By Dan Skip Allen

“Based On A True Rumor “

I’ve been a fan of both Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson for quite a while now. I first saw Woody in “Cheers”,  a sitcom set at the famous Boston bar, the Bull and Finch Pub. He was relatively young when that show was on NBC back in the 80s. He was the young upstart bartender taken under the wing of the veteran played by Ted Danson. Matthew McConaughey, on the other hand, first appeared in the Richard Linklater coming of age film “Dazed and Confused” where he uttered his famous line “Alright, Alright, Alright”. This helped launch his movie career. Woody eventually got into movies as well, but they also had an Emmy winning season of the hit HBO show “True Detective”. They were great in that series and it spawned a friendship that gave them the idea for this new series “Brothers” which supposes that they are Brothers from a secret relationship between Matthew’s mother and Woody’s father. That’s the crux of the show, and it leads to some funny stuff. I think people will like it.

On a whim, after a problem with his  daughter, Woody, they play fictionalized versions of themselves, packs his family into a colorful hippyfied bus and drives them all the way to Texas where his longtime friend, Matthew’s family lives. They have a different type of lifestyle than Matthew’s family. Despite his wealth, Woody chooses a lesser lifestyle. Matthew, on the other hand, is writing a speech for a role in a commercial for his Tequila, Pantelones, when Woody and his family arrive, and at first, they are a distraction for his process. Because they are friends, he allows them to stay in their bus in the driveway while using water and other resources from Matthew’s house. 

In the show, Woody and Matthew get into a lot of crazy scenarios. In episode one, Woody convinces Matthew to go for a drink to give him a break from prepping for his commercial. They end up getting an Uber ride filled with Texas Longhorns fans. Woody has a thing about the environment and gets into an argument about the AC in the car, resulting in them getting thrown out of the car in the middle of nowhere. Wouldn’t you know it they get picked up by a man in a van who happens to be a paparazzi for TMZ. He was keeping tabs on Matthew for the television tabloid show. Matthew, of course, wasn’t happy with Woody, understandably regarding this entire series of events. This was a pretty funny scene that set the tone of the entire series going forward. It gets better.

Besides Woody and Matthew playing fictional versions of themselves, they are surrounded by their fictional families as well. Mia Mac (Holland Taylor) Matthew’s mother, Valentina McConaughey (Natalie Martinez), Matthew’s wife, Joy Herrelson (Brittany Ishibasha), Woody’s wife, Oona Jaffe, Highdee Kuan, Tristan (Reese Turley) and Yasi (Presley Alexander). These characters all have subplots with the main story. The main story is a story involving Matthew running for governor of Texas. Woody’s story is that he’s trying to figure out if, indeed, Matthew is his half-brother or not. These two stories run concurrently with each other throughout the show. They give the show a stable plot to follow along with while the other subplots are going on. The entire cast are well chosen for these roles and represent the family members of Woody and Matthew quite nicely throughout the entirety of the series.

One specific character in this series stood out to me above all others, though, and that’s the character played by Lisa Gilroy. She plays Matthew’s campaign consultant. As her job is being a stand-up comedian in real life, I fully understand that she was going for shock value with this character. Her loud pansuits matched her verbal prowess. Every time she was on screen, she had me cracking up. This is exactly how I would imagine a campaign consultant being like in real life. She knows her job and does whatever it takes to try and get her candidate noticed by the voters. Not that McConaughey has any problems with that , er say. She was brilliant in this series.

This series gets off to a good start with the opening credits sequence. I don’t usually talk about opening credits , but these are very unique. The opening uses photos of each of the actors as they grow up from babies, toddlers, teens, and eventually young adults. The credits use a spit screen to do this effect. All of the photos are from archives of both of the stars of this show. The final photo is split and moves in and shows a similar look as the other  is trying to say that maybe these guys are actual “Brothers”. The showrunners and creators of the series did this on purpose to get the right feeling they were going for right off the bat. These credits gave me a chuckle the first time I saw them.

The idea that this series is going for is that these two could be actual brothers. Woody does a lot of the heavy lifting regarding this subplot of the series. The writers push this subplot forward very effectively. Woody tries to hide what he’s trying to do from Matthew, but it comes out in the form of a green envelope with an answer to the question. This storyline overshadows the other storyline in the show, which is what it’s supposed to do. If it didn’t, this series wouldn’t work as well as it does. Both stars had their time to shine in their own storyline. Eventually, they coincide with each other’s stories. 

Matthew is a pretty popular guy. I can see him running for governor of Texas, but there were a few things wrong with the idea that he could run for governor of Texas. First, he doesn’t specify his platform. Even though he has a woman who helps run his campaign for him, he never says what he stands for. Now Woody has opinions on his stances of things like the environment and so forth, but I didn’t see Matthew stand up for much. I understand he’s a guy who is very admired in his home state, but this story didn’t stand up much for me except Gilroy, who played the campaign manager. She was hilarious.

As any show does there are little things that make it unique. This series has some reenactments and cameos that had me laughing. One scene was when Woody and Matthew put on disguises to perform their music at a coffee show. This was such a funny scene as Matthew had leather and a bald cap while Woody had long hair and a handlebar mustache. This was such a funny scene. Others were when one of Matthew’s kids dressed up as their father in “Dazed and Confused”. A couple of cameos of note were Dax Shepard when he was called in to replace Brian Williams for an interview. This scene went in a crazy direction, notwithstanding Williams getting kidnapped by a couple of the young members of the cast, so he can’t be there at the home for the interview. He was hilarious in this scene. The show had numerous funny moments like these throughout the series.

One thing that I thought the showrunners and creators of the series did right was play with music in the series. One scene involving Matthew and Woody going to Jackpot Rodeo and “Crazy Train” by Ozzie Osbourne played. Then Matthew falls on his head and breaks his phone. He was very happy about this turn of events. Another key moment in the show was when the song “Give a Little bit”, by Supertramp played as  the opening credits song. I liked how music was used sparingly but effectively in this show. It had a country music feeling in the soundtrack. 

“Brothers” was a delightful series. It takes this idea of these two very close friends, possibly being Brothers to the ninth degree. The writers Matthew and Woody go as fast as they possibly can with this idea. There was a lot you can do with this idea, and they do a lot with it. The subplots involving Matthew and the kids help pad out the season. Matthew and Woody do a great job building upon their reputation as actors and friends in this show. The supporting cast were fine, but the cameos and Gilroy made up for that because they were fantastic. I think fans of these two A-listers will love this show, but I think a lot of others will come along for the ride because it’s a truly funny series.

Brother streams on AppleTV Starting on September 23rd 8/8 Episodes Reviewed 

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars