Family Vacation

ABC will be airing the CMA's tonight, therefore we won't be treated to another hilarious installment of Modern Family. However, with baseball over we finally get Glee back after a 3 week hiatus. I personally love all the grandeur and spectacle of a professional sporting event (speaking of which, NBC informed us last week that we are less than 100 days away from the Winter Olympics), but I'm glad we're back to regularly scheduled programming.

In related news, I recently listened to the preview track of "Defying Gravity" from tonight's episode of Glee. Now, let me point out that I'm a huge Wicked fan and "Defying Gravity" is one of the most powerful numbers I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live.

However, the arrangement seemed to strip away all of "Defying Gravity's" emotion and gusto. What's left is a watered down, lite FM version of the song which lacks everything that makes the original so wonderful. I'm hoping it either a) works better in the context of the episode or b) is arranged completely different. I still have faith in the show runners, and I've read a few reviews touting tonight's Glee as pretty fantastic so we'll see how it goes!

Touchdown!

I know I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record when it comes to recapping Modern Family, but this show just gets better every week! 5 episodes in and we find ourselves with the best written, most consistently funny half hour on television right now (you hear that Tina Fey??). Each installment adds layer upon layer of complexity and richness to these already brilliant characters and, by shuffling up the pairings and conflicts, the writers are constantly forced to redefine the relationships over and over again. The result is a richness and dimension rarely seen on the small screen.

This week, Jay and Gloria plan a family barbeque at their house where everyone will be watching a big football game. We find out that Cameron is a huge football fan and used to play in college, but Mitchell isn’t too fond of the sport (or sports in general). Luke and Manny end up getting in a physical fight at school which turns out to mirror hidden tensions between Claire and Gloria. All these conflicts come to a head at the barbeque – when we discover that Claire had previously called Gloria a Coal Digger (“Gold Digger”) - and Phil tries his best to mediate the situation. Of course, in true Modern Family fashion, by the end of the episode, apologies are exchanged and bonds are strengthened. The last scene is touching and it’s just proof how masterfully the writers uniquely balance wickedly sharp comedy with moving sentimental moments.

Best moment of the night? The scene where Gloria is showing Phil all the nice things Jay bought her, including an multitude of underwear in every color imaginable - which she ends up throwing at him - definitely had me cracking up. Phil's reaction is absolutely priceless, as is most of his inappropriate affection for Gloria. The two of them also tie for Funniest Family Member of the Week.

Casablanca.

I’ve already watched this week’s episode of Modern Family three times now, which is quite a testament to my unabashed enthusiasm for ABC’s brilliant new comedy. I can’t say I’ve ever been this convinced of a show’s genius so early on. I’m surprised to say that I’ve relinquished enough skepticism to let them take me wherever it is they want to go (and now with a full season pick up, the journey will continue for at least 19 more episodes!) I just hope the production team can continue to supply us with such a high level of quality.

The most recent episode, while not quite as stuffed with as many laugh-out-loud moments as the previous two, provided us with a more understated outing - but equally as enjoyable nonetheless. This time around, we were treated with different pairings of the characters which gave us some extra insight into their personalities. While Phil was hilarious again (I was in a plane crash!), it was Gloria who stole the show. Her lunch with Claire’s daughter Alex was both funny and tender. She made everyone in America wish they had a grandma (or step-grandma) like her. Claire, meanwhile, was paired with Gloria’s son Manny. We never really got to see much into who she was before this, so her therapy session with Gloria’s wise beyond his years son was nice to see. Phil, in an attempt to bond more with Jay, decides to accompany him to the park to fly his toy, err, model plane. Their interaction yielded some predictable comedy, but the culmination of their storyline at the end of the episode – literally bringing everyone together – was wonderfully moving. The only duo to remain together was Mitchell and Cameron. Cameron takes Mitchell to Costco for his first time, against his will. However, their comical outing was trumped by their hilarious interview segments, revealing to us that they first met during a game of charades at a party. Mitchell’s miming of his clue, and Cameron’s utterance of the one word answer – Casablanca – had me rolling on the floor with laughter. The two of them get the award for funniest moment of the night.

LOL! OMG! WTF?

The family sitcom, a once dominant force in American television, has all but vanished. There have been many attempts at reincarnating the genre over the past decade, with varying success. We’ve had dysfunctional gems like Arrested Development (fantastic!)and ratings hits like Two and a Half Men (a show whose popularity I’ll never fully understand) but for the most part, TV has handed the sitcom over to the single friends and the co-workers and relegated families with children to dramas or dramedies.

Enter Modern Family, ABC’s brilliant new comedy airing Wednesdays at 9pm. MF chronicles, in mockumentary format, the lives of three different types of families, all of which are connected. First, there’s Phil and Claire – the “traditional” (and I use giant, Empire State Building sized quotation marks there) family with three children. Phil (played by the hilarious Ty Burrell) is the father who insists on being the “cool dad”. He knows all the dances to High School Musical (much to the dismay of his children), he surfs the web, and – in one of the pilot’s funniest lines – boasts about being fluent in texting lingo. Claire (Julie Bowen of Ed), is Phil’s slightly overprotective wife. Next, are Jay and Gloria – Jay is Claire’s father and Gloria is his fiery, much younger Columbian wife. Gloria has a son, Manny, from a previous marriage. Ed O’Neil (of Married with Children fame) plays Jay with the perfect balance of uncomfortable old curmudgeon and well-intentioned softy, yielding some of the shows most poignant moments. Lastly, there's Mitchell and Cameron, a gay couple who recently adopted a baby girl from Vietnam. Mitchell is Jay’s son, and Claire’s brother. Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) have an incredible on-screen chemistry and deliver their lines with such finesse that you honestly can’t tell if they’re improving or reading off a script. Each character is so layered and so complex, that they seem incredibly real. We can easily recognize members of our own families, and ourselves, in the cast.

The pilot episode, chock full of gut-busting moments and wickedly funny dialogue, cuts between a day in the life of each of the three families and ends with the whole clan coming together at Mitchell and Cameron’s for dinner where they surprisingly discover that the couple has adopted their first child. The reveal, which I won’t spoil for you here, was one of THE funniest moments I’ve seen in a comedy in recent memory. The pilot was so brilliantly constructed, and so tightly woven together, that every scene and every line of dialogue seemed essential.

The second installment, which didn’t quite match the stratospheric heights of comedy reached by the pilot, was still fantastic and proved that Modern Family was not a one-trick pony. Phil decides it’s time his son Luke gets his own bike; Claire believes he isn’t responsible enough for one yet. When Phil thinks that Luke has carelessly left his bike on the street, he decides to take it in order to teach him a lesson. Mitchell and Cameron bring their new daughter Lily to a play group for the first time and Mitchell is worried that Cameron’s flamboyant personality won’t fit in with the other parents. However, much to their surprise, no one seems to mind. Jay and Gloria are planning a romantic getaway to Napa Valley and Manny’s father is supposed to take him to Disneyland. However, Manny’s dad ends up flaking out and Jay – in a genuinely touching moment – saves the day.

Modern Family singlehandedly redefines and reinvigorates the entire genre of the family sitcom, and is deserving of all the praise it has gotten so far. If you aren’t watching, you’re definitely missing out!

I'll leave you now with a clip featuring some comedy gold courtesy of Phil, after the jump. Check back soon for the recap of FlashForward.