Well... Schitt's

Schitt's Creek swept the Emmy Awards this past weekend, winning the most Emmys for a Comedy in a single year, and sweeping all four acting categories (Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress) -- the first time any show (comedy or drama) has done so. If you've never watched it, you might be thinking to yourself: is it that good? Maybe you've even tried a few episodes and wondered: how is this what everyone is excited about?

In the modern age of television, there are so many excellent shows out there that it's hard to find time for the ones that are just "pretty good." It's harder still to find time for the excellent shows that don't start off that way -- and Schitt's Creek is firmly in this category. No one wants to hear "stick with this and then it really picks up in season two."

Squint and tilt your head, and Schitt's Creek has a lot in common with Arrested Development. Both are shows about a rich family being brought low and forced to live like "common people." In both cases, the family is horrible, a bunch of spoiled brats that are terrible to everyone around them. Arrested Development's approach to making this something you'd want to watch was to be impossibly clever every episode, with dozens of jokes a minute and an ever-expanding pool of running gags. After the original run of three seasons, the revival failed to recapture this high level of brilliant joke density, and became unwatchable as a result.

Schitt's Creek approach to making this watchable is to actually make these people change and learn from their experiences. The Rose family -- Johnny, Moira, Alexis, and David -- really do become better people over the course of the show, and it's strangely uplifting to see. And while they're on that journey, they're surrounded by a small town of recurring characters you quickly come to care for. (OK, Chris Elliott and his character, Roland Schitt, remain hard-to-take from beginning to end. But he feels to me like the one exception.)

And the show is quite funny. Other shows may generate more moments of tears-in-your-eyes laughter, but very few actually manage to tell stories you're actually engaged in this much while also making you laugh. The four actors who won those Emmys this past weekend are all brilliant: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Levy, and Annie Murphy. All of them are funny, and all of them are called upon to actually act in different episodes, in moving ways. (But if you ask me, Catherine O'Hara is the true master. You'll never be disappointed focusing on whatever she's doing in the background of a scene.)

I finished watching all of Schitt's Creek last month, and was very glad I stuck around through the rocky first season. The show grew ever more confident in what was funny, introduced a daffy continuing story line about a terrible-looking horror movie sequel, and brought in one of the most uplifting, LGBT-positive romance stories yet presented on television.

I won't lie: if I'd been an Emmy voter, I would have lavished praise on The Good Place. But I can't begrudge the love for Schitt's Creek and its cast. It was simply an "embarrassment of riches" kind of year, with more than one worthy contender. With five seasons of the show currently available on Netflix (and the final, sixth one being added soon), you should give Schitt's Creek a try. I give the series an A-.