“Brothers & Sisters,” an update on “thirtysome- thing” for 40- to 60- somethings, is fumbling toward a groove. If it doesn’t find it soon, and hang on to the “Desperate Housewives” audience it inherits at 9 p.m. Sunday, it will ruin the family.
The drama had a difficult beginning, with casting changes midproduction and script revisions along the way. With the third installment airing on KMGH-Channel 7 this weekend, it seems to be settling into a three-beat tempo of funny/silly/heartbreaking, repeating its steps throughout each hour.
They banter, they tease, they shed a tear. They flirt, they date, they stare mournfully at the swimming pool.
That’s the waltz performed by the grown children of powerful patriarch William Walker, played in the pilot by Tom
Skerritt, as they come to terms with Dad’s death (in said swimming pool) and the fact of his long-standing infidelity, revealed in the pilot.
You can’t help but root for the series to settle down, preferably somewhere between the somber and goofy extremes. It has improved since the pilot, but it loves those mood swings.
Killing off a pivotal character (and known actor) in the introductory hour was tricky, maybe even gutsy. (A framed photo of Skerritt hangs on the wall of the grand family home.) “Brothers & Sisters” wants to be cheeky, but does it have to be so blatantly soapy? You can almost hear ABC urging the producers to add more soap-operatic outrageousness to satisfy the “Desperate Housewives” audience.
After the dark beginning, “B&S” focuses on the reverberations through the family business and the family itself as hidden relationships come to light.
Two brave performances distinguish Sunday’s episode. The actresses who play the women in Walker’s life, Sally Field and Patricia Wettig, rant and rage about love and loss, with neither soft-focus lenses nor heavy-duty wrinkle cream. Rarely on television are actresses allowed to display sagging necks and crow’s feet with such dignity.
Field, as Walker’s widow, Nora Holden, and Wettig as Holly, Walker’s longtime mistress, provide this season’s class-act diva dust-up. While Morgan Fairchild and Bo Derek do whatever third-rate hair-pulling, girl-slapping act they do on the cheap MyNetwork telenovela “Fashion House,” Field and Wettig (wife of executive producer Ken Olin) lend integrity and serious acting chops to their show. Sudsy though it is, “Brothers & Sisters” takes the relatively high road.
Two relationship triangles are in play in the midst of the sassy repartee. The relationship of Holly, Nora and William is a central complication. The dating triangle of Kitty (Calista Flockhart), long-distance fiancé Jonathan (Matthew Settle) and Kitty’s TV talk-show rival Warren (Josh Hopkins) may be a more fleeting competition. So far, Rachel Griffiths and Ron Rifkin are underused.
The dialogue veers dangerously close to psychobabble. Evidently someone on the production staff has endured more than a fair share of therapy. Throughout the hour, the unstated motives of characters are called out, unconscious desires are dredged from the deep, unspoken feelings are translated. Why is the Walker granddaughter refusing to go in the swimming pool? You don’t need a shrink or a copy of “Ordinary People” to figure that one.
Through it all, painfully precious lines mar the realism of this contemporary family saga.
“The world is too fragile for people to be untrue,” the conservative talk-show host Kitty muses.
“We don’t love the people we love because they’re perfect. We love the people we love because they are,” counsels her liberal adversary and newfound love interest, Warren.
Shut up and smooch before the whole thing implodes.
While we root for “Brothers & Sisters” to claim a more consistent tone, the producers seem intent on mixing it up. Olin (of “thirtysomething” fame) has said one of the series’ goals is to find the humor in dark human experiences.
They laugh, they needle each other, they pout.
That manic zigzag may be an intentional gimmick to keep viewers on their toes. But we can repeat that dance only so many times.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
