Dan Levy is back with his first major project since Schitt's Creek ended, and the pressure is real. Big Mistakes has released first-look images, and they suggest a comedy that's tonally different from the show that made Levy a household name.
Schitt's Creek was warm, earnest, and ultimately about people learning to be better. It swept the Emmy Awards in 2020, won universal acclaim, and gave Levy the creative freedom to do whatever he wants next. Which is both a blessing and a curse.
The blessing: Netflix will greenlight whatever he pitches. The curse: anything he makes will be compared to a show that ended at the peak of its popularity and cultural relevance. There's no way to win that comparison.
Big Mistakes appears to lean into messier, more complicated comedy. The first-look images show Levy in what looks like professional crisis mode - rumpled, stressed, surrounded by chaos. That's a departure from David Rose's carefully curated aesthetic on Schitt's Creek.
The premise, as described by Entertainment Weekly, centers on a man navigating personal and professional disasters. It's a broader setup than Schitt's Creek's very specific "wealthy family loses everything" hook, which could work for or against the show depending on execution.
What Levy has proven is that he understands character and emotional truth underneath the comedy. Schitt's Creek worked because you genuinely cared about the Rose family even when they were being ridiculous. If Big Mistakes can achieve that same balance, it has a shot.
But the title itself suggests a more cynical sensibility. Schitt's Creek was about growth and redemption. Big Mistakes sounds like it's about... well, making big mistakes. That's a harder sell emotionally, even if it's potentially funnier.
