Tag: Andrew McCarthy

The Family: I Win – Game Changer (Review)

Executive Producer Laurie Zaks promised last week that this episode of The Family, I Win would be a game changer and she did not lie. Hank Asher is hospitalized with his injuries and Detective Meyer sides with the sex offender initially. Adam gets a postcard from his captor and the FBI attempt to catch the kidnapper but are thwarted by a local cop.

JOAN ALLEN, ALISON PILL, RUPERT GRAVES

Executive Producer Laurie Zaks promised last week that this episode of The Family, I Win would be a game changer and she did not lie. Hank Asher is hospitalized with his injuries and Detective Meyer sides with the sex offender initially.  Adam gets a postcard from his captor and the FBI attempt to catch the kidnapper but are thwarted by a local cop.

The biggest reveal in this episode is that the paternity  test  proves that Adam is not who he claims to be.  Danny has always had his suspicions and now it seems the older brother was not too far off base with his doubts.

Flashbacks show the childhood of Asher, who was the targets of bullies when he was little, and more backstory on the relationship between young Willa and her father.  The girl finds dad drunk at the baseball field and when she attempts to take him home discovers that he has soiled himself. She rings Meyer to come collect her dad.

Looking back at earlier episodes, Willa appears to have suspected John or even possibly believes he killed her brother. Her line to the man was “You did not do this, right?”  It was a question phrased in such as way to make it seem more as guidance than a reaffirmation. The two did frame Asher together after all.

In the present John Warren is arrest for assaulting Hank Asher.  Willa is unhappy with her parent once again. As the political and media storm arise, Bridey offers to spin things for the Warren family in order to win over Willa as ally. The journalist starts the hashtag #PapaBear and it catches on.

After Warren is arrested and Asher leaves the hospital, the “victim” heads to a bakery and orders the biggest cake they have.  The inscription on the things says “I Win.”  Hank eats the cake there.

Before the Twitter campaign takes off, Willa argues that her father should “take a plea.” Claire states emphatically that he will not plea bargain. Willa argues that it could cost her the race and her mother responds “Then it’s the race.”

Danny knows that it was Adam who left the house alarm off when he went out.  The teen reveals that he got another post card.  The pockmarked man is stopped by for not having plates on his new SUV. This causes him to cut short his planned trip leaving the FBI stakeout at NY frustrated.

The kidnapper learns that there is a APB out on him  after seeing a  a photofit image of his face on the wanted board at the state police office wall. Danny lets Adam drive his car the the teen acts bizarrely speeding and steering with his eyes closed, like he is in a daze.

Claire Warren sets out the rules of engagement for Det. Meyer after lying her husband an alibi.  Meyer is told by the mayor that she is on their side, “part of the family” and should do what is right.

#PapaBear is a success. Warren returns home to find the yard covered with baseball bats; each marked with the hashtag.

Bridey zeroes on on Willa, the journalist is nothing if not resourceful. Somewhat tellingly, earlier in the episode, during the “hashtag” scene, she asks a male co-worker to do something for her. “I’m not taking you to another lesbian club again,” he replies. Clearly Cruz did research on how best to approach Willa later in the episode before making her move and kissing the mayor’s campaign manager.

The love affair between Meyer and John is looked at as is the reconciliation of Claire and her husband in the present.  The detective pays Hank Asher a visit.  She knows that the man staged the assault and after she purposefully breaks a treasured keepsake (that Hank moved before trashing his house) it is revealed what really happened the night Asher was “attacked.”

The pock-marked man seems to be building a new cell for Adam under his garage, or  judging by the stuffed dolphin he places in the center of the room, a replacement for the boy.  It does seem that he misses Adam and wants him back, if this is not the case then why the postcards?

Detective Meyer wants to use “Adam” as bait to catch the kidnapper.

Bridey reveals to her editor that the tests prove the boy living in the Warren home is not Adam. The scene changes to a bird’s eye view of the teenager laying in “his” bed.  The camera zooms in to reveal the imposter gazing into space looking very odd.

This is a brilliant spiderweb of intrigue, personal secrets and murder.  Thus far The Family has managed to deliver each week in terms of more questions and lies being uncovered. Andrew McCarthy, Joan Allen and Alison Pill are knocking it out of the park as the characters who seem to have not just hidden agendas but disturbing depths as well.

Kudos to Madeleine Arthur as the young Willa Warren and Margot Bingham as Detective Meyer.  

There are still so many questions. Why was Hank Asher bullied as a child? Was he “different” even then? What does Willa really know? Sure she learned about her father having sex with Meyer, but she definitely is privy to some information that makes her uncomfortable around her father.  Then there is her incessant accusations that Danny is drinking.

Now it seems that in The Family, I Win  “Adam” is playing a game of sorts with the pock-marked man and vice versa.  There is also the added mystery of who this boy really is, what lock does that key fit and is the real Adam dead and if so, how does this lad know about the dead boy.

The series  is intriguing and offers enough developed characters as well as twists and turns that it is able to  bring out the armchair detective in its viewers.

The Family airs Sundays on ABC.  Tune in, put on your deerstalker cap and start putting together the clues.

The Family: Feathers or Steel – Monsters (Recap/Review)

In The Family: Feathers or Steal Hank’s life is made a misery after Adam’s mother calls him a monster on television. Hearing breaking glass in the middle of the night, the man discovers a broken window and later he finds “monster” spray painted on his garage.

RUPERT GRAVES, JOAN ALLEN

In The Family: Feathers or Steal  Hank’s life is made a misery after Adam’s mother calls him a monster on television.  Hearing breaking glass in the middle of the night, the man discovers a broken window and later he finds “monster” spray painted on his garage.

The episode begins with the camera panning through a house that has been trashed as the result of a fight. There is blood on the floor and Joan Allen’s Mayor Warren asks, via voice-over,  whether the viewer is made of feathers or steel. By the end of the episode there is no doubt what Claire Warren has inside of her; steel.

Another child is taken. The police have a lead, a picture of a man and  a white van. The photo is shown to Adam who begins quivering. He drops the tablet with the picture on it and collapses.  The boy tells the authorities that this was the same man who took him  and a BOLO is put out.

Eight years ago, Claire Warren (Joan Allen)  visits Hank Asher in prison. The Mayor asks him to tell her where Adam’s body is. Hank replies that he cannot help her. Twice.

A short while later, Warren hires the deputy warden of the prison as her head of security. She asks him if there is anything he can do about Hank (Andrew McCarthy) . In the prison chow hall,  Asher bites into his sandwich and something in it causes his mouth to bleed. Prison guards turn the other way as another inmate approaches Asher with a knife.

Detective Meyer (Margot Bingham) and Agent Clements (Matthew Lawler) find the white van outside a hotel.  The two enter and start checking the rooms. Meyer finds one with the missing child laying on the bed, tied to the headboard and obviously drugged.

Moving into the room, she sees a gun on the bureau and can hear someone in the bathroom. Seconds later, a man exits the bathroom and Meyer shoots him immediately without saying a word.

PATRICK HUSTED, ANDREW MCCARTHY
PATRICK HUSTED, ANDREW MCCARTHY

Hank covers his window with cardboard and goes out to scrub the word “monster” off his garage door. Adam comes over to help and Asher asks him to leave. This results in Hank having a restraining order taken out by the Warren family.  “He came here,” protests Asher.

Clements and Meyer cover up the murder of the kidnapper.  They also learn that he was not the same man who took Adam. Bridey (Floriana Lima) stops by the Warren’s house saying she left her phone in Danny’s room. Willa reluctantly lets her in.

The journalist stops in Adam’s room and grabs a cotton swab from his rubbish bin. She obviously wants a DNA sample but she screws up by putting the swab in a plastic zip-bag. (DNA samples must go in paper bags.) Willa (Alison Pill) almost catches Bridey in the act.

After a confrontation,  Willa sends the journalist down to Danny’s room. Later, when the Warren woman is in her bedroom, she is kneeling by her bed. It looks as though Willa  is praying but instead she is fantasizing about Bridey and masturbating.

Claire Warren proves to the governor that she is a real threat to his post during a meeting meant to put the mayor off her stride. Danny (Zach Gilford)  breaks into Bridey’s apartment and ends things with her and the two insult one another before he leaves her apartment.

Hank Asher, who was earlier told to stay behind the tree in front of his house to keep 100 yards away from the Warren home across the street, steps into the street and looks at the  house.  John Warren (Rupert Graves) sees Asher and reacts.

As Joan Allen’s character begins her last voice-over, the camera pans across the debris filled floor to the bloodstains and reveals Hank laying on the floor with blood on his face and mouth. He does not appear to be moving as he lays next the baseball bat that Adam and John Warren were using  earlier in the episode.

The Family is maintaining the mystery and piling on doubts of Adam’s identity as well as building up the suspense of just what the pockmarked man (Michael Esper) has hidden in the basement beneath his work shed.  This is a very dark program, the characters all have flaws and secrets that when added up equal a pretty unhappy world, even before the kidnapping.

Allen’s character is definitely steely.  Her excitement at Meyer and Clements killing the kidnapper and saving the boy is evident when she wants to declare the detective a hero at a conference.  However she takes time, just before the event, to tell Meyer to stop sleeping with her husband. “Do you think you’re special?” Claire asks. “You have no idea how many girls drop their panties for the father with a lost son.”

Warren may care deeply for her returned son, but the woman is cold and controlling.

The ending shot of Hank Asher lying in his floor unmoving with that incriminating bat makes it appear that Adam may have done it.  Especially with his having that mysterious key. This looks, however, like a red herring.  Clearly the boy is not Adam and the key has some significance to him apart from the Warrens.

Each actor has brought a certain truth to their character. Hall, as usual, shines in her role of political mother and the newest member to the cast, Matthew Lawler is excellent. The chemistry between  Clements and Meyer is perfect.

ALISON PILL, FLORIANA LIMA
ALISON PILL, FLORIANA LIMA

Major kudos to Alison Pill  who makes Willa Warren a mass of mixed up emotions and motivations.

The Family airs Sundays on ABC.

The Family: Feathers or Steel – Monster (Review) Preview [Update]

In The Family: Feathers or Steel Hank’s life is made a misery after Adam’s mother calls him a monster on television. Hearing breaking glass in the middle of the night, the man discovers a broken window and later he finds “monster” spray painted on his garage.

RUPERT GRAVES, JOAN ALLEN

[Update] The review of this episode was published before the episode aired (airing date in March 20 on Sunday) ergo, the review on The Family has been updated to a preview. Mike’s Film Talk apologizes for any massive  spoilers that may have been published. The review will go back up on “the day.”

In The Family: Feathers or Steel  Hank’s life is made a misery after Adam’s mother calls him a monster on television.  Hearing breaking glass in the middle of the night, the man discovers a broken window and later he finds “monster” spray painted on his garage.

The episode begins with the camera panning through a house that has been trashed as the result of a fight. There is blood on the floor and Joan Allen’s Mayor Warren asks, via voice-over,  whether the viewer is made of feathers or steel.

By the end of the episode there is no doubt about what Claire Warren has inside of her; it is steel.

Another child is taken and the police have a lead this time, it is similar to how Adam was taken.  In a flashback sequence  Claire Warren (Joan Allen)  visits Hank Asher in prison. The newly elected Mayor asks him to tell her where Adam’s body is.

A short while later, Warren shows some of that steel when she allows her cold and controlling side out.

Detective Meyer (Margo Bingham) and Agent Clements (Matthew Lawler) search for the white van and stop to look for the suspect. 

Hank covers his broken window with cardboard and goes out to scrub the word “monster” off his garage door. It is an action he will soon have cause to regret.

Bridey (Floriana Lima) stops by the Warren’s house saying she left her phone in Danny’s room. Willa reluctantly lets her in.  Cruz then heads to Adam’s room looking for evidence.

In the present, Claire Warren shows more of that steel when she  proves to the governor that she is a real threat to his post.  Danny (Zach Gilford)  breaks into Bridey’s apartment after her intrusion into his family home.

Claire Warren may well be steel because of her role as a mother, but when one sees the woman “on the attack” it appears that this is her natural state of being, mother-hood be damned.   This is a very dark program.  The characters all have flaws and secrets that, when added up,  equal a pretty unhappy world, even before the kidnapping.

Allen’s character is definitely steely.  Warren may care deeply for her returned son, but the woman is cold and controlling.

There is a focus on what lies beneath in this series. The episode moves the story forward but also asks who these people are underneath their facades. Warren is steel and so too, it seems is Danny. Adam is the big question mark, what is the significance of that key and his apparent attraction to Hank. Is this Adam, the Adam?

It seems highly unlikely and by the end of this episode, more things may be revealed, but the answers are still far from being answered.

The performances of all the actors are spot on. Allen, as usual, shines in her role of political mother and the newest member to the cast, Matthew Lawler is excellent. The writing may be too heavy for some but the dialogue between Clements and Meyer is perfectly pitched, down to Lawler’s delivery no doubt.

Major kudos to Alison Pill who makes Willa Warren a mass of mixed up emotions and motivations.  

The Family airs Thursdays on ABC. Be prepared for some surprises.

The Family: Puppies and Monsters – False Start (Review)

The Family: Puppies and Monsters continues to jump back and forth in the timeline. More questions arise about Adam and there is at least one false start in the uneasy alliance between the FBI and local law enforcement.

JOAN ALLEN, LIAM JAMES, RUPERT GRAVES

The Family: Puppies and Monsters continues to jump back and forth in the timeline. More questions arise about Adam and there is at least one false start in the uneasy alliance between the FBI and local law enforcement. 10 years previously, John Warren was a suspect, when he had an hour of missing time that coincided with his son Adam going missing.

This is an intense episode, like all the ones thus far, and Adam goes back to the burnt out room where he was kept prisoner and sexually assaulted for 10 years. Hank Asher (Andrew McCarthy) goes to buy a puppy and his reactions to the animals and his ill-at-ease behavior with the seller speaks volumes about the man.

FBI Agent Gabe Clements (Matthew Lawler) and Detective Meyer (Margot Bingham) learn from Adam that his captor brought in fast-food and it was still warm when delivered. The two decide that the kidnapper drove in and they send out people to find tire tracks.

Adam asks for time alone in the room and after passing on that he set his prison cell up like the Warren house, the boy  pulls a brick from the wall over his bed and extracts a key from the space. Danny learns that Bridey Cruz is a journalist and 10 years ago, John was upset at being a suspect and when his wife Claire (Joan Allen)  questions his possible guilt  John goes  to see Meyer and angrily asks if she really thinks he killed his own son.

During the flashback sequences it is revealed that Willa (Alison Pill) was not the only one who framed Hank Asher;  her father helped, but only at her instigation. Other revelations are that Claire and Willa are at logger heads about her government aspirations not following the “plan.”  Apparently Claire’s campaign is being funded by a company who are making a tracing device for children.

The pockmarked man is staying a full step ahead of law enforcement  even after the cops find and identify the tire tracks.  When they try to connect the dots and grab the vehicle, the reach a dead end.  The man also has an underground room that he keeps hidden from his pregnant wife.

Danny has stopped drinking and still believes that Adam is not his brother.  Meyer learns that her lover  framed Hank Asher  and she angrily tells him to leave her alone. Adam questions his father and asks why he stopped looking for him.  In the flashbacks it looks like the young Willa believes her father may have murdered Adam, hence her move to frame the next door neighbor.

Agent Clements and Detective Meyer appear to be bonding quite well. The FBI agent manages to inject a good bit of humor in his dealings with the local cop. After the theory about the tire tracks, Meyer oversees the search for vehicle tracks. Clements offers to give the cop a break:

“Well, if you need a break I can stand around here looking annoyed and impatient  for a while.”

MATTHEW LAWLER, MARGOT BINGHAM

Pockmark man is clearly hiding something, Danny is still looking for proof that Adam is not his missing brother. The Warren family appear united for a television interview and during the TV report, Claire names Hank Asher and reveals that he is a convicted sex offender.

The Warren family all, apparently, lie on the program.  Before Claire calls out Asher on the show, she breaks down about her family’s ordeal.  Asher picks out his puppy and before he can leave with the animal, the woman’s daughter sees that Hank is a “molester” on TV and he loses the dog before he can get it.

Bridey Cruz (Floriana Lima) makes the connection between Claire Warren’s campaign for governor and the tracking device company. A naked Willa catches Adam looking at her in the bathroom and Danny goes to Bridey for help. 

This week’s episode features John Warren (Rupert Graves) doing the narration and he talks of knowingly doing something wrong and having to live with it. As the episode of The Family: Puppies and Monsters ends Willa explains that Adam cannot look at her like that as she is his sister.

Adam responds that he screwed up and after Willa leaves, the boy fondles the key removed from his cell. John says that some people do not feel anything when they do something they know is wrong as it is revealed that the real suspect has destroyed the truck he used to bring Adam food.

As this series continues to reveal more secrets and lies, more questions arise and it appears that no one in this world is who they seem. Perhaps the only character whose motives are pure is Detective Meyer (Margo Bingham) as not even Danny is above suspicion at this point.

The Family is tightly written with a myriad of twists and turns. It airs Sundays on ABC. Catch this one, it is an in-depth look at a dysfunctional family dealing with a son who has returned from the dead. Fascinating television.

The Family: Episode 2 Continues Peeling Back Layers (Preview)

Episode two of The Family; All You See Is Dark, continues to peel back layers as the mystery around Adam (Liam James) deepens and brother Danny (Zach Gilford) seriously begins to question who this “stranger” is.

ALISON PILL, RUPERT GRAVES, JOAN ALLEN

Episode two of The Family; All You See Is Dark, continues to peel back layers as the mystery around Adam (Liam James) deepens and brother Danny (Zach Gilford) seriously begins to question who this “stranger” is.  Just as puzzling, or disturbing if one listens to verbal clues as well as those “revealing” flashbacks, is where Hank (Andrew McCarthy) really fits in all this as the symbol of a gross miscarriage of justice.

This new series on ABC promises to be more than just a mystery that needs solving, it is a melding of genres. Suspense, thriller and crime all join ranks with mystery and there is a good bit of psychological intensity running though out.

Mayor Claire Warren (Joan Allen) proves to be in denial while struggling to control her son’s rehabilitation and the stress levels threaten to undo her electoral plans.  Detective Meyer (Margot Bingham) is obsessed with finding the real abductor of Adam and on top of fighting her personal issues with her wrongful conviction years before, also has to fight her boss for time.

It is a fight that the detective loses when the FBI is called in.

ANDREW MCCARTHY
Hank upsetting Claire with his poor choice of words.

Willa Warren (Alison Pill) continues to control things, unobtrusively protecting her mother, father and brothers, although her motives are, at this point,  unclear. Just as she stepped in 10 years previously it seems that Willa will do anything to keep the Warren family safe from its own secrets. 

It is even revealed that a 13 year-old Willa censored her father’s emails and texts when she approaches dad John (Rupert Graves) in present day to ask a favor. She tells her aghast father that at 13, she had no idea what the phrase “inside of you” meant but she dealt with it. 

The Family does not just present an American tragedy with a mystery to be solved. It also shows how the death of a child thought to be murdered by a pedophile opens a sort of Pandora’s Box of emotionally charged reactions.  The players in this drama have all become intertwined as well as affected by the events.

The cop, whose career is made by this case, is sexually involved with a family member. When the murdered boy returns from the dead, as it were, her guilt at helping to convict the next door neighbor, who was on the sexual offender register, is all consuming.

RUPERT GRAVES, ZACH GILFORD
John pushing a reluctant Danny to spend time with Adam.

The returned boy appears to be working hard to convince his older brother of his pedigree. Bringing up memories of childhood events and items but failing to recognize things that the real Adam should know.

Episode two, All You See Is Dark continues the back and forth jumps in time-lines as it moves forward with Meyer trying to find out what really happened 10 years ago. We see Claire Warren verbally attacking Hank on the night she appealed for help finding Adam.

The reason?

When Hank brings over muffins (at his mother’s insistence) as gesture of goodwill, he states that Adam “was” a good boy.  This 10 year-old statement screams of his guilt in Claire’s eyes.  In this episode, it appears that despite his release from prison,  Hank may not be as “innocent” as it is now believed.

There are secrets aplenty in this show and many questions that will need answering before the truth is revealed.  Who is the man with the holes in his face? What was Hank cleaning up and why? More importantly, why does Adam have to keep reminding himself who he is.

ALISON PILL, JOAN ALLEN
Willa and Claire Warren

One more in this tragic familial mystery is Willa.  Why has she taken over the job of protecting the family when it has so obviously adversely affected her? This behind the scenes manipulation that started 10 years previously is still going on and still, apparently laying heavy on the young woman.

Why?

In light of this “favor” she starts to ask of her father, one wonders just when the idea to ask for something in return first cropped up.

This look at a family in free-fall after their murdered son returns from the dead and their 10 year old truth is revealed to be a lie is almost compulsive viewing after watching the pilot. The second episode continues pecking away at characters in the series. Joan Hall, as Claire,  is becoming ever more strident and Andrew McCarthy’s Hank is turning out to be a very secretive and odd man.

Margot Bingham’s character is verging upon becoming obsessed with finding the man with holes in his face.

The Family is one for all those who like psychological mysteries.  The series premieres March 6 on ABC. Do not miss this one, it promises to keep the viewer guessing and eagerly awaiting the next episode as soon as the current one ends.

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