Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Third Season (2009, ABC/Buena Vista)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

ABC’s durable drama Brothers and Sisters hit some road bumps in its third season. After a standout second year in which the characters shaped into interesting people I wanted to follow each week, season three saw most of them become narcissistic navel gazers that were no fun to be around. Adding to the series’ woes were the supposed behind the scenes issues with star Balthazar Getty, leading to his character’s departure from the show. Still, the ship seemed to right itself by the season finale, leaving hope for the fourth season, premiering this fall.

Brothers and Sisters follows the many exploits of the Walker family, a large, wealthy California unit whose patriarch, William (played in flashbacks by Tom Skerritt) not only ran his food distribution company nearly into bankruptcy, but cheated on his wife with more than one woman. Williams’ wife is Nora, played with great energy and emotion by Sally Field. Her ability to make you cry and laugh with one look is one of the reasons Field is a Hollywood legend. Unfortunately, she can also become histrionic at times, which happens a little too much in season three. Nora’s character arc here includes opening a center for families dealing with cancer (which leads to romance with the center’s architect) and trying to draw William’s illegitimate son, Ryan (Luke Grimes), into her large brood. Ryan’s story is integral to the entire third season, as his character weaves into the lives of everyone. Despite Ryan’s unfortunate circumstances, including discovering that his mother has lied to him for 21 years and that the man raising him was not his biological father, the guy is a difficult character to like. It doesn’t help that Grimes portrays him as kind of creepy and sinister. Perhaps that was the intent, so that you don’t really trust him. And perhaps there was some subtext on the part of the writers that Ryan, despite his protests that he’ll never be anything like William Walker, is actually very much like the man he never knew. (more…)