Modern Family Review

© Bob D'Amico/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

This year ABC is striving to become once again a great network for comedies. They ended up giving essentially all of Wednesday to new comedies. The most hyped of these comedies is Modern Family. Usually when shows get this much buzz they usually fail to live up to expectations. Shows rarely live up to their buzz in my opinion. Before watching the pilot I thought Modern Family was going to be one of those shows that were hyped like crazy but would never live up to its expectations. I was honestly shocked and amazed by Modern Family. Not only did it meet expectations, it surpassed them. Modern Family is one of the must watch new shows of the year. You will be hard pressed to laugh more in a single half hour period.

Being a critic I get to see quite a few pilots before they air on television. I personally have never put much into pilot episodes since very few shows are able to create a great pilot. Well unless the pilot is a total fluke, Modern Family is going to be a great comedy. I think it had easily the best pilot of any comedy I have seen in years. Unless you absolutely hate to laugh I can’t imagine the show not getting at least one laugh out of you. Even if the series can’t match the pilot, the show is still going to be quite good. In the pure comedy category my top two shows are How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory in that order. If Modern Family keeps it up it could easily take the number three slot this season.

The premise of Modern Family follows three families which you could call pretty modern.

© Bob D'Amico/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

First you have the “traditional family” of Claire and Phil who have three children by the names of Haley, Alex, and Luke. While they might be considered the “Traditional” family they are far from perfect. They are actually pretty dysfunctional. Claire is the tough mother who is always yelling at the children to behave and worrying about her teenage daughter. Meanwhile Phil tries to be “the cool dad”. “The Cool Dad” is quite a stretch though since he is probably one the cheesiest and most embarrasing fathers you could possibly have. If the pilot is any indication, Phil is going to be the star of the show since he alone almost accounted for half of the laughs in the pilot.

© Bob D'Amico/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

The next family is Cameron and Mitchell who are a gay couple who recently adopted a little girl named Lily from Vietnam. Overall their family brings plenty of laughs to the show. They also have one of the most memorable moments of the episode which involves a reference to the Lion King. While they aren’t the funniest family at this point I think they will bring plenty of laughs to the show.

© Bob D'Amico/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Finally there is Jay and Gloria. Gloria also has a son named Manny. Obviously there is a age difference in this relationship which is played up pretty heavily in the pilot and leads to most of the jokes for this family. I am guessing most of their humor will come from the age difference and Jay being a stepfather to young boy. At this point they are probably the least funny family but they have potential to grow. Being the least funny family in Modern Family isn’t much of an insult though since all the families were hilarious in my opinion.

One thing that I thought was going to be kept as a secret was that all three families are related. It’s too bad that ABC decided to ruin this little surprise since it was a nice way to top off the end of the pilot. It turns out the Jay is the father of Claire and Mitchell. It is actually a nice way to connect the families and to be honest they do feel like an actual family. A very dysfunctional family, but still a believable family.

So what is so great about Modern Family? The show is just simply hilarious. While some comedies have their moments followed by some so-so jokes, the opposite is true of Modern Family. It was funny throughout the episode with many laugh out loud moments.While some of the funniest moments of the pilot are being shown in the previews, there is plenty more laughs to come in the actual episode.

So people are probably wondering what type of show Modern Family is most like. I wouldn’t really compare Modern Family to any other recent comedies. It is kind of a mix of several comedies. The first comparison most people are making is to the Office due to the documentary type feel. While there is some Office similarities, I don’t think they are as significant as some people are thinking. The style is similar but the humor has other styles other than just the Office. Other than the Office there are signs of traditional family comedies as well as modern sitcoms. Pretty much add all the most popular comedies together and you essentially have Modern Family.

One final thing that is great is that it is accessible to everyone. It is a family comedy that everyone in the family can enjoy. The kids should find the show to be funny but parents should as well. As a matter of fact I think adults will enjoy the show the most. Even teenagers and young adults should enjoy the show since I loved the show and I am a 21 year old male.

While I know that everyone will not listen to my recommendations, I have to recommend that everyone check out at least the pilot of Modern Family. Unless you totally hate comedies, I think you should get at least something out of the pilot. Modern Family is a great comedy that is accessible to everyone. Now America just needs to make Modern Family the hit that it deserves to be.