You know what they say: It's only after someone is gone that you realize how much you miss them. I didn't harbor such a strong feeling towards Brothers and Sisters when it was still on air. I liked it alright, but mostly I took it for granted. I didn't really like the fact that they let a key sibling go while downsizing the screen time of another. For a show called Brothers and Sisters I found this to be unforgivable.
And then it unexpectedly went off the air after its 5th season. Without a warning, without a proper goodbye. Some story lines were left hanging. And so the withdrawal kicked in.
Perhaps let me start from the beginning. In 2006, the show started its first season somewhat heavy on the political plot line. Over the years this narration would be slowly reverted to a backseat position to family drama. But in the first two years, we were constantly fed with arguments and debates between family members of different political views. However, may you be right wing or left wing, conservative or democratic, family always comes first. As the conservative Kitty reaffirmed her support on her gay brother Kevin by citing her role as a sister comes before her political view, that's the spirit of the show. Family drama at the center.
At the center of a family dinner, no less.
If you watched the show, you'd come to expect that a family dinner is never a simple one in the Walker family. They always seized the opportunity to make a big scene out of the dinner, and those scenes were usually the best out of the whole episode. Secrets were spilled, fight was erupted, someone left abruptly and it was up to the family matriarch Nora Walker to patch things up afterwards. Nora Walker, by the way, was played by the always reliable Sally Field. She made Nora Walker the kind of mother we were all too familiar with: the supermom who always care about her children, never give up on them and work her best to help each of them resolve their messy personal problem. One of the reasons why I feel connected to the show is because of Nora Walker too. She reminded me of my mother.
And another reason I'm fascinated with the show is because I never had a big family. I had always wondered what it would be like to have more siblings. Though at times the five siblings were fighting and bickering, they usually washed down the conflict with a bottle of wine by the end of the episode (wine was a prominent item throughout the series). And when they were not fighting, they shared secrets through multi-party con call, and finished each other's sentences. Spark flies among the cast, and you will almost mistaken them for real family.
Somewhere in season 3, one of the siblings got written off the show (partly due to Balthazar Getty's scandal with actress Sienna Miller), and another sibling Calista Flockhart chose to reduce her own screen time. That was when the show got out of focus a bit, introducing a few story lines and new characters that didn't work so well. We were protective of the original cast, and any new member would not have the same chemistry with them. But by season 5, the show came back strong. It made the siblings interesting again. Kitty was once again fun and adventurous, Sarah was less family-corporate-uptight, Justin's relationship with Rebecca ended thus making him free to date again. Even Mama Nora got her own romance when her old flame came back to her life.
The most intriguing relationship throughout the show, however, have got to be Kevin and Scotty's. All other siblings ended the show with different relationships from the one they had in season 1, but Kevin and Scotty's was the only one lasted the whole show. Throughout the series they went through some ups and downs, they got married, they tried to have babies by engaging surrogates, they survived an infidelity, they adopted a daughter and by series finale, they were still going strong. Bonus points for the show-runner to never treated them any different from other relationships, or making them the typical campy gays so many other shows did (and still do).
Five seasons truly were not a short one, so I would have considered the series a success for surviving five years, especially I read somewhere that the production cost was high for this series. I just wish the network had prepared the show-runner for the departure, so they can write an official ending to the show where every character says adieu and ties up lose ends. But it happened, we can't turn back time. Cast members have moved on, and so must we. But once in a while, I will revisit season 5, and in my mind, I had said my proper goodbye to the Walker family.
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