"What we don't tell you, Mom, could fill a Library of Congress." - Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) to her snoopy mother
Brothers and Sisters: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
You can't believe gossip. Before the start of the 2006-2007, the media was abuzz with word that Brothers and Sisters was a series in trouble: last minute casting changes, a completely reworked pilot, a new executive producer. Surely, they predicted, the series would be a mess and disappear in the blink of an eye. Then something unusual happened. The show premiered, and Brothers and Sisters: The Complete First Season proved to be one of the most finely crafted creations currently on TV.
The series centers on the Walker family, which owns the Los Angeles-based Ojai Food Company. Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal) is the clan's Republican expatriate who hosts a conservative radio show in New York. She returns home to both celebrate her birthday and audition for a Crossfire-style political TV show. Kitty's beliefs put her at odds with her mother, Nora (Sally Field, Gidget), who blames Kitty for convincing her youngest brother, Justin (Dave Annable), to enlist in the military and serve in Iraq. Justin came home physically safe, but the horrors of war have contributed to his drug and alcohol abuse. Eldest sibling Sarah (Rachel Griffiths, Six Feet Under) struggles to maintain a happy marriage with her husband Joe (John Pyper-Ferguson) while simultaneously helping to raise their children and bring Ojai out of debt. Second-youngest sibling Tommy (Balthazar Getty) has been at Ojai longer and resents his sister's interference, but he is also preoccupied with starting a family with his wife Julia (Sarah Jane Morris). Second oldest sibling Kevin (Matthew Rhys) is an attorney who drowns himself in work in lieu of a social life. He is out to his family, but still feels a little uncomfortable being gay. The family is thrown into turmoil when patriarch and Ojai president William (Tom Skerritt, Picket Fences) suffers a fatal heart attack during Kitty's birthday party. As the Walkers slowly put their lives back together, Sarah discovers that the company is in worse financial shape than she first imagined, the company's accountant, Saul Holden (Ron Rifkin, Alias)-who is also Nora's brother-comes under suspicion, and former B-movie actress Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig, thirtysomething) reveals shocking secrets about William's past.
Despite this potentially potboiling premise, the series is less of a soap opera than a study in complicated family dynamics. The series' biggest strength is its well-drawn characters. In the first episode, "Patriarchy," each character is succinctly introduced before the opening credits even begin to roll. The strong cast is also incredible. Brothers and Sisters is a perfect argument for the inclusion of a "Best Ensemble" category at the Emmy Awards. There isn't a weak link in the bunch.
The series only wobbles a bit as the show's writers start to fine tune the season's overall arc. Early in the season, much time is spent in setting up Kitty's talk show nemesis, liberal Warren Salter (Josh Hopkins, Ally McBeal), as a love interest, but this is quickly abandoned when Rob Lowe joins the cast as senatorial candidate Robert McCallister. Nora, too, suffers from Abandoned Relationship Storyline Syndrome. First she dates her contractor (played by Treat Williams) before being sweet-talked by her cad of a creative writing teacher (Peter Coyote). Even Kevin gets in on the act, first dating cute-as-a-button Scotty (Luke MacFarlane), then closeted soap stud Chad Berry (Jason Lewis, Sex and the City), and finally smooching McCallister's Methodist minister brother Jason (Eric Winter, Days of Our Lives).
Brothers and Sisters manages to take standard soap opera schtick-illegitimate children, illicit affairs, family secrets, etc.-and somehow turn it into a classy family drama. We get to know and like the Walkers over the course of the season, relishing each development in their lives. Hopefully they'll stick around for a while.
The twenty-three episodes that make up The Complete First Season are divided onto six discs. Each disc is adorned with portraits of the series' characters-Nora and Saul on disc one, Joe and Sarah on disc two, Kitty and McCallister on disc three, Tommy and Julia on disc four, Kevin and Justin on disc five, and Holly and Rebecca on disc six. The discs are housed in a foldout case featuring publicity photos and production stills. The six discs attach to three panels-each of the panels holds two discs, one on top of the other, in a figure eight pattern. Another panel of the foldout case includes a booklet which contains an episode guide. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve.
The DVD menus mimic the Walkers' stairwell picture gallery. Viewers can play all episodes or choose them individually. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes include chapter stops.
