Confession. I was never a big fan of Schitt's Creek. I liked it without ever quite loving it. So I've come to Big Mistakes not knowing a lot about Dan Levy who co-stars and co-created this caper comedy thriller except that he is the son of comic legend Eugene Levy. In fact I know more about wunderkind co-creator Rachel Sennott, having just enjoyed her in I Love LA. She's not in it, though you can easily imagine her as the female lead.
In Big Mistakes Levy and Taylor Ortega play bickering siblings who find themselves being chased by violent gangsters who are after a priceless diamond necklace. Somehow the trinket has ended up on their grandmother's corpse – she dies and is buried in episode one. So the first challenge is digging up the body. Cue frantic nighttime graveyard escapade.
Oh, did I mention that Levy's character Nicky is a gay pastor? Which is funny to me anyway, because I assume that Levy is Jewish. He certainly looks Jewish and there's a noisy, argumentative familial energy to Big Mistakes that feels very Jewish (please don't ask me to explain, it just is – if you've seen Woody Allen's Radio Days you'll know what I mean).
So the start of this comedy is very chaotic, with a bit of Sopranos-style violence thrown in for good measure. Mum Linda (Laurie Metcalf) also gets involved but is oblivious to the origjns of the necklace, which Morgan actually stole from the shop, unaware that it was hot. This would make a great movie, let's see if it can be spun out for a whole eight-part season. It's off to a flying start, as long as you like anxiety, shouting and gun-toting criminals.
Big Mistakes will inevitably be compared to Schitt's Creek and I Love LA. The first is generally regarded as a classic and the second is one of my recent favourites, so these are tough acts to follow. This definitely won't be to everyone's tastes – it's not recommended for viewers who get easily stressed out or who are bothered by little things like credible plot development – but Levy and Taylor have great chemistry and funny bones, which means that even when it starts to get ridiculous, which is does within the first 30 minutes, it's still worth a watch.
Big Mistakes is currently streaming on Netflix.
Picture: Netflix
