The commercials for the WB's new series "Related" sound promising. They mention the producers of "Friends" and "Sex and the City" and show hot siblings running around New York City. Unfortunately, the show fails to deliver the comedy of "Friends" or the scandal of "Sex and the City," leaving an endearing but predictable family dramedy that will elicit complete indifference from viewers.
In the first episode Ginnie Sorelli ("Spin City"'s Jennifer Esposito), the eldest sister, intends to keep her pregnancy a secret from husband Bob until her all-knowing, overweight secretary (aren't they all?) encourages her to spill the beans. Ann (Kiele Sanchez), a therapist and the second eldest, has a secret of her own: her long term relationship with boyfriend Danny is ending.
Marjee (Lizzy Caplan) is the third Sorelli sister, a scattered publicist who is evicted from her apartment and forced to move back into her father's house. Finally there is Rose (Laura Breckenridge), a sophomore at NYU who changes majors from pre-med to experimental theater and is apprehensive about sharing the news with her family.
Their father's engagement party is held at Ann's ex-boyfriend's restaurant, also the site of an event middle sister Marjee is organizing. Predictably at this party all four of the girls' secrets are revealed, causing recently dumped Ann to run to the bathroom in tears. Her sisters follow and a heartwarming (read: sappy) moment ensues where everyone accepts each other for who she truly is, blue hair and all. A group hug follows. For comic relief, an overwhelmed Bob runs in, citing a dearth of alcohol and abundance of family members. All the girls dry their tears, chuckle at the poor, foolish man, and rejoin the party.
Although these seem like standard familial relationships, the show's writers were apparently daunted by their complexity. Each sister sees Rose as the baby who is incapable of making her own decisions. Although a natural way for older sisters to view their youngest sibling, these girls feel the need to tell her constantly. It seems as if the writers wanted viewers to identify Rose as eager to please and indecisive, so they had her other sisters hammer the point over and over during the show.
This aspect of the show seems contrived - a convenient way of getting around developing Rose's character and allowing viewers to form their own opinions. Rose becomes a caricature of an innocent girl so desperate to rebel she'll get a tongue ring and dye her hair blue (things she does during the course of the show) just to make waves among her siblings.
In another attempt by the writers to elucidate for viewers relationships between the sisters, they added a scene involving a "phone chain" which also comes off as rather contrived. Each sister calls another saying "phone chain!" and gives a task for their father's upcoming engagement party.
Rose is disgruntled because, naturally, she doesn't like being at the end of the phone chain. Of course, her sisters say something to the effect of, "Oh, silly Rose, clearly you're at the end of the phone chain because you're the youngest and you can't make decisions for yourself and you'd never have the guts to switch majors... and oh yeah this is a phone chain!"
The scenes featuring eldest sister Ginnie are more enjoyable. Esposito has a natural charm and is instantly likeable. Her character could have easily slipped into dry and dull territory, but Esposito's comedic timing and quirky facial expressions enliven Ginnie.
"Related" is good for a little heartwarming, family fun. But though it takes place in Manhattan, it seems a comedic bridge and tunnel away from "Friends" and "Sex and the City."
