I did not know what I was walking into when I agreed to review Big Mistakes, the new crime series hitting Netflix. But with a cast that includes Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf and Abby Quinn, I was excited to find out. What started as a bit of a comedy, spurred on by a few bad descriptions, quickly turned into a dark comedic journey through the crime world of New Jersey in a way I did not expect. While not everything works, one thing is for sure: this cast is fantastic and firing on all cylinders, even if some of the core of the show goes off the rails at times.
Breaking down Big Mistakes is a little hard without revealing some of the show’s best moments, but I am going to try. The story follows Nicky (Dan Levy), a gay pastor, Morgan (Taylor Ortega), a school teacher and all-around screw-up, and the rest of their family as they deal with a bit of a crisis, with their mom, Linda (Laurie Metcalf), running to be mayor and the family also dealing with an aging grandmother who is on the verge of death.
As Nicky and Morgan go to find a gift, a split-second decision leaves them in debt to the mafia, with a low-level thug, Yusuf (Boran Kuzum), and his boss, Ivon (Mark Ivanir), pushing the pair into slowly escalating jobs that drag them deeper into the underworld of this small town.
Honestly, it is a good setup, and it works to bring our cast of characters into more and more absurd and dangerous challenges that push their relationship and their very sense of identity within their family. It is a concept we have seen many times before, and in the hands of lesser actors, many of the scenarios would fall flat, but it is the acting chops of Dan Levy and Taylor Ortega that turn what could be an overly silly concept into something incredibly watchable and oddly fun. I found myself rooting for the outcomes, even with many of the people involved being incredibly insufferable.
It is the character dynamics that ultimately make Big Mistakes so fun. Dan Levy’s Nicky and Taylor Ortega’s Morgan have good on-screen chemistry. You can believe these people are related, and you believe they love and very much hate each other in equal measure, and it is that feeling that helps push the action forward.
They both bring an intensity to the scenes, helping build up the stress and the moments to a fever pitch that leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat to see how it will all go bad. From the moment they find themselves in this underworld, you get the sense it is only going to go downhill, but Big Mistakes manages to subvert expectations in some fun and smart ways.
Boran Kuzum’s Yusuf brings good straight-man energy to the situation, with his brooding intensity and frustrated energy playing off the insanity of Levy and Ortega to make for some incredibly ridiculous and, at times, insane scenes. Did you ever want to see Dan Levy lying, trying to buy animals while playing his pastor card? You got it, and it only gets more ridiculous from there. The series takes many of the crime tropes we are all used to and plays with them to make them feel new, with some of the line deliveries helping land moments that could have fallen flat otherwise.
“It is the character dynamics that ultimately make Big Mistakes so fun.”
There is a lot to enjoy in how the show presents its story, but at least when I first watched it, the story about Laurie Metcalf’s Linda pushing to be mayor was what felt most out of place. Do not get me wrong, it has some funny moments, but it felt like a very big tonal shift going from a meeting with a drug cartel to a small-town fundraiser, and Big Mistakes did not always find a way to blend those moments in ways that worked for me.
The contrasting concepts did at times work, but it also sometimes felt like a side quest, while the much more enjoyable crime-world main quest was left waiting for things to wrap up so we could rejoin the action.
That said, the relationship between Taylor Ortega’s Morgan and Jack Innanen’s Max managed to bring some of the most insane moments, and that made everything work for me. They bring such different energy to their roles that it feels unbelievable at times in the best possible way. The backstory of them being childhood sweethearts, only to have Morgan go away, live a wild life and come back to settle for him, is fun, oddly sad, and a great setup for some insane moments that I will not spoil here.
I do not know what I expected when I saw this cast and the show’s concept, but Big Mistakes manages to find its footing and deliver a solid first season. There is plenty of room to explore, and comedy left untapped, and with how Season 1 ends, the story feels like it is just warming up.
There are plenty of problems with consistency and narrative cohesion, but if you can look past all of that, the core of Big Mistakes is solid, and it delivers some of the most unhinged comedy I have seen on a crime show in a long time. I cannot wait to see where Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega and the rest of the cast take this going forward, because Season 1 is an insane mess in the best possible way.
