ABC's The Family Might Be Your New Obsession
ABC's new thriller (special premiere Thursday, 9/8c) joins a long line of missing/dead/resurrected child mysteries on TV, let alone on ABC.
(Secrets & Lies, Resurrection, anyone?) The titular family is the Warrens, who 10 years ago saw their youngest child, 8-year-old Adam, go missing while matriarch Claire (Joan Allen) was campaigning for City Council.
Neighbor Hank (Andrew McCarthy), a sex offender, confessed and was jailed for the presumed murder -- even though a body was never found.
The Family comes from Shondaland disciple Jenna Bans (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Off the Map and Scandal), so the dark and twisty DNA is alive and well.
An excellent-as-usual Allen -- fresh off her co-starring role in Room in which she also had a child abducted -- will give you flashbacks to The Contender with her ambitious politician.
[...] Claire's political animal prowess is tempered by a mother's inexorable bond to her child - one so strong you can understand why she's in denial something might not be totally right with Adam until she gets a wakeup call at the end of the second episode.
The same can be said for McCarthy's exonerated Hank, who permeates every scene he's in with quiet dread and heartfelt sympathy while delivering such dry, devilish lines like, "I'm the guy who killed you," after he comes face-to-face with Adam for the first time post-release.
A side plot involving reporter Bridey (Floriana Lima), the town paper's "lesbian lifestyle blogger," investigating the Warrens and Adam's return feels slightly tacked on and trite, as does her booze-and-bed tactics with Danny to get scoop.