Two notes: On a series that grows on you (Schitt's Creek) and on a film about a dysfunctional Italian family

A twofer today, first on Season 2 of the delightful and amusing series Schitt's Creek, w/ particular praise for the touching last episode (13th) of the season. This is a series - from the father-son team Eugene and Daniel Levy but really a fantastic ensemble cast of those two plus Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy as the Rose family - grows and evolves and gets better as it goes, a real rarity in TV streaming. The essence of the plot: the Rose family of 4, a wealthy LA (I think) crew - the father ran a big business "Rose Video" now defunct, think Blockbuster - loses its fortune and has to relocate to the eponymous town and live among the "yokels" in a run-down motel as they try to right the ship. Although every episode has some laughs and some episodes have many, the series didn't start out so well from my viewpoint: Essentially, the gags were just making fun of the rurals and watching this spoiled family of 4 tr to adjust to their hard circumstances. Ho hum. But over the course of the first two seasons the Roses develop relationships w/ various townfolk and it's not so much that they change the town, though the do a little, as the town changes them - and in the process not only do they grow but the whole series grows in complexity and in empathy. We change, too. Many of the secondary characters are excellence, particularly the sardonic motel manager Stevie (Emily Hampshire). All told, a series that takes a while to get on its feet and then takes off.

Also, what about the Marco Bellochio 1965 Italian drama, Fists in the Pocket - a terrific film that emerged from among the great Italian neo-realist films of the 1960s though, in its portrayal of a severely dysfunctional family (4 adult children and their mother) in northern Italy is closer in spirit to Cassavetes or maybe even Eugene O'Neil. There are many highlights, or lowlights if you will, as we watch the members of this family tear one another apart - notably the suicide note and the careening car ride, the trip w/ the blind mother, the extremely tense birthday party, and the final breakdown of the central character, the weirdly murderous Alessandro (Lou Costel). The gusts of emotion and malevolence are so startling as to be almost comic, but an extremely dark comedy a la Becket; the whole movie is well crafted and well acted start to finish. I only wonder what happened to Bellochio; this was he debut film, made, I read somewhere, on limited budget with family members and acquaintances in the cast and locales from his home town. From what I can see, his later films veered more toward commercial success than to art-house obscurity - so, good for him, if this movie opened a path through which he could pursue his career. But it seems to me it was a talent wasted or misdirected. Anyway, we have this one film from him and it's worth watching.