The dings are quick to come and cut to the core. Mabel does eventually pass, but she left behind videos giving hard-nosed advice about stumbling members of the family (most of them) and revealing wrongdoing of others, and reminding one and all “You’ve all been acting like jackasses” for the past year. “It’s her death rattle, it’s her soul trying to say ‘Goodbye.'” Uncle Bobby (Winkler), who gets on everybody’s nerves, is quick to speak up and quicker to jump the gun on Mabel’s status. Zoom? “It’s like watching the f-–g ‘Jetsons'” may be the pithiest summary of that experience ever.
“Shall we get down to the business of bereavement?” “Can I just STOP you right there?”Īnd Zoe Chao is the hospice nurse who presides over everybody who dials in to see Mabel Worth draw her last breaths.
The estimable Sam Richardson plays the funeral director. Elsie Fisher and MacLaren Laing play the great grandchildren, one dealing with an earlier loss that has her lashing out at her stumbling, needy dad (Simons), the other stuck on a road trip with his shattered, even-needier mom (Greer) who is RVing her way through Arizona to escape a divorce and pandemic. Greer, Billy Magnussen, Casey Wilson, Timothy Simons and Scott MacArthur play the grandchildren, each dealing with some sort of crisis, each overly dependent on “Granny” in ways that will become obvious. Mabel also gave birth to a feckless, self-absorbed and oh-so-Californian touchy-feely son (Winkler). Squibb plays the no-nonsense Mama Mabel who begat a daughter (Martindale) who had five children, leading to a couple of great-grandchildren as well. So finding some new way of coming at it has proven a challenge over the decades.īut COVID provided one that director and co-writer Stephanie Laing and a vast crew of “names” overcame with “Family Squares.” It’s a cute and quirky COVID comedy built on Zoom calls, big secrets, sibling estrangement and amusingly “judgy” banter.Īnyone predisposed to like the off-center line-readings of Judy Greer, the curmudgeonly cracks of June Squibb, Earth Mama weariness of Margot Martindale, the blunt “honesty” of Anne Dowd and the late career realization Henry Winkler is still pretty damn funny - just to name the elder stateswomen and men of the cast - should get a kick from this. The fractious family dealing with the death of a matriarch or patriarch comedy - or drama - dates from the Greeks.
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