Network: Fox; Genre: Family Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-PG; Classification: Contemporary (star range 1 - 4);
Season Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons)
The Fox network, widely known amongst those paying attention as a network that takes a sadistic delight in strapping their own viewers to a rack and torturing them as often as possible, seems to be making a slow turn back toward sanity. It is going to be like turning around a cruise ship to win back the fans it has disgusted over the years, but if Fox is willing to put the years of commitment in, they might just get back on our good side. Their first breakthrough: the implementation of a "year round season", by which shows debut in the spring, summer and fall so there is a constant oscillation of new product, and with it a realization that sweeps periods have become utterly irrelevant. I like it. This, along with the impending return of the canceled "Family Guy" is as close to an admission of wrongdoing as we will ever get. It is refreshing and welcome. Plus, now that Gail Berman has moved on, Fox has a chance to undo all of her damage (as some of the decade's best show's have been killed off under her watch) and might get its footing back.
The first show out of the pipe in this new summer season is creator Mark Reisman ("The In-Laws") and Imagine Television's "Quintuplets" and it is just the height of irony that a format so ground-breaking is used to roll out a show so unremarkable. The premise sounds interesting. Remember those "Primetime Live" yearly specials celebrating In Vitro fertilization by checking in with the hectic life of the McCaughey septuplets or the Dilly sextuplets? We don't see those anymore do we? "Quintuplets" is a comedy about two parents (Andy Richter and Rebecca Creskoff) who raising their 5 twins who have now grown up beyond the age of being cute bundles of joy and into wild teenagers. But from minute one the show plays exactly like any other family sitcom - except with 5 kids.
The real disappointment is Brian Grazer's Imagine - a company who has plowed a name for itself with such innovative delights as "24" and "Arrested Development". If "Quintuplets" is Imagine's attempt to inject some spunk into the traditional single camera, studio-audience family sitcom it is hard to tell much of a difference between it and, say, "Still Standing" (which, thanks to the comic skill of its stars, can be much funnier).
The show is light and inoffensive, the story lines a good tick above the norm. All 5 young actors look like they are having fun and are the stars of the series. There is an enthusiasm about the show (the show runners try their best in an uphill battle) and amongst the young cast that isn't in most of this by-the-numbers genre. It is a good thing that they don't seem to know that these characters aren't entirely original. My eyes can't help but roll at the outlandish goof-ball act of Johnny Lewis ("Undressed"), Jake McDorman plays the high school stud, Parker, we've seen a thousand times and the dynamic between sisters Paige (Sarah Wright) and Penny (April Matson) is a carbon copy of Bridget and Kerry in "8 Simple Rules". On the other hand it is kind of fun to watch Ryan Pinkston ("Punk'd") chew up the scenery as pint-sized womanizer Payton.
Creskoff is passable as a sitcom mom with a sense of humor, but it is almost unbearable watching Andy Richter in this thing. After waiting so long to find his perfect star vehicle in the brilliant, inspired and ignore "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", Richter deserves so much better than to have a hit in a thankless bumbling father role.
On a side note, while I'm not going to rally for its return, "Quintuplets" was canceled by Fox despite solid ratings - actually a hit in its first season. I guess the strategy at Fox is to just put something on hiatus long enough that hopefully people will forget about it. Its more evidence that it is network suits, not ratings, that are determining what viewers watch now. Some things never change.
* * / 4
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