What you did was impulsive, capricious and melodramatic, but it was also wrong – Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose
From Season 1 to Season 6, I find it difficult to encapsulate in words the immense love I have for this show. Comedy legends Dan and Eugene Levy have gifted the world with a golden collection of hilarious, heartfelt and lasting laughs. For the sake of brevity I shall only address the sixth season of the show in this post, and keep it as brief as possible to avoid spoilers. It goes without saying that Season 6 builds on the various happenings of Season 5 so there will be spoilers ahead. This post will be published some weeks after the extraordinary performance of Season 6 at the Emmy Awards. Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara won outstanding lead actor and actress in a comedy series, Daniel Levy and Annie Murphy won outstanding supporting actor and actress in a comedy series, and the show itself took home the award for best comedy series, and quite rightly too.
The general premise of he show is that a rich Jewish family lose their riches when one of their business partners screws them over. The federal government seized all of their assets aside from one small town called Schitt’s Creek. The family then moved to the town’s Motel where they remained until their fortunes improved. Season 6 of Schitt’s Creek picks up where Season 5 ended, on a dazzling finale showing the cast doing a performance of my favourite musical Cabaret (and doing it splendidly at that) and the announcement of David Rose’s engagement to his boyfriend Patrick. Season 6 follows the story of the wedding planning and the wedding itself, as well as Moira’s resurgence to television fame, the downfall of Alexis and Ted’s relationship and the expansion of the Rosebud Motel empire.
Without speaking at length about each episode, I shall give you a few of my season highlights. the first episode sees David, Stevie, Alexis and Patrick looking for wedding venues. They find the perfect venue, only to find out gleefully that the first Sunday of every month is heavily discounted. There is an opening coming up for the coming Sunday and David is on the cusp of accepting when the group hears the screaming wails of pigs being slaughtered on a neighbouring farm. The noise and stench prove too much for the gang who continue on their search for a suitable venue.
Another highlight for me was Episode 7, Moira Rosé, where Moira returns to Herb Ertlinger’s winery to have a specialist wine named after her, following the success of her recent film venture, The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening. Mr Ertlinger appears first in Season 1 with an equally disastrous visit as the one in Season 6. A clip from the Season 1 episode, Wine and Roses, is featured below. The Season 6 episode is for me demonstrative of the reasons I love Schitt’s Creek. It is first and foremost a comedy. The writing is stellar, the story arc is beautifully executed but the crux of the show is to show simply and without prejudices an alternative way of life. This is keenly demonstrated by the touching scene where Johnny Rose and Patrick have a heart to heart while watching football on the television, something Johnny is clearly not well versed in. The scene conveys perfectly that Johnny loves his son enough to put himself in an uncomfortable position speaking to his soon to be son-in-law, and that Patrick loves David enough to poke fun at Johnny by partially ignoring him in favour of the game. Patrick knows that Johnny is too polite to interject hence Patrick can confront the inevitable talk on his own terms, which he does. In the end the two have a frank and almost tear inducing conversation which ends with the mutual understanding that both just want David’s happiness. All of this is done without an iota of preaching or suggesting the viewer should feel one way or the other, it just is. And that is the most beautiful thing about Schitt’s Creek.
Seeing Henry Czerny in Episode 7 as Alexis’ new lover and Johnny Roses’ stern talk with him was also a big highlight for me. Both he and Eugene Levy are actors I have a huge respect for and their performance is dazzling.
My final highlight of this dazzling Season is of course the final episode. Catherine O’Hara, when asked about her favourite episodes, said the first one (Season 1 episode 1) and the last one (Season 6 Episode 14). I can concur though I would highlight Season 1 episode 2 as one of the strongest in the show overall. This episode has everything, it has romance, comedy, plot finalising and a suitable cliffhanger making the viewer wonder about the future of the splendid characters in the series. It also has the most iconic Moira Rose outfit of the whole show but I will not spoil this for you.
Sadly the show ends its six year run here, just as it has garnered global recognition and suitable reward at Emmy level. In a way it is better for it to end now. It has fostered a love within its fan base which has been incrementally built up over the last six years hence its appreciation has solid grounding. It is poetic in a way for the show to end now at the peak of its fame. Please watch all the seasons if you have time. I am firmly of the belief that the sixth season is the best one. See below a highlights reel of the first five.