I thought I'd give Family Reunion a try because I like Tia Mowry and Loretta Devine but I found myself not just bored but genuinely annoyed. I don't mind the suspense of disbelief regarding an NFL tight end and his family moving in with his parents, it's that this whole show seems stuck in a bygone era of both sitcoms and society. Supposedly, the family moves to Georgia so the kids can be kids and learn family values and to show us that, the 'new age modern' parents are suddenly okay with the grandmother beating them with a belt. (Admittedly, it doesn't actually happen but it doesn't not happen because they come to the conclusion that hitting kids is wrong but because the kid has something on the grandmother). The show attempts to promote diversity but the children who had apparently grown up free are suddenly forced to be church-going, verse-learning Christians. And there's virtually no 'reverse learning', the conservative grandparents never learn anything from their younger relatives because it is assumed that the city, modern, liberal young parents and their kids are just inherently wrong but not just wrong, their ways are downright evil and hell worthy. To that, let's add forced corniness, stiff acting from some of the actors and boring plotlines. The kids (except for Jade) are forgettable, Richard Roundtree is only a guest, and Tia Mowry is not given as much cam time as she deserves. Now, if I saw this in tv and it was a rerun from a show made in the 80's or 90's I'd probably enjoy it. But it was made in 2019 and it feels like a forced return to an ancient preachy morality.
Review of Family Reunion
