Extended Family

Extended Family had a rough start. I won't deny it. But its first season has improved with each episode. Yes - there are come cliches to the story. But I think the creatives took the criticisms of the early episodes and have worked to make it better.

This is what streaming CAN'T do. Let shows grow and improve week by week. With streaming you need a good first season from beginning to end because of it dropping at once. I know some streaming shows do week to week release but they film the season all at once. While that can work for some shows particularly at HBO, it doesn't work for mainstream streaming.

Linear TV is important.

From the corny deliveries to the spoon-fed laugh track, this show is clearly not a winner. But hey, they cant all be winners. That's what pilot season is for. But this one most likely won't make it past its first season. Great actors for sure, but this comedy format doesn't play to their strengths very well.

Jon Cryer needs to leave silly sitcoms for a while so audiences don't immediately see Alan Harper of "Two and a Half Men". He played that role for so long, that the only way for audiences to disassociate from that character is if he came out 100% a different character. But another wimpy dad role? C'mon. They had to know that was a bad call.

I've always been an Abigail Spencer fan, and she has surprisingly good timing for sitcom-style comedy.

Donald Faison was perfect for Scrubs, so it's hard to accept him at anything less than that.

Lenny Clarke is too much. And not in a good way. Loud, frying-pan-over-the-head delivery on his jokes. It's sort of his style, but it doesn't fit here.

So much didn't work that you could make this a drinking game while you watch it,take a drink during the laugh track or tired jokes & clichés.

It was under 30 minutes & this episode just dragged on,on & on!

The casting overall didn't work,the acting felt overdone & more like they were doing a play versus television.

Feel JC still feels he is Two & a half men funny,perhaps at one time but here it just was cringe-worthy.. He is playing another similar(Alan)character why not a man in a stable marriage,he's a widow or single & no kids but yet-Here we are!

This won't last beyond a season unless things improve,with many adjustments!

The unfortunate part got excited seeing a new series with JC,but like anything things can change where a person isn't acting material anymore.

Check it out yourself & decide,but don't expect a masterpiece.

Jim Kearney (Jon Cryer) and PR specialist Julia Mariano (Abigail Spencer) are amiably divorced with two teenage kids. The parents are the ones moving back and forth while the kids stay at home. Bobby (Lenny Clarke) is Jim's dad. Julia is marrying Trey Taylor (Donald Faison), the owner of the Boston Celtics which is Jim's favorite team.

It's not a good start. Abigail Spencer is trying too hard. Veteran sidekicks, Cryer and Faison, do hit on a funny joke once in awhile. I don't like the aggressive writing or breaking the fourth wall. The show calms down a little but not by much. In the end, it's the familiar bland family sitcom with a non-stop laugh track. The boy is slightly better than the girl. It's a Mike O'Malley show. After a 13 episode first season, the show gets canceled. This could have been a staple in another TV era. In a few years, I won't remember much about this show.

I had high hopes for this show. I liked all of the principal actors in other shows, and the premise seemed original. But, as with he new "Frasier", the laugh track is tired and trite.

Someone, somewhere thinks that if they throw in a bunch of laughs, giggles and gasps, it will make their bad show worth watching. I have a tip: if it's not funny in the first place, a laugh track won't change anyone's perception of the show.

And now, to make up the required character count, I will create the IMDB "character track" for your amusement. Try not to laugh! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.