Fans of Schitt’s Creek on Netflix will love Big Mistakes, but everyone else might struggle. Emmy award winner Dan Levy is front and centre in this mafia centric comedy of errors, that relies on circumstantial family melodrama combined with farce to sell its premise. As one half of a sibling tag team opposite Taylor Ortega’s Morgan, Big Mistakes leans into their relationship and then piles on a series of escalating unfortunate events to keep audiences interested.
What transpires over those bite-sized 30-minute episodes has all the hallmarks of a classic comedy but is sure to divide audiences. Whether this is up to the Schitt’s Creek standard is a matter of opinion, but what becomes painfully obvious early on is how much Big Mistakes misses the mark. There is no denying the melodrama that unfolds, thanks to some degree by the presence of veteran Laurie Metcalf on scenery chewing form. However, what this Netflix show lacks in large quantities are many laughs.
Big Mistakes is chocked full of stereotypes and has real trouble getting off the blocks dramatically. For audiences to actively invest in any character there needs to be a tangible threat or emotional quandary for them to get behind. What Big Mistakes offers is something that misses both those marks and fails to replace it with anything else. As Nicky and Morgan bounce from one dilemma to another, there might be the occasional joke that lands but otherwise things feel flat.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Whether Dan Levy was hoping to recapture the magic of Schitt’s Creek and trailblaze his way to the Emmys once again is open to conjecture. What is abundantly clear is just how disappointed people will be with this comedy vacuum which simply has no one worth liking in those opening episodes. The further into this Netflix show audiences go the more disillusioned they will become.
Although the collection of characters that make up this ensemble cast veer between quirky and eccentric, this show still lacks a dilemma of substance to underpin the story. For anyone after pathos that also appears to be in short supply, since people are either threatening each other or bickering incessantly. As a result, Big Mistakes ultimately feels like a misfire despite the best efforts of everyone involved.
With the utmost respect, simply putting Emmy award winners into a show and expecting it to take off is foolhardy. There is no denying the talent of Dan Levy, Laurie Metcalf, and everyone else involved, but somewhere along the line things got lost in translation. Meaning that only diehard fans of Schitt’s Creek are likely to find anything redeeming in this high concept comedy drama.
Big Mistakes is available to stream on Netflix now.