alv790 The story is told from Henry Fisher's (Eli Baker) point of view. It uses the same grown-up main character narrating his (pre) adolescence in voice-over technique as The Wonder Years. Of course, this show is not as brilliantly inspired as Wonder Years, but it would be unfair to judge a new TV show by such high standards. Eli Baker has a lot of boyish charm and does a convincing job.Nowadays, it feels a bit old fashioned to have a traditional family sitcom. It's true that the parents are divorced, but they have such a good relationship that there's not such a large difference.Any new show needs a differentiating element, and here the Mel's (J.K. Simmons, playing the father) blindness plays that role.One problem is that, for a comedy, Growing Up Fisher is not very funny. A lot of jokes are made from Mel's blindness and how he doesn't let that keep him from any activity. Some of those are enjoyable, but that premise only takes us so far. Another problem is that it relies too much on clichés. Henry starts awkwardly noticing girls, which is a reasonable plot point for a protagonist this age but one we have often seen. Joyce (Jenna Elfman), his mother, has gone back to the university and is obsessed about being cool and being friends with the other students and with her teenage daughter and her friends. There's nothing wrong with her interpretation, but beyond this not too promising plot element she is not given much to work with. The same can be said about Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley), who plays Henry's older sister. She does fine, but is not given much to do. Henry's best friend Runyen (Lance Lim), is an Asian mouthy kid who also feels like a sitcom cliché.The show is at his best with heart-warming family lessons, like when Katie stands up for his father when he is almost expelled from a musical where she is starring because his guide dog started barking. This came after Mel had told her that he was so obnoxious and outspoken because when he was a teen his rowing coach had not liked having a blind kid in the team and had asked him to leave. Mel had left and he had always regretted it. Katie standing up for him in spite of being mad at him for spoiling her date was a nice moment. I fear that in our cynic times such simple feel-good messages are seen as too corny.It's a pity this show was cancelled so soon. I enjoyed it and felt that it had potential to grow beyond the clichés that were holding it back. Unfortunately, we won't have the opportunity to see whether that's the case.

sues-2 Warning spoiler within: Great show, fresh idea, relatable characters, family show and a lighthearted comedy.The Dad is a blind lawyer who has a seeing eye dog and is dealing with normal family challenges, recent separation from his wife, raising teenagers and re-entering the dating world. The characters have that quirkiness that makes you root for them. You know you can watch this show and feel good afterwards.It is just too bad that NBC could not see it's potential and cancelled it. That's the spoiler. Hoping another network will pick it up. If About a Boy was renewed, which is not as good as Growing Up Fisher one really hopes that another network can see the potential.

ruffles5 Horrible. This is the Golden Age of television (in Cable), but the networks are blind and atrociously obtuse to the opportunities that are given to them every day and which they consistently reject for bland shows that don't take any risks and, because of this, are doomed for cancellation. As more people turn to cable and experience (finally) great television, the networks' shows (especially the comedies) will suffer. "Growing Up Fisher" is a perfect example. The idea of the show is great, but the execution is deeply disappointing. Everything is dumbed down, the jokes feel forced, the narration is ridiculous! If this is really about the creator's childhood, he did an excellent job to skirt any pain, for pain in comedy is always what works best. I love television and hope lackluster shows like these disappear to make room for better creators and writers, and also complicated characters that let actors really act.

HerbsReviews "Are you sure you should be driving?" NBC is currently trying a couple of new family centered series of which this is one and the other being About A Boy. Unfortunately, the premise is relatively thin and the show quickly abuses the abilities of the protagonist, Mel Fisher. The premise revolves around Mel Fisher, a blind lawyer, who goes about his life fooling everyone into believing he can see. The protagonist can apparently chop down trees with a chainsaw, teach his daughter to parallel park, leap over other lawyers with a simple bound. The comedy would need to be irreverent and edu for this to have the slightest shot at success. 'instead, it goes for a sappy, feel-good vibe with a voice-over by Jason Bateman. Despite it being based on the creator's actual childhood, the element of truth doesn't make it any less absurd or any more worthy of being a TV show. Just as it's hard to keep up with how many failed sitcoms there have been during mid-seasons, I'm losing track of how many mawkish, barely funny sitcoms these days are drawn from the writer's own family experience and upbringing. Creatively, the story of Me is an awfully stifling place to start. Memoir has its place beyond the page, but sitcoms are usually not it - for the same reasons that family stories you think are so table-poundingly hilarious are difficult to convey to any audience larger than a dinner party. Network execs need to stop indulging this strange habit and ask writers and producers to look for pilot pitches someplace other than their home movies and photo albums: it just isn't funny. For these reasons Growing Up Fisher gets a 2/10.