Critic Reviews

What is surprising, though, is just how watchable and amusing Brothers is, even if it doesn't break new ground.

Everybody in Brothers is funny, but the unquestioned star of the show is Pounder, a rapturous mix of menace and guile in the struggle to keep her men in line.

Brothers is funnier than many African American sitcoms before it, and much better (what isn't?) than 'Til Death, with which it will be awkwardly paired beginning next week.

In most other respects, it is a standard three-camera sitcom, in which two bickering siblings in their mid-30s (Mitchell and Strahan) find themselves back living with their parents (Weathers and Pounder). Which is not to call it run-of-the-mill--it has some charm and personality and keeps its focus unusually tight on the four principals.

Those writers would be wise to boost her material and cut the jokes about Carl Weathers' dad's early Alzheimer's. But on the plus side, they do make good use of Mitchell. As for the show's personable star, he's not yet an actor, and Brothers wisely refrains from pushing him past the limits of his talents. But the show's not quite using all of his talents, either.

Strahan's not yet up to his cast mates' level and the writing's uneven in tonight's back-to-back episodes--producers need, for instance, to figure out just how serious Weathers' character's forgetfulness is meant to be--but there are a few great moments.

Brothers really is not that bad a show.

Neither offensive nor particularly funny, it's merely another average, laugh-track-addled sitcom. The four leads are fine; they just need better material.

Brothers starts with a noble idea: Bring two estranged adult brothers together by forcing them to live in their parents' house again. It just doesn't quite achieve either poignance or real comedy.

The balance between humor and pathos is a hard one, and this show teeters on the edge and occasionally falls flat.