Schitt's Creek, and why character development matters, even in sitcoms

I finally finished Schitt's Creek (2015–2020), and I believe Dan Levy has created something of a tiny miracle with this show.

Sitcoms rely on character to drive comedy. The episodes are not frequently watched in chronological order, so sitcoms need to rely on character beats and constancy of character to act as the glue between episodes and drive interest. That being said, it would be interesting to see the effect of streaming services on the structure of the sitcom, since all audiences do tend to binge-watch episodes in chronological order. But I digress.

Characters need to be well-constructed, so any audience member going in and out of the series can ground themselves in the show, regardless of what has happened before or after. Like, could anything be more Alexis than "A Little Bit Alexis"?

Sitcoms can easily fall prey to also containing character beats into that singular episode, which rarely offers characters the ability to grow out of their beats. Ross Geller will always be neurotic. Leslie Knope will always be driven, often at her own detriment.

Schitt's Creek does this too. The Rose family all begins as selfish, arrogant, and entitled. Not a single one of them can see past their own nose as they bumble through a town they find repulsive. They are linked to each other only because their family fortune was entwined. Other than the love Johnny (Eugene Levy) and Moira (Catherine O'Hara) have for each other, all the other relationships in the family hang on by a single thread of financial dependence. They don't know each other and have never cared to know each other. Why would they ever had any reason to?

I remember initially describing Schitt's Creek to a friend as "mean-spirited". I thought I had found another show in the vein of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the characters live only to make each other's lives miserable and somehow laughing at their terribleness and complete lack of empathy is the fun joke that we, the morally superior audience, are all in on.

Long story short, I was wrong. I was very, very wrong.

Dan Levy did something I have rarely seen in a sitcom. He contained stories within the episodes, sure, but he gave each character, particularly in the Rose family, a contained arc throughout the course of the show. He committed not only to story, but to character. By committing to the development of each character, he got much more out of the typical structure of a sitcom than many other classics that came before Schitt's Creek. Perhaps the most tangible way we see the fruit of this labor is in the finale, which was truly moving.

I'll place a spoiler alert warning here. Don't read past this line if you don't want to learn anything about Schitt's Creek that you don't want to yet.

My favorite character arc belongs to Alexis (Annie Murphy).

Alexis begins as the spoiled daughter to Johnny and Moira. She is shallow and attention-seeking. (Although in her defense, the same can be said about most anyone else in her nuclear family.) It's made abundantly clear that she hasn't had to work a day in her life—everything has been handed to her instead. She's had countless flings with countless celebrities, and she has learned how to weaponize her beauty to get what she wants. With everything in life, she puts herself first.

But in her final scene with Ted, the man with whom she ends up in a committed relationship, Alexis says goodbye to who she believes to be the love of her life. Why? Because he is chasing his dream and she is chasing her own. Neither of them want the other to sacrifice their dreams for the sake of their relationship, so they say a tearful goodbye, all the while confessing their love for each other. It's a beautiful, bittersweet moment, because it feels earned by both their characters.

Season 1 Alexis would have never in a million years done with Season 6 Alexis chooses to do. But along the ride for those seasons, we watch Alexis come into her own. She starts her own business, she puts other people first for once, and she learns how to commit herself to the things and people that matter to her. There are frequent and hilarious bumps and bruises along the way, but the journey is undeniable. Alexis is changed.

So the eventual development of Alexis as a character who prioritizes the needs of not only herself, but the people she loves is a beautiful, earned moment. We know who this character has become. She is still the Alexis we know and love—her head is still in the clouds, and she still doesn't quite get it, but she has truly evolved.

I have yet to see many sitcoms that have developed their characters in such beautiful ways as Dan Levy managed to do in Schitt's Creek. He took a self-obsessed family, put them in a town built of their own worst nightmares, and had them develop real relationships with each other and the people inside of it. And sure, at the end of the series, it's hard to say not a single one of them completely grew out of being self-obsessed (in fact, that is later what becomes the most endearing quality of perhaps each character), but he bathed them in such pathos for each other that it becomes hard not to love them all for who they are.

Each of them learn and grow, and instead of turning into a caricature of their initial characterization, each character grows beyond that.

The sitcom has a tried and true formula. There is rarely room for character growth, because humor relies almost purely on character trope. It works incredibly well with good characters, and especially with an ensemble cast. But Dan Levy broke that mold with Schitt's Creek. Instead of trope or caricature, he gave us fully rounded out characters. We get to watch them grow into their own. When they finally end their journeys, we understand both who they are and who they once were.

And what could be more beautiful than the privilege of watching someone grow into themselves and become a new and better person?