Sons & Daughters

What’s the Story?

The mid-sized, middle class, Midwestern family in SONS & DAUGHTERS is an extended network of blended families that is both loving and dysfunctional. Episodes take place around family events: an anniversary party, a bowling night, a barbecue, a film festival. The central character is Cameron Walker (Fred Goss), a father of three who is in his second marriage, to Liz (Gillian Vigman). The rest of the family includes Cameron's managerial mother and wise stepfather, two married sisters and a single half sister, all of their spouses and some ex-spouses, one former boyfriend (the father of the unmarried half-sister's son), assorted kids, a dotty great aunt who speaks her mind carelessly, and more. When Cameron's teenaged son (a Goth prankster and the school pariah) is rejected by two beautiful girls, Cameron's nephew (a handsome, too-good-to-be-true athlete) shows loyalty to his Goth cousin. Cameron's stepfather, who has hinted that he's leaving Cameron's mother, also expresses deep love for her.

Is It Any Good?

The show itself is surprising -- it's innovative and hilarious. The dialogue is part scripted and part improvisational, seamlessly weaving both nuanced and laugh-out-loud moments into themes of family conflicts and bonds. Remarkably, the chuckles you hear will be your own -- there is no laugh track. Handheld cameras give the show the herky-jerk feel of a mockumentary.

Sons & Daughters is a stylistic cousin to Arrested Development, an award-winning, critically beloved series that has never quite found its audience. But where Arrested Development includes many themes of inappropriate adult behavior, Sons & Daughters shows people with foibles finding ways to be a family despite themselves and each other. It raises the bar on family comedies.