Women castrating bullies, men are incompetent. That sums it up.

I'm a woman, and a pretty empowered one, and I like strong female characters.

But the women in this show demonstrate the very worst stereotypes from sitcoms from decades ago. They use sex and affection as bargaining tools or rewards to be doled out when husbands have been super thoughtul, or remembered infinitesimal details from the past. The female teacher is a manipulative bully who regularly insults and chastises the parents of her students, and decides which students deserve the privilege of her teaching based on how well the parents please her (so, she'd be fired if this was real life). The one man who has been a stay-at-home parent for several years is effeminate, nervous, and weak and the main character is apparently useless at parenting except when he defers to the ladies. His relentlessly offputting wife -- who becomes tough and overbearing at the drop of a hat, even telling him when and if he can be in charge of his own children -- is equally critical of his every move, even when he makes mistakes because he simply has no idea what she has done in the parent role before him.

I like Matt LeBlanc and I like strong women, but strong doesn't mean being petty, inconsiderate, or emasculating, even if the woman in the role is physically bigger than her male counterpart and really tough looking. To compare another new series -- Speechless -- the Minnie Driver character is tough as nails and pretty much crazy, but at least she feels genuine in her more loving moments and doesn't seem to dole out affection as a reward, and the writing is fresh.

The men, overall, are written as deceitful and scared of their wives (especially the brother character), less competent than the women, and generally fallible. And of course when the two brothers get together, they talk about how scared they are of their wives. The brother is just a total jerk. Nothing redeeming about him at all so far.

In the last episode they even took a swipe at menopausal women, using the tired of trope of casting them as scary. Wow. Just wow.

And as an aside, who would have so little pride in their home to stick that horrible kids backpack cubby as a focal point in the front of their living room. Yech.

Aside from the stereotypes and male/female power jockying, the characters have nothing interesting at all about them. They are bascially nondescript, living in a nondescript house with no apparent quirks or personal interests. The three kids have no character developoment at all, other than one likes to fondle himself. Uh, ok. The writers have done nothing to create personality with these people. The writing staff is dialling it in, and just three episodes in, are already just rehashing plots we've seen a dozen times over. Sorry Matt. Better luck with your next show. I'm stunned at how weak this one is. This needs a serious change in writing, and a recast on the wife, pronto.