best Schitt's Creek character

I enjoyed how the arrival of the Roses, particularly Moira, gradually increased Jocelyn's lip-biting anger.

the silly way Bob runs and his general social awkwardness made him a favorite for a while, esp his audition for Cabaret

Stevie's deadpan slays me.

but idk, David seems like he will win this for me. he seemed like the most realized character of them all, plus his general sarcastic disarms always had me in hysterics.

Johnny Rose was funnier in earlier seasons when he was getting driven up the wall by everybody around him, he kinda just became your typical warm patriarch over time.

so many choices.

lots of good choices but this has got to be moira

Moira's baffling amalgamation of accents plus ridiculously robust vocabulary are the best

Herb Erfling…ger. Burt Herngeif. Irv Herb-blinger. Bing Livehaanger. Liveling. Burt Herkurn. Ban bingo ling-fucker!

the raw milk episode, just rewatched. Roland crumbling under the pressure of the cop slayed me.

as did Johnny flipping the fuck out at Alexis over the milk fiasco.

his exasperation at David not understanding "write-off" in a previous episode was also amusing, esp since that part of his character largely was gone by the final season.

I think this has to be David. Although I would vote for a Statler & Waldorf-esque David & Stevie pairing were such an option available.

(We just watched the entire series early this year and my gf recently decided she wanted to rewatch and I was all like 'go for it but maybe not quite yet for me' but yeah, I've totally wound up watching while futilely attempting to do other things. Because it's just so goddamn good.)

moira, and also i will never ever stop fping anyone who votes for chris elliott

Voted David. The only main character I don’t love is Roland which is painful to say bc I love Chris Elliott

my mother refused to watch it for a while because she's hated him since he was on Get a Life

moira always

https://media3.giphy.com/media/f5w2NWbVkgzWwAimEQ/giphy.gif

her calmly telling Johnny "her eyes are....aqua" during the two truths and a lie game, revealing to Johnny that Alexis has just admitted to bribing a drug lord with sex to get out of the trunk of his car was a dope moment

literally stopped watching this because of roland/chris elliott

I think this has to be David. Although I would vote for a Statler & Waldorf-esque David & Stevie pairing were such an option available.

Yes if it were for a pairing then stevie and David; Stevie’s facial reactions to some of David’s more fish out of water moments are absolutely priceless.

I love them all but I think Moira FTW.

I would genuinely love to see a Best Wishes, Warmest Regards spin-off series that consisted of nothing but David stopping into the motel office to riff bitchily with Stevie for half an hour.

Speaking of, for those with Netflix, I highly recommend the behind-the-scenes special, particularly if you like the thing where Schitt's Creek makes you cry.

i'm also in the "love chris elliott, not a fan of roland" camp. jocelyn is great though, she's got that canadian/midwestern "simmering anger barely repressed behind a polite exterior" thing.
iirc it took about a season for alexis to come into her own as a character but she gets very funny after that.
i can't decide how i feel about stevie. the actor's expressions and acting choices are very strange. i don't know if it works or not.
bob is definitely my favorite minor character.

the silly way Bob runs and his general social awkwardness made him a favorite for a while

His run is just the best.

https://telltaletv.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/source-2.gif

I guess he's an OG SCTV writer/performer? There's a lot SCTV folks involved in this show. I really love the idea that this was made by all these people who've known one another for decades and their family members.

Roland gets a lot more tolerable and less over the top as the show goes on imo

Glad to see some Bob love, but disappointed not to see more Ronnie appreciation. Her withering glare at Moira's ridiculousness is perfect. The episode where she's doing the bathroom for Rose Apothecary is terrific.

oh I loveeeeee Ronnie. one of the few people who doesn't let Moira just bulldoze her and can occasionally disarm her.

I do find it amusing that the Jazzagals are first heard singing a really bad, overtly simple arrangement of....."It's Raining Men", I think? and by season 6, they're singing complicated, layered arrangements at David/Patrick's wedding.

I also enjoy Twyla's aloofness. another Levy!

Yeah Twyla's great, especially her occasionally suuuuper dark asides.

this was surprisingly tough but I gotta go with Stevie

xpost I did enjoy that the first game David had them playing at the game night in Season 1 is a game that actors always enjoy playing at game nights - where you write down the name of ten famous people, and in the first round, you can give unlimited verbal cues and hand gestures, second round can only use three words + hand gestures, third round just one word + hand gestures.

though it didn't seem they got very far into it!

I recently watched the absolutely terrible Hulu holiday movie 'Happiest Season', which really made clear how talented Daniel Levy is as a comic actor, and how effortless he makes it look. He's paired with Kristen Stewart as the friend and I basically started laughing in relief as soon as he appeared on screen.

Yeah, the only redeemable parts of that movie had Levy or Aubrey Plaza in them. I don't understand the rabid praise for it. Stewart's girlfriend never once shows why Stewart should give a shit about her selfish ass at all.

We shouldn't sully a Schitt's Creek thread talking about it, but there's praise??!

Tons of it on Twitter, 83% on Rotten Tomatoes (84% audience score) for whatever that's worth. But yeah, enough of this particular derail.

Back on track, anyone that votes Mutt earns the permanent side eye from me.

lol yeah, Mutt's definitely one of the least interesting. was kinda glad when he peaced out on the show - think he existed mostly just to wreck Alexis-Ted.

patrick is a sleeper here, he started out a little bland but i think has come into his own - his underplayed sarcasm and irritation work really well against david

I loved Patrick - their relationship was beautiful and I got choked up when he sang "Simply the Best" to David and David sat there beaming as Patrick kept looking at him during the song.

but yeah, he was also hella funny, when he'd try to navigate David's many eccentricities. Particularly the ep where David peed the bed.

Alexis was pretty one-dimensional, even for this type of show, but that scene with Ted (will not spoil with details) had me choked up too. Best five minutes of the entire run.

The behind the scenes special showed them shooting that scene and pretty much everyone onset was bawling.

Yeah, Eugene Levy couldn't hold it together at all for that one.

Patrick and David had one of the best rendered relationships in a recent sitcom, for sure. And I love how Patrick's sarcasm and irritation stayed consistent throughout. So many shows, once two characters like that get together, write out those tics and quirks, but Patrick was pretty consistently low-key exasperated by David's eccentricities until the end.

I love David's head shake/nod when he doesn't want to agree to something.

You know what, Alexis is growing on me. The lice episode where she's like CONSTITUTIONALLY INCAPABLE of telling Ted she has lice but she's desperate for help and she knows she can trust him, said a lot, I think. No spoilers I have not gotten to "that scene with Ted" yet, don't break my heart before time.

Love David and Patrick, obv, and I admire that Patrick has the confidence to stymy and annoy David esp in his first gay relationship that obviously means a lot to him--I'm in my 40s and I don't know if I could be that annoying without fearing losing someone early on.

Schitt’s Creek made a point to make viewers feel safe by showcasing women without harassment, queer love without trauma, sexual fluidity without shame, economic disparity without mockery, and creativity without limitation. What they built is just so special. They deserve it all. pic.twitter.com/a6xCPX9eUl

— Sarah McGonagall (@gothspiderbitch) September 21, 2020

that is what I enjoyed about the show. and there's no shortage of conflict, but it's not the destructive kind. everybody in the town drives each other nuts but they love each other whether they'll admit it or not.

it's also nice watching the Roses go from hating the town and wanting to gtfo to becoming fully integrated within it and having it feel like home.

I wonder if anyone will vote for Ted...

I did enjoy his dadjoeks

I admire that Patrick has the confidence to stymy and annoy David esp in his first gay relationship that obviously means a lot to him--I'm in my 40s and I don't know if I could be that annoying without fearing losing someone early on.

I love the banter between David/Patrick and David/Stevie, but it does bring to mind people who insist on only communicating via sarcasm, which can be exhausting irl

Don't want to come off too negative but to me Eugene is the weakest actor in this show. He just plays the straight man and does a bug eye thing whenever anyone else says something goofy. And I am disappointed his character didn't have a strong trait besides default naive and unsure of himself in ever situation.

Moira is a nightmare, I dread every scene where she makes normal things a complete disaster.

lol like the drug skit episode

Given how often he is surrounded by three larger than life personalities, I think it's the best move to have Eugene Levy play the befuddled straight man.

plus he's really good at it.

exhibit A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg1Uk60rBsc

yeah levy is great

Well point is more that his character kind lacked a distinct personality to me besides "pleasant casually pathetic push over fails at every task". Fish out of water makes sense but he was playing it deep into born yesterday territory and it undermined his backstory as mega successful businessman. Was that intended? Maybe, but I would have rather seen a little bit of a shrewd former shark from Shark Tank somewhere mixed in his approach.

I mean, doesn't season 6 kinda...do that?

I also got the impression that when their assets were seized, they were long divested of ownership in the video empire and living off of their riches and 'investments', and hadn't had to have an active role in a while.

Sure his 100% flailing and failing at all times straight man role is not totally unjustified, but I feel some more dimension would have been welcome. The other 3 characters are memorable and imo his wasn't rich enough (get it?).

Sure his 100% flailing and failing at all times straight man role is not totally unjustified, but I feel some more dimension would have been welcome. The other 3 characters are memorable and imo his wasn't rich enough (get it?).

the Jake romantic triangle subplot was one that didn't go anywhere, other than to give a brief obstacle for David to face when he shows up to pick up Stevie when David and Patrick are using her house for...privacy.

lol @ Moira confusing Asbestos Fest for Schitt's Creek trying to bring back asbestos

I love every ep where Patrick and David perform for each other

Jocelyn's unhinged tirade asking David to host her baby shower puts me in hysterics

(my folks have been watching this for hours)

I'm guessing nobody is going for Wendy Kurtz, who was the worst.

Her and Roland seem like they were written for a different, wackier show.

I didn't mind her, she wasn't really the 'focus' of any of the scenes she was in, other than the one ep where she's having issues with her daughter.

but she definitely shouldn't get any votes in this poll

i get why people don't like roland and i didn't either at first - it was like he'd wandered in from a farrelly brothers movie, instead of this show - but he's crucial imo. he's entitled, moronic, selfish, sexist, has no idea how much people hate him, purely driven by his own appetites... he's pure trump. instead of being born rich he was born in this place. imagine if he'd been born into the kind of family that alexis and david were. so he's kind of a warning: beware. this could be you. and chris eliot is just so good at what he does. in the godfather episode when he's choking on his fried chicken at the cafe i about had a heart attack myself watching him do it.

i can't decide how i feel about stevie. the actor's expressions and acting choices are very strange. i don't know if it works or not.

she does a lot of 'tool matching' with david i.e. they both swallow what they were going to actually say and instead communicate with their eyebrows which is funny but yes she doesn't seem to have a lot of other tools in the bag.

I think she's great! She has a lot of damage and hides behind sarcasm and dry humor as a coping mechanism but we see her walls come down towards the second half of the series.

am halfway thru s4 - lookin forward to everything everybody's hinting at itt including that!

She very much feels like someone whose family tree has a sordid history and she's so desperate to break free of it and be her own person, but she has no idea how...until the Roses pop in and inadvertently help her forge a new path.

(no spoilers!).

Enjoy!

I like how in the show's early going, David realises that Stevie is worth making friends with, but he needs to learn how to communicate with her, not because she's the stupid hick that he would've expected when he learned they were moving there, but because she's so sharp and so sarcastic, it's impossible to know what she really thinks about anything without really paying close attention to her. Which he does.

i agree. their friendship was a moving part of the show. david's development in general was pretty incredible. it's hard to fit that kind of growth into a modern sitcom without making it seem forced or hackneyed.

yes!! man thank you for articulating that so perfectly

xpost

David was incredible precisely because, other than Moira, he seemed least likely to adapt to the new surroundings.

Re Stevie: To understand her, I imagine if I had never been able to leave my rural hometown, pop. 3500, and had been surrounded by the same people I went to school with for the rest of my life; how embittered and isolated I would have been.

It's bleak, folks.

completely otm. he pretty much says exactly that when she inherits the hotel from her late aunt

*she

Like, you are not an appealing person who can make friends in that state. You trust no one and everything you do hurts. It's a lot.

that's also precisely why, while it scares her at first, doing the town's production of Cabaret has a somewhat transformative effect on her

she says a lot of things during S1 that hint at that - something about not wanting to have sex with anybody at the party (after David mentions it) because she knows way too much about everybody in this town to want to do that.

I'll happily wave it away because the series in general is so amazing on so many other levels, but one weak spot is the 'having its cake and eating it too' aspect of the town itself. It seems to vacillate between being a miserable Schitthole and a tiny utopia depending on the immediate needs of the plot.

I mean that's kinda how small towns are? it sucks when you want to go to a movie and you only have one theater and it's 15 miles away and only shows 2 movies, or how the nearest hospital seems to be over a half hour away, and all the nice stuff is in Elmdale.

but sometimes you're sitting in Twyla's cafe and your'e in a good mood with people you cherish and in that moment, it feels like bliss?

I can't imagine how that council gets anything done with Roland, though.

Moira -- overall best imo
Alexis -- idk why but she always cracked me up and I loved her, I loved when she went back to school and the thing with Ted was very sweet even if every younger man in this show is some kind of fantasy boi
Jocelyn -- hilarious, sort of the anti-Stevie

xpost I guess. My own bliss aggressively evaporates the further I move away from my mom's home into my podunk high school town but maybe that's just me.

Jocelyn's near meltdown in the apothecary when she wanted to ask David to do her baby shower sends me into fits each time. it's the friendly demeanor barely concealing bubbling rage that kills me about her. esp with Moira.

I loved the one ep where David mocked the way Alexis talks - "why would I do thahhhht"

I also think Moira is probably the empirically correct answer here, but I'm tempted to vote for Alexis. Anne Murphy does so much--mostly physically--with what starts as a really tired cliche of a character. Also, the running gag of matter-of-factly referring to her ludicrous tabloid past somehow never gets old (contrast with a similar running gag on The Good Place that does get very old).

yeah, I lost track of how many drug lords, sultans, or other people of power she either had to seduce or escape

Annie Murphy is a stealth MVP for sure. Her various character tics are endlessly hilarious. So glad all of the main cast won Emmys this year.

I can't imagine how that council gets anything done with Roland, though.

There is a great line in Gilmore Girls, which is said about TJ and also applies to Roland. That he has terrible instincts, but he combines them with zero follow-through, so it all works out.

Also, the running gag of matter-of-factly referring to her ludicrous tabloid past somehow never gets old

Partly because they never, ever delve too deeply into it. I will be heartbroken if Netflix does an Alexis Rose origin story.

every younger man in this show is some kind of fantasy boi

If I want to see regular-looking men in sitcoms, there is plenty of Chuck Lorre on offer. Clearly Dan Levy likes to surround himself with beautiful things and people, and I am fine with that.

yeah, I lost track of how many drug lords, sultans, or other people of power she either had to seduce or escape

― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Monday, December 7, 2020 4:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I tried to find a tweet last week but came up short--something to the effect that Alexis is INCREDIBLY resourceful, adventurous, morally suspect enough not to look back too critically at whatever worked, in complete control of her sexuality... in short, an international woman of mystery! She has been kidnapped, borderline prostituted/sex trafficked??, has pick-pocketed and scammed and bluffed and seduced her way around the world and no one has ever seen her as anything but a beautiful object, which is why she gets away with half of it. She's a whole universe in one character and I agree it only works because they never elaborate but really...she's the whole deal.

xp - i'm not talking about their looks, though there's that too! -- i was referring to the combination of their looks + their personalities. i like them, they just don't seem like people i have ever encountered irl. it's a nice contrast to the roses as well as more typical portrayals of "men alexis might date" (esp considering her reckless behavior in the past -- i think this is why i love her so much!)

There’s no way I can pick a favorite although I like some characters more than others.

Twyla’s amazing in her faux-friendly presence and matter-of-fact delivery of the rare bits of insight she drops that are almost always hinting at bad personal circumstances. Never as over the top as Alexis’s stories, just more relatable and depressing. How do you know if you’re actually close to someone so guarded? They opened that up toward the end but she keeps everything so close to the chest

i got legit choked up when my folks up on the Cabaret season finale today. just in the moment where Stevie really launches into "Maybe This Time" and simultaneously realizes things as Sally and herself, and then her friends give her a warm standing ovation afterwards.

I think Always Sunny in Philly brought on the "toxic protagonist" comedy trend where comedy after comedy would trot out complete assholes with no redeeming qualities and we were supposed to root for them getting comeuppance week in and out. Some shows pulled that off really well, but after several seasons of it, I often would get frustrated that there'd be no actual warmth or character development, just a new way for the mains to act like pieces of shit and then get the shit beat out of em for it.

I wouldn't say Schitt's Creek subverted it in that it never really painted its main characters as complete assholes, more narcissistic fish out of water who are rich and entitled and aren't used to living in a small town or do things for themselves,but it was refreshing that they grew as people and found the town changing them as much as the inverse - slowly and gradually.

*when my folks put on

Annie Murphy is so physically talented, and so pretty, and she brings so much life and likeabilty to what could otherwise be a flat character. Patrick is the same. Roland seems like he's from a broader show. But my vote goes to Jocelyn, who started out funny and stayed that way for the entire time. I would totally hang with any of these characters in real life.

it probably should be Moira but voted Jocelyn

still just midway thru s4 but i'm ngl patrick is kind of grating on me. like yes david's a big baby and a mess but the way patrick talks to him feels super condescending. and when him and stevie gang up on david it's the worst!

There’s only one honest answer but I voted Gwen.

Bob constantly expecting Johnny to actually do work for his garage and constantly misreading things was another favorite element of this show.

i voted Alexis because I know Moira will win

ok y'all have convinced me to restart despite roland

(thanks!)

Roland is pretty unbearable in S1 but then somehow manages to become hilarious doing the same things after that

also, in orbit devastatingly otm about Stevie's inner life

"Roland, will you GET THE FUCK OUT?" = have never agreed with a tv character more

Gwen as a character was kind of forgettable but I love every story about her.

She's a wild lady living her beat life, but we mostly only get to experience that via Bob's grief

Am I the only one who likes Roland? I voted for Jocelyn though.

There's too much David in this show, is my challops. You can have too much of a good thing.

I enjoyed Roland! I especially like the way him & Eugene Levy played off each other

^^^ no

I liked Roland fine, but him winning would be a travesty. He's just there to fluster everybody

jeez calm down i voted for moira

lol i support your Roland defense!

Roland’s entire shtick as a character reminds me of when David Letterman would find something innocuous funny at the beginning of an episode, and keep on it throughout the night until it became a little funny, then irritating, and finally back to funny again.

The only example that comes to mind was when he decided the phrase “shetland pony” was funny and kept mumbling it between segments

Is 'Roland Schitt' a pun?

ooooh

Jaqueline = jack schitt? I don't know.

Roland Schitt! OMG!

Oh, I made up Jacqueline - it's Jocelyn of course.

Roll in shit
Jostle in shit
Mutt shit

Makes you think....

that's kind of amazing. was Mutt his real name? I don't see any other reference.

lol, feel like I would've noticed if they'd ever actually said the full name 'Mutt Shitt' on the show. That must've been a fun childhood.

Kind of an unpopular opinion but overall I found this show much more charming than I did funny. So much of the joke writing had highly telegraphed punchlines imo. A bit spoiled on the sharp wit bombardment stylings of say 30 Rock but not sure if cynicism is a sort of prerequisite for that approach, because this show was not cynical.

For me the laughs were less from the writing about more from hilarious line readings & mannerisms

for sure

I'M TAKING THE PEANUTS, CAROL

Rizwan Manji as Ray kinda does that same act in other roles he plays.

the Ted - Alexis farewell is making me all kinds of sad rn. folks are watching so I'm relieving S6.

This show has so much heart! It’s really special.

my mother is now actively making fun of Moira's affectations. it means she loves her

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

No votes for Eugene Levy seems harsh.

it does

Roland and Jake got more votes than him! Who votes Jake?!

Given my stance upthread I’m not surprised.

Who votes Jake?!

not to indulge vote shaming, but Jake represented positive attitude towards bisexuality and polyamory and was the hottest character on the show. who votes Roland?!

Ronnie also robbed of higher standing

Probably should have a “best supporting character poll” too so we can give the Ronnies and Twylas more love.

Not a bad idea though I will cop to voting for Bob in this one, even with the main cast eligible!

Jake represented positive attitude towards bisexuality and polyamory

isn't the point of polyamory that everybody knows they're in a poly relationship before they enter into it? because he sure didn't tell David and Stevie, both of whom reluctantly decided to continue with it once they realized what was happening, only for David to feel like he couldn't.

the issue with Jake wasn't so much the poly and more his lack of communication and setting of boundaries as a group. which is why things constantly got awkward

wasn't "at all" the poly I should say

Yes, Jake's lack of communication was atrocious.

isn't the point of polyamory that everybody knows they're in a poly relationship before they enter into it?

i think initially it wasn't a poly relationship but rather "dating 2 people at the same time with both of them knowing" scenario.
it was only later when jake asked both if they were interested in becoming a trio.

his lack of communication was part of the comedic device obv

moira is funny but c’mon it’s totally Dan Levy

Otm

Moira. I’m only on the first season but her commercial for the fruit wine farm had me loling irl.

Also liked her line “You know exactly who are, but I don’t know who I am hour to hour” in the episode where she gets her hair done with Rolands wife.

*shudders* Moira is an agent of absolute chaos. Releasing her into any scene is just inviting reality as we know it to completely break down. I recognize that this makes her possibly the most important character for the story to move forward and for all the characters to find the grace and goodness they need but also I hate it.

Just watched the episode where Jocelyn planned to go to see Poison and I'd like to switch my vote to her.

Moira is bad for my anxiety. I love her, but she's a bull in a china shop

My daughter and I just watched "Manhunter," and when Chris Elliott (!) pops up for a minute my daughter goes "hold on, is that Roland!?!"

love the part of Manhunter when Roland shows up in the scene where the FBI is approaching Tooth Fairy's house and loudly asks Will Graham if he can top off the tank in his truck next time he borrows it

Schitt’s Creek and Manhunter take place in the same cinematic universe.

Tooth Fairy came from Rose Video before killing the family at the beginning

Just realized the son is Levy’s son! Ahahaha

...

man had no idea Daniel Levy was related to Eugene Levy

next you'll tell me O'Shea Jackson is O'Shea Jackson, Jr's dad!

It took me years to learn that too...

I just noticed Daniel levy’s name a couple episodes ago and I kept waiting for the dad’s brother to show Up

wait till you find out about Sarah Levy

lol

He came by those eyebrows honest

Levy brows are legit

they could clean a chalkboard

I'm occasionally caught off guard by Eugene's handsomeness.

Now it's bugging me - where was a recent discussion of how Eugene Levy had surprisingly blossomed into a silver fox here or on Twitter?

It was here, sometime prior to the existence of any dedicated Schitt's threads (maybe the Netflix one).

Of course. Thank you:

Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

My wife was finally worn down by all of the recommendations and started watching this again, and I think she's finally hooked. I, on the other hand, keep getting drawn in and pulled out, over and over again, often times in the middle of an episode. It's so reliably amusing, and yet ... rarely goes beyond that. At the same time, it's so good natured about the way it's amusing and so committed to being good natured and amusing that I can sometimes go along with it, but then other times it's so lazy about it, so generically sitcom-y, that I can't. Like, I expect a funny twist or reveal but no, it's just goes exactly where you think it'll go. (fwiw, I think we just finished S2). I'm not sure I've been so consistently thrown off by a sitcom since ... Happy Endings? (Which is also of course usually pretty funny, but sometimes similarly so square it seems like a parody of a sitcom.)

That's a very S1/S2 reaction! I broadly felt the same until halfway through S3, when the show really starts hitting its mark.

I'm going to be really curious to see what Annie Murphy brings to S2 of Russian Doll, that's an interesting addition.

Whoa, didn't realize that happened. But it makes me happy. I hope to see a lot more of her because she's crazy good.

And yeah, I sound like a broken record, but if you get through the third season and you still don't find the journey of any of the main cast emotionally gripping then the show is decidedly not for you.

the david/stevie/patrick trifecta's arch sarcasm just becomes totally insufferable sometimes but that's life ay

can't believe anybody hates roland, he probably makes me snort more than anybody else

moira starts becoming positively THOUGHTFUL in S5 which i never saw coming

annie murphy also has a new show on AMC called "Kevin Can F*ck Himself" (censorship not mine). it looks bad but hayes and sean from hollywood handbook are writers on it.

schitt's creek is a good cheesy sitcom. that's all it is. that's OK.

annie murphy also in russian doll 2

lol, does like 85% of the board have me killfiled at this point?

did somebody just say something?

(sorry jon)

we finally made it to the episode where jake invites patrick and david over to "have some whiskey.. or whatever" and this reinforced the fact that jake really is the best character. also, stevie's "must you take everything i have" line was hilarious (the whole ep was great really).

OK, we must have hit the aforementioned season 3 sweet spot, since we've had a few really funny episodes in a row. It's interesting, while I know there are as many exceptions as there are examples, sometimes it seems like comedies take a season or so to hit their stride, whereas dramas often start out strong but quickly lose steam or go off the rails.

i’m halfway through S6 and already dreading it ending. it gets stronger and stronger. alexis’ story gets unfeasibly touching.

Maybe I'm a bitter old cynic, but I've watched it to the end and the smattering of good jokes did not compensate for the endless sickly deluge of characters saying how much they loved each other.

LOOK MAYBE I NEED THAT IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW

xpost spoilers

I finished it and yyyyeaaah it gets pretty self-indulgent in the last ep or 2, but I feel like that's allowed. It does become slightly too much 'The David Show' which is maybe less allowed. And I'm not sure I buy David resisting the allure of New York. Surprisingly affecting moment for Roland in that boardroom - genuinely unexpected.

I've been enjoying imagining favourite albums for each of the characters.

David - Violator.
Alexis - What's an album? Any playlist with "Ibiza" in the title
Moira - The Way We Were soundtrack by Marvin Hamlisch
Johnny - Jim Croce, I Got A Name

Come on, Alexis's favorite album is a total gimme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKoxky2h2qc

We are somewhere in season 4, and this remains something like a cross between Local Hero and Three's Company.

haha that's dead on

started mainlining this show again in the wake of last month's events, strictly for the positive vibes, and already on S6. I think everyone in the show is pretty great but it's probably Annie Murphy for me, just the absolute ability to make such a character actually likable and hilarious and moving in ways that go beyond the writing and a character arc that makes sense within the show, plus the sort of unexpected ending for her. and that scene when she realizes Mutt has given her a bicycle is one of the most A+ of all time.

and jesus, i could watch Bob happily half-run into rooms all day.

Annie Murphy as Alexis grows so much over the seasons, and the arc of her relationship with Ted and its dissolution are very moving. She is my favorite character

gotta say Stevie carried first few eps for me

for the minor characters, i'm a big Jake fan. virtually every scene with him is a gold mine.

the goofy way Bob runs kills me

Alexis and David both had great arcs, will admit I got misty eyed at the latter's wedding.

Bob feel’s like he’s on some kind of improv venn diagram w Colin Mockery - i think it’s the rubbery body movements

*Mochrie

I was discussing the show with a friend who never got into it and my appreciation for how vexing Roland is came out.

The actor who plays Bob was apparently a long time improv guy, at Second City Toronto, I think?

kills me every time

https://media4.giphy.com/media/23k7z58XMbZJgvGX6l/200w.gif?cid=6c09b952sxjzio25ng0lhcwznci1lbqyccmdghuy6pn9yet7&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g

He (John Hemphill) was a featured performer on SCTV during its final days, when it appeared on Showtime; I don't know if he played any characters other than Happy Marsden, who hosted kids' TV from a barstool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAnS8g0HhIQ

Holy Cow Myonga didn’t know (or remember) he was on the show!

We don’t talk enough about Ted’s hotness.

kind of a bargain bin Chris Evans

Ehh, CanCon hot.

the Alexis-Ted relationship arc and Mutt's part in it is completely fascinating to me. She meets him and he's a genuinely nice awkward dude who is more than a bit square, but really adores her. Then she keeps connecting over and over again with this compellingly charismatic brotastic dude and they have this thoroughly cinematic moment where they declare their attraction to one another, have a brief relationship that has zero depth. And then Ted returns, and he hasn't changed but her perceptions have completely altered and she realizes what she threw away for something emptier. And I think the show is very, very smart to not have had Ted change at all, but her reactions to him change. So many lesser shows and movies lead with a character who's with someone and throws it away for someone a bit flashier, and it's shown to be the right decision, and maybe they have that discarded partner wind up with a similarly supposedly dull secondary character as a consolation prize. I'd be curious if it was their narrative plan from the start, because it feels like a very crafty and heartwarming bait and switch.

That's interesting but I can't think of those shows and movies! I thought the classic thing was for someone to go off with the flashy person then realise the unflashy person was who they really wanted

Yeah the show is at heart all about the family’s growth.

these types of shows and movies definitely exist, I’m not talking about a movie where there’s someone sitting on the sidelines pining for someone else while the latter wastes their time in a crappy relationship and then they get together in the end. It’s more about how Ted was presented as a really square guy, maybe even somewhat of a placeholder til the real thing came along, and the entire arc of Alexis and mutt brought them to the point of this huge moment where they declared how they felt to each other. That’s absolutely the traditional route of some of these stories, but this felt like it was an intentionally misleading arc.

And Mutt wound up being someone who simply vanished and no one seemed to notice.

Sleepless in Seattle is a key example of this. Poor old Bill Pullman. And, if you want to go back to the early days, there's Cary Grant's loving fiancee and secretary in Bringing Up Baby, whom he merrily discards for exciting Katherine Hepburn. I think there are probably loads more.