On Thursday, April 9, Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy’s new show Big Mistakes was released on Netflix.

The multi-award-winning actor and writer, who also released comedy-drama film Good Grief with the streamer in 2023, worked with I Love LA’s Rachel Sennot to create the show.

“Blackmailed into working for some very dangerous people, two deeply incapable siblings become the most disorganised duo in organised crime,” its description reads.

Levy appears as a pastor in the eight-episode chaos-fest, which promises to combine his signature comedic flair with high-octane crime drama. The cast also includes Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalfe, and Jack Innanen.

Here’s what the critics have to say so far:

″…This is less a great premise than a passable excuse for Levy to create another bickering, boundary-decimating on-screen family. As Schitt’s Creek proved, it’s where he excels, and the dynamic between the repressed and dutiful Nicky and the thrill-seeking, acid-tongued Morgan is a joy to witness…

“The domestic cringe comedy at its heart means Big Mistakes is far from a major error, but it isn’t quite a triumph either. Perhaps that’s inevitable. They may seem like a safer bet for a risk-averse TV industry, but shows made by stars can rarely compete with the ones that make them.”

“Big Mistakes is a wild ride. Sharper rewrites and edits to plot points would have offered a more succinct narrative, allowing the comedic tone to shine through. Despite its muddled storylines, the tone, wit and characters give viewers several glimpses into Levy and Sennott’s quirky world.

“If nothing else, the show captures the thrills and horrors of siblinghood and why, so often, the people you can truly rely on are those who have experienced the best and worst parts of you.”

“Dan Levy’s glorious Schitt’s Creek follow-up is worth the wait… It’s a cracking crime caper that takes the family comedy of Schitt’s Creek and whips it into a wicked, pitch-black thriller…

“There’s barely a character you don’t want to see more of in the Morelli family, with matriarch Linda, played by Laurie Metcalf (Hacks) particularly strong…

“Put it all together and it’s like David Sedaris has teamed up with David Simon. The only mistake in Big Mistakes, therefore, has been to make us all wait so long.”

“The family bickering is funny, as is some of the slapstick, and there are flashes of Schitt’s Creek in the siblings’ fractious but affectionate dynamic. In its search for a darker side, however, it flounders…

“Big Mistakes is stylish and watchable, yet the mood is inconsistent, and for a show that is so predicated on tension, it is oddly laid back.”

“There’s nothing under the surface, but it’s an entertaining surface.

“If you embrace the catty and cute dialogue, rather than being annoyed by it, it’s easy to get caught up and entertained courtesy of the tight direction (starting with Dean Holland on the first two installments), editing that leaves no room for breath (or for fully realized characterization) and a score from Peaches and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum that shifts into a Run Lola Run gear of pulse-pounding intensity when it wants you to be distracted by the implausibility of the circumstances. You might be annoyed by Big Mistakes, but you won’t be bored, and that’s something.”

“Big Mistakes can be perceptive and funny when it focuses on the chaotic family unit, especially when Metcalf is present…

“The season finale leaves us with reason to believe that a second season will do a better job integrating the crime stuff with the family stuff. I’d still rather see the version of Big Mistakes that didn’t have to.”

“Levy and Sennott have crafted a story that feels real and relatable, even as the circumstances spiral into situations most people can only imagine themselves in…

“With a dry wit and a balance of drama and comedy that is oftentimes reminiscent of Succession – if the Roys were a middle-class family from New Jersey – Big Mistakes is certainly worth a weekend binge.”

″[A] crime of a comedy…

“The Morelli sibs’ involvement gets more and more fruitlessly complicated, though Messrs. Ivanir and Kuzum get to stretch beyond what at first seem clichéd roles. And Abby Quinn is excellent as Natalie, the mom’s campaign manager and toadying child. But the consistent tone of “Big Mistakes” is rancor. Unrelieved.”

All episodes of Big Mistakes are available on Netflix now.

The BBC’s international editor warned that Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran is “fragile and tattered” after Israel launched strikes against Lebanon.

Tehran insists that its agreement with the US – and Israel – included an end to all attacks against allies in the region.

However, the White House is denying such a claim, with US vice-president JD Vance calling it a “misunderstanding” over the terms of their agreement.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, the corporation’s international editor Jeremy Bowen said the ceasefire is “fragile and tattered” right now as a result.

He said: “I personally find it, having looked at the Middle East for many many years, Lebanon and Israel, I find it very hard to believe that that strike yesterday – hitting 100 targets in 10 minutes, causing massive damage and loss of life inside Lebanon – I find it hard to believe it is not connected to the fact that the Israelis want to continue the war against Iran.”

He also pointed out that the Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the ceasefire, posted on social media that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire when describing the original deal.

Bowen also noted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insisting he will continue trying to “reshape the Middle East in Israel’s interest”.

The specialist took issue with Trump’s claim of “complete victory” over Iran, too.

He continued: “You can argue very strongly with the American characterisation that they’ve had scored a massive victory here because while they’ve had many tactical successes, they clearly strategically have not got that.

“But they have given [Iran] a hammering.”

Bowen said that, as a result, Tehran would not be willing to give up control of the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran effectively closed the waterway over the last five weeks in response to the US-Israel strikes, causing oil prices to shoot up around the world.

Bowen said: “So what Iran has now is the control of the Strait of Hormuz. They are aware of the power of that.

“And sure, they’re not going to give it up easily because without that, they give up their influence.”

Iran has accused the US of trying to “have a cake and eat it at the same time” after the White House backed Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Tehran argues that Lebanon was supposed to be included in its ceasefire deal with the US – and Israel – to halt all fighting in the region.

But Israel has been accused of a “massacre” in Lebanon by issuing air strikes on Wednesday which killed 182 people, according to the Iranian health ministry.

US vice-president JD Vance chose to stand by Israel last night, calling it a “misunderstanding”.

“I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding,” Vance told reporters. “I think the Iranians thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise, we never indicated that was gonna be the case.”

But Iran’s deputy foreign minister told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that the attacks were a “grave violation” of any ceasefire agreement.

Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran had sent a message to the Oval Office overnight which essentially said: “You cannot have a cake and eat it at the same time.”

He added: “You cannot ask for a ceasefire and then accept terms and conditions, accept all the areas that a ceasefire is applied to, and name Lebanon, exactly Lebanon in that, and then your ally [Israel] just starts a massacre.”

He claimed the US “must choose” if it wants war or peace, but “they cannot have it both at the same time”.

Asked if Iran would pull out of negotiations if the strikes continue, he said: “We are very much focusing on the wellbeing of the whole Middle East.”

He also defended Iran’s attempts to control passage through the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

He said: “Iran said security for all or security for nobody. The Strait of Hormuz is purely in Iranian territory.”

The UK’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said Britain wants the ceasefire extended to cover Lebanon and that has been part of their discussions with the US.

She said the strikes against Lebanon on Wednesday were “completely wrong”.

“We’ve seen the mass displacement of civilians in Lebanon with significant humanitarian consequences,” she said.

“This escalation in damaging, it’s wrong… we want the ceasefire extended to cover Lebanon.”

Cooper also disputed the Iranian deputy foreign minister’s claims that the Strait of Hormuz is not in international waters but territory belonging to Iran and Oman.

The minister said freedom of navigation applies to all international transit routes under maritime law, claiming: “Countries cannot simply hijack those kinds of international transit routes and unilaterally apply tolls.”

WASHINGTON — Even as President Donald Trump declares a victory in his war against Iran, what precisely the United States has won remains unclear, while the purported loser may be better off in key respects than it was 40 days ago.

“The world has just witnessed a historically swift and successful military triumph,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt proclaimed at a press briefing on Wednesday.

“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital ‘V’ military victory,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon.

While the 39 days of air assaults by the United States destroyed much of Iran’s air force, navy and missile and drone capability, the war Trump launched without consulting either allies or Congress has ended — or has at least paused — with little clarity. Iran’s hard-line theocracy is still intact and still in possession of its enriched uranium. Seizing that was one of the many and various reasons Trump has given for waging the war. Further, there is not even a consensus on the terms of the ceasefire.

“It’s not at all clear what was agreed at this point,” said Mona Yacoubian, an Iran analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “No clear consensus on which of the 10 points both sides agree on, noting that the proposal is Iran’s.”

John Bolton, one of Trump’s first-term national security advisers and a longtime Iran critic, said he’s not sure there is even a temporary deal in place. “There really isn’t a ceasefire agreement yet. Too much is still disputed,” he said.

At the heart of the confusion is what exactly Iran agreed it would give up in return for an end to the war. Trump himself referred to a “10-point plan” that Iran put forward that he called “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Iran’s plan, however, included provisions such as retaining control of and the right to monetize the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of all US sanctions that had been placed on the country over two decades and a promise by the US never to attack again.

Trump and his aides quickly claimed that wasn’t the 10-point plan Trump meant, but a different plan that Iran had proposed, one more to Trump’s liking. Leavitt on Wednesday also said reporters should ignore statements coming from Iran entirely. “What Iran says publicly or feeds to all of you in the press is much different than what they communicate to the United States, the president and his team privately,” she said.

She would not elaborate or, for example, explain how, on the one hand, Trump could demand a “COMPLETE” opening of the strait on Tuesday evening but then tell ABC News Wednesday morning that he would be amenable to a “joint venture” with Iran to levy tolls on ships passing through, with both countries profiting.

Demanding money for passage through an ocean waterway — as Iran has been doing for weeks at Hormuz ― is unprecedented and flies in the face of the concept of freedom of navigation for commerce, which the United States has defended since its founding.

“When things are all over, I don’t think there will be much in the plus column except weakening their military for the moment,” said Jim Townsend, who has worked at both the Pentagon and Nato and is now with the Center for a New American Security.

Robert Kagan, a State Department veteran of the Reagan administration, said Trump did not merely fail to accomplish his claimed goals, but actually harmed American interests.

“The US is objectively worse off than before we started the war. Iran has gotten international sanction to charge tolls and control passage through the strait. Iran will use this to insist on sanction relief from any nation that wishes to use the strait. It will be backed in this by Russia and China. Iran has not conceded on enrichment. I don’t see how Trump stops Russia and China from replenishing Iran’s weapons supply,” he said. “China has become a major player in the Gulf in a way that it has never been before. The fact that we are negotiating on the basis of Iran’s 10-point plan is a sure sign of defeat.”

Trita Parsi, an Iranian native and an analyst with the anti-interventionist Quincy Institute, said the ambiguity of the war’s ending questions the wisdom of why Trump even started it or didn’t just simply declare victory after three days of attacks and walk away.

“He would undoubtedly have been in a better position if he had ended the war on March 3 or had not started the war in the first place,” Parsi said.

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Vice President JD Vance provided a wild analogy on Wednesday involving his wife, Usha Vance, and skydiving, to describe his feelings about a key part of Iran’s 10-point proposal to end the ongoing war.

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport as he departed from Hungary, Vance was asked: “Do you see a scenario in which the administration may be willing to agree to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for civilian nuclear purposes?”

Both the Trump administration and Israel have repeatedly cited the crippling of Iran’s nuclear program as a primary goal of the conflict.

“What the president has said is that we don’t want Iran to have the capacity to build a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. “The president has also said that we don’t want Iran enriching towards a nuclear weapon and we want Iran to give up the nuclear fuel. Those are going to be our demands during the negotiation.”

In a statement posted on social media on Wednesday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, claimed the US and Israel had already violated portions of the two-week ceasefire agreement.

“As the President of the United States has clearly stated in his Truth, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s 10-Point Proposal is a ‘workable basis on which to negotiate’ and the main framework for these talks. However, 3 clauses of this proposal have been violated so far,” Ghalibaf wrote.

Vance took issue with one part of Ghalibaf’s statement, specifically the “denial of Iran’s right to enrichment, which was included in sixth clause of the framework.” To explain why, he offered this analogy:

“I thought to myself, you know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn’t jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she’s not going to do that because I don’t want my wife jumping out of an airplane,” Vance said. “We don’t really concern ourselves with what they claim they have the right to do. We concern ourselves with what they actually do.”

Users on social media were quick to call out the bizarre nature of Vance’s analogy:

Former first lady Michelle Obama shone a light on the current state of the US on Wednesday, quipping that the country is in its “janky” era, but that Americans can grow from it.

“You know, there are versions of the country that happen, right? And the new version doesn’t make the old one bad,” Obama told comedian Hasan Minhaj on the show she co-hosts with her brother, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.

“It’s necessary for growth, and I think we’re in just a janky version, right?” she said.

Minhaj agreed and then asked, “May I curse, Mrs. Obama?”

“You may,” she replied.

“Yeah, shit is jank right now,” he said. “Super jank.”

Obama put an optimistic spin on things, adding that “with each version, we learn something about ourselves as a country.”

“Right now, I’m kind of digging the way folks are beginning to respond, right?” she continued. “I mean, Minnesota, powerful stuff. I mean, it was a powerful reminder of what a community of people can do and are willing to do to protect one another. You know, when you’re not so janky, you don’t have to prove that, right?”

The Trump administration notoriously deployed federal agents to Minnesota at the end of last year as part of its aggressive deportation campaign. The massive public outcry over the operation intensified after federal agents killed US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January.

Former President Barack Obama warned that month that Pretti’s killing should serve as a “wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”

Michelle Obama noted that as a country, “We haven’t been this janky for a while, and I think our muscle of understanding our truth just got a little lax.”

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