Brothers and Sisters - The Complete First Season
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DVD details
Actor: Calista Flockhart, Patricia Wettig, Rachel Griffiths, Ron Rifkin, Sally FieldBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 988 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Product features:
- Enter the complex world of the Walkers, and explore what it means to be an American family in the 21st century. Though they live very different and conflicting lives, the Walkers find unity under the family roof. Relationships bend but never break as they strive to find their own identities and embrace each other's differences. It's "an encounter to look forward to," says THE WALL
DVD Reviews of Brothers and Sisters - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: A thoroughly enjoyable family drama
Summary: 4 Stars
I have come to BROTHERS AND SISTERS somewhat late in the game. I had some initial interest in it when Marti Noxon was the show runner during the developmental stage, but after replacing several original cast members and after Noxon left over "creative differences" and persistent rumors from the set that the show was in utter disarray, I opted not to watch it. I had friends who watched it, however, and reading critics I knew that the show had managed to get past its initial problems it had developed into a critically well regarded show. Though not viewed as being in the same class as the best productions on TV like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE WIRE, LOST, and THE SHIELD, it had clearly created a place for it as a well regarded family drama.
I have just finished watching all of Seasons One and Two of the show. I have the first episode of Season 3 DVR'd and after watching that I'll be ready to start watching it live next Sunday. I very much enjoy the characters on the show and largely watch the series for that reason. I'm not certain that the overarching series narrative is as good as the group of characters that they have assembled. I've been put off by a relative timidity in the story telling. So far the show bears a strong resemblance to a high class soap opera. A highly regarded critical study of soap operas bears the title STORIES WITHOUT END. I find that applies to BROTHERS AND SISTERS. The stories here never end, but they never really go anywhere substantial. Contrast that to the series on which Marti Noxon previously worked: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. That landmark series featured a number of stories that had ends, as well as beginnings and middles. Things happen on BROTHERS AND SISTERS, and there are a host of mini story arcs, but as a whole the show is not characterized by a number of master narratives that frame and carry the series forward. Contrast this with another show by show runner Greg Berlanti, ELI STONE. One of the joys of that show is following the central story of whether Eli is a modern day prophet or whether he is merely plagued by visions caused by his brain aneurysm. The closest to a master narrative on BROTHERS AND SISTERS is: siblings and parents strive to get along while keeping and revealing family secrets. As a result, the show sometimes just feels like a superior reality show.
What makes what is overall a fairly limited concept work so well is a great and talented cast. The cast is filled with both Hollywood veterans and newcomers, with both American and superb imported actors. In one of the major recastings, Sally Field took over as the matron of the Walker clan (interestingly, she and Tom Skerritt, who died in the first episode, played a married couple in STEEL MAGNOLIAS). Frankly, she didn't seem right to me at first. I felt that she had a tiny bit of trouble finding her character, though with the reputed chaos onset in the beginning that might not be surprising. I loved Calista Flockhart on ALLY MCBEAL and was initially excited about her return to TV, but I found (and still find) her role as a right wing journalist off-putting. To be honest, neither she nor her future boss/love interest Rob Lowe make especially convincing right wingers. They seem like everyday folk with tags and labels tacked onto them every once and a while. Lowe will make a quip about school vouchers to give some superficial credibility to his being a conservative, but neither the leftists nor the leftists on the show seem convincingly political. It is more like window dressing than anything. I've always liked Rachel Griffiths. I originally saw her in several British productions where she spoke with her natural accent and then loved her on SIX FEET UNDER where she affected an American accent. That role makes her very easy to accept on BROTHERS AND SISTERS as an American. I was previously unfamiliar with the world of Welshman Matthew Rhys, but he sports a perfect American accent, as does Aussie John Pyper-Ferguson, who I previously knew only from an unsympathetic character on my favorite current show, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (he played the CAG from Pegasus who pulled a gun on Apollo while they both sat in their Raptor). I enjoy both Ron Rifkin and Balthazar Getty (who had both been on ALIAS -- it took me a long, long time to stop seeing Rifkin as Arvin Sloane, which I eventually did, though I got a huge blast out of the guest appearance of Joel Grey at the end of Season One, who memorably portrayed "the Other Arvin Sloane" on the series). Although I didn't initially care for Dave Annable as the youngest Walker sibling, Justin, he eventually became one of my favorite characters. I like Sarah Jane Morris, who I remembered from FECLITY, but she really hasn't been given much of a chance to shine on the show. Part of my enjoyment of the show has been limited by two actors I have never really enjoyed: Rob Lowe (I disliked him in the early eighties and I still dislike him now) and Patricia Wettig (another ALIAS veteran -- her husband Ken Olin was a producer on both shows). Late in the season one of the more interesting additions to the series was made with the debut of a new half-sister to the Walkers, Rebecca, played by the impossibly cute Emily Van Camp.
On the micro level this is a very good show. On the macro level I am still not sure it is really going anywhere. As an unambitious, "small" show I enjoy it a great deal. And I definitely plan on sticking with it. I just wish that they were a bit bolder in their storytelling. Many of the creative staff worked on both FELICITY and ALIAS, but so far they've demonstrated little of the boldness found on both of those shows. Still, sometimes a pleasant show involving likable, interesting characters is enough. As long as you don't think about how much more it could be.
Description of Brothers and Sisters - The Complete First Season
Enter the complex world of the Walkers, and explore what it means to be an American family in the 21st century. Though they live very different and conflicting lives, the Walkers find unity under the family roof. Relationships bend but never break as they strive to find their own identities and embrace each other?s differences. It's "an encounter to look forward to," says The Wall Street Journal. Get caught up in one of television?s most reflective and sophisticated dramas. Calista Flockhart, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Ron Rifkin, Balthazar Getty and Patricia Wettig lead a stellar cast in ABC?s critically acclaimed hit Brothers & Sisters. Experience every episode of Season One, including exclusive, in-depth bonus material, in this six-disc DVD set.Stills from Brothers and Sisters (click for larger image)
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Just because you're all grown up doesn't mean your family dynamics get any easier. Luckily for TV fans, the first season of Brothers and Sisters makes for addictive watching while exploring the intricacies of a family, in crisis and in repose. First, let us give thanks for the amazing Sally Field, who has literally grown up on the small screen, and who now plays the matriarch of the Walker family, though not as a power-mad dowager, but as a well-meaning, slightly naive but fiercely loyal California girl gone ever-so-slightly gray. In fact, when this show debuted in the fall of 2006, it was known as the "new Calista Flockhart show," but Field quickly became the standout in a stellar ensemble cast.
While the Walkers' problems of money and business deals may seem rarefied to some, the family pecking orders and feuds are universal and handled deftly by the writers and the actors, including Patricia Wettig, the icy former mistress of the dearly departed Walker pere (Tom Skerritt), and brothers Dave Annable and Balthazar Getty. Rachel Griffiths is a tart sisterly counterpoint to Flockhart's flighty Ann Coulter wannabe. In short, anyone with a family should be able to relate. And, perhaps, cringe a bit. --A.T. Hurley
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