Brothers & Sisters

Sally Field is a brilliant actor who has given us so many memorable movies and shows but her portrayal of the overbearing, meddling, mother is embarrassing.

Most parents goals are to raise their kids to be independent and self sufficient. This mother character is about 100 steps backward creating adults who are ever reliant on their mother for the rest of their life and incompetent when it comes to living independently in the world.

I had to tune out on several episodes when Nora went into crazy town.

The cast is amazing and I enjoyed the series but at times honestly found it hard to listen to Nora's ridiculous rants.

The pilot managed to introduce a large cast of complex characters while maintaining individuality and clarity--and the characters and their problems were interesting to boot! Calista Flockhart gets to use her very real acting ability portraying a character who has very little in common with Ally McBeal. Tom Skerritt and Sally Field are terrific as the parents, and each of the brothers and sisters has his or her own problems to deal with, and yet the story doesn't have the feel of a tear-jerking melodrama. The ending of this episode was a shocker, and it will be interesting to see if the writers can maintain the tension in future episodes.

Not since Knots Landing have writers been able to introduce the television audience with characters that you want to get to know and want to follow. Desperate Housewives started out this way, but sadly lost it in season two, I hope they retain it back. The interaction of the siblings on B&S is fresh, interesting, real, and normally dysfunctional, and they admit it. This is The Waltons with Wine. They want to be perfect but they know their not and Sally Field ( THE BEST ACTRESS EVER ) just leads the pack great. She is a MOM all the way, and she puts her children first, even as they get older. I applaud ABC for listening to the fans and keeping the show, I also applaud the writers for great lines, humor and actually making the characters on this show believable....... I can honestly say that not since 1993 when Knots Landing went off the air, have I looked forward to an hour of sitting in front of the T.V.

This was an excellent family drama and should never have been canceled. Season 6 was set up to be great and then it was canceled. If Will and Grace could be brought back after all the years it was off the air, B & S could be brought back, too. Loved the natural chemistry between Nora and Brody. Bring the show back.

When Brothers & Sisters first started, I was very fond of it. However, I don't consider Season 5 to be as good as the rest, the finale was good and the actors great but the written quality and story lines were not in general as compelling as they once were.

On the whole though, I like Brothers & Sisters very much. The production values and music are of top notch quality, the writing was both droll and touching, the story lines were thought-out and compelling and the characters were engaging.

Also there is some very good acting on this show, Callista Flockhart is very endearing, but in my mind the show belongs to Matthew Rhys and Sally Field who are both fantastic, and Rachel Griffiths too.

In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox