Just some thoughts and ideas going around in my head while trying to figure out where I am and where everyone else is going.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Modern Family


Alright so this is a bit of fluff and I'm a little late to the table, but I’ve noticed over the years that with the more choices on television these days I seem to watch less and less of what’s being shown. Sure there’s the stuff on HBO like True Blood and that Mormon show that I can’t remember the name of right now that I watch and then there’s Boardwalk Empire that I’m trying to warm up to, but other than those there is nothing else that I actually watch. On the networks I’ve seen maybe 20 minutes here and there of Glee and the CSI shows and fallen asleep in front of something else, that is until a few weeks ago when I found on Hulu one of the funniest shows on TV, Modern Family.

Apparently the guy who played the father from Married With Children is married to a much younger woman with a son of her own from somewhere in South America. Al, I call him Al because that was his name in the old show, has two children of his own. His daughter, a well meaning controlling shrew of a woman is married to some sort of wuss who seems to live in his own ill conceived version of "coolness" and fatherly masculinity. They have 3 children of their own, but they’re just there to move the story along.

Al also has a son who is married to another man and they have an adopted Asian girl. Of course if you’re white and gay in America the only children that you will be allowed to adopt will be a minority or a better yet a foreign minority. Let the hilarity begin. And yet in point of fact, it really does.

With this combination of characters of different people with different ages and different outlooks on life and script outlines written by the numbers you would think that the show would have been cancelled before the end of the second commercial. Except of course it wasn’t. What was presented has been show that has been well written, well paced, and reasonably well acted. The scenes are sharp, inventive and thoughtful. They make you satisfied without dumbing down to all the usual sensibilities which many shows do. Everything in this sitcom flows easily for less than thirty minutes making it seem like you just sat down in front of the TV. Well it would seem like I just sat down in front of the TV if I hadn't watched all the shows that I've seen on my laptop.

But all in all, this show is a keeper.

6 comments:

  1. Brotha Curious, I feel you there is almost nothing worth tuning into on the telly. I have gotten into watching Super Nanny and I just love Mike & Molly.

    I too have discovered Modern Family, it is a hoot and well worth watching.

    Okay gotta go, it's my lunch break and it certainly seems like my colleagues are interestd in what I'm doing right now, you would think they would have papers to grade or husbands to check on, but no they want to see what I'm doing.

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  2. Chet - Oh how lucky to be the center of attention. Don't dismiss it, ride it out while you can knowing that you must be bringing some sparkle to what must be their dreary lives.

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  3. "Modern Family" is one of the best shows on TV. The biggest revelation for me was seeing Ed O'Neill shift comedy gears by playing a character who's more subtle than Al Bundy (who I enjoyed by the way).

    Also, thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I'll be returning the favor.

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  4. Malcolm - Modern Family will be seen as a classic in a few years because it knows how to take a small idea or event that we all know about and explore all the nuance and humor and tragedy that we can all relate to. Oh and Ed O'Neill is more subtle now because he's 25 years older. I think there a more than a few of us who have slowed down a little since the 80's.

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  5. I think the subtlety of Jay (Ed's character on "Modern Family") is due more to how the character is written. Although I wouldn't expect Ed to be able to do the physical comedy he did during his "Married, with Children" days, I think he can still do broad, over-the-top humor if the character called for it.

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  6. Malcolm - I guess you're right. When a show works now it's because the writers use the "sublety" of life and all the different things that make it what it is. They no longer rely on the "What you talkin' bout Willis?" line or the hand conveniently shoved down the front of Al's pants for a laugh.

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