The Real O'Neals

The Real O’Neals is funny, offbeat and sweet in its depiction of a loving family whose members are sometimes their own worst enemies.

Authenticity ranges wide enough here to engage the whole family.

Everyone pulls their weight; the jokes land lightly. Ferguson shows stuff that "Mad Men" never let him. Galvin is solid; Shively sweetly dim; Wood, behind thick spectacles, droll.

The Real O’Neals has some fun with Catholicism, but faith isn’t the butt of the joke in the show, which is ultimately an endearing story about a family that loves and supports one another. Go figure.

Funny enough and real enough, The Real O’Neals fits in well with ABC’s established Wednesday night comedies.

Aside from a few riffs that don't quite work, O'Neals is proof it doesn't take a miracle to find a fresh spin on he traditional family comedy. [4 Mar 2016, p.57]

The Real O’Neals is well-written, funny, well-acted and has universal appeal because of those family secrets.

The quiet rage behind Plimpton's quest for normalcy--"You still have that?" she asks Kenny with hope, a day after he's announced he's gay--makes the series something really special.... The Real O'Neals, though less polished, does something similar [to blackish], pitting evolving norms against a family unit fundamentally resistant to change.

This is a show dealing with darker issues than its network brethren, but presented in the same bouncy, upbeat style. It’s a weird clash of styles that shouldn’t really work, but somehow does.

It doesn't start smoothly, but as we always say, comedies often require extra time to find their footing and with Plimpton, Ferguson and Galvin, the right pieces are in place and if the third and fourth episodes are an indication, The Real O'Neals may be heading in the right direction.

This series won't be for everyone and it sometimes gets in its own way with an over-reliance on well-used sitcom gimmicks, but if you're looking for an honest comedy that's not afraid to tackle delicate subject matter, The Real O'Neals might just be exactly what you're looking for.

ABC made four episodes available for review. All have their moments, some of them cloying, others amusing.

There are some funny moments in the four episodes made available for preview, and the performances are strong enough to give one hope that those moments might eventually become more frequent, and tied to a stronger show. But for now, O’Neals is hitting a few too many false notes, and hitting them far too strongly.

Given the acerbic nature of Savage’s commentary, in fact, the tone of the series seems to offer a window onto the edge-blunting nature of ABC’s development process. That doesn’t invalidate the show, necessarily, but it does render it somewhat toothless.

CBS sitcom The McCarthys covered similar ground--gay son coping with outrageous Roman Catholic family but The Real O'Neals freshens the premise with a more irreverent, fantastical approach. [29 Feb-6 Mar 2016, p.17]

It’s built a world teeming with fresh, absorbing issues that manage to avoid being squeamishly topical. Now it just needs to make the characters facing those issues feel as real as the issues themselves.

The Real O’Neal has some jagged edges, but its overall tone isn’t dark enough to wring any humor out of teenage eating disorders.

Plimpton and Ferguson are good at not being good together, but the writing so far is uneven. If not for Galvin, who's both touching and funny as a boy who knows he likes boys but hasn't a clue where to take it from there, The Real O'Neals might be just another not-quite-real sitcom family.

The first couple of episodes were directed by Todd Holland, whose work on Malcolm in the Middle reminds you that he knows how to be clever with broad material, but here, the scripts fail his talent.

To be blunt, it’s just not funny enough. There are moments in the premiere that seemed promising, but the next three available for press just kind of sit there. I kept waiting for it to be edgier, smarter, and just funnier.

The Real O’Neals may improve, but the first episodes are cartoonish, unrealistic, and predictable.

A witless collection of offensive anti-Catholic cliches, the new ABC series takes a talented cast and saddles it with some of the worst material in ages.

Really anyone who values subtlety and sophistication in their humor is eligible to be dismayed. The mugging for the camera, especially by Mr. Galvin, is numbing, making the show’s rarely funny jokes even less so.