Brothers & Sisters

When Brothers & Sisters first started, I was very fond of it. However, I don't consider Season 5 to be as good as the rest, the finale was good and the actors great but the written quality and story lines were not in general as compelling as they once were.

On the whole though, I like Brothers & Sisters very much. The production values and music are of top notch quality, the writing was both droll and touching, the story lines were thought-out and compelling and the characters were engaging.

Also there is some very good acting on this show, Callista Flockhart is very endearing, but in my mind the show belongs to Matthew Rhys and Sally Field who are both fantastic, and Rachel Griffiths too.

In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Sally Field is a brilliant actor who has given us so many memorable movies and shows but her portrayal of the overbearing, meddling, mother is embarrassing.

Most parents goals are to raise their kids to be independent and self sufficient. This mother character is about 100 steps backward creating adults who are ever reliant on their mother for the rest of their life and incompetent when it comes to living independently in the world.

I had to tune out on several episodes when Nora went into crazy town.

The cast is amazing and I enjoyed the series but at times honestly found it hard to listen to Nora's ridiculous rants.

The pilot managed to introduce a large cast of complex characters while maintaining individuality and clarity--and the characters and their problems were interesting to boot! Calista Flockhart gets to use her very real acting ability portraying a character who has very little in common with Ally McBeal. Tom Skerritt and Sally Field are terrific as the parents, and each of the brothers and sisters has his or her own problems to deal with, and yet the story doesn't have the feel of a tear-jerking melodrama. The ending of this episode was a shocker, and it will be interesting to see if the writers can maintain the tension in future episodes.

I have finished watching the first episode and thought I would like to leave a slightly more favourable review than the previous poster. I like to give a show more of a chance to pique my interest than 5 minutes so I sat and watched the entire episode. There were the usual introductions to new characters... since it's a rather large ensemble depicting a family of adult children and two older parents there wasn't much room for in depth intros but it was adequate for a premiere episode.

The end of the show set the stage for the series. I will give it more time to develop. The family is centred around older parents and their children - 2 daughters (casting Calista Flockhart, 42, as the younger of the two sisters and much younger looking 38 year old Rachel Griffiths, 38, as the older sister was a little odd) and 3 brothers (one, seemingly, an Afghanistan war veteran, one a lawyer who does happen to be gay and the last a brother who is working at the family business). Something odd is afoot at the family business both on the financial side and the emotional side.

The demise of the patriarch (what a shame) at the end of the premiere episode will set the tone with, I believe, the sister from NYC (Flockhart) moving back to CA to start a new job on television and mending bridges with her mother and family.

Brothers and Sisters is one of the finest TV dramas to come along in a very long time. The performances are superb from all involved, especially Sally Field, Racheal Griffiths and Matthew Rhys.

Each Sunday night I am treated to one of the finest hours on television. The mixture of humor, drama and that whole family dynamic is very intriguing. This show takes you through a whole host of emotions in one sitting as the story lines of each family member unfold in such a way, it leaves you craving for the next episode.

The gay storyline involving Kevin(Matthew Rhy) and Scotty(Luke Macfarlane) is outstanding. For once we have a complete and in-depth relationship between two men handled with maturity and intelligence. I'm so very pleased to see this on ABC network TV without much fuss being made. This is one of the finest gay story lines i've ever seen on TV.

Bravo to the writers, actors and all involved in producing one of the finest TV dramas in years.