Hi, I’m Mike TV

Television for the week of November 21.

Modern Family

Punkin Chunkin’

***

I’m going start of this review by just assuming you’ve seen or at least heard of Modern Family. If you haven’t, put down the turkey leg, walk away from your family (assuming you’re reading this on your smart phone- there’s a lot of assumptions going on today; I also assume you can read English and know how to properly go to the bathroom) and go to your computer and search it out. It’s not necessary to watch all of the preceding episodes, but you should. Modern Family is one of the most consistently great shows on television these days, their misses soar over most other shows hits. Holidays are their bread and butter, because it gives their storytelling style the perfect vehicle.

Since there are three families within the larger family umbrella, there are three storylines following each satellite. The stories usually collide at the end, which is why holidays work out so well. We get to see each family prepare for the big event, then all meet up and let their crazy fly around the room. Modern Family dances all along the schmaltzy line, but brings the jokes and character work that you don’t really care when the message is summed up in a monologue running over images of everyone learning their lesson of the episode. I tried this at my last family gathering, and let me tell you talking to the wall as if explaining a moral that everyone learned at the annual Arbor Day Festival is the best way to get your family to leave you alone for the rest of the day. Then you just have to look knowingly at nothing when they say or/do something wacky, it’s perfect.

The overarching message of this episode as I saw it was supporting your loved ones versus tearing them down when it needs to be done; the show summed it up as dreamers versus cynics. Even though I didn’t write the episode, I think my summation is better supported throughout the episode- Mitchell telling Cam his stories are too long and probably untrue isn’t really stomping on someone’s dream, unless their dream is to be the center of attention for no real purpose. Which actually fits Cam pretty well, so I guess I’m the asshole here. Nothing huge happened in this episode, but they’ve done enough groundwork with previous seasons that it’s fun just to hang out with the characters. One of the many things that makes this show as good as it is, is the realism of the characters. Sure they’re all slightly exaggerated, but you know someone who is a put-upon nag who constantly seems like she wants to strangle her husband and kids (Claire), the aforementioned attention whore who’s always talking with nothing to say, the snarky intellectual who thinks he’s better than everyone else (Mitchell, and half the writers at YPF). I’m not going to list of the archetypes for the rest of the characters, just fucking watch it already, seriously.

Another notch in the awesome category for this show is the characters respond to jokes like people in real life. All too often in sitcoms, jokes breeze over characters’ heads or they don’t understand that something funny just happened. Phil, who is MF’s central dummy, still constantly catches on, like in this episode when he’s rebuking Claire shooting down his creativity- “I love your I love you, getting awful tired of your but…. I heard it.” Even when they’re sort of fighting, he can acknowledge something funny just happened, and attitude is spread throughout the show. I’ve heard people complain that the show is too formulaic, and the plot lines aren’t different enough, but sincerely most families are fairly static through the years and deal with each other in the same way over and over again. Another notch in the realism column, and to reiterate Modern Family brings the laughs so it’s okay that once again Jay is trying to make Manny less of a bitch, or the girls are fighting/teaming up/fighting. That’s how life works.

The dick-sucking portion of this review is through, on to the few things I took issue with (Microsoft Word reminded me to hyphenate dick-sucking, glad it’s keeping my filth grammatically correct). Josh Gad as Kenneth, the old neighbor creepy kid who looked up to Phil and was/is still into Claire was underused. Gad has some serious comedy chops, and other than the awesomely over-long manshake, and a few quick moments, he didn’t do much. Hopefully they bring him back, it’d be interesting to see Phil have to deal with a perv who’s into his wife, but also attributes all of his success to Phil’s influence. I like that Haley is an idiot savant when it comes to manipulating people, but though her inclusion in the group of dreamers was far-fetched- even though I consider myself more in the Pritchett/douche category, I’m aware you need to have creativity to be a dreamer, and that doesn’t really mesh with Haley. All in all those aren’t huge issues, just a couple of pet peeves. I give this episode and the show itself *** out of ****. Sidenote- I really, really want go punkin’ chuckin’, so if anyone can help that happen I’d very thankful. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, and to our international readers who don’t understand the celebration of stealing land by stuffing yourself sick- go fuck yourselves.-MG