The most Boomer-laden show is back on the air--Brothers and Sisters returns, soapier than ever. This is such a soapy soap-opera, that you might need to stand back from your screen, so the bubbles don't overwhelm you. The cast includes a few youngsters, for eye-candy, I mean "balance," but there's Sally Field (born in 1946), Patricia Wettig (born in 1951), Calista Flockhart (born in 1964), Ron Rifkind (born 1939, pre-Boomer), and Rob Lowe (born in 1964).
The season premiere, "Home Front," is a shameless exploitation of the cute youngest son's deployment to Iraq, and how distressed the matriarch, Nora Walker (played by Field) is about not hearing from him 
for weeks. But there's a great fight scene between Nora, and daughter Kitty (played by Flockhart), that includes the phrase "I don't give a rat's ass," and also this dialogue:
Mom: "I'm trying to be nice."
Daughter: "I don't want nice, I just want my mother."
Also unusual is a gay couple's declaration of love for each other, and then a chaste kiss! (Hey, this isn't Showtime, it's ABC.)
I'm having a problem with Second Seasons this fall: I'm just not enjoying these shows as much as I did when they were new and fun. I include not only Brothers and Sisters in this category, but also Heroes and Grey's Anatomy and Prison Break (okay, third season). My theory is that during the first year, the writers are writing from the heart, they are writing for themselves, and the sincerity is apparent. But after a show becomes a so-called hit, like Heroes (and the formerly-fun Grey's), they have too much to live up to, and collapse under the weight of Overexpectations. There might be a parallel here about midlife disappointment and failure, but I don't want to think about it. Why don't you?
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