10 shows that prove we’re in a golden age of queer comedies

Schitt’s Creek

Perhaps the most popular show on the list, Schitt’s Creek just wrapped its final season this year. Co-Created by Dan Levy and his father Eugene (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show), the pair also play father and son on the series.

Centering on the formerly rich Rose family as they’re forced to flee to a town literally called Schitt’s Creek, the last tax shelter they have after financial troubles ensue, Schitt’s Creek begins a bit sour, a sort of thumbing the nose at the poor town and its inhabitants, but it doesn’t stay that way.

The series quickly finds that the show works better when it doesn’t punch down at the Schitt’s Creek residents but rather punches up at the Rose Family in all of their absurdities.

This includes Catherine O’Hara as Moira, the matriarch, (Home Alone, Beetlejuice) in the best performance of her career, a pitch-perfect out of work soap opera actress whose accent you’ll be trying (and failing) to emulate the entire time you binge. Moira also happens to own more wigs than most people do shoes.

Beyond the high joke density and unbelievable hilarity of the show, Schitt’s Creek is incredibly warm and sweet. It’s one of the only shows I can think of with a pansexual main character, an intentional choice Dan Levy made as he was creating the show.

In an interview with Vulture, Levy stated:  “We show love and tolerance. If you put something like that [homophobia] out of the equation, you’re saying that doesn’t exist and shouldn’t exist.”

The loving worldview of Schitt’s Creek is something we could use more of. The first five seasons of Schitt’s Creek are streaming on Netflix while the final season is available through PopTV until it drops on Netflix in October.