Family Tools – Season 1

Comedy isn’t a genre that would be my first choice if I’d had other options. Although I love a good comedy series, I’m a pretty critical viewer. When it comes to humour I don’t like a lot of styles, so because of that I thought it would be a challenge for me to review a comedy show this time. ‘Family Tools’ only had one season in the USA during the Spring of 2013, and the American viewers weren’t convinced. Would I like it more than they did?

The show is about a handyman business called ‘Mr. Jiffy-Fix’ which was once run by Tony Shea (J.K. Simmons, ‘The Closer’). He has lived with his sister Terry (Leah Remini, ‘The King Of Queens’) and her teenage son Mason (Johnny Pemberton) since his wife passed away. When Tony suffers from a heart attack he’s forced to retire which makes his sister contact Tony’s son Jack (Kyle Bornheimer, ‘Worst Week’). Jack hasn’t been very successful when it comes to jobs so far in his life, so his father isn’t exactly thrilled about his sister’s idea to let Jack take over the company at first. But, since he can’t work anymore he’s just going to have to deal with it, which results in some awkward situations of course.

I honestly wasn’t that excited about the show when I first started watching it. Because of its cancellation so early on in the first season I didn’t expect very much of it. But I have to say, ‘Family Tools’ surprised me in a very positive way! It certainly isn’t the best I’ve ever seen, but the series kept me entertained throughout all the episodes. I wouldn’t air this show primetime since it wouldn’t survive among all the competition around that timeslot. I think that’s maybe what went wrong with the first season in the States also... However that doesn’t mean that the show isn’t good. Each episode tells a new story which makes the show easy to watch. And I laughed out loud multiple times throughout some of the episodes which doesn’t happen to me that often.

An important supporting character is Stitch (Danielle Nicolet, ‘The Starter Wife’). She is a close family friend, owner of the hardware store were ‘Mr. Jiffy-Fix’ buys most of their products, and Jack’s love interest. But the most important secondary character is Darren who is played by Edi Gathegi (mostly known for his appearance in the ‘Twilight’ movies). He is Stitch’s brother and the 2nd man in the ‘Mr. Jiffy-Fix’ company. He definitely isn’t a hard worker but even so, Tony has grown close to him during the time Jack was gone and sees him as his son nowadays. The chemistry between Darren and the rest of the cast, but especially Jack, combined with his humour were things that I really loved about him and this show. He made me laugh the most out of all the cast members and showed a completely different side of himself.

Although the situations on this show aren’t that realistic, I wouldn’t say they’re unbelievable. The series reminded me a lot of comedies I’ve seen in the past so it was far from unique. But this honestly didn’t bother me that much. I’d have to say that I’m kind of sad that there won’t be a second season. This is a show I could see myself watching on the Dutch TV a couple of hours before primetime. There are already a lot of comedy series shown around that time slot here in the Netherlands and I think ‘Family Tools’ would fit perfectly into that schedule. I would recommend people who love comedy, not too heavy storylines and a great cast with a good chemistry all together to give ‘Family Tools’ a chance. Who knows, you might be just as pleasantly surprised as I was!