With Sky1 showing the first episode of the new season of
Modern Family last Sunday, I feel now is a very appropriate time to discuss,
what is in my opinion, the most original comedy to come out of the US since
Arrested Development. I realise that this is a bold claim to make however I feel
that Modern Family is a brilliant show, one to rival other comedies coming from
America
at the moment.
For those of you reading who haven’t yet seen Modern Family
I would say shut down your internet get over to Sky 1 and start watching the
repeats which are doubtlessly currently being aired. However if you are unsure,
don’t have access to Sky, or if I am mistaken about the show being on, I will
briefly summarise the plot of the series. As hinted at through the title, the
series is about a ‘Modern Family’, it doesn’t just focus on the nuclear family
unit but also the wider family. It does this by representing each nuclear
family separately (so they can have their own story lines) and then brings them
all together. Firstly we have the Dunphy’s they represent the traditional
family; with a mum (Claire), dad (Phil) and three children (Haley, Alex and
Luke). With the children going through various stages of the teenage years, the
dad in denial about his age and still acting like a child, and the mum up-tight
trying to keep the whole family in order, this traditional family unit provide
a lot of unexpected comedy for the show. The second family are the (Delgado-) Pritchett’s
this is the multi-cultural family; with dad (Jay), mum/ second wife (Gloria)
and son/ stepson (Manny). But, as I previously mentioned the families are all
connected, and Jay is Claire’s dad and therefore the grandfather to the first
family. His wife Gloria provides much of the comedy from this family (one of my
favourite episodes focuses around her getting a karaoke machine) she is
Columbian and often uses her culture and background to convince Jay to do wacky
things, it is also worth mentioning she is at least half his age. The third and
final family are the Pritchett and Tucker’s they are the gay family; with dad (Mitchell),
dad (Cameron), and adopted daughter (Lily). Mitchell is the son of Jay and
brother of Claire. Much of the humour
for this family comes from Cameron who is flamboyant, over the top and
eccentric, for him life is a show and we as the audience get an insight as to how
not everything always goes the way Cameron plans. So that is a very basic
structure of the plot of Modern Family, however for those of you who have not
seen the show it may sound like a typical dysfunctional family comedy. Although
strictly speaking that is true, where I believe the show is completely original
and portrays true comic genius is through the style of which it has been
filmed. It is shot almost as a documentary where the characters each have time
to talk directly to the audience; this is particularly clever as we directly receive
the characters point of view, it is in these candid moments that they make
comments about each other and we get to know their agendas.
In 2012 Modern Family won a Golden Globe for ‘best
television series’ and its easy to see why, with its originality, comical
genius, and investigation into a ‘normal’ family I hope to see it on our TV
screens for many years to come. I for one cannot wait to see what season 4 has
in store for us; with Haley eventually off to college, Cam and Mitch trying to
fill the hole which was suppose to be filled with a new baby, and Gloria
potentially pregnant…either way we know its going to be good! With the series
kick starting last Sunday (7/10/12) with a typically funny episode, the show is
off to a good start. So for all of you that are yet to watch Modern Family I
would suggest that you start now because you are seriously missing out! Hopefully season 4 will live up to the fans (and my)
high expectations, watch this space to follow how the story lines progress!
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