Fall TV: Brothers and Sisters

Brothers and Sisters starts tonight on ABC. It's not one of my top five picks for new shows but I'll be watching it regularly.

So far, the show has been most notable in the entertainment press as the "troubled one" of the new season. The pilot wasn't included with the rest of ABC's pickups in the Fall Preview DVDs that TV writers received back in May. Supposedly that was due to "recasting" a few key roles and "reconceiving" the tone and story of the first episode. Understandable reasons but not the kind of explanations that generate good buzz. And even before the show was picked up there had been negative buzz about how test audiences were reacting, specifically to series star Calista Flockhart (she's a good actress but can be an alienating screen presence). Then, just as production was ramping up, the show lost an executive producer (Marti Noxon who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) due to "creative differences." (She was ultimately replaced by Everwood creator Greg Berlanti.)

All along those working on the show—including executive producer Ken Olin, playwright/creator Jon Robin Baitz and actors Rachel Griffiths and Ron Rifkin—tried their best to reassure the media that everything was fine. They weren't wrong. The first episode of Brothers and Sisters is really pretty good. Revolving around the relationships of a family with two daughters and three sons, all adults, it has that Zwick/Herskovitz high class, character driven soap vibe. And I've been missing that since Once & Again went off the air several seasons ago.

Plus, the show has what everyone was interested in in the first place: an incredible cast. Yes, you get to see Ally McBeal, Brenda Chenowith and Arvin Sloane back on TV (all playing significantly different characters), as well as the recognizable TV faces of Sally Field, Patricia Wettig and Tom Skerritt.

There are a few too many characters for the first episode to handle (Wettig and Sarah Jane Morris—as the family's only daughter-in-law—are barely even introduced) but in a season where so many shows have people doubting their long-term potential Brothers and Sisters deserves some credit for creating a world with a lot left to explore. And at least there's a built in reason for these characters to be together and for the audience to care about them, unlike ABC's generally limp Six Degrees.

I have my doubts about the show's audience appeal but creatively it's off to an interesting start.