My Review of Brothers And Sisters 4x08: "The Wine Festival"

Written by Sherri Cooper-Landsman And Michael Foley
Directed by Michael Morris

Sarah (re label): “Would you just do it?”
Luc: “Okay, I’ll do it for you.”
Sarah: “Don’t do it for me, do it for you.”
Luc: “Babe, I do a lot of things for myself. This is for you.”

I don’t know about anyone else but that line alone enough was enough to give Sarah the right to give Luc a right slap across the back of the head. She’s asking you for a simple thing – get a job, not your soul you pillock. I’m a bloke and even I get where Sarah was coming from in this episode.

If the writers were hoping to show viewers that Luc does have flaws, then they can take solace in knowing that they succeeded with that one. Why did the issue of money and security have to come into Luc and Sarah’s relationship? Answer: because neither of them thought things through.

Luc quickly moved from Bordeaux to California without thinking and similarly Sarah moved him into her house. Before now, the discussion of Luc’s financial plans should’ve reared their head. Sarah at least was trying to come up with solutions. Luc on the other hand, kept trying to use artistic temperament to stonewall her.

I get that designing labels for a wine company may not be enriching for an artist but needs much, Luc in this type of a climate and it wasn’t like you were doing anything with your paintings. You’ve been in LA for four episodes now and have you once decided to take any of your art to a gallery? No! So, stop whinging when Sarah tried to help you out.

Yeah, she could’ve probably broached the topic a little better (especially later when at the wine festival, she tried to get Luc work with another company) but her heart was in the right place and her concerns were too justified that even if I could see Luc’s point of view, Sarah’s stuck much bigger for me with this one.

And it’s not like Sarah didn’t consider the fact that she might have overstepped the mark. We had a nice scene with Nora where she admitted that she feared she might have done. That scene also had drawing some reasonably fair comparisons to Joe and Luc. Sarah doesn’t need another Joe in the same way she probably doesn’t need another Graham.

The only downer for her was that Luc ended the relationship and decided to bugger off back to France, which killed my respect for him. I know he’s coming back later on in the season but would it have actually killed him to have listened to Sarah’s apology? Nope. Bad Luc. And on that note, I thought Sarah was grovelling a little too much in that respect. She might have dented Luc’s male pride but she was hardly emasculating him either.

Speaking of male pride, Kevin and Scotty need to go through at least one episode where their quest for a surrogate does not spill into another analysis of their own male egos. Picking the perfect surrogate should not have this much of an effect on either one of them. This week, Kevin’s being an overachiever and Scotty’s a quitter.

Mainly that was down to Kevin trying to whittle it down to the perfect woman to carry their baby. I said it in my previous review and it bodes saying again, why is surrogacy the only option being considered here? There are plenty of kids out there who need a stable home and are just as good as some ‘super baby’ that Kevin seems to be aiming for. Why not give them a shot?

Still as much as they argue about things, Kevin and Scotty do make up in the end and while it’s getting repetitive, it’s still cute to watch. That being said, we’re eight episodes into this plot, so maybe some progress should be made on this one before it gets to the point of running around in circles.

As for circles, what the hell is wrong with Rebecca? I like the girl, I really do but sometimes she can be frustrating. How hard was it for her to tell Justin that she’s pregnant? I know he’s under pressure and the writers are trying to overdramatize the pregnancy (as it’s come at the wrong time for both of them presumably) but I got heavily annoyed with all the near misses and squabbling that ensued with her and Justin as a result.

Still Emily Van Camp got one really great scene in this episode where Rebecca confided in David that she was pregnant and he was wonderfully supportive of her. Not that I expected David to freak out or anything. I wouldn’t have even expected Holly to freak out but I’m fairly certain that Justin himself will have a freak out when he learns that he’s about to be a father while trying to be a doctor.

Also when it comes to freaky, I’d love to know what’s going through the writers’ heads at the moment. If they think that Nora dating Simon is weird, let me assure it’s not. The guy is in his late forties for God’s sake, not his early thirties. A little perspective writers because the big deal being made about Nora and Simon’s age gap was a bit much.

Okay, so there was an insensitive photographer who stupidly thought they were mother and son (how could you mistake the two of them for mother and son?) but Simon’s main problem with Nora was that he didn’t think she was adventurous enough. It took Nora to show him a blow by blow of the stuff she had to deal with in her family to prove otherwise. I’m still not sure about the two of them to be honest.

As for Kitty, well her plot this week was similar to Lynette’s in Season 4 of Desperate Housewives where Robert took a fascination to Kitty’s wig (like Tom did with Lynette’s) and Kitty found she feeling insecure. The only difference was when Kitty stopped wearing the wig; Robert’s reaction was made of win with him reassuring her that she was beautiful. The writers are making it very easy for Robert to be respected in this plot, aren’t they?

As for the Ojai stuff, I actually felt bad for Holly this week. Her cheap plonk idea caused Ojai to have a victory at the wine festival and that irritating little shit Ryan sabotaged the rest of the contents because York manipulated him so easily. I really, really wish that York would take a run and jump because he is in no way a remotely interesting foe for the Walkers. Similarly, I feel the same about Ryan as well.

Also in “The Wine Festival”

Kevin learning off the candidate’s statistic reminded me of David in Six Feet Under dreaming about them. This plot keeps reminding me of that show.

Scotty: “I can’t believe we’re picking up the mother of our child online. I’ve never even hooked up with anyone online.”
Kevin: “Really? Me neither. Once.”

Don’t worry, Scotty – you’re not the only one to have not hooked up with anyone online. As for Kevin, I wonder who that was.

Sarah (re Simon): “It would be weird if he wanted to have a family with you.”
Nora: “That wouldn’t be weird, that’d be impossible.”
Sarah: “Be thankful he’s got a social security number and a job.”

Scotty: “We need to stop eating and get out of this apartment.”
Kevin (re candidates): “We can’t. We have another 76 to go.”

Carter’s still getting visibly irritated with Justin’s unprofessionalism. I don’t blame people for getting snarky with his phone going off in the library. That is highly annoying.

Rebecca (re Justin): “He’s already told me he doesn’t want a baby.”
David: “Obviously that was before he knew you were pregnant. What do you want?”
Rebecca: “I don’t know.”
David: “Well, you have to figure that out.”

Sarah (re Luc): “I pushed him on that label. Now I feel like a pushy, corporate dream dasher all over again. Déjà vu.”
Nora: “Luc is not Joe; he’s the opposite side of the men spectrum. He’s kind and happy and he’s not trying to be someone he isn’t.”

Standout music: “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. I wouldn’t be surprised if this popped up on Grey’s Anatomy soon if it already hasn’t.

Robert (to Kitty): “I love you for reasons that have nothing to do with your hair. You’re beautiful.”

Chronology: Around the November 2009 point of the series. Rebecca’s six weeks pregnant as well.

“The Wine Festival” is probably the weakest episode of the season with some of the main stories not working as well as they have done but there were still some nice moments in this episode as well. It’s just not as memorable as previous ones this year though.

Rating: 7 out of 10.