I am not a fan of sitcoms. I haven't even watched all seasons of Friends - just a few episodes in between. When my sister confessed that she had a crush on David Rose, I found it unbelievable. When she re-watched her choicest episodes again and again, I used to be exasperated. It is all past now. I have fallen in love with the series, with David, and have repeatedly gone back to watching several of my favorite episodes from Schitt’s Creek.
This is the story of the super rich family - the Roses and how they become bankrupt and lose their fortune almost overnight, to get displaced in this little town they had brought as a joke. Not just in the town. But in a dirty, drab Motel where the Roses cram together in two congested rooms, where Moira Rose’s collection of wigs occupy half the space.
“We are actually laughing at a family’s tragedy” - as one of the fans of the series had commented.
It is this very town which saves the Roses in more than one way. The riches to rags and how it brings the best of people is of course tried and tested many times before. But unoriginal as the plot would seem, it never runs out of surprises.
The Rose family were poles away from being a happy family when they first arrived in the sleepy, dusty little town. A little crazy too.
Their craziness stayed. So did their differences. What melts away was their loneliness and the illusion that the artificial things and shallow people that surrounded them in their rich times would actually make them happy. They discover happiness, because they discover themselves. More importantly, we discover their charm. The charms of the spoiled, unintellectual Alexis and almost neurotic David, of the bitchy and touch me not Moira. Now shed of their privileges and brands - we see them for what they are, and actually like them. The wry humor grows on us season after season.
I love Schitt's Creek because the characters are flawed; there is no pressure to be like them.
I love how people in the town there don't judge them or ostracise them, even with the chasm of difference in the life they were living from the Roses. Sure, they laugh at their eccentricities and roll their eyes at their snobbery in making impossible demands. But they make space for the Rose family and pull them in in their own small town lunacies. Does this even happen in real life? It is a clique to believe that the less privileged have a larger heart, as much as to think the rich are always snobs. Schitt’s Creek’s people are not extraordinarily benevolent. They are just unbelievably satisfied.
Schitt's Creek in a different universe would be so dark - just think of the fragility of David and the many failures he had in relationships. In this universe though, away from the prying judgemental eyes of the people from the normal world, he slow burns towards the light. It offers redemption to every character, ironically even to those like Stevie who refuse to be redeemed for the good or bad of it.
I am not sure if even Eugene and Dan Levy would have been able to predict the popularity it achieved - a show rejected by HBO, and now fast forward to 5 seasons, receiving all those Emmys. It is a story just like the one they played out in Schhitt’s creek - you just need to believe it to make it happen.
I wish we lived in a world where exploring our sexuality would be as normal and as wonderful as it is in Schitts Creek's world. The Queer community is not ‘represented’ - it is already a part of the society that the Schitt’s Creek’s people make.
Schitt’s Creek is all love and goofiness, strength and vulnerability and happiness. To crunch all the six seasons finest moments in a two paged review is impossible - so I would like to do what the fans have been doing before the show was undiscovered - rope in more people to watch it.
Schitt’s Creek is all love and goofiness, strength and vulnerability and happiness. To crunch all the seasons finest moments in a two paged review is impossible - so I would like to do what the fans have been doing before the show was undiscovered - rope in more people to watch it.