![]() ![]() ![]() In talking about the conception of the show recently, I’ve realized that there seems to be a history in my professional life of criticizing, in a way, wealthy people. What inspired you to go from that scenario? But a family losing everything they had and being forced to re-evaluate what means something to them is a profoundly dramatic experience. We’ve always approached the show as a drama that happened to involve characters and circumstances that were funny. Because for us, inherently, this whole situation was dramatic to begin with. But I think that really came down to the approach that we took, which was that we were never going to be scared of touching on the humanity of these characters. There’s even been some somewhat dramatic moments. And we’re offering laughs and also an emotional through line that is not often seen in comedies. When they sit down in front of a comedy, they expect to laugh. Because people expect a lot out of a comedy. We are aware of the line that we’re tightrope walking. Safe, but without feeling cloying, or twee, or message-laden. It was a happy coincidence that the intention of our show crashed into what happened politically and has managed to, through some feedback that I’ve been reading over the years, offer a safe space for people, which is an unintentional but wonderful compliment. And now that softness, I feel like it’s being embraced because we don’t have a lot of it around us and we’re now turning to things that make us feel comforted, or loved, or supported, or warm, in this time. For me as someone who’s been in it the entire way, it’s been quite fascinating to see the way that people have-I guess it was pre-president-elect and post-, in a way almost we took for granted joyous things, and things that were joyous were almost perceived as being quote unquote soft. It’s funny because I feel like some of the early criticism that we got was that the show was soft, emotionally. Schitt’s Creek’s tale of an elite family’s fall from grace, who bought a town on a whim, seems so prescient now in Trump world. The progressive politics of Creek are Trojan horsed in the sitcom format, through its working-class characters, their relationships, and its gentle worldview, in which the people are flawed and human but ultimately good, and undeniably valued. “I think that’s the most important element in the storytelling when it comes to TV: knowing how far you can take it.” So even as Schitt’s Creek has showcased a pansexual throuple relationship, with David and motel manager Stevie (Emily Hampshire) as the show’s Will and Grace, only less hackneyed (Levy is also its Jack), you won’t catch Levy touting it in familiar corporate diversity speak. And that could be like Homeland or The Americans by safety I mean the show knows its parameters,” Levy said. “The best TV that I watch, I always feel safe when I’m watching it. “It’s an interesting time for TV because we’ve never had more television being made, and at the same time I think we’ve never had more of a critical eye on the television that’s being made,” Levy said in a January interview at the Vogue offices, in which he demonstrated an understanding of what good television can actually do that was both deeply empathetic and refreshingly realistic. ![]() This knowledge-of reality television and its chronicling of American ostentatiousness-has served him well: David Rose, his character on the show, with his all-black designer wardrobe and its curious embellishments, could have been plucked from any number of MTV’s reality offerings, past or present the gist of the plot (swindled out of their fortune, the Roses are dropped into a ridiculously named rural town their patriarch bought as a joke and forced to get jobs and find purpose as they attempt to scheme and strive their way back into the lives they left behind) would be welcome on Bravo’s slate at any time of day. Though his father, Eugene Levy, has made a career-namely with Second City, Christopher Guest’s comedies, and in seminal teen gross-outs like American Pie-out of straight-playing, slightly bumbling everyman roles realized with both outright ridiculousness and dignity, Dan Levy began his own rise to televised fame as a host on a Canadian after-show for The Hills. Levy, as its showrunner and one of its stars, is to thank for many of Schitt’s Creek’s pleasures, as well as its central concept, which could not be better suited for our current Trump era: rich people getting what they deserve. Amid a landscape of heavy-handed “political” shows and unintelligent fluff, his show has steadily emerged as an oasis of good humor, sweetness, and gentle snark. Dan Levy might not have meant to make the most consistently perfect 20-ish minutes of television regularly available, but he has: Schitt’s Creek (the fifth season of which premieres on Pop tonight) is laugh-out-loud funny situational and observational comedy that is somehow as dry as it is warm. ![]()
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