Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Brothers’ Is Better Than It Has Any Right to Be (Which Doesn’t Mean It’s Good)

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have long been such close friends that fans have speculated they might actually be brothers. Their new series together, Brothers, basically asks: “What if they are?” Harrelson and McConaughey play barely fictionalized versions of themselves — seriously, barely — as Harrelson brings his family in an RV to McConaughey’s Austin ranch. There, McConaughey prepares for a gubernatorial run (a political bid the real McConaughey has also considered), while Harrelson investigates whether they share the same mother, Ma Mac (Holland Taylor), after she drunkenly hints one night at a past affair with Harrelson’s convict father (how would he not know if they don’t share the same mom? Don’t ask).

Here’s the thing about Brothers: if it didn’t star Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, it wouldn’t be any damn good. One guy running for governor while the other stumbles into a genealogy investigation — all while their respective wives and children lovingly mock them — isn’t a particularly compelling premise. But it does star Harrelson and McConaughey, and they do share incredible sibling energy. They wring a lot of mileage out of their self-caricatures, making Brothers better than it has any right to be, even if it’s still not necessarily good.

Is it occasionally funny? Sure. In the second episode, for instance, Harrelson plays an eco-devotee who would never hurt an animal, while McConaughey decides to take his “sensitive” son deer hunting for his 16th birthday. Unbeknownst to Harrelson, his own daughters tag along just to spite him. This leads to one of several sibling-style spats between the leads, culminating in Harrelson accidentally running over a deer with his car. It was cheap, but I laughed.

It’s funny, but the caricatures are a bit one-note — Harrelson as the hippie, McConaughey as the long-winded Texan — and that dynamic starts to wear thin by the end of episode two. Not so thin that I’ll stop watching, since it’s ultimately a low-stakes Harrelson/McConaughey hangout show, but thin enough that the shtick may grow tiresome before the season wraps.

Thankfully, the supporting cast helps prop things up. Barry Corbin and Jeff Kober only appear for about ten minutes in episode two (despite being credited for five), but they’re already the highlight of Brothers, right alongside Holland Taylor as McConaughey’s drunken, profane mother.

I’d much rather see the two reteam for another season of True Detective, but Brothers makes for fitfully amusing background television, even if it rarely rises above that.