'Big Mistakes' Review: Dan Levy's Netflix Crime Comedy
(L to R) Abby Quinn as Natalie, Dan Levy as Nicky, and Taylor Ortega as Morgan in Episode 108 of Big Mistakes.
Courtesy of Netflix
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Weeds, the Mary-Louise Parker-fronted dark comedy from Jenji Kohan, is generally remembered as one of those Showtime shows that were great until they became stupid and then lasted longer as “stupid” than they did as “great.” Seriously, there are at least a half-dozen of those.
Personally, I enjoyed a number of those increasingly silly seasons of the show, in which Nancy Botwin’s criminality expanded past the point of plausibility and became unsustainably ludicrous. As Showtime shows that lasted far too long go, I preferred Weeds to most.
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Big Mistakes
The Bottom Line
Broadly funny, occasionally suspenseful and not particularly deep.
Airdate: Thursday, April 9 (Netflix)
Cast: Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf, Jack Innanen, Boran Kuzum, Abby Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins
Creators: Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott
That’s why it’s strange I’ve barely considered that one of my favorite TV genres of recent years — dark comedies about ordinary people forced into intense criminality by the vagaries of capitalism — was at least partially Weeds-inspired. I keep comparing series like Peacock’s Killing It, Hulu’s Deli Boys and Hulu’s recent Sunny Nights to each other, when the truth is that they’re all the children of Weeds, and that if I’d just said so, there’s probably a big audience that would have flocked to them.
That streak of obliviousness ends here. Netflix‘s new comedy Big Mistakes, created by the powerhouse duo of Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott, is surely a direct heir to Weeds and one that will probably at least interest viewers who watched Killing It and Deli Boys and Sunny Nights. I made the connection easily in this case in large part due to the presence of Elizabeth Perkins, nominated for multiple Emmys for Weeds, but also because while Weeds started off perceptive and pointed and then evolved into something generally chaotic and, yes, stupid, the latter state is pretty much the starting point here.
Big Mistakes has a very good cast, often clever dialogue and (if only because nothing really makes sense) frequent surprises, so it all comes down to how much you’re willing to suspend your disbelief while watching a generally unsubstantial comedy.
Set in New Jersey, the story follows an ethnically and religiously confusing family fronted by hardware store owner Linda (Laurie Metcalf), who decides after the death of her mother to run for mayor of their midsized town. The series isn’t about her, except for insofar as Metcalf is so reliably great in everything that everything she’s in turns out to be about her on some level. But it’s easiest to start with her.
Linda’s mayoral campaign is being managed by Natalie (Abby Quinn), one of her three kids. But the series isn’t really about her, either. Big Mistakes is about Linda’s son Nicky (Levy), a priest or reverend or pastor in a Christian denomination that allows clergy to be gay but not to be in gay relationships and thus has to keep his relationship with contractor Tareq (Jacob Gutierrez) a secret; and her daughter Morgan, an aspiring actor turned elementary school teacher who’s in a loveless long-term relationship with Max (Jack Innanen), who has the mustache of a spineless man and a mother (Perkins’ Annette) with vast financial reserves and an interest in local politics.
For reasons that only make sense if you don’t think about them for a single second — no seriously, STOP — Nicky and Morgan go shopping for a gift for their dying grandmother and end up at a tchotchke shop managed by Yusuf (Boran Kuzum). When Yusuf won’t sell them a necklace that they want, Morgan shoplifts the piece, which turns out to be important to a group of Russian gangsters fronted by Ivan (Mark Ivanir). Before you know it, Nicky and Morgan are deeply embroiled in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives in regular jeopardy.
Levy hasn’t written or created enough shows for me to justifiably make this generalization, but I shall make it nonetheless: He likes to start off in a place of exhausting broadness and then dial back once audiences have proven they’re willing to go along for the journey. Or at least that’s what happened with Schitt’s Creek