What I watched over christmas

One of my favourite new programs that I watched over Christmas was 'Modern Family'. This has been a recent find for me as it is broadcast on SKY1 and I do not have the ability to watch this channel when I am in halls. I had heard really good reviews about this program within the media and also from my family. Because of this I knew that the program had to be good if my Mum, Dad and my 14 year old brother could all agree that they enjoyed the sit-com.

Modern Family is interesting to me because it really does acknowledge the changing face of families within society. Instead of simply reflecting the lives of a traditional family, made up of a husband and wife and their children, which can be seen in many TV shows such as 'Everybody loves Raymond' and 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager', Modern Family reflects the complexity of the relationships within a modern day family. The tagline reflects the main concept for the show, reflecting "One big(straight, gay, multi-cultural, traditional) happy family. The show appears fresh and modern, with no laughter track it seems to step away from one of the generic conventions of a situation comedy. I think than the show would not have been as interesting to watch if it contained a laughter track, simply because many of the humorous moments come from awkward or uncomfortable situations that the characters are placed in, therefore the silence would be spoilt by a fake laugh. Letting the audience choose when to laugh as opposed to being told when to laugh is a much more contemporary technique.

However the main thing that appealed to me about 'Modern Family' is the variety of families and interesting characters within those families shown within the program. The show features the lives of three families who's relationships are all intertwined with one another. The first family to be featured is the most traditional of all the families. The Dunphy's made up of a husband and wife called Claire and Phil, who have three children and live in the suburbs of america. They can be seen dealing with many of the typical problems with having children, such as their daughters first boyfriend, family arguments, miss behaving children and trust issues. The next family is the Pritchett-Tucker's, they are a gay couple called Cameron and Mitchell, and have an adopted baby daughter called Lily. They are dealing with the stress of raising a young baby, and trying to fit in with the suburban life as a gay couple whilst still being themselves. Mitchell is Claire's brother and their dad is Jay Pritchett who is married to a much younger Colombian woman named Gloria, and acts as a step-dad to her pre-teen son Manny.

The show manages to represent a whole variety of characters which are interesting and dramatic without being turned into the overused stereotypes that are so often present on television. I like the fact that the show shows flawed people, for example Phil is a loving husband who has a crush on his sister in law, however this would never cause him to cheat on his wife, whereas in other tv programs this may have been a storyline. It is also nice to see a big family that love each other unconditionally despite all of their very apparent flaws and shortcomings. I think that this is the key for any show that is centered around the family, because when the conflict begins the audience need to be aware that the characters love each other, in order for the story to stay humorous.

One final thing that I like is the fact that it incorporates the mockumentary genre into the sitcom. Even though this technique has been used within other successful TV programs it still appeared to be a fresh technique and provide the opportunity for many comedic moments with a home movie feel to it. I really enjoyed watching 'Modern Family' over christmas and will make an effort to watch the show online now I am back in Glasgow.