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The Bottom Line

Family Tree is a gentle and familiar mockumentary from one of the genre’s masters, Christopher Guest.

Details

• Stars Chris O’Dowd, Nina Conti, Tom Bennett
• Created by Christopher Guest and Jim Piddock
• Airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. EST starting May 12, 2013, on HBO

Review

It’s been seven years since Christopher Guest’s last feature film, 2006’s For Your Consideration, and thus seven years since audiences had the chance to experience his improv-based style of comedy, generally presented in the mockumentary format (For Your Consideration isn’t a mockumentary, although it often seems like it’s meant to be).

It’s not unreasonable to think that Guest had exhausted the possibilities of this particular approach after four movies (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind preceded For Your Consideration), but he may just have been waiting for the right subject matter and venue to return to the style for which he’s best known.

The subject matter in Family Tree is genealogy, something Guest himself has been exploring in his personal life, and a niche interest that dovetails with the worlds of community theater, dog shows and folk music that he explored in his previous mockumentary films. It’s another hobby for people with too much time on their hands, a fairly trivial pursuit that certain practitioners take way too seriously. But while Guffman and Best in Show in particular took delight in skewering the characters who pursued these inane pastimes, the humor in Family Tree is much gentler, and even the show’s quirkiest characters are likable and harmless.

Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd, Bridesmaids), a newcomer to Guest’s regular crew of collaborators, plays Tom Chadwick, a London man who’s recently lost both his job and his girlfriend and is a bit adrift in life.

When he finds out from his father Keith (Guest favorite Michael McKean) that his great-aunt Victoria has died and left him a box full of family keepsakes, he delves into what turns out to be a very colorful family history, seeking out information on long-dead ancestors as well as far-flung living relatives.

The episodic format allows Guest and co-creator Jim Piddock to explore a different odd subculture in each episode, from rural farmers to the low-rent activities of the 1948 London Olympics (when the end of World War II left the country with depleted resources). The show offers good-natured ribbing rather than biting satire, and Tom himself seems merely bemused by the oddballs that he discovers he’s related to. Even Tom’s sister Bea (played by popular British comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti), whose constant companion is a monkey puppet via which she communicates her uncensored thoughts, is presented as friendly and well-adjusted (at least in comparison to some of the other characters).

Although Guest is known for popularizing the mockumentary format, Family Tree isn’t set up like it’s an actual documentary; similar to shows like Parks and Recreation and Modern Family, it mixes fairly straightforward narrative scenes with occasional talking-head interviews from the characters. It’s more of a storytelling approach than a faithful re-creation of a realistic style. Not holding themselves to a rigid format allows Guest and Piddock to show moments that wouldn’t make sense in an actual documentary, but then to also have the characters directly comment on the action, which is where a lot of the jokes come in.

There are at least a few big laughs per episode, and some of the biggest ones come from the little parodies of British TV shows that Guest and Piddock thrown in as background filler. When tossed-off elements like that are so spot-on, that’s the sign of a show with a lot going for it. Family Tree may be tamer than some of Guest’s past work, but it’s still full of deadpan wit.

Disclosure: A review screener was provided by the network. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.