Son: Of A Critch

It’s currently streaming on (in Canada) and The CW (in the US). It’s the perfect palate cleanser after all the heavy, dark dramas we usually binge.

There’s a specific type of comfort that comes from watching a show where the stakes are low, the insults are witty, and the protagonist is constantly tripping over his own oversized feet. For me, that show right now is Son of a Critch . Son of a Critch

Yes, there are rotary phones, VHS tapes, and hair band posters. But Son of a Critch doesn't use the 80s as a gimmick. It uses the era to show a time when kids had actual freedom (and actual danger). The jokes about smoking behind the shed or trying to buy a Penthouse magazine at the corner store hit a very specific, very funny nerve for Gen X and elder Millennials. It’s currently streaming on (in Canada) and The

We follow (a brilliantly awkward Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), an 11-year-old who is too smart for his own good but too naïve to survive middle school. He lives with his sharp-tonged father, Mike (Mark Critch playing a fictionalized version of his own real dad), his doting grandmother (the legendary Claire Rankin), and his older brother, Mike Jr. For me, that show right now is Son of a Critch

This isn't a laugh-track show where you’re told when to chuckle. The humor comes from character and misery. Young Mark’s attempts to impress a girl inevitably end with him covered in cafeteria slop. His attempts to fit in with the "cool kids" end with him accidentally starting a rumor about the principal. It is cringe-comedy done right—painful, but kind. A word on the heart Underneath the slapstick and the sarcasm, Son of a Critch is a deeply tender show. It deals with grief, financial struggle, and the fear of never fitting in. But it does so with a light touch.