Review- Modern Family

 

In the tasteless, dull mess that television sitcoms have become, one show that stood above the rest as the freshest comedy in quite some time is Modern Family. In the thirty minute uproar of laughs sitcom, we follow three non-traditional families through their everyday antics and how they deal with them by just being well… themselves.

The show both admires and pokes fun at all types of modern families. From the very first episode the producers and writers of the show have never failed to deliver and rarely, if ever, has there been an episode that has fallen flat. Creators Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan have even admitted to making the show based on their own “Modern Families”. What has made the show Modern Family so successful, especially in the past third season is the incredible scripting. We can’t help but get the impression that the writing staff knows the characters inside and out, knows what they are capable of whilst never taking themselves too seriously. They utilize all their talents in order to build hilarious and tear jerking moments throughout the series. The series, which has gone on to earn a groundbreaking seventeen Emmy nominations including Best Comedy along with acting nominations for every major character in the show is amazing yet truly deserving.

The series stars a wonderful ensemble of authentic, genuine characters. The characters are eccentric and over the top, but not at all hard to believe.

Jay is known as the head of the family being happily married to a much-younger Columbian wife, Gloria. He struggles to keep up with her energy and high-voltage temperament, while helping to raise her pre-adolescent son, Manny, acting well beyond his years. Meanwhile, Jay’s high-strung daughter Claire is married with three kids of her own. Her real estate agent husband Phil is your typical clueless father who thinks he is much cooler than he is and in many scenes we find out how it’s actually impossible to him to be. Claire’s control freak tendencies are a reaction to his friendly, conflict avoiding nature but to her desperate acts in order to push her children, especially eldest daughter Haley, to prevent them from making the mistakes she once did as a teenager.

I have to admit my favourite family dynamic on the show is between Jay’s lawyer son Mitchell and flamboyant, larger than life partner Cameron. Instead of focusing entirely on their same sex marriage, the writers of the show mainly focus on them as new parents to their adopted Vietnamese daughter, Lily. Out of all the families you find yourself becoming endeared to this extended family who manages to create genuine likeability with the audience. Modern Family I feel is a different type of comedy. Even though the situation and story lines are hilarious, underneath there is still a very warm and realism feel which results in you actually caring for the characters.  

A special feature is that the show has a documentary style format as the characters sit down and talk directly to the camera which adds a very smart dimension to the stories. Modern Family have a way of making the stories more complex by adding at these moments’ thoughts and opinions from the characters poking fun at the misunderstandings and hardships that each character deals with.

Modern Family really is modern America. No matter what your view is, this is a show that comes as close to reality as any show on TV. As such, it has huge selections of material that all different types of audiences can laugh at. If you haven't seen this show yet, you are truly missing out!