Brothers & Sisters

Not since Knots Landing have writers been able to introduce the television audience with characters that you want to get to know and want to follow. Desperate Housewives started out this way, but sadly lost it in season two, I hope they retain it back. The interaction of the siblings on B&S is fresh, interesting, real, and normally dysfunctional, and they admit it. This is The Waltons with Wine. They want to be perfect but they know their not and Sally Field ( THE BEST ACTRESS EVER ) just leads the pack great. She is a MOM all the way, and she puts her children first, even as they get older. I applaud ABC for listening to the fans and keeping the show, I also applaud the writers for great lines, humor and actually making the characters on this show believable....... I can honestly say that not since 1993 when Knots Landing went off the air, have I looked forward to an hour of sitting in front of the T.V.

I have to say, what happens in the first episode is good writing. The situation (I'm trying to not spoil) is a bit awkward but it's just such a good funny thing . That got me hooked. The problem was that after that episode none other was able to keep up.

The more I watched the more I came to realize, yes there is an overarching plot going on with certain events placed here and there but the character conflict can be summed up and AVOIDED if the main characters would subscribe to the following philosophy: STOP LYING TO EACH OTHER.

Every single bit of conflict comes from one character lying to another and in the end the truth always comes out anyways, so there's no point. All in all it just seems like lazy writing. This ended up being a show I would watch while doing something else, I didn't have to pay attention to what was really going on, just who was lying to who.

Just as a heads up, if you find a lot of conflict in your life because of lies you need to: A) Stop lying to people and then later telling them or someone else the truth. People can't actually keep secrets unless it will endanger them to tell the truth. B) Don't associate yourself with chronic liars. At the very least confront them about their lies one last time, tell them you've had enough and mean it!

I don't lie unless it's for a surprise party. My honesty gets me into a lot of trouble with girls who later tend to agree I was right. Guys tend not to care. Just be tactful.

I have finished watching the first episode and thought I would like to leave a slightly more favourable review than the previous poster. I like to give a show more of a chance to pique my interest than 5 minutes so I sat and watched the entire episode. There were the usual introductions to new characters... since it's a rather large ensemble depicting a family of adult children and two older parents there wasn't much room for in depth intros but it was adequate for a premiere episode.

The end of the show set the stage for the series. I will give it more time to develop. The family is centred around older parents and their children - 2 daughters (casting Calista Flockhart, 42, as the younger of the two sisters and much younger looking 38 year old Rachel Griffiths, 38, as the older sister was a little odd) and 3 brothers (one, seemingly, an Afghanistan war veteran, one a lawyer who does happen to be gay and the last a brother who is working at the family business). Something odd is afoot at the family business both on the financial side and the emotional side.

The demise of the patriarch (what a shame) at the end of the premiere episode will set the tone with, I believe, the sister from NYC (Flockhart) moving back to CA to start a new job on television and mending bridges with her mother and family.

When Brothers & Sisters first started, I was very fond of it. However, I don't consider Season 5 to be as good as the rest, the finale was good and the actors great but the written quality and story lines were not in general as compelling as they once were.

On the whole though, I like Brothers & Sisters very much. The production values and music are of top notch quality, the writing was both droll and touching, the story lines were thought-out and compelling and the characters were engaging.

Also there is some very good acting on this show, Callista Flockhart is very endearing, but in my mind the show belongs to Matthew Rhys and Sally Field who are both fantastic, and Rachel Griffiths too.

In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The pilot managed to introduce a large cast of complex characters while maintaining individuality and clarity--and the characters and their problems were interesting to boot! Calista Flockhart gets to use her very real acting ability portraying a character who has very little in common with Ally McBeal. Tom Skerritt and Sally Field are terrific as the parents, and each of the brothers and sisters has his or her own problems to deal with, and yet the story doesn't have the feel of a tear-jerking melodrama. The ending of this episode was a shocker, and it will be interesting to see if the writers can maintain the tension in future episodes.