Brothers & Sisters -- an early look

With the doctors from Grey's Anatomy packing up their little black bags and moving to Thursday, ABC had a spot to fill on the Sunday schedule. Starting September 24th, the post Desperate Housewives slot will be the new home of Brothers & Sisters. I've just watched a rough cut of the episode "Patriarchy", let me tell you a little bit about it.

Of course, the big news with the show is that it marks the return of Calista Flockhart to series television. In a departure from her Ally McBeal character she plays Kitty Walker, a 39 year-old right-wing conservative radio host in New York. This episode finds her heading home to Los Angeles to interview for a job on a political talk show, and to see the family.

The Walker family is made up of a pretty impressive list of actors, including Tom Skerrit, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, and Ron Rifkin. "Patriarchy" walks a fine line between telling the story and introducing all of these characters. As we meet each of them, little bits of the overall story are revealed, setting up events for future episodes.

There is nothing really groundbreaking here. Troubled mother daughter relationship, possible infidelity, cooked books at the family business, substance abuse, gay member of the family, choosing between a career and a relationship. Most of it is something we have seen before in one form or another. Which is not to say that it can't be good. It all depends on where the writers take those themes. But, at least based on this first episode, there is nothing here that grabs you and says this is appointment television.

One thing that is left unclear is just how much they are going to play up the political angle. It is an interesting choice making Kitty a member of the conservative media, but I do see the potential for that to become tiresome for viewers. I'm not sure that your Sunday night drama is the place where you want debate over abortion or the war on terror, two things that were touched on, lightly, in this first episode.

Brothers & Sisters does have a lot going for it. The cast is outstanding and there are moments where it really shows potential. I thought Field and Flockhart were very good together, and Rachel Griffiths reminded me why I liked her so much on Six Feet Under. Being handed the old Grey's time-slot doesn't hurt either. On the other hand, it has also had its share of troubles right out of the gate. As Joel reported last month, original show runner Marti Noxon quit over conflicts with the shows creator, and the show has had some casting changes as well. In fact, I used a picture of Calista for this post because the only picture of the cast I could turn up featured actors that are no longer on the show.

Ultimately, with a show like this, it's hard to say one way or the other just how good it is going to be based on one episode. This is a very serialized drama, and unlike a procedural or a sit-com, it is going to take a few episodes to get a feel for where the writers are headed. I'll tune in again and give it a fair shake, but I wouldn't make any bets that it is going to recreate the Sunday at 10 magic of Grey's Anatomy.