Schitt's Creek

by Dan & Eugene Levy

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

We’re so glad to welcome this guest squee by HeatherT, especially as some of us are Schitt’s Creek fans. We hope this squee gets you to watch it, if you haven’t yet!

HeatherT is a lawyer in Minneapolis who lives by a lake (really) with two cats. She loves cooking, reading, watching great shows and writing about them. She would like to enjoy gardening, but that’s more aspirational than real.

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If you are like me, you have been hearing more and more buzz about Schitt’s Creek – the Canadian show on Pop and Netflix about a rich family that loses everything and has to move to a small town to start over. The buzzing became persistent, so I started watching last week. Reader – it turned into a Bad Decisions TV Club, did-not-leave-the-house-for-three-days marathon. Let’s explore why that is and why you will be happy if you watch it.

Schitt’s Creek was developed by Daniel Levy (son of Eugene). It follows the wealthy Rose family – patriarch Johnny (Eugene Levy), matriarch and former soap opera star Moira (Catherine O’Hara) and their two adult children, Alexis (Annie Murphy) and David (Daniel Levy). The show starts when the Roses lose everything and the only asset they are left with is a town that Johnny had bought as a joke because of the name. With nowhere else to go and nothing to live on, they move to Schitt’s Creek where they live in two rooms in a rundown motel.

The first two seasons are fine. It’s funny, the characters are interesting, and the stories are amusing. The Roses move to town, meet the locals – most importantly Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire), a deadpan snarker of an age with Alexis and David, who works at the motel. Moira totters around the town on six-inch heels, outfitted in the haute-est of haute couture, with an affected accent, spouting off words like “bombulate” and “pettifogging” while the bemused townspeople work to be welcoming to the strange new family.

Alexis has always been a party girl living an Instagram life. Like Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, she once had a reality show and her life to date has been one ridiculous escapade after another. David is a clothes-horse and a sarcastic pansexual who has a flair for the dramatic. He’s deeply insecure and can’t consider anyone or anything other than his own carefully curated image. Although adults, Alexis and David are ill-prepared for real life, having little to no understanding of money or jobs or anything other than their own self-absorption. They are not unpleasant people, just not ready to deal with…anything. As the family take the early steps towards adjusting to their new life, the first two seasons are table setting. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy with above-average writing, acting, and an astonishing wardrobe. This is all good fun but does not a squee make.

The show takes off in the third season and the theme of Seasons Three, Four and Five is love in all its forms. The shift is subtle — the show never for a moment loses its sharp wit and the characters do not suddenly transform into people they are not, but with the money gone, the Roses have room for the real emotion that was missing in their lives. Johnny starts working with Stevie at the motel, and they develop a father-daughter bond that neither acknowledge outright, but is firmly there. Even Moira eventually takes Stevie under her wing – something she never did for her own children. David and Stevie, who formed an early connection, continue their friendship, becoming true best friends. Johnny and Moira reconnect while David and Alexis support each other amidst the usual sibling bickering. I’m not going to say much about Alexis’ love life because her journey has a lot of detours, and I don’t want to spoil anything for the viewer.

What transforms the show and makes it must-watch television is the arrival of Patrick (Noah Reid Levy) in Season Three. Early in the season, David decides to open a store and he needs help – enter the practical Patrick. From the moment the two meet, it is clear to the viewer (and to Alexis and Stevie) that Patrick is intrigued by and attracted to David. Patrick doesn’t make any sudden movements; he’s just there taking care of business while gently bantering with David as they get to know each other. David assumes that Patrick is only a business partner. When Alexis raises the possibility to David that there might be more, David’s response is, “he’s a business major who wears straight-leg, mid-range denim. He’s not into me.” David has a varied sexual history, but for all his outward extravagance and openness to sexual encounter, the one thing he’s never had is a true romance. Schitt’s Creek tenderly and with humor shows a real relationship as it grows organically. The “will they – won’t they” isn’t artificially prolonged; it feels just right. Critically, it’s a same-sex relationship that isn’t based on a big coming out drama or casual sex or “just an experiment” or any of the usual (mis)treatments that queer relationships on television are often subjected to. It is just two people getting closer and closer, wondering if the other person feels the same, until that moment when one takes a chance on a kiss – a kiss that is perfectly right and leaves the two (and the viewer) with excited butterflies about what comes next.

Daniel Levy, who is himself gay, has spoken a lot about how important it is that the relationship isn’t a “queer relationship.” It’s just a relationship, with its ups and downs — and that isn’t something that we’ve seen a lot on television. He has also been adamant that one thing that Schitt’s Creek will never, ever have is any instance of homophobia or non-acceptance. It is taken for granted that being gay isn’t anything to get worked up about, and no one does. Pansexual David is immediately accepted in the town, and when Patrick comes along and the two get together, no one bats an eyelash except in support. Any hiccups in the relationship (and there are some) are the usual bumps that every relationship has – failure to communicate, mistaken assumptions, the need to compromise.

Seasons Four and Five further develop all the feels. While Alexis tends to her education, career and her own love life and Johnny and Moira get more involved with the motel and the town respectively, David and Patrick run the store and navigate what it is to fall in love. Moira, in an uncharacteristic moment of maternal insight, tells David, “He sees you . . . for all that you are.” That is the best part of their story – they see and accept each other as they are – neither becomes someone else. They complement each other. Patrick is calm and certain but he also calls David out on his shit. David takes longer to open himself up to the possibility of love, but he grows into a person who can consider what Patrick wants and needs and give it to him, even though it means leaving his own comfort zone – something that the David of Season One would have found impossible.

Watching this show will make you laugh, make you cry happy tears, and make your heart squeeze. It is always good-hearted and good-humored, and at only twenty-two minutes an episode is a perfect break from the cares of the world. It is PG-13, so safe to watch with teens or pre-teens, depending on the individual.

I leave you with this final quote:

Patrick: David, I’ve spent most of my life not knowing what right was supposed to feel like, and then I met you and everything changed. You make me feel right, David.

David: That is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard anyone say . . . outside of the Downton Christmas Special.