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Taking a break from telling my stories to sing the praises of an amazing story I just enjoyed on television.
So many of my friends recommended Schitt's Creek over and over and I tried. I really did try. I couldn't make it through the first 10 minutes of the first episode. It was just so...gross. Eww, David.
But y'all wouldn't stop pushing on it, so I tried again, based on the good experience I had with re-trying Fleabag. Same story, different show. I heard it was great, I tried to watch but the first episode was so cringey, I was all, NO, this is not for me. But after reading over and over how great it was, I tried again, and Fleabag turned out to be some of the very best storytelling I've ever seen on TV. So I figured the way y'all insisted, that maybe Schitt's Creek had the potential to be another Fleabag.
Y'all were not wrong.
My problems with Schitt's Creek were as follows, should you also encounter them:
Episode 1 starts out strong but leans too heavy on the gross-out factor once they hit the motel. I cannot do gross-out humor.
I've never really liked Chris Elliott, who plays Roland Schitt, mayor of Schitt's Creek. He always plays those kind of gross characters and this is no exception. Beer belly, mullet, unable to interpret even the most basic of social cues. (His edges are softened and he does become more bearable as the show develops.)
Episode 2 is literally titled on the storyline that sewage is dripping on Johnny in the bed. Big fat NOPE from me. You'll probably be fine if you skip that one.
But power through those first two episodes and you'll find six seasons of the most unique and creative characters ever staged. I haven't watched a lot of Eugene Levy's work because I don't really connect with his one-dimensional nerdy characters. But Johnny Rose is super personable and has so much more emotion.
His son and producing partner Dan is my new favorite actor. David was my favorite character by far on this show and I cannot wait to see what Dan Levy does next. He has an amazing ability to portray legions of emotion on his face, a trait that seemed to develop and grow as the series progressed.
Catherine O'Hara's Moira, with her overblown Katherine Hepburn accent, is the over-the-top performance that gets all the attention and rightly so. Although I would posit that the real hero of this show was costumer designer Debra Hanson, who, amazingly, hasn't won an Emmy for Schitt's which absolutely blows my mind. She has Moira sleeping in a fitted vest over silk pajamas! It's a stroke of genius!
This isn't "find some cute designer clothes" costuming; this is "create one-of-a-kind, mind-blowing, never before witnessed costuming" and HO LEE CRAP Moira's wedding outfit blew my damn mind. I would like to know just who exactly is winning the Emmy for costuming but I'm afraid to look as I may hurl my laptop across the room.
There is a clear Karl Lagerfeld vibe here. And if you haven't watched the show, I should probably tell you that Moira's wigs are a storyline unto themselves.
Alexis felt a little shallow at the start of the show. A little too Paris Hilton, picking up trash for court-ordered community service in silk shorts and spike heels.
But she developed into a really likable young woman, without losing the essence of the spoiled rich girl that she was. Her relationship with Ted ended up being so very endearing. And her sideways "A" necklace that we saw so often in the later seasons felt very personal to her character's development.
Stevie is probably my second-favorite character after David. I liked her right away. She was dry and funny and...normal, given the other characters on this show. I'm a sucker for dry and funny.
I feel like a lesser writing team could have kept Stevie as a peripheral character but her story arc over the seasons is so satisfying and pleasing. Stevie, who needs to find her own feet and exert her confidence, is the counterbalance to the Rose family who needs to find some humility in Schitt's Creek. I love how her and David's relationship grows and develops but I especially how she grows from an hourly motel front desk worker to a business mogul in her own right.
And speaking of relationships...I'm not a crier and I don't think I have ever cried at any wedding scene ever but David and Patrick's nuptials in the series finale had me in actually tears.
Stevie as the maid of honor! Alexis walking her brother down the aisle! (Was that a wedding dress? I didn't think so but maybe I'm out of touch with the youth of today.) And Moira. Oh, Moira. I'm afraid it might be a spoiler to post her wedding outfit but suffice it to say that it is the highlight of the series.
I do have some questions though:
What happened to Mutt? He just kind of disappeared didn't he?
What is that little chain hanging from Alexis's phone? Bedazzling? David hasn't bedazzled anything since he was 22.
This little small-town cafe, they have a liquor license? A bartender? They're serving up cosmos to David and Stevie. Maybe it's different in Canada. Is Schitt's Creek in Canada?
Why did they make Jocelyn wear that ridiculous postpartum haircut through the end of the series? That just feels mean.
Was that ending with Twyla a little shark jumpy? It felt a little shark jumpy.
When I finished the final episode, I immediately circled back around and started over again. As you do, with a show you love too much to leave. And I am pleased to report this show trivia that I discovered: The pink dress that Twyla pulls out of the bag of Alexis's donated clothes, that Alexis changes her mind about and takes back?
It's the same dress Alexis is wearing when the feds raid the house in episode 1.
