The real problem with the show is that the writers and casting agents seem to be working at odds with each other. The actors and actresses are universally attractive, even the youngest son (although the dialogue and plot would have you believe otherwise), and the kids get into trouble with a listless kind of malice. Problems are tidy, resolved swiftly, and include healthy dialogue and reconciliation. It's all far too tidy.
If the producer was aiming for a show with the texture and quality of thirtysomething, Get Real isn't going to make it. The show is trying too hard to snag all the demographics available - the rebellious female teen who isn't ready to let go, the surfer duuuude with a sensitive side, the angsty adolescent boy with mildly-weird issues around dating, the buff dad with the wandering eye, the still-pretty mom with the midlife crisis, and the dapper grandmother dispensing Zen-like advice to one and all. There's already too much character development going on to then add situational trauma like a "rave" where the kids get up to no good and return home late.
A show like My So-Called Life, by contrast, left the weekly crises in the background and focused on the characters' reactions to each other. Get Real presents life as if it was a series of shiny moral questions to solve and move beyond. There's not enough reality to brace up the name...itself another attempt to catch the eye of a jaded Gen-Y viewer.
If the producer was aiming for a show with the texture and quality of thirtysomething, Get Real isn't going to make it. The show is trying too hard to snag all the demographics available - the rebellious female teen who isn't ready to let go, the surfer duuuude with a sensitive side, the angsty adolescent boy with mildly-weird issues around dating, the buff dad with the wandering eye, the still-pretty mom with the midlife crisis, and the dapper grandmother dispensing Zen-like advice to one and all. There's already too much character development going on to then add situational trauma like a "rave" where the kids get up to no good and return home late.
A show like My So-Called Life, by contrast, left the weekly crises in the background and focused on the characters' reactions to each other. Get Real presents life as if it was a series of shiny moral questions to solve and move beyond. There's not enough reality to brace up the name...itself another attempt to catch the eye of a jaded Gen-Y viewer.