In the midst of all the reality shows and crappy sitcoms, there haven’t been many gems that have fit a wide array of demographics in some time. For me personally I had almost given up on television completely. Having worked in television and having seen what networks kept and canceled it was always disheartening to watch the good ones go and the crappy ones stay.
Anyway, with Modern Family is different. It follows the adventure of three families, each with their own problems, but also each is connected by blood (and wackiness). The families are broken down into this:
– Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) and Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez) are a non-traditional family. Jay is an older man and Gloria is a divorced, young Columbian. Manny is the stepson, who is around 10 years old and is far more mature than his age.
– Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) are middle-aged parents of three children (Luke (Nolan Gould), Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Alex (Ariel Winter)). Their life is less relaxed and more hectic thanks to jobs and budding children with hormone issues.
– Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) and baby Lily (Ella and Jaden Hiller) are funny family dealing with the stress of same-sex marriage (and an adopted child).
What’s great about this show is that each episode has each family somehow starting with different scenarios and events that slowly come together to connect with each. It’s amazing and very well written from episode to episode. That’s the one thing that has drawn me into the show. Every time you watch there’s always something new and fresh, but it comes together with the same formula every time. For example, in one of the early episodes they start out with Claire and family ending up in an emergency room with the rest of the family. You have no idea how they got there, but they got there as one big family. The episode flips back and forth from progressing story to back at the hospital. Each family in this particular episode starts out doing their own thing and preparing in their own way for Luke’s b-day party. Jay gets Luke a crossbow. Cameron prepares himself as a clown (literally) for Luke’s b-day party. Claire and Phil compete against each other to make the best b-day part for Luke. Each family goes its own route, but eventually all of them end up at the party and contribute their separate story to put together one big story that equals out to the hospital.
I can only imagine how the writing sessions go each week.
Besides writing, the acting can be heavily credited for making the stories work. For example, I haven’t been a huge Ed O’Neill fan since Married with Children, but his role as an over-the-hill man married to a young, hot woman is completely believable. He seems like he embraces and accepts the role (who wouldn’t with someone like Sofia Vergara — I would mess up with every take when it comes to kissing that woman — just kidding). Everyone fits his or her role perfectly. Honestly, the only person I had reservations about in this series was Ty Burrell. The last time I saw Burrell in anything was Dawn of the Dead as an a-hole, womanizer. The guy is hilarious as the oblivious dad. I’m not sure why he hasn’t been in a television comedy prior to this, but regardless he makes Phil Dunphy work. Top-notch acting from everyone and they really do create this pseudo family (all of them) perfectly.
Is there any issue with this show? None at all. It’s intelligent, something you can relate to (even if you’re a kid) and a show that seems fresh from episode to episode.
As for it being on Blu-ray, the show is shot in HD and it’s preserved very well in HD. It looks good, and it works well preserving the scenes in beautiful 1080p. Now, is it that much better than its DVD counterpart? I’m a movie snob, so right now Blu-rays are my medium of choice. It’s just like when DVDs first arrived; I turned my nose up at VHS. Anyway, the show looks gorgeous and if you must have it in its best format then you’re going to want Blu-ray. If you’re not looking for the best format then you might want to check out the DVD, if not only to get the same thing cheaper.
The features included with this Blu-ray are the same on the DVD, although the quality of the video is much better in HD. You still get a really good ‘making of’ featurette. The deleted family interviews are very well done, but I understand why they were not included. The rest of the features are equally as good, and you get a great gag reel from the Hawaii episode. All in all they’re all good and they compliment the show really well. Here’s a list of what you should expect:
● Deleted, Extended and Alternate Scenes
● Deleted Family Interviews
● Gag Reel
● Real Modern Family Moments
● Before Modern Family
● Fizbo the Clown
● Modern Family: Making of “Family Portrait”
● Modern Family Hawaii
