‘Brothers’ Apple TV Review: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey Turn a Real-Life Rumor Into Comedy

Brothers opens with the words “Based on a true rumor,” the title card for the series created by and starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The story of the actors’ possible brotherhood began as a joke between two close friends who have always attracted attention for their physical resemblance, but it took a stranger turn when McConaughey’s mother, Kay, mentioned that she knew Charles Harrelson, Woody’s father, and the way she put it suggested there might have been more to the relationship than friendship. From there, the actors began piecing together the family history and discovered a striking coincidence: Charles Harrelson had been in Texas, out on parole, around the time McConaughey was conceived, while his parents were going through one of their separations.

The story was unusual enough to become the premise of Brothers, the series they now star in together. In fact, one of the family jokes —that childhood photos of the two are often mistaken for each other— is worked into the show’s opening credits. What the series does is take that bit of lore and turn it into an accessible comedy in which the two play versions of themselves, along with their respective families — similar in age and appearance to their real-life relatives but played by actors— as they get caught up in a family investigation that is part genealogy, part science. The search for their personal and familial roots allows for a few genuinely touching moments, but for the most part it is played as gentle parody.

Harrelson plays a version of himself: an aging, environmentally conscious, pot-smoking hippie who tries to avoid taking on too many responsibilities. Fleeing in a colorful minivan covered with images of his heroes (Che Guevara among them), Harrelson and his family his wife and two daughters— head to Austin to visit the McConaugheys, a household consisting of the actor, his wife and three smaller children. Matthew, presented as the more organized and controlling of the two, is preparing to give a speech at his school in honor of his father. His friend’s presence is more distracting than helpful.

That sets off a series of misadventures and misunderstandings that become more complicated when McConaughey’s mother (played by Holland Taylor) says something close to what, according to the real-life rumor, she actually said: that she knew Woody’s father and that there might be an unexpected connection between the two men. The thing is, the possible revelation means very different things to each of them. For Woody, it could be a welcome surprise, since his father was an alcoholic, violent ex-con whom he barely knew. For Matthew, it would be a major problem, since he has always looked up to the seemingly exemplary father he grew up with.

The joke drives what is, at heart, a fairly minor comedy, as “Woody” and “Matthew” stumble their way through Texas after the Harrelsons move in with the McConaugheys for a while. Matthew wants to run for governor of Texas, while Woody does little more than get him into trouble. At the same time, Woody investigates the paternity question on his own, keeping it from his friend because he assumes the truth would destroy him. Along the way they go to a rodeo, sing songs in bars, campaign for office, get into trouble with the police and make jokes about their celebrity and the success of True Detective, the series in which they both famously starred.

Some of the jokes work, others less so. The sentimental side of the show becomes more prominent as the episodes go on, and there is not much more to mine from what is, on the surface, a lightweight piece of entertainment even for its own stars, who nevertheless seem to be having a good time with a project that plays with their public personas and gives them plenty of opportunities to parody themselves. At best, Brothers is a genial comedy about the friendship between two men who are alike and different at the same time, two sides of the same very Texan coin.