'Duck Dynasty' review: Fully cooked?

The beards help, and the bandanas, too, since I couldn't tell the brothers apart without 'em. To recap: Phil Robertson founded the Duck Commander duck call company; Son No. 3, Willie, is the college-boy CEO; Son No. 2, Jase, is the lazy bones; Son No. 4, Jep, is mom Miss Kay's favorite, and Uncle Si is what Phil calls "the logic vacuum" and we call "comic relief."

They do their backwoods bayou thing outside their new-money mansions with their cute blond wives, who say things like, "I need your credit card, babe." Tonight, they're staging the wedding-they-never-had for patriarch Phil and Miss Kay, which takes a plumb hour and adds to Season 4's cast the family's formerly unseen (and unbearded!) eldest son, pastor Alan.

SEE PHOTOSReality show families

But complaining about the show's pre-fab structure is like shootin' fish in a barrel -- no point to ask what's-the-point, no fair to ponder whether it's fair, because you end up with dinner anyhow, and folks gonna gobble it.

"Duck Dynasty" is tasty enough. Just watch, or rather listen to, Si and Phil debate the name of the way-back girl who introduced the happy couple -- was it Debbie Gibson? -- as those syllables get compress- edited into a kind of haiku rap. Add a few well-timed banjo plucks, and you're in business. Top-rated cable business. Likable characters and precise production have now filled 42 progressively higher-rated A&E episodes in just the past year and a half (since its March 2012 premiere).