Now I know this is weird but I enjoy TV, comics, games, anime, cartoons and movies but never all at once. I just don't have the time to watch a few episodes of a TV show, watch a movie and play a game all in one day unless I just don't go outside and recently TV has been my main source of indoor entertainment which is the main reason my blog has been updated so irregularly lately. Now I think I've only ever done one TV show review in my entire life mainly because I've never really known how to go about it, I mean if I review the entire season I can contain it one review but it doesn't go into enough detail, if I review each episode individually wont there be like hundreds of reviews? Well in the end the answer is yes to both, however looking around it seems perfectly acceptable for reviews to just review TV shows by episodes. So that is exactly what I'm doing. Enjoy!
Now I also know it'd be much more professional for me to watch the entire season, come back and rewatch each episode with knowledge of how the whole thing plays out. But I want to discover things at the same time you guys do, so to keep it exciting and with the possibility to take me off guard, I'm not going to start another episode until I've reviewed the one I'm currently watching.
Apparently many of the episodes, particularly the early ones were based on the shows creators, and showrunners and executive producers Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan own experiences with their families. Or 'modern families' if you will.
The first family is Phil and Claire with their two girls and a boy (who possibly has a few issues), who open in an extremely stressful morning routine with hints that Phil is incompetent and Claire is controlling with one nerdy daughter and one who is 'out of control'. These are easily the least interesting family out of the three in the episode possibly because, minus Phil, this family is the most down to Earth and normal.
The second family are Jay and Gloria and these guys are hilarious, Jay is this relaxed older guy and Gloria is a bit of a milf who doesn't speak great English but has heaps of enthusiasm with their fat son Manny who is perhaps a little too effeminate for his own good, more interested in girls than sports.
There are three main conflicts in the episode the first is that Phil wants to be 'the cool Dad' while Claire wants to be 'the parent of the year' and they clash and cause problems for their kids who are busy making problems themselves like kids do. The second is Mitchell seems uncomfortable to accept the fact he is gay while Cameron just doesn't care which is mirrored in their parents attitudes to their relationship and the third is Jay is uncomfortable being so old in relation to his wife and getting mistaken for her Dad, he is clearly insecure about a lot of things. I'm just impressed in one episode it tackles the life of homosexuals, of a man much older than his wife and just normal family life in general, it crams a lot of issues into half an hour without ever feeling bloated or overly PC.
The episode is well paced and plotted and sharply written, at first it's easy to see the episode as a random menagerie of scenes that seem to be there just for laughs and nothing else but as the episode progresses they all come together to make much bigger laughs. And the big twist at the end of the episode is these families are all connected. Jay isn't Manny's father, he is his step father. Jay's children are Claire and Mitchell. And I was damn impressed by the twist, connecting it all together.
Pros;
It tackles a lot of big issues without shoving them in your face.
It's laugh out loud hilarious without need for a laugh track.
Despite having a large cast of central characters the episode was tightly written and well paced and everything came together with a satisfying payoff.
Cons;
The episode did start to teeter near cringe territory and not in a good way with some of the jokes, like Phil's 'cool Dad' shtick was perhaps a little too long with it repeatedly appearing in the episode and it started to just get embarrassing - it was funny the first time though and that Lion King scene was just retarded.
I'm not really sure on Phil and Claire's family - I mean Phil is funny but I just found Claire and her kids a bit annoying.
Think About It!
-Locke
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