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PILOT REVIEW: Family Tools

FAMILY TOOLS










Starring: Kyle Bornheimer, J.K. Simmons, Edie Gathegi, Johnny Pemberton, Danielle Nicolet, and Leah Remini

Developed for American television by Bobby Bowman
Written by Bobby Bowman, Directed by Michael Fresco

Family Tools is a new sitcom based on a British series. When tool man Tony Shea (J.K. Simmons) suffers a heart attack, he reluctantly has to turn over the operation of his business to bumbling son Jack (Kyle Bornheimer) at the urging and forcing of his sister Terry (Leah Remini). Rounding out the cast is Tony's (and now Jack's) oddball assistant Darren (Edie Gathegi), Darren's sister Stitch (Danielle Nicolet), and Terry's awkward son Mason (Johnny Pemberton).

THE GOOD: Family Tools isn't horrible in every area like I thought it might be. Edie Gathegi gets off a fair number of good lines as the assistant Darren, particularly the discussion about the dog he buys for the tool van. Kyle Bornheimer is likable enough in the lead, but more on the way the character is written later. The show had a couple funny sight gags in the background (the man running away with the TV, Jack tripping on his way to get tools back from the thief). In fact, the show does a lot of "background" things including side characters doing oddball things when the scene is not focused on them. I could see that getting annoying but it was funny at times in the pilot. Leah Remini also shows she's a sitcom veteran with good comedic timing both in terms of delivery and the "slapping" she frequently employs during the episode.

THE BAD: There isn't anything absolutely horrible with this show - the acting is not terrible, the writing has its moments, the premise is decent. But it just doesn't come all together. For starters, the bumbling son is too much of a sitcom cliche. We already saw it this season in 1600 Penn and on countless sitcoms before that. The worst character right now is Johnny Pemberton as the young Mason. He just doesn't work in the awkward teenager part he's supposed to play. Some scenes just didn't play well - J.K. Simmons in drag for one and the nail gun scene in the other. Both were easily predictable and pretty lazy writing.

BOTTOM LINE: ABC chose to not premiere this show until May 1 which shows that they don't have much faith in it. If the ratings didn't further prove that, the quality of the show should. I remember hearing that ABC was not thrilled with its comedy development last spring and we ended up with The Neighbors, Malibu Country, How to Live with You Parents, and this. It's easy to understand why they were disappointed if those four very pedestrian shows were the best of the bunch. I don't see ABC or myself giving this show time to work out the many kinks that make it not gel.
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