Brothers & Sisters: Discussion Thread

[CassieFan]

He's not a good actor anyway. The dumbest thing is his reason. He said that he doesn't feel utilized. Seriously??? He was practically on every episode in every storyline last season and he still has somewhat of a main story this season. Dumb move.

[DaytimeFan]

Honestly, Rob Lowe leaving is the best thing to happen to this show. I cannot stand him.

[Sylph]

Like I said...

[YRBB]

Yes!!!

[Chris B]

Rob Lowe is one of the reasons I stopped watching. I preferred Kitty's romance with Josh Hopkins character. That was him right? I think they felt they needed a big name, so they were going to make Lowe work regardless. His stories have sucked from day one and his chemistry with Kitty is limited. So glad he's gone, but I couldn't care less about this show now. They lost me when Rebecca was de-Walkerized.

[Sylph]

This show has always been artificial, emotionless and stiff in my view. A sort of unnaturalness about it, like a B-class still life painting.

Sally Field killed it for me. The endless behind-the-scenes shuffles killed it for me. The mediocre writing team and subpar writing killed it for me. It was actually never born. It's just there, lingering. Interesting premise, terrible execution.

[Chris B]

I do think it had potential. I had Knots Landing hopes for it. I liked the big family, but at the same time half the characters were completely forgettable. I agree that the tone was always shifting and uneven. The big emotional scenes feel so "LOOK AT ME!!!! I'M ACTING! EMOTING! EMMY TAPE!!!!!!" And Calista Flockhart is miscast. I would've preferred someone like Juliette Lewis in the role.

[DaytimeFan]

Really? Why?

Sally Field is the main reason I watch!

[Sylph]

I cannot stand her.

Sally Field a matriarch? Please! She has this vulnerability + neuroses vibe, it is totally unfitting for this show. That puppy, sleepy look, that voice... Disastrous.

This show needed a strong, powerful, towering main woman figure, not Sally Field.

[DaytimeFan]

Hmm.

You see, I like the vulnerability and neurosis vibe because that's how Sally actually is and that's how many women of her generation are, my mum is just like Sally Field and let me tell ya, she has been the matriarch with ease.

[Sylph]

She doesn't have one, she has a Pndora's box of neuroses. I used the plural intentionally.

She just bugs me.

But I liked her on ER. That's a role for her.

[alphanguy74]

So I take it you didn't purchase this DVD?:

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[alphanguy74]

But in all seriousness... I like this show, I think it's the best thing on the air right now. but don't get me wrong, it's a 7, while Knots Landing was a 10. If I were writing this show, this is how I would get rid of Rob Lowe's character:

I would have him go ahead and run for re-election, and over time... become more moderate due to Kevin's influence. Then I would have him assasinated by some dissolusioned right wing nutjob who felt "betrayed" by him straying too far into that "liberal/marxist" territory. After his death, this would bring Kitty to question her whole ideology, and she would struggle with whether her cohorts in the right wing media fueled the flames that caused her husband's death. At the same time, Kevin would be dealing with HIS guilt thinking it's all his fault, even some conflict, where Kitty... not wanting to accept that the right wing bomb-throwers that she has always socialized with fed this man's psychosis... actually TELLS Kevin in an angry moment that she blames him. There could be some good layers and good drama with that kind of stuff.

[DRW50]

I thought Sally Field worked very well in the first season of the show. The histrionic fighting with Kitty was raw guts and Callista and Sally both stepped up to the plate. Those early episodes, which were about a family trying to find their place and Nora realizing her husband was a liar and a cheat, I think they were very watchable. Cliched, yes, but those types of melodramatic confrontations suited the cast. Lots of good stuff with Kitty/Nora, Kevin/Nora, Tommy/Kevin, Kitty/Justin, Holly/Nora. Deep relationships.

When they started bringing in the people like Robert and Rebecca and the stories went more and more into being about stunts (elections, custody fights, babies, marriage, long lost relatives), and William Walker was turned into a mobster, the show was never the same.

I still watch sometimes and enjoy the actors but it's hard to get back that early flavor. It really made an emotional connection.

[EricMontreal22]

I hope ROb Lowe leaving will mean less of these weird politics (the liberal republican wanting to be presient bla bla) which have REALLY bogged the show down. When Baitz was writing, cuz he's a political playwright, the politics (largely) served the show well, IMHO they stopped pretty much when he left.