Young Drunk Punk: Season's End Review

Young Drunk Punk came out of nowhere since I am an American.  I discovered it completely by chance when I decided to look up Allie MacDonald videos on Youtube in latter January (2015).  I checked out an interview (Katie Chats), which was the most recent video of her.  They talked about her horror roles and how Young Drunk Punk was a very welcome divergence.  I had no idea what to expect besides the expectation of a sitcom featuring Allie MacDonald (was she the/a young drunk punk?)

This show introduced me to new talents both fascinating and fresh.  First, there’s Tim Carlson, who got his first leading role and his second career credit (according to IMDb) here.  Then there is Atticus Mitchell, who is more accomplished.  He had important roles in The Colony (Laurence Fishburne film) and My Babysitter’s a Vampire (TV series in the vast Disney family).  Young Drunk Punk is his second starring role in a TV series.  This series also presents Allie MacDonald in her first starring role in a TV series.  Allie MacDonald is the holy grail that only the worthy have eyes to see.  Bruce, my man, had the eyes to recognize.  Allie MacDonald would have been a rock star actress in the 1940's and 1950's (an era that knew what to do with screen extravagance).  

Leading this young pack is a comedic veteran of screen and stage: Bruce McCulloch.  Bruce McCulloch established himself in Kids in the Hall.  Kids in the Hall was a 1980’s-90’s sketch comedy program that is like what would happen if Monty Python’s Flying Circus had sexual relations with Canada and their kids went into comedy.  Kids in the Hall is also the name of the comedy troupe.  They are a phenomenon as they also did a movie, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996), a mini-series, Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (2010), and they are currently doing a 2015 tour of the US and Canada.  Bruce and each of his fellow Kids have had a broad cultural influence in the realm of comedy.  I happily just realized that Scott Thompson is the comic-relief providing forensic pathologist on Hannibal.  Hannibal has been filming in Ontario, Canada after all.  Bruce was a writer for that other sketch comedy program (like fellow Kid Mark McKinney) Saturday Night Live in the 1980’s.  Young Drunk Punk has introduced me to an entire chapter of comedy history.     

Having absorbed the edginess and zaniness of some early Kids in the Hall episodes, I’m left with the impression that Young Drunk Punk is tame by comparison, maybe this whole era.  However, Man Seeking Woman tends to disprove the tame era hypothesis.  Furthermore, for a show entitled Young Drunk Punk there was surprisingly little alcohol.  I only remember Belinda proudly displaying bottles of booze to her snooty college friends.  Granted, the “drunk” could be purely metaphorical as the central friends are drunk with self-aggrandizing notions and their entire worldview.  That said, there is room for the show to grow edgier, including literal drunkenness, in future seasons if they should happen.  This show also has a very inoffensive and unprovocative interpretation of “punk.”  Their anti-establishment worldview is technically punk but it feels more cute.  I guess it’s CutePunk.  Nonetheless, future seasons may see this titular element heat up as well.  

Ultimately, Young Drunk Punk is a glimpse into McCulloch’s Albertan heart and soul with plenty of ingenius situations throughout.  Allie MacDonald, Tim Carlson, Atticus Mitchell, and Tracy Ryan help him paint this comedic glimpse into the culture of his youth.  Seeing Allie MacDonald work landline telephones is reason enough that this show continue.  Has anybody thought about the rest of Kids in the Hall getting involved in the future?  That could be wild.