''Shoresy'' is a Canadian television comedy series created by and starring
Jared Keeso that premiered on
Crave on May 13, 2022.
A spinoff of ''
Letterkenny
Letterkenny ( ga, Leitir Ceanainn , meaning 'hillside of the O'Cannons'), nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, a county in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Letterkenny lies on the R ...
'', the series focuses on the titular character of
Shoresy (Keeso) as he moves to
Sudbury to take a role with a struggling Triple A-level ice hockey team, the Sudbury Bulldogs.
In the United States, the series premiered on
Hulu on May 27, 2022.
A second season was announced in January 2023 which is set to premiere later in the year.
Plot
After losing 20 straight games and running dead last in the four-team
Triple A-level Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...
Senior Hockey Organization (NOSHO), the Sudbury Bulldogs are faced with being completely shut down. Veteran player Shore ("Shoresy") in an attempt to save the team makes a bet with team
general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
that the team will never lose again if he's given a chance to take control. With the help of new coach Sanguinet, a roster of new players, and the dissolution of the team on the line, Shoresy sets out to prove that the Bulldogs can play as a team, get bums in seats, and make a name for themselves.
Cast
Main
*
Jared Keeso as "Shoresy" Shore (known as "Waffle" by his foster family)
*
Tasya Teles
Tasya Teles (born February 1, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Echo in The CW's ''The 100''. Teles has also played Kendra in DirecTV's '' Rogue'', Nat in the Crave series '' Shoresy'', and Daniella in BBC America's '' ...
as Nat
* Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat as Sanguinet
* Blair Lamora as Ziigwan
* Keilani Rose as Miigwan
* Jonathan Diaby as himself, "Dolo"
*
Terry Ryan as Ted Hitchcock
* Ryan McDonell as Mark Michaels
Recurring
* Max Bouffard as Jean-Jacques François Jacques-Jean "JJ Frankie JJ"
* Andrew Antsanen as Brant "Goody" Goodleaf
*
Camille Sullivan
Camille Sullivan (born July 7, 1975) is a Canadian actress. She has starred in various films and television series. Among her notable television appearances are ''Rookie Blue'', ''Da Vinci's Inquest'', ''Intelligence'' and '' Shattered''. She won ...
as Laura Mohr
*
Laurence Leboeuf
Laurence Charlotte Leboeuf (born December 13, 1985) is a Canadian actress.
Biography
Leboeuf was born on December 13, 1985 in Montreal, Quebec. She went to École Notre-Dame-de-Grâce for elementary and later on, she went to Villa Maria for hig ...
as Herself
*
Jon Mirasty as Jim #1
*
Brandon Nolan as Jim #2
*
Jordan Nolan as Jim #3
* Keegan Long as Liam
* Bourke Cazabon as Cory
* Jon Ambrose as Phil
Guests
*
Scott Thompson as Shoresy's foster father
*
Jonathan Torrens
Jonathan Ormond Torrens (born October 2, 1972) is a Canadian actor and television personality best known for his co-hosting of '' Street Cents'', his talk show '' Jonovision'', and his role as "J-Roc" in the popular Canadian mockumentary ''Traile ...
as Remy Nadeau
*
Jacob Tierney as Benoit "Benny" Brodeur
*
Kim Cloutier as Anik Archambault
*
Eliana Jones
Eliana Jones (born October 28, 1997) is a Canadian actress. She first came to attention as the younger version of the Alex character on ''Nikita'' (2010–2012), and in the recurring role of Alexa Sworn, one of the twin daughters of the sheriff ...
as Mercedes
*
Tessa Bonhomme
Tessa Bonhomme (born July 23, 1985) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and is a television sports reporter for The Sports Network (TSN). She was an Olympic gold medallist as a member of the Canadian national women's hockey team ...
as herself
*
Jay Onrait
Jay Michael Onrait (born August 29, 1974) is a Canadian television personality and sports anchor who hosts ''SC with Jay Onrait'' on TSN. From 2003 to 2021, he has been frequently paired with fellow Canadian broadcaster Dan O'Toole.
In his fir ...
as himself
* Brian "Rear Admiral" McGonagall as himself
* Lysandre Nadeau as herself
Production and development
Shoresy is played by
Jared Keeso, but within ''Letterkenny'' he is only seen in contexts that obscured his face as Keeso simultaneously plays the leading role of Wayne. Justin Stockman of
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
explained the decision to proceed with a Shoresy spinoff by noting that he is one of the most popular characters in ''Letterkenny'' merchandising, and acknowledging the creative potential involved in building on the story of a character about whom very little is known in the original show.
Production on the series launched in November 2021 in Sudbury. Production locations have included the
Sudbury Arena
The Sudbury Community Arena is a multi-purpose arena in the downtown core of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 1951, on the site of the former Central Public School, at a cost of $700,000. The approval and construction of the arena ...
.
During the tenth-season ''Letterkenny'' episode "VidVok", Tanis explains to Wayne that she managed to get Shore a position on the Sudbury Bulldogs and will be moving soon, setting up the ''Shoresy'' series. The show's first teaser trailer was released in February 2022.
Like ''Letterkenny'', the show has received praise for its efforts to include fully rounded and nuanced portrayals of its
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
characters, which was accomplished in part by including actress
Kaniehtiio Horn
Kaniehtiio Alexandra Jessie Horn (''née'' Batt; ; born November 8, 1986), sometimes credited to as Tiio Horn, is a Canadian actress. She was nominated for a Gemini Award for her role in the television film '' Moccasin Flats: Redemption'' and sh ...
, who plays Tanis in the original ''Letterkenny'', as a producer tasked in part with ensuring that the indigenous characters were written and portrayed realistically. The series has also received positive notice for inverting the stereotypical gender dynamics in hockey by placing women in power positions as the team's manager, her two assistants and the sports journalist who covers the team for the ''
Sudbury Star'', noting that in ''Letterkenny'' "Part of the secret ... is that although the men seem to be the focal point of the story and the women seem to be objectified in endless slo-mo walk-ups, the men are all trapped in different stages of arrested development and the women are truly in charge."
Episodes
Critical response
In advance of the series premiere,
John Doyle of ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' praised the show, writing that "In the spirit of ''Letterkenny'', the humour is funny, mad, droll, childish and spiky. Full of salty Canadian vernacular, it soars. There are more visual jokes than you might find in the average episode of ''Letterkenny'', but the flavour is the familiar tone of boldly irreverent, and it is sometimes slashing satire with more puns than you can count. In an expected but delightful way, ''Shoresy'' is ''Letterkenny'' refreshed. Who knew that a series which opened some years ago with the line, 'A coupla hockey players came up the lane way the other day,' could eventually unleash this great spinoff."
Daniel Fienberg of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' described the series as essentially an updated version of the 1977 film ''
Slap Shot'', praising it both for humanizing Shoresy and for placing women and First Nations characters in positions of strength.
[
]Michael Hollett Michael Hollett is the founder and president of North by Northeast (NXNE) music festival which happens every June in Toronto since 1995. Hollett is also founder of the national print and online arts magazine, ''NEXT'', available in Toronto, Vancouve ...
of ''NEXT Magazine'' wrote that ''Shoresy'' is "a fastpaced show with a more linear narrative and explicit plot than ''Letterkenny''", and praised it for lacking the stiffness and awkwardness that often plagues television series about hockey.
References
External links
''Shoresy''
on Crave
''Shoresy''
on Hulu
* {{IMDb title, 18249282
2022 Canadian television series debuts
2020s Canadian sitcoms
Crave original programming
Television shows filmed in Greater Sudbury
2020s Canadian sports television series
Canadian television spin-offs
Television shows set in Greater Sudbury
Ice hockey television series
Television series by Bell Media
Television series by DHX Media