Modern Family: Review

Everyone is going to emerge from lockdown with a show that helped them get through it. A lockdown binge that made the world seem a little bit wider than their own living room.

I will always remember lockdown as the period I binged all 11 seasons of Modern Family in only a couple of months.

Some people might call this sad... it probably is... but at a time where motivation is hard to come by and we're isolated from our friends and family there is nothing wrong in taking a slightly obsessive joy in the comings and goings of a fictional extended family. For all their flaws I've found a lot of comfort in watching these character's funny, mundane and brilliantly silly lives every day. Enjoying their highs and crying at their lows while in an emotional, sleep deprived state at one in the morning.

The show has this really lovely time-tunnel effect when watched all together. Over eleven seasons you watch ten year olds become twenty-one year olds. Teenagers become adults with children of their own. Parents to grandparents and grandparents to great grandparents. Even though I came to it late, when I reached the last few episodes I really felt like it was the end of an era!

While the show definitely has had its ups and downs it's been the first show in a while where I've just been happy to go along for the ride. Not really caring what the characters do, just happy to spend time laughing in their company.

Like the characters it's about, Modern Family is far from perfect but I thought I'd spend some time today just basking in how much I enjoyed it and assessing its impact on TV over the last eleven years.

1. Meet the Family

Modern Family is a mockumentary series following three different American families as they navigate love, childcare and their own hobbies and interests. All the families are related. First there is the traditional family Claire and Phil Dunphy and their three rambunctious children Haley, Alex and Luke. Next there are the Tucker-Pritchetts Cam and Mitchell with their adopted child Lily. Finally there is Claire and Mitchell's father, Jay, with his much younger Columbian wife Gloria and her ten year old son Manny.

What I find really endearing about the show is how these "Modern" values change overtime. In the first series, released in 2009, just having a gay couple in a healthy, normal relationship was seen as being modern. Gay marriage wouldn't be legalised for another four years!

Other than Cam and Mitch the rest of the set up is incredibly traditional. Both Claire and Gloria start out as stay at home mums. A lot of the comedy comes from textbook sit-com scrapes you've seen hundreds of times before.

However, Modern Family still feels fresh. I think this is partly down to it's sense of humour.

It has more in common with British cringe humour than it does with multi-cam sit-coms like Will and Grace, The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Even though it's definitely American and full of "red carpet ready" actors there's something that feels more organic about it. The performances, while goofy still feel relatable and more nuanced than a lot of American sit-coms I like. There's a mundane element to it which allows the actors to just be their characters and it's easy to feel like part of the family!

There are also interesting dynamics built between all of the characters that makes them feel like they have a history with each other.

Jay's strained relationship with his kids Claire and Mitchell is one of the best. His unease with the fact that Mitchell is gay and his slow coming to terms with his spouse Cam is one of the most heart warming storylines of the series. His working relationship with his daughter Claire, trying to mend his parenting mistakes of the past felt genuine and relatable. Claire and Mitchell's initial dislike of Gloria, scared she is only after their father's money, feels like a natural reaction. Jay's frustration at Manny's existence while also seeing him as a chance to get parenting right is very sweet.

All the characters in the series have complicated feelings about each other but ultimately love each other which is what makes the series work so well. The actors have a rare chemistry which allows you to buy into their reality even if at first it doesn't look like it should work.

2. Time in a Bottle

What initially drew me to the series was it's length. That's a weird thing to say I know but I found the fact that it spanned eleven years really exciting! It's essentially a little snapshot of history and it's fun to see the fashion change, the technology change drastically and see the little kids from the first series grow up. I know in the grand scheme of things that it's not a long time but in order to keep the family modern the comedy had to move with the times. You only have to look at how the show uses Mitch and Cam differently across each season to see what a big cultural shift has happened.

I loved watching Lily grow up to be just as snarky and sharp as her dads and while I had less time for the Dunphy kids I'd be lying if I didn't shed a tear when it was time for them all to leave the nest. I liked how the kids didn't feel too Disney channel. That they could be a handful and they had things to learn!

3. Pathos comedy balance

Modern Family didn't always hit the mark on this front, but there were some genuinely brilliant emotional moments which showed the acting range of it's cast and the writer's ability to handle pathos. Some of the shows most memorable moments were when things didn't go to plan or when tragedy struck.

The death of Mitch and Claire's birth mother DeDe came as an unexpected moment and was handled very well. It didn't erase the family's complicated history with her while still doing her character justice and showing how the family cope with grief, either through inappropriate comedy, food or anger.

The moment that stood out to me the most was when Cam and Mitch try for the third time to adopt another child, only for the grandmother of the child to take them away leaving them at an emotionally exhausting dead end.

It's moments like these that elevate it to more than a silly family comedy. It's a silly family comedy about flawed characters going through some tough times and trying to keep a smile on their faces even when it's hard.

It addresses mental health in a really downplayed, everyday manner for two of its main characters. It's bittersweet and I can't help but love it for that.

4. The End

Not all long running sit-coms can end well but I was really satisfied with this series finale. It didn't resort to an over-emotional mess and instead played to it's candidness. All the choices felt right for where the characters ended up. It felt right for them to be separating and starting their own journeys instead of implying that life would just go on like this forever. People move away and kids move on. It would go against everything the show ever built for it not to show that.

It indulged in one tearful group hug and then ended on a hopeful note as the families all embark on the next chapter.

It made me cry but it was happy crying... or maybe it was sleep deprevation, we'll never know.

Watching this show has been such a happy time for me. A lot of the characters reminded me of my friends so it was nice to watch some people on TV that I felt I really knew which is rare with American sit-coms.

If I had watched it at any other time it probably wouldn't have had the same impact but I'm going to hold this one close to my heart for a while I think.

8/10