Pace and directing lets down emotional 'People Like Us'

There are skeletons aplenty cluttering up one family’s closet in Alex Kurtzman’s semi-autobiographical drama.

A son estranged from his duplicitous father; a mother concealing personal tragedy; a secret love child ravaged by addiction; and a troubled boy raging against school bullies: these are the dysfunctional archetypes of the frothy soap opera.