Television Reality Check: Brothers & Sisters

Any other Brothers & Sisters fans out there? When the ABC drama concluded its first season last June with a plot about premature twins, I thought it might be leading to a good meaty special-needs storyline. Now, after seeing the otherwise great premiere on Sunday, I'm not so sure.

William, the boy twin born to one of the brothers, Tommy Walker, and his wife, Julia (played by Balthazar Getty and Sarah Jane Morris, pictured), died shortly after birth. The girl twin survived, but we're told at the onset of the second-season premiere that she was in the hospital all summer and is only now coming home. Maybe I've read too many books like Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie or Tiny Titan, which deal with severely ill infants spending months upon months in the NICU, but I'd expected that little Elizabeth would come home with some medical equipment and serious health-related challenges for her parents to deal with.

Yet Elizabeth's problems seemed in this episode to be limited to diaper rash and a tendency to cry during the day, and the trauma centered around mom Julia's inability to move on from her son's death.

I don't want to discount the toll that grieving over an infant, plus probable post-partum depression, can take -- but is it realistic that a baby would come home after three months in the hospital and her health needs would be a relatively minor concern? For parents who have dealt with prematurity in particular, does this storyline ring true to you? Share your thoughts in the comments.

And if you haven't watched the series and want to check it out? For now, you can view this latest episode, "Home Front," plus the episode in which the babies were born, "Favorite Son," on ABC's Full Episode Player.