The Rewatch Diaries: Welcome To Flatch
Small town perfection gone too soon
The Rewatch Diaries is a series where I chat through a series that I really dig that has been canceled or just wrapped, the only catch—it has to have 3 seasons or less.
The first one I did a while back was on High Fidelity:
This time I am exploring the canceled Fox series Welcome to Flatch.
These are long reads and go a bit in-depth so you don’t have to take it all in at once.
Happy reading!!
Before We Get Into It
Sooooo every time I do these I’ll mention these sites to help out with spoilers and trigger warnings. They could be dope to add to your list when you’re watching new shows or movies!
Does The Dog Die — A site that literally tells you if there is harm to an animal in a movie or show, but also tells you if there are things that could be emotionally triggering. There are tons of categories to click through so this is weird to say but — look for your trauma?
Rotten Apples — This site tells you if something you are watching has anyone affiliated with the film that has been involved with any sexual misconduct in or out of the industry.
Unconsenting Media — Another site that lets you know if anything sexually icky or uncomfortable is present.
These are dope sites for folks who wanna know what they are getting into without spoilers. I try to steer clear of shows that have these things going on but you never know when stuff slips in. I’ll also be using Letterboxd and The Cherrypicks!
History with Welcome To Flatch
Original Watch
I genuinely have no idea where I found out about this show. I don’t watch a lot of shows on Fox except like, Bobs Burgers, but I do love a mockumentary. I do know that when I found it I refused to let it go. It became one of my comfort shows, I know it will always make me laugh, I can put it on in the background while working, and I can even find new things in it during every rewatch.
I just—loved it.
It’s about people living their lives in small-town Ohio.
That’s it.
Just day-to-day shenanigans and chaos with cousins Shrub and Kelly and all the residents of Flatch, OH.
People love minding other people’s business, it’s why Reality TV got so popular. There is also something to watching the day-to-day lives of fictional people.
Shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Abbott Elementary managed to package it up in a mockumentary bow and got us invested in the lives of these people like we actually know them, and for me Welcome To Flatch was no exception.
I am not sure when I first started watching it, but it came out in March 2022 and I threatened the Executive Producer Paul Feig on Twitter in November 2022, so somewhere in between there.
So maybe I did start watching it from the very start! This makes me feel very VERY cool—and serves as an even bigger reason for Paul Feig to give me everything I want from this show…including this hat:
and this shirt:
…spread the word and if he’s your uncle go demand that he give me things.
Date I Started My Re-Watch
Well…I rewatch the entire series at least once a month, but for the sake of this piece let’s say December 1, 2024.
Feelings On The Show Before I Started My Re-Watch
I had absolutely zero notes. Well, it’s very white…that is my only note.
Details Please!
Aired On: Fox (and you could watch it on Hulu)
Original Airing Date: March 17, 2022
Creator/developed for the US by…
EPs: Jenny Bicks developed the series and she also wrote on Sex and The City…and wrote the screenplay for the iconic What A Girl Wants! also—Paul Feig! You might know him from Bridesmaids and The Heat…and if you’re deep in dyke land you know him as the director of the highly overrated film loved by many a caucasian dyke, A Simple Favor.
Starring: Holmes (who did a series of short films but was a newcomer at the time), Sam Straley (also a newcomer but was in The Dropout), Seann William Scott (American Pie if you’re a millennial and idk…Ice Age movies if you’re Gen Whatever Comes After That), Aya Cash (You’re The Worst, The Boys) are all the main folks in the series.
Number of Seasons: 2
Number of Episodes: 27
Final Airing Date: February 2, 2023
How it ended: It kinda just…ended. No drama no wild shit just got canceled.
Xtra Xtra Xtra: Welcome to Flatch is a remake of an 2017 British show, This Country—which came from a 2014 failed pilot called Kerry.
The series (and pilot) was created, written by, and starred real-life brother and sister Daisy May and Charlie Cooper.
It’s…in-fucking-sane. It’s so stupid and fucking genius. It won a ton of awards and launched Charlie and Daisy’s careers. They went from using their mother’s camcorder to make films to being award-winning creators and actors.
This Country only has 19 episodes across 3 series (compared to Flatch’s 27 across 2) but that is mostly due to how they do shows in the UK.
I am a huge fan of Daisy May, she created another show called Am I Being Unreasonable? which is insane, and is the lead in a show called Rain Dogs which makes me so uncomfortable in the best way possible.
Here is the thing….there is no way to watch This Country in, well, this country. Not legally anyway and like don’t go buy the DVD cos they won’t work over here. So, if you wanted to, I might tell you to go and click this link, but you’re an adult so do what you wanna.
Character Breakdowns
Big Fucking Mandy
A genius, an icon, a legend. Krystal Smith plays her perfectly. I love her, I want to be her, she is incredible. She is also a quarter-time terrible tattoo artist with a bunker and loves her dogs.
Shrub
I adore Shrub, he’s an artist and also really sweet—he’s also pretty codependent on his cousin Kelly. Sam Straley does a perfect job at bringing out the Midwest boy who has never left home to life. Also, he loves his nan and has questionable taste in women.
Kelly
Played by Holmes, she’s blindly confident and an influencer with very little influence. She’s also a shady businesswoman, has a huge crush on somebody else’s husband, and desperately needs to seek therapy about her daddy issues.
Father Joe (Seann William Scott) and Cheryl (Aya Cash)
Father Joe moved to Flatch, Ohio to be the pastor of the church and he used to be in an early aughts Christian boy band. He also convinced his girlfriend, white feminist and writer, Cheryl to move with him. He’s boring, she’s nuts, and watching their relationship is outlandish.
Sidenote: I love me some Aya Gotdamn Cash. My fiance introduced me to the show You’re The Worst (incredible), she was an insane racist with superpowers in The Boys, has her spinoff coming, and somehow has managed not to piss me off as many white women do. Phew. The absolute psychotic range.
Beth
After Mandy….this might be my favorite character on this show. She is THEE most interesting boring person in the series. She’s batshit crazy but quiet and manages to start the first polyamorous relationship the town has seen. 5 stars to Erin Bowles for bringing this nut to life.
There are also some other supporting characters like Nadine (a psychopath), Len (possibly a murderer), Mickey (podcaster, LARPer, and annoyance), his grandma Leotha (Dungeon Master and enabler), and Blind Billy (pervert and deadbeat dad). It’s a small town made up of total weirdos and I love every single one of them.
Season 1
Pilot thoughts
It’s….perfect? You know exactly what you’re getting from the start, and they consistently deliver. It’s mockumentary sitcom-making at its finest and watching it made me think of the first time I saw Parks & Recreation.
The pilot made me invested in the characters and their relationships. I found myself trying to figure out who I’d be friends with if I lived there and who I saw myself in.
That’s the way to know if you’re watching great TV. If you find yourself wanting to do a Buzzfeed-era Which Character Are You?! quiz or thinking about who in your life is very insert character here-coded, you’re connecting.
Abbott Elementary is another mockumentary show that folks praise for bringing the genre back, gone since the days of The Office—which Quinta has spoken about getting the comparison but the two are not the same.
It premiered in December 2021—Flatch came out just a few months after. Abbott is in its fourth season and it is so well fucking deserved. Great casting, great guest stars, incredible and witty writing, and fan-fucking-tastic marketing. I tend to think that if Flatch had gotten a little extra boost in the marketing department, maybe it would be going into its 4th season. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking but hey WOTTICE SEW WRONG WIF DAT?!?
Relationships / Friendships / Situationships That I Cared About The Most…
Shrub and Kelly — Cousins who have a hilarious relationship. The co-dependant tendencies are alive and well but they have only had each other since forever and never left this town. They both have dreams they think are too big to make come true…but still think they are better than the town they call home. Their relationship has a hiccup or two but it is so cute seeing them recover.
Mandy and Cheryl — Insane. I love it. Total opposites and they fucking attracted. They are both girls girls and seeing them encourage and have each other’s backs while never turning away from their big perfect personalities makes for some fucking hilarious (but sweet) moments. It’s the whole Golden Retriever/Pit Bull thingy that people talk about on TikTok all the time but not toxic.
Shrub and Beth — I have never been more intrigued by a relationship. Beth is the oddest bitch in the world and so plain but has boys all over town fawning over her. When they finally get together it’s as uncomfortable as you think it will be….I like it, Picasso.
Dylan and Nadine — DYLAN PLEASE STAND UP SWEETHEART PLEASE!!!
Favorite Episode
Episode 13 (Pyramid Scheme) — Kelly’s Aunt Lola (scammer and feminist) comes to town in her pink car and polyblend pink suit and I couldn’t be happier. Kelly learns how to be a “business bitch”, Shrub gets a letter and has the world’s 13th-best celebration, and Father Joe is crashing out.
Season 2
We get some new players in season 2, including Barb-fucking-Flatch (played by Jaime Pressly) and her Barbaritas and Blonde hair. She is going through a divorce and only wears wigs, Kelly wants to be an entrepreneur, and Shrub falls in love with a cougar and learns about polyamory. CANCELED TOO SOON.
Relationships / Friendships / Situationships That I Cared About The Most…
Beth and Kelly — I don’t know why this works for me the way it does. Kelly cannot stand Beth and is SO MEAN TO HER BUT HELP IT IS SO FUNNY ‘COS BETH EITHER DOESN’T GET IT OR DOESN’T CARE SO SHE KEEPS TRYING TO BE FRIENDS.
Kelly and Barb — Kelly has mommy issues for sure, and she finds a mother figure in Barb. Seeing Barb come back to town as a big-deal entrepreneur who seems to have it all together gives Kelly the courage to really try at life. They might not always be on the same page but this is one of the best mentor/mentee relationship arcs I’ve seen in a comedy series in a minute.
Favorite Episode
Episode 3 (ManiFlatch Destiny) — Kelly learns about the power of vision-boarding, Shrub is couch surfing, and Big Mandy takes over bible study. This is likely the episode I have rewatched the most in the entire series…it is SEW GOODTTTTT!!!
Date I finished my rewatch: LOL well I did a rewatch within a rewatch so let’s just say…today.
Feelings on the show after I ended: MAD. BECAUSE WHY DIDN’T THIS GET AT LEAST ONE MORE SEASON!?
How did it age?: Good actually, I mean, it’s new so it wasn’t really a chance of it not but it aged pretty well. There is talk of queerness, there are trans folks on the show and it’s not made into a thing, Blackness is alive and well, some folks have money some don’t, it’s pretty fucking solid.
There is, of course, the once again obsession with interracial dating but like hey, no one is listening to me about that still so here we are.
No transphobia present, no weird racist jokes or tropes, and it passes The Common Sense media test. It also has fresh apples and no—The Dog Does Not Die.
Did it get gay?!: YETHHHHHH! Lots of queerness and also icon Murray Hill makes an appearance.
EXTRAS:
My fiance pointed out that the population changes when they show this at the top of the episodes.
They stopped showing it all the time but in the premiere, it was 1,526:
and the last time we saw it was in the premiere of Season 2 where Barb made it 1,505 after coming back to town:
Where to watch: You have to buy it! I did on Amazon ‘cos at the time it was the only place to watch after they snatched it off Hulu.
But now you also buy it on AppleTV…..It’s likely the best $16 I ever spent.
That’s all!!
Let me know if you know it/love it/watched it ‘cos I NEEEDDD TOOOOO KNOWWWWWW!
Thank you so much for reading Hi Shelli!
As always, all reviews are in front of the paywall and if you like what you read I hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber <3