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Season 1 earmarked this as a very promising show, it's production, acting and storyline wrapped around some complex ideas, it came across as a mature attempt at sci-fi, and should be applauded by trying to do something different. It wasn't perfect, but it was engrossing. Same can't be said for season 2. Although I was looking forward to Anthony Mackie assuming the role of the protagonist in season 2, the writing and production seems to be focused on the young adult demographic, with a heavy emphasis on set-pieces rather than storytelling and acting. Anthony's attempt at acting is limited to trying to look cool by either posing/pouting/shouting. Extremely dissappointing.

This sitcom originally centred around two couples. Jeff & Steff Woodcock, a newlywed couple (optimistic and naive) move in next door to Eddie & Joy Stark a couple married for some 20 odd years (jaded and supposedly worldly wise). Jeff also happens to be the vice principal where Eddie teaches history. The actors playing the four main leads are well cast, although Eddie Kaye Thomas's performance as Jeff starts off a bit forced & stilted. But he manages to find a more natural style after a few episodes, so it's worth sticking with. Based on this, I would have rated this show as a good 7 or 8 out of 10.

However, that was before the Woodcocks were written out of the series after a season or two, and premise changes somewhat. You still have Joy trying to stop Eddie taking her for granted, and their performances remains strong. But you would expect that from the likes of Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. It's the writing and production that really starts to nosedive. To help the leads the writers introduce several new characters, with the majority of them bombing. The only exceptions are when Eddie befriends a new teacher at school who hates people as much as Eddie does, and a new Vice Principal who is seeking revenge on Eddie because she was traumatised by him when she was his student. But these are supporting roles. The big problems occurs when they promote the recurring roles of Stark's daughter Allison & her hippie boyfriend Doug into more permanent ones. Unfortunately those characters and the actors who play don't make the transition to mainstream characters that well. The production team make two baffling decisions, they decide to constantly change the casting of Allison between one of four actors (never mind that one of them played a waitress in an earlier episode) and then they they make Doug become aware that he's in a sitcom, except no-one else in the comedy believes him. And for some reason the producers think it hilarious to insert random sounds throughout each episode. None of these changes are even funny, and I can only suspect that the writers were trying to get the show cancelled. Mission accomplished.

Primarily this sitcom revolves around Henry, an out of work journalist, moving back in with Ed, his elderly and opinionated father. If you liked Shatner in Boston Legal, you'll find a lot to like in his portrayal of Ed.

However the big problem lies with Jonathan Sadowski who plays the other main lead Henry. He just doesn't have the comic acting credentials that this role needs, his timing and delivery are massively off. Originally the role of Henry was played by Ryan Devlin, but the series was retooled and the role recast because the studio didn't find him funny enough. You've got to wonder just how much worse he was than Jonathan! Let me be clear, without Sadaowski, I would have rated this series much higher (between 7 & 8 out of 10).

Despite all that, there's potential in this series. Henry's brother and sister-in-law are played by sitcom veterans Will Sasso & Nicole Sullivan and are well cast in their roles. They started off as supporting characters, but as the season has gone on, they've started to feature more prominently, and Henry's role has been scaled back somewhat.