I, too, thought very little of "Related" when I watched the first episode, but the 2nd and 3rd episodes were a lot better, with funnier dialogue and more interesting story lines, and since then, the show has become one of my favorites. Lizzy Caplan (who played Lindsay Lohan's Gothic best friend in "Mean Girls" - and I actually like her better in this) is hysterical, hostile and vulnerable all at once, and I think her career is going to take off. There is something very real about her, and she reminds me of Kate Winslet. She's the reason I kept watching after the first few episodes.
The other sisters have risen to the task as well. The greatest transformation has been Jennifer Esposito, who at first appeared to be whining too much. However, over the season, this capable actress has developed a convincing, dynamic character. She is now balancing her comedy with the dramatic skill that earned her well-deserved kudos in "Crash".
This show speaks to me for the same reason that Gilmore Girls garnered my viewership for the past six years. It is a show for and about intelligent, well-rounded, flawed (human!) women. Sex is dealt with honestly but not exploitatively, and the characters dress like real women rather than MTV pinup girls. The problems they encounter resonate with us, from wanting to fit in during college, to trying to figure out what to do once thrust into the "real world", to dealing with painful breakups, to learning the painful lesson that it takes more than love to make a marriage work. And perhaps we all have a bit of each of the characters within us. They have the power to remind us of ourselves as well as occasionally give us insight into some of the other women we know.
I hope that the new CW network will realize as I did that "Related" can fill a TV-void that many female viewers may not have realized that they had.
Now they just need to keep working on getting the background music right...
