Brothers and Sisters feels like it’s treading water, waiting to figure out which direction it wants to go. The land deal that Tommy is orchestrating is going to blow up in his face like a land mine. Rebecca’s father has come back at the same time that Ryan is giving Nora mixed signals about his interest in the Walker plan.

I never know from one minute to the next about what is going on with Sarah’s company. Kitty’s marriage is a sham at the time she is expecting her first child. Justin had a lame, dead-end storyline with Chelsea, his pseudo sponsor. Nora puts energy into her cancer center only when she isn’t busy meddling with the family’s drama. And Kevin should have quit his position with Robert several episodes ago: What can possibly be in it for him to stay? Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 3, Episode 13 – “It’s Not Easy Being Green” )

All right. I admit it. I fell for it. When I saw the previews for this week, I did indeed think that Nora had slept with Roger, Sarah had slept with Ethan, and Rebecca had slept with Kyle. It never occurred to me that in every single situation the sex would fall through.

I have to admit, I was more surprised by the idea of Rebecca cheating on Justin than I was surprised by her faithfulness. Let me unpack that statement a bit: When Rebecca first arrived on the show and tangled with Sarah’s husband Joe, she didn’t seem like the most trustworthy girl. I think she has grown up a lot, though, and her commitment to Justin demonstrates a new-found maturity, as does her new job.

Now, watch, she’ll completely contradict that statement in the next episode…. Read the rest of this entry »

One show from my past that I’ve never been able to shake is Thirtysomething. The show aired in the late 1980s, and I never watched it. Not a single episode. I was in college, and I was too busy to watch a show about whiny old people. A few years later, I moved to a new town where there weren’t very many people my own age. Thirtysomething aired on the Lifetime Network three times a day. It became my new best friend.

Trust me, I know that it’s a cliche that I love Thirtysomething. It’s embarrassing. I’m a married, white, middle-class female in her late thirties, and I love Thirtysomething! Shocking. But instead of focusing on my flaws, let’s take a look at the show’s strengths and see whether it merits continuing adoration on my part when it hasn’t even been able to get a DVD release…. Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 3, Episode 11 – “A Father Dreams”)

I feel like an idiot for actually thinking that MAYBE Brothers and Sisters was going to attempt a dramatic storyline rather than a MELODRAMATIC storyline. What was I thinking? After the steamy scenes in the breath-taking ad for Episode 11 of Brothers and Sisters before the holidays, I had hopes for a scandalous affair between Kevin (who is gay!) and Tommy’s wife Julia (who is boring!) and a long, ugly drawn out custody battle to warm us through the winter. So, imagine my disappointment last night to see that Kevin was trapped instead in a series of dreams and he didn’t even get a pair of ruby slippers out of it.

It’s not a bad thing for a TV show to operate in the dream world. House has done is fabulously (especially in the two-part finale last season). However, in the episode of Brothers and Sisters last night, there wasn’t even a discussion of what those dreams might mean. Well. That isn’t completely fair: Kevin did realize that his dreams about Elizabeth indicated that he wanted children and that he thought he might be a good father after all. However, why did his dreams of becoming a father include seducing his biological daughter’s mother? Yes, I know how babies are made, but Kevin is GAY. Gay, gay, gay. I would have expected him to have dreams about a mayonnaise jar and a turkey baster. Read the rest of this entry »

The past two years, I reviewed Brothers and Sisters for TV Squad. I began this season on leave because of a large work project. However, I haven’t been able to bring myself to begin reviewing the show here for CliqueClack because I haven’t been willing to commit to watching the show this season.

Oh, Brothers and Sisters. I loved you. What happened? I loved Callista Flockhart’s three-dimensionality with Kitty, and now I wince at her shrillness. I loved Rob Lowe’s intelligence, warmth, compassion, and humor. And I watched in amazement as he tore into Nora at a family dinner. Tommy has never been much of a character, and I’m sick of the show throwing his children under the bus in order to give Balhazar Ghetty a storyline.

Read the rest of this entry »