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Dan Levy can’t resist a family in crisis. His first series, which he co-created with his father Eugene Levy, was Schitt’s Creek, a Canadian comedy that became an international sensation. One of the greatest examples of sneakily profound comfort viewing, it was a story of a family facing a major transition after their once successful video-rental business came crashing down.
Levy’s extremely watchable new series, co-created with Rachel Sennott (I Love LA), is sort of like if everything in Schitt’s Creek was cranked up to 11. In Big Mistakes, one inciting incident—the theft of a necklace in a gift shop—leads siblings Nicky (Dan Levy) and Morgan (Taylor Ortega) into the wild world of drug trafficking. It’s more like they’re dragged into it in a series of increasingly ridiculous events that are somehow just believable enough to keep things running smoothly.
The rest of their family, including youngest sibling Natalie (Abby Quinn) and their mom Linda (Laurie Metcalf), are on a quest of their own, trying to get Linda elected as the next mayor of their small New Jersey town, a place Linda loves more than anywhere in the world. They’re assisted by Linda’s best friend, Annette (Elizabeth Perkins), a real estate mogul, who’s the mother of Morgan’s high school sweetheart and fiancé, Max (Jack Innanen).
The joy of Big Mistakes is watching the chaos unfold. Nicky and Morgan have a terrific back and forth, and their banter has an effortless sense of naturalism that makes it easy to believe these characters have known one another all their lives. Their increasing incredulity as they fall deeper into a life of crime they have no desire to be in is strangely intoxicating.
As they become more involved in crime, the balancing of their personal lives becomes more challenging. Nicky loves being a pastor, but finds it at odds with his homosexuality and burgeoning relationship with his boyfriend, Tareq (Jacob Gutierrez). Intriguingly, the only person who seems to have a problem with Nicky’s queerness is Nicky. There’s an especially funny and poignant moment when Linda’s excitement goes into overdrive when she finds out who he’s dating. Meanwhile, Morgan is at her wits’ end with Max, whom she grows increasingly annoyed with daily after 17 years together.
Levy is full of charisma and is great in the lead, and Ortega makes for a brilliant co-star. As a woman-in-crisis, she’s endlessly endearing, and I could sit back and enjoy Morgan making bad choices til the cows come home. She’s a real find.
But despite this uniformly enchanting cast, nobody can compare to Laurie Metcalf. But who can compete with Metcalf? And who would want to? She’s been a vital film, television, and stage presence for over four decades, has an Oscar nomination for Lady Bird (and yes, she was robbed of a win), and has won four Emmys and two Tonys.
In fact, Metcalf is already in this year’s Emmy conversation for her role in another Netflix series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story. There, she plays Ed Gein’s mother, Augusta, in a harrowing, villainous performance. Her work as Linda in Big Mistakes is not only better, but couldn’t be further from Augusta, showcasing her seemingly endless range.
Metcalf’s Linda is a single mother and a relentless go-getter, who is fiercely and ferociously protective of her children and would do absolutely anything to help them—something her kids are happy to take advantage of.
One of the most fascinating conflicts simmering underneath Big Mistakes is that Nicky and Morgan absolutely cannot tell Linda about the drug crimes they’ve found themselves embroiled in. It wouldn’t just derail her own personal ambitions of mayordom, but it would also significantly endanger Linda’s life—something Nicky and Morgan would do anything to avoid.
When Metcalf isn’t on screen, Big Mistakes is still electric. But when Metcalf is present (which, thankfully, is pretty often), Big Mistakes finds a whole new gear. It’s like everyone is just so happy to be around her and the show is all the better for it.
Her Linda leaves an indelible impression, a combination of anxiety, frustration, desire, and overwhelming love of her family that only an actor as gifted as Metcalf can pull off. She conveys as much in a single lengthy hug as in a passionate monologue defending her kids. I don’t get the sense that she was necessarily an easy mother to have, but she’s definitely the kind of mom you’d want.
Levy is a man of many talents, as Big Mistakes reminds us, but perhaps his most remarkable gift is his ability to create a dynamite TV mom. If the show gets more seasons (and it should, given what a knockout the first season ends on), Metcalf would likely earn her place in the (sadly theoretical) TV mom hall-of-fame.
And she’d be right next to Catherine O’Hara’s utterly unforgettable Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek.
