My Family

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A British Dom Com made by The BBC. It feels somewhat more like an American series than most other Brit Coms, because it was created by an American, Fred "Caroline in The City" Barron, and was produced by the more American styled "team of writers" format (British sitcoms usually only have one or two writers).

The plot is centered around the (of course) dysfunctional Harper clan. Ben, the Dad, is an Al Bundy-esque dentist (only less of a intentional jerk, more of a man of many misunderstandings). His wife is the put-upon Control Freak tour guide Susan. They love each other but express their love through sarcasm most of the time. Their kids are:

Janey eventually moves out to go to university (she later drops out) and then becomes a single mother. She is replaced by Abi, Ben's Phoebe-ish Ditz/Cloudcuckoolander (it varies) cousin. Later seasons see the appearance of Butt Monkey Roger (Ben's fellow dentist and later husband of Abi) and Alfie, Nick's Welsh Cloudcuckoolander friend who comes to live with the family. In later years, Ben becomes the prominent Butt Monkey to the point of Deus Angst Machina and sometimes even Kafka Komedy.

The result is a show which can be funny, but that often falls a bit flat because there are already plenty of these type of shows being imported from America anyway. It seems to have developed a fair-sized Hatedom and in any discussion about the decline in quality of British TV or recent sitcoms, My Family is guaranteed to be mentioned at some point.

Came twenty-fourth in Britains Best Sitcom.

Tropes used in My Family include:
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Susan says; "Janey's pregnant", "I'm leaving you", and "Nick's wearing your trousers." Guess which one gets Ben's attention.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Ben and Susan, many times.
  • Basement Dweller: Nick, Janey and Michael all live at home well into their twenties and maintain much the same kind of lifestyle as when they were teenagers, although Nick does eventually move out. Janey briefly went to university but dropped out and returned home.
  • Big Eater: The 2009 Christmas episode showed that thirty years into the future Janey has become a compulsive eater and enormously obese.
  • Brainless Beauty: Janey. It's also implied that Susan's mother Grace was one
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the episode set in 2039, Susan mentions several times that the reason she looks so youthful is down to moisturizer- before turning to the camera and winking, indicating that she's had plastic surgery. The basic implications are obvious to everyone, but the hidden joke will only be apparent to Doctor Who fans: Zoe Wanamaker played the infamous surgery-addicted Lady Cassandra, who had the well-remembered Catch Phrase, "Moisturize me".
  • The Bus Came Back: Nick has made two return appearances since his departure from the show, and is reported to feature in the final Christmas special for 2011.
  • Bus Crash: In the eleventh (and final) series, Susan's mother Grace is revealed to have died offscreen, and the Harpers attend her funeral.
  • Butt Monkey: Ben, especially in the show's past three seasons or so.
  • Christmas Episode: There's one every year.
  • Clip Show: For the show's 100th episode.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Nick, Abi and Roger Bailey are all just a little cuckoo.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Roger in series 10 (he appears in only one episode).
  • Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: "The next time you try to quit, do it on holiday."
  • Daddy DNA Test: In Series 10, when Ben suspects that a visiting house guest (who's also Janey's new boyfriend) might be his son from a previous relationship. He isn't.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Ben and Susan seem to be engaged in a constant deadpan snarkery contest. Easy to see where Michael gets it from.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Roger, friend-zoned by Abi for a long time.
  • Dumb Blonde: Janey and Abi both count, although Abi is more of a Cloudcuckoolander variety.
  • Dysfunction Junction: YES.
  • Fake High: A marijuana joint that actually turned out to be made of cinnamon and oregano powered by the placebo effect shared by Ben and Susan. Effects range from Susan overcoming her habitual mental block as to how horrible her cooking is, Ben correcting the lyrics to Jimi Hendrix songs at the top of his voice.
  • Faux Horrific
  • Fourth Date Marriage: Janey marries a guy she's known for only ten days, because they met at a wedding where a fortune teller said Janey would meet her true love. She runs off with someone else and asks for a divorce on the same day.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Ben all the way.
  • I Uh You Too:

Abi: What are you doing?
Roger: I am writing a list of the guests.
Abi: Why is only my name on it?
Roger: I am a little nearsighted.
Abi: Why are little hearts around it?
Roger: Because I love... writing lists.
Abi: I love... writing lists, too.

    • Janey and Michael say it word for word in Series 11.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Susan and her mother Grace, who, despite being in their 50s and 70s respectively, still seem to attract quite a bit of male attention.
  • Jumping Out of a Cake: In one episode, Ben is asked to throw his cousin a bachelor party. Susan is upset at his plans to hire a stripper to jump out of a cake, and decides to take the stripper's place. The cakes get accidentally switched, so Susan ends up at a convention for pipe-smokers, and the bachelor party gets a cake containing a guy in lederhosen smoking a pipe ...
  • Little Mr Snarker: Michael, in earlier series. More recently Kenzo.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Janey, who studied French, Economics and History at A-Level and went on to university, is a clear-cut example of this trope.
  • Older Than They Look: Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker are sixty years old as of the latest series, and Wanamaker in particular appears to be getting younger with each series.
  • Online Alias: In one episode, Ben gets advice from a forum. A joke is made about the wisdom in getting advice from someone going by the name "Yoda212".
  • Only Sane Man: Usually Michael, sometimes Ben or Susan. Alfie too occasionally plays this role. Bear in mind that this leaves 50% of the cast to be as mad as hatters the whole time.
  • Parental Incest: Played for Laughs with Ben and Nick, disturbingly often (such as in the episode where Nick is watching Kenzo whilst in Ben and Susan's bed).
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Kenzo, in Series 10.
  • Punny Name: Janey became Jane Rochester after her extremely brief marriage, but later changed her name back to Harper after asking for a divorce on the wedding day.
  • Really Gets Around: Janey.
  • Retcon: Susan's mother is initially named as Rebecca and later as Grace. Ben's cousin Richard is introduced as Abi's father but there is no mention of her when he reappears in Series 9 (perhaps because her actress had left the show by this time).
  • Reverse Psychology: Turns out using it to get money out of Ben doesn't really work.
  • Running Gag: Nick's rapid career changes, usually after he cocks up the previous job.
    • Also, if Ben has hold of a camera, there's a safe bet the flash will go off in his face at close range.
  • Sanity Ball: Never goes anywhere near Nick, Abi or Roger.
  • Screaming Birth: Parodied in the episode where Janey gives birth to Kenzo. As Susan and Ben drive to the hospital to see her, they have flashbacks to the Screaming Birth of Nick. When they arrive, Janey has had the baby with no fuss at all and is sitting up painting her nails.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Abi, in an episode where she applies for a job in a library and memorizes an entire dictionary to help her prepare for the interview. Michael was like this in earlier series, though the trait was dropped as he grew older.
  • Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Ben has an occasional one in the form of the Harpers' neighbor Mr Casey. He's also been shown to have rivalries with one of his cousins and with an old friend who became a celebrity dentist.
  • Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Going by Christmas specials and in-show references, the show appears to take place in real-world time with a year in between each series; but Kenzo is born in the fourth series yet is mentioned as nine years old in Series 10. Janey is fifteen years old in the first series, but in Series 10 claims to be "almost 30".
  • Suddenly Sexuality: Michael comes out as a homosexual in Series 10. After nine seasons of being consistently attracted to women and showing no interest in men.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Abi for Janey (initially, although Janey returned later), Alfie for Nick. Then Alfie left and was replaced with Michael's new boyfriend Scott, a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for a Suspiciously Similar Substitute! For some reason, no one was brought in to replace Abi, but Roger had become a more prominent character over the storyline involving the Roger-Abi romance.
  • Teen Genius: Michael. It's also implied Kenzo will be one when he's older.
  • Temporary Blindness: Susan from the shock of catching Michael with a girl in his bed.
  • They Do: Roger and Abi.
  • The Unfair Sex: Subverted. This is one of the few sitcoms where the females are just as bad as the males and not depicted as being in the right for it.
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Nick. In almost every episode. Abi appeared to go through several jobs as well.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Roger and Abi. They did, and got married - but then Abi converted to Catholicism and left Roger to become a nun.
  • World of Snark
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