Welcome to Schitt’s Creek! Long under the radar, it took six seasons, enthusiastic word-of-mouth and a historic raid at the last Emmy Awards for the series Welcome to Schitt’s Creek (Schitt’s Creek in original version) is world famous. While this nugget ended after six seasons at the height of its glory in April 2020, the Canadian sitcom finally lands on French screens this Saturday at 5:55 pm on Canal + and in full on myCanal. Why should you take the time to settle in Schitt’s Creek ?
A deceptive starting point
Much like the fictional little town of Schitt’s Creek, the sitcom’s wacky charm – a winning combination of the caustic wit of its characters and genuine benevolence, doesn’t immediately catch the eye from the first episode.
The starting point of Welcome to Schitt’s Creek is misleading. The series begins when a wealthy family, the Roses, loses all their fortune overnight as a result of a scam. Ruined, the four members of the Rose clan are forced to move to a small town, called Schitt’s Creek, bought by the father to play a bad joke on the son as a birthday present in 1991.
The family of the privileged fallen are condemned to live in this village in the seedy motel of the corner. The humor of the series is only partly based on the clash between these conceited people accustomed to luxury and the inhabitants of the small town, not really glamorous.
Forget the filthy valve of the title. Go beyond your first impression, that of a heavy comedy in parody mode of a reality show called “the Kardashians in the rednecks”. Over the course of the episodes, Schitt’s Creek unveils its treasures of humor and its cocoon of deeply endearing characters.
Forget the starting point, Schitt’s Creek in reality tells with humanity how the members of this family will rediscover their humanity in contact with the warm inhabitants of Schitt’s Creek.
Terribly endearing characters
And without a hint of condescension because Schitt’s Creek is always benevolent with his characters. Over the seasons, the viewer will get to know and love the Roses. Johnny (Eugene Levy), the father, the ex-mogul of video clubs, will swallow his ambitions and use his experience as a businessman, to develop the small seedy motel. Moira (Catherine O’Hara), the mother, former soap opera star, will remain a drama queen while getting involved in the life of the village. Alexis, it girl tasteless and egocentric daddy’s girl, will discover the meaning of the word compassion perched on her 12 cm heels. David (Daniel Levy), the pretentious son, will learn to show his feelings.
Rather than locking them into stereotypes, Schitt’s Creek strives to develop the Rose in contact with the inhabitants of the city, and vice versa. From Roland Schitt (Chris Elliott), the inescapable mayor of the hamlet to Stevie (Emily Hampshire), the tongue-in-cheek employee of the motel, to the adorable and strange Twyla (Sarah Levy), the waitress of the The only restaurant in the city, all the inhabitants of the city have one delicious thing in common: they seem impervious to all forms of intolerance.
Schitt’s Creek is also a flagship series for the LGBTQ community because it features David, one of the few pansexual characters on television, and presents an idyllic community devoid of homophobia and other prejudices.
A moving family story
In his heart, Schitt’s Creek above all shows how a disunited family can reconnect. And if she knows how to do it so well, maybe it’s because this sitcom is above all a family affair. Daniel Levy, its creator, holds one of the main roles, that of David Rose, alongside his father, in the city as on the screen, Eugene Levy (Johnny Rose, therefore), but also gives the reply to his sister, Sarah Levy, the interpreter of Twyla, the manager of the Tropical.
Aired on the Canadian channel CBC and on the American pay channel Pop when it launched in 2015, the series hardly had an audience of aficionados, but its audiences have seen a steady increase each season due to word-of-mouth. – ear boosted by Webby Award winning promotional strategy of flooding social media with Gifs Schitt’s Creek. It wasn’t until Netflix started streaming the seasons that the series started to gain traction and gain recognition for the Emmy Awards.
Like the Roses who struggled to acclimatize to Schitt’s Creek, like this sitcom that took a long time to be spotted in the peak TV era, it takes a few episodes for the viewer to get past the deceptively kitsch facade of Schitt’s Creek, enter its universe, and succumb to the charm of the various romantic comedies that it shelters. But, I promise, once it’s done, you’ll never want to leave!