ladamson1918 Review of At Home with the Braithwaites

At Home with the Braithwaites (2000–2003)

Top-notch soap opera parody

[9/10 · 24 January 2015]

I've been binge-watching this since I found it; it's almost like an obsession. The Braithwaites seem to be a normal middle-class family, mom and dad and three girls, and then Allison Braithwaite wins a huge amount of money in a lottery and all hell breaks loose. Allison is a very nice, decent woman who just wants to do some good with the money, but the same cannot be said of her husband and daughters. Conflict necessarily ensues. In an unusual move, the writers haven't made the huge cash windfall the source of the family's problems, which were there all along--the money just brings all the turmoil to the surface. The cast is excellent. Peter Davison, long a staple of British comedy, goes above and beyond as David Braithwaite, Allison's obnoxious, greedy, self-centered husband. If you like satire, parody, and black humor, you should be entertained by the Braithwaites.