# The Family (2016)

> A politician's family welcomes back a son presumed dead for over a decade, but suspicion grows over whether he is really who he says he is.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55813

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, mystery
- Created by: Jenna Bans
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Joan Allen, Alison Pill, Rupert Graves, Margot Bingham, Liam James, Andrew McCarthy, Zach Gilford, Floriana Lima
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4428038/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, uneasy, suspenseful, melancholic, intimate

## What critics say

Audience reception is positive, with viewers praising the twisty central mystery and the Warren family drama around the returned son.

## Synopsis

The Family (2016) is an American network drama mystery series created by Jenna Bans for ABC. Joan Allen plays Claire Warren, the wife of a politician whose young son Adam (Liam James), presumed dead after vanishing more than a decade earlier, suddenly returns to the household. Rupert Graves plays John Warren, the father whose political standing is bound up in the family's public image, while Andrew McCarthy plays Hank Asher, a figure whose presence complicates the reunion. The engine of the series is a tense domestic question: is the returning young man really the boy who disappeared, and what do the Warrens gain or lose by believing him? Each episode peels back another layer of family history, with suspicions forming across the household and within the political circle around it. The single season runs twelve episodes, told as one continuing story with a serialized mystery at its core. Its tone is taut and uneasy, with a slow-burning dread and a sense that every reunion conversation hides something. Fans of Homeland, The Returned and Big Little Lies will find resonance in its blend of political pressure, domestic suspicion and buried secrets. The series is set in a contemporary American political milieu, and it rewards viewers who enjoy a family drama that keeps asking whether the people they love are telling the truth.

## Shows like The Family

- [Rectify (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/42237)
- [The Kettering Incident (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/56600)
- [Political Animals (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39345)
- [Clickbait (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/107149)
- [Finding Carter (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54523)
- [The 4400 (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/1397)
- [The Disappearance (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63401)
- [Tell Me Your Secrets (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/76663)
- [The Returned (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55317)
- [The Cry (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/70613)

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