Butt Crack, Kentucky

There’s a scene in a movie or TV show that I’ve never seen that my dad finds hilarious. Apparently a guy is on a road trip and ends up getting stranded in a small town in Kentucky. He gets to a convenience store or a diner, someplace local, and calls someone to help him. When apparently asked where he was on the other end of the line, he says, “I don’t know, Butt Crack, Kentucky.”

The guy behind the counter is deeply insulted by this and indignantly shouts at him that it’s “Butte Creek, Kentucky! Butte CREEK!!!!” Which he probably ignores, but I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. And I don’t know what movie it’s from, so if anyone does know, let me know. My dad doesn’t have the best memory when it comes to remembering titles of movies and TV shows.

But anyway, the point of all that is that I think of him telling me this story every time I think of Schitt’s Creek. Which is actually one of my all time favorite TV shows ever made.

When I first heard of it, I was disinterested and generally resistant to watching it. Generally speaking, I don’t enjoy comedy, whether it’s in movies, TV shows, stand up, podcasts, or any other medium. Some comic strips are alright. But in general, if it’s straight up comedy, I’m probably not interested in watching it.

You may think I’m a stick in the mud, but it’s not that I don’t have a sense of humor. It’s just that it’s hard to find my kind of humor. If I can poke a hole in the joke, it’s not funny to me. If it’s insensitive or reinforces stereotypes in a harmful way, I see it as tasteless, and it doesn’t entertain me. Slapstick is not my thing, violence or people getting hurt isn’t funny to me, and the contrived situational comedy of romantic comedies is too illogical — it takes me out of the story, and I don’t enjoy it anymore.

Some might say that suspension of disbelief is needed in those situations, but I believe it’s the job of the creator to suspend my disbelief. Make an in-story reason why certain things happen so that there’s a logical explanation. It doesn’t take much to not make it utterly contrived.

More than anything, as a single mom working full time and running a household, I just don’t have the time to watch something that isn’t entertaining to me, so I don’t bother with anything that doesn’t engage me. There is good entertainment out there, so why would I waste my time on something I don’t enjoy? It’s not a waste of time for people who do enjoy it, so let them watch it and be entertained by it. I prefer something else.

In any case, I was resistant, like I said. But it was recommended to me by a few people who I work with at a wedding coordinating company called Velour Wedding Design & Coordination, VWDC for short.

Oh yeah, did I mention I was a single mom working full time and working weddings on the side? Yeah, I don’t have any time to waste.

Anyway, I really mesh with my team mates on a personal level, and when they kept recommending it to me, I decided I had to at least watch the first 3 episodes to see what it was about. That’s how I gauge a show — I watch the first 3 episodes, and if it doesn’t pull me in, I won’t watch anymore. That’s why I didn’t watch Game of Thrones. The first 3 episodes failed to pull me in.

But we’re not here to talk about that because I don’t remember much of anything from that show. No, we’re here to talk about the lovely, wonderful, beautiful Schitt’s Creek.

At first glance, this doesn’t look like anything I’d watch. The synopsis is that a family of 4 loses their entire fortune because their accountant was pocketing all of their tax money, rather than paying the IRS. The IRS then takes possession of all of their assets to liquidate and pay off all of their back taxes.

Brutal.

But it’s hard to feel bad for them because they are stupid rich. The only thing they have left is a small town the dad bought for his son as a joke when he was a child. He bought an entire town. As a joke.

So brutal.

Eye roll.

But the IRS doesn’t take possession of this town because it’s worthless to them. They can’t liquidate an asset they can’t sell, and apparently, no one wants to buy this town.

Oh yeah, the name of this town? It’s the titular Schitt’s Creek.

So they’re forced to go to this town because they have nowhere else to go, and they meet just about everyone over the next couple of days. They first meet the mayor, who is a completely oblivious dolt, his wife, who is suspiciously happy to the point that I could see if it she were a serial killer, and the apathetic manager of the awful motel they are staying at.

So there’s the dad, Johnny, his wife, Moira, and their two kids, David and Alexis. David and Alexis are completely dependent on their parents, though they are full blown adults. They are all clueless as to how anything in the world works aside from Johnny, who was the breadwinner of the household the entire time. He understands business, he understands how the world works (more or less, as much as a filthy rich person can) and is the most down-to-earth of any of them.

The only way to describe Moira when you first meet her is ridiculous. She is exhaustingly dramatic, unwaveringly selfish, and utterly out of touch with reality. She has a wall of wigs, and she wears a different wig every day. She screams about everything (literally screams and wails), and she is exceedingly proud. She looks down on everything, still expects to be waited on hand and foot, and thinks poorly of every person she meets in the town. She is what you might call the highest maintenance person on the planet.

Then there is David, the older brother. He reminds me of Narcissus from Greek mythology. He is obsessed with his appearance, and he can think of little else besides what the general living environment is doing to his skin. He wears the most ostentatious outfits, flaunting them like they aren’t the most impractical, frankly ugly pieces of clothing on this earth. And all he really seems to care about is having a good time. His father presses him to get a job to help with the family or at least to help fund his expensive facial skincare products.

His attempt to work at the local grocery store is nothing short of hilarious with some healthy cringe sprinkled in. David is an immediately dislikable character because he is so annoying and simultaneously very likable because he is so disarmingly clueless. He’s like a cute puppy who has no idea what’s happening, but he’s adorable. He’s also likable because he points out some of the ridiculous behavior of the others in the most delightfully sarcastic ways, and who doesn’t love watching some well-delivered sarcasm sucker punches?

Finally, there’s Alexis. She is just as ridiculous as the rest of them, but of course she is her own flavor of ridiculous. She is the younger sister, the final ridiculous ingredient in this ridiculous medley of family members. She is also exceedingly full of herself, clueless about how the world works, and high maintenance, though not nearly as much as Moira.

No one could be as high maintenance as Moira.

Alexis comes off as an airhead. She plays the part of the “pretty rich girl” very well. She thinks she is entitled to certain things because of her looks, and sometimes, she gets what she wants because of that. She thinks everything is gross, and she has the stereotypical valley girl accent, which I find delightfully funny to no end. Especially whenever she talks to her brother.

“Ew-ah, David!”

“No-ah, David!”

“Ugh! David!!”

“DAVID-ah!!!”

I’m chuckling thinking about it now. Despite how she behaves on the surface, Alexis is the first one to show a little humanity. Which makes sense because she is the youngest, so she had less time to be fully set in the ways of the rich person. She is also the most open to new ideas because of her youth and naivety.

So right off the bat, I liked all of the characters from a storyteller’s standpoint. They were all very well developed from the start, and they were introduced with a lot of strength. The ones who were supposed to be endearing were very much so. The ones who were meant to annoy the shit out of you did so very well. The ones who were unbelievably frustrating made you feel like you were going to crawl out of your skin so you could climb through the TV and shake them!

So if it sounds like I didn’t really like the characters, it’s because I didn’t. But I was meant to not like them, so I liked the show very much. It was already telling the story very well, and it sucked me in.

I needed to know what happened to these terrible, awful people whom I could only find one or two things to like about. These are our protagonists, OK. So what happens to them?

By the end of season 1, I was cheering for them, sad with them, excited with them, biting my nails anxiously waiting to see what would happen in certain parts of the plot, and feeling so frustrated and disappointed when their plans were foiled. And each story was told with such humor and levity, it really gave me something I needed in a time when things are so dark.

I found that I was on a journey out of the muck, the same way they were. And while our situations were completely and totally different, they uplifted and encouraged me all the same. And I was cheering them on from this side of the screen, too.

The rest of the show is all about how they get back on their feet after being knocked the hell down. Johnny never stops being the brilliant businessman he is, doggedly going down avenue after avenue after avenue to get enough money to support his family again. Spoiler alert, he eventually succeeds, but along the way, it’s the classic story of one step forward, two steps back until he finally has a breakthrough. His dedication to his family and his community is inspiring. And as his character develops to become more aware of the people around him, he is reminded of where he came from to begin with.

Moira learns to be a human again, building a real community around her in Schitt’s Creek. She doesn’t drown herself in the fake friends who are around only for her money. She was deeply depressed, even before they lost all of the money, because she was a “washed up” actress who couldn’t get jobs anymore. She tied all of her worth to the opinion of others, and it was killing her. When she found her people, though, she found that they uplifted her, and uplifting them in turn fulfilled her in a way that praise, recognition, accolades, and attention from others never had.

Similarly, Alexis stops worrying about all the friends who immediately forgot she existed when she stopped being rich and finds purpose in Schitt’s Creek. She gets a job at a vet clinic and learns how to care for others, not only animals but people. She gets to know clients, learns to make real friends, and even has her first encounter with real love. She learns about herself more than anything else, though, and learns that she is a capable woman who can do anything she wants to if she puts in the effort. That hint of humanity she showed in the beginning blossoms beautifully, and she becomes a beautiful human and a character I truly love.

Finally, David. David is one of those characters who doesn’t believe in themselves at all. Doesn’t believe they mean anything to anyone, that they can amount to anything. So to cover that up, he exudes confidence, focuses on his appearance, and acts like everything is beneath him. But his character changes so much over time, starting with his interactions with his best friend, Stevie. She teaches him not to be so wrapped up in himself, to expand his consciousness past his clothes.

David goes from not knowing how credit cards and tax write offs work to learning to be a successful businessman himself. He learns how to put himself out into the community to make connections and to be a real human himself. Spoiler alert, he falls in love and gets married by the end of it, to someone who loves the shit out of him for him, sees him for who he is, and calms the storm in him when it spirals too big for him to rein in himself. He goes from being entirely self-centered and looking down at everyone around him to building a community that has his back and whose back he has too.

In fact, they all do. They all build community in this tiny town, Schitt’s Creek.

I didn’t expect this comedy TV show to make me cry, but it did. On several occasions.

I didn’t expect to fall in love with this comedy TV show, but I definitely did. I’ve watched it twice already, and after this post, I think I’m ready for a third watch!

I didn’t expect to absolutely adore all of the characters of this comedy TV show, but that is exactly what happened. I have come to adore each and every character, supporting characters included. They are all endearing in their own way.

It’s like real people. You meet them once, and you have an impression of them one way or another. Maybe it was a good impression, a bad one, or somewhere in the lukewarm area. But over time, as you get to know them more and more, especially on a human level, not a professional or courteous one, you learn to like them. You see their quirks, their likes, their struggles, their desires, and you see most of all their humanity.

It’s just like yours.

No matter the background they came from.

This show remind me of my humanity, reminds me that the people around me who I so quickly dismiss as not being part of my community could be if I’d let them in. It reminds me that we all need community, that no matter where we’ve been, the people around us lift us up. I think we all need this.

But I think I especially need to hear this.

I’m so isolated most of the time. I have such a hard time letting people in. I don’t want to talk to most people, and if I do, I don’t want to talk to them about anything of substance. I don’t want to show them my vulnerabilities, what makes me human.

But I can’t build the community I desire by shutting everyone out.

Maybe that’s part of why I started this. I don’t know if anyone reads this or ever will. But knowing it’s out there for anyone to see means I am putting myself out there. My thoughts are literally out there for anyone to read.

It’s practice, in a way.

But I think maybe I need more than just practicing behind a screen. I think I need to do more to branch out and build a community of people who I know have my back and who know I have their backs too.

But this is what the show means to me. It evokes such string emotion from me because it is a wonderfully crafted work of art, and I am very grateful the makers of this show put this beauty together.

So, if you didn’t know this already, I highly recommend Schitt’s Creek to anyone and everyone. Including you, ghost reader who I’m not sure is every actually going to read this. Including you.

**READ ME (please)**
Two things!

One, please note that the names of everyone in this blog have been altered to protect the people I write about. My main goal is to explore my experiences and my growth, not air anyone’s dirty laundry out. Any likeness to people you know in real life are probably coincidental. (I mean what are the chances? It’s a pretty big world!)

Two, the thoughts and opinions I express in this blog are merely a result of my personal experiences to this point in my life. If there is anything I have misrepresented, overlooked, or have a blind spot for, feel free to leave a comment or email me at contact@livingbetween.net. (Yes, this includes typos. Let me fix my typos, please!) All I ask is that you always remain respectful.

Talk soon!
– Lynda –