At the urge of many of our readers here on Banana Feed, I’ve taken the time and effort to catch up on 3 seasons of Modern Family. Luckily it fell into my rule of ‘anything past 4 seasons might be too much of an undertaking’, so I guiltlessly spent entire weekends powering through nearly 75 episodes following the Dunphy,s Pritchetts, and Tuckers. I admit, I was wrong to call this show overrated, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Phil Dunphy and Cam Tucker lead in terms of the show’s strong comedic roots, the every household story lines can apply to most families in America, and the curvascious Sofia Vergara all make this show definitely worth the watch. While undoubtedly being one of the best comedies on television, but it’s not without flaws: predictability, repetition, and cheesy wrap up moments plague the series, but the surprisingly smart writing and delivery more than make up for it…most of the time.
More Wit than your Average Show
A couple of our readers commented that Modern Family is somewhat like Arrested Development. Some were even bold to say it is better [another debate for another day], but I can at least see some of the similarities. Like Arrested Development, the show is often self-referential, placing subtle jokes from previous episodes to serve as punchlines. These are often rushed and quickly moved past, in case the audiences don’t quite get the references all the time, but to those that are truly paying attention, it’s quite the treat. There are a large amount of puns, many of which revolve around the [sometimes tiring] accent of Sofia Vergara’s character, Gloria Pritchett. I always appreciate these because puns are difficult to write. It’s not like you can hear the play on words in your head as you write, so it’s the little things like these that definitely prove a top notch writing team is covering the comedic bases of this show.
Phil Dunphy is a Lovable Man Child
Clearly one of the leading contenders in terms of carrying comedic weight is Ty Burrell’s Phil Dunphy, who’s ‘cool dad’ character constantly lightens the mood of the entire show. While stubborn and arrogant in some of his endeavors, Phil’s playful manner when it comes not only to his children, but his wife, father-in-law and brother-in-law, are absolutely wonderful to watch. His character nearly has instant chemistry in just about every other character. The only rival to the beloved Phil is likely Cam Tucker [in my opinion of course, this is far from established fact]. Cam’s absurdity as a mother figure in the two father parenting of Lily is both hilarious and heartwarming. And the constant jokes about how he grew up on a farm also provide a nice contrast to the stereotypical gay character [which he plays into a bit too much, once again, in my unestablished, unofficial opinion.]
Lily is Absolutely Adorable
I absolutely adore Lily. She’s adorable, cute, and she’s pretty good on screen. Just about everything she does, whether be dressed up in ridiculous outfits by her daddies, or being pulled by a child safety tether, or be given a stern talking to by her grandfather, I’m absolutely in love with her! She can definitely hold her own with TV veteran Ed O’Neill and also among the other actors. Over the course of the three years, the other actors haven’t aged considerably [Haley’s well past puberty being actuallyabout 22, and Luc is still pretty young, and Manny doesn’t look much older either…and then there is Alex who’s actually in the peak of puberty and her growth is fairly considerable], but seeing Lily at first as a baby in season one and then seeing her as an adorably toddler in season 3, I feel like it’s Mary Kate and Ashley in Full House all over again.
The Show’s List of Guest Stars is Impressive
I’m constantly impressed with who I see in this series as celebrity guests. Elizabeth Banks, Edward Norton, James Marsden, and Matt Dillon to name just a few. And these guests don’t just play dull characters, it was really fun seeing Elizabeth Banks slut up and threaten babies, Edward Norton be a burnout, James Marsden be a complete hippy, and Matt Dillon be…well I kinda imagined that was how Matt Dillon was like in real life…but anywho, I’d definitely imagine the next season to be even more star studded, and I look forward to it.
Mitch and Cam being Gay is A-Okay
The most relevant gay character on television that I personally watch are Max from ABC’s Happy Endings and Mitch and Cam from Modern Family. I like Max because he’s not the stereotypical gay character, who is full of cliche’s like infinite broadway knowledge and keen fashion sense. And while both Mitch and Cam exhibit these behaviors more closely, they’re not complete stereotypes of gay culture, which I’m fairly glad with. Episode plot lines aren’t entirely centered about sending a gay message, which could easily ruin the show, and I appreciate that the writers have a handle on it. I’m not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to existent/nonexistent pro-gay/anti-gay messages from television shows, but the truth of the matter is that this is the story of two people who are in love with each other who’re just trying to live the happiest life they can.
Being Relatable in Every Household is Probably Why it Gets Absurd Ratings
Last I checked, this show was gathering nearly 12 million viewers on average, give or take. Compared to my other beloved shows like NBC’s Community and Parks and Recreation’s 4 millions viewers, this completely knocks it out of the park. It’s no wonder why ABC is headlining this show as it’s front runner for it’s Wednesday night comedy. While the comedy is solid and good, there are definitely funnier shows airing around the similar time as Modern Family [I still hold that Parks and Recreation, Archer, and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia are funnier than this show]. What makes this show such a powerhouse and a viewer magnet is it’s appeal and relatableness [not a real word…] to the average American family. It essentially covers most if not all bases of traditional American families: the working dad with the stay at home mom with their 3 completely dynamic kids. The other families, which include a divorcee, a mother, and her son and a gay couple who have an adopted child, can pretty much apply to most if not all situations in middle class families everywhere. Dealing with adoptive parents [Lily with Mitch and Cam], dealing with teenage daughter’s losing their virginities [Phil and Haley], dealing with your real dad vs. your step dad [Manny and Jay] and trying to maintain spontaneity in a marriage [Phil and Claire], most of the story lines apply to what real families go through, and sprinkling them all with comedy and having the ending be happy is more than enough reason to gather the force of 12 million views.
The Show has Heart…but Maybe Too Much Heart
I mentioned above that this show is fairly predictable and can sometimes get stale. While some episodes start as disasters and flashbacks are run to set up the episode’s current point, it’s easy to assume that everything is going to be okay by the end of the 21 minute show. There are no surprises here on Modern Family: all conflicts are resolved, apologies are made, and everyone is happily ever after. It’s a nice message and being super positive is okay every once in a while…But literally every episode? With the exception of key episodes [which were ironically the best ones like the season 3 finale], every episode ends on a happy note. This heavily takes away from the drama created in the 5-18 minute blocks of time, with the knowledge that as you reach the end, everything will be resolved. Towards the end of catching up, I kinda didn’t care if Mitch and Phil were mad at each other or Gloria and Jay were in another fight, primarily because after some apologies, they would all hug and kiss as a fairly corny loose narrative ties up the rest of the show. Some of my favorite episodes broke this trend, especially the season three finale [SPOILERS————————], as Mitch and Cam had another baby snatched away from them, I heavily thought by the end of the episode, another one would stumble upon them. When this didn’t happen, I was genuinely shocked and felt even emotional as Cam and Mitch broke down from all the stress. of course it was all remedied with the announcement of Gloria’s Baby, which held true to the name of the finale ‘Baby on Board’. [————–END SPOILERS]
Overall, Modern family has been added to the reputoire of television shows to watch in the Fall and Spring. I join 12 million others in laughing at the Dunphys and Pritchetts, and if you’re not with us, I highly suggest you check out the series yourself.
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