Modern Family: Ed O'Neil Got Swole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDu5s309Ouw

wtf: why the face?

I am watching this because some critic said it was arrested development-y.

one of the funniest, most fully realized pilots to hit a network since "Arrested Development." It's a mockumentary (agreed, too much of that with "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" already on NBC) about three disparate families.

Ed O'Neill plays Jay, an older man who marries a much younger Colombian woman named Gloria (Sofia Vergara), who comes with an 11-year-old son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez), who's a little too emotional and poetic for Jay's taste.

Then there's Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), a gay couple who have just adopted a baby girl from Vietnam. And finally, there's Claire (Julie Bowen) and husband Phil (Ty Burrell, an immediate Emmy threat to Alec Baldwin), who have three chaos-causing kids.
Fantastic cast

The cast is fantastic, especially Burrell as the clueless wannabe hip dad and Ferguson and Stonestreet as the gay couple.

ABC has already spilled the secret part of the premise - they're all related - and that doesn't detract one bit from the laughter, which is deadly funny in the pilot (and in clips of future episodes - unfortunately ABC only sent out one).

"Modern Family" is politically incorrect and viciously spot-on in its send-ups of parents, kids, friends, family in general and, well, pretty much everyone. Whether the ABC audience, which has yet to warm to the right angles of "Better Off Ted," embraces this gem, one can only hope.

the bb gun thing was hilarious

you do understand that calling something "the best since ____" isn't actually the same as saying it's reminiscent of that thing, right

jowls happen

fuck is Ed O'Neill good.

the flowers of indie rock womanhood look decidedly dingy and drab to me, and always have. The indie world's concept of sexy is very closely related to its concept of "rock": limp, non-threatening, far more interested in talking than fucking.

lol

It's an ILX thread turned into a sitcom!

Comparing this dreck to Arrested Development should be illegal.

The chubby romeo kid is great, though.

The only two sitcoms I remember laughing at in the last 5 years, I mean not just mentally noting "this is reasonably funny" but actually LAUGHING at, are "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and this. First rate. Hope they can keep it up.

the bb gun thing was hilarious

^^^ this. Outside of this and the chubby romeo kid, though, I didn't find much to like. This show's already trying too hard.

This show isn't very good. I like the goofy dad, but that's about it.

Three episodes old and this show is already into "I mentally note that this is funny without actually laughing" territory.

not going to bother ever watching this since it has 'cancelled' written all over it.

this has funny scenes/characters here and there but jesus christ am i sick of the mockumentary thing. bad studio audience sitcoms >>>>> average single camera sitcoms.

The single camera, documentary angle does not work in this show's favor. Too much of the humor is kinda broad in a way that a laugh track might be a boon.

yeah absolutely. i don't think EO'N needs to be total Al Bundy w/ a hooting audience but he could stand to be in an environment a little closer to that.

btw are any of the other shows in that ABC wed night block worth a look at all?

The Middle is decent for larffs.

The Middle, Cougar Town and Modern Family were all just picked up for the full season order yesterday, btw.

i HATE that redheaded dude who plays the gay guy. HATE. he was in some other horrible swiftly cancelled sitcom not long ago and he was just as annoying.

He was on The Class on CBS 3 or 4 seasons ago, which was a more-than-decent studio audience sitcom that fell victim to cancellation because she was in the cast. Studios! This actor is poison (see also Joey and Better Off Ted).

http://www.poptower.com/images/db/5332/450/500/better-off-ted.jpg

(Andrea Anders isn't bad, really, but cursed certainly.)

The Class! argh, yeah, that's the one. couldn't stand it. and i have no idea why i even watched it. i must have been really bored. or it must have been on before or after something i liked. and didn't they tragically misuse sara gilbert on that show?? there ought to be a law against making her so unlikeable. they did this in the horrible Twins show she was on too. the big bang theory knew what was up, god bless them.

Oh right, Sara Gilbert played the annoying guy's super cranky secret wife! Forgot all about it.

The Class got better toward the end, once they realized half the cast was a dud and started to focus on the other half, but by then it was too late.

Anders has a ways to go before she can claim to have the Paula Marshall jinx (still amazed Gary Unmarried bucked the PM rule and made it to a second season).

Oh yeah, her! How many shows has Paula Marshall killed now? It's gotta be 7 or 8 by now at least.

yeah i think she's on her 7th series as a star/co-star, not even counting recurring roles in other stuff

awww, did Better of Ted get cancelled? I liked that show, just got into it over the summer..

It was just a spring season show, but I wouldn't expect it to come back considering ABC's recent track record with sitcoms.

BOT was renewed and is coming back as a mid-season replacement this year, I'm pretty sure (xpost)

Oh really? That's good news!

ah good stuff. I'm a sucker for Portia de Rossi in any incarnation. Since I got into it via downloads, I wasn't sure what season it ran during.

the first season ran from March to August of this year, so it's just been on a really weird schedule in general

The thing that made me think it might've been canceled is that there was a long break in the series run, and they they were just burning off remaining eps in August.

i think burning off unaired episodes is more a good omen than a bad one these days -- if a network really hates a show and isn't contractually obligated to air everything produced, they'll say fuck 'em they can put it online/on a DVD

show continues to be solid. loved the "claire and present danger" tee

I was hoping the manny shirt would be a manny's laughter/manslaughter pun.

Oh, and charging the ipod/cellphone! Starting to like that kid.

saw 2 eps of this last night and it is fabulous. when is dvd due?

usually a month or so before the next season starts, so ~august

this show is delightful

I agree. Pleasantly surprised by how much I crack up this show.

all the sitcoms on abc had some good moments tonight. but i might be stoned.

Good god that trailer is hideous. What a load of the same old tired sitcom jokes paired together with backhanded pandering to 21st century global values. The men in these families are by-the-book clueless/helpless idiots. And look at how forward-thinking we are? We included a gay couple because we're so progressive, and then insulted them because we don't want to alienate the gay-bashers in the ABC audience. Here's a Columbian chick who....(surprise! surprise!) is hot and like to screw! And fight! Wow, just look at this firey latina getting riled up! Muy caliente!

Can we get past the knowingly ironic stereotyping of people on TV yet? Please?

perhaps US television is not for you...

nah son this show just kinda sucks

yeah i don't think this is very funny. it's trying, which is nice, but it just doesn't really work; nothing is funny enough. it's better than that show that comes before it which is terrible. i do think cougar town is funny though.

I do understand the 'trying too hard' complaints but still think this show is pretty funny

it's very pleasant! enough so that i keep coming back.

Good god that trailer is hideous. What a load of the same old tired sitcom jokes paired together with backhanded pandering to 21st century global values. The men in these families are by-the-book clueless/helpless idiots. And look at how forward-thinking we are? We included a gay couple because we're so progressive, and then insulted them because we don't want to alienate the gay-bashers in the ABC audience. Here's a Columbian chick who....(surprise! surprise!) is hot and like to screw! And fight! Wow, just look at this firey latina getting riled up! Muy caliente!

I dunno, from what I've seen this show is actually kind of cool about subverting stereotypes. Turns out the gay couple is really likable (I almost wish the show focused primarily on them). Probably the most likable gay couple I've seen on network TV (David & Keith from Six Feet Under win the 'on TV' award from me).

The Valentine's day episode where O'Neil gets humiliated by a stand-up comedian for being too old for his hot wife actually made me sympathize with his character.

There's definitely a lot of dumb sitcom-style zing humor in this show, but it also has a lot of heart and can be very funny when focusing on character-based situational humor (I loved the dress-caught-in-the-escalator scene in that same V-day ep).

the valentines day ep was one of the best. love this show. also the 2 female leads are all time WS material which helps. all of the characters are both funny *and sympathetic, too - its gentler than arrest development, and not as manicly joke-laden, but it has some of that show's sharpness, and its gift for timing.

only realized last week that blonde female lead is the woman Jack fixed then married on LOST in s1

Before that, she was Carol Vessey on Ed.

and she was one of many fine looking women on Boston Legal

Also, she was the teacher in Billy Madison.

(I've been tv/movie stalking Julie Bowen for a while)

best show going now that isn't on NBC thursday nights or It's Always Sunny...

It handles the feel-good schmaltz better than Community.

And thankfully, the colombian wife actually talks like that in real life.

<3 carol vessey & dennis martino

I basically agree w/stevie; show is corny as all hell and lot less intricate than arrested dev, which it obviously takes some of its cues from, but it's sharp enough with a steady stream of laughs and likeable characters

I've liked all the cameos too

dennis martino

This role was pretty much the practice run for Roger Sterling.

ed fan hi5, j f

i like this show, but i always feel like it's pandering to my elite new york cosmopolitan liberal values

hoping the fred willard reappears btw

hoping the fred willard reappears btw
I KNOW. Fred Willard vs. Ed O'Neil FFS!

my mouth feels asleep like i'm at the dentist

I feel like I ate the sun!!!

this show is consistently killing it. This last one....I even mentioned how great it was while it was wrapping up but said "it's getting kind of Scrubsy with the sacharine family moral lesson" and then it cut to Luke talking about aliens.

yeah this show has really been on a roll

OK, seriously this is probably just me being an indignant queer gender-studiesy undergrad but is it too much to ask to show Cam and Mitchell kissing or at least displaying SOME sort of intimacy or affection? Like, I'm seriously genuinely asking--is it? Because on the one hand it is one in a long loooooong line of "sex"-less gay men on television, but on the flipside the fact that we've finally reached a point where we can have a family sitcom with two relatively well-developed gay characters raising a kid is pretty rad. It's just that after doing scads of research and preparing numerous papers/presentations on representations of gay men in the media I get frustrated when things fall short.

That being said, oh my god, I love this show so much.

Funny timing, I was actually just discussing that very topic with some lesbian friends the other day, they both decided they could live without the kissing because the couple was pretty positively portrayed in general.

i agree. it's dumb. and really noticeable. even on brothers & sisters, a drama where one of the sub-plots is the gay brother and his partner trying to make a baby, i can't remember the last time i saw them touch each other. even during the last episode that centered on the gay brother not knowing that he had paralyzed a teen in high school after a fight (the teen tried to kiss the gay brother but he got scared cuz he wasn't out yet) everyone hugged the brother EXCEPT the boyfriend. it was strange. there are a million examples like this of course.

Yeah it's really noticeable when on the same show you have Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell at least kissing pretty much every episode AND especially Sofia Vergara as this sex bomb. Sadly this is still really progressive compared to most shows.

i hadn't thought about it but yeah no reason for them to wuss out on that -- it's not like it would really put off anyone who wouldn't probably avoid the show because of those characters already

I didn't notice this but I've only seen one full episode of the show and the only display of affection shown the entire episode was the gay couple hugging after the redhead decided to take a high-paying job.

i noticed this too. i'm also not sure about the colombian stereotyping, but i don't care that much b/c it's very funny.

i agree. it's dumb. and really noticeable. even on brothers & sisters, a drama where one of the sub-plots is the gay brother and his partner trying to make a baby, i can't remember the last time i saw them touch each other. even during the last episode that centered on the gay brother not knowing that he had paralyzed a teen in high school after a fight (the teen tried to kiss the gay brother but he got scared cuz he wasn't out yet) everyone hugged the brother EXCEPT the boyfriend. it was strange. there are a million examples like this of course.

― scott seward, Tuesday, April 13, 2010 9:46 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

huh. i haven't watched brothers and sisters in a long time (thank god!) but totally remember the gay brother making out with various boyfriends. maybe i'm wrong.

btw can I just say that last night, when the daughter tried to manipulate her mom and her mom hardcore embarrassed her, that was amazing

this series is brilliant.

Nice to see Andy from Weeds. The job "interview" with Cameron in the background was excellently awkward.

I was dying at that

also dying at "I'll take the job!" "Kinda looks like you have to."

i love andy from weeds, and his question about the beard.

also lolling at the son-in-law at the basketball game

from brothers and sisters wiki page: The show has subsequently received positive press attention for its depiction of Kevin Walker, who came to be seen as a breakthrough in the depiction of gay men on television: he has had several love interests, has kissed his boyfriends on-screen, and had a commitment ceremony with his partner Scotty in the second season finale — the first such ceremony ever shown on American network television between series regulars rather than minor recurring or guest characters

i don't watch bro'z and ho'z regularly. more like semi-regularly. i must have missed all the big kisses. lately it just seems noticeable. though they are married now and we all know from sitcoms what happens after you get married. no touching!

I sleep with your daughter
what?

I think I missed that!

When Phil gets to takeover the coach duties and starts pushing it too far and saying stuff like "now the master is the student" or whatever...

Phil definitely is my favorite.

yeah, def my fave char on any show at the moment. gloria pushes him close

heard that Justin Kirk was going to be on, was hoping for more of a role for him. Hopefully he'll be back on the show...I guess he has to.

yeah i hope so too, he fit right in. i don't mind them keeping the gay affection at a minimum if it also means we're spared ed o'neil making out with his wife tbh

I love that one of the sponsors of Modern Family on Hulu is Plan B.

i hav 2 say the precocious fat kid just kills in this mngs 2 bring real gravity & sincerity 2 his corny lines rather than fukken smirken alla time like on 2.5 men or w/e

the fat people are the funniest in this show

yeah i was just thinking last night that Manny is the funniest child actor on a sitcom in a long time...I still crack up every time i think of the line about how he "wears aftershave and dresses like a count."

he was great in that episode of scrubs

this show is def firing on all cylinders but cam's "oh... its awkward for me" line last nite was ~perfect~. also liken that this is the most situational of situational comedies

funniest episode of the show so far, in my estimation. cam's 'drumsticks in wrong hand' response to dylan's band's condescension was perfect, and luke (god, i find luke hilarious) running through the screen door were hilarious

I also liked that I couldn't tell if the other band member's comment to label the sticks was him being funny or not (and neither could Cam).

And the mother calling out to Luke like a dog to stop at the end.

lol yah the luke is dummer than a dogg running joke was a little more cartoonish than this show usually lets itself get but him running smack into the glass door slayed so

honestly this & cgr twn are easily my fave new shows

the Luke bits were definitely killing me, as cartoonish as they were

stellar casting for phil's dad

oh god it was perfect: i can only hope for a big reunion episode featuring fred willard and shelly long

err, not to imply they were married – but at some point they have to have met. can you imagine the romance?

ever since willard appeared briefly in the xmas episode i have been CRAVING more fred

i love this show SO much...

http://www.goodasyou.org/.a/6a00d8341c503453ef01348085d8f0970c-pi

ahem

well claire (?) was drunk and slobby out of her mind

love cam and his billy elliot impression btw

xp i think it was just another really, you're gonna avoid having cam and mitchell kiss again? that was one of the more painfully obvious ones

Yay for taking an out of context still and using it! I mean, come on, I agree that they need more Cam/Mitchell intimacy but I'd say one partner drunkenly slobbering on the other is much less intimate than a genuine hug, but I guess we're all anxious to read too much into every shot in the series.

oh i thought the exact same thing watching that. yeah a second later you go "oh i see she's sloppy drunk" but c'mon.

well it is this point i have been arguing for weeks, and it's just another "yet again" thing.

I did just read an article with the guy who plays Mitchell in the new issue of Out and he drops a few hints that make it sound like they will definitely be pushing the intimacy thing as the show goes on. The guy that plays Phil likened it to sort of a Trojan horse thing where they planned to really get American to embrace the gay couple, then slowly revealing more of their intimacy before people even realize they are uncomfortable with it.

Funny that the guy that plays Mitchell is actually gay, while Cameron is straight as can be irl.

dudes, am on hols in nyc and last night we bumped into ty burrell (phil dunfy) in the lobby of our hotel, w/ his wife and baby. SO STARSTRUCK.

am i the only one to find the gay couple to be far less funnier than the other 2 families?

the gay couple are fantastic IMHO.

when does this start again? i am RESTLESS

one of the great things about this show is that somehow it always manages to has a heartwarming ending. a rare feat. hell, it's the only tv show i've watched that's able to do that.

Prob the best since the Simpsons in that regards.

okay season 2 off to an AWESOME start

DVR missed it!

felt basically like last season. good performances with some lols dotted through an episode full of try-hard humour and a tacked on emotional ending.

"That was my Vietnam ... and I was in Vietnam."

And another great line I can't remember.

The car getting away from them was such a cliche, but I liked the episode.

LOTS of great lines.

phil dunfy is my favourite character on tv right now.

The emotional endings are tacked on, usually, but they don't bother me. Maybe I'm a secret sap.

I don't mind them at all. They are brief enough and not over the top.

Decent first episode, but the scene with all the things going wrong in the car was a wee bit too slapstick for my tastes.

yeah. this series is not edgy, not in any way. it is, however, really funny. xp

While it wasn't as far as some of the critics want them to go with showing Cam and Mitchell interacting, I thought the kiss on the top of the head was pretty sweet.

I like the slapstick/physical comedy as well. This is one of the few half hour comedies that does it well.

I think the faux documentary conceit is lame, but I suppose it's useful from a timing standpoint. Maybe "Arrested Development" would still be on the air if every once and a while they went into a confession booth for some awkward banter.

i actually think that works, too, perhaps because its not over-done. also (and this is true with the physical comedy as well) ty burrell is so good at playing phil dunfy in such scenes that they're a joy, rather than another rehash of the whole Office format

whatever mileage was left in the mockumentary sitcom format, i think Modern Family has used. hopefully this'll be the last show that does it (+ tho it's been a season since i've seen it, iirc P&R doesn't even do it anymore, right?)

Ty Burrell is awesome at the physical comedy, the rest of the Dunphys... not so much, which was why I the car thing didn't work for me until he jumped on the hood.

cosign

And him bypassing the wide open door to jump on the hood before realizing his mistake was grebt.

so, they kissed

you're not a joke, pepper saltsman!

you're not a joke, pepper saltsman!

Probably "Saltzman".

That was a pretty great line. I should really stop getting annoyed by it, but when the v.o. came on talking about earthquakes...

joke: sofia vergara saying 'shia labeouf'

This show seems to have lost its way imo.

Although Gloria's v indignant "you ring our doorbell many times" was p hilarious.

just to be clear, i think sofia vergara saying 'shia labeouf' is awesome.

Hah when did she say that? I kinda want to see that.

This show seems to have lost its way imo.

I still found it pretty funny this week, but Cam doing the Native American thing definitely did not work and kind of ruined it for me.

This week's episode was the best of this season by far, until that Native American thing.

i thought he was pretty good at it

Cam had me fooled.

'she has a certain comfort level with… killing.'

i think it was in the earthquake episode, stevie.

i think if you're going to have a white-people-don't-know-anything-about-indians joke it's good to go all the way to '"maize" is what we call corn', so that was good.

I really liked the episode. Not brilliant, but enough good jokes, and I thought the Indian bit was hilarious, mostly due to his acting. Seems to me like the show is settling into a point where it knows it's got enough cred that it can pull off "edgy" material about gays, lesbians, indians, peruvians etc and get away with it.

i thought it was great too. only thing i didn't like was manny acting a bit too self-aware, he's funnier when he's dressing like a count without knowing it.

i liked it too. julie bowen is rowwwr.

"I'm your mother now" got a huge lol out of me

"I need to go back inside, I have a dish to watch."

And, yes, Julie Bowen is gorgeous.

went to check out DVR'd ep from last night and the entire block is local weather dude tracking potential tornadoes across central NC.

camerons head and quasimoto story had me crackin up.

and the whole spiderman thing.

this whole thing is a colossal fog cue

hah, I didn't get that till now.

two weeks in a row with a shoehorned voiceover sentimental wrap-up. this bodes well.

you mean without, i assume.

ah yes, my bad. worked well last night, especially with everyone coming together at the end. i think i like this show now.

yes. I didn't always hate the heartwarming voiceover, but I sometimes did...and it's better not to force it every time. I didn't think last night was the funniest, but I'm loving the show enough that every episode at least gets a few laughs. The spidermas stuff in the toilet stall, then crawling down outside the building. Ridiculous but hilarious.

his stance on the toilet was great. deliberately posed but in a weirdly natural way.

yeah that was good.

first really great episode this season. this and community reallywent the extra mile this week

who wants to live in a world where dogs eat other dogs??

lovely to see dr auschlander from st elsewhere in last week's brilliant episode...

no kidding, I couldn't believe he is still alive.

i wiki'd, he is !!!!97!!!!

now gonna look for a gif of him dressed as superman in the episode where they demolish the hospital

OH MY GOD IT'S ARTEMIS!

ohhh THAT'S who it was!!!

and apparently that's her real name?

finally got around to watching the first six episodes of this and yeah it's good. the dude who plays phil is kind of incredible.

Yay n/a!

Yeah, Ty Burrell has amazing timing and, imho, does the best pratfalls on television since Dick Van Dyke. I rarely would laugh at a grown man falling over a mobility scooter, but he pulls it off. Having said that, way disappointed in last night's episode. Not a good sign that they had to rehash the Clive Bixby/Juliana thing already and it was SO obvious. The naked stuck on an escalator thing was way funnier and more uncomfortable.

It was cute though that three generations of (I forget their name) couldn't manage to finish a meal at that restaurant.

oh, and Dylan <3
Thought whatsherface (?? why can't I remember anyone's name? eldest daughter) looked like a 12 year old boy when you saw the first shot of her sitting with Manny and Luke on the couch! Slouching I guess.

what i would do to julie bowen as clive bixby.

this show isnt v good, really

I watched an episode or two and didn't really see why everyone was raving about it. :/

i love it.

but i would.

lol

yes, you would :)

for me its modern family then cougar town and then the middle. as far as that night on abc goes. but i like all three a lot.

it's weird because most aspects of the show are really hacky, but it has a really strong cast that helps make it work. aside from dude who plays phil, who as i noted above is amazing, i think sophia vergara is actually really funny (though her accent is kind of ridiculous, does she actually talk like that or is she exaggerating for the show?), and julie bowen and the guy who plays cam are pretty good too. i love ed o'neil but they don't give him much to do comedically most of the time. manny kind of makes me cringe but all the dunphy kids are pretty good.

i think it might also be really well edited/directed but i don't really know about that stuff. overall the show feels like it shouldn't work but it usually does.

right now i like Better With You and Cougartown best, even Mr. Sunshine i could probably like about equal to Modern Family, which does have a great cast but yeah the writing doesn't really do a lot for me. i tend to tune in and out of The Middle.

sue is the best thing about the middle. its worth watching for her.

she feels kinda Meg Griffin to me. i like most of the cast, but for some reason my eyes just glaze over when that show is on.

no way! meg griffin is a loser. sue is winner!

The writing has definitely dropped off a bit. The jokes aren't as well constructed as before. The show is increasingly relying on cliched sitcom memes like mistaken identity, misinterpreted intentions, etc. - the individual storylines sometimes remind me of a Three's Company episode. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes things rather predictable.

xposts

That is very OTM, but for some weird reason, the cast still pulls it off. You could take pretty much any of this season's episodes and graft the same plot on say, King of Queens, and I wouldn't laugh once. But it works with these guys.

there are some great lines. that one where phil and his wife have a race and phil says something like: "you know that look your mom gets when she disapproves of something..." and one of the kids says: "you mean her face?"

kinda perfect sometimes!

shows w/ a good cast and weak writing are always better than vice versa because there's more of a chance of the latter changing hands than the former.

yeah i was watching that new show about dumb married people - traffic light? - and the cast kinda sucked but the writing was okay. it would be WAY more likeable/watchable with different people. it would be a totally different show. cuz the people they have are just duds.

stop light! um, something like that.

it's weird because most aspects of the show are really hacky, but it has a really strong cast that helps make it work

this feels p otm although i think there are episodes (like last nights) where the weak writing sink the entire project - maybe bcuz both 'manny: smooth operator' & the eldest daughter's romantic life are some of the shows dummest recurring plotlines. i mean, its still charming enuff but i didnt laugh once last nite

cougartown ranks w/ community and 30 rock as the best network sitcoms

cosign with cougartown, community + 30 rock but also would add parks + rec

yeah i was watching that new show about dumb married people - traffic light? - and the cast kinda sucked but the writing was okay. it would be WAY more likeable/watchable with different people. it would be a totally different show. cuz the people they have are just duds.

Oh wow yeah, that was bad. And my sitcom standards are not even set that high, but it was almost unwatchable.

I thought that looked horrible, but my wife made me DVR it because she likes the one guy that was in Love Actually and wants to give it a shot. I saw an article that the guys on that show met at the University of Illinois, is this just a throw-away line or do they actually reference it a little? Just curious since thats my alma mater.

just saw last night's episode. kinda weak, but i laughed hard every time gloria screamed, "I win!"

i liked when ed said that making a fool out of someone is what valentine's day was all about. or something like that. he's funny.

This show makes me think of ~funny~ cell phone/cable/car commercials. While fast forwarding past commercials, I kept actually stopping on cell phone commercials thinking it was the show again. It has the same filming style and the same way of getting across its punchlines. It's occasionally charming, but eh.

yeah advertising has caught up with middling mockumentary-style comedy enough that there's not that much separating some of those commercials from 3rd generation shows in that mold other than the recognizability of the actors or long term familiarity with the characters

this feels p otm although i think there are episodes (like last nights) where the weak writing sink the entire project - maybe bcuz both 'manny: smooth operator' & the eldest daughter's romantic life are some of the shows dummest recurring plotlines. i mean, its still charming enuff but i didnt laugh once last nite

i like manny gags and plots, and the daughter's too (it's great how she's there to play stupid-and-sure-she's-not opposite the brother playing stupid-and-oblivious). but cam-and-mitchell-try-to-manipulate-other-parents setups are really getting tired.

This show is consistently great. It flew on day one and hasn't looked back. The characters are believable (even Mann, arguably) but heightened, the gags are properly funny and the acting is brilliant. Cam and Mitch are definitely stagnating in gay parent land though.

I'd put money on Sofía Vergara's accent being exaggerated btw.

*Manny

How come lily never cries????? Tell me that. Is she a robot baby?

it is called modern family so

small wonder, that

One of the weaker episodes i thought, couple of giggles, nothing serious.
Cameron makes me laugh without even saying anything.

still love this show.

This show is consistently great. It flew on day one and hasn't looked back. The characters are believable (even Mann, arguably) but heightened, the gags are properly funny and the acting is brilliant. Cam and Mitch are definitely stagnating in gay parent land though.

cosign all of this.

also, ty burrell is a GOD

^^^^ OTM

I cannot believe that this is the same Julie Bowen that played Adam Sandler's love interest in Happy Gilmore. She looks about 1000% different.

Where's the matt dillon love?

He was great, the whole episode was one of my faves from this season so far.

He is Johnny Drama now.

yeah Dillon crushed it

I LOVE YOU AMERICA

this is so stupid but i almost died:

pepper: i don't even know who i am anymore ... i'm just a big joke!
cam: you're not a joke! you're pepper saltzman!

nathan lane put to good use! what are the odds?

that last episode was great, finally back on some sort of form

Ugh, so infuriating that Mitchell refers to himself as Cam's "boyfriend" in last week's ep.

why?

yeah, they're not married or in a civil union or anything iirc, so it's not inaccurate. should people in a committed monogamous homosexual relationship always say "partner" and NEVER "boyfriend" or something?

Oh, I never saw the first half of season one and thought, for some reason, that they had referenced a ceremony before.

i do get annoyed by how asexualized cam and mitchell are vs. the rest of the adults on the show

or even vs. hayley

but I think that was even a storyline once...about how Mitchell hates PDA?

right, but that, along with the one where he has body issues with cam's mother, just feel like an excuse to make them totally nondemonstrative and thus nonthreatening.

I get that sense too, like ABC doesn't want to frighten away its precious viewing base.

which is pretty obvious. but they're so blatant about it that it creeps me out.

it's not like o'neil is all up on vergara in every episode

cool, so they're desexualizing old people AND gays

Considering like every other plotline involving the Dunphy parents is hyper-sexualized, its hard not to notice how much Cam & Mitchell are neutered, comparatively.

the ep w/ them drooling over james marsden wasn't that different from the average phil dunphy horndog plotline

Yeah, but I don't think we're likely to see Lily walking in on the two of them in bed together, particularly doggie style as was implied in the Dunphy episode.

some dude, do you really think cam and mitchell are as sexualized as the dunphys or vergara or even hayley, or are you just being devil's advocate? it's weird to me that anyone would argue about this, i'm not someone who gets riled up about this stuff (and i'm not really riled up now) but it seems so obvious here that it weirds me out.

and it's not surprising or anything. i understand the basics of tv economics and advertising etc. but it still makes me feel a little sad about watching and enjoying the show.

I just think it's kind of odd to wish that your network TV prime time comedies had more doggy-style jokes, regardless of the sexuality involved.

Oh come on dude, no one was asking for that.

i was

see?

Sometimes its hard to parse what n/a really wants.

i want nonstop doggy-style action on all major networks from 7 pm to 10 pm every weeknight

that would greatly improve Hellcats and greatly worsen Harry's Law

some dude, do you really think cam and mitchell are as sexualized as the dunphys or vergara or even hayley, or are you just being devil's advocate? it's weird to me that anyone would argue about this, i'm not someone who gets riled up about this stuff (and i'm not really riled up now) but it seems so obvious here that it weirds me out.

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, April 18, 2011 5:40 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

devil's advocate mainly. but i mean, like, it's a very popular show, it's probably going to be on for like 8 years, they will probably eventually come around to a lot of the stuff they've been squeamish or unrealistic about over time and i don't necessarily fault them for not having the best way to depict a gay couple on a TV show 100% figured out in the first 2 seasons, it's not like there are tons of other shows that have done it well either.

I suppose on the other hand not all ~real~ gays go round being overtly affectionate because it would draw unwanted attention. All my main friends who are gay keep their lovey affections toned down. There's still a load of open hostility around.

also some dude otm, it's not like there's a working precedent.

How long will that excuse stay valid though? Will our eyelid-implant sitcoms of 2124 still be treating gay characters with kid gloves because we still don't have a "working precedent"?

I'm pretty sure by then they'll have busted out the adult gloves and and be elbow-deep

We can hope.

fwiw i don't feel i'm making "excuses" for a show that i consider moderately funny and well made but so reliant on broad stereotypes and shock humor that i find it just a little bit absurd to expect the most progressive possible sexual politics from it

Yeah. People react badly to that kind of thing. Look at the whole Doctor Who/Torchwood débacle (and that was TAME). The phrase "shoved down our throats" was used liberally.

lol, imagine if any of those ppl had read Rusty's Doctor Who book, which was even more egregious than anything that happened on Torchwood or Doctor Who

looool yes

Americans like their TV gays somewhere between raging and flaming, just as long as they don't do anything icky, like kiss.

This week's needs to go up for an Emmy. Completely awesome in every regard.

good episode but i realized at some point last night that Modern Family is basically my least favorite show in ABC's comedy lineup

I don't know if I should admit this in here, but I like that new Happy Endings show a lot.

yeah it's good. kind of falling into that Perfect Couples/Better With You/Traffic Light generic post-HIMYM sitcom formula but still good cast, funny writing.

It helps that all three of the female leads are really cute, but it seems pretty sharply written so far.

ha i totally agree:

some dude wrote this on thread 2011 winter/spring TV thread: mid-season replacements, returning favorites, etc. on board I Love Everything on Apr 15, 2011

Happy Endings was pretty good imo. although there's a huge watchability gap between the hot/funny chicks and the zzz dudes in the cast.

modern family so funny.

"dad, smell her for me."

"i always do...NOT."

hahahaha!

thought the last one was really great, thought the one before was the worst yet. very uneven this season: the writing's been real lazy.

feels like the crueller half of the writing team is on the ascendant at the moment. "what was that he said?" "... 'I can't hear no more.'" "Oh yeah ... 'I can't HEAR no more'" etc

iirc the mitchell-hates-public-displays-of-affection episode was the first time mitchell + cam kissed onscreen, & was written after they'd been fielding complaints about just that. whether it's a good way of dealing with things or not, i dunno

i like how the father falls for the spanish woman

okay this show is likely the funniest thing on television right now

I lost my shit completely and thoroughly for about 5 minutes TWICE during "The Musical Man"

i've only seen some youtube clips, but it's v. good. but -- clearly -- it's sofia vergara who steals the show.

her turns in "slap the chicken," "peruvians," "taste my cupcakes," and "i've lost my childhood" scenes were beyond hilarious.

i loved the first season of this, but i think they ran out of steam kind of badly in series 2. and they totally ran out of stuff for sofia vergara to do - she totally became just broad comic relief in the second season. there were a few great episodes, and Phil Dunfy remains my favourite character on TV, but I was pretty disappointed overall.

Sarah Hyland is my new Mila Kunis. i'm not sure what that means but
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1031748001543&id=4071830639eb16af5b49ccaf4cde98b2

http://pedobear.3hoursites.com/imgs/Pedobear.png ?

she's 20 and surely older than your average 4channer

but i think they ran out of steam kind of badly in series 2

feel like the writers 'kinda wish' they were only writing an abc family sitcom abt the dunphy 'clan' & didnt have 2 cum up w/ storylines for the other characters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NKTrj0tDXw

"what was that he said?" "... 'I can't hear no more.'" "Oh yeah ... 'I can't HEAR no more'"

this was so awesome

but i think they ran out of steam kind of badly in series 2

Steam not restored so far. This week's double was sort of awful.

yeah not funny at all.

it's reminding me of the office now really, where it's just kind of 'eh ok' but I don't think I've actually fully laughed at it in ages.

I just started watching this from the start. It's weird, there are some killer lines and storylines - like the bit about falling in love with Costco, which <3, and the joke about dressing the kid up as a girl when he was a baby then explaining it as a twin that died, so he wouldn't be traumatised - but I don't feel like any of the characters are saying the lines, they're just mouthpieces. Maybe this'll pass and they'll get more rounded out. Also I really can't stand the dad, husband of blonde lady - something about him is so dead inside. Shall I stick with it?

you can't stand phil dunphy? but i thought he was like everyone's favourite character ! i kinda agree with you, some great jokes but if i were honest i don't feel any ... attachment i guess towards this show. if it weren't for my flatmate constantly asking me if i have new episodes of this show, i probably would have stopped watching it, and not because i don't enjoy it, just because i keep forgetting it exists

first episode of this that i turned off half way through bc i was bored and it was terrible

phil dunfy rools

First ep was pretty bad but ime there has v v rarely been a pilot ep that makes me want to watch the show, and therefore as a rule I don't judge from pilot eps.

Dance until your feet hurt, sing until your lungs hurt, act...until you're William Hurt

both episodes of this were great tonight

Phil is so amazing that sometimes I sleep on how amazing Claire is, too

"Jeaux."

music posters on Haley's dorm room wall: Mark Knopfler, The Vines

The Vines? Is the show set in 2001?

the knopfler seems to tip their hand that maybe it was some next level 'lol outdated band posters in tv shows' gag?

Ty Burrell is a national treasure

yeah i'm at the point where i can barely tell you what happens in the plotlines that don't involve phil or luke

luke is really great. loved him saying haley might have a shiv at the end of the last episode. also in the previous ep iirc he was wearing a tshirt i own.

The one with the astronaut carrying the boombox?

I totally spotted that Knopfler poster during the daughter's Skype session!

There's a thread on that phenomenon:

S/D: The Most Bizarre, Incongruous, and Hilarious Examples of Set Designers Placing Band Posters on Characters' Walls in Movies and TV

yup that's the one. a friend texted me to ask if luke had stolen my shirt lol

i got bored of this for some reason during season 2, and then got dead into it again during season 3 and 4. i'm not gonna lie, the season closer had me choked in a way i didn't think expect. ty burrell is AWESOME.

Really felt like this season sucked badly except for the finale, which might be the best episode they've done.

They had about nine instances this year of the little kid Lily walking in the room and saying a precocious put-down and shuffling out, a'la the Olsen Twins or Rudy Huxtable or something - cutesy sitcom kids are one of the worst sitcom crimes, for my money.

ordinarily i hate smart-mouthed kids but i find lily to actually be really funny!

ed o'neil is way better than craig t. nelson would've been as jay.

Ed is def better, in this role and in general, than Craig, but w/e, T-Bone is good on Parenthood, all's well that ends well.

Got Swole/wtf: why the face? is one of my favorite thread title/opening post combos ever

so wtf this half-hour long apple commercial is a bit much

this show has always been heavy on product placement but yes, this ep kind of transcends the old conception of "placement" to enter what is really a "product setting" which i think is an advancement nobody really wants

reminds me of the term "adverlingus" from 30 rock

i had to stop watching last season, all the kids are awful now, and ty burrell's boy is some horrifying puberty-stricken beast.

burrell himself, however, is still a physical comedy genius, and the one thing i miss about the show.

not going to bother ever watching this since it has 'cancelled' written all over it.

― akm, sábado 10 de octubre de 2009 7:28 (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't watch this show any more, the kids all went weird with puberty and none of them can act.

I’m really enjoying this!