Network: ABC; Genre: Improv Comedy, Family; Content Rating: TV-14 (some adult content and language); Available: Universal HD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);
Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)
Don't let the the bizarre, self-indulgent opening still store that warns us that the dialog in "Sons & Daughters" is partially improvised or the much-promoted praise of Lorne Michaels (he's an Executive Producer for crying out loud) scare you away from this show. If you've got it, flaunt it, I suppose. And if you're Fred Goss, one of the breakout comic stars of the neo-classic "Significant Others", you've got a free-pass from me to flaunt it all day long. Goss' looking befuddle at all the insanity around him and repeating in shock something odd he just heard never fails to make me laugh.
As creator and star of "Sons", Goss goes back to the improv well and makes a Judd Apatow-style attempt to recapture the magic of a much-loved first series with his own original concoction. That concoction is an elaborate dysfunctional family series in which he is the befuddled glue at the center of ongoing feuds between mothers and fathers, sisters and mothers, wives and children. Gosss does exactly what he does best. Keep your eyes peeled for some "Others" crossover actors just to add to the fun.
Wackier than "Everybody Loves Raymond", more down to Earth than "Arrested Development" and if you're thinking "Sons" is a rip-off of either show then that only goes to prove how few of these adult family comedies we get. "Sons" is like nothing on network TV right now. Goss' Cameron is more competent than the wuss-bag sitcom dad, he and his wife Liz (Gillian Vigman) actually appear to like each other, the kids are not played as cute, there are no secret crushes and the parents aren't wild, sex-crazed old people. And specifically referring to that last thing, Gross actually manages to top - yes, top - "Others" creator Rob Roy Thomas' 2nd improv series; the embarrassing Fox sitcom "Free Ride".
The stories are tight enough to be satisfying but loose enough to let the characters live free and have fun, but it is only sporadically hilarious. Jerry Lambert scores absolutely huge laughs just about every time he walks on screen as, Don, the self-involved thespian husband to Cameron's sister Sharon (Alison Quinn, blessed with one of TV's funniest voices since the fake one Megan Mullally slapped on Karen Walker). My favorite bit in the series is a lightening strike of both Goss's act and Lambert's act, when the two get into it over Don's financing a play with his own money in which he gets out one line and dies before the end of the first act. On top of that, he flubs the line.
The best episode finds Cameron dragging his son away from a "Lost" marathon and to a party, where he ends up trying to impress the kids himself. The rest of the show could easily be this funny. If it would just rely a little less on "Office Space's" Greg Pitts as Cameron's other sister's (Amanda Walsh) ex-husband Whitey and a whole lot less on Eden Sher as Cameron's sexually sophisticated little niece (10 times creepier than the sex-crazed old couple cliché).
Fun to watch, but not laugh-out-loud funny. But at the end of the day, the reason "Sons and Daughters" brews just below the temperature of comic combustion but never quite reaches it can all be chalked up to typical first season kinks. Looking at it deeply, there is really nothing wrong with the show per say, nothing that a full season order and maybe a 2nd wouldn't iron out. Given the time for such fresh-faced young talent to gel together more and the stories to tailor to their strengths and you've got a recipe for a show that could have been as solid a cult entry as "Significant Others". Way to go, ABC. In the meantime I eagerly await what Fred Goss will bring us next.
* * * /4
Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)
Don't let the the bizarre, self-indulgent opening still store that warns us that the dialog in "Sons & Daughters" is partially improvised or the much-promoted praise of Lorne Michaels (he's an Executive Producer for crying out loud) scare you away from this show. If you've got it, flaunt it, I suppose. And if you're Fred Goss, one of the breakout comic stars of the neo-classic "Significant Others", you've got a free-pass from me to flaunt it all day long. Goss' looking befuddle at all the insanity around him and repeating in shock something odd he just heard never fails to make me laugh.
As creator and star of "Sons", Goss goes back to the improv well and makes a Judd Apatow-style attempt to recapture the magic of a much-loved first series with his own original concoction. That concoction is an elaborate dysfunctional family series in which he is the befuddled glue at the center of ongoing feuds between mothers and fathers, sisters and mothers, wives and children. Gosss does exactly what he does best. Keep your eyes peeled for some "Others" crossover actors just to add to the fun.
Wackier than "Everybody Loves Raymond", more down to Earth than "Arrested Development" and if you're thinking "Sons" is a rip-off of either show then that only goes to prove how few of these adult family comedies we get. "Sons" is like nothing on network TV right now. Goss' Cameron is more competent than the wuss-bag sitcom dad, he and his wife Liz (Gillian Vigman) actually appear to like each other, the kids are not played as cute, there are no secret crushes and the parents aren't wild, sex-crazed old people. And specifically referring to that last thing, Gross actually manages to top - yes, top - "Others" creator Rob Roy Thomas' 2nd improv series; the embarrassing Fox sitcom "Free Ride".
The stories are tight enough to be satisfying but loose enough to let the characters live free and have fun, but it is only sporadically hilarious. Jerry Lambert scores absolutely huge laughs just about every time he walks on screen as, Don, the self-involved thespian husband to Cameron's sister Sharon (Alison Quinn, blessed with one of TV's funniest voices since the fake one Megan Mullally slapped on Karen Walker). My favorite bit in the series is a lightening strike of both Goss's act and Lambert's act, when the two get into it over Don's financing a play with his own money in which he gets out one line and dies before the end of the first act. On top of that, he flubs the line.
The best episode finds Cameron dragging his son away from a "Lost" marathon and to a party, where he ends up trying to impress the kids himself. The rest of the show could easily be this funny. If it would just rely a little less on "Office Space's" Greg Pitts as Cameron's other sister's (Amanda Walsh) ex-husband Whitey and a whole lot less on Eden Sher as Cameron's sexually sophisticated little niece (10 times creepier than the sex-crazed old couple cliché).
Fun to watch, but not laugh-out-loud funny. But at the end of the day, the reason "Sons and Daughters" brews just below the temperature of comic combustion but never quite reaches it can all be chalked up to typical first season kinks. Looking at it deeply, there is really nothing wrong with the show per say, nothing that a full season order and maybe a 2nd wouldn't iron out. Given the time for such fresh-faced young talent to gel together more and the stories to tailor to their strengths and you've got a recipe for a show that could have been as solid a cult entry as "Significant Others". Way to go, ABC. In the meantime I eagerly await what Fred Goss will bring us next.
* * * /4