CRIT-O-MATIC COOKIE-CUTTER REVIEWS FOR COOKIE-CUTTER TV.IT'S ALL RELATIVE It's All Relative is an ABC sitcom about a man who dates the adoptive daughter of a gay couple, which forces their very different families to learn to coexist. Overview - One star Logline: In Boston, a young couple gets engaged: Bobby (Reid Scott), whose parents Mace (Lenny Clarke) and Audrey (Harriet Sansom Harris Harriet Sansom Harris (born January 8, 1955), is an American actress born in Fort Worth, Texas. Harris started acting as a youngster and attended New York's famed Juilliard School. ) are conservative, Irish-Catholic bar owners; and Liz (Maggie Lawson), whose parents Philip (John Benjamin Hickey) and Simon (Christopher Sieber) are upscale gay snobs. Insults fly. ``She was raised by a couple of Froot Loops,'' Mace grouses. ``The next branch of our family tree's gonna have fruit on it,'' he adds. And so on. Noteworthy performances: As Mace, Clarke's apoplectic ap·o·plec·tic adj. Relating to, having, or predisposed to apoplexy. ap  o·plec bluster might be funny - if he had any help from the writers. Which he doesn't. Watching the show is like being sprayed with a faceful of mace. Originality: Two stars Credibility: One star Laughs per episode: Given that Mace calls Liz's family a ``freak show,'' it's safe to say that the tally is pretty low. Not even the laugh track can rouse itself beyond a titter tit·ter intr.v. tit·tered, tit·ter·ing, tit·ters To laugh in a restrained, nervous way; giggle. n. A nervous giggle. [Probably imitative. most of the time. Inadvertent laughs: Next week, Liz inexplicably forces Bobby to come clean with his former girlfriends over why he dumped them, which, predictably enough, gets one of the knockouts he dated to pursue him anew. Did Liz - an allegedly brilliant Harvard student - really not see the dopey sitcom-esque complications such a contrived request would inspire? Where: ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. (Channel 7). When: 8 tonight. In a nutshell: Lawson sums it up pretty succinctly in episode two - ``I have never been so humiliated hu·mil·i·ate tr.v. hu·mil·i·at·ed, hu·mil·i·at·ing, hu·mil·i·ates To lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. in all my life.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: MAGGIE LAWSON AND REID SCOTT |
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