Fox's 'Almost Family' is a revolting nightmare masquerading as a heartwarming drama

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https://ew.com/tv-reviews/2019/09/30...ly-review-fox/

Let’s be honest: No one really wants to think about sperm. Sure, it’s a necessary life force without which none of us would be here, but it’s not something people want to dwell on — certainly not every week, for 44 very uncomfortable minutes.

But in Fox’s Almost Family — a nightmare saga about a sociopathic IVF specialist, masquerading as a touchy-feely family drama — sperm is the big bad. Specifically, the sperm belonging to Leon Bechley (why, Timothy Hutton? WHY?), a celebrated fertility doctor who achieved such high success rates by supplementing his patients’ samples with his own “material.” Turns out, he’s sired at least 100 children! Are you setting your DVR yet?

When Bechley’s hideous misdeeds are finally exposed, his timid only child Julia (why, Brittany Snow? WHY?) is horrified… but also, like, kind of excited that she now has siblings, including a family frenemy named Edie (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and a former Olympic gymnast-turned-pill-addict named Roxy (Emily Osment). “I can’t believe it’s not just me anymore!” marvels Julia. “I have sisters!” It’s an impressively glass-half-full outlook, especially since Julia also just learned that her recent one-night-stand is a Bechley Baby, too — and therefore, her half-brother.

Sorry, I need a minute.

The good people at Fox aren’t entirely to blame for this horror show: Almost Family is based on the Australian drama Sisters, which ran for one season in 2017. Though most of the story points in the Family pilot mirror Sisters’ first episode, the Australian drama at least had the decency to treat this subject with an appropriate patina of dread. “It’s genetic rape!” fumed the Australian version of Edie (Antonia Prebble). No such phrase appears in Almost Family; instead the show ping-pongs through a variety of vibes, from “family is, like, soooo exasperating” cutesiness to manipulative, “we’re all connected” mawkishness.

It would help if any of the characters were empathetic, but alas: Edie, a lawyer, actually decides to defend Leon Bechley in court and argues that the sexual assault charge against him is a “huge overreach.” (It’s not.) Roxy has a strained relationship with her stage parents (Victoria Clark and Timothy Busfield), but that does not explain why she suddenly becomes obsessed with getting to know her “real dad,” a notorious sperm criminal. Julia, meanwhile, is self-effacing to a fault, and she continues to support her father and his clinic even after he reveals himself to be a monster. All of this is especially disappointing given that Echikunwoke, Osment, and Snow are very likable actresses; they deserve better.

As for Dr. Bechley’s victims, the women he fraudulently impregnated? They are all but ignored, at least in the first two episodes. The only one we meet, Edie’s New Age-y mom Genevieve (Tamara Tunie), is totally fine with the whole sordid situation. “I’m your mother. I carried you,” she tells Edie. “That’s what matters — not what ended up in some test tube.” Hard disagree, ma’am. As a woman who conceived a child through IVF, I can tell you with absolute certainty that if a fertility doctor sullied my uterus with his spunk, I would burn his clinic to the ground (preferably with him in it).

But Almost Family doesn’t really want to deal with female anger, or the revolting nature of its own premise. Instead, it aims to spin stories about community and family that are just so darn heartwarming, we’ll forget they’re all based on a fertility felony. Like everything else about this show, it just doesn’t work. Grade: D+

Fox's Almost Family can't overcome the fundamental grossness of its premise

"Almost Family strives to be a drama about a woman (Brittany Snow) who discovers as an adult that she has several half-siblings whom she has to build bonds with as an adult, and to investigate what the concept of family truly means," says Daniel D'Addario of the Fox drama from Jason Katims and Annie Weisman. "Glinting out from behind every moment of tentative connection is the gross fact that her siblings come from her father’s inseminating women, without their consent, with his own genetic material to create his own descendants, a decision that’s neither endorsed nor decried by the series." D'Addario adds: "It’s not that a man who deceived women into having his biological children when they’d intended otherwise couldn’t, possibly, eventually have real relationships with said children. But the show takes as a given that these relationships would flourish basically instantly and without any real work of restoration for what (Timothy Hutton's) Bechley had stolen (women’s free will and right to bodily autonomy, for one thing). No one is beyond redemption, but the show’s approach to Bechley suggests it believes that no character on the show is beyond mindless approval. A revelation that Bechley is being charged with sexual assault is treated as a startling setback for his newly united trio of daughters, rather than the obvious starting point towards forgiveness."

ALSO:

• Almost Family is the next This Is Us, but with "medical rape": "Almost Family gets credit for taking the biggest swing at a premise, and for whiffing it with gusto: What if we did This Is Us, but with medical rape?" says Kevin Fallon. "Once you learn the plot of Almost Family... the tone it takes is patently outrageous. The only thing more surprising is that, when asked about the borderline insanity of the choice to take such a lighthearted, heartwarming hand with the grave subject matter, the show’s creators and producers seemed caught entirely off guard. At least that’s how it appeared at a press conference with TV critics this summer. You see, Almost Family is a series that attempts to explore unconventional family dynamics, raising questions of what connects us, and what constitutes a family. It is also a series about sperm."
  Almost Family is a series in conflict with itself: "If you hear the premise, 'Very different women learn they're sisters when it's revealed that a famous fertility doctor has been impregnating clients with his own sperm without authorization' and go, 'Ha! What a silly and whimsical way to build an extended family!' then it's entirely possible you'll find enough charm in Almost Family to be amused," says Daniel Fienberg. "If you hear that same premise and go, 'Ew! That's absolutely horrible and as unforgivable a violation as I can imagine!' you'd best stay away, because that is not a sentiment that's compatible with the confusingly goofy way Almost Family is approaching this story."
  Almost Family could've been a sticky sweet story 10 to 20 years ago: "But it’s 2019 and we finally care about consent. TV shows have to as well"
  Almost Family is almost a good idea that could've unfolded in a number of ways, but it instead sleepwalks past unethical and likely criminal behavior