Ahh the dysfunctional American family.
They are a genre to themselves, and television positively eats them up. From The Simpsons to Malcolm in the Middle, Dallas to Six Feet Under… they are as rich a story vein as the procedural crime drama. Whether in comedy or drama they never quite manage to resolve their differences and we invariably see a little bit of ourselves in them all.
In Modern Family the issues are tripled, with no less than three families to entertain us and mirror contemporary American society in all its “Yes we can” optimism.
The Dunphy family is a conventional nuclear family consisting of mother Claire (Julie Bowen) and husband Phil (Ty Burrell) who have been married for 16 years. She’s overprotective; his constant reminders of being a ‘cool’ dad (complete with demonstrations of High School Musical choreography) are a regular source of embarrassment to their three kids: teenager Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould). In the first episode, Haley brings home a senior boy which throws her parents into varying forms of nervousness.
The 6-month Delgado–Pritchett family consists of Jay (Ed O’Neill), his youthful Colombian wife Gloria (Sofía Vergara) and her son from her first marriage Manny (Rico Rodriguez II). Jay spends most of his time in a tracksuit while his fiery wife runs the household and dotes over her soccer-playing son. Manny is wiser than his years with a crush on a 16 year old girl.
Finally there is Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet), two gay partners of five years who have just adopted an orphan baby from Vietnam. Mitchell is uptight while Cameron is outgoing and dramatic.
All three families live in Los Angeles. Absent from the group is the inclusion of any African-American family members, but the reasons for this will become obvious later.
Central to this sitcom is its mockumentary style. The tone of the show is pitched close to the “fly on the wall” style of Arrested Development or a Christopher Guest film. Filmed in single-cam without laugh-track, the performances don’t acknowledge the presence of a camera. But the fourth wall is broken via interviews to camera, carefully constructed to link scenes together.
The suburban scenes are a slice of mismanaged LA life. Most are built around seemingly futile ambitions that become insurmountable problems. Thankfully the performances are so on the money that it is easy to like these characters despite the fact that you wouldn’t dare want to live with any of them. Presumably over time we will also come to appreciate that for all their fussing and ineptitude, like Homer Simpson, they still have a deep, abiding love for one another.
The dialogue bubbles away with sardonic gags on the nuances of living American life. Watching how they tackle some of the country’s social and political hot potatoes (gay marriage, teenage sex and guns are already touched upon in the first episode) will be half the fun.
Glee notwithstanding it’s been a while since a new US comedy has worked on TEN. The Office, Nurse Jackie, Accidentally on Purpose, Rules of Engagement, The Cleveland Show and Little Britain USA have all met with mixed success. Fingers crossed Modern Family breaks the drought and finds an audience. It deserves to.
Modern Family premieres 8pm Tuesday May 18 on TEN.