Plot
Forget about athletes, movie stars and politicians. Parents are the real heroes -- but Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton), well she's some kind of superhero. A loving wife and mother of three, she's middle class in the middle of the country and is rapidly approaching middle age.

Frankie and her husband, Mike, have lived in Jasper, Indiana their whole lives. A man of few words (every one a zinger), Mike is a manager at the town quarry and Frankie is the third-best used car salesman (out of the three) at the local dealership. She may not be a high-powered career woman, but when it comes to her family, she'll go to just about any length. And with kids like these, she had better. There's Axel, her semi-nudist teenage son conceived with Guns N' Roses playing a significant role; Sue, the awkward teenage daughter who fails at everything with great gusto; and their seven-year-old son Brick, whose best friend is his back-pack.

Cast and crew
Patricia Heaton as Frankie
Neil Flynn as Mike
Eden Sher as Sue
Atticus Shaffer as Brick
Charlie McDermott as Axel

Executive Producers: Eileen Heisler, DeAnn Heline

Is it any good?
On the whole, it's not bad. It raised a few wry grins from me, although never any real belly laughs. The cast is good, the situations are relatively plausible. It's certainly more engrossing than Modern Family.

Most of the laughs stem from the discrepancies between how the parents always envisioned life and what life for them is actually like, now they've lost control, as well as the syndrome-like qualities of youngest child 'Brick' ("simply because you give your kids a cool name like Rick, that doesn't mean they're going to end up cool"). There's also a deep vein of "things parents would like to say to their kids but can't" humour, usually involving their talentless but continually aspiring daughter, Sue, and the occasional cringe comedy moment as well.

Flynn is on the butt-end of too many of the situations, continually failing to do what he's supposed to have done, leaving his wife in the lurch. But occasionally, he comes through too, so we're not looking at Everyone Loves Raymond or King of Queens here, since .

All in all, though, it's not my cup of tea. Good cast, some obvious thought and talent has gone into it. Neil Flynn's great, and Patricia Heaton manages to wash away the bad taste that was Everybody Loves Raymond with ease. It's just not something that's my particular viewing pleasure.

Your mileage may vary.