TL;DR – Like all endings, it is bittersweet, with moments of longing, frustration, and sadness, all there with the joy of seeing people being able to stick the landing.

Disclosure – I watched these episodes on SBS.

Letterkenny Review –

Well, like death and taxes, all things have to come to an end at some point, and today, we are looking at a series that made it to twelve seasons, a rarity in this day and age. If you want to have a look at the series as a whole, you can read our review HERE. But today, we are going to jump into that final season. One of familiarity and change.  

So to set the scene, there are a couple of stand-up comedians in town, and that has the whole gang thinking that they could take a swing at it. Wayne (Jared Keeso) is not that great at crowd work, Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) is as funny as ever, Daryl (Nathan Dales) is the big surprise of the evening, but when Katy (Michelle Mylett) comes out to roast the town, she brings a flamethrower. This creates a vibe that has people thinking about their place in the world and if they are stuck. Some flirt with moving, others explore new life choices, but then others find new friends and pull at the fabric of the town. We will be looking at the series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

I think the first strength of this series is that they clearly knew that it was going to be the finale series before they started, and they were able to focus all of that narrative towards the end. We do get some flashbacks to things that happened in the past, but thankfully, not too many. There were thematic elements like Wayne and others feeling stuck throughout the season and working through whether staying in Letterkenny was their future or not. Then there were the stylistic choices, like having just about every principal and supporting cast member appear at some point during the opening monologue/ acrostic. This helped form one of the book ends of the season that would be returned to in the final rave.

While we will pull apart the more serious aspects of the season soon, I was glad to see that some of the more silly aspects of the series were not lost in a rush to tie up all the loose ends of the series, and no, I am not just talking about the Fartbook fake out. I am sure that the question about whether you have time in the schedule to write, perform, and then shoot a music video for a country and western song about darts called Sundarts had to come up. It is so much of a parody of that style of music/video that it almost does a 180° turn back to being legitimate. There is a sheer audacity here that is the hallmark of this series, and it is always fun to see, even when it has you shaking your head.

The main throughline throughout this season is the breaking up of the four central cores after Katy breaks the one unbreakable rule in the show: don’t be a bully. In fact, neither she nor Wayne came off very well at all in the first half of the season. But this inciting incident drives Daryl away from the group and toward new friends like Mickey Gibraltar (Morgan Bedard) and his Sister (Amalia Williamson). The only issue is that these friends are what the town would call Degens. This decision not only fractures the group but it also fractures the town, which is unsurprising given the prominence of the group during Season Eleven.     

It is almost like losing Darryl to an addiction or a cult, and they don’t know how to process that correctly. Meanwhile, Darryl finds himself getting seduced into this world without knowing how far it will go. These two storylines are naturally heading towards a collision that may cause permanent damage. Given the show initially came out of videos that stared Jared Keeso & Nathan Dales and posted on the internet, having their relationship being at the heart of the season was the right choice. Because that moment when Wayne runs into cover Darryl, who is being shot at, resonates on a profoundly emotional level.

But this story also goes to the heart of what defines the show [I go into it more here], how it explores community. Darrly’s actions, which he verbalises as a literal declaration, constitute a break with the community, and it is clear that many people like McMurray (Daniel Petronijevic) construe the declaration as such and don’t know how to process it. But these actions also strengthen the bond that brings these disparate groups together. When we first meet Tanis (Kaniehtiio Horn), she terrorises the hockey boys Reilly (Dylan Playfair) and Jonesy (Andrew Herr). But here she comes to their defence because they are no longer outsiders. Also, pro tip: don’t threaten Tanis; things will never end well for you.

There is this natural drive as all the different groups come together to save Darryl. The Res, The Hicks, The Jocks, and even the Skids, in their own way all come together. The closest I can think of is the surge of feet that stormed to take Katy’s cheating boyfriend down. All of this provided the perfect backdrop for everyone else trying to find their own place in a shifting world. We do get to see other sides of the town during the season as well. Jim Dickens (Alex McCooeye) gets to chase his dreams of music stardom, Gail (Lisa Codrington) and Alexander (Jeff McEnery) find love, and Roald (Evan Stern) & Stewart (Tyler Johnston) build a club based solely on the consumption of illicit material.  

While I did like the season overall, there was some oddness here and there. The first is some surprising cast omissions. Tyson (Jay Bertin) gets to take more of a central stage, but Joint Boy is missing for the first time in the series’ history. Mrs McMurray (Melanie Scrofano) only appears in the book end segments. Then there are some characters like Coach (Mark Forward) that are there but don’t really do anything during the season. Where we saw that the most was the way that Wayne and Rosie’s (Clark Backo) relationship ended. I am not saying that people cannot drift apart and have a generally amicable break-up of an engagement over a phone call, but it didn’t feel right in the show. I think many of these issues might have stemmed from actor availability. As the show gets more popular, the actors are getting more work, which is excellent, but it must have made scheduling a nightmare.    

In some ways, I think this season saw a step up in production as we saw them take a few different chances here and there. The first is the pitch-perfect production of a music video, which I have mentioned, but it is so good I feel like bringing it up again. Then, there was the choice to have an entire conversation happen when we just saw the feet of the characters, and it worked. Then, there is the final dance, where the camera tells a story when there is no dialogue. There is respect shown for the show, and I think that is why I like it so much that the end of the show is all the locations from the town. It reinforces the role the town has had in building these characters while giving us one final victory lap before saying goodbye.

In the end, do we recommend the final season of Letterkenny? Absolutely. It was sad to see this odd yet delightful look into Canadian culture come to an end. I have loved my time with all the characters and their stories. I am not sure I have seen anything quite like this before, and I am not sure I will see anything quite like this again.       

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Letterkenny yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Letterkenny
Directed by – Jacob Tierney
Written by – Jared Keeso, Jacob Tierney, Allie Pearse, Olivia Stadler, Trevor Risk & Sonja Bennett
Created by – Jared Keeso
Developed by – Jared Keeso & Jacob Tierney
Production/Distribution Companies – New Metric Media, Crave, Hulu & SBS
Starring – Jared Keeso, Nathan Dales, Michelle Mylett, K. Trevor Wilson, Dylan Playfair, Andrew Herr, Tyler Johnston, Evan Stern, Jacob Tierney, Daniel Petronijevic, Mark Forward, Lisa Codrington, Kamilla Kowal, Kaniehtiio Horn, Melanie Scrofano, Alex McCooeye, Clark Backo, Ellyn Jade, Gregory Waters & James Daly with Kelly McCormack, Jess Salgueiro, Allie Pearse, Olivia Stadler, Amalia Williamson, Jay Bertin, Bradley Trudeau, Thomas-Dylan Cook, Morgan Bedard, Ella Cannon, Jeff McEnery, Kim Cloutier, Sash Striga & Nadine Bhabha and Wayne St-George, Ian Ronningen, Derek Barnes, Jason Lee Bell, Daniel VanZandwyck, Patrick McNeil, Daniel Beirne & Dillon Jagersky  
Episodes Covered – Live at MoDean’s, Sun Darts, I’m a Degen, Snooters, Stuck & Over and Out