Jimmy James

From ABC:

"Film Festival"



"BBQ Therapy"

Matthew Chmiel

I have both episodes, yet again, set to record.

If the show improves, it'll be a miracle.

If the show continues to suck, at least I'll get to rip it's asshole a new one.

Jimmy James

Color me shocked, but I'm about halfway through the third episode and think the show actually did improve from wretched all the way up to watchable. I'm not sure I'll continue it after this week, but I am starting to see in it what others saw in it last week, I suppose.

Matthew Chmiel

Color me not shocked, episodes three and four were even more painful to swallow.

Episode three actually started on a very funny note, with Cameron walking in on his son dressed in drag and the dialog exchange involving him and his wife shortly thereafter. Despite the fact the same gag was done earlier this television season on the award-winning sitcom known as The War At Home, I appreciated Goss' comedic timing over Michael Rapaport's. You know, because Rapaport sucks at comedy. However, on that note, let’s get back to why I hate Sons and Daughters.

After the amusing beginning in episode three, it all went down hill from there. In flames, as it took a school bus full of young children with them. During this period is when I realized the major reason I hate this show. Every character, with the exception of two of them, are very unlikable and I want to watch each one of them to be brutally murdered on screen. I have other reasons for hating this shitfest, but that's my major reason for hating this show.

Cameron (Goss) is one of the few likeable people on this show. He's similar to Michael on Arrested Development, always trying to do right by his family. Now despite the characters on that show to be "unlikable" (as most of them had zero common sense), they at least showed some heart and humanity once all things were said and done. The problem here is that when Cameron does something remotely wrong, the whole family gangs up on him and calling him out. Now granted, I love a sitcom like Seinfeld where it’s a show consisting of nothing but assholes; however, the characters on this show are not only assholes, they're all annoying and aggravating. If I were Cameron, I would’ve been out of the family years ago. And if this is the "formula" the creators are going to be playing by every episode, people are going to tune out quickly. I know I'm already done with this crapfest.

Now onto the other characters and why they're unlikable:

1. Liz (Cameron's wife) is the stereotypical sitcom mom who has no clue what the hell is going on most of the time.
2. Sharon (Cameron's sister) happens to be the second most annoying character on the show. I can't tell if the character is stupid or just retarded.
3. Don (Sharon's husband), I bet, will come out of the closet by the end of the season (if this show even makes it that far). If not, he'll realize he's really gay. Either one of the two. And Christ, can this show copy Arrested Development more?
4. Jenna (Cameron's half-sister) is a one-dimensional selfish 'ho who needs to remove her head from her ass.
5. Jeff (Don and Sharon's son) is your typical high school jock; one-dimensional like almost everyone else this show has to offer.
6. Wylie (Jenna's boss) is the only other likeable character on the show and I feel sorry that the character of Jenna treats him like shit.
7. Colleen (Cameron's mom) is probably bi-polar and might just end up batshit insane by the season's end.
8. Wendal (Cameron's stepfather) needs to make up his mind.
9. Whitey (Jenna's ex-husband) is just a one-dimensional asshole.
10. Carrie (Don and Sharon's daughter) is the most annoying character on this show and she needs to be killed off pronto. She's not a sarcastic teen going through the tribulations of her age. No, she's just an annoying bitch who's out to better herself played by an equally annoying actress.
11. Cameron's son is just a pretentious teenager. If I were Cameron, I would've thrown his ass out on the street already.
12. The aunt character is simply just placed on the show for senile comic relief.

And that's where I get to my second problem with the show. There are too many fucking main characters! I can handle a show with this amount of main characters in a 42-minute running time, but not less than 20. There's no way to develop anyone when there's twelve-plus characters to focus on within a brief time frame. Now I'm not asking the show to be like the underrated and underappreciated As If where each episode focused on a different character, but with the way the show's "formula" works (and has proven to work itself during the first four episode), there's going to be no way I like anybody else by season's end (which I believe is episode eleven from what I've heard).

The third problem I have with this show is that the writers have no way to balance comedy and drama. A show like Freaks and Geeks worked in spades because it’s shows creators knew how to create an equal balance of comedy and drama. One could compare a show of that nature to Sons and Daughters due to the way the comedy was found in its awkwardness. However, Freaks and Geeks succeeded as it’s awkwardness was very genuine whereas in Sons and Daughters it’s too forced. Scenes and situations fall flat as you don’t care about any of the characters and you’re sitting there in agony as you want the show to pick up it’s pace, which is another falling point of the show. The show knows what it wants to succeed in each episode, by Cameron getting called out by his family, but the trip there is not fun. It’s painful. It’s aggravating. It’s excruciating.

This show angers me. It upsets me. That so many good shows that are cancelled before their prime like Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Arrested Development, and yet shit like this gets greenlit.

Screw ABC. I’d rather watch a marathon of Stacked than this shit again.

Aphex Twin

I guess one of your problems is that you are not paying attention. It's not his sexual orientation, but his marriage. He's revealed the fact that he would totally bang Liz (at the bowling alley) and he was salivating at the thought of making out with his son's chick (at the bbq). I don't think he's gay.

Ayre

I liked both episodes and will continue to watch.

The show has great potential.

Matthew, I can only hope you do not watch next week, for our sake.

Jimmy James

I think you're onto something here. I say that because I went into this set of episodes trying my hardest to forget there were episodes one and two. I mostly succeeded, and the characters weren't nearly so annoying as a result. I can think back to those episodes now, and the way the characters behaved annoyed the piss out of me. They didn't last night. I think the problem is that the pilot episode poisoned the well so badly that it's hard to overcome it.

See, I didn't really see a problem with her last night. She didn't seem clueless or all that stereotypical.

If you ask me, this is the worst character on the show. If she got hit by a bus, I think she show would be better for it. It would give Don something better to do, I'm sure.

I agree with somebody else who posted that this isn't what is going on with that guy. I'm not sure if he's a pedophile or just a garden variety deviant, but it's one of the two and not homosexuality.

Yeah, but she's eye candy. I can forgive a lot for some eye candy, particularly on this show.

Yeah, but that does give the show something to do.

Agreed, but I think this would serve the show well if it weren't for other problems with the cast.

Agreed.

I agree, and I think that was one of the monumental mistakes with the pilot. They should have started small. Give us a story that introduces us to Cameron's family and the grandparents. Branch out from there over the next 3-4 episodes.


This is a huge problem with the show, and it really reared its head at the end of episode 4. The show would have benefitted from a tactical choice to become an hourlong dramedy if they really wanted to go the places they indicate they want to go. The sitcom format just isn't right for it. 22 minutes doesn't give you enough time for the funny and the serious.

I understand where you're coming from. At the same time, I think ABC was attempting to take a risk on a show that, if the right cards had fallen, could have turned into something much better than it did. I can't condemn them too much for ordering this instead of an According to Jim spin-off or something terrible like that. They missed with this, and it will probably be gone soon enough.

I'll be around in this thread because I really am interested in seeing what people think about the show, but I think I am done with it now.

rfduncan

And oddly enough ABC might as well have green-lit this as an hour long show to get the time to develop the comedy-drama that Freaks and Geeks was. Instead they're cramming two stories into 22 min episodes then running them back to back.

I was able to catch this this week but never again. Once House returns on 3/28, this is bye-bye.

Jimmy James

The ratings news is not good for Sons & Daughters. It's off by around a third of its debut numbers after just one week. It was well ahead of Scrubs last week, but it tied Scrubs this week. Next week, it very well may come in behind Scrubs. The 9 PM epsiode got a 4.2/6 while the 9:30 episode got a 4.0/6.

Brak55

Arrested Development without the humor.

Coming Up....The Loop....Scrubs without the humor.

Matthew Chmiel

I actually am looking forward to The Loop just based on the cast. It can't be nearly as bad as this or Free Ride.

mdc3000

Don't forget, Sons and Daughters was up against Idol this week, last week it wasn't. Thought the episodes were alright. Some good moments here and there, but they do need to better balance drama with the comedy.

on a side note, i'm looking forward to the Loop...the promos are just alright, but Philip Baker Hall is the man...and like Matthew said, it can't possibly be as bad as Free Ride or War at Home.

MATT
the mention of freaks and geeks in this thread has me jonesing to watch the dvd set again...but it also brings up the painful memories that the show (and undeclared) was taken from us, far before it's time.....

mrpayroll

Just watched these last 2 episodes yesterday and I thought they were weaker than the first 2. I agree that there may be too many characters on this show, because my favorite character Carrie (sorry Matthew) had very little screen time on these episodes, especially the last one.

I will continue to watch these because the writing is good enough that this show can get better as it goes along.

As I said before, I didn't like Arrested Development after the first episode but kept watching because so many people thought that it was a great show. And you know what, they were right.

I'm not saying that Sons and Daughters will ever be a great show, but it has the writing and cast to get pretty close.


Chris

FatTony

this show is really just a run-of-the-mill sitcom without the laugh track. which goes to show just how unfunny the average sitcom really is when you're not being told when to laugh.

SonOfAStu

I realize Fred Goss was a deadhead (attended over 100 shows per his interview on Conan), but must he use their "jamming" as background music to every show?

movieking

I liked these two episodes a lot more than the first two. I wasn't planning on watching these, but they taped instead of the Shield for some reason, so I watched.