When I first started watching Schitt’s Creek a few years ago, I’ll admit I was a bit hesitant. The concept seemed like another cheesy Canadian TV sitcom destined for obscurity. But, people insisted it was worth the time so I dove in.
I’m so glad I did.
Uproariously funny, lovingly tender and dangerously bingeable, Schitt’s Creek is the perfect reprieve for the COVID blues.
The premise: a wealthy family loses it all in a financial scam and has to retreat to one of their only remaining assets: The small town of Schitt’s Creek, bought initially as a joke gift.
Johnny (Eugene Levy), Moira (Catherine O’Hara), David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) Rose are uprooted with little more than their designer clothes on their backs and crash at a somewhat rundown motel.
Their privileged, spoiled lives have come crashing down and they have to make do with what little they have left: Each other.
The show evolves from there, as the Rose family becomes more integrated with the unfortunately named town and its mayor Roland Schitt (Chris Elliott) and other townsfolk.
It’s a typical fish-out-of-water trope, but rather than being, well, a boring one of those through its clever writing and nuanced performances it manages to rise above the sitcom doldrums to truly shine.
It’s largely thanks to the core cast, the Rose family. Moira’s incredible trans-Atlantic adjacent accent, obsession with her wigs and constant need for accolades is just a joy to watch. A former soap opera actress, she’s trying to evoke that old Hollywood glamour and European cosmopolitan sensibility, she has some of the best lines in the show.
In what is probably my favourite moment of the show, Moira is helping (not really) her son David in the kitchen with a recipe she allegedly created (she didn’t). When David asks her what ‘fold in the cheese’ means, all she can say is to ‘simply fold it in.’ It escalates from there perfectly.
Although the plot is serviceable, you’re watching these people slowly come to terms with their new reality, it’s really about the connections the family forms within the community, the little moments they share that makes it such a treat.
And as we’re constantly bombarded by COVID, racial injustice, economic uncertainty, President Trump’s flailing absurdity and more, sometimes it’s nice just to watch people love and care about each other.
The final season aired earlier this year and is available to stream on CBC Gem. It’s also coming to Netflix on Oct. 7.
Under his eye
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, I’ve also been watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Crave. I picked quite a year to start.
Based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale is a brutal, striking look of a woman trapped in a patriarchal theocratic fascist society wherein fertile women are forced into servitude and made to bear children to their masters.
It is extremely heavy and challenging to watch and anyone who is triggered by sexual assault or violence should avoid this.
Elisabeth Moss plays June Osborne, also called Offred (as in "of Fred") by her cruel, abusive owners. The torture is punctuated by the fact that she remembers a time before the great change when she lived a happy, normal life and tries to find ways to rebel any little way she can.
Despite its oppressive bleakness, The Handmaid’s Tale is also an incredibly vital and necessary story for this moment.
While I was wrapping up the first season, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away from complications related to pancreatic cancer.
It brought the already important content on screen further into focus.
This horrifying scenario, although brought on by a sudden decline in fertility, leads to the stripping of rights, persecution of minority groups and eventually a violent coup that displaces the establishment.
It shows, brilliantly, how fragile our way of life is and how important it is to protect the most vulnerable from exploitation.
New streamer
Fed up with switching between my PlayStation 4, laptop hooked up via HDMI cable and a smartphone to watch all of my streaming content, I broke down and bought a dedicated streaming device. After some perusing, I decided to try out Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K and it’s worked pretty well so far, with a few caveats.
First of all, the Fire TV Stick 4K runs apps from the device, so you don’t have to worry about casting from your phone or another device. It also has virtually every streaming platform you could want, including Apple TV Plus and Crave, which aren’t present on some other devices. It’s nice to have everything in one spot.
However, I do find the device gives too much emphasis to Amazon’s content, as it is an Amazon device, I get it. Also, I find the integrated voice control via the remote is very hit-or-miss, especially when trying to use apps other than Prime Video or Netflix. The user interface can also be a bit on the clunky side, although this often has more to do with individual apps rather than the device itself.
Overall, I’m grateful to have everything in one location despite a few bumps.
