It’s one of those TV shows that everyone I know–from My Beautiful Wife to my business partner to my pretend Internet friends–seems to love. Modern Family just won a bunch of Emmy Awards. All the TV critics adore it.
I hate it.
Okay, “hate” is a little strong. But just a little. I’d rather watch reruns of The Flying Nun. Which was awful. But it was at least original. (See, there was a nun. And she could fly.) Here’s why I dislike the Dunphys so much:
1. Wake me up when the cliches stop. Let’s begin with the “Clueless Dad/Overbearing Mom” couple. When was the last time you saw that particular combo? I mean, other than on practically every sitcom since–let’s just keep it in my lifetime and say, The Honeymooners? It’s the most hackneyed trope in all of scriptwriting.
Then let’s add the Older Sister Who’s Kinda Dumb And Boy-Crazy and the Younger Sister Who’s Really Smart And Makes Fun Of Her Dumb Sister and the Little Brother Who’s Just As Dumb As His Dumb Dad. And, I dunno–how about the Horny Old Man With A Trophy Wife and the Latina Bombshell and the Latin Lothario? Does the fact that the LL is a little fat kid make it any less a cliche?
No, it doesn’t. These aren’t people, they’re stock characters, and they’re not funny.
2. Please turn off the joke machine. Remember when there were shows in which the humor grew out of the characters? Those were the days. Today, most TV characters are puppets upon whom to hang jokes.
Modern Family is one of the worst offenders. The jokes fly out of nowhere. Rather than deriving naturally from round characters, they fly out of writers’ heads and require said writers to create backstories retrospectively, to suit the jokes. That’s a lazy and ultimately unsatisfying way to work. Give me Emily Gilmore any day.
3. It’s on ABC. This bothers me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I haven’t actually liked an ABC comedy since Taxi, and I didn’t like Taxi much. Cougar Town is another dreadful joke machine. Is there another ABC comedy? Maybe my really low expectations for ABC comedies keep me from seeing something great about Modern Family. I doubt it.
4. Totally predictable story lines. Let me name a few: dumb dad tries to teach son a lesson and ends up totally screwing it up. Couple wants so badly to get child into exclusive daycare that they try to be something they’re not. Stepdad tries to prove to stepson that he’s a better father than birth dad. All of these story lines crossed swords in one stinking episode of Modern Family (“The Bicycle Thief”).
Maybe it was just a bum show, right? Here’s another (“The Incident”): principle character’s first wife shows up. She’s crazy. Mom and Dad try to figure out whether to allow their daughter to go to a rock show with a boy. New wife is surprised by ex-wife’s presence at a family party, and they fight. I am not making this up.
Which is the problem. Barely anyone is making this up. It’s the same, old cliched sitcom story lines we’ve see for decades. Perhaps there are no new plots. But, good lord. The fact that the crazy daycare couple is gay doesn’t make the story any fresher.
5. Julie Bowen broke Ed‘s heart. Well, it wasn’t really Julie Bowen. It was her character, Carol Vessey, on the NBC series Ed. Ed (Tom Cavanagh) pined for Carol throughout the series, but she continued to stiff-arm him right up to the end. He had a nice relationship with Frankie (Sabrina Lloyd), which he should have pursued. But his heart belonged to Carol, even though Carol was sort of a bitch. My dislike for Carol Vessey carries over to Claire Dunphy. I know it’s not fair, but there you go.
So, if you add up all of the above…there’s actually only one big reason I dislike Modern Family. I dislike it because it’s been praised as being some kind of breakthrough original comedy. But the mockumentary style isn’t exactly new or groundbreaking, and everything else is the same old crap in a shiny new package. Yes, Eric Stonestreet, as Cam Tucker, has his moments, and Ty Burrell is perfect in his role as clueless dad Phil Dunphy. But the Dunphys are just the Griswolds with an extra kid. And even the Griswolds were based on an old National Lampoon story by John Hughes (“Vacation ’58″), and bore more than a passing resemblance to a NatLamp comic strip called “The Appletons: The Saga of an American Family.” In that strip, Mom was clueless and Dad was subversive and sadistic; once on a camping trip, he suggested the kids slather themselves with honey to keep the bugs away. Now, that was breakthrough comedy.
I hate Modern Family. I hated Carol Vessey. And just like you, I love Emily Gilmore. Hat Trick.
Wow. I was kind of afraid to say it out loud since there’s such a love fest for Modern Family, but I don’t get it for all the reasons you cite. Also, I didn’t know anyone else realized Carol Vessey was a total jerk – that makes me feel good too. Very cathartic. Thanks Ken.
umm… you sound like you’re illiterate.
i guess you have trouble comprehending english. it’s written sentences and divided up into paragraphs. tere’s no way you couldn’t understand even one of the reasons.
I think Jennifer meant she didn’t get the hype for Modern Family, due to all the reasons listed above.
lauren – if you are going to start your post by saying someone else sounds illiterate, you probably shouldn’t end your post with:
“tere’s no way you couldn’t understand even one of the reasons”
Ever hear of a double negative?
Umm… You sound like total bitch!
I have not seen it. At all. And perhaps now I don’t have to.
I wish I could unsee it.
Amy digs it. I’ve tried to get on board. I think I hate it because of what I perceive as the forced irreverence of the humor, the pandering way it treats the gay issue (the way gays are depicted on the show comes perilously close to caricature, but nobody seems to mind), and, most of all, the way it almost never fails to wrap up the show with a sentimental coda reminding us that in spite of all of their frailties and flaws, boy do these people love each other. It’s like they want me to throw up in my mouth. But that’s just me.
Julie Bowen did break Ed‘s heart and I will (probably) never forgive her for it.
I get tired of the dumb dad. But my expectations for network comedies are so incredibly low. I just want to have something diverse I can watch with my son with moments of humor and have it quickly resolve. What else do we need tv to do?
My life is already filled with edgy originality.
I enjoy it because it’s a mindless comedy. I can watch it without thinking about it, and I laugh genuinely at most of the jokes. I suppose it doesn’t bother me that it is really just a remake of the standard sitcom family because in many ways, every real extended family is just a remade version of every one that has come before it – issues, dysfunction, melodrama, and a little love.
I love the carry-over hatred of Julie Bowen from Ed. That bitch.
Thanks for swimming against the current on this one. It needed to be said.
You have perfected my Tuesday. Now I not only don’t have to watch a show I was tired of being bugged about anyway, but I can now even speak knowledgeably about my refusal!
And I gotta say, as a non-watcher whose only connection to the show is having been told I resemble one of the gay dads, are those plotlines you cited real? Really? ‘Cause… wow.
Matt,
First off, you know that — without any “bromance” irony — I love you. But here I go:
1. Clichés are joke hangers. They also set up at least three kinds of irony and maybe four: Comic, Dramatic, and Socratic — maybe even Tragic. Arrested Development used clichés all the time, but you probably hate that, too.
2. TV sitcoms are rarely made to be “art” (or should I say “Art”) and are meant to allow the viewer easy entertainment. Hate Modern Family all you like, but its humor is the same sitcom humor you grew up with. Make an argument for a sitcom that didn’t use its characters as puppets or writers’ mouthpieces for jokes. I dare you. (Gilmore Girls is not a sitcom.)
3. Taxi was on CBS.
4. Isn’t argument number four the same as argument number one? I protest that you have not given me five reasons!
5. Your sentimental expectations nullify Julie Bowen’s career post 2004. Dig this one, smart guy: “My deadbeat father grew up in Muncie, and that made me hate the Muncie project that C.S. Kern worked on, and Matt Gonzales wrote copy for it, so I haven’t been able to read his stuff since.” Doesn’t feel so good, does it? Does it!
I don’t really care if you don’t like Modern Family. But your arguments go wanting, good sir.
Damon,
I think you mistook me for the author of this here list. I dislike Modern Family too, but not necessarily for the same reasons Ken does. As I mentioned above in my comment, the way the show exploits easy gay stereotypes while also sanitizing homosexuality for network TV, its look-at-how-quirky-we-are tone and (most of all) its by-the-numbers sentimentality are what turn me off.
I love you too.
Matt
I did indeed. Your Facebook post confused me. That said, I stand by my notes, Mr. Honeywell. (I also see that ABC did once air Taxi before it was moved in 1982. Mea culpa. ABC, for what it’s worth, has had some great sitcoms: Three’s Company comes to mind, and it hits most of the notes that you pine against above. Without it, though, we wouldn’t have experienced the comic genius of John Ritter. I am not kidding. That dude was awesome.)
Damon, John Ritter’s awesomeness is indisputable. He was like Three’s Company’s Peyton Manning. Without him, it would have been really, really hard to watch.
Damon, Damon, Damon. I forgive you the ABC/CBS thing.
And I know the Julie Bowen thing is wrong. I just had to fill out my list. I wish I’d chatted with Matt before writing this, because I agree with all three of his points.
Essentially, I admitted that I have only one point: Modern Family has been hailed as some kind of edgy comedy, and it really is the same old crap. I don’t like how much everybody loves Modern Family more than I don’t like the show, if that makes any sense.
And I disagree about cliches re: Arrested Development. The characters were round and original, and the plot twists were unexpected. Did they go for some cheap puns? Of course. Did we love them for it? All the more.
So, just to be clear here, Ken: You have essentially inflated a one sentence thought into a whole article filled with weblinks, multimedia, and so on. Sort of something that “[flew] out of [a] writer['s] head and require[d] said writer to create backstories retrospectively, to suit the” argument kind of thing, eh?
And on the Arrested Development front, I think you are way off. I would posit that they were the least rounded characters on television for the past twenty years. They were caricatures — and more, they were exaggerations of clichés. That’s what made them funny: They weren’t round; they were arch.
I think you make a good point about Arrested Development, Damon. But I think the characters’ actions actually grew out of their characters, as opposed to the actions of characters in lesser shows, including Modern Family, Scrubs, and Glee, where they often feel tacked on. (I actually like a lot about Glee, btw. But that’s another piece.)
I’ll stand by my assertion that Modern Family is unoriginal and overpraised. It’s too smug. It’s always winking at me and poking me in the ribs, just to make sure I get all the jokes. I just don’t understand what’s special about it. If this is The Show We All Agree Is Super-Funny–”we” including most TV critics and practically everyone I know–then the TV sitcom is in bad shape.
As for the inflation of my argument: well, of course. But it’s still nothing compared with the bloated praise that’s been blown up Modern Family’s‘s skirts.
Did someone say Peyton Manning?
It may be unoriginal and a “joke machine”. But the actors are good and the jokes are funny. There’s no better comedy on right now. I’m just glad something is kicking the Office’s ass.
I have never watched the show, but I am generally suspicious when critics begin heaping praise on one thing in particular. I felt that way when I watched Mad Men a few times. Am I missing something or is this just a glorified costume drama? I felt vindicated when Stephen King called it “by far the most overrated show on TV.”
YOU TAKE THAT BACK ABOUT MAD MEN.
Seriously though, I respect Stephen King, but I wouldn’t consider him the most reliable judge of quality entertainment. He’s a masterful storyteller, but he’s also produced no shortage of schlock in his time.
Matt – what Damon said; ‘your arguments go wanting’. In comedy, if the front row laughs, (that’s where most critics get to sit) you are not funny, however, if the house laughs… you are. Modern Family, aloof from the sportive spears of critics, has proven it’s ability to make the house laugh.
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Okay, I will give you that the characters are cliche. However, perhaps cliche is cliche because it was good enough to go around the block twice. Maybe the Overbearing Mom/Clueless Dad is a cliche people can relate to. Also, that’s WHY America loves Modern Family. It’s not what they do, it’s how they do it. I guess the rest of us find the jokes that come out of nowhere more natural and less staged, making it more real. The acting is good, even the child acting, which is a rarity among under-18s. This show is a smorgasbord of non-PCs, and maybe that’s why we love it. LIFE isn’t PC! The lessons the family learns are good lessons, interspersed with humor and love.
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I somewhat agree with what ken said. I what i dont like about the show is its annoying and all the more coz everyone says its great.well thats bull.
annoying trophy wife with horrible accent marryed a to older guy(honestly i think he just did it to get back at his childern, like a latino fat kid is better than you fools).annoying dummy daddy.and uhm kids.
And the way they are selling it, ‘modern family’.
‘modern family’ there is nothing modern about it, its just out of a crazy dysfunctional fictional bull universe(how can anybody buy the plot is beyond me)
nothing original, inventive, attractive, or mildly interesting about the show, still everyone like hey this ones a winner right here.
Well said sir – it is utter tripe.
i hate this show too! cliche, unoriginal and predictable. plus the camera work is sooooooo freaken ANNOYING!
i love this show. the reason it is funny is because it is so original hints the name modern family (putting together all the modern day cliches into one family). And the reason cliches are cliches is because they work. that’s why people keep using them… DUH! if you dont like the show why do you need to sit down at your computer and write a whole page about why you hate the show? i mean why would you want to send hours typing about a topic you don’t like? i mean really.