Article first published as FAMILY TREE Review on Seat42F.
Grade: 94%
Grade: 94%
Many are familiar with the work of
Christopher Guest, who has made such fantastic mokumentary films as Best
in Show, A Might Wind, and This Is Spinal Tap. It’s about time, then,
that he gets a weekly series on television. FAMILY TREE, which premiered
on HBO last night, is that series.
Set in London, England, FAMILY TREE
stars Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, Girls) as Tom Chadwick, an unemployed,
heartbroken man in his thirties who inherits a box of bits and bobs from
his great Aunt Victoria. In that box are mementos from his family’s
history, which he will make his mission to dive into and discover his
roots.
It’s a simple premise, to be sure, and
one that many can relate to. We’ve all had times in our lives where we
lack direction and need to figure out our purpose. Many choose to
examine the past to find clues as to a possible future. Tom is easy to
relate to and sympathetic in his journey, wonderfully brought to complex
life by O’Dowd.
Tom has help in his journey in the form
of best mate Pete Stupples (Tom Bennett, PhoneShop), who lives in the
past, but in a bad way. Whereas Tom seeks meaning and enrichment from
his own history, Pete wants to maintain a silly, sex-obsessed, immature
existence as long as he possibly can. He’s also the type of friend to
latch onto a person and never let go, whether the other person wants
them there or not. Tom is in exactly this position with Pete.
I’m not saying Tom should ditch Pete,
even if Tom is a much more likeable person. They have a lot of shared
stories together, and Pete is a nice enough bloke, certainly loyal. He
provides the comic relief to the more serious Tom, which is probably why
Tom doesn’t mind having him around so much, for laughs.
In the pilot, “The Box,” Tom and Pete
take an old military photograph to expert Neville St. Aubrey
(Christopher Fairbanks, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) to
examine. Tom at first believes that the man shown is his great
grandfather, but Neville is able to discover that Tom’s relation is the
photographer, not the subject, and in finding a photo of said great
grandfather, Tom learns he is descended from a “Chinaman.”
If that amuses you, you will likely
enjoy the humor exemplified in FAMILY TREE. It’s in a similar vein to
other Guest works, silly and irreverent, but toned down a bit here, not
so in-your-face as some of his movies have been. Many of the jokes are
quiet, though unexpected, the nuance taking precedence over the
slapstick. It’s a very specific brand, well executed.
There’s also an underlying level of
sadness to the proceedings of “The Box.” Obviously, Tom is not doing so
well, with little going right in his life. As positive as he tries to be
about it, one can sense that any bit of optimism displayed may just be a
coping mechanism. He’s had about all he can take, and only through
embarking on a new adventure, learning about his heritage, can he get a
foot hold and begin to pull himself back up.
Yet, Tom is not the saddest character
introduced in “The Box.” That honor belongs to his sister, Bea (Nina
Conti, Bromwell High), who walks around with a monkey puppet on her arm.
Unlike Tom, who was raised in Ireland by their mother, Bea was subject
to father Keith’s (Michael McKean, Clue) inept, unobservant style of
parenting. Bea clings to the monkey as a way to find her voice, and thus
is quite a depressed, and depressing, person. I look forward to
learning more about her, and how she might be inadvertently helped by
Tom’s work.
Somehow, Guest rings the humor out of
such people, whether it be in interactions between the various
characters, the situations they get into, or cut scene interviews with
the players. There is always something to find amusing, even in the
darkest bit of the half hour, and it is played to great effect.
Besides McKean, other frequent Guest
veterans will appear in the series, including Ed Begley Jr. and Fred
Willard. Guest has built his own stable of actors over the years, and
although they are not the focus in his latest project, he certainly
isn’t abandoning them, either. They get his tone and style perfectly,
and will only enhance FAMILY TREE in their recurring appearances.
I like FAMILY TREE a lot. It has the
distinctive Guest feel, but also comes across as fresh and original.
There isn’t really another series on television to compare it to, at
least not in anything but broad strokes, taking a simple story and
telling it in a very unique manner. If it can find an audience, and it
is certainly accessible enough to do so, it should make a great addition
to the HBO lineup.
FAMILY TREE airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO.
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