6x12 The Pitch

[7.6/10] I can never decide what sitcom Schitt’s Creek reminds me of the most. It’s got the riches-to-rags bent of Arrested Development. It’s got the small-town-life vibe of Parks and Recreation. It has some of the zany nineties sitcom bits of something like Frasier. And bits of the romantic drama even come off a touch like Gilmore Girls.

But this felt a lot like The Office, particularly “The Job” where several characters from the show head up to New York to interview for an open management position. There’s the same sense of folks on a precipice, wondering if what a few people in a boardroom do or think could change their lives and take them far away from the lives they’ve known for the past three years.

That’s a good thing! The show does some great work with the pitch meeting, showing Johnny, Stevie, and Roland starting out well despite a hostile room, nearly crashing and burning after some heckling and technical snafus, and then closing strong when everything depends on it. The episode plays with the viewer’s emotions, leading us to assume the worst when the rest of the family is already counting chickens before the eggs have hatched and Roland is sending head-exploding emojis. It holds the tension well, taking the audience through success/failure swings right up to the final triumph.

I especially like a few things about that triumph. For one, it’s a little more complicated than just wowing a room full of boardroom bros. The fact that their pitch doesn’t connect with the company, but rather with the assistant they made a more direct connection with, who gets Johnny and his team on a more personal level, is a very nice touch that prevents this from being totally wish fulfillment.

God help me, I like that Roland helps save the day, proving useful through simply standing up for Johnny and showing that he respects for and cares for his business partner more than he’s ever seemed to let on. It doesn’t really fit with his character, but hell, I like it anyway. I like that Stevie gets over her jitters and contributes to the pitch, seeming sharp and prepared despite the anxiety of the situation.

But it’s going to be hard to top Johnny’s final speech, a magnified version of his speech to his former would-be friends in the season 2 finale. His argument for the viability of motels as a business, a window into small town life, is rooted in the personal. It reflects his own understanding and appreciation for what life in Rosebud Motel has meant to him and his family, how it’s changed them and given them something he thinks is worthwhile for everyone. It is, dare I say, a Mad Men-esque pitch that draws a line between something commercial and something deeply personal to the person pitching it, which gives it extra force.

Granted, the goings on back in Schitt’s Creek are a little less compelling. It seems plain for sure that Moira, David, and Alexis are jumping the gun with all their plans for what their new life in New York will look like. The show pokes some fun at this (e.g. Alexis “bringing David back down to Earth”...by telling him he won’t be able to get tickets for a Kerry Washington show), but it goes a little overboard and cartoony with it.

Still, there’s the germ of something real there too, with Patrick having an understandably shocked reaction when David practically makes the unilateral decision to uproot their lives. I don’t think it’ll last, but there’s still something powerful in just the look that Patrick gives his fiancee in the closing shot of the episode.

Before that though, it’s pure jubilation. All the major characters in the show (give or take Ronnie) coming together in a big celebratory hug to toast the success of their “conquistadors” is a great note for everyone. As Schitt’s Creek rounds out its final season, you can see the show busting out status quo-disrupting developments, to great effect. There were plenty of twists on the audience’s expectations when The Office hit the same sort of notes, but also some very heartening but no less unexpected developments as well. I expect the same here.