Lifestyle & Culture

Laugh Away Your Cares With ‘Schitt’s Creek’

April 9, 2020

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IF I KNEW that COVID-19 signaled the end of our species, I would handle things differently. For example, believing it to be temporary and wanting to avoid getting sick I am eating very healthy meals, healthier than usual, in hopes of boosting my immune system. But if I knew that in six months we’d all be dead I would go a different route, one involving chocolate babka, bagels and lox and Fritos and dip.

The not knowing is what’s getting me crazy. Will I get sick and die? Will anyone I love get sick and die? Will we all end up homeless? How bad will life be after this virus is gone? And for how long will it be gone before it comes roaring back next year? These questions haunt me, causing random outbursts of intense sobbing. The only good that has come out of nightmare is my discovery of the Netflix series “Schitt’s Creek.”

The show debuted in 2015 but I was never drawn to it, mostly because of the off-putting title. Who wants to spend time in or up shit’s creek, either with or without a paddle? But desperate times call for desperate measures, and so my husband and I tuned in to what has been a wildly popular show for six seasons and found out why. It is, simply put, hysterical. Each episode, which lasts only 20 minutes, is side-splitting, mostly due to the deadpan performances by the perfect cast.

Eugene Levy plays Johnny Rose, the patriarch of a super-rich family that is suddenly penniless. Like a reverse of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” this Canadian comedy follows the trials of Rose and his wife Moira (Catherine O’Hara), a former soap opera star, and their two spoiled-rotten grown children (Dan Levy, Annie Murphy) as they try to make do living in a crappy little motel in a nowhere town they happen to own. (Johnny bought it as a joke gift for his son years ago.) Character actor Chris Elliott plays the town’s mayor, appearing for the first time in a starring role and excelling at it.

So every night my quarantine partner and I eat our super-healthy meal, clean up after dinner and watch about 45 minutes of deeply depressing news, catching up on the current death rates, and the grim forecasts pertaining to our country’s financial downfall. Then, grabbing our only lifeline we switch to “Schitt’s Creek,” where we laugh away our cares for an hour or so and where we wish we lived, with or without a paddle.

—Andrea Rouda

Andrea Rouda blogs at The Daily Droid



6 thoughts on “Laugh Away Your Cares With ‘Schitt’s Creek’

  1. beth rosner says:

    I love that show. I watch the episodes over and over. Good diversion from the worries of the day.

  2. Nancy G says:

    Unbelievable is totally female driven, as is Unorthodox.

  3. Nancy G says:

    It’s on our list. We’ve finished the first 2 seasons of Ozark; watched all of Broadchurch; and Unorthodox. Unbelievable is great if you’re into crime drama based on real events. But right now, something funny is very welcome. Stay safe everyone.

    1. Janet Kelly says:

      Unorthodox is on my list, but Unbelievable sounds intriguing. Thanks for the suggestion!

  4. Nancy McKeon says:

    Hey, Andrea, thanks for pointing me toward “Schitt’s Creek,” which I’ve now been bingeing for several days. It is indeed a tonic for these times, though I wonder exactly how many facial tics are required to constitute “acting.” (I like the fact that Eugene Levy has mastered the art, perhaps unique to him, of raising an eyebrow without actually raising one of his formidable eyebrows.)

    You might also enjoy “Arrested Development”: same premise (riches to rags) delivered a number of years before the Schitts and Roses came along, pulled by Fox after three seasons, I think it was, then resurrected by Netflix. A different style of humor delivered by top talent: Jason Bateman, Jessica Walter (a droll wonder!), Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, a young Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, Portia de Rossi, Jeffrey Tambor.

  5. Carol says:

    One of our favorites too! It is hysterical
    Sadly just watched the series finale.

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