Home Economics (2021–2023)
Has some hidden depth in showing that adults
24 November 2021
Mostly an effort to fill the safe family programming hole left by "Modern Family" except this is a bit more generationally horizontal than vertical. The series centers on the lives of three adult siblings whose kids are roughly the same age. Their parents (Nora Dunn and Richard Kind) make occasional appearances but are safely in recurring guest star territory while the kids are about as important to the formula as "Everybody Loves Raymond": Screen time is doled out to them if it helps develop one of their parents' arcs. Frankly, they could have recast the kids in between episodes and I wouldn't have noticed.

On to the roll call! Jimmy Tatro plays a well-off financial trader who's a bit difficult to buy considering this actor has appeared quite convincingly in a number of dim guys (from my small sampling). Topher Grace plays a novelist with a bit of neuroticism. Their sister, played by Caitlin McGee, is a lesbian who casually spouts off terms like male privilege and microaggressions. All three are married and all three have kids. The spouses are pretty disposable except Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata pops up as Caitlin McGee's other half. Way to bounce back, Sasheer!

As a 30-something with no kids and wife (and highly self-conscious about it), I started the show thinking "what's in it for me?" until I started to see how well the show poked at the thin veneer of marital bliss.

Within a couple episodes, Tatro's character gets divorced. In one episode, it's revealed that neither Topher Grace nor his wife have any ability to attract the opposite sex anymore. As for McGee's holier-than-thou wokeness, the show does an excellent line of lampooning her occasional moments of self-righteousness without ever showing her beliefs to be unworthy.

The show might not be ambitious, but it's disarming and has the potential to be consistent entertainment.
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