I grew up in a blue-collar town, where working in a factory was integral to the city’s survival. Heck, I even worked a summer in a factory, trucking boxes of shoes, polish, and other accessories around a maze of boxes and loading and unloading trucks. It didn’t take me long to get into the feel of the place—the razzing, the nicknames, the back-slapping and the hard work.
Needless to say, I immediately connected with The Trades when I first tuned in to Season 1 on Crave, recognizing how the staff at Imperial Valley refinery interacted as legitimate, something creator Ryan J. Lindsay strives for.
“In the current landscape of content, authenticity is paramount,” he says. “People are so distractible, the mission with this show was clear. We knew we wanted to target a blue-collar or blue-collar adjacent audience and make them laugh. In order to do so, we needed relatable characters and relatable experiences. They need to watch this show and say, ‘I know a guy like that,’ ‘I work with a guy like that,’ or ‘I know a girl who has done that.'”
Now back for Season 2, with two episodes dropping every Friday on the Canadian streaming service, Lindsay’s creation centres around pipefitter Todd Stool (Robb Wells, Trailer Park Boys) as he navigates his blue-collar life at a refinery with help from his family and friends. The first two episodes of Season 2 are already up and running on Crave, and saw Todd and his buddy, Backwoods (Daniel Petronijevic, Letterkenny, 19-2), swapping their Imperial Valley refinery gigs for working the pipeline. Meanwhile, work at Imperial Valley was in disarray thanks to new foreman Danny (Pat Roach, Trailer Park Boys), necessitating Todd and Backwoods’ return to get the refinery and its ragtag staff (which includes a powerhouse cast in Anastasia Phillips, Jennifer Spence, Enrico Colantoni, Tom Green, Raoul Bhaneja, Jesse Camacho, Brandon Oakes and Susan Kent) back in shape.
The first of this week’s new instalments breaks new ground for The Trades with “Night Shift,” a bottle episode (the story is contained in one location, filming at night in Hamilton, Ont.) and the first to be directed by Lindsay.
“Directing is a different kind of hot seat from showrunning, writing or producing,” he says. “You’re ultimately the one who is watching the clock. In Season 1, I had the privilege of watching director Warren P. Sonoda for three months. It was the best director training ever.
“This episode is something I’m really proud of,” he continues. “It’s different from the rest of the season, has a horror theme, and is something we have never done before.”
The Trades drops two episodes every Friday on Crave.
Images courtesy of Kontent House Inc.
