New series: Brothers & Sisters

First of all, a confession: I enjoy Brothers & Sisters more than a twenty-one year old male really should. In this case, enthusiasm is not something to boast about – it’s not like admitting a love for The Wire or Generation Kill, for example. As I get older, however, I find that I care less and less about what society thinks. I am now proud and unashamed. Yes, it is extremely cheesy. No, the plotlines do not scream gritty realism. Yes, it is a drama series cum soap opera that any discerning viewer would scoff at. So why do I enjoy it so much?

B&S began life as an ambitious drama series, featuring the trials of a large, wealthy Californian family coping with the death of their larger-than-life patriarch. In many ways it still is, given the trail of human wreckage which said patriarch left in his wake. The family members are played by either relative unknowns (Matthew Rhys) or veterans of popular and high-concept shows, such as Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal), Rob Lowe (The West Wing), and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under). Since its initial series, however, the show has collapsed into an orgy of schmaltz. I am happy to report that the orgy continues unabated.

The last series ended with the whole family travelling to South America, on a quest to recover missing brother Tommy, who had apparently lost his marbles and joined a cult. Once they arrived on the scene, the family discovered that they had, in typical fashion, misinterpreted events and massively overreacted. Far from being held prisoner by a Bolivian Charles Manson, brother Tommy was in fact employed as a charity worker and helping to restore a town’s decrepit clean-water infrastructure. Also, sister Kitty (Flockhart) was having problems with husband Robert (Lowe), inflamed by his failed campaign for the American presidency. This culminated with him returning to California in a helicopter, whilst she stood on an Amazonian mountainside, screaming that she wanted to work things out after all. You’d have to be made of stone to not find something amusing in all of this.

Fast-forward a few months to the beginning of Season 4. Kitty is back with her husband Robert, but relations are still ice-cold. Brother Kevin (Rhys) is still with his husband Scotty, and trying to have a child via surrogacy – a process which is stalled by Scotty’s misapprehension at the thought of being a father. Mother Nora continues to exist in a state of perpetual neurosis, and opines that she must be the one family member who is always calm and collected – even though she is anything but. Brother Justin, a veteran of Afghanistan, continues his vaguely incestuous relationship with the girl he once thought was his illegitimate half-sister, and is being threatened with expulsion from medical school for academic failure. And that’s just the first half of the first episode.

The main weakness of B&S has always been the plurality of overblown storylines, which prove tiresome until you realise that you wouldn’t want to spend more than three minutes a time with any single member of this crowd. So what does it have to recommend it? Well, it’s unintentionally hilarious, for a start. The acting talent is uneven, but Lowe and Rhys still manage to be compelling in their respective roles of a moral-but-ambitious politician and a gay man trying to balance his legal career with starting a family. And despite being self-consciously daft, it still manages to smuggle in moments of relatable drama. In short, it’s audio-visual comfort food. Maybe that’s why it’s so appealing – we don’t always want the haute cuisine of cutting-edge drama. Sometimes, you just want a cheese sandwich.

Join the cheese-fest and catch Brothers & Sisters, Thursdays @ 10 on More4.

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