If you took a very good Lifetime Christmas movie and mixed it with an average rom-com movie about Christmas, you would have this series. Its not very original, but I did enjoy it and got a teary eyed a few times. The single season of this show takes place over 10 days at Christmas when one of the daughters returns home.
Dennis Quaid is Don Quinn, the widowed patriarch of a Philadelphia family of grown children who have spent their entire lives trying to please him. He's a sheriff's deputy who is gruff and bullies his kids with the intent of helping them, but has actually caused them to be dysfunctional.
One of his children, Emmy, moved to LA but is returning home for the holiday with her boyfriend, Matt, in tow. Matt intends to ask Don for his blessing to marry Emmy and tries his best to please Don. Daughter Kayla's husband walks out on her in the very first episode and she spends the rest of the season bemoaning marriage and her loneliness. Don's other children are Patsy, a neurotic who is trying to replace their mother, and Sean, who can't seem to live up to his dad. Patsy is married to Todd and they are trying to conceive without much luck. Sean is married to Joy and they have two young boys, Donny and Sean Jr. Nancy is a nurse at the local urgent care center that Don is sweet on.
They pulled out every family conflict trope from every other movie you've seen. The gruff dad, the couple not able to conceive, the child struggling with sexuality, not living up to a parent's expectation, fear of meeting the in-laws, trying to fit in with the in-laws and their years of traditions, gender roles, work interfering with the relationship, what religion to raise the baby, and dating after 50. There is also the required silly misunderstanding leading to a break up when a ten second conversation would have cleared it up. Someone on the production team went down the diversity checklist and realized they didn't have an Atheist character so they made one of the characters declare that as well. Thankfully, they skipped over any political topics or they would have won the award for most tropes in a single show.
Having said all that, the cast does a really good job. While the plot is unoriginal, the characters are fun and I found myself really liking them. The first couple of episodes felt forced, but by episode 3, they seemed to be comfortable. The one original thing I liked were the two spouses who married into the family (Joy and Adam). They call themselves the "Outlaws" and sneak outside during gatherings to or a local bar on Wednesdays to quietly contemplate their lot. They invite Matt to join them and each episode they gather to discuss strategy and share advice.
It only lasted one season and I guess that was enough. The characters were well acted, even if some of them had very little original material to work with. I still liked it and would recommend it for a family with older children as the young ones would probably be bored with it.
Dennis Quaid is Don Quinn, the widowed patriarch of a Philadelphia family of grown children who have spent their entire lives trying to please him. He's a sheriff's deputy who is gruff and bullies his kids with the intent of helping them, but has actually caused them to be dysfunctional.
One of his children, Emmy, moved to LA but is returning home for the holiday with her boyfriend, Matt, in tow. Matt intends to ask Don for his blessing to marry Emmy and tries his best to please Don. Daughter Kayla's husband walks out on her in the very first episode and she spends the rest of the season bemoaning marriage and her loneliness. Don's other children are Patsy, a neurotic who is trying to replace their mother, and Sean, who can't seem to live up to his dad. Patsy is married to Todd and they are trying to conceive without much luck. Sean is married to Joy and they have two young boys, Donny and Sean Jr. Nancy is a nurse at the local urgent care center that Don is sweet on.
They pulled out every family conflict trope from every other movie you've seen. The gruff dad, the couple not able to conceive, the child struggling with sexuality, not living up to a parent's expectation, fear of meeting the in-laws, trying to fit in with the in-laws and their years of traditions, gender roles, work interfering with the relationship, what religion to raise the baby, and dating after 50. There is also the required silly misunderstanding leading to a break up when a ten second conversation would have cleared it up. Someone on the production team went down the diversity checklist and realized they didn't have an Atheist character so they made one of the characters declare that as well. Thankfully, they skipped over any political topics or they would have won the award for most tropes in a single show.
Having said all that, the cast does a really good job. While the plot is unoriginal, the characters are fun and I found myself really liking them. The first couple of episodes felt forced, but by episode 3, they seemed to be comfortable. The one original thing I liked were the two spouses who married into the family (Joy and Adam). They call themselves the "Outlaws" and sneak outside during gatherings to or a local bar on Wednesdays to quietly contemplate their lot. They invite Matt to join them and each episode they gather to discuss strategy and share advice.
It only lasted one season and I guess that was enough. The characters were well acted, even if some of them had very little original material to work with. I still liked it and would recommend it for a family with older children as the young ones would probably be bored with it.