By: Alex Tilton 

Letterkenny: Season 11

I had mixed feelings about this Season. It took me a minute to figure out why, but when I did it made me sad. Season 11 does *not* exhibit any decline in quality. It is, in fact, the same old Letterkenny. Just like always, the show is mostly centered around exchanges of snappy dialogue. And, just like always…a lot of it is mean.

In particular, I take issue with the last episode of the Season. Two of the core characters, Katy and Rosie are crapping on two other main characters, Dan and Daryl for following fads. Gail the bartender, and local drug dealers Roald and Stuart are also doing this. The problem is that while Gail is insane and the drug dealers are supposed to be jerks, as far as this show is concerned Katy and Rosie are essentially never wrong. They’re the ‘voice of what’s right’. But here they’re just flat out bullying two guys over nothing. It would be one thing if the show called this out, but it doesn’t. They’re correct ‘on the facts’, so it makes whatever their doing acceptable no matter how horrible it is, just like a Harry Potter book. I don’t expect good behavior from characters in an adult comedy, but when they’re being horrible I expect the show to at least acknowledge that it is horrible, which they didn’t. It’s an internal incongruity, and it bothered me.

The rest of the Season is pretty good. Letterkenny is at its best when it weaves a single, clearly identifiable plot thread through the rest of the self-contained hijinks and this Season it focused on a ‘degen’ that Wayne hires to work on his farm. I liked this character and how he was handled. The core cast all did their usual excellent job, the jokes are tight and edgy. But nothing can change the fact that they’ve been following this formula for 74 episodes now. They either need to change or stop. But for the moment, it’s still one of the best comedies going.

Alice in Borderland: Season 2

I loved this show. Season 1 was awesome in almost every respect, and Season 2 lived up to all my expectations.

To briefly recap. In Season 1, our characters find themselves mysteriously transported from Tokyo where they live to an abandoned alternate Tokyo where they’re forced to compete in lethal games for their lives. A lot of characters die, but a few of them manage to make it all the way through into what turns out to be a second round of the game which makes up Season 2.

The series does an excellent job of showing how people handle hopelessness and danger and find courage in horrible situations. The death games also serve as a platform for various characters to expound about their worldviews. Is this alternate Tokyo really any worse than the real world? Many characters confront this question through flashbacks or frank discussions about their previous lives. Some arrive at the conclusion that this place, however violent, is also a lot more honest. Some of them actually prefer it. They debate whether they would go back, given the choice. And it’s a choice they’re fighting to have. Each game the players survive gives them a playing card, the number of which extends how many days they have left before they’re killed by a mysterious laser from the sky. Once the players collectively assemble all of the numbered cards (Season 1) all of the survivors move on to the second round where they have to play games directly against the ‘face cards’ who are players that won previous incarnations of this game.

Our main character Arisu competes in the face card games, not just to survive, but also for the opportunity to ask the face cards themselves about the nature of this world they’re in, and if it is ever possible to go back. And while he does eventually get his answer, the show makes a point of leaving some things unaddressed. The nature of the world our characters are in is only explained up to a point, and the mysterious force that enables the events of the series is never directly confronted. The ending is mostly clear, but also somewhat left up to the audience to decide. All in all it was extremely satisfying. But that being said, I do not want a Season 3. Don’t do this. The ending was just right and there’s nowhere to really go from here. It was damn near perfect, leave it alone please.

Image sources:

 murphysmultiverse.com & thedigitalfix.coma