‘Schitt’s Creek’ Season 4: Welcome Back David And Alexis Rose, TV’s Best Siblings

That’s right, This Is Us sad-sacks, I am calling you OUT! The best siblings on television aren’t weeping around Pittsburgh, trying to figure out how Jess from Gilmore Girls eventually dies (everybody knows that Jess gets pushed into a duck pond and drowns in shallow water). No, TV’s best siblings are stuck in a backwater Canadian town called Schitt’s Creek, laying low after their wealthy New York family loses their fortune due to tax scandal. Their passive-aggressive, forcibly close relationship (they have to share a room at the motel their family is crashing at) is one of the best reasons to watch Schitt’s Creek, which may well be TV’s most underrated comedy.

Schitt’s Creek is the creation of father and son Eugene and Dan Levy. Eugene Levy of course is the comedy veteran, so brilliant in the Christopher Guest mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, though perhaps best known to broad American audiences for his role in American Pie and its many, many sequels. Dan Levy, at this point, is more of a known quantity in Canada than in the States, having been an MTV personality/host. Schitt’s Creek is still primarily a Canadian TV show — it airs new episodes on CBC in Canada before they make their way down to POP TV in America — but now that it’s into its fourth season, it is long past time for American audiences to wake up to its ample charms.

The big draw of Schitt’s Creek is the re-teaming of Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, here playing Johnny and Moira Rose, a disgraced video-store magnate and former soap opera queen, respectively. Their pampered lifestyle comes crashing down, and they need to hole up in Schitt’s Creek, a tiny town that Johnny once bought on a whim. They bring their spoiled adult children with them: David (Dan Levy), disdainfully intelligent, “polysexual,” unaccustomed to the ways of the proletariat; and Alexis (Annie Murphy) a self-styled Paris Hilton type whose love affairs with Greek heirs get put on hold when she has to hide out in Schitt’s Creek with her family.

As legendarily brilliant as O’Hara and Eugene Levy are — O’Hara in particular is delivering a high-wire act as Moira, whose wealth and actress-y quirks have turned her into a kind of alien creature — the heart and soul of the show are David and Alexis. Their newfound close quarters leads to the expected sniping, yes, but it’s the way that they pick at each other that’s so delightful. The way that they poke around at each other for weaknesses; Alexis finds herself entangled with two boyfriends; David’s problematic ex comes to town; they each trade off having money problems. And when they find these weaknesses, they just relentlessly, passive-aggressively needle each other about them, until the other one breaks.

Dan Levy and Annie Murphy are utterly magnetic and hysterically funny in the roles. There is a level of nonverbal comedy they’re working on that is maybe only equalled by Jake Johnson on New Girl. David Rose at a loss for words (something that happens with blissful frequency) is a true sight to behold, while Alexis defiantly missing the point of whatever anyone is saying is another recurring delight. Murphy’s delivery is like a vaudeville interpretation of what a spoiled rich girl would sound like, and you could build a summer home in the space left by Levy’s arch, exasperated pauses. The Levy family legacy is one of comedy and eyebrows, and no one does more with an incredulous brow than Dan Levy.

And yet underneath their characters’ constant dips into schadenfreude, there is an unmistakable bond between them. They care about each other and are there for each other when it counts. This is no wearying, toxic sibling rivalry. This is just two spoiled adult children lashing out at their siblings’ weak spots because there is literally nothing else to do in this town. It’s a form of entertainment, and it is infectious.

Schitt’s Creek returns to POP TV for its fourth season tonight, and its first three seasons are streamable on Netflix. Catch on to it now, because it is frankly insane that Levy and Murphy have yet to be scooped up by American comedy filmmakers. It’s only a matter of time.

Where to stream Schitt's Creek