It's All Relative

Despite its sometimes strident tone and a somewhat low laugh count, this show does represent a step forward in the treatment of homosexuality on television. That's because the gay couple isn't a meek, righteous victim of bigotry--they're just as bad as their counterpart. The confluence of the urbane, upscale gay couple with the blue-collar, old-fashioned Irish couple is often funny, and not always in the ways we might expect. I wish their children in the center of the story weren't so nondescript; with time, they might develop into something more than blandly sweet placeholders.