Brothers And Sisters, Aren't We All?

Anyone who has brothers and sisters can totally relate to Brothers And Sisters, an ABC (the US Channel, not the struggling local one, thanks to Philippine Idol's dismal ratings) family drama that is about to end its first season this in a few weeks.

Unless of course if you're an only child. Or if you have an all-male or all-female set of siblings. Or if you don't have a brother who is an Afghan war veteran. Or if you don't have a sister who is a right-winger TV host. Or if you don't have a deceased father -- whom you later discover is a philanderer. Or if you don't own a family business that might just file for bankruptcy, thanks but no thanks to your deceased father. Or if you don't have a gay brother who is 90% out of his gay closet. Or if you're surname isn't Walker and that you grew up in Los Angeles. Or I could just stop describing the characters, eh? Haha!

Seriously, this show is so compellingly good that in two days, I have finished the first six episodes. I could actually watch the 7th and 8th episode right now, if not only for my sister who doesn't share a body clock of someone from England. Ironically funny, me and my sister watch Brothers And Sisters together. Yeah, it's that good -- this seemingly innocent torrented AVI copy of a TV series served as a bonding activity for two actually-close siblings but never had the time to actually do together things that they both like.

It's official, Brothers And Sisters joins the company of Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Heroes as one of my must-watch (or rather, must-download) US television series. It's the second TV series that got me officially and immensely hooked by its pilot. While the Seattle Grace gang is still my favorite group of TV people these days, it actually took me five episodes before it duped me into believing that I wanted to be a surgeon all over again. While I wanted to be a 'hero' by the third episodes of Heroes, it's not to say though that I wanted to be a housewife when I saw the Desperate Housewives pilot, haha! But I think, you get what I mean. Now I feel that it's so cool to have Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin and Justin as brothers and sisters!

Whenever we watch, my sister and I always would often say, "Uy, si yan ah, ganyan na ganyan siya.. haha!" whenever one of the characters or events become too familiarly closer to home. The dramatic scenes are not your typical teleserye ones. It will thug your heart not with the fluctuating volume of shouting voices during confrontations or the overplayed aping-api-ako drama of the leads, but with the wittingly spoken lines that will definitely hit home. In fact, there has been no episode so far that lacks a watery-eyes moment. That's the best thing about it, it won't make you cry but it will definitely open your eyes and touch your heart. It's an American family, but if there's anything Filipino in it, it's the fact that at the end of the day, despite the problems and the conflicts that just seem to pull your family apart, if you stick by yours, you'd be surprised at what your family can survive.

*Studio 23 is going to air it soon but am not sure of the actual schedule. So for torrent freaks, try this TV series. Yeah, it's a family drama. But if you could just get past the idea that it's drama, you'll see that you will see a piece of your own family (whatever the characters or conflicts yours actually have) in the Walker family.