Nothing We Can't Fix
Of all the “nepo babies” to receive opportunities as a result of their last names, Dan Levy is among the few that might’ve been successful without his familial connections. Being the son of a beloved SCTV comedy legend helped, but Levy has ventured into a realm of writing, directing, and showrunning that his father didn’t. It’s the younger Levy’s success that might’ve salvaged the reputation of his father; while Eugene Levy has enjoyed a new renaissance, mostly due to the role he played in his son’s show Schitt’s Creek, he’d appeared in enough direct-to-DVD American Pie sequels that his filmography wasn’t faultless. Schitt’s Creek played on the nostalgia that comedy fans had for the older Levy and Catherine O’Hara, who’d starred in several Christopher Guest films together, but it also offered the two of them better material than they’d been given in over a decade.
Schitt’s Creek was an example of a series that received a “streaming boom” as a result of its appearance on Netflix, despite having aired on the cable channel Pop to little fanfare for its first five seasons. The light-hearted comedy about a rich family forced to live in an unusual Canadian small town was the sort of television that audiences sought in the midst of the pandemic. Levy did make an attempt to use the Schitt’s Creek acclaim to take on some experimental projects. His feature film directorial debut, Good Grief, was pleasant enough, but didn’t suggest that Levy was itching to be the next great actor-turned-director in the vein of Robert Redford or Woody Allen. The continued popularity of Schitt’s Creek essentially gave Levy a blank check for anything he wanted to make for Netflix.
It might seem unfair to evoke endless comparisons between Levy’s latest show, Big Mistakes, and Schitt’s Creek, but the two are unequivocally linked. Not only is Big Mistakes another family comedy about self-centered narcissists who are placed in a precarious situation as a result of financial blunders, but a series that’s based on observational comedy about a uniquely dumpy location. If Schitt’s Creek was representative of the syrupy earnestness of overly friendly Canadians, then Big Mistakes has the appropriate nastiness for a show set in New Jersey, where the residents ignore that they live in the armpit of the country. Although there are too many television creators who are “chronically online,” Levy picked up on the criticism that the wholesome sincerity of Schitt’s Creek would become grating if he attempted to replicate it for the rest of his career. Big Mistakes is just pulpy enough for the rare heartfelt moments.
Big Mistakes is immediately announced as provocative because its two main characters show the most detestable, self-absorbed sides of venerable professions. Levy cast himself as Nicky, an openly gay pastor who’s used his sermons to advance his ego; his sister Morgan, played by Taylor Ortega, is a school teacher who shoplifts. The pair are made to feel guilty by their mother, Linda (Laurie Metcalf), because they haven’t properly prepared a present for their grandmother on what’s presumed to be her final birthday. Desperation is why the siblings choose to steal a necklace from a local shop, but the jewelry item they selected was involved in a mafia conspiracy involving the crime boss Ivan (Mark Ivanir), whose underling Yusuf (Boran Kuzum) is sent to deal with the situation. This is the most inconvenient time possible for Linda, who’s in the midst of a mayoral campaign against the community leader Tom Donaldson (Darren Goldstein), with whom Nicky has sparred.
If there’s a weakness in Big Mistakes it's that the relentlessness of the pacing is a detriment to the supporting characters. Schitt’s Creek may have stumbled through its first two seasons, but the result of a series with a fair amount of "filler episodes” was that Levy had time to figure out what to do with the extended cast before their roles were completely fleshed out. Big Mistakes can’t take advantage of the bench of its cast, including Jack Innanen as Morgan’s kind-hearted, albeit somewhat oblivious boyfriend Max. However, this is exactly where Big Mistakes could grow if it’s renewed for a Season 2; Levy took a chance on up-and-coming stars as opposed to casting bigger names, which would’ve curtailed the show’s authenticity.
Big Mistakes is the rare serialized show that’s able to take advantage of an episodic format because of the increasing misfortune that Nicky and Morgan are saddled with. It’s one mistake after another, and by the time that they’re on a trip to negotiate a narcotics trade in Miami it’s easy to forget that the ordeal started with a small-scale burglary. There’s no guarantee that the show would be able to escalate the tension over the course of multiple seasons; Netflix is notorious for cancelling shows before having to increase wages for members of the crew and writing staff.
It’s worth noting that Big Mistakes was co-created by Rachel Sennott, another increasingly popular Gen X comedy figure who’s run the risk of overexposure. It’s easy to imagine a version of the show in which Sennott and Levy were the leads, which wouldn’t have worked; Sennott has already made a habit of playing these types of outrageous characters, and Levy would’ve been forced to play the straight man. That Levy was willing to cast himself in a more critical light is admirable, especially since it's Ortega who has most of the first season’s standout moments. Even though the narrative is frequently reliant on coincidences and gimmicks, the character dynamics alone are enough to make Big Mistakes feel fresh.