There is so much saccharine stuff on TV. It's the sludge that we wade through and everything works out in the end. My wife and I watched the first three episodes when the show first appeared. For whatever reason, we just stopped. So we went back and began again. As a more mature viewer and tired of the pap that is put on the airwaves, I found this to be wonderful. First of all, it deals with real issues concerning the circumstances portrayed. For instance, the problems of an overweight person (particularly a woman). No other show would touch that, other than for comedic effect. We feel her pain and we are made privy as to how she got where she is and how hard it is to turn these things around. Then we have the family that willingly takes on the raising of a black child to try to replace the baby that died when triplets were born. As the child matures, he is not embraced by his peers (or his white brother). The parents have good intentions, but are exhausted, and don't know what goes on with black children who have no like playmates. The pool scene shows us this as well as what the overweight little girl has to deal with. The father is flippant and leaves the wife to make serious decisions without him. The actor/brother who is the star of an insipid comedy show where he is basically a hunk, wants more out of life. He makes three million dollars a year on his show, but wants to be a dramatic actor. He has always been indulged and acts like a big baby at times and his decisions affect his brother (resentment) and sister (who has her own problems). In the last episode the birth father has been found and is living with them and we are made to realize there is a lot to the story that only one person is aware of. Wow, this is so well done and there are no easy answers. It is life.
