Schitt’s Creek: fish out of water and up the proverbial

Pick of the day: Schitt’s Creek, streaming on Netflix.

Schitt's Creek, streaming on Netflix.

Pick of the day: Schitt’s Creek, streaming on Netflix.

One of the unheralded comic treasures buried under the sheer tonnage of programming available to stream these days is Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek.

Co-created by and starring Emmy award-winner Eugene Levy (who appeared in the films A Mighty Wind, Best in Show and the American Pie franchise) and his son Daniel, this series reliably delivers laughs, surprises and more than a little charm.

The conceit is this: the Rose family has lost its considerable wealth to the misdeeds of a business manager and is forced to move to the small rural town that patriarch Johnny (Eugene Levy) bought earlier as a joke, on account of its funny name.

His formerly pampered wife Moira, played by the wonderful Catherine O’Hara, is an ex-soap star and is mightily displeased at their fall from grace. Their two spoiled adult children are along for the ride: David (Daniel Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy).

All four Roses are living in two adjacent rooms at the local motel managed by the dry-witted Stevie (Emily Hampshire).

Johnny would dearly like to sell the town and return his family to some semblance of normalcy, but the wildcard character constantly standing in his way is mayor Roland Schitt, played to the hilt by Chris Elliott (perhaps best remembered as Woogie in the 1998 romantic comedy There’s Something About Mary).

Roland is proud of his family’s longstanding contribution to the town and public service; notwithstanding, he is sex mad and easily offended, and has revolting table manners.

It is a classic fish-out-of-water set-up, with bite-sized 21-minute episodes.

The show adheres to old-fashioned sitcom norms, with a crisis of the week before returning to the status quo.

“We’re very slow learners in the Rose family,” Eugene Levy told Vanity Fair. “No one’s learning that much.”

The first three seasons are available to stream, and a fourth was recently commissioned.