Corner Gas Countdown, #3

#3: Happy Campers
Its Leroy family fun time! If that sounds odd to you, well it sounds odd to everybody else as well: Brent and Oscar are going camping together? Annually? The boys every year get together and go camping, and this year Davis pushes his way into the fun. There is only one problem though: they don't really go camping. Emma insists that they do, but they always go into Regina and have their own separate vacations away from each other. They can't do it this year though: Davis can't keep secrets well. As a result, its Leroy family fun time! In Brent's absence, Wanda is in charge of Corner Gas which is a much easier job than running the Ruby (according to Lacey). Pretty soon the girls have decided to switch jobs, and Lacey and Wanda both learn that they have no idea how to operate the other's businesses. As the two stores fall apart, will Hank save the day? Er, no, he's... occupied with something. No weak story plots here, though the job switch one did drag. Davis and the Leroys off camping was priceless: Oscar complained, Brent complained, and Davis tried to escape. Well, by the end all three of them had tried to escape from each other to no success. There's only one thing to do...but if Oscar's shallow grave for Davis falls through Brent has a fallback plan: the usual routine: he plays D&D with some nerds while Oscar hangs around with homeless people. Back at the barn, Lacey resorts to Emma's help running Corner Gas and Karen enjoys her love of cooking at the Ruby. It all works well, until Emma and Karen argue over who has the tougher job and suddenly we're back where we started. This episode includes one of the greatest gags in the series, the infamous "Good Hair Day". Hank's good hair gives him a song, a dance, and a beautiful world in which to live. If that wasn't enough, Lacey's stupidest ideas skit was awesome: "buy a pie, get a turtle"? Meanwhile you'll have to watch the episode to see the other side of the "Good Hair Day" sketch, where the dog bites him and the kid cries. This was just a beautiful episode.

Honourable Mention: Mosquito Time
Dog River does a time capsule, where everybody in the main cast (as opposed to, you know, the whole town) puts things into a time capsule for what turns out to be one year. Lacey is not a mug, which confuses a lot of people. The mosquitos make this episode: everybody in town is affected accept for Hank. The reasons for Hank's immunity is a subject of much research and investigation, and Oscar thinks he's found the trick: at great expense to Brent's company. The Oscar running the gas station bit was pretty good as well. Watching people wishing to spend time with Hank was quite entertaining.

#105: An American in Saskatchewan
Yesterday we covered "American Resolution" and today we cover the second really bad Corner Gas episode to feature Americans. In this case, Kids in the Hall's Mark McKinney stars a tourist from Minnesota who went to Dog River by mistake. Hank plays goodwill ambassador, and tries to project all the ugly American stereotypes onto the tourist (who knows more about the Canadian system of government than Hank). So they fire Hank and leave him at home with a boot on his truck. The Yankee plot was pretty painful to watch, and again the "rah rah Canada" stuff made me want to lose my cookies. The other plot about the ATM invading Dog River and creating a group of above-the-law ATM people under Emma's control had a few bright spots (Davis' Walking Tall inspired 2x4 march into the liquor store) but otherwise it was pretty weak too. This episode also suffered from a slow pacing and uninspired performances.

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