Big Mistakes premieres April 9 on Netflix.
By Elazar Abrahams
There’s a lot to like about Big Mistakes, the new comedy from the minds of Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott. It’s also the kind of show that makes you miss actual television.
The series follows two deeply messy siblings, Nicky (Levy) and Morgan (Taylor Ortega), who get blackmailed into the world of organized mafia crime. A fun premise made more fun by the stars’ crackling chemistry, always kibbitzing with (or perhaps “to” is a better word for it) each other. If you’re a fan of Levy’s, you’ll find a lot to like here.
At its best, Big Mistakes succeeds at the simplest thing a comedy needs to do: it makes you enjoy spending time with its characters. Nicky and Morgan are a fun brother-sister pairing, and by the end of the season, the show has let you in on their quirks, fears, and little patterns. The finale ends in a way that makes a second season look very appealing, pointing toward even bigger misadventures. Now that the required groundwork has been laid, that last-minute twist really excites.
Unfortunately, this freshman outing doesn’t hit that level the first time around.
The problem is that the excitement of that future potential is not fully realized in this freshman outing. The eight-episode season has a Netflix disease. It’s over as soon as it starts. Not runtime-wise, although it is short, and episodes move quickly. I mean structurally. Big Mistakes is set up to be watched in one continuous flow, where each 20-something minute part bleeds into the next and the whole binge is one long story. Netflix loves when you click to the next episode immediately after one concludes. As someone who genuinely likes the freedom that television used to allow, it feels unsatisfying, because there’s not always a sense of episodes having their own beginning, middle, and end.
I know that may sound very “old man yells at cloud,” but it matters. If Big Mistakes is not a limited series, and it’s not being presented as one, then the show should want you to remember episodes. It should want each chapter to feel like it earned its space, or even take a chance by using one episode for a filler story that lets us explore an underutilized character. Here, the entire Season 1 feels more like a stretched-out pilot, where the real appeal is in the promise of what might come next.
The show makes an interesting choice with Nicky’s job – he’s a priest. That suggests some sort of deeper thematic layer about morality, hypocrisy, and justifying bad for the greater good. This angle is completely underutilized, and I don’t think it lives up to its potential. When the series plays with that dissonance, it gets more interesting. The rest of the time, it’s just cute that he wears robes.
The supporting cast is a big plus. Laurie Metcalf is involved as their mother, and she brings instant credibility and bite to any scene she’s in. The ensemble helps keep the show buoyant even when the narrative feels like it’s still finding its shape.
Big Mistakes is solid. It’s funny enough, stylish enough, and charming enough to keep you watching, especially if you like Levy’s particular wavelength. It has the foundation of growing into something even better in the future.
I give Big Mistakes a B.
TV and City 