IT’S NOT LIKE THAT: Episode 1.1

This is the rare premiere that earns its four stars on both counts: craft and conscience. A large cast gets introduced cleanly, the pacing never drags, and Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes anchor the episode with performances the source calls excellent and moving. The younger cast holds up their end too.

What makes it worth your time beyond the craft is what it believes. Faith isn't decoration here — people pray, attend church, listen to and give sermons, and a congregation shows up for its grieving pastor. Divorce, grief, and bullying are treated as real wounds, not plot devices.

The caution is small but real: one light obscenity, a reference to a sexual proposition at a bar, and honest but heavy material about family breakdown. For teens and adults, this is easy to recommend. For younger children, watch first or watch alongside them.

Malcolm, a widowed pastor, and Lori, a mom navigating a fresh divorce, are unlikely friends leaning on each other through single parenthood. Malcolm is still steering his three children through grief over their mother's death. Lori is blindsided by how easily her ex-husband has settled into his new single life. Both are doing their best — and their kids are each carrying their own quiet struggles at school and at home.

Four stars here means a premiere that does its job with real skill. The episode juggles a large ensemble and multiple storylines without losing momentum — a hard trick for a pilot, and this one manages it. Foley and Hayes give the show its emotional center, and the source singles out the younger actors as impressive in their own right. The result is an hour that sets up plenty of drama and leaves you wanting the next episode.

This premiere is built on a strong Christian, moral, pro-family foundation, and it shows in the texture of the scenes, not just the dialogue. Characters attend church, discuss their faith, and give or listen to sermons across multiple moments. When Malcolm asks his congregation to support him through his grief, they readily do — a small but pointed picture of the church functioning as family. The episode's whole architecture stresses family: two devoted, imperfect parents doing right by their kids even when they're barely holding it together themselves.

The honesty here is a strength, not a flaw. Grief, anger, bullying, and the fallout of divorce are shown plainly rather than minimized — a teenager lies to protect a friend, a boy blames his mother for a divorce that isn't her fault, a girl watches bullying happen and says nothing. None of this is played for shock; it's the raw material faith is meant to meet.

Scripture speaks directly to what this episode is about: a widowed father and a newly single mother, each trying to raise children well without a spouse beside them. "A father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation" (Psalm 68:5). A show willing to show that need — and a community stepping in to meet it — is worth your attention.

This premiere earns its four stars honestly — strong performances, a well-built ensemble, and a faith that feels lived-in rather than tacked on. It also doesn't flinch from grief, anger, and the mess divorce leaves behind, which is exactly why the caution matters for younger viewers. Our answer: worth watching — older children and up.