'Son of a Critch' Final Season Trailer Arrives as Newfoundland's Cod Crisis Takes Centre Stage
The first trailer for the final season of CBC's 'Son of a Critch' has landed, and the teenager at its centre is already feeling the weight of the world. "I'm having a midlife crisis at 17," Mark says in the footage revealed exclusively by Deadline on 12 August 2026.
The coming-of-age sitcom, set in St. John's, Newfoundland, ends with its fifth season. Creator and star Mark Critch confirmed the show's conclusion on social media earlier in 2026, and cameras wrapped on the final episodes in July, with the season set to air on CBC and its streaming service CBC Gem, according to a post from Critch's Facebook account on 13 July 2026.
Based on Critch's own life, the series began in January 2022 with an 11-year-old Mark navigating school in late-1980s Newfoundland. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays the young Mark, while Critch himself portrays his own father, Mike Sr. The cast also includes Malcolm McDowell as grandfather Pop, Claire Rankin as Mark's mother Mary, Colton Gobbo as older brother Mike Jr., Mark Ezekiel Rivera as Mark's best friend Ritche, and Sophia Powers as Fox, Mark's girlfriend (Deadline, 12 August 2026).
Critch, a comedian and writer who performed on the CBC satire show 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes', co-created the series with Tim McAuliffe. The two serve as co-showrunners, with Project 10 Productions and Hawco Productions making the show in association with CBC and Lionsgate Television. The series has also aired on The CW in the United States.
The final season moves Mark into his last year of high school and introduces a defining moment in Newfoundland's history: the 1992 cod moratorium. The moratorium, a government shutdown of the cod fishery that had sustained the province for centuries, cost roughly 30,000 jobs and pushed many Canadian families into poverty (Deadline, 12 August 2026). For a show that has always mixed warmth with the texture of a specific place and time, the moratorium gives the final run a historical anchor with real weight.
The series has grown up alongside its audience. Season 1 featured an 11-year-old Mark in 1980s St. John's. By Season 3 he was navigating near-death experiences, business schemes, and his first attempts at stand-up comedy. Season 4, which premiered on 7 January 2025, found a 14-year-old Mark starting high school as the 1990s arrived. Now, in the final stretch, Mark is 17 and the world around him is shifting underfoot.
No premiere date for the fifth season has been announced. Filming is complete, the trailer is out, and the show is heading toward its final curtain.
