Schitt's Creek: Riches to Rags to Comedy Gold

My last post was about Succession, a drama about a wealthy and corrupt family who (as of this date, two episodes into Season 2) continue to be genuinely awful human beings with no redeeming qualities. If I couldn't persuade you to watch that show, I now bring you Schitt's Creek, a comedy about a wealthy family that loses all their money and has to start their lives over again, despite having no viable life skills. I am halfway through the fifth season (it has already been announced that the sixth season airing next year will be its last), and oh what a singular joy this show has been in my life.

Eugene Levy and his son Dan Levy co-created this show and star in it, as father and son (confusingly, Eugene's daughter Sarah Levy also shows up in the show but as the waitress in the local cafe rather than as his daughter). Eugene plays Johnny Rose, a man who amassed a fortune running a wildly successful chain of video stores (yeah, this show seems to be set in the present day, but video stores? Really?). Together with his wife, Moira (Catherine O'Hara - much to say about this later), son, David (Dan Levy), and daughter, Alexis (Annie Murphy), he is forced to move to the small town of Schitt's Creek after his business manager embezzles all his money. From living in a gargantuan mansion to now sharing two rooms in a motel, the Rose family has to come to grips with their new circumstances and figure out if they will spend their lives trying to reclaim their former glory or forage a new path in this ridiculous town.

The cast of this show is simply stellar, predominantly for their facial expressions. With those eyebrows, there's no doubt that Dan Levy is Eugene's son, but the character of David is mostly one massive eye roll. Watching him contort his face to convey shock, disgust, and happiness, with neither of those expressions ever being 100% clear, is sheer perfection. Similarly, Annie Murphy as Alexis is able to scrunch up her face and waggle her arms and say "Eww, Daviiiiiid" in a variety of ways that I will never stop imitating. I quite literally have been sitting at my desk at work and yelling across to one of my colleagues, "David, let's go, Daviiiiid, David!" when it's time to go to lunch (his name's not David, but that's another story). Eugene Levy's face acting is never more hilarious than when he has to convey the utter bewilderment that Johnny feels about the bizarre things going on around him. He is used to being the man in power, so as he gets overridden by people who he would have ordinarily regarded as minions, he looks so confused and appalled that you can't help but burst out laughing.

Which brings us to Moira Rose. A former soap star, she is the diva of the family, used to getting her own way and having everyone tread lightly around her. With this part, Catherine O'Hara has hit the height of her comedic powers. I don't (and no one else does) have any idea what her accent is but it is ridiculous and wonderful. It's a bit like old Hollywood movies where people like Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn were supposed to be playing Americans but certainly didn't sound like any ordinary citizen. She also indulges in a wonderfully rich old-timey vocabulary. In a recent episode I watched, she was annoyed at Alexis for "pettifogging," a word that I think I last read in a Victorian novel. Always clad in a wig and some bizarre outfit that is the height of haute couture, Moira Rose is an alien come down to earth to grace us with her presence, and I am grateful for this gift. Except when she starts singing.

The supporting cast are equally fantastic - I instantly relate to Stevie (Emily Hampshire), the woman who runs the motel and has to deal with this insane family when they move in despite being a loner who hates people (see why I relate?), but she gradually comes to see the charm of the Roses. There's Chris Elliot as Roland Schitt, the inept mayor of the town and his wife Jocelyn (Jenn Robertson). And there are more who start to become familiar friends and lovers as the seasons go on. I have never bingewatched a half-hour sitcom before - usually I've watched them on a weekly basis on TV and enjoyed the character and story development over several years. But mainlining this show on Netflix, I have a profound respect for the writers and the way that they have let these characters blossom. The Roses were not likable or relatable people when this show started, and the comedy stemmed from them trying to adapt to small-town life or their inability to understand how the hoi polloi live. But slowly, they've gotten used to this town and these people, and they have built up friendships, fallen in love, gotten jobs, and made something of themselves. Unlike the family in Succession, the family in Schitt's Creek are capable of growth and human emotion, and while watching the fourth season, I constantly felt myself going gooey inside as I watched David or Alexis do something selfless for someone else, after spending a lifetime only thinking about themselves. Also, this show may feature the most straightforward and lovely gay couple I've seen portrayed on TV in a while, and they make my heart melt every time they're on screen.

For the past few weeks I have been treating myself to Schitt's Creek whenever I needed a pick-me-up (which is practically every day), and am distraught that I only have a few more episodes left. But if you haven't watched this show yet, what luck! Head on over to Netflix and be prepared to roll around like a pig in mud at all this comedic gold. The show finally scored an Emmy nomination this year, and as far as I'm concerned, it should win. These days, most comedies are actually hour-long dramedies, and while they feature great casts and writers, they are not laugh riots. Schitt's Creek is both hilarious and heartwarming, like all the great sitcoms of TV history. Every episode will make you laugh, but overall, this show will make you sigh contentedly. It is the perfect, comforting escape from the daily grind, a little oasis of optimism where we can all pretend that people are capable of change and that there's some innate goodness in everyone. Isn't that all we're looking for? 

Succession: Wealthy Woes

I bingewatched all of Succession’s first season on HBO last weekend and am caught up on the premiere of the second season. It was eleven straight hours of watching the world’s most insanely corrupt family try to make more money, destroy their rivals, and treat each other like garbage. Are you sold? No? Let me try again.

I had no desire to see this show until I heard NPR’s Linda Holmes raving about it on Pop Culture Happy Hour and at an author event I attended. So, when I was bored this weekend, I decided to give it a try. The first thing I noticed was that the show was created by Jesse Armstrong, the British TV writer who co-created Peep Show, and also wrote for the brilliant The Thick of It (and later it's American cousin, Veep). And boy can you tell, because this show delivers a withering one-liner with British aplomb. It is caustic, brash, and inventive with the invective.

Second thing I noticed? The cast. Brian Cox plays Logan Roy, the patriarch and emperor of Waystar Royco, a multimedia conglomerate that owns everything from television and newspapers to cruise lines and amusement parks. Under him is his second son and heir apparent, Kendall, played by Jeremy Strong, a man whose face you recognize from many things but who is now getting to flex all his creative muscle in a role that is brutal and brilliant. There’s also Kieran Culkin, playing Roman, the youngest son who is a bit of a screw-up, as all youngest sons are wont to be, but also gets to be COO of the company and harbors ambitions to be the man in charge, because yay nepotism. Logan’s only daughter is Siobhan, aka ‘Shiv,’ and she is as dangerous as her nickname would suggest. Played with icy, calculated mastery by Sarah Snook, she is a scheming political consultant who knows how to play every angle and seems to be the only one of her father’s children who has his true ruthless panache. She is engaged to Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who might be the biggest revelation to me in this cast. I only knew him as Mr. Darcy but in this show, he plays a seemingly affable and eager-to-please outsider who cannot believe his luck about making it into the inner circle of this vicious family. But don’t be fooled - that dopey veneer hides ice-cold ambition and a love of riches that cannot be held in check. There’s a reason he and Shiv are a power couple. And then, Alan Ruck plays Connor, Logan’s firstborn who has rejected the family business and lives out on a ranch in New Mexico. He is free to indulge his whims but has his odd opinions and will take sides in family warfare and poke at the bear, generally proving that he’s a Roy just as much as anyone else. If you’re wondering where you’ve seen him before, he was Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He is all grown up after crashing that Ferrari but still has daddy issues. And last but not least, there's Cousin Greg, played by the marvelously hapless and gawky Nicholas Braun. Initially estranged from the family, he is down on his luck and trying to worm his way back into their good graces, and hoo boy, he gets a rapid education in what it means to be a Roy.

That last paragraph tells you everything you need to know about what makes this show so compelling - it’s all about the character development and the specificity with which each of these horrible people are horrible in their own special way. There is genuinely no one to root for on this show. Kendall is the closest thing we have to the antihero, but frankly, ‘poor little rich boy’ can’t cut it in this day and age. While much of the plot revolves around corporate takeovers and private equity and legalese that makes me snooze, these characters say and do things that make me hit Play Next Episode with startling eagerness. The final episode of Season 1 had a very melodramatic twist, one that has happened in many shows before and you could see it coming from a mile away. But while most shows would have ended on that twist as the cliffhanger, this show gave us the aftermath: how did the character behave after this dramatic event, and how did this ultimately impact the corporate shenanigans. THAT was the cliffhanger - the company’s future, not the human toll of the event that preceded it. And that’s what makes this show so frustratingly fun to watch. It is the epitome of our current culture of capitalist greed. These people are all staggeringly wealthy but despite living in penthouses and eating lobster nonstop, it never matters. Every day is a struggle to make the next deal, defeat the next rival, and engage in ballistic fights with family members over who should lead the company.

Succession is the show for our current times. Evisceratingly funny and well-written, well-acted with a singularly perfect cast, bleak and unrelenting. It shouldn’t be this fun to watch, but I swear it is. My favorite bit is the fact that Logan Roy, who is a Rupert Murdoch-esque figure and arguably one of the worst men ever portrayed on TV, has a go-to response to everything and everyone, which is "Fuck off." Sometime this is said in genuine anger, but oftentimes, it’s merely uttered as a farewell; it's his version of telling someone that the conversation is over, you're dismissed. And that’s what Jesse Armstrong has captured in a nutshell. A world where people treat each other contemptibly and can’t even say goodbye without being unforgivably rude. I often wish I could tell the people in my life to fuck off on a daily basis. I don’t because I’m a polite brown woman. But when I watch Succession, I can dream.