September 20th, 2020 during the Primetime Emmy Awards a show called Schitt’s Creek became the first comedy or drama series to win all 4 main actor categories in a single year and it became the first comedy or drama series to win 7 major awards in a single year. Think about all the great shows that came out in the 2010’s that couldn’t take that milestone record. Shows like Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, American Horror Story, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Downton Abbey, This is Us and many more could not win all 7 major awards in one night. Shows like Breaking Bad, The Office, Friends, MASH, Frasier, The Sopranos, How I Met Your Mother, Law and Order, SNL and so much more could not add in 7 straight awards and add them to their legacies. A little Canadian show that was on CBC in Canada and Pop TV in the US called Schitt’s Creek made history and my only question in life was how. I wanted to know what made this show so great that it deserved 7 straight Emmys. I wanted to see if they should have won each major category they were nominated for. I wanted to go on a journey, a mission, to see if the show deserved even one. I wanted to see what the entire buzz was about. And on September 23rd, 3 days after the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, I began my journey and from there I binged 6 seasons, 80 episodes, of Schitt’s Creek. On October 13th 2020 I completed my journey and if you are reading this then you know that you just put yourself on a journey. If you wish to continue reading then continue to scroll down as this review of Schitt’s Creek will not include huge spoilers but possibly minor ones. If you do not care then go scroll along your Facebook page and read an article about Covid or watch your 20th cat video. Whatever you choose to do just know this review will be long as this is my first time I ever wrote a review on a televisions program. As I said before minor spoiler alerts ahead so if you wish to watch the show I won’t give away big plot points or important scenes. Maybe after watching this review you may want to watch the show and begin your journey. But until then let’s take a deep dive into Schitt’s Creek.
Schitt’s Creek is a Canadian television sitcom created by Daniel and Eugene Levy that aired on CBC Television in Canada and Pop TV in the United States from January 13th, 2015 – April 7th, 2020. The series is about a wealthy family that loses their money after being defrauded by their business manager and they now relocate and live their lives in a small town called Schitt’s Creek. The series main cast includes Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy and Annie Murphy. The supporting cast includes Emily Hampshire, Jennifer Robertson, Dustin Milligan, Tim Rozon, Karen Robinson, Sara Levy, Noah Reid, John Hemphill and Chris Elliot.
Now at first I saw this show while channel surfing and thought it was going to be a plain sitcom that’s on a bland network and it won’t ever be that popular. However I wasn’t fully wrong as it took until the end of Season 3 for the show to find its popularity as the show was then featured on Netflix and from there it became a popular sitcom. I still didn’t care for it but I kept on seeing ads for the show on television, Facebook, Instagram and I always wondered what is so special about this show. And I had the same thought process after the show won 7 straight Primetime Emmy Awards, becoming the first show in history to win all the major categories for comedy or drama. Now I never had any care for The Office but after many years I gave it a chance and it’s literally one of my favorite shows of all time. And I started watching it in 2018 so yeah I was late to the Dunder Mifflin train. But for Schitt’s Creek it’s not The Office or like any comedy series. It’s different and it feels like it comes from a different universe. It didn’t use dry humor like The Office and it didn’t use satire and break the fourth wall like Community or Family Guy and it didn’t use comedic scenes and moments to bring in the jokes like Friends. Instead it uses its writing and timing from the actors to bring in the comedy and instead of being a full fleshed laugh out loud sitcom, it kind of just let the story and characters take control of the series and brought in the comedy that way.
Let’s talk about the characters as they play a big role on why the show became so popular and why the comedy worked for the show. First I will talk about the main cast and from there I will talk about the main supporting cast.
First off we have Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy). He is the patriarch of the Rose family and the former CEO of Rose Video, which is basically like Blockbuster as it was a video rental chain. Throughout the show Johnny’s main focus is to rebuild his family’s fortune and help them adjust to their new life in Schitt’s Creek. In retrospect to the situation the only reason they are now living in the small town is because he bought the town for his son’s birthday in 1991. I can see Eugene Levy had a fun time playing this role because in my eyes it felt like a character he has played in the past before and it felt like Eugene Levy was playing himself but with a more Kardashian lifestyle added into the mix. I felt like I was watching his character from the American Pie series if the character was rich. I love all of Eugene Levy’s characters as he puts a great performance in all of his characters, but for his role as Johnny Rose it felt very clear that he was playing himself if he lost his fame and needed to find a way to bring back money into his family’s life.
Then we have Moira Rose (Catherine O’Hara). She is an eccentric ex-soap opera star and she is the wife of Johnny Rose. She is probably the most unique character of the bunch as she has this eccentric personality and the way Catherine O’Hara portrays the role makes me wonder if Catherine O’Hara is playing a fictional character of herself. She has this weird accent as she speaks fluently fine but she has this weird accent like she trying to be someone from Canada mixed with American accent of say Hollywood or Long Island New York, I don’t know I’m thinking where very wealthy people live. The most unique thing about Moira is her fashion as she has many different types of clothing but also she has many different wigs that she calls from time to time “her children” as they all have names. Now it has been said that she wears certain wigs depending on how she is feeling so sometimes they are a different color, other times they are bouncy and in most cases they are wacky. But that’s the best feature of Moira is that she is a very wacky down hearted character that is not the best mother figure and known mostly to be very dramatic but when she gets her time to shine she will be a great inspiration to certain characters. I love Catherine O’Hara in this role as I can’t picture anyone else playing a unique character like Moira Rose.
Next we have David Rose (Daniel Levy). David is the older child of the Rose family as he is a spoiled adult that is very flamboyant. He is said to be pansexual in the show, making him the first openly pansexual character in television history. Now while David might be a spoiled son who was born into a wealthy family, he has a very different personality than his family. He is insecure about most things, is very sarcastic, has a very particular weird sense of humor, and he is very open minded when it comes to his opinions. David is my favorite character on the show as I see a lot of myself in the character of David as I too have a very particular weird sense of humor, I could be insecure at times and I am very sarcastic. David might seem like a spoiled child with a silver spoon in his mouth but he is a hard working person when it comes to creating a business in the town. Sure it takes a couple of seasons to see this hard working man but when he begins his new story of creating his business he works his butt off to make it happen. David is a very interesting character that many people could fall in love with when watching the show. It also helps that Daniel Levy is pretty much playing the role in the most amazing way possible and his timing and dialogue in many scenes make for extreme laughter.
Finally we have Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy). Alexis is the younger child of the Rose family as she is also a spoiled adult that is kindhearted but very ditsy at times as I wouldn’t say she is a dumb blonde, but a sort of a young adult who lives the lifestyle of say a Kardashian or a Hilton. However throughout the show she is a very clever person when it comes to certain situations. Alexis is a very fun character as she still lives her wealthy lifestyle even though she and her family are stuck living in a motel. Her character becomes more hard working later on in the series but most of her stories in the show are about her love life with multiple characters. I don’t think we get a great character development from her until the middle of the 3rd season but from there to the final season she has a huge character change and is knows what she wants for her life now. I liked her character a lot and thought she had some very heartwarming scenes with the other main characters and supporting characters. She really became a hard working young adult and less spoiled, just like her brother, and her character change really grew on me in the end.
The supporting characters really helped to tie down the show as some of them were fun characters while others helped drive the show’s narrative and even bring character development to the main characters and even themselves. Few minor spoiler alerts ahead. First we have Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire). She is the motel clerk that would become best friends with David and she also becomes very close with the Rose family. She plays an important role on the show with the character development with David Rose and also Johnny Rose and she herself has a big character development when it is found out that she is the next in line to become the owner for the motel. We then have The Schitt’s, Jocelyn and Roland Schitt (Jenn Robertson and Chris Elliot). Roland Schitt is the mayor of Schitt’s Creek and his wife Jocelyn is a teacher. Both characters play a big role in the show when it comes to not only befriending Johnny and Moira Rose, but both characters bring out something into the Roses lives that they never could have felt without losing their wealth. I’m not a huge fan of Roland as his character could be annoying at times because of his remarks towards certain situations but in the end of the day I enjoy the comedy that comes from the character. There is then Ted Mullins (Dustin Milligan). Ted is the town’s veterinarian and an on and off again boyfriend of Alexis. His character is honestly one of the best characters in the show that I enjoyed a lot and wanted a lot more of, even though he was a series regular until Season 6. He and Alexis have great chemistry and I like that he was still in her life after they broke up and still showed care and support for her. He is a kind hearted character that everyone will love when they watch the show. We then have Twyla Sands (Sara Levy). She is the waitress at Cafe Tropical who is very sweet and very kind but in many ways she is a person you can go to for inspiration or if you needed to talk to somebody. More importantly I see her as the voice of reason of the show when there is a certain problem happening with either Johnny or Alexis as she had some great scenes with both those characters and it made her character kind of shine a bit more. There are other great supporting characters but I want to make this review not extremely long so finally we have Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid). Patrick is David’s business partner in the middle of the 3rd season up until the 6th and final season. I don’t want to give too much away of his character because he plays an important role in David’s character development later on in the show but to make it quick, he creates a bond with David that we can see begins to increase throughout every episode. I love his character because he not only changed David’s life but he also changed his own life by meeting David.
So now that we know about the cast and some characteristics I want to finally talk about why I liked the show and reasons why I liked the show. Yes as you can tell I really did like the show. It took me a couple of episodes to really get into it, which happens for most new television shows, but I was still enjoying the show during those first couple of episodes. I started getting really invested into the show I want to say in the middle of season 1 as I got to know the characters a bit more and I was enjoying how amazing the chemistry was from the entire cast. The writing wasn’t perfect but it was the timing and how the actors/actresses said certain lines that made certain scenes very enjoyable and comedic. Especially from David and Alexis I love when they just say “Oh My God” or “No” in just a very comedic way that I could feel myself in the moment. Or even when they have little fights I could see me and my sister having our little fights. Another thing I liked about the show was the chemistry between the cast. I think by far out of all the shows that I have watched in my lifetime there are only a few shows I can say had great chemistry from the whole cast. The Office, Shameless, Drake and Josh, Full House, George Lopez are some of the shows that I think man they had great chemistry throughout the main cast and supporting cast and now I can add this show into that list. By far the best chemistry of the show is Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. They both have worked together before in the 2000 film Best in Show and the sketch comedy series SCTV. So off the back you know that these two will work well together but the chemistry their characters had were phenomenal and when you add in Levy’s son Daniel and Annie Murphy into the scene then the chemistry increases and it’s just so damn good. Also the pacing of the show is incredible as all the episodes are 21 – 24 minutes long so they need to be able to fill up the time with the episodes main story, the co-stories that follow along with the main story of that episode and extra stuff added into the episode like comedic scenes or the final scene of the episode that will either leave you with a laugh or wonder what did I just watch that was so great why did it have to end. So for me I think the pacing and the chemistry from the actors are like my favorite things about the show. However there is something else that I really liked about the show that when it happened it hooked me.
The show’s first 2 seasons show the struggles of the family and how they aren’t wealthy anymore and need to live their lives in a new way, a way middle class or even a low class lives. A way a person life would be if they lost everything and had to live in a motel to start over. For the first 2 seasons we were watching the Rose family try and become something that they were not. They were trying to live a life in a small town where small town folk greet each other every day and tell each other great things and the Rose family was taking baby steps in that approach they never really felt like they were a part of the town of Schitt’s Creek and more were just guests looking for a way out. However that changed in the end of Season 2, Episode 13. Throughout the series at this point the Rose family wanted to get out of the town and not be a part of it. David and Alexis had an attachment to the town because they met people that they cared about but they still wanted their lives back before they lost their wealth. Moira wanted to leave the town as she mentioned it multiple times but she and Johnny begin to find a friendship with Roland and Jocelyn Schitt. But all of this was in Season 1 when they all still wanted to go back to their old lives. Season 2 however is different as they still have plans to get back their old lives they begin starting being a part of the town more by either joining a certain club, Moira joining a singing group, or trying to get a job, David getting a job in a retail store. All the characters began to do something big for themselves in the town, but in Episode 13 of Season 2, something changed to their characters. Happy Anniversary is an episode where Moira and Johnny celebrate their anniversary at an elegant restaurant. They encounter a couple that they used to know from their times at being wealthy and then Roland and Jocelyn unexpectedly join them and they all have dinner together. Meanwhile David and Alexis go to a party at Mutt’s barn. During the dinner the wealthy couple begins to talk bad about a town that they drove past, a town they called Shittsville, aka Schitt’s Creek. They even talk bad about the people that probably live there. Johnny had enough and told off the couple saying that they were never there to help the Rose family after they lost all their wealth, but the people that were there for them were Roland and Jocelyn. Johnny also said that the town was called Schitt’s Creek and that he lived in the town. At that moment I realized the character change for Johnny that would continue to grow into Season 3 as he invest himself more into the town. At the same time Moira is already invested herself more into the town but you can see it in her face when Johnny defends the town and Roland and Jocelyn that she is proud of her husband and she knows she also lives in that town but she is proud to be a part of a town that helped them through tough times. As for Alexis and David both have a moment with their parent’s in the end of the episode during the party as they all danced with not only each other, but the people of the town. They finally are doing something with the town’s people and it foreshadows also how they will be a part of the town more in the near future of the series. *SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD* David tries and create a business in the town, Alexis begins to look for a career path while attending school and working for Ted, Moira begins her journey in the council of the town and Johnny takes a big step in his new career path. I don’t want to give too much away but as you can see all 4 major characters have a big character development in the show by the end of this episode and going into Season 3. They still obviously want their lives back but they find something in this town that finally makes them feel a part of the town. This episode hooked me into the show and from there I began to love the characters more, the stories more, but most of all, I began to love the show more.
Like I said I don’t want to give away too much of the show’s plot’s because I want people that do read this review to go watch the show for themselves. I never gave the show a chance when it first aired on PopTV or finally came to Netflix and I was never going to watch the show. But after winning 7 straight Emmys I wanted to see what the whole fuss was about with the show and I am happy I did. I watched a former wealthy family become small town folk. I watched a family lose everything to then gain something great in the end. They all gained something amazing in their lives that made them happy and excited for the future and in the end they all changed in a great way. It was no longer the rich family, it was a happy family that gained a future and sure they still wanted to be wealthy but that lifestyle was in the past, they now can continue their lives and do some great things like have a family or start a career or continue an acting job. And for that I can say, yes I am a fan of Schitt’s Creek now and I wished I was a fan before the show ended. Do I think it deserved 7 straight Emmys, honestly I don’t think so right now but maybe after a couple more binge watches maybe I can say yes to that. There is a reason then why all these great sitcoms and dramas never pulled off what Schitt’s Creek did. I mean Schitt’s Creek did this accomplishment when the show was done, in its final season and for that it’s iconic. And for a small television show that is popular and on a small network that isn’t well known to be able to take on juggernaut shows on bigger networks and streaming platforms then maybe they did deserve to be the only show to win all the major awards in their genre category. I don’t think it will ever be done again but if it does then just know a show created by a person who was not well known in the entertainment world, starring two former big stars of the 80’s – early 00’s, with a very not well known cast was able to pull off something big. Schitt’s Creek is worth the watch and if you do wish to watch it then you can find it on Amazon Prime, Netflix, on IMDB for free and you can probably find it on demand on your cable providers. The show has 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and for what it’s worth I think it deserves that rating. I’m happy I gave the show a chance because I think it’s the best sitcom I watched in a while. It sucks that I got into the show with it already being completed 6 months prior but for what it’s worth I am happy I finally gave it a chance.
My Final Review is 4.5/5 Stars, 93% out of 100.
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