Schitt’s Creek

There is arguably no finite amount of times I could rewatch The Office or Parks and Recreations, they are both comedic shows that I happily return to when things are tough and I need to watch a show that feels like home and a warm hug. However, having rewatched both 4 times now, I definitely needed some more time before committing to another rewatch, but this search for a third comfort show has been difficult. Community and its meta heavy humour didn’t work for me and Superstore mostly relied on American heavy themes that I didn’t relate to before having most characters evolve into particularly dislikable people. When it came time to trying out Schitt’s Creek, I wasn’t much more optimistic, as the trailer hadn’t really gripped me and between the title being a pretty mediocre pun and the premise being mostly unrelatable (can’t say I know what it feels like to go from having 1 billion dollars to my name to only the clothes on my back). Thankfully, for once the first impressions were wrong and whilst Schitt’s Creek doesn’t overcome all of its awkwardnesses, it might just be good enough to be revisited for comfort.

Nevertheless the first season strongly leaves this awkward “haven’t figured things out yet” feeling that most shows have at their first go. The characters feel awkward and rigid across the board. They each have a very clear cut personality which on one hand makes each of them memorable but on the other hand also feels very unnatural, like a theater play but with a slice of life sitcom backdrop which I personally found a bit jarring. Making this awkwardness worse is that most of the main cast whether it be on the Rose’s or on the town’s side stand out like sore thumbs. Whilst it makes sense for the Roses to stand out, being super rich people who have never known anything else, suddenly pushed into the countryside, it feels far less natural on Schitt’s Creek’s side. Roland, the town major is a very rough looking, beyond absurd numbskull, he’s impolite and seemingly incapable of logical thought to the point one would wonder how he functions on a day to day basis. However, his son Mutt who just happens to become one of Alexis’ love interests is nothing short of a Greek god with a nuanced personality, looking more like he belongs in Barbie Land than anywhere in this show. This is also true for Ted, the local veterinarian and Alexis herself who despite her character growth through the seasons will still be running through the mud in high heels and summer dresses.

One positive that is maintained throughout the whole show however is the handling of the more serious plot points. Presenting itself as a sitcom, one would expect of Schitt’s Creek to have several episodes rely on some tropes. Accusations of cheating blowing up into a full episode’s story, family disagreements leading to complete separation for an episode before the inevitable heartfelt get together at the end of it etc. These tropes are a bit tired by now and have never been particularly believable. Schitt’s Creek however avoids this by having the serious moment to moment character interactions be very real, people communicate and as such minor disagreements are quickly resolved allowing for the plot to progress instead of halting everything in the episode’s time bubble before moving on to the next episode with it all but forgotten. The episodes flow more smoothly into one another that way and also leads to less episodes feeling like the expected “oh this is the one where Michael prints a nude picture of his boss” or “this is the one where Lesley is a gay icon”.

Another deviation from sitcoms is that the ending isn’t a clear happy ending per se. Whilst all characters get wrapped up nicely, this isn’t a case of everyone just loving each other magically and all issues being resolved because the scripted asked them to be. It definitely leans heavier into the bittersweet side of things than the purely sweet and even though it never fully escaped some its awkward character traits and theater like presentation, Schitt’s Creek ends in a beautifully grounded way that makes it somehow feel more relatable in some ways than The Office or Parks and Rec every did.