In Review, Catholic Magazine Lauds “Schitt’s Creek’s” Positive Portrayal of Queer Love

America magazine’s review of the television show “Schitt’s Creek” notably included a glowing discussion of the show’s positive portrayal of queer relationships.

“Schitt’s Creek” highlights the lives of a quirky family, the Roses, who learn to love each other under the unusual circumstances of a comical form of bankruptcy. Vivian Cabrera’s review focused on the show’s positive, complex, and honest illustration of all relationships, but particularly the one between David, the adult gay son of the Rose family, and Patrick Brewer, his long-term boyfriend.

Cabrera writes:

“More seriously, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ has also been hailed for its portrayal of queer relationships. We journey with David as he has a very awkward fling with the person who becomes his best friend, motel manager Stevie Budd [who is a woman]. We are with him as he meets, dates and falls in love with Patrick Brewer. They become one of the most lovable TV couples, on par with Ross and Rachel from ‘Friends’ (but less problematic). David and Patrick show the rest of the world that queer relationships can be happy, hopeful and good, something that hasn’t always been depicted on television.

“This depiction of a love that is vulnerable, scary, and accepting is a theme that is evident in every relationship in ‘Schitt’s Creek’.”

A Catholic magazine publishing a positive review of any show containing queer relationships is already important, but Cabrera specifically naming those queer relationships as one of the things that makes the show special is especially powerful. Cabrera’s depiction of  queer relationships as “happy, hopeful, and good” is something which LGBTQ people already know through the experience of their daily lives, but, it is not always shown in television entertainment. 

Though it was a small moment couched in the review of a television show, America’s positive depiction of the Roses’ familial love for LGBTQ persons is an expression of another familial love which is “vulnerable, scary, and accepting”: the love of the universal church for all its members, and God for all God’s children.

—Madeline Foley, New Ways Ministry, November 14, 2020