Sitcoms usually are about families. Why? Because it allows writers to write storylines for men in their fifties, women in their forties, teenage girls and prepubescent boys. Got everything covered. It doesn't work too well anymore when the show lasts for eleven years and the 13year old little boy is now a grown man in his mid-twenties with big muscles sporting a beard, but what the heck. Still, what's up with the names? All sorts of variations of the word family? Ironically enough, one of the world's best sitcoms so far may just might have come up with the most uninspired name to a sitcom ever, second only to "Generic Family Sitcom". Enter My Family, Season nine.
Yes, the Harpers are back and this time with a slimmed cast. After Nick had gone several seasons ago (unfortunately) and Abi left at the end of season eight, resulting in Roger getting significantly less screen time than before, the mayor players are the four Harpers, Ben, Susan, Michael and Janey, with a surprisingly big support by Alfie who Janey correctly introduces as simply being there. Before we focus on the actual episodes, let's get a quick character rundown.
Ben:
He's Ben and rightfully so. The british version of Al Bundy, fed up with life, his job, his kids, brilliantly portrayed by Robert Lindsay. For the one character who has experienced the least changes of all cast members, it's surprising, but also testament to the great performance of Lindsay that the character feels as fresh as he does. The sequence where he tried to work out is comedy 1x1, but it had me still pausing the DVD, desperately trying to dry my eyes and get some air back into my lungs. Ben wants one thing. Peace and a remote. Ok, that's two things. Yet his family always manages to ruin things and Ben, being the bullied, broken old man that he is, is unable to do anything about it. We love him for it.
Susan:
As played by Zoë Wanamaker. There are supposed to be two dots on the "e" of Zoë, but I'll be damned if I find out how to type that. So she's just Zoë to me. (Hehe, word spelling took care of that for me) Remember her from Harry Potter? She taught Harry to fly a broom. She's also the narrator of Fable 2. Honestly, I never liked Susan. That's because I never really liked the wife in any sitcom. It's always the same bitch, isn't it? You know, that strong confident woman, who controls everything, the one, who truly rules the house, who the man fears and obeys without question? You know, the one that doesn't exist in real life? The one, that every man who has half a testicle left would have beaten around the kitchen ages ago? And rightfully so? It's an ongoing theme in My Family that Susan might just be the most insane character in it, constantly screwing things up with her temper and her habit of ignoring all advise, mostly coming from Ben, that, when followed, might have prevented a disaster or two. It also makes her the most predictable character and nothing kills humour quicker than knowing the punch line.
Michael:
Now we're talking. Played by Gabriel Thomson who was once cast as Harry Potter (and in the early seasons, you can clearly see why), Michael started as an innocent, but smart computer geek, and turned out into a man that's just one breakdown away from a psycho path. Cool, calculating, manipulative and with a surprisingly deep and exciting voice, he is the exact opposite of his mother, making him the most unpredictable character and thus the funniest.
Janey:
The eye candy of the show. Since the only other female lead character is pushing 60, this does not come as a surprise, but Daniela Denby-Ashe (what's up with all these names?) sure is a hottie. Not that you could tell that by the clothes she's wearing. Is this that what passes for clothing in the UK? We all know they can't cook, now they can't dress? I have seen luggage sexier than the bags Janey puts around her body. As a character, well she's still a superficial bitch using men up like underwear, dating them only so she can keep their comfy sweatshirts and so forth. This was all fine when she was a teenage girl, but now she is pushing 30 and she's the mother of a child who is due for school. It is here, where the problem I spoke of in the introduction rears it's head. The writers still write stories for the little brat girl that Denby-Ashe grew out of twelve years ago. With her still youthful looks, that beautiful yet extremely arrogant and snobbish voice Denby-Ashe still manages to pull it off. Still, some change would do her character a lot of good.
Roger:
Roger, played by Keiron Self, does what he does best. He comes in, is being awkward, and gets of stage. With far less screen time he is easier to tolerate and in small doses he can even be funny. It's in the episodes he isn't in, though, that you can tell how little the show actually needs him.
Alfie:
Played by Rhodri Meilir and how do you even say that??? Another character who in real life would have been kicked out of the house about two minutes after entering, yet he still lingers around. Basically he is just a british version of Balki Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers (Ein Grieche erobert Chicago). You can bet on all the farm references he is going to make at the most inopportune times. He does seem a little brighter this time around, a little less stoned and even a bit more on the evil side. Which is nice to see. He originally came in to replace Nick, but at this point we can safely say, that he failed at this in the worst way possible. He is not ruining the show, but in all honesty he is adding nothing to it, either.
And one word about Kenzo: There should be laws against putting people in front of a camera under the age of 15. The problem with most kid-actors is: They don't act. They read of cards. And badly, too. If you just learned to speak and you can hardly read, maybe acting isn't what you should do for a living.
With the characters dealt with, let's look at the episodes. I am not going to simply list them, but rather pick out some of them who are exemplatory for the season. Should not be too difficult, since the entire season only consists of nine episodes, each 30 minutes long. Like season eight, it's definitely on the short side. Ally McBeal featured around 22 episodes lasting 45 minutes each per season and The Simpsons still have around twenty lasting 22 minutes each. Even a shorter series like The Shield has around ten to thirteen, 45 minutes each with the season finale usually lasting an hour. Nine 30minutes-episodes is not much.
Now if there is one thing that you can't shake it's the feeling that the writers somehow ran out of ideas. An expensive suit gets mixed up with a burial suit? In that suit there was a winning lottery ticket? Oh and now Ben is working a dead body in a casket to get his stuff back? Am I watching a re-run? They already had that episode! It was a watch back then, not a lottery ticket, but it was the same story. Ben getting jealous of Susan's partner at work? Not only is the topic old, IT IS THE SAME BLOODY MAN!!!!! Oh and your teenage daughter (who is 29, by the way) is dating an older man? That one was old when Married with Children did it in 1991. AND IT IS STILL THE VERY SAME BLOODY MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111one eleven
Janey dating a lot of men? Yeah, we laughed at that in season one, eight years later you might want to find a new angle for her. Repeating myself here, I know. Ben playing decoy, pretending to hook up with a friend of Susan's to help make her husband jealous? Sounds familiar. Ben and Susan hiding somewhere they weren't supposed to be in the first place? You should put that one into the opening credits.
So this season's sole mistake is, it is playing it safe. Too safe in fact. They use everything, they know will work. And they know it will work, because it all has worked once before. On the same show no less.
This sounds far worse than it is. See, with any other cast, this might have turned out a boring, uninteresting season. Thanks to the brilliant performances of the entire cast, lead by Robert Lindsay, they can take nothing and turn it into comedy gold. Even the most classic routines become fresh and funny again when Lindsay gives you his version of it. Even getting a hole in his pants and walking upstairs is breath takingly funny when he has a go at it. Same holds true for the other actors, less so, but still.
So in the end it is more of the same, little more of the same and by the same I mean exactly the same, but it is still My Family and My Family remains one of the best sitcoms out there. It won't for much longer though if the writers don't seriously pick up their slack in the following years. I am confident though. As long as rubbish like Little Britain counts as funny, My Family is never going to be cancelled.
)
