Television series

Schitt's Creek

Name: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2015
Cast: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Emily Hampshire

Comedy
Light-hearted

A rich family loses everything overnight and gets dumped in the one asset nobody wanted to buy back: a joke of a town they purchased as a tax write-off. What starts as broad fish-out-of-water comedy about entitled people slumming it slowly turns into something warmer than that setup has any right to produce. It's gentle, funny, and ends up being about love more than money.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sitcoms where the jokes come from characters slowly becoming kinder people, the way a fish out of water learns to breathe, and you don't mind a gentle, warm-hearted comedy that builds over six seasons.

Skip it if you want fast, joke-per-second comedy, since this one takes its time with small-town routines and sharp barbs that land more as affection than as punchlines.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about half an hour and the story unfolds across six seasons, so it rewards settling in for the long haul rather than a quick binge of one night.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Parks and Recreation2009

Same trick of starting with characters who look like punchlines and ending up loving every one of them. The small-town setting, the deep bench of weirdos, the earned sentimentality — all present and correct.

But Takes a rocky first season to find its footing, much like Schitt's Creek itself.

Ted Lasso2020

Another show that starts as a fish-out-of-water joke and quietly becomes one of the kindest things on television, built on the idea that decency is funnier than cynicism.

But Its niceness can tip into treacle for viewers who prefer their comedy with sharper teeth.

Kim's Convenience2016

A Canadian sitcom with the same generous, low-stakes warmth — family bickering that never curdles into cruelty, and a cast you'll want to move in with by episode three.

But Broader and gentler than Schitt's Creek's sharper early seasons; less bite, less style.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Schitt's Creek

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Green Acres1965

Literally the same setup: rich urbanites dumped in a backwater full of oddballs, decades before Schitt's Creek did it with better clothes and a bigger heart.

A wealthy Manhattan couple abandons the high life for a ramshackle farm and a town full of gloriously strange neighbors — it's the same premise, decades earlier, played with absurdist, almost surreal glee.

But Laugh-track, single-camera-free, 1960s sitcom rhythms — broader and stranger than modern comedy pacing.

Arrested Development2003

The other great sitcom about a spectacularly rich family suddenly and hilariously broke, told with a density of jokes that rewards rewatching almost as much as it rewards patience.

But Colder and more cynical — nobody here is heading toward growth, and the joke never lets up long enough to breathe.

The Good Place2016

A comedy that starts as a clever premise and becomes, improbably, a genuinely moving argument about how people become better versions of themselves.

But The high-concept plotting is a different animal entirely — less character study, more puzzle box.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine2013

Big-hearted ensemble comedy where the jokes come fast but the affection between characters runs even faster — comfort food with genuine craft behind it.

But Faster, jokier, less interested in slow-burn character arcs than in gags per minute.

Community2009

A ragtag group of misfits forced together who become an actual family — the emotional shape rhymes with the Roses' journey, just filtered through study-group chaos.

But More formally experimental and meta; some episodes are genre pastiches rather than straight sitcom.

Corner Gas2004

Small-town Canadian sitcom about a community of oddballs who genuinely like each other, low on plot and high on charm — the calmer, sunnier cousin of Schitt's Creek.

But Gentle to the point of low stakes; there's no arc, just company you enjoy keeping.

Superstore2015

A big-box store full of eccentrics who start as types and become people you're rooting for, with the same knack for finding sweetness inside workplace absurdity.

But Blue-collar setting swaps out the class-fall-from-grace joke for straightforward retail comedy.

Small Town News: KPVM Pahrump2021

Swaps the fictional oddballs of Schitt's Creek for actual ones — same fascination with small-town weirdness, except nobody's acting and nothing resolves.

A documentary series about the real staff of a tiny local TV station in a desert town, populated by people so genuinely eccentric no writers' room could invent them.

But No plot, no arc, no punchlines — just real people being unselfconsciously themselves, which some will find slow.

Nomadland2021

Strip away every joke from Schitt's Creek and you're left with this: what happens to identity and belonging when money disappears — played as elegy instead of sitcom.

A woman who loses everything after the 2008 crash takes to the road, finding a fragile, dignified community among fellow drifters — the same economic wound, treated with total seriousness.

But Quiet, meditative, and largely plotless; there is no comic relief and no tidy redemption arc.