Thanks to a mixture of word of mouth during lockdown and its clean sweep at the Emmys, Schitt’s Creek has enjoyed an explosion in popularity in 2020.
And for millions of us, it has been the binge-worthy boxset that has seen us through the dark times of the last 12 months.
But what you might not have realised is that the Canadian sitcom – about a family of five forced to live in close proximity to each other under stressful circumstances – has basically epitomised all of our years in many, many ways...
1. When someone mentioned the word “coronavirus” in January
2. And we slowly watched the virus make its way across Europe
3. It quickly became apparent that life was going to change
4. Panic buyers started stripping the shelves of loo roll and pasta
5. The prime minister when he announced the first lockdown
6. And us, when he told the nation that the UK would be over Covid in three months
7. When every concert, festival and live event was suddenly cancelled
8. And everyone suddenly became very invested in the story of Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic on Netflix
9. When we were forced to have our first Covid haircut
10. When we stood outside on our doorsteps every Thursday at 8pm
11. When the NHS put out a call for volunteers
12. Every time the government backtracked on a decision as they blundered their way through the pandemic
13. When Dominic Cummings turned up at Barnard Castle
14. And then gave the most half-arsed excuse for his little trip on live TV
15. When we were invited to our 157th Zoom quiz
16. Whenever anyone asked if you’d taken up a new hobby or learned something about yourself in lockdown
17. That one time we bothered to get changed out of our pyjamas and brush our hair
18. Every journalist in every one of Boris Johnson’s press conferences
19. When the government changed the Covid messaging from ‘Stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus, save lives’
20. When “Dishy Rishi” became a thing
21. When conspiracy theories started spreading on Facebook
22. When single people were allowed a support bubble and got their first hug in months
23. Before going in pursuit of...
24. When we emerged from the first lockdown
25. And we were finally allowed to see our friends and family again
26. The non-essential shops reopened
27. And the pubs. Oh, the pubs
28. And there was outrage at how busy ‘Super Saturday’ was
29. When Eat Out To Help Out was announced
30. What we subsequently ate for every meal for the whole month of August
31. And we could finally book a summer holiday
32. But then you had to self-isolate for two weeks when you got home
33. When the second wave hit
34. And the new tiering system was announced with all the rule variations
35. When Matt Hancock told us it was actually illegal to have sex with someone we didn’t live with
36. When we entered a second national lockdown
37. And the pubs and restaurants closed again
38. But we were distracted by the US election and the prospect of Trump being voted out
39. What the people of the United States told Trump on 7 November
40. But then he threatened not leave the White House
41. Seriously
42. When several rich and famous types started breaking the rules