Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Shoresy’ Season 2 on Hulu, With More Hockey-Centric Banter Straight From The ‘Letterkenny’ Universe

 Shoresy, which drops the puck on a second six-episode season for Hulu, features creator, writer, and star Jared Keeso, who along with director Jacob Tierney previously developed Letterkenny, the long-running comedy about the residents of a small town in Canada and “their problems.” Shoresy, the mouthy hockey winger Keeso plays here, even appeared on Letterkenny, albeit in the shadows alongside Wayne, his main character. But other bits and pieces of the original series surface here, too, as Shoresy continues to remake a semi-pro hockey team in Northern Ontario in his image, an image best defined by his cocky, toothless grin.  

SHORESY – SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Shoresy’s mandate to Bulldogs owner Nat (Tasya Teles) was clear from the minute he arrived in Sudbury – “This time will never lose again” – and our introduction to season two is a montage full of winning moments set to “Pull Out” by Death From Above 1979. 

The Gist: Led by Shoresy’s on ice wherewithal and epic levels of trash-talk, the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs did indeed raise the banner as 2022 champs of the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization (NOSHO), a feat that not only reversed the team’s fortunes, but ensured their continued existence, since Nat had been considering a fire sale. But being on top also puts a target on your back. From Timmins out by the Mattagami and all the way over in North Bay, whether you’re talking about the Canadian Soo Cyclones or the Michigander Soo Cyclones – that’s right, NOSHO now has an American expansion team – Shoresy, head coach Sanguinet (Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat) and the team are seeing new levels of competition. And jawing. “I’m serious, I’ll fucking kill you,” says one of the Timmins Timber Kings’ many Appledorn brothers. “Alright,” Shoresy says. “First shift, we kill each other.”

There are four games left in the season, the Bulldogs are running a “20-game heater,” and among the players anyway, the vibe is super loose. A calendar shoot promotion dreamed up by Nat and her assistants/ride or dies Ziigwan (Blair Lamora) and Miigwan (Keilani Rose) has gone to their heads, with the women of Sudbury clamoring for more hockey player dates. Shouldn’t the team be practicing or working out or something, instead of playing an extra period between the sheets? But Shoresy wonders what Nat, Ziig, and Miig thought would happen when they put “sexy dudes with their tarps off” in a calendar. On “Questionable Call,” an ESPN-style hockey show hosted by occasional Letterkenny character Anik Archambault (Kim Cloutier) and featuring former Olympic hockey star Tessa Bonhomme on the panel, the storyline is simple. If the league thought Shoresy was bad last year, trying to tear the Bulldogs off the bottom rung, wait til they get a load of him trying to keep the team on top.

Who’s gonna get ‘em focused? Who’ll set the tone? Even though they’re up 2-0 on the Timber Kings, Shorsey still calls out teammates like Dolo (Jonathan Diaby), Michaels (Ryan McDonnell), and Max Bouffard’s Jean-Jacques François Jacques-Jean – “JJ Frankie JJ” – for not scoring enough. And don’t even think about helping yourself to potato chips in the dressing room if you weren’t scoring points on the ice. Shoresy and the Bulldogs’ biggest challenges await. And as always, the mental game starts in warm-ups.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Letterkenny, which is currently filming its 12th season, shows no signs of either slowing down or being anything less than by-the-second hilarious. And as slice-of-life sitcoms with an assortment of distinct, off-the-wall characters, Shoresy shares its perch with stuff like Killing It and Pretty Hard Cases.

Our Take: Shoresy is more self-contained than Letterkenny – it often takes place either on the ice or in the bowels of a hockey arena, or nearby at a bar in the city of Sudbury – but the shows share a wavelength where their jokes hit. That’s certainly because they share a writer and creator in Jared Keeso. But beyond Keeso’s particular flair for crafting one-liners that pop off inside other one-liners, Shoresy is committed to involving everyone, getting the entire cast onto that same wavelength. Its best moments are a kind of face off, with Nat flanked by Ziigwan and Miigwan on one side and Shoresy joined by Sanguinet or a fellow player on the other. The two groups trade creative rabbit punches, stinging asides, and streams of invective for a few minutes – in the case of Nat and her assistants, they literally finish each other’s sentences – and then the next scene hits, which usually sets up more of the same but with different groups of characters. It would feel same-y if it wasn’t so funny, and besides, at less than a half-hour per episode, the rapid-fire pace helps keep Shoresy fresh. One further note: if you ever want a tutorial on how to trash talk, Keeso’s character continuing to needle every single opponent in the league with uproariously specific jabs is funny enough to be its own inside joke on Shoresy, like when the yakkers on “Questionable Call” spend a segment analyzing the genius and hyper-regional depth of his insults.  

Sex and Skin: Lots of joking here about the players’ sex lives, and some cheesecake shots of women in lingerie, but nothing too racy.

Parting Shot: Nat and her trusted advisors Ziigwan and Miigwan know Shoresy will do anything it takes to win. But what about the rest of the team? Do they wanna be the best in the league this year, or the best team in the league ever? “Better decide quick,” Ziig says. And we see a shot of the Bulldogs’ next opponents, who train in Real Tree adorned with American flag patches.   

Sleeper Star: “Too hand to the game time for a Martoonie, eh me son?” As Ted “Hitch” Hitchcock, actor and former pro hockey player Terry Ryan often gets the best lines among the put downs, retorts, and funny bits of piercing insight that ping between gathered groups of Bulldogs.

Most Pilot-y Line: You heard it first from Anik Archambault, host of the hot takes hockey program “Questionable Call,” sponsored by BroDog Energy: “Shoresy vowed the team would never lose again. And well, after dropping the final game of the season to the Soo Cyclones last year, the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs swept the playoffs to win the league.” The question is, what’s next?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Shoresy offers Letterkenny fans an expansion team off the familiar tone and pacing of Jared Keeso’s other series. But anyone will appreciate its unpredictable jokemaking, packed back to back into banter that flies faster than a puck off a slapshot.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.