Summary of this article
Big Mistakes is a new crime comedy series that has released on Netflix on April 10.
It is created by Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott.
It features Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf, Abby Quinn, Jack Innanen and Boran Kunzum in prominent roles.
Rachel Sennott and Dan Levy have carved out distinct comedic identities in contemporary Hollywood. Sennott has a jittery energy that thrives on social anxiety and Levy has his character-driven zany wit rooted in familial dysfunction. Big Mistakes, their latest collaboration for Netflix, operates as a convergence point for these sensibilities, blending Sennott’s frenetic tempo with Levy’s more structured comedic instincts. The result is a frantically paced crime comedy that is ripe for an easy, fun binge for the weekend.
When Morgan (Taylor Ortega) attempts to secure a sentimental gift for her dying grandma, things spiral quickly. She unwittingly steals a valuable diamond necklace from a pawn shop and the siblings get thrust into a murky criminal underworld. The siblings must navigate an absurd hierarchy of criminals, their Nana’s wake, while making plenty of their own poor decisions. The show piles on twists and turns, many of which feel contrived, relying on inexplicably unhinged choices that don’t fully hold up to scrutiny even as the narrative barrels forward. But everything happens at such a breakneck pace that you do not get much time to dwell on the obvious loopholes in the writing.
Levy, who also serves as showrunner, steps into the role of Nicky, a local Reverend, with a nervous energy that feels like a natural evolution from his role as David in Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020). He is openly gay, but his parishioners would rather pretend he is not a “practicing” one, instantly setting the stage for the usual hijinks; but then you realise that is nothing but a narrative misdirection.
It might be difficult to imagine Levy playing siblings with anyone but Annie “a li’l bit Alexis” Murphy, but his dynamic with Ortega’s impulsive Morgan forms the show’s main core. Ortega, who carries an uncanny visual echo of a young Manisha Koirala, crafts Morgan as someone who feels spiritually adjacent to Alexis Rose, but stripped of privilege and re-rooted in something more precarious. The result is a character with the same impulsive temperament, but less floaty.
Hovering above this chaos is Laurie Metcalf as Linda, Morgan and Nicky’s high-strung mother, who is running for town mayor on the eve of her equally high-strung mother’s death. Metcalf leans into the familiar “judgemental mother” archetype, a la Lady Bird (2017), but sharpens it into something more suffocating and comic here. Linda is frustratingly familiar for being insufferably biased towards her favourite child, Abby Quinn’s Natalie, who is a mirror of Linda. On occasions, even Natalie does not escape Linda’s scrutiny, and yet that only strengthens their kinship.
Tonally, the series is a far cry from Schitt’s Creek, but some shades of it match up with Emma Seligman’s critical indie dramedy, Shiva Baby (2020), which starred Sennott in her breakout role. The show oscillates between tightly wound tension and darkly comedic beats.
What elevates Big Mistakes beyond a familiar crime comedy setup of hapless, everyday folks who find their way into the murky world of drugs, danger and cartels is its cast. There’s a ridiculous hierarchy within the show’s criminal ecosystem. You have a petty criminal working for Russian overlords trying to break into the Brazilian cartel that turns out to be run by a Mexican dude based out of Miami. There’s the good old Italian mob syndicate. And local politics that bleeds into it all.
The supporting characters are just as fun to watch as the main cast. Boran Kuzum’s Yusuf stands out as a particularly enjoyable, balancing menace with a kind of dark, seductive presence. He plays Yusuf as someone who can shift a scene from threatening to funny seamlessly and then back again. Meanwhile, side characters like Max (played by Jack Innanen) and Annette (Elizabeth Perkins) contribute to the show’s dense interpersonal web, even if not all arcs land with equal weight.
The writing also slips in observational humour hallmarks of both Levy and Sennott’s style. There are sly jabs at the culture of posting content with children online—moments that highlight the long-term consequences of turning private lives into public content. Elsewhere, the show indulges in inside jokes about how divided the LGBTQIA+ community can be.
The series rarely allows itself to stall. The use of techno-inflected music in key sequences adds a rhythm to the bingeable episodes. Big Mistakes occasionally demands a suspension of disbelief that it does not always earn. But the series seems aware of this and leans into it. Even its wildest moments—bull testicles full of drugs, cocaine-fuelled sibling bonding scenes—are framed through a lens of maniacal freewheeling.
By the time the season closes, there’s a sense that the story could spiral further. A second season is well set-up before the eight-episode run comes to an end. Big Mistakes is, ultimately, fun if occasionally uneven. It may not make a lot of sense, but it is highly engaging. And in a landscape crowded with self-serious prestige dramas and even nostalgia content that teeters too dark (here’s looking at the latest Harry Potter reboot), a little bit of light, chaotic fun is always welcome.
