Family drama with a large ensemble cast that includes lots of TV veterans.
William Walker (Tom Skerritt) runs a California food/farming business with the aid of two of his children, responsible son Thomas (Balthazar Getty) and executive Sarah (Rachel Griffiths), who's returned to the family business from the corporate world, hoping that she'll be able to spend more time with her husband and kids.
The large family of siblings also includes gay lawyer Kevin (Matthew Rhys) -- that's really all we know about him after the pilot -- and the troubled baby of the family, Justin (Dave Annable), a "gen-Y vet of foreign wars" who's struggling with post-war stress and substance abuse.
And then there's Kitty (Calista Flockhart), a right-wing radio personality who's come back to the family home in Los Angeles for the first time in several years; she's been offered a job as co-host of a political TV show. She's not excited about making the trip home, mostly because she and her mother, Nora (Sally Field), are on opposite ends of the political spectrum and can't seem to have a conversation that doesn't explode into argument.
The first episode sets up lots of melodramatic plotlines. Will Kitty's controlling boyfriend join her in LA, or does her new job mean the end of their relationship? What sort of shady financial dealings are William and Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) up to at the family company? Who's the sexy blonde (Patricia Wettig) having hush-hush conversations with William in his office? Can Sarah and Joe (John Pyper-Ferguson) make their marriage work? And most important, can Kitty and Nora find a way to get past their political differences and have a happy mother-daughter relationship?
By the end of the first episode, the Walkers face a tragedy (which the producers foolishly telegraph with their billing of the actors in the opening credits), the repercussions of which will be felt for the rest of the season.
The cast is talented, and the writing is better than usual; the relationships among the siblings already feel convincing. Many of these actors -- Flockhart, Rifkin, Griffiths -- have recently played memorable TV characters in other shows, which sometimes get in the way; it is to their credit that not once did I find myself thinking of them as Ally, Sloane, or Brenda.
This should be a good fit with Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights, and it ought to do well enough to last the season.
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