AIRED in the United States at the end of last year, The Jack5sons: A Family Dynasty is a six-episode reality-television series that follows four out of the Jackson Five - namely, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon - as they prepare for a 40th-anniversary reunion.

From the start, the series- star allure - with a lot riding on promises of lifting the lid on the band of brothers' personal lives - is dimmed somewhat by the absence of the singing family's most illustrious brother, Michael Jackson, and famous sisters Janet (she's heard on a phone call) and LaToya.

Photo: Bio Channel

"Little Randy" Steven Randall, the second-youngest of the nine Jackson siblings, who joined the performing group in 1972, chose not to participate in the show.

Midway through filming for the series, Michael died, and the focus turns inevitably to him.

In the aftermath of his death, the bickering among the remaining members intensifies, with Jermaine blaming his brothers when a Michael tribute concert falls apart, and emotions running high at the preview of a Thriller musical.

To be honest, not very much happens in the pilot. We are treated to scenes of the brothers shooting hoops, swanning around in their post-modern hacienda-style mansions with their grandkids, and hanging out in the recording studio (three of them vindictively erase a track laid down by Jermaine, but, other than that, it's all quite sedate).

When the four of them burst into spontaneous song, there's still a little of that pop magic from their 1970s heyday. But these moments are few and far between.

All in all, it's a bit of a yawn for non-Jacksons fans. What's somewhat entertaining are the brothers' suburban delusions of grandeur: Jermaine togs himself up in a suit and commandeers his white Rolls-Royce just to pick one of his brothers up from the airport.

And, tellingly, one of Tito's grandsons is named Royal, to rival Michael's elder son, Prince.

At the end of the day, it seems, all that the middle-aged comeback Jacksons crave is one thing: the love and support of their public.

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