Brothers and Sisters season 5 thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

After quite the shake-up in the Walker family in last season's finale, they skip a year in the lives of the Walker clan to keep the audience guessing why some of last season's cast are no longer on the show. Airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC.

 

[Jason_V]

Okay, that was painful. Half the show was a glorified recap. The other half was simply boring. We had mentions of where Rebecca and Robert were, but was Tommy mentioned at all?
 

My biggest problem was that none of the Walker's were remotely likeable for a majority of the episode. Even Kevin and Scotty, who are normally the rock of the show, were openly fighting with one another. I feel like what made the show great in the first and second seasons is long gone. In its place are the B/S tropes and cliches. Like dinner and wine. Good lord...who didn't know everything would blow up around food?
 

I don't bail on a series when I've put in so much time...but this one really needs to be put out of its misery, especially after next week's promo and an interview Ron Rifkin did where he less-than-subtlely disses the show. Too bad. It had a lot of long term potential.

 

[Mary_P]

They pretty much lost me with last year's Kitty's-cancer-clears-up-over-a-commercial-break storyline. I decided to give it one more try last night, hoping for a retooling over the summer, but I agree, it was pretty unbearable. Really a shame -- a lot of talent involved in this show; they deserve better scripts.

 

[Jason_V]

I've been thinking about this all day (yes, I'm that obsessive). I don't mind they did the time jump; it's been done successfully in the past--I'm thinking specifically of Battlestar Galactica. My biggest problem, structure wise, was it literally ran from the idea of being a game changer. It blew a lot of smoke about how the family fractured and they weren't a part of each other's lives anymore...and then it all got reset by the end of the episode back to where it was. They all get along. They're eating together. They're happy, more or less.

 

I didn't get the feeling they learned anything from the experience. It was like Kitty's cancer last year. Completely done away with in a snap of the fingers. If they were married to the idea of the year jump in time, they should have taken six episodes or so to really work with it. Show how this formerly tight knit family worked and lived without seeing one another. Show their frost relationship begin to thaw little by little. Instead, we get have an episode that was glorified recap from last year and the other half which was running at full steam to get everything back the way it had been.

 

I do believe this is the last season. The writers have written themselves into a corner over the last 2 years I don't think they can get out of...at least not at ABC.

 

[Nelson Au]

I agree with most of what you guys said. But for me, it sure seems like this season of TV show premieres are all about Fall Out!
 

People are dying or get killed or some other upheaval in last year's finales on Grey's, Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, CSI, etc....

 

I was disappointed that it looked like the writers just wanted to get rid of Rebecca. All the angst over that storyline went on off-camera. Justin didn't seem too down about that at the end of the episode. Perhaps there is more to come over that one.
 

I was surprised that Kitty was taking care of Robert in a coma. It looked like he was pretty much dead last year. So it seemed like a contrivance to build a story around that. I was very amused that you never see his face in the hospital room!

 

I was confused over the resolution of the money from selling that plot of land. But I figure there will be more of that to come.

 

Yes, Tommy was absent. Holly with memory loss? I didn't see that one coming. I guess they weren't happy that she and Nora were good buddies.
 

I did like the concept that the past year, Sally Field's character was essentially taking a hands off approach with the family troubles.

 

I'm not writing this show off yet. But we'll see.

 

[Jason_V]

I am totally man enough to admit when Holly looked at Rebecca and told her not to worry since she'll find her mother, I was devastated. Good lord, imagine how that must have felt for Rebecca in that moment. Glimmer of hope Holly is getting better and to get punched with that.


Aside from the usual Walker nonsense, I quite enjoyed this episode. Yeah, half the show was the nonsense, but I could easily get through it. And I know Emily Vancamp isn't coming back, but it felt good to see Rebecca and Justin together again. It feels right.

The Kitty as someone else story? Blech. Sarah and Nora wanting to do the plastic surgery and lying to Luc about her age? Meh.


Nora's ex-employer Zoe better be careful. She teetered very close to age discrimination, at least in theory, in her final little speech.

 

[Jason_V]

After a terrible season premiere, the season is starting to get back to what made Brothers and Sisters a great show back in the day. All the characters get serviced, each storyline matters, and there's an injection of "cute" by way of Cooper. As with last week, even though I know Rebecca isn't sticking around, it was nice to see her and Justin together again AND Nora keeping her nose out of everything, for the most part.


I wasn't too keen on the Kitty story, though. It is important, yes...I'm just not feeling it right now. I could have easily spent an entire episode with Rebecca, Justin, Holly and David. And some more time with Saul and Charlie. A multiple episode storyline would have made Charlie walking away all that much heartbreaking.

 

[Nelson Au]

Yes, its interesting to see that they nearly wiped out all characters that were not part of the original cast and started over.

 

[Nelson Au]

Shocker of an ending this past week in an otherwise predictable plot. Didn't think Scotty would do that, writers trying to pull a 180 out of the air?

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au

Shocker of an ending this past week in an otherwise predictable plot. Didn't think Scotty would do that, writers trying to pull a 180 out of the air?

I just watched last night and, yes, it felt like someone in the writing room had the idea for the plot but didn't want to build it up over a few episodes.

Again, that has been my biggest problem with the show over the last year or so: throwing plot lines in without much thought. There was Kitty's cancer last year which was a MAJOR thing and then discarded with in an an episode. The entire year leap forward (involving Robert being in a coma and the family coming apart) was pretty much taken care of in the season premiere. Rebecca and Justin got two episodes; Tommy got nothing. Justin finally accepts Rebecca isn't coming back and the first non-family member female he sees starts to hit on him... Really? Kitty gets a new guy mere moments after she pulls the plug on Robert. (Saul and the Stephen Collins character from last week were in the same boat. Develop these relationships so we feel the enormous sense of disappointment when they don't work out instead of trotting out the guest star of the week.)


These writers don't want to take the time to write proper stories with arcs that build over time. Maybe it's an edict from ABC to go less serialized and more episodic...I don't know. Whatever it is, it's poor storytelling. Heck, even 30 Rock let the Jack/Nancy/Avery triangle build over the majority of season four before coming to a resolution in the finale. Why can't an hour long drama?


The Scotty cheating story should have been subtly dropped into the show since the beginning of the year. Yes, we know Kevin has been working a lot, therefore unavailable, but the first time (really) we saw how he brushed Scotty off was at the beginning of this episode. On other grounds, I don't like this story one bit. Kevin and Scotty were the one normal relationship in this entire show. Justin and Rebecca were dysfunctional from day one; Nora was never able to keep a good guy since William died; Holly and David just reunited; Tommy and Julia are kaput; Sarah and Luc are still wacky. These were the two people who were the rock, so to speak, in terms of being together. Next week's show better allow this story to play out as honestly and truthfully as possible-all on screen-or else I'll be very upset. Let this story simmer for weeks on end until all hope appears lost only to clutch it back from the edge of the abyss. Like what happens in real life.


Oh, btw, the show got a full season pick up. Full 22 episodes, up from the original 18.

 

[Jason_V]

Before the teaser was over last night, I didn't care about the episode. Around the 45 minute mark, I wanted to go to bed. I simply didn't care about Luc's mother in the slightest. She's never been mentioned before (IIRC), she won't ever be mentioned again and served only to bring Nora and Dr. Carl together. She felt like a big stereotype instead of a well-drawn character. Based on what we know of her, Luc has every single right to push her away and never see her again. I would have been more into that storyline, to see how the Walker's responded to that, instead of their big love-in at the end. That would have been very different from the way they usually do business.

Nice name drop of Tommy, by the way, considering how he mysteriously disappeared right after the accident.

And the less I say about the Justin storyline, the better. Embarassing would be one word for it. Inappropriate is another. Justin is an adult. He should know better than to do all of the things he was doing. But no...Captain Happy got the better of him. Ugh.

 

[Nelson Au]

I nodded off half way through and woke up at the end when Luc and his mother were embracing. How did that happen? How did they resolve their conflict? But I nodded off because, yes, the storyline wasn't that compelling. I guess they all wanted to watch that special on Leonard Bernstein.


I couldn't help but see Dr. Carl as Jack's father.

 

[Jason_V]

Luc threw a hissyfit when he saw Mom and Justin kissing and dancing. Mom was distraught. Nora talked to her. Luc and Sarah came back the next morning. They threw dishes. They resolved their problems of Luc feeling abandoned time after time by Mom (she's a narcissist...duh) in an easy TV show hour. Yawn and snore.

Yeah, I kept calling Carl "Christian" and my partner kept smacking me upside the head. ABC likes to keep roles in the family, apparently.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Jason. Doesn't sound like I missed much.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Usually a favorite show of mine, I found myself backlogged with 5 episodes on my DVR.

 

[Patrick Sun]

This is just a show going through the motions. It's fairly harmless and uninteresting, mainly because the writing is lacking some over-arching simmering tidbits, and just throws things into episodes for dramatic effect from left field (Scotty's infidelity).

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun has said. He doesn't feel important to the show anymore. He believes ABC is the problem. He thinks he'll be gone from the show if it goes on for another year. Probably nothing we didn't already know, but it's still good to hear it from someone in the know.

 

[Nelson Au]

That was an interesting interview with Ron Rifkin. I can see how someone with a unique idea or has a strong plan for a series see it diluted or altered by the Network to dumb it down.


I can't imagine a show like Mad Men survive on a Network intact! It's a shame if you have an original idea or some uniquely creative ideas to see them stripped away to be on Network TV.

 

[Jason_V]

Out of ALL the hotels in their little area of California, EVERYONE ends up at the same one? Really? I can understand Nora and Carl...and maybe even Sarah and Luc. But Kitty and Seth, too? It felt like a major contrivance for almost the entire Walker family to be there at the same exact time.


It is nice of them, though, to acknowledge the show's recent past, including the Scott/Kevin drama, and to look forward to Luc not being around for 2 months. These episodes don't exist independent of one another; they exist because of one another.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I really enjoyed Norah and Carl. They actually made sense to me.


"But Kitty and Seth, too?"



Where in the hell did that boy come from? Are they trying to turn Kitty into a cougar?