Not Liking The Cards We Were Dealt - Brothers & Sisters, Aliens in America

Aliens in America - The Muslim Card - Ep. 115
Brothers & Sisters - Double Negative - Ep. 213

Was it me or was last nights Brothers & Sisters not that great? Even with the big Kevin and Scotty together-forever build up? Or maybe I was already pooped from a weekend of fantastic musicals (reviews to come on In The Heights, Sunday in the Park with George and Passing Strange) or that I was more amused by the antics on Aliens in America than anything the Walkers did this week?

After last week's joyous and hilarious return with the Walkers on Brothers & Sisters, this week saw a few of the blander (if not downright annoying) story lines get centre stage, with more on Robert's possible vice-presidency getting in the way of him and Kitty. Seriously, lets settle this and move on. The politics is getting boring. Especially when the real life stuff is more backstabbing and vicious than anything on a fictional soap opera has been.

Sarah finds out that Saul continued with the deal with Graham and something something happened and something bad is going down now with Ojai but I practically failed my business course in university so I have no idea what they were talking about.

Rebecca finds out once and for all that she is in fact, NOT a Walker (but lies to Justin about it). AHHHHHHH. I knew they were heading this way and I didn't like it from the start. It's a terrible decision on the plotline if you ask me. I don't usually outright say something is a bad decision since I'd like to trust the writers and let them plot out their course and I am usually pretty giving in letting them ride it out, but the shock is not enough to outweight the fact that she's no longer a Sister to the Brothers & Sisters and thus really has no connection to the family or the show. It also means, this whole last year was really just some contrived part and I hate when shows do something like this. Unless there's something even MORE revealing that pulls her back into the family (and NO, don't EVEN go there with her and Justin as a romantic possibility, that's just gross), I'm not liking where this is going, which is too bad because I LOVE Emily VanCamp!

On top of that, David decides to skip town again. What's the point in bringing in Ken Olin and be Rebecca's real dad if he's going to skip out again? Look, I know you're a producer on the show but that doesn't give you a right to give yourself a guest spot that satisfies your actor needs and is unsatisfying to ours. That's just cruel.

So, I guess maybe I'm bias but I found Kevin and Scotty's continuing relationship woes the most interesting part of last night, though even then, it wasn't what we were looking for. Scotty gets an injury at work and the health insurance issues gets brought up. Kevin proposes the idea of getting domestic partnership for insurance purposes, not the proposal of marriage we all hoped/thought it would be.

It was a nicely realistic point, giving Luke MacFarlane and Matthew Rhys some more gay airtime (winning them another Glaad award, beating out Degrassi: TNG... ahem. Kinda odd in a nice way that they were in the same category!), but it was quite the build up and I kinda wanted the fairytale but I guess they will stretch that over the seasons. We can't give them happiness for now, they are the Walkers, god forbid!

Still, when it comes to the separate storylines, it's the only one keeping my attention. Is it my own personal bias or does everyone else think so? They really need to unite that family more in more scenes. Those are always the best parts!

Meanwhile, in another white family that may be quirky and dysfunctional but just equally loving, The Tolchuks on Aliens in America get new neighbours who seem to be the perfect, cool, fun couple until they find out the man is a registered pedophile.

The twist? He was convicted for "being" with his current wife, back when he was 19 and she was 17, thus, technically illegal in some states, and was made an example of by the judicial system. Being the cool people the Tolchuks are, Franny and Gary look past the labels and see the real truth behind the story and accept the new neighbours.

Just like the annoying girl at school who accepts Raja's Muslim religion when she thinks he likes her (he doesn't, Raja was just being nice, and Justin warned him against that!). The crazy annoying girl becomes Muslim when Raja uses the Muslim card to break up with her instead of telling her the truth. It was hilarious in both the sweet way boys can never tell the girls the truth, especially when the news is bad, and funny in the way the crazy girls takes it to the next level. Or vice versa.

Then even funnier when the parents of the girl get angry and brings it to a political level.

Not as hilarious as previous episodes but funny nonetheless.