Modern Family has rightly been hailed as a great series, one that is both a throwback to “family shows” of yore, yet is able to inject itself with fresh comedy in order to stay hilarious. Last nights episode points to a drawback in this formula, as their was too much over-reliance on the first point , at the sacrifice of the second.
The main problem lies with the Cam/Mitchell storyline, most of which hinges on a “funny twist” that I saw coming quite early on. (Maybe not say, when we saw the back of Bobby's head, but by the time Mitchell was telling Cam over that “delicious and inventive meal” that he may have a son, I had figured it out.) And once this twist was figured out, this story automatically loses all it's air and momentum. I did not fret along with Cam and Mitchell as to the possibility of his progeny, and the second conversation with Mitchell's high school beard (I honestly don't remember her name) was stilted and awkward, and not in a good way.
Comedy – good comedy – is always based in some part on surprise. Some of the best jokes are the ones you never see coming, while the worst one are those that are telegraphed from miles away. Thus, since I could see all of this coming, it just wasn't funny.
“But Corbin!” you say. “There were two other story lines in this episode!” To which I reply: “You really want to go down that path? Okay.”
The Gloria/Jay/Manny storyline wasn't quite as bad, but it did rely on a bit of stale humor, in the aspect of Gloria trying to pass off Jay's rudeness as senility. In fact, the worst stories from this section of the family almost always seem to employ Jay's age as humor. But that wasn't the end of it. Remember when Manny randomly came into Jay and Gloria's bedroom and showed off the dribble glass? This, kids, is what's known as Chekov's Gun. Since we knew it was bound to show up again (and that it could only serve one comedic purpose) this was another telegraphed joke, and thus a flat note which ended a so-so storyline. I wish this storyline had been more focused on the Boringtons, a concept that I could get behind. (I also helped that the actor's nailed the couple's annoying behavior without having to go over the top.)
The Phil/Claire storyline was the least predictable, and thus the most enjoyable. Though an child stressed over a generic, yet widely important test isn't all that original, I was glad when the story became more about Claire and Phil. (And I was sold as soon as the phrase “Crotopus 3D” was said.) But since this post is all about the shortcomings of predictability in comedy, I must mention that I knew Phil and Claire would get some sort of comeuppance as soon they helped Mr. Patel validate his parking, and I knew they were going to be dragged into some sort of highbrow film as soon as they ran into the Patels at the theater. (Though this plot point led to Phil reaching out to “touch” the 3D after he left the highbrow film, so I'm going to let that slide.)
There is nothing wrong with relying on old comedy tropes, assuming that you can put some sort of an original spin on them, and make them feel like part of your shows universe. If you can't, then part of your episodes (usually the back half) tend to fall flat. (This was a problem that started to plague 30 Rock in its 3rd season.) For now I am just going to chalk this up to a misstep in Modern Family's fairly good track record, and hope that next week bring more us original story lines.
Additional Thoughts:
-Another similarity between Modern Family and 30 Rock: both have now had episode involving little people as plot points. Though in 30 Rock's case, the child/little person reveal joke was over and done withing the first few minutes, leading to more original comedy for the rest of the episode
-“My hobby is listening”
-“So I would love to hear stories about Mitchell in high school! Did he have a beard?" "You're lookin' at her."
The line about the beard made me LAUGH OUT LOUD.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really loved this episode. You and AV Club both didn't, but I thought it was funnier than some other recent ones.
That said, I knew that the guy was a little person right from our first glimpse of him. Honestly, I thought Mitchell had seen that too. For a fleeting bit, I thought the comedy was going to be about his high school sweetheart getting stuck in the past by ending up with a red-haired little person (because, again, they look like kids! :P). It took Mitchell saying it outright for me to understand the real reason for his freakout.
I'll concede that that whole bit wasn't anything fresh, but the "little slugger" thing? HILARIOUS.
And it was nice to see Phil and Claire together like that. Too often I watch the show and wonder why they ever got together, and this gave us some good insight towards that.
The Jay/Gloria arc was admittedly pretty dull. The writers can certainy do better.
Great review!
-Daniel
I'm going to have to half-disagree about the predictability of the Cam/Mitchell storyline. I know that issues of predictability, by definition, depend on what the viewer was expecting, so I'll share my story. It was more than obvious what the joke was going to be by the time Mitchell and Cam were at what's-her-beard's house and started talking while leaving out important details (Such as, "I think he's my son"). The writers know this though, and they know that we know this; they made no attempt to hide the general punchline, if not highlighting it. What was fresh was the little person twist. Of course I was expecting everything to be an embarrassing misunderstanding, but I was expecting him to be the kid she was babysitting or some other tired reused joke. But not a midget. So, while I agree that the joke in general is old and often tired, I do commend the writers for still managing to surprise me with a slightly altered punchline. Be honest with me here, were you really expecting a midget? If so, I can totally see your point. As for me, it was an unexpected twist, so I appreciated it. Also, the "Lil' Slugger" glove was just icing on the cake. Half of a punchline is expectation and anticipation, and the second I found out that the "son" was her midget husband, I knew that gift bag would deliver, and deliver well.
ReplyDeleteAdditional Thoughts:
- Your additional thoughts section is clearly derived from the AVclub. How predictable.
- Bonus points for the Chekov's Gun reference, and I agree completely that it made their storyline a little weak.
- I've officially added your blog to my Google Reader. Congratulations.
Seeing Cam and Mitchell have a real heartfelt conversation as a couple was commendable. I remember liking that part, but I think it kind of got buried under my general apathy for the storyline.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I did predict it was going to be a little person. Just something about the line "he appeared about eight years old" gave it away.