Modern Family (2009)

I’m a huge fan of sitcoms, since I was a teenager. It was a nice way to get my mind off studying and exams and a perfect end for my days. I’ve grown since then, but I still like to watch a good sitcom, to get me pumped for the next working day.

I’m the one who saw A LOT of them, starting with MASH and Married with Children and ending with Friends or Better off Ted. One thing I can tell you for sure: the shows are less funny each year, many “comedies” are something you just watch and maybe, once in a blue moon, smile at. This is why I haven’t started watching Modern Family with too big expectations.

If you’re at least my age, I’d expect you to still recall Married with Children. Why I am bringing this up? Because you’ll surely remember Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill). We do have the pleasure of seeing Ed once again, now he’s over 60 and married to a very hot Colombian woman, Gloria (Sofía Vergara). Jay is a rich “old” man, while she’s a sexy woman who could surely use some of that money. As any “good” girl, the hot Colombian brings her huge boobies and her young son, Manny, the result of a totally disinterested love affair with the sexy and poor Javier Delgado.

Seeing that Javier is not father material and Jay has got experience in this and a generous bank account, Gloria moves in with her kid and starts living a new life.

The move is not met with huge happiness by Jay’s daughter, Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), who’s not too thrilled to have a step mom her age, but there’s not too much she can do. Not to mention she’s already got enough on her plate with her 3 kids and a husband with less maturity than the kids.

Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) is a realtor and should be a father figure for his kids, but most of the time he’s like a bigger kid in the house. The offspring “collection” includes: Haley Dunphy – the older and “cool” older daugther, caught in a on/off love relation with a dude almost as stupid as she is, Alex Dunphy – the smart kid in the family, she’s also hit puberty with all the pleasures it involves and Luke Dunphy – the small kid, the only boy in the Dunphy family.

Since tradition is not always good, we stray from this “normal” family to meet Claire’s bother (Jay’s son), Mitchell Pritchett, who’s living together with his partner, Cameron “Cam” Tucker. The two men have just completed their family by adopting a toddler from Vietnam, Lily.

So this is how the entire family looks like and all these members who are not always getting along well will get into all kinds of problems, thus the comic situations. We have individual and collective hysteria, lies, events, anything you can imagine and some more, plus a witty and anything but boring dialogue.

The entire show is constructed like a “documentary”, some of the scenes getting us back to “Jon and Kate Plus 8” – with them answering to various questions based on that episode and commenting what happened through the day. The “mockumentary” received raving reviews and quite a collection of Emmy Awards: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in Comedy Series for Eric Stonestreet and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd.

I’ve finished watching the first series, so, as I am preparing for more funny episodes, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you about this show and hope you’ll give it some attention. So, if you’re looking for something funny and relaxing, this might actually do the trick.