DVD Reviews

Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Fifth Season - DVD Review

By Patrick Luce Sep 5, 2011, 16:33 GMT

Spend some time with the Walkers, a family much like your own, as they support each other through the joys and heartaches of life in the Complete Fifth Season of ABC\'s stirring drama, "Brothers & Sisters". Featuring a sensational ensemble cast, including Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Patricia Wettig, and Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers & Sisters" is outstanding television at its warm and witty best. It\'s a season of new beginnings. The ...more

Brothers and Sisters returns for a fifth and final season that sees the show going out on a strong note despite losing Rob Lowe and a lot of its viewers. The season features another round of strong performances from its ensemble cast – led by the legendary Sally Fields.

Along with Fields, Brothers and Sisters features Dave Annable, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Matthew Rhys, Luke Macfarlane, Gilles Marini, Ron Rifkin, and Patricia Wettig. The season also features appearances from the talented Sonia Braga, Richard Chamberlain, Beau Bridges, and Jeremy Davidson. 

Known for surprise love-children and other unexpected family drama, Season Five sees the Walker family clan dealing with new romance, the return of an old flame (who turns out to have stronger ties to the Walker family than you might have thought), adoption, and fallout from past seasons.

As spoiler free as possible, Season Five finds family matriarch Nora (Fields) rekindling old feelings for Nick Brody (Bridges) – who Nora was with before marrying William Walker (Tom Skerritt). The renewed romance leads Sarah (Griffiths) to question if William (who we all know tended to cheat on Nora) is actually her father.  She also has some struggles in her own relationship with Luc ((Marini).

While Sarah is dealing with her daddy issues, Kitty has to move on after saying goodbye to Robert (Lowe) and face life as a single woman again. To help in the healing process, Kitty heads out to a cottage in Ojai where she meets a new love interest named Jack (Davidson). Love stays in the air as Kitty takes a teaching job at Waxley University and falls for a younger man named Seth (Ryan Devlin) - who is only twenty-seven and the son of a dean of Waxley University.

Other major storylines of the season follow Kevin (Rhys) and Scotty (Macfarlane) as they struggle in their relationship, and try to become parents through foster care and adoption. The couple adopts Olivia (Isabella Rae Thomas), but then has to fight to keep custody of the girl after her older brother returns. More struggles face the couple when they discover they have a son as well.

Justin (Annable) finds his marriage to Rebbeca (Emily VanCamp) crumbled, but finds new romance with Annie (Odette Yustman). He also helps an ex-marine who is living on the street and he reconnects with past love Tyler (Marika Dominczyk). Saul also finds true love with boyfriend Jonathan and a surprise offer of continued romance by the season end.

Like past releases, Brothers and Sisters: Season Five comes loaded with special features that are sure to be a treat for fans of the series. Features include the standard commentary, bloopers, and deleted Scenes. They also include "Gilles Marini: Uncovered" and "Scribbles to Scripts."

Brothers And Sisters: The Complete Fifth Season ends the series strong, and it is a little sad that we won’t get to visit the Walker family again. The series featured a great ensemble cast at the top of their game, and interesting family dynamics that kept the series from feeling formulaic.

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