Slings & Arrows – Season 1
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: C
Can a TV show about the backstage antics and bitterness
between its various talents produce a show that is funny, witty and dark at the
same time? Maybe, but the Canadian TV
show Slings & Arrows (2003) is a big disappointment, despite a cast
that includes Mark McKinney and a then-unknown Rachel McAdams. It is not that the show is stupid, but too
impressed with itself, resulting in an elongated intellectual one-joke show that
never goes anywhere.
There were only six episodes and that is more than
enough. McAdams supplies some of the
show’s better moments and there is frankly not enough of them or her. The result is a show that is an acquired
taste at best and it at least does not make obnoxious the Shakespeare world the
characters are supposed to be bringing to life.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot on
video and is softer than expected, with some shaky camerawork. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no real
surrounds and is fine for what it is, a passable dialogue-based comedy. Extras are all on the first DVD, including
text filmographies of the cast, text production note, lyrics to two of the
songs from the show, deleted/extended scenes, a trailer and even bloopers. The latter were not very funny either.
- Nicholas Sheffo
