Modern Family: The Complete First Season

The 2010 Emmys possibly saw a changing of the guard as 30 Rock, the brilliant comedy series starring Tina Fey, saw its run of consecutive wins brought to an end by Modern Family, one of the few television shows that I had watched week in, week out. As the title suggests, this is about a very modern family or, to be precise, three families which are all interlinked. If you haven't seen this, I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.

The patriarch, Jay, lives with his new glamorous Colombian wife Gloria and her son Manny and Jay's son, Mitchell, lives with his boyfriend Cameron and their adopted daughter Lily whilst Jay's daughter, Claire, lives with her husband Phil and their three children, Hayley, Alex and Luke. As Gloria is younger than both Mitchell and Claire, you have the odd situation in which Manny is basically Luke's uncle and Gloria is Hayley's grandmother!

Each of these families is slightly dysfunctional as Gloria always compares everything Jay does to the actions of her ex-husband whilst Jay, a rich and successful businessman, can't help the odd sly dig at Columbia and its murder rate, bizarre customs and the fact that so many of Gloria's compatriots are living illegally in the United States. Jay has also not quite accepted that Mitchell is gay and there is plenty of awkward tension whenever he is in the same room as Cameron. Perhaps the most interesting of the three families is the Dunphy family where Phil, a real estate agent, tries to be 'down and hip' with the kids, much to the chagrin of his wife and children who are utterly embarrassed by his behaviour. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Hayley is dating Dylan, a senior at high school and basically gets by on her looks as she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer whereas her 12 year old sister, Alex, is extremely intelligent and, as for Luke well... he is a little odd.

The series is filmed in a documentary/mockumentary style as scenes with the characters addressing the camera and answering questions intersperse footage of their daily lives. Also, aside from an opening sequence, there is no let up from first minute to last as the credits run over the show and you really get your money's worth in the approximately 22 minutes for which each episode runs. Sometimes it is extremely difficult to tell how much is improvised and how tightly the show is scripted as it has a fairly loose, improvisational style and is sometimes feel as if the actors just take a situation and go with it a little like Curb Your Enthusiasm.


Modern Family is one of the most consistently funny TV shows that I've ever seen with some quite brilliant one-liners and situations that develop over an episode so you don't quite get the pay off until near the end at which point you can see it coming and just burst out laughing before it even happens. There are some occasions when a line will just completely catch you unawares so, as I found out whilst watching Peep Show, it's best not to eat or drink whilst watching such an unpredictable show when a laugh can come at any moment and make something go down the wrong way.

Aside from Ed O'Neil who spent a long time as one of the mainstays in Married with Children, the cast is full of largely unknown actors who really make the roles their own as they have previously only had bit parts in TV shows and minor roles in big films so they aren't really household names or faces that you will instantly recognise. This hasn't stopped the filmmakers from getting guest appearances including Minnie Driver, Chazz Palminteri and Fred Willard and somehow they fit in extremely well and don't ruin the illusion.


All in all, Modern Family is an extremely smart and intelligently written show that feels extremely real, with every strange situation perfectly plausible and, according to the Real Modern Family Moments featurette, many of the ideas and situations came from these are really happened to members of the crew. From a man trying to get his father to accept the fact that he raising a daughter with another man to a mother struggling to understand and utilise modern technology (in the pilot, Hayley doesn't understand why her parents yell upstairs when it would be so much easier to just text her) and a man trying to figure out his stepson and work every situation to his advantage, this is a brilliant satire on modern life with changing relationships, technology and the very nature of family itself.

The Disc

Extra Features
Each disc comes with a selection of Deleted & Alternate Scenes from the episodes on that disc which run from about 6 1/2 minutes to nearly 23 and of these show that there was a great deal of material that was eventually whittled down to what you see on the finished thing. Additionally, the first three discs have a selection of Deleted Family Interviews which are sometimes just extended scenes and sometimes ones that just didn't make it but these are some quite funny.

The bulk of the extra material is on disc four which has a gag reel which is actually quite amusing as it shows the actors forgetting their lines and reaching for the script that they keep nearby.

Real Modern Family Moments just shows how much of real life makes it into the show with some of the scenes that you assumed were just made up were actually based on real life experiences from members of the crew and these are quite revealing.


Before Modern Family is a 12 minute series of interviews with cast members who talk about what they did before being cast in Modern Family which varies from very little to (in the case of Ed O'Neill) quite a bit.

Fizbo the Clown is a 4 minute feature on one of the more bizarre character transformations in the series, when Cameron becomes a more larger-than-life character in order to entertain at Luke's birthday party.

"Family Portrait" is a fairly interesting 9 minute piece about how they organised the family portrait scene as it is one of the few sequences in which every family member is in the same location and in the same shot.

"Modern Family "Hawaii is, as the title suggests, a featurette on the double episode where they relocated to Hawaii for a holiday and, by all accounts, had an absolutely terrific time in an all-inclusive four-star hotel with beautiful weather and in such things as whale watching when they weren't filming.


The Picture
Modern Family has alwayslooked very good on TV and was even broadcast in high definition saw not sure why there isn't a Blu-ray release but, in any case, the DVD looks extremely good with strong, vibrant colours, excellent and deep contrast levels and fantastic skin tones. Although it is basically a sitcom, that doesn't stop it from being one of the most visually impressive TV shows seen in a while.

The Sound
This comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which is largely redundant as just about everything comes from the centre speaker and the rear surrounds are only ever employed during the title music. The soundtrack does a great job of presenting the dialogue crisply and clearly and the front surrounds are used occasionally when there is something like a car crash, someone falling down stairs or a door slamming.


Final Thoughts
Modern Family is one of the smartest and funniest shows I've seen in a long time: it is extremely well written, beautifully directed and the acting is top notch to the point where you really believe that you are almost watching a real family, such is the chemistry and dynamics between the characters.

The set may not be awash with extra features, but what is there is well worth watching, especially the featurettes on disc four but this is really a show that will sell on the quality of the material alone and it isn't an Emmy award winner for nothing.