'Brothers and Sisters' a worthy Sorkin substitute?

Regular readers will be aware of my admiration for the work of Aaron Sorkin, and will understand the dark days I've been going through since the end of The West Wing and the cruel early demise of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. But despite any apparent involvement from the great man himself, Brothers and Sisters, now in its second series here in the UK, increasingly exhibits many of the signs of a Sorkinesque classic.

There's the same mix of political, personal and workplace drama, tinged with a liberal humanist warmth, plus some superb writing and acting. What's more, recent episodes have often seemed like a reunion of actors from Sorkin's greatest hits, such as The West Wing (Rob Lowe), Studio 60 (Steven Weber) and thirtysomething (Patricia Wettig and Ken Olin). Not to mention outstanding performances from other regulars, such as Sally Field and Calista Flockhart, and (to me, anyway) convincing American accents from Australian Rachel Griffiths and Welshman Matthew Rhys. 

The series somehow manages to be stunningly contemporary - covering issues such as Iraq, gay marriage and the presidential primaries - without being clunkingly issue-driven, as well as combining serious drama and comedy in a way that most other programmes (except those written by Aaron Sorkin, of course) quite fail to do.