Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Crystal Bernard's Helen is an absolute wonder. Delivery, pacing, execution is as good as it gets. Helps a lot that she's given equally good dialog and staging. The rest of the female ensemble (Faye, Alex, Casey and Bunny) is almost as good in both categories. Good writing, exemplary performances.The secondary male cast is tolerable: Ray, Lowell and Antonio are often good as foils, occasionally intrusive and, rarely, just plain irritating.Then there are the misnamed brothers, the Brain who should be named Joe and the Joe who should be named Brain. Oh! that they should have been named correctly and Oh! that they should have been written as secondary foils instead of principles.The idea was, obviously, to play Brian's narcissism and egocentricity off against Joe's anal retentiveness, the name thing being part of the joke.Doesn't work on any level and both of them borderline on sociopathology in many, many episodes. Like the one in which Helen is bedridden after a particularly nasty root canal. Joe keeps running off to some kind of male bonding party with guys he doesn't give a damn about. It's obvious that it's the ritual of Males Watching Basketball on TV that he's into and nothing wrong with that, except that he keeps trying to pretend that he's tending Helen in her sickbed. When exposed, he expresses neither remorse for 'abandoning' Helen or any sense of guilt for trying to deceive her, just irritation at being caught.Easy to see what the writers were trying to do, playing the dichotomy for laughs and, while Singer could have pulled it off, it's just irritating here, to the point of wanting to put a bullet in Joe's head.Contrast that with Bernard's bedridden Helen which is a beautiful example of schtick.Brian is even worse. While the writers occasionally try to invest him with a modicum of empathy, those attempts are overwhelmingly overridden by his native egocentricity. In reality both Brian and Joe are written as borderline sociopaths, period.Again, the writers' intent is obvious; just as it is obvious that they miss the characteristic that allowed Singer in particular and Yiddish theater in general to succeed with these types: an understanding of all of their characters' innate humanity, regardless of their individual personality flaws. For some reason, while the writers get it with everyone else, they completely miss it with Brian and Joe and wind up with two totally unsympathetic characters who, thank God, are frequently underplayed, allowing the rest of the cast to shine.Despite the twin sociopaths, Wings is still a first-rank comedy on a level with Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart (the first series), Dick Van Dyke et al.When Brian and Joe are absent or secondary, it's an unquestionable 10.

I recently re-discovered Wings while browsing on Netflix, and I'm so glad I did! I had forgotten all about it but I used to like watching it back in the 90s. There's something about the show that makes me yearn for something, like a stable life on a picturesque island with close-knit friends. Some of the episodes really crack me up, like one from season 2 where Faye loses in a tennis tournament and walks through the airport smacking things with her tennis racket, and hits a pet cage with a cat in it, making the cat shriek--she cracks me up! I just finished watching the episode from season 2 where Joe & Brian's long lost mother returns for a visit--the scenes between her & Joe made me tear up, it really tugged at my heartstrings! I'm really glad to have re-discovered this little gem of a show!

I have discovered Wings to be one of the most underrated and under-appreciated of comedy series that I have ever watched. The writing is crisp, witty and often warm. The main setting is a small Nantuckett airport, wherein a madcap cast of characters attempt to cope with a hilarity of usually self-created misadventures. The chemistry between the major characters, Helen Chapel (played by Crystal Bernard,who gives a flawless delivery of her punch lines) and Joe Hackett, is superb, and gets even better as the show has more seasons. Brian Hackett, as Joe's immature, misbehaving younger brother, adds by often creating the plot dilemma and simultaneously provoking his serious, overly fastidious older brother. Add to this an exquisite supporting cast, consisting of: an aging female flight announcer who's been through the deceased husbands; a wisecracking self-centered rival airline owner; a luck-deprived Italian taxicab driver; and a lunk-headed airplane mechanic, (played by a wonderfully deadpan Thomas Haden Church). In later shows, Amy Yasbeck appears as Helen's neurotically shallow older sister, and teams unwittingly with Brian to create more madcap, particularly in an episode where she and Brian give a surprise gone awry. The comedy is only enhanced by several repeat guests, including a whiny senior citizen named Carlton; an old flame of Joe named Sandy, who forces him to reenact a "missed" high school prom; and even few characters who reprise their same roles from the Comedy "Cheers". Throughout the series, there remains a well-grounded sense of love and admiration among this cast of characters, which sometimes surfaces to provide unexpected, and often very touching moments. Wings is a series not to be missed by any true fan of comedy!

After reading many of the comments here, I have to say I agree with most ofthem. Wings was an intelligent, witty comedy with a superb ensemble cast.Although I enjoyed the season that featured Farrah Forke as Alex, I felt like the addition of Amy Yasbeck as Casey was great. The episodes that featuredAmy's husband, John Ritter, were hilarious! Tony Shallob as Antonio wasactually introduced in the first season (Spring, 1992) as a waiter and remained with the series until it was over in 1997, so I don't really think of him as an "addition" . Missed Lowell, but the remaining talent continued to bring out the laughs.