‘Brothers’ has potential, but may not go the distance
OPINION - The "Brothers" writers have exceptional talent to call upon, yet, in football parlance, they are afraid to stretch the field and allow the actors to run.
The old joke goes that the reason they call television a medium is because hardly anything on it is either rare or well done. That kind of joke – which tells you all you need to know about the quality of writing on a Friday night show – would actually bring down the house on “Brothers,” the new Fox sitcom, which started last week.
The acting corps, led by former New York Giants defensive lineman Michael Strahan, is substantially better than average, but not enough to lift “Brothers” above run-of-the-mill status. And that may help send the show to a premature doom.
In its premiere last week, “Brothers,” which ran back-to-back episodes, finished fourth in its timeslot. That landed the show behind established series like CBS’ “Ghost Whisperer” and NBC’s “Law & Order,” but also behind a rerun of the pilot of “Flash Forward” on ABC. While network executives will tolerate middling early ratings for shows that portend quality down the road (a la “Cheers,” “30 Rock,” “Hill Street Blues”), there’s no room for the hopelessly tedious. Strahan and “Brothers” may be getting the two-minute warning for cancellation as early as this week’s episode.
The shame of it all is that there is, among the show’s premise and its actors, a nugget of a halfway decent show here. It’s not as funny as, say, “Everybody Hates Chris,” or “The Cosby Show,” but it’s infinitely preferable to Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne,” or “Meet the Browns.”
Strahan, who was named NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2001 when he set a single season record for quarterback sacks, ostensibly plays himself, a retired NFL player living in New York. In the pilot, Strahan, or Mike Trainor, as he is called in “Brothers,” gets a call from his mother (CCH Pounder) saying that his father, (Carl Weathers), is losing his memory. Meanwhile, his brother, (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell), is failing at running Trainor’s restaurant in his hometown of Houston, so it’s apparently time for Mike Trainor to hightail it back to Texas to straighten things out.
Admittedly, Strahan, who has done some commercials and is an analyst on Fox’s NFL pre-game show, won’t be confused with a classically trained actor. But he is certainly likable in front of a camera, and in the first two episodes, Strahan displays a charisma that makes the viewer root for him.
Weathers, who, like Strahan, played in the NFL, is best known for his role as Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” films. His role in “Brothers,” as an addled former football coach, is thankless, but Weathers is a solid pro and knows how to deliver a punch line. Where Strahan is aided greatly is in the casting of the talented Mitchell and the luminous Pounder.
Mitchell, who first attracted notice as a lunch counter operator on “The John Larroquette Show” in the 1990s, was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 2001, and his paralysis is a part of the back-story of “Brothers.” In other less capable hands, the role of a man angered by his brother’s prominent success and by his own paralysis would be a cliché, but Mitchell brings depth to the part.
And then there’s Pounder, just off an Emmy nomination for a guest-starring role in HBO’s “The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.” Pounder’s presence brings stature and authenticity to “Brothers,” though you are left to wonder why someone with her acting chops is largely reduced to mugging for the cameras and telling lame jokes.
That’s the ultimate failing of “Brothers,” whose writers have exceptional talent to call upon, yet, in football parlance, are afraid to stretch the field and allow the actors to run. It’s too bad, for, in “Brothers,” there’s a really good television show screaming to get out of a piece of mediocrity.
