So for some reason, the folks out at A&E sent over a copy of Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels The Complete Season 4–I don’t know why I got this one after season five–but whatever happened, I’m glad all the same. As it turns out, while the fifth season was pretty good, the fourth season is actually a step up.

We’re back for more fun with rocker Gene Simmons and his family. Daughter Sophie is having a sweet sixteen party and brother Nick, who’s a bit put out with her, is “helping” as only an older brother can, especially when he’s annoyed with his sister, and she’s also having a few boy troubles (but what sixteen year old girl didn’t have boy troubles in one sense or another?). Nick, for his part, is looking into his own apartment. Gene’s…well…Gene’s doing a whole lot more than you might think, and Shannon’s even looking to get back into acting.

The Simmonses do well together as a family–at least as far as we can see from the cameras (and it probably helps that they don’t have to go through a lot of the things that regular families have to go through, like sudden joblessness or illness putting them on the edge of bankruptcy or anything like that)–and for those of you rolling your eyes and thinking “Great, another burnt-out rocker loser like Ozzy Osbourne getting up in front of us and mumbling his way through every episode”, don’t. Turns out Gene, despite turning sixty, is every bit as sharp as a fellow can be. They’re fairly entertaining to watch–doubly so if you’re into the almost-reality of a celebrity lifestyle–and some of the things here will actually be possible for us normal humans to relate to, like Sophie’s boy troubles.

There are plenty of laughs–Gene’s actually a pretty funny guy on this show, and his family is crammed full of Deadpan Snarker types that keep the laughs flowing pretty nicely. Frankly, if I got an offer to go visit the Osbournes for dinner, I’d have something else going on that night, no matter what night they actually called. But if Gene and the Simmonses put out a call for me to stop over for lunch, I’d cancel something else to get there.

And this may seem meaningless, but it’s important–if you wouldn’t have lunch with them, then why would you want to watch them for any stretch of time? Thankfully, the Simmonses seem like nice enough folks sufficiently to keep me interested in their escapades.

And thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale hands Gene Simmons: Family Jewels The Complete Season 4 a seven out of ten–they’re worth watching, no mistake there, but you have to be interested in reality television to really get anything out of this.