TV Reviews : A Mixed-Up Family

From the outside, the Carters appear to be a successful, flag-flying, grace-saying American family. Appearances can be deceiving.

“Doing Time on Maple Drive” (at 8 tonight on Fox, Channels 11 and 6) looks at the flip side of this perfect family portrait: Son No. 1 is a drunk; Son No. 2 hides a secret in the closet; Daughter, though married, would rather risk an abortion than Daddy’s contempt if she gets pregnant.

Daddy, meanwhile, is an opinionated martinet and Mom is heavy into denial.

Get them all together to meet the younger son’s fiancee and see what crawls out of the cracks. That’s the premise of this broadly drawn soaper, directed by “thirtysomething’s” Ken Olin and written by James Duff. It washes out along the way.

There are a few strong performances to lull viewers along. The surprise is Jim Carrey, the comic actor who regularly transforms himself into such wild oddities as the pyromaniacal fire chief on “In Living Color.” He proves his depth with a poignant portrayal of the adult alcoholic son.

James B. Sikking also scores high marks as the odious father but, like the rest of the cast, ultimately is defeated by the connect-the-dots wrap-up.