey dudes Reilly and Jonesy (played by Dylan Playfair and Andrew Herr), get some new competition and Wayne is looking for love.
“We stick to our strengths,” says Keeso. “What we feel we excel at is laughs on a second-by-second basis.”
The vulgarity of many of the show’s jokes make them hilarious (and relatable), to some viewers but difficult to share in print. Many come at viewers in rapid fashion and are spat out like sunflower seeds. The hockey dudes describe their world as “forecheck-backcheck-paycheque, bro.”
Cranking out scripts has been a challenge for Keeso, who shares writing duties with Tierney. Up until now, Letterkenny was shot around Keeso’s other series, 19-2. But with that Montreal-based cop drama having just wrapped for good (the fourth and final season will premiere on Bravo in 2017), Keeso can now concentrate on Letterkenny.”
The cast and crew head back north to Sudbury, Ont., to start work on season 3 in February.
“Yeah, we’re going to do a winter season,” says Keeso, who bases Letterkenny on his hometown of Listowel, Ont.
“Growing up in Listowel, snowmobile culture is massive, massive, massive,” he says.