The Critches
The main family featured on the show, a lower-working-class family living on the outskirts of St. John's (later specified as "VOCM Valley".)
Mark Critch
- Played by: Benjamin Evan Ainsworth
The protagonist, an overly optimistic aspiring comedian.
- Attention Whore: By his own admission, he's a narcissist who will do almost anything for an audience. In "Father Critch", this almost gets him in trouble, as he contemplates joining the priesthood and ends up being tutored by a priest who's strongly implied to be one of the Christian Brothers implicated in the Mt. Cashell Orphanage scandal.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: The finale reveals that he actually managed to become the valedictorian for his class, albeit just barely (according to Sister Rose, he beat out Tina by just 3%.) He probably would have scored higher if his various antics and get-rich-quick schemes hadn't distracted him from his schoolwork.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: His parents have not really liked any of his actual dates. They distrusted Tina because of her English heritage, and they didn't like Cara because she's a liberal Protestant. Oddly, they all like Fox, even though they know her dad's a criminal and that her mom Really Gets Around.
- Embarrassing Hobby: He's a secret monarchist, obsessed with the British royal family, which sounds innocent enough, except that St. John's is heavily Catholic and a lot of its residents are descended from Irish folks who fled persecution from the British.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In "Save the Last Dance for Me", he becomes incredibly jealous when Fox suddenly spends more time alone with Ritchie.
- Large Ham: Mark constantly over-acts, partly because he took acting advice from his dad, who is a celebrated radio presenter, but not an actual actor.
Patrick "Pop" Critch
- Played by: Malcolm McDowell
Mark's grandfather, a cantankerous old Newfoundland nationalist.
- Boomerang Bigot: Played for laughs; he hates the British, despite being part British himself (and being played by a British actor.)
- Cool Old Guy: Even at his advanced age, he's quite fun to be around.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He lost his father when he was very young, may have been molested by a priest, his first love rejected him, his second love (and eventual wife) died relatively young, and some unexplained financial catastrophe caused him to become penniless and forced to move back in with his adult son and wife.
- Dirty Old Man: He enjoys the occasional bit of pornography, and isn't above flirting with Sister Rose whenever he encounters her."Now, it says here that this movie has partial nudity, and I'm eager to see which part."
- Forbidden Fruit: In his youth, he pursued a romance with a young novitiate nun named Rose - who is now Sister Rose, the head of St. Bridget's.
- Lost Lenore: He still mourns for his wife Katie.
Mike Critch, Sr.
- Played by: Mark Critch
Mark's father, a news reporter for VOCM.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the book that the show is based on, Mike is presented as aloof and distant and not interacting much with Mark. In the show, he's much more present.
- Friend in the Press: Mike is this to Officer Butt, an incompetent local officer who feeds him tips about local crimes, often in the hopes of getting the public to call into Mike's radio show to provide information that Butt is too incompetent to find on his own. This relationship is severed after the events of "Details are Scanty", in which Butt wants Mike to report heavily on the arrest of a local criminal as a distraction from the far more damning story of Butt losing his gun. As the criminal happens to be the father of Fox, Mike's son's best friend, and as his crime had been motivated by a desperation to provide for his family, Mike can't bring himself to ruin the man's life and thus reports on Butt's lost gun instead to take attention off of the man.
- Large Ham: He has a talent for making the most mundane things sound important.
Mary Critch
- Played by: Claire Rankin
Mark's mother, a homemaker.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the book, she's a Cloud Cuckoolander and a Motor Mouth. Here, she's more normal, although she does have a certain talent for words.
- Daddy's Girl: She was raised by her father alone, and loves him dearly.
- Freudian Excuse: She has an irrational distrust of Protestants. "Family Tree" reveals the roots of this - Her mother was a Protestant, and abandoned her when she was a child.
- Hypocrite: She initially hates Mike Jr.'s girlfriend Linda because she got pregnant out of wedlock. "Airing Out" reveals that she not only conceived Mike Jr. out of wedlock, she didn't marry Mike Sr. until after their son was born. She does eventually acknowledge the hypocrisy and warms up to Linda.
- Shipper on Deck: Having become good friends with Suzanne, she adores Fox and thinks she'd be a perfect match for her Mark.
- Wrench Wench: Her dad's a plumber, and since he raised her alone, she picked up a lot of his skills, including how to fix a toilet and how to change the tires on a car.
Mike Critch, Jr.
- Played by: Colton Gobbo
Mark's older brother, who works as a DJ at VOCM.
- Big Brother Instinct: In the pilot, he finds out that Mark got hassled by a Fox and advises him that he needs to stand up for himself, because he'll have to deal with people like the Foxes for the rest of his life.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: "The Ghost of Christmas Presents" reveals that he's dating Linda, a young woman who happens to have gotten pregnant by another man. Mike wants to do the honorable thing and stick with her so that her child has a father, but his parents are not pleased about this.
- Did Not Get the Girl: In the finale, Linda leaves him for her ex-boyfriend, who decides to get back with her to become a father to their child.
- Heroic Bastard: "Airing Out" reveals that he was born out of wedlock, while he's dating a pregnant woman in order to be a father for her unborn child.
- Naturalized Name: In season 3, he adopts the last name "Campbell" while on the air because having two Mike Critches at VOCM was getting confusing for people and because he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to make a career for himself if he was always in his dad's shadow.
The Foxes
The poorest family in St. John's. Headed by Suzanne, who's been married several times, the family supposedly has representatives at every school in the St. John's public school system. Their home is mentioned as being in "the blocks".
Jennifer Fox
- Played by: Sophia Powers
The second-youngest Fox seen on the show, and the only girl among them. Her dad is Greg, Suzanne's most recent ex-husband.
- Daddy's Girl: She loves her dad, even if he is a nasty drunk.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Few things piss her off worse than people showing her pity because of her family's chronic money problems.
- Fiery Redhead: She has red hair and is quick to hit something if things don't go her way.
- Gender Flip: In real life, Mark Critch only ever interacted with male Foxes. In the series, the main Fox he deals with at school is re-imagined as a girl.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She sabotaged Mark's relationship with Tina out of jealousy, and later, sank his and Ritchie's relationships with Cara and Jay because she feared they would stop hanging out with her if they got proper girlfriends. After the latter incident, she admits that that was a crappy thing to do and apologizes for it.
- Hidden Depths: She's fluent in French, knows how to search through public records, and has basic first-aid skills.
- Nonuniform Uniform: Her school clothes are a deconstructed version of the boys' uniform.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Any time she does well in a class, her teachers just assume that she cheated because they've all taught her brothers. Eventually, she decided that it was just easier to pretend to be dumb.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: She's only ever called "Fox" by Mark and Ritchie, though her father calls her "Kitten" sometimes, until the Season 3 finale where she finally tells Mark her real name: Jennifer.
- Promoted to Parent: In "You're Full of It" and the rest of the season afterwards, she's stuck trying to manage Middle and Baby, as her mother is now working two jobs and her father has filed for custody of the kids. This creates a lot of stress for her after Middle kicks in a door in the grade nine washroom while he's already got two strikes against him.
- Redheads Are Ravishing: Mark becomes increasingly smitten with her as the series goes on.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's rude and aggressive with most people, but is also dutiful to her parents and fiercely loyal to Mark and Ritchie.
- Tsundere: In the first season, she really wants to get close to Mark, but doesn't want him to know that she likes him, which causes him a great deal of confusion and angst. After she nearly causes him to suffer a panic attack while they're totally not on a date, she drops the act, and thereafter only occasionally teases him.
- Women Are Wiser: She is a lot smarter than any of her brothers.
Suzanne
- Played by: Nicole Underhay
The matriarch of the Fox family. She works as an Avon lady.
- Mama Bear: She's fiercely protective of her kids.
- Really Gets Around: She's been married several times, and has so many kids that they're distributed throughout the St. John's public school system. In "Family Tree", Mark sneaks a peek at the Fox family tree and it takes up two whole sheets of paper.
- Women Are Wiser: She's much, much smarter than any of her sons or her ex-husband.
Middle Fox
- Played by: Teigan Follett
Fox's older brother.
- Character Development: He starts off as a moronic bully, but by the end of the series, Mark's attempts to befriend him (and his sister's badgering) convinces him to stop picking fights and start taking his studies seriously. In the finale, he actually manages to graduate
- Heel–Face Turn: In season 2, he stops hassling Mark and Ritchie, having been humbled after being forced to repeat the eighth grade.
- Stupid Evil: In the first season, he's a terrible combination of mean and stupid. In the second season, he stops being so mean all the time, but is still rock-stupid.
Silver Fox
- Played by: Stephen Payette
The oldest Fox at St. Bridget's, and later a drop-out.
- Big Brother Bully: He is not above bullying his little sister when he can't find someone else to pick on.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In "You're Dead After School", he joins forces with Mark to stop Millard, because Millard was targeting his family. In "Beer Necessities", he and Middle also extend a sort of Sacred Hospitality to Mark, inviting him back to their lair in the woods after he buys them chicken and chips.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: When Greg tries to split the family up in "Hailley's Comet", Silver joins his brothers in refusing to abandon his mother.
- Put on a Bus: He is hauled away to jail at the end of "Bonfire Night", having been caught when he was already on probation.
- Pyrrhic Villainy: In "That Was Me in Grade 9", the consequences of his years of being a bully and a delinquent have caught up to him; he's too old to continue studying at St. Bridget's, can't cut it at the local high school because he wouldn't be a senior there, and he has no marketable skills with which to secure a job. He spends his days pathetically biking around in the St. Bridget's parking lot, where not even Mark or Ritchie still fear him.
- Stupid Evil: It took him several tries to reach the ninth grade, and by season 3, the public school system has given up on him.
Baby Fox
- Played by: Nate Penney
The youngest and smallest of the Foxes, and also the most vicious.
- Creepy Child: He's small, but he's also a vicious little shit who can curse like a sailor and has a mean throwing arm.
- The Dreaded: Even Silver doesn't dare mess with him. To date, the only time anyone's been seen standing up to him is Fox, and only because she was angry enough about him throwing rocks at Mark.
The Perez Family
A Filipino family who live in the suburbs.
Ritchie Perez
- Played by: Mark Ezekial Rivera
Mark's first friend at St. Bridget's. Though born in the Philippines, he has spent most of his life in St. John's and has assimilated pretty thoroughly.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He is loyal to Mark because the latter sacrificed a lunch to stop the Foxes from messing with him.
- Friendless Background: He's the only non-white kid at St. Bridget's. Before befriending Mark, he mostly kept to himself.
- Innocently Insensitive: His family are well-off compared to the Critches or the Foxes, and consequently, his talk about the cool things he gets to do on the weekends rubs his friends the wrong way, particularly Fox.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Being friends with Mark and Fox does a lot to get him to come out of his shell
- Mistaken for Gay: In "Halley's Comet", he decides to get his ear pierced. After seeing him with a ring in his right ear, Fox quickly tells him that they must pierce his other ear immediately and move the ring there before anyone sees it.
- Out of Focus: He plays a less prominent role in season 2, which focuses more on Mark and Fox's relationship. His absence is explained as him having gotten into skateboarding, which is too physical for Mark's tastes.
- The Whitest Black Guy: He was born in the Philippines, but grew up in St. John's, and has assimilated thoroughly to the local culture. In "Circus", his mother forces him to entertain some newly arrived kababayan cousins, and he hates it, as he doesn't speak their language and they compare him to a roast pig - brown on the outside, but white inside.
St. Bridget's Staff
The teachers at St. Bridget's, a Catholic-run school.
Principal Sister Rose
The Principal of St. Bridget's.
- Church Militant: Her devotion to God is rather terrifying. While corporal punishment is supposedly outlawed in public schools, she still readily employs it against anyone she deems insufficiently Catholic. Which is almost everybody.
- Holier Than Thou: No matter how faithful you profess to be, she will claim to be more so.
- Pet the Dog: In the finale, she decides to show mercy to Middle, giving him just enough half-credit points that he's able to graduate alongside his sister, having realized that he actually did try to improve himself.
Sister Margaret/Miss Fowler
- Played by: Petrina Bromley
Mark's homeroom teacher in the seventh and eighth grades. Initially a nun, she leaves the sisterhood in season 2 and becomes a secular teacher.
- Only Sane Man: She serves as a balance between the fanatical Sister Rose and the rather spineless Vice Principal Chafe.
Sister Perpetua
- Played by: Kate Corbett
The ninth-grade homeroom teacher.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: She means well, but her idea of going the extra mile involves hauling a life-size model of a cross around to give her students an idea of what Jesus went through and trying to conduct a class blindfolded to try and teach the class to respect the blind.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappears midway through the third season, with Sister Rose taking over the ninth-grade class. Presumably, she got fired after one too many weird behaviors.
Other Characters
Dick Dunphy
- Played by: Richard Clarkin
A disc jockey at VOCM, and a longtime rival of Mike Critch, Sr.
- The Ace: He's very in-demand in St. John's, enough that he has a lucrative side-business spinning records at parties.
Cara
- Played by: Maya McNair
A nerdy Protestant girl who Mark befriends despite her going to rival schools (Vanier in season 2, Cashin in season 3). Mark attempts several times to win her heart, but she seems to prefer to just be friends.
- Bespectacled Cutie: She wears enormous glasses, but the effect somehow makes her look cuter.
- Beware the Cute Ones: In "Reach for the Top", Mark badly underestimates her competitive streak when Cashin and St. Bridget's compete on a game show because he assumes that she's always sweet.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Played with in "Reach for the Top", where Mark finds out that she's a lot more competitive than she let on, and thus thinks that her previous niceness was an act to lure him into a false sense of security, which cools his attraction towards her. The end of the episode sees her trying to call him to cheer him up after his team loses, but the phone's tied up.
- Granola Girl: She spends her free time protesting for various causes. She's also a vegetarian.
Tina Reardon
- Played by: Daisy Harris
Mark's first girlfriend. Also sometimes Fox's nemesis.
- Holier Than Thou: Her few bits of dialogue include her making a speech on why she's saving herself for marriage, which indicates that she's probably a devout Catholic.
- Satellite Character: She mostly exists on the show for when they need another girl to antagonize Fox, or when a scene calls for Mark to interact with a classmate who isn't a Fox.
- Shipper on Deck: In "Go Into the Light", she suggests that since she kissed Mark twice but Fox has only kissed him once, it would only be fair for Mark to kiss Fox again to even things out.
- White Sheep: According to Mike Sr., her family's got a number of criminals in it, but she's obviously not involved in any of that.
Officer Gary Butt
- Played by: Pete Soucy
The most frequently seen member of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
