Reasons to Watch Modern Family

I'm going to confess that Modern Family is not a regular on my DVR. I do catch the show whenever possible online, and I have fallen for it. I think it's a great show, with some minor flaws.

1. Ed O'Neil - He's an older, richer, slightly happier about life Al Bundy, but the extra depth his character has makes him loveable.
2. Manny - This is Ed O'Neils hot wife's son. He's played by Rico Rodriguez. This kid is not only cute, but plays a wise beyond his years consultant to the family. He often steals the scenes he's in and you're happy he does.
3. Claire and Phil - played by Julie Brown and Ty Burrell they're marriage dynamic takes a back seat to their parenting skills which are honest and exaggerated which makes them very funny.
4. Mitchell and Cameron - The gay couple which show a lot more diversity in personality than other gay characters you see in primetime.
   

This show is consistently funny. The only flaw I personally have with it is I'm not really in the mood for a family show a lot and this is the quintessential modern family sitcom.

Reasaons to Watch Community

It's no secret that I was looking forward to NBC's Community. Now that we're well into the season I figured it's time to write my reviews of the shows I was looking forward to here. First up, Community.

1. Joel McHale - His character is smooth talking but has enough hubris to be enjoyable.
2. Chevy Chase - A great secondary role, and he can still take a fall and make it hilarious
3. The rest of the cast - Everyone is awesome and I'd thank the writers. Not like the actors aren't talented, but the characters are well defined via dialogue, actions and story archs.
4. It's hilarious - I laugh out loud at least three times every episode. That's a very good average.

If you're already into Community and want to love it some more I've heard great things about the extras on NBC.com. I'd also recommend following the show's creator, Dan Harmon on Twitter. He's very funny and sometimes discusses the making of the show and gives episode teasers.

'Hung' A Reaction

I just got around to watching the pilot of Hung.
Um, excuse me all you reviewer haters - it's not that bad at all!

It's actually very watchable. In fact, it's kind of fun.

Hung's story line is relatable and farcical at the same time. It's about a man, Ray, who is trying to fix his family and finances. Ray, is a guy who seems to be unable to catch a break, is costing as a teacher/coach and isn't terribly talented. He does however have all the right assessts any lascivious woman would want in a man.

He decides via a series of events stemming from the self-help 'make me a millionaire' convention that he is going to become a man-whore, with the help of this 38 year old poet chick he bangs.

Now, it's not exactly what you'd call a family sitcom, excluding the fact that this does center around a "modern family" (which basically just reads as family dealing with divorce and realistic teenage antics). I can't help but liken it to The US of Tara, which is another show that many don't like because it doesn't feel real that a family would be put through a mother with multiple personality disorder.

I find it oddly heartwarming to watch these shows where parents do ridiculously scarring things to themselves and their children, but then are able to come back looking to their children for forgiveness.

I know we've long left the world of Leave it to Beaver behind. The Happy Days where kids do something wrong and then hang their heads down low and say, "Aw shucks, Mom, Dad, I'm sorry for taking the car." The comfort in these shows was the ideal that no matter what, your parents love you.

Current premium cable shows like Us of Tara and Hung have turned this ideal on it's head and taken it for a spin in the back of a Cadillac. The parents go to the kids and say, "I'm sorry I took the car and had sex with a bunch of tertiary characters."

While it's a disturbing commentary on the way American families have changed, I I can't help but be entertained by these shows. At the end of the episode, they tell us all, "It's ok, you'll always have your family." Which is sweet, until you realize that they're also saying, "...and you got to see some naughty things done, too."

But what the hell, I'm a fan of them. I love seeing people with crazier lives than my own.

True Blood, Look What You've Done to Me

For the past year I had given up on HBO.
It's not that I don't appreciate the quality of programming it's provided in the past.
It's that the more recent programs haven't been extra cable fee worth.

Let's take a look at what I'm saying:

Curb Your Enthusiasm - This is a wonderfully structured improvisational sitcom with great music, but the storyline is repetitive. Larry David accidentally offends, he won't apologize, hilarity ensues.

Entourage - This show reminds me of the Kayne West song Good Life. It's all about trying to keep those roots while moving on up. In this case, it's about being a movie star and livin' large in LA with fast cars and hot women. It was really fun the first few seasons, crazy parties and loud Ari, but it's not a show I miss watching.

Big Love - I used to love this show, first and second seasons were pretty enthralling. At times this show reflected the power of families working together in criminal activities more than The Sopranos. Yet, the show has somehow meandered about and lost some of it's allure.

Hung- The ads alone for this show turned me off. They took over bathroom stalls in NYC to show how 'sexy fun' this show is going to be. If you have to try to make me think that with intrusive campaigns, I'm not going to believe you.

East Bound and Down - Here's where I get controversial ... I hated Fist First Way. I haven't even tried this show, but I hear I should give it a chance. Perhaps I will overcome my mental block because ....

True Blood - My friend and I rented True Blood one lazy weekend and got hooked. It's hard not to fall for this fast paced thrilling story. It's also easy to see why some people are so easily turned off by it. The characters, in the beginning of the first season especially, are in desperate need for southern dialect couches. Each episode ends on an edge of your seat cliff hanger though, that makes you want to know what happens next to these characters you unexpectedly fall for again and again. By the third episode we were cheering the sounds of the opening sequence. We want bad things to be done to us you crooner.

The second season was just starting the weekend we finished the first season. This is when I realized we had gone mad for True Blood. My friend and I started seeking out the new episodes - on the net, at friends houses. We'd been doing pretty good catching up here and there with the season, until this weekend rolled around.

The finale occurs tomorrow night and we began trying to figure out how we could get HBO. "Maybe you could go out and meet a dude with HBO..."
No! I won't pimp myself!
"Maybe we could chip in and get a hotel room..."
Is it really worth $50 each?
Then, I came to ridiculously simple epiphany - I can just get HBO. For like $12 more bucks a month I'll get it just so we can see the end of this saga.

So, this morning, I called up and got the channels and I'm re-watching the season with bated breath waiting for tomorrow.
Perhaps I'll try these other shows again, or for the first time, to see if they'll change my mind. Who knows? They might be a fun way to pass the time.