Home Again

I was about 13 when it aired and I watched every episode. It didn't have me in hysterics, but it wasn't supposed it. This was like a cozy light-hearted drama. I watched it with my family and we all loved it. The cream horn episode was hilarious. Samantha Janus was very likable and played the part well (i'll never forget her childish pajamas, at the time I thought that was strange a grown women wearing pajamas, I started wearing them after seeing that) and her on screen husband was funny. I actually enjoyed this more than My Family (i personally find that program very irritating). Its such a shame this was so quickly forgotten, i was really disappointed there wasn't another series. And i'm even more disappointed I cant buy this on DVD or view it anywhere! So sad the British public don't know good TV even if it slaps them in the face.

Better then this.

To be fair Home Again was always going to be compared to the brilliant My Family, and should have had everything done to try and prevent this, for example not putting it on the same time slot a week after My Familys end, not filming it in the same kitchen as the My Family set and not using the same characters as My Family. In My Family Ben was a miserable aging man with a son (Nick) who he didn't like to be around, Home Again has the same except it is his step son.

An acting teacher once told me (Note: I am not or never was an actor), to act, and actor must read, remember then forget the script, meaning don't anticipate the other actors lines and try not to look like you know whats coming. This program doesn't do this, in transcript it looks like.

Actor A: "Mom" Pause. Actor B: Turns round "Yes Dear" Pause. Actor A: "Do you and dad still have sex" Pause while actor b does a series of facial expressions.

The whole experience is topped of by the outrageous canned laughter, which will ofter put humor in places where there isn't any and make me a viewer think "Am I supposed to break down in hysterics at every mention of the word 'sex'".

On top of this the main characters are just all stereotypes, in that all men and docile and useless while women are materialistic and love over buying shoes. This was good in My Family as Ben was always to act out the view outrage and then make you feel sorry for him.

One thing I have always admired about Britain is its ability to make great programs with little funds and only about two script writers. I liked that the programs are short and normally always finish where they started off, coming from a place where a good idea is done to death (Like Friends and later Friends 2 (called Will and Grace)). Its nice to see some many unique ideas at the same time like My Family and then over on C4 Garth Marangies Darkplace. God knows why Home Again should be called nothing more than Will and Grace to My Familys Friends.

P.S. I can't stand Friends or Will and Grace.