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'Brothers' review: Not feeling the love
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"Brothers" is not a good show, and it's a shame, because the sum of its parts should add up to a lot more than the whole that will hit your TV screens on Friday.The FOX sitcom boasts a cast that includes CCH Pounder and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, who have been excellent in other roles, and Carl Weathers, who showed a great facility for comedy a few seasons back on "Arrested Development." Former NFL star Michael Strahan rounds out the cast, and while he's obviously not a trained actor, he comes across as a pretty charming and likable guy.
Unfortunately, the show they're stuck in gives into all the things that give traditional, multi-camera sitcoms a bad rap -- hackneyed writing, sniggering sex jokes and performances that are a couple sizes too big. Friday's one-hour premiere (it debuts at 8 p.m. ET and will be paired with "'Til Death" after this week) has precious few laughs.
Strahan plays a version of himself named Mike Trainor, a former football star who comes to visit his parents (Pounder and Weathers) and brother Chill (Mitchell) in Houston. Chill runs a restaurant that's struggling, Dad is showing a few signs of what might be dementia and Mike's manager has absconded with most of his money, giving everyone a reason to stay together and pull together.
Rather than delving more deeply into those issues, though, the tough times the Trainors are going through serve merely as a pretense to get everyone in the same house and set up each other's punchlines. Weathers' possible health problems are played for laughs, which doesn't work, and every time the show inches up to a moment of genuine emotion, it runs away, leaving a lame joke in its wake (the worst offender in the pilot involves Dad interrupting the brothers with a line about shaving his "wiggly-do").
Mitchell is a pretty gifted comic actor, and he and Strahan play off one another reasonably well; they have a smack-talking, one-upping sibling relationship, and what moments of enjoyment there are in the show mostly spring from that. Pounder and Weathers do their best with what they're given, but there's just not much to work with there.
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It's unfortunate to hear that the show isn't spectacular -- I've been soooo looking forward to seeing CCH Pounder do comedy. She's such a fabulous dramatic actress, and the clips I've seen of the show seem pretty funny.
I feel in today society that we don't need a racist TV show. If the shoe was on the other foot the NAACP would be all over this. Comments against white people not to mention not a white person in the show....
I feel in today's society that we do not need a racist tv show . If the shoe was on the other foot the NAACP would be all over this stating this show needs to be shut down. Comments against white people and not a white person in the show. I will never watch fox again.
don't know where the racist remark comes from. it was a real show, just horribly written. won't be tuning back in even though i did love cch. so agree with you david, she's an amazing actress.
They made racist remarks about the Republican party and white women. I only watched about 10 minutes of this show and I picked up 2 racist comments. What the hell fox?
This show is not funny. I won't be tuning into fox anytime soon.
Yes, it is very racist. It was supposed to be funny that the Mother thanks god that she is not a white woman? Get it. If you are a white woman it is implied that you age faster and therefore look like sh*t. Ha Ha Ha. I hope this show is cancelled fast. You can e-mail your displeasure to: askfox@fox.com. Write to the companies that advertise as well.
This is not the first racist fox show. I love Family Guy but it contains all types of racism and blasphemy. I was looking forward to this show and I was very disappointed. The funniest line was when Chill told Strahan to introduce his teeth and that was already SEEN IN THE PREVIEWS! If this Friday's episode is not good, I will remove it from my DVR.