I want to like THE MCCARTHYS based on the solid cast alone – Laurie Metcalf is one of my favorite comedic actors, Joey McIntyre is probably the first poster I hung on my wall as a child, Jack McGee is funny, Kelen Coleman is a favorite, as a fan of John (and therefore Jason), I love a Ritter (this one is Tyler) – but I’m sad to say that the pedigree does not add up to a good show (Jimmy Dunn, worth noting, is the only member of this family that I’m not familiar with).

The gist: Ronny (Ritter) wants to move to Rhode Island but his family doesn’t want him to leave, even though they kind of treat him like an outcast, the gay brother who watches GOOD WIFE with his mom every Sunday.  Oh he’s not an outcast because he’s gay; it’s because he’s not athletically inclined, nor does he really care about his father’s high school basketball team.  That sets him too far apart from his siblings, so he’s hightailing it out of town. The death of a family friend sets a different plan in motion.

The show is inoffensive, and perfectly fine, but it lacks the warmth I get from fellow multi-cam newcomer CRISTELA this season or the quick wit we get from family comedy BLACK-ISH (both on rival ABC).  Much like THE MILLERS last season on CBS, this is a perfectly benign family comedy that will get viewers based on pedigree and where it is situated on the schedule, but it’s not reinventing the wheel, and isn’t terribly worth your time (or the actors’ time.  Get Joey to BLUE BLOODS as a guest star and rival for Danny; get Laurie Metcalf on BIG BANG for a long stretch, find uses for Tyler Ritter as a bumbling lawyer on BENCHED or BROOKLYN NINE-NINE or something, anything else. Unless you maybe want to wait until it’s surprisingly renewed for S2, and a sitcom vet joins the show as Laurie Metcalf’s new best friend and roommate….::cough:: Sean Hayes is wasted on THE MILLERS ::cough::).