A show that checks off all the right boxes, but is it actually good enough to be the next great thing?
I hate when a network touts its own shows as "The next big thing," which is how ABC is treating its new show Home Economics after airing the pilot episode this past Wednesday. The audience is being convinced Home Economics is going to carry the mantle previously held by Modern Family (not a chance), so much so that my wife and I are seeing way too many similarities with Cam and Mitch from the latter and the new lesbian couple of the former. Both shows center around three families: one that is "normal," - for Home Economics, a husband, a wife, a girl in maybe 5th or 6th grade, and twin babies - one family that proves the show has "representation" - an interracial lesbian couple with their own (I'm assuming adopted) kids - and one rich guy, though Jay from Modern Family was old while Connor is a typical young millionaire who probably shouldn't be this rich and doesn't really know what to do with his money (that last part probably is, for the most part, spiteful conjecture).
The pilot seemed to check a lot of demographic boxes to "appeal" to a wide audience. The jokes are begging to be liked by a younger audience. I literally can envision a network executive speaking to the audience in a post-show survey saying, "Look, we made jokes about feminism and hating rich people and let's condescend to the white guy because white privilege! Now please like our show!" It's as transparent and trendy as anything I've seen in a long time.
And yet, for some unexplainable reason, I enjoyed the show and probably will keep checking it out.
We start with Tom, the oldest of the three siblings. He's a novelist who has experienced success in the past, but his most recent release tanked, so he's running out of money and cache. Tom is played by Topher Grace. Someday, when I write a blog about my top 10 sitcoms of all-time, That 70s Show will make the list, and Grace has plenty to do with that. He was the perfect high school dweeb. Grace's new character on this show basically is what Eric Foreman would be like all grown up. Heck, Grace doesn't even bring any new acting tricks to the table. He has that same uneven, irreverent, sarcastic tone and delivery, probably why he got cast. Like me, Tom is not afraid to correct his siblings' grammar (he is a writer, after all).
His wife Marina is played by another face familiar to me. Karla Souza played Laurel, one of my favorite characters on How To Get Away With Murder (another ABC show). It's fun to watch her play someone totally different. Here, she seems to be the new Claire Dunphy: a housewife who drinks too much wine and is mentally checked out from this whole parenting thing; a far cry from Souza's smart, serious character on HTGAWM.
Tom's younger brother Connor is a pretentious rich guy who casually and nonchalantly slips in reminders to everyone that he's rich, then acts like it's not a big deal that he dropped millions of dollars to buy a house that previously belonged to Matt Damon. He claims he read Tom's book, but by "read his book," he means "read the first couple of pages." His wife is rich, too, but we find out she left him because of unfaithfulness - they both cheated on each other, although Connor is that shallow, arrogant guy who thinks his unfaithfulness wasn't what caused problems. Connor has a daughter named Gretchen and a nanny. The actor playing Connor is Jimmy Tatro, who "coincidentally" also played a similar character on Modern Family (he was the stupid, but muscular, firefighter who dated Alex).
Lastly, there's Sarah, Tom's and Connor's sister who is played by Caitlin McGee (based on this one episode, I think she'll be my least favorite character). Sarah is with Denise, who is played by Sasheer Zamata. She seems pretty bright and funny, and I could see liking her character quite a bit. She's the grounded one (like Mitch) in their relationship while Sarah is all dramatic (like Cam) with her pseudo-feminism (only when it's convenient for her) and walk-outs. They are poor; neither of them has an income now that Sarah lost her job as a therapist for low-income kids.
That brings us to the warm, fuzzy feels the story of this pilot episode produces. Sarah and Tom both are financially strapped, but they are too embarrassed to ask Connor for money. Connor didn't talk with them about his wife leaving him (he'd rather drive off in his kiddy car in a tantrum) until they figured it out for themselves. And ta-da, they all realize they can be honest and open and vulnerable about their problems with each other because, hey, they're family. Seriously, though, it was so clunky how they realized "they're all screwed up" but were just afraid to talk about their struggles because people are too pretentious these days. As an aside, I pray that our society hasn't become so concerned with vanity and perception that this lesson would be a major discovery for most people, because living like that is just plain sad.
I'm definitely willing to watch more of this show to see what it turns into.
Notes:
-I think another reason Topher Grace was cast was for his talent as a narrator. Instead of the mockumentary style of Modern Family, we're getting the voiceover technique. He's writing a book inspired by his family (what a novel idea - pun very much intended)
-It's only one episode, so it's too early to judge, but the kids in the show seem less interesting than the Modern Family kids. Also, do people still play Monopoly? There are so many better games these days.
-As I alluded to earlier, we couldn't get through one episode without a white privilege comment. I guess Tom isn't allowed to complain about failing with his follow-up books even though his first book was a success.