Brothers & Sisters

I was giving the Brothers & Sisters writers the benefit of the doubt on the fake-out funeral scene that opened “An American Family.” I thought maybe it only seemed like a tacky “Gotcha!” because of the previews imposed upon it by ABC. But no, indeed. According to the writers’ TV Guide blog, it was absolutely intended as misdirection and tomfoolery, and gleefully so. Writes Cliff Olin, “That ‘next week on Brothers & Sisters’ and the opening military funeral sequence were cheap and dirty tricks, but you fell for them, so ha!”

He goes on to write that he doesn’t mean us personally, but the “less TV-savvy person … the fan who loves the Walkers and feels like part of the family.” I hate to tell Olin — or rather, I hate that I have to tell him — that you can love the Walkers and feel like part of the family, and still read a magazine now and then. There have been plenty of interviews with B&S actors and other personnel over the summer about the Justin injury storyline. It’s not like you had to be lurking in dank spoiler dens to get an inkling that Dave Annable still has a job.

But even if we lived in a perfect world where nobody ever knew a thing about a show they couldn’t get from previews, it would still be wrong to use a military funeral as a fake-out. There are a million ways to handle that cliffhanger, a million ways to make us feel the pain of that family and families like them. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I think it really was a cheap and dirty trick, and beneath these writers. Shame!

Turns out that dishonest emotional manipulation wasn’t the only thing wrong with that funeral scene, either. Nitpickers, stand at attention: I have an e-mail from a Tom H. who reports: “I recently retired from the Air Force and spent several years with the Honor Guard on base. The opening scene was depicting a military funeral. I noticed two errors in the scene only a fraction of the viewers would probably catch. First, the flag was on the casket incorrectly. The blue field should have been over the left shoulder of the deceased. Most funeral directors should know that and all military performing honors definitely should know that. The second thing was when the soldier was presenting the flag to the widow, he had his right hand on top of the flag. The right hand should be on the bottom, holding the flag while the left hand is on the top. Again, who would notice that? Me and probably a lot of people who were or are on the Honor Guard. Other than us, probably no one.”

Tom also mentions that he is available to the writers to serve as a consultant on matters such as this, and considering they also made a mistake this week with the Gold Star Mother reference, I think they should take him up on it. Perhaps he could also smack them upside the head when they want to use military funerals as “Gotcha!” material.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, An American Family, military funeral