To give a truer picture of contemporary Canada, the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremonies should have ditched those kilt-stomping alt-grunge fiddlers in favor of the Trailer Park Boys. The addictive Canadian comedy series, set in the outskirts of Halifax, presents in vérité style the aimless lives and backfiring schemes of the world’s whitest trash. The three leads, in diminishing order of idiocy: belligerent, pot-growing redneck Ricky; ladies’-man Julian, never without his black T-shirt and glass of rum and Coke; and the decent, hapless, thick-lensed Bubbles. (Keeping the illusion alive, the three actors, Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, and Mike Smith, generally appear in public only in character—like that Borat fellow.) The series launched in 2001 and ran seven seasons (see blinkx.com) before branching into stage shows and movies. (Countdown to Liquor Day is on DVD this week.) How does their stage routine work? The premise is that the trio, in trouble with the law, was ordered to perform community service: a variety show warning audiences off drugs and alcohol. The Boys may seem to be mining the same cultural vein as Larry the Cable Guy et al., but there’s none of that crowd’s mean-spirited, self-righteous us-vs.-them-ism. And that’s probably the most Canadian thing about them. GAVIN BORCHERT

Sun., Feb. 28, 7 p.m., 2010