Mary Occhino is a psychic intuitive. She has a daily talk show on Sirius XM, has plans to open a store [called Celestial Whispers] and has raised three children as a single mother. The premiere episode of her new reality series, Mary Knows Best [Syfy, Thursdays, 9/8C] introduces us to her family, gives us a look at her at work and generally feels like any reality series about an eccentric family – with just that little something extra…
In It’s a Family Affair, we meet Mary and follow her through her life as she helps her skeptic son, Carl, with his house hunting [her impressions from on house are so specific that he decides to call her on it, but his investigation winds up somewhere he wasn’t expecting]; goes shopping with her daughter, Jacqueline [giving readings to everyone they encounter along the way], and supports son Chris [a former corporate trainer] as he tries to prepare a lecture that could get him started as motivational speaker].
Mary’s brother, Charlie, turns out to be an old school kinda guy, but he’s clearly learned to just let Mary go in whatever direction she feels like going. That kind of acceptance doesn’t extend to her kids – who seemingly never heed her advice, even though she’s usually right. [She claims 85-90% accuracy.]
Then there’s Mary at work – responding to callers with accurate readings, some before they’ve even had a chance to ask for specifics – and deciding to line up a single male caller with her daughter. Mary, it seems, is a supernatural busybody!
From the premiere [of a six episode season], it’s clear that the dynamic is pretty much the same in Mary’s family as in most: she appals her children as often as she wins them over. The big difference is that they are all in a position where they have to work harder to be unique individuals because she’s such an overwhelming force in their lives. The friction this causes is the fuel for the series.
Mary Knows Best is pretty much like any reality series involving an eccentric family. It’s edited to create [or maybe emphasize] aspects of the relationships within the family [Carl refuses to accept Mary’s gift even though she’s been right almost all of the time; Chris is a high stung creative guy with a hair trigger temper; Charlie is a good ole boy; Jacqueline is a put-upon princess, etc…] and to give Mary’s readings weight [the way the ep is edited, we really have no way of knowing if some of her encounters are staged or not].
Outside of the psychic thing, though, the Occhino family simply isn’t that interesting. I’ve known families with a similar group dynamic and, really, I’m not looking to watch them on TV any time real soon. The show’s tagline [“She’s psyched to meet you”] is not only a bad pun, it’s a cliché. Mart Knows Best may draw a sizable audience, but I won’t be one of them.
Final Grade: C