"Life in Pieces" premiered last night on CBS. The new comedy series, said to be just another "Modern Family" because of its theme and its large ensemble, proved that it's not another family sitcom. Instead, each episode, as seen on episode one, has four short stories, revolving around one main family. Coincidentally, the family's last name is Short.
The comedy stars Dianne Wiest and James Brolin as Joan and John Short, parents to three adult children. The pilot followed the Short's family life in four different circumstances: a first date, a birth, going away to college, and a funeral. Each story is only five minutes long (or short), and shot in a very realistic manner. It's like watching your neighbors' lives from a distance, with touches of witty banter here and there.
Despite the four separate vignettes, the universal theme clearly stood out. And that is, the importance of family amidst life's chaos and drama. It drives the same point as other family-oriented sitcoms such as "Modern Family" and "Parenthood," but with its fresh new treatment, "Life in Pieces" clearly held its own.
Zoe Lister Jones, who plays the wife of the Shorts' second son (Colin Hanks), told Variety recently, "'Modern Family' is an incredible show, so any comparison is a huge compliment. But, the writers are just so incredible on this show that all of the stories to me feel unfamiliar, unpredictable and unexpected."
His co-star Dan Bakkedal, who plays the husband of the Short daughter, adds, "We're just seeing different phases of life in this family. Each one of these little pieces in an episode, you can take any one of these episodes apart and put any other story from another episode in it and it would work just as well, which is really unique. No one else can say that."
A.V. Club gave the show's pilot episode a B- rating, stating that the pilot "scatters a lot of promising pieces." The review also praised the whole cast.
"Even more than its structural gambit, the show benefits from an unusually and uniformly strong cast, all of whom have the comic chops to add bright touches to the broad strokes from which their characters are drawn," the reviewer stated.
"That's a lot of interrelationship to lay down in 21 minutes, but what's freeing about 'Life in Pieces' is that there's no hurry to connect every dot," the review continues. "Here, the structure works more like sketch comedy, and, as the show goes on, the idea of the Short family being shaded in by these accumulated small stories is unusual enough to tease at something fuller than the average sitcom."
"Life in Pieces" airs 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS.
