Grounded for Life - The Complete First Season (Mill Creek) DVD Review

[TJ]

In yet another Mill Creek re-release of a Carsey-Werner sitcom that’s already been released in its entirety, Grounded for Life is a witty and irreverent comedy surrounding a Staten Island, New York Irish-American family, in which even the adults are really still kids. Sean and Claudia Finnerty (Donal Logue and Megyn Price) had gotten married and had their first child (now a teenage daughter) by the time they were 18, so even though their family has now grown to include two young boys, the parents are only in their early 30s and are still a bit wild and crazy themselves. They also have to deal with Sean’s constantly meddling father Walt (Richard Riehle), and Sean’s younger brother Eddie (Kevin Corrigan) who seems to always be getting into some kind of trouble. Plots deal mainly with problems with the kids, ranging from craziness from the boys (Jake Burbage, Griffen Frazen) to relationship issues concerning teen Lily (Lynsey Bartilson) and almost always involve blame or guilt.

Though the show debuted mid-season on FOX in 2001, this set is my first experience with Grounded for Life. I was only able to watch a couple of episodes, but I thought it was funny. Most of the comedy comes from how really immature the parents can be at times, and some of the humor falls kind of flat for me at times, but it is definitely a show I can take in small doses. One of the trademark storytelling devices of the show is that the episode will often begin either somewhere in the middle of the story, or sometimes even near its end, and will then tell what happened in flashbacks. Sometimes this can be confusing, or even frustrating, but most of the time it is just a very interesting and funny way to tell a story.

Read our review by Greg here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/grounde...dvdreview.html

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