SummaryLoosely based on creator D.J. Nash's life, adult Henry Fisher (voiceover by Jason Bateman) looks back on his life as a 11-year-old (Eli Baker) with his sister Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley) after the divorce between his father, Mel Fisher (J.K. Simmons), a blind lawyer and his mother Joyce (Jenna Elfman).
SummaryLoosely based on creator D.J. Nash's life, adult Henry Fisher (voiceover by Jason Bateman) looks back on his life as a 11-year-old (Eli Baker) with his sister Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley) after the divorce between his father, Mel Fisher (J.K. Simmons), a blind lawyer and his mother Joyce (Jenna Elfman).
Both shows ["About a Boy" and "Growing Up Fisher"] are well written and actually quite engaging, but what is most interesting is the focus on the brighter side of splitting up. It’s a new genre of heartwarming family show.
The nutty parents in Growing Up Fisher do a good job of playing their extreme characters, instinctually making their eccentricities acceptable and funny rather than far-fetched and excessive. In contrast, the Growing Up Fisher children are so grounded and adult, but play that off with a world-weary-ness that is engaging.
The best new sitcom I've seen in a long time. Simmons carries the show. However NBC dropped the ball with About A Boy "boring" Growing Up Fisher is a breath of fresh air!!!!
Thank you for a good, clean family show! We are so happy to find a wholesome show that we can feel good about watching with our kids. Please keep this show!
Mel's eccentric independence is admirable and more often than not amusing--which isn't always the case for the show, which uses gentle but forced whimsy to deliver treacly life lessons from the perspective of preteen son Henry (Eli Baker).
Simmons does his usual solid work in this role, and he's got all the physical comedy in the playing blind (and faking sight) bits. Elfman makes another solid statement that she should be in something much better (this coming off her fine work in 1600 Penn; she hasn't lost any comedy chops). Together they're just undermined by, well, syrup.
The premise, in other words, lacks heft, which leaves not much more than admiring Simmons--a highly versatile actor — as he does what he can with gags about his character’s insistence on doing things like driving and cutting down trees.
Delightful, funny, charming, and wholesome without being candy-cute. The interplay between the characters is witty, funny, and touching. Jenna Eflman is both droll and hysterically funny at the same time. A great show that the whole family enjoys.
Growing up fisher is heartwarming this show is a major difference to the people that have disable or not . just realize its okay to be different i need to realize it but still remember this - Luke Christian
P.S Grade A+
A show I can watch with my entire family and have a good time is a rarity anymore. My family loved the show. Can't wait for the next episode. And by the way, if you think Jena Elfman isn't hot then your eyesight is worse than the Dad on the show.
Growing Up Fisher does a good job at being a sitcom which focuses on someone with a disability without being either overly sensitive or overly insensitive. JK Simmons is, as usual, pretty darn funny, this time as the blind patriarch of the family. The show isn't afraid to make jokes that rely on the father being blind, but it's jokes that leave you laughing with the guy, not at him. It certainly handles that kind of humor better than the also-new Michael J. Fox Show.
The other characters in the show are decent, though not particularly memorable. The son-slash-future-narrator has his definite moments, some with some pretty snarky and unexpected humor, but often falls into the same tired tropes that every sitcom kid does. The daughter and wife sadly are both fairly unmemorable characters doing cliche sitcom things, Jenna Elfman almost parodying herself as she plays a straight-laced woman a-la Greg trying to become more free a-la Dharma.
Still, the show is more often than not funny in ways you don't fully expect, getting the biggest laughs from tasteful-yet-subversive gags. With a little polish, like removing a few of the worst sitcom tropes, this could become a truly excellent show. As it is it's reasonably entertaining. Worth a watch.
boring, nothing to this show, poor acting and left me feeling like i wanted my half hour back. so what, the state farm guy is acting, yay. dont much like the Goldbergs either, but at least it has a plot. PS Jenna Elfman was hot in Dharma & Greg, lost her luster afterwards.