Product Description

"Absolutely addictive" —The New York Times
"One of television’s best" —San Francisco Chronicle
"Struts and frets . . . delightfully" —Time

In its second season, the smash hit Canadian comedy about a struggling Shakespearean theatre troupe explores the conflicts of middle age and rebranding: Am I who I want to be—or not to be?

Now ensconced as artistic director of the New Burbage theatre festival, Geoffrey (Paul Gross) must stage the cursed play Macbeth to fulfill the vision of his deceased predecessor Oliver (Stephen Ouimette). The actor cast in the lead (Geraint Wyn Davies) engages in a titanic clash of egos with Geoffrey, while Oliver weighs in confrontationally from the grave. The festival faces a financial crisis that forces its CEO (Mark McKinney) to engage in some risky business, while leading lady Ellen (Martha Burns) endures a life-altering tax audit. Adding to the mayhem is the return of the madcap guest director Darren Nichols (Don McKellar), who stages a post post-modern Romeo and Juliet after the original director breaks her neck. Could it be the curse of Macbeth?

As seen on the Sundance Channel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20001 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 282 minutes

Amazon.com
It’s amazing what can happen in the theatre. Dramas unfold, epic stories and indelible characters are formed, battles are fought, lovers wooed and spurned, and every once in a while, a play is actually performed. And so Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) is back as the Artistic Director of the New Burbage Theatre Festival for a second season of the backstage machinations and on stage drama that is Slings and Arrows. After a triumphant first season that revolved around the staging of Hamlet, season two uses Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most difficult and cursed plays, as the central device for this season’s plots lines. Things begin close to where they left off in season one. As the last performance of Hamlet winds up a mysterious old woman, in witch-like fashion, practically dares Geoffrey to undertake Macbeth, and her ominous tone makes it clear it won’t be easy. The lead actor (Geraint Wyn Davies) engages Geoffrey in a titanic clash of egos, with the ghost of Oliver (Steven Ouimette) continuing to weigh in from beyond the grave. The rest of last season’s stellar cast returns including Rachel McAdams, leading woman Ellen (Martha Burns), and the excellent Mark McKinney as scheming/bumbling CEO Richard Smith-Jones. The return of guest director Darren Nichols (Don McKellar) to stage a post post-modern Romeo and Juliet provides many of this season’s best moments, and shows the hilarious side of what happens when artistic imagination and exuberance outpace artistic ability.

Slings and Arrows was conceived as a set of three seasons. Where Season 1 focused on disillusioned youth, Season 2 "tackles the conflicts of middle age and rebranding," said executive producer Niv Fichman. The success of the first season afforded the show a larger budget, and so the original cast returned and a bevy of strong newcomers (including Wyn Davies, Colm Feore, and Diane D’Aquila) along with enhanced production values, were added. The result is a season that builds upon the high standard set in the first one. The writing continues to be some of the best on television; the characters are intriguing without being precious, and the dialog continues to snap with the kind of wit that ordinary sit-coms painfully lack. You don’t have to have been in the theatre to get drawn into this world, but if you happen to have been an actor or ever worked on the stage, these characters will be familiar… some of them probably a little too familiar. It’s good to see that a strong debut has led to an even stronger continuation. --Daniel Vancini

Reel.com
4 Stars - Simply put, this series is a minor miracle. The acting is simply peerless.

DVDTalk.com
This is some of the best television you'll ever get the chance to watch, plain and simple.

Customer Reviews

Loved it. Absolutely brilliant.
This is a wonderful TV show -- intelligently written, funny, complex and superbly acted. Perfect for theatre lovers, fans of good drama or tart comedy, and anyone looking for TV shows that elevate the medium and have real substance. And, god, Paul Gross is a marvelous actor!!

Just for reference, other favorite shows of mine include "Freaks & Geeks," "My So-Called Life," "Six Feet Under," "Rome," "West Wing" "Buffy," "Prime Suspect" and a few others... This one easily rises towards the top of the list. Highly recommended. (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue)

Tax Time
Season Two tells us first of all what happens with Rachel McAdams, whose adorable ingenue of Season One has finally gotten the chance to play Juliet--the dream of every young actress. But will she have to give up her dream because of her love affair with a handsome and talented young action star of Hollywood movies?

Oddly enough it's like having a second "sixth episode" to Season One, and thus most of the second series is crammed into five episodes. Geoffrey is now fulfilling Oliver's dream of directing Macbeth, and there's a curse on it called Henry Breedlove, apparently Canada's most acclaimed actor but a horror to work with, vain and capricious and totally up his own fundament. Geoffrey however has a few tricks up his sleeve to get the sort of performance he needs from this ham of hams.

A secondary story has the wonderful Darren Nichols come back to direct the New Burbage Festival's Romeo and Juliet. This story is spoiled somewhat by the inadequate actors SLINGS found to play Sarah and Patrick, but their situation (he's gay, she's straight, but such is the power of the poetry that they fall in love with each other) is so inanely written that Lunt and Fontanne couldn't have saved it. It's just a terrible comedown from the sublime McAdams-Luke Kirby chemistry of Season One.

Happily the worthy Martha Burns gets the plot of a lifetime, as Ellen Fanshawe is hauled into Canadian tax court, for an audit that is strikingly like modern-day Freudian therapy. Ellen is forced to confront all of her demons, including her cheapness and her flair for self exaggeration. It is a devastating demonstration of Burns' genius as an actress unafraid to expose the most sordid bits of her soul and body, while the lucky bit player opposite her, as the tax examiner who secretly loves Shakespeare, matches her point by point.

Delightful, heartbreaking, must-see
Substance is outstanding: witty, sad, excellent performances all around. Dense enough to bear repeated viewing: I bought the full set after watching it via rental.

OK image & 2 ch sound marred by non-verbatim closed captions.

Features are weak (and not captioned). Bloopers barely generate a smile. I sorely miss any writers/producers/directors commentary track.