ABC could have found the next big family comedy – and his secret weapon is a guy best known for a chicken graffiti show.
Home economics, for the first time on Wednesday, starts from a simple premise: Three brothers, each in a very different income category, are navigating their complicated financial relationship to stay connected as a family. Topher Grace, repeating her run like a nice Eric Forman The show from the ’70s, anchors this new series as the wet blanket, older brother Tom Hayworth. Impossible for the nice Jimmy Tatro, best known for his split tower as Dylan Maxwell American vandal, plays the role of Tom’s child brother, Connor, rich in madness, while Caitlin McGee plays their older sister, Sarah – who, recently unemployed, is struggling the most financially. (You can tell because the apartment she shares with her wife, Denise, is crammed and painted dark green to be nonsense; their car also has rolling windows.)
It’s fascinating to see this series premiere on ABC about a decade after the network unveiled its juggler Emmys Modern family. Although it debuted at the height of a global financial recession in 2009, the mockumentary-style sitcom (which was hugely popular with the wealthy audience) focused on the recession-resistant Pritchett family and became a trusted hit for both critics and and for the public, for years. . During Mod FamDuring the reign, the sitcom genre seems to follow suit, at least, until Donald Trump’s 2016 election sparked renewed interest in the working class.
Unlike Pritchetts, Home economics“Hayworths has to think about money. As Tom, a struggling novelist, realizes that he is borrowing from his absurd and rich brother, Sarah mocks the idea of their ultra-rich quarantined brother at his old mansion in Seattle – where his boyfriend at the pool became an influential TikTok. The show deals with its class tensions with a light touch and wisely develops its gender identity to try these awkward conversations with humor and humanity. Its early episodes start to be promising, largely due to the light chemistry of the cast – they all seem to understand their tasks perfectly.
It’s hard to imagine anyone but Grace – who produces and plays an executive role – playing Tom with such beloved but tiring ease. (“I won the most promising debut novel at the 2009 Nantucket Book Festival, non-fantasy or science fiction,” Tom boasts at one point. “I think I can handle a wedding toast.”) Like Eric Forman , Tom has a good heart, a bit strange and deeply insecure. His wife, Marina, played by a charming sardonic Karla Souza, is a retired lawyer who, despite his family’s financial problems, spends most of his time listening to crime podcasts and wondering out loud if he should to return to work. (I mean … probably ?!) The two share a daughter, Camila, and a pair of infant twins.
Meanwhile, McGee hits all the right comic notes as an unemployed older brother who just wants to prove he still knows best (even when he doesn’t). Writers Michael Colton and John Aboud also clearly know what they have in support of player Sasheer Zamata, who plays Sarah’s wife, Denise – a ground-level sign, obsessed with astrology, who just wants his in-laws to cool down. Their children, Kelvin and Shamiah, spend most of their time frying Sarah when her whims get out of hand.
But Tatro is the one who, in each of the three episodes provided for review, reliably runs away with the show. The actor’s charisma ensures that his one-percent character, who loves nothing more than reminding people that he bought his palace house from Matt Damon, is simply too weird to hate him.
It doesn’t hurt that Connor, too, finds out from the start, divorces – forcing him to reevaluate his life and discover such boring things as what he calls the “custody road” with his daughter Gretchen. Tatro never loses sight of the heart of his mindless character, which makes the scenes as one of his characters desperately sing their sadness on Flo-Rida’s “Low” song, as strangely charming as it is. inductive.
The series unfolds in chapters, while Tom clandestinely turns his family story into a book. Tom’s narrative is fortunately rare, preventing the familiar trick from going beyond the series. It’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait for Tom to reveal his family’s plans – but given how invested he seems to keep it a secret, it seems inevitable that an estimate will be made. Hopefully, whenever the clan finds out, Connor isn’t too upset; after all, he only lent Tom a substantial sum of money to keep his family afloat.
“It’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait for Tom to reveal his family’s plans – but given how invested he seems to keep it a secret, it seems inevitable that an estimate will be made.”
Which brings us to the only weak link in this series: Although Souza takes full advantage of her role, Marina feels underdeveloped. It is not clear why, given the family’s apparent money problems, the retired lawyer did not seriously consider returning to her office. The series signals Souza’s Mexican roots, allowing her to fry her TV husband in both English and Spanish with their bilingual daughter – and showing her in-laws greeting her in broken Spanish – but we know little about Marina beyond her inheritance and her apparent drinking problem. (As the episodes wear out, Marina’s business card becomes the endless parade of wine glasses in hand – a tired trope that wears out quickly.) Hopefully in future episodes, Souza will have more interesting work to do.
Sarah and Denise’s young can also fall into a complicated light. Although many of the jokes at their expense feel organic – such as Sarah insisting she doesn’t pursue astrology while Denise contradicts, “This is a very ‘Capricorn’ thing to say” – other blows, like when their kids ask a cousin whose pronouns use her dolls, feel a little sharper. Overall, though, the two make the most compelling couple in the series, and McGee and Zamata twist with each other with great ease – especially since their characters spare the cultural value of Say yes to the dress.
It is impossible to say, for now, whether this charming sitcom will reach the notoriety of predecessors such as Modern family. But its classy “soft-focus” exploration feels like fertile ground for a sitcom released in 2021 – and the crazy casting, specific but flexible premise and focus on the heart feel just like money.