Title: Modern Family
Starring: Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet
Director: Jason Winer, Michael Spiller and others
Duration: 500+ minutes (24 episodes)
Released: 5th September 2010
Modern Family is now in its second season and its still winning awards and being watched by millions in the US and the UK. The latest instalment of this Emmy® Award-winning show is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 5th September 2011. With cutaways to interviews with the characters (telling the real story) and then a sort of mockumentary style to the rest of the show, it takes a candid look at three related modern families.
Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill, Married with Children), is a bit of a business tycoon and as those types tend to do he’s married a much younger woman. A sexy, feisty, Columbian by the name of Gloria (Sofia Vergara). The only problem for Jay is that Gloria has a young son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez II). Manny is a hopeless romantic, even though he’s only about ten years old, he’s also really sensitive which makes his new step-dad a little uncomfortable. And why is he uncomfortable? Probably because he has a strange relationship with his own son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), who is openly gay and living with his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and the fact that they have just adopted a Vietnamese baby. Jay isn’t exactly progressive in his thinking, but he does manage to be happy for them. And in season two he does start to open up a little more to his friends and family which is perhaps an arc that the character will progress in subsequent seasons.
Mitchell and Cameron have very different personalities. Mitchell is uptight and careful about things, while Cameron has a penchant for the dramatic and has a love of musical theatre. They are learning to be good parents but as they are new at it and have no experience and no woman’s maternal touch they are finding it a little difficult and run into several problems. By this second season they have got basics of parenthood sorted but they still run into various problems such as Lily biting people, which has comedic results.
Jay’s daughter Claire (Julie Bowen) is married to Phil (Ty Burrell) who are both desperate to have honest and healthy relationships with their own three children. Phil is the ‘cool’ dad, trying to speak like the kids do and being cool about them doing inappropriate things. Claire however is more keen to keep the kids in check to make sure that they don’t have a rebellious childhood like she did. In season two we get to meet her childhood boyfriend and also get to hear a few secrets from her teenage years. There is one particularly funny episode where Claire and Phil swap over their ‘good cop / bad cop’ roles with the kids but they soon find out that Phil is slightly over-zealous as the bad cop and that Claire is a terrible good cop – just giving the kids anything that they want and making them sick from eating burgers and ice cream after going go-kart racing.
There are plenty of over genuine laughs along the way across these impressive 24 episodes.
Modern Family is well directed by various directors including Jason Winer who has directed an episode of the US hit show Samantha Who? and Michael Spiller who has directed 20 episodes of Scrubs so there is clearly some talent on board.
The acting is all of a high quality. Ed O’Neil plays the gruff, stand-offish father, Jay, but he’s really quite likable. Ty Burrell plays Phil and Julie Bowen plays Claire, they bring back their alter-egos of Clive Bixby and Juliana for an enjoyable and humorous episode.
Season Two consists of all the 24 episodes plus added extras including deleted, extended and alternate scenes, gag reel and a ‘Modern Family Holidays’ segment which looks in more detail at the episodes that focus on certain holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Halloween. There is also an enjoyable table reading of the episode entitled ‘Strangers on a Treadmill’. It’s always interesting, I think, to see actors doing table reads or rehearsals so this is a behind the scenes treat.
The quality of the Blu-ray image is very good. There is a clear difference between this picture quality and that of the first season which I watched on DVD. The images are clear, sharp and colourful. Very impressive indeed.
The first season of the show won six Emmys® at the 2010 Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series for Eric Stonestreet. It’s all well deserved because the show is among the best new TV series of the year.
I’m certain that this trend of winning numerous awards will continue with season two which is equally as good as the first season, if not better. It’s been nominated for 17 awards at the 2011 Emmys®. The show is clearly becoming increasingly popular and well known. It has aired on UK TV on Sky One, but even if you’ve not seen it on TV this boxset (and the boxset of the first season) are worthwhile purchases.
I really rate this show highly and as one that could run and run into several seasons. It certainly has the characters and storylines to continue. I’ve been extremely impressed with it as a show and I’m always happy to watch it as it’s both funny and touching as well as being real and honest about families and everyday life.
