Recommendation: Schitts Creek

I recently saw an article about a show I have been meaning to get around to watch, Schitts Creek.

With all seasons now available on Netflix, I figured now was the time to go for it. The show, created and written by father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, begins with an elite, socialite New York family, the Roses, discovering that their business manager has swindled away their entire life savings. The only thing still held by the Roses was the deed to a tiny country town called Schitts Creek, bought by one member of the family as a joke birthday present years before.

With only ownership of the town left to their name, the Roses are left with no choice but to pack up and move to Schitts Creek. There, they discover a motley band of characters in perhaps the most obvious ‘fish out of water’ comedy at least in my memory.

This all could go horribly wrong (everything does of course go horribly wrong for the most part within the narrative), but in the Levys’ hands it is pretty close to perfect. The Roses are so obviously ridiculous in their excess and lack of self-awareness that it is they who are to be pitied in the town, rather than its local, community-minded inhabitants.

I am only two seasons in (of 5) but so far am loving every minute. The clash of cultures premise is never played subtly, but there is a degree of warmth from both groups that makes not only for fertile emotional development for the characters, but for incredibly comforting viewing.

It is, of course, also hilarious. Schitts Creek is worth watching for Catherine O’Hara’s turn as the Rose family matriarch, with a ridiculous aristocratic affectation and impeccable sense of timing alone.

But I find myself staying for the warmth, the community and for just how surprising both seem. In that way, the audience is a lot like the Roses.