Late To The Party: My Brother, My Brother and Me (The Show)

Welcome back for another Late To The Party, where you can join me in belatedly discovering a great piece of media. I have to admit, I had trouble this week. I watched a few things but didn't have any particular feelings towards them. The only show I felt like watching was something that I first watched a few weeks ago. That show is My Brother, My Brother and Me (the Seeso original, not to be confused with their podcast of the same name).

If you have not heard of the podcast, or The McElroys in general, you are seriously missing out. The McElroys (Justin, Travis, and Griffin) are three brothers, sometimes joined by their father and their respective wives, who have hosted successful podcasts since 2010. While I recommend literally all of their podcasts (specifically: The Adventure Zone, Sawbones, Wonderful!, and Shmanners), My Brother, My Brother and Me was the original podcast that this series is based on. An advice show for the modern era, the brothers take questions from viewers (sometimes submitted directly and other times found on Yahoo Answers) and give hilariously bad advice.

On the television show (which is mostly improvised), the brothers return to their home town of Huntington, West Virginia and focus on one question each episode. Questions range in topics from "How do I pad my resume?" to "How do I join a secret society?" and "Can you convince my girlfriend to let me get a tarantula?" They solve these questions by going around town, wreaking wholesome havoc. For example, in the tarantula episode (Episode 3 - Tarantulas & Travis Did a Hit), the brothers hold a parade for tarantulas in town in order to rebrand the creatures with their new name of "ranchos". In the secret society episode (Episode 5 - Secret Societies & Apologies to Nathan), they bring all of their family and friends to a roller rink to start a secret society. In the resume episode, the brothers hilariously compete to win back the job that Griffin was fired from by Justin's father-in-law when he was younger.

It is such a treat seeing the relationship between the members of this family. There is no doubt that these are very real brothers. There is a moment in Episode 3, where Travis is very much afraid of tarantulas. Justin, being an older brother who knows this fact, plays a prank where he touches Travis' neck and pretends to be a tarantula. Travis, obviously upset, hits Justin on the arm (the titular hit). Afterwards, the three brothers commune and say that the energy in the room was tense. Travis comments that it was normal for them as brothers, but not alright for them as professionals. The distinction is an interesting one and was definitely felt. Another great part about them being family is that they all include their wives in the show at some point. They also recap with their dad, local radio legend Clint McElroy, at the end of each episode.

The series is only six episodes long and at about 25 minutes a piece, is easy to binge. You can watch it all on VRV for free. Although I did describe it as wholesome, the show can be adult at times, so I would not recommend it for kids (their intro even warns against it). Everything that The McElroys do is a delight (Lin Manuel Miranda even put a reference to them in Hamilton) and I am happy to now be keeping up with them. I only wish that this series had lasted longer.