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Currentfilm.com Review: A surprise hit for TBS, "My Boys" is a prime example of a sitcom that manages to be mostly amusing thanks to the cast and entertaining dialogue. The set-up is pretty conventional: a female sportswriter named P.J. Franklin (the appealing Jordana Spiro, who looks kind of like I would imagine Bonnie Hunt looking about 15 years ago, plus she also kind of sounds and acts like Bonnie Hunt) spends much of her time hanging out with her male friends - Bobby (Kyle Howard), her brother Andy (the always hysterically funny Jim Gaffigan), Mike (Jamie Kaler) and Kenny (Michael Bunin). Each episode of the series follows the group as they try to handle relationships and hang out. Trying to counterbalance P.J.'s tomboy qualities is her pal, Stephanie (Kellee Stewart), who is constantly trying to get her to act more feminine, to no avail. While the sports angle is fun, the series - at least in the early going - does tend to overplay the sports metaphors. Other than some rather unnecessary narration (and those sports metaphors get tired quickly), the show's dialogue is often fast and funny. Although stand-up Gaffigan's delivery stands out, the show's quite varied cast does bounce lines off one another superbly, as they have terrific chemistry. While the show is filmed in Los Angeles, it also makes good use out of its intended Chicago setting, with quite a few nice instances of Chicago exterior filming. The series seems content to let its cast do the heavy lifting and, while the set-up is really nothing beyond the ordinary - the cast makes it work and the show does offer up some funny one-liners. Still, while season one amuses, I have to wonder how long the series can go without needing some sort of reboot to refresh the proceedings. 01. Pilot 02. Mixed Signals 03. Team Chemistry 04. The Slump 05. The Show 06. Clubhouse Cancer 07. Free Agent 08. Superstar Treatment 09. Managers 10. Take One for the Team 11. When Heroes Fall 12. Released 13. Baseball Myths 14. Promise of a New Season 15. Off Day 16. Ethics 17. Dirty Little Secrets 18. Second Chances 19. Douchebag in the City 20. The Estates of Hoffman 21. 110% Solution 22. Rome if You Want It The DVD VIDEO: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment presents "My Boys" in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. While a sitcom, the series does have a rather nice visual style - or at least a visual style that's a few notches above your average comedy - and the presentation shows it off quite nicely. Sharpness and detail (aside from a few dimly-lit interiors that looked slightly softer) looked surprisingly good (for a TV show) during many scenes. Some minor artifacting appeared on a few occasions, but the picture was otherwise clean and clear. Colors looked bright and rich, with excellent saturation and no smearing. Finally, black level remained solid, while flesh tones looked accurate and natural. SOUND: The show is presented here in Dolby Digital 5.1, although given the material, the need for anything beyond stereo is rather questionable. The presentation does offer some slight ambience from the surrounds, but the rear speakers are - not surprisingly - otherwise left out of the proceedings. Audio quality was fine, with clear, well-recorded dialogue and a full, bassy score. EXTRAS: "Life in the Press Box" featurette, "Favorites in Sports" featurette, "PJ's Rules For Sports and Dating" featurette, "No Crying in Baseball" bloopers, "Riding the Pine" deleted scenes and minisode versions of an episode of "Silver Spoons" and an episode of "Diff'rent Strokes". Final Thoughts: "My Boys" is a fine sitcom that starts to get going more in the second half of the first season. While the set-up is unremarkable, the cast is charming and the dialogue often pretty funny. The first season is pretty good, although I'll be interested to see if the series can keep a fairly simple set-up going for too terribly long. The DVD offers very nice audio/video quality, as well as a few minor extras. Recommended. |