When Good Kids Go Bad (#1.10)

Why Modern Family is really only the 5th or 6th best comedy on TV right now...

I am probably going to get yelled at for this one a little bit, but I say BRING IT ON!

"No, people.  Let's be smart and bring it off." - SpongeBob Squarepants

(Part starts at about 6:15)

I obviously have reasons for my opinions, but please, feel free to prove me wrong.  I love a good TV discussion.  Anyway, here are three of my reasons why Modern Family is only the 5th or 6th best comedy on TV right now.

1. Story-lines have gotten very repetitive.

Every week, the story revolves around each of the show's main couples (Phil and Claire, Mitchell and Cam, Gloria and Jay) not getting along.  The stories may or may not involve the children, but for one reason or another, the couples will be at odds.  Gloria finds another way to remind Jay that he is old and she is eccentric.

Phil wants to have fun, and Claire is the giant buzzkill that brings him down to Earth.  Cam does something to annoy Mitchell, and Mitchell tells the camera about how he's always putting up with these situations.  For the most part, I buy the differences between Phil and Claire as minor squabbles in a marriage.  And I can deal with Jay and Gloria's generational differences.

But honestly, after so much disagreement between Mitchell and Cameron, I find it hard to believe that they would actually still be together.  I get it - couples fight and argue and disagree.  But they still have to have a basis for their relationship.  Cameron and Mitchell annoy each other so much I don't see how they could have liked each other enough to have gotten together in the first place.  How about, instead of couples fighting, we mix up the combinations?  Let's go back to the sibling-love story-lines with Claire and Mitchell.

Let's see Cameron and Jay battling it out in some sporting event or competition.  Even the kids, who used to be more mixed into the stories, get treated like occasional comic-relief.  Alex wasn't even in the last episode.  This is (or was) a fantastic ensemble cast - why not use that to the best advantage?  Let's not get stuck in the same rut the writers have made out of these characters' relationships.

2. The jokes have become increasingly broad.

Some recent shows I would attribute the word, "broad" to are Two and a Half Men, 2 Broke Girls, How to Be a Gentleman, Mike & Molly, and Whitney.  They appeal to the broadest possible audience with few jokes that would alienate any person that might be watching.  This means that many of the jokes are obvious and predictable and the characters are more like cartoons than real people.  This is not smart comedy.  Modern Family was once very smart and very fresh and original.  The cast was large and unique with not only a gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese baby girl, but also an old guy married to a much younger and much better looking Columbian woman.  It really was a modern family (sorry, I couldn't help myself).

But then sometime toward the end of the second season, it's as if MF got caught up in its own success and starting writing for the larger audience it had acquired.  Instead of the intricately planned out, inter-weaving story-lines from "Slow Down Your Neighbors," we get the painful saga of Mitchell and Cameron inexplicably getting the wrong car at the valet.  The latter story was not only boring (Our lives suck. No, wait! They don't!), but involved more than one conversation that was easily predicted (Cameron and Mitchell in the car as it gets beaten by a crazy lady with a baseball bat).  Also, who did not see it coming that the guy Claire befriends and thinks is gay turns out to actually be straight?

Last week's episode, "Treehouse," was a slight turn in the right direction thanks to some great guest stars.  Cameron putting the moves on Leslie Mann was a lot of fun and Kevin Hart's entrance as a neighbor and new friend for Phil showed great promise (spin-off with these two, anyone?).  I'd like to see more progress in that direction.

3. The characters have become stereotypes of their former selves.

Remember when Cameron painted his face for football games?  You know how now he simply runs around screaming like a little girl?  The girl scream was funny once or twice, but it seems to have transformed an actual human being into a stereotype of an effeminate gay man.  Gloria is now such a crazy, shrieking foreigner, you'd never know she used to school the wise, old Jay on a thing or two.  And Luke - the silly kid who doesn't seem to have his head screwed on too tight - yes, he says and does some stupid things, but why not let him have the moment after making Phil think over the real reasons behind building the treehouse?  It was ruined when they cut to Luke's talking-head, explaining how he uses the phrase (Are you, Dad?  Are you?) arbitrarily and not just when it seems poignant.  The characters were great when they were real and complex, but now it seems too easy to label each of them with a single descriptive word.

For the record, I still watch Modern Family weekly.  I still laugh while I watch.  The point is that it is not what it once was and I frequently find myself disappointed in it.  Maybe I hold it to higher standards.  Maybe it really is getting worse, but everybody else is blinded by its flashy new Emmys.  Who knows?  In any case, it is still leagues ahead of the other shows I mentioned up there.  Although, there are plenty of others ahead of it still.  And because I know you've been curious this whole post about what comedies I rank ahead of it, here you go:

1. Parks and Recreation

2. Community

3. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

4. Raising Hope

TIE 5./6. Happy Endings & Modern Family

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject, whether you agree or disagree, and which comedies you cherish these days!

* It should also be noted that had 30 Rock started this fall and not waited until midseason, it would likely be higher than Modern Family on my list, as well.

Raised by Another (#1.09)

Raising Hope: The Best Show You Always Forget About

You're not alone.  I forget about this show all the time, too.  I don't understand why.  It is incredibly funny.  I always enjoy the time I spend watching it.  And when I do remember it, I look forward to it.  I suppose it doesn't help that it was thrown into an untimely hiatus for baseball (yawn) over the last few weeks.  Maybe it just doesn't get nearly the advertising it deserves.  Still, you'd think I'd be able to remember a show that I dubbed the Best Returning Comedy Premiere.  In any case, Raising Hope is way too good for this kind of treatment.  Now, let me tell you why...

The premise is simple, but unique.  Twenty-three-year-old Jimmy Chance has a one-night stand with a woman he later finds out is a serial killer.  She gets pregnant and, shortly after giving birth, is executed for her crimes.  This puts the newborn baby Princess Beyoncé into the hands of Jimmy, his parents Burt and Virginia, and his nutty great-grandmother, Maw Maw.  They change the baby's name to Hope and begin this unexpected journey of trying to raise her.  (Hence, Raising Hope.  Get it?) 

The series was created by Greg Garcia, the same guy that gave us My Name is Earl.  I haven't seen much Earl in my time, so I am very limited when it comes to making comparisons.  I can tell you that Hope has quite a few guest stars from Earl and that both shows tread the same poor-white-trash waters.  This doesn't so much comment on why Raising Hope is so good, except that it was created by a seasoned TV comedy writer.

The cast for Raising Hope is where this series really starts to shine.  Cloris Leachman is a comedy legend and even though they are (hilariously) crediting her as "Introducing Cloris Leachman," I'd be shocked if you didn't already know her.  In Hope, she plays Maw Maw, the rarely lucid and increasingly crazy great-great-grandmother to the baby, Hope.  Her antics, no matter how silly and absurd, are hilarious and sometimes feel familiar to those of us with aging parents.  Yeah, I said it.  I love you, Mom and Dad :)

Hope's grandmother, Virginia, is played by Martha Plimpton, who received an Emmy nomination for the role.  She definitely deserved it.  Actually, after Amy Poehler for her third season as Leslie Knope, Plimpton was my choice to win the award.  It took me too long to make this connection, but you might know her better from The Goonies.

Rounding out the rest of the main cast is Garret Dillahunt as Burt, Lucas Neff as Jimmy, and Shannon Woodward as Sabrina. Kate Micucci also guest stars with her ukulele.

And although I haven't always been the biggest fan of Jimmy, this season he is definitely growing on me.  They stopped making him only the straight-man and let out a little bit of his wacky side.  The same is becoming true of Sabrina.  She's not the "normal" one anymore.

Don't even get me started on Hope, herself.  The twins that play her, Bayley and Rylie Crecut, are beyond adorable.  And if the cuteness alone doesn't win you over, this show gets some really good performances out of those babies.  Now I know what you're thinking, babies can't really act, but watch the episode "Killer Hope" and tell me there wasn't at least a part of you frightened by the looks Hope was giving.

As for the story-lines, they are very easy to relate to, especially in times like these where we are all struggling a little bit.  We might not have the same ways of dealing with these situations - like simply living on your lawn for a few days while the house is tented for termites - but the scenarios are familiar nonetheless.  We can sympathize with Chance family when they realize Jimmy will never be the musician he could have been.  We, too, might be disappointed that our cousin got the dream wedding we always wanted.  We might not try to copy it from the back of the room, but we feel the sting of jealousy all the same.

Burt and Virginia have one of my favorite marriages on TV* and the will-they-won't-they romance of Jimmy and Sabrina grows a little bit each episode.  As they say in the video above, Raising Hope is also a little bit twisted, and I think that is what gives it an edge over other comedies.  It is first a comedy about a family, but not one like any other I've ever known.  The characters are lovable and relatable, but quirky and strange in all their own ways.

Raising Hope easily blends that magical combination of heart and hilarity.  It astounds me how easily I forget about it, but for whatever reason, it is certainly worth the effort to remember.  Or just set your DVR.  Then you'll have an awesome surprise each week when you check your list of recordings.










*Probably second only to Andy and April from Parks and Recreation.

The Girl Who Was On Fire (#1.08)

I have a new obsession and it's not a TV show.  It swept me off my feet in three parts and soon enough I'll get to experience it again in a whole new way.  What is this new obsession?

For some of you, I might be a little late catching up to this party.  The series began back in 2008 with the first book, The Hunger Games, so forgive my tardiness.  It only took me three years to figure out what you already knew.

Anyway, I recently read all three books and was completely enthralled with the series.  I couldn't put it down and in between reading sessions, it was all I could think about.  The basic plot is this (from Wikipedia):

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem, where North America once existed. This is where a government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the first book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of 12 districts for a massive televised battle in which only one person can survive.

 A brutal set-up to begin with, The Hunger Games is vicious and unrelenting.  Children are forced to murder one another, year after year, in a so-called game devised to prevent a rebellion.  I don't want to give anything away, particularly about the second (Catching Fire) and third (Mockingjay) books of the series, but trust me when I say it's the most violent young adult book series I have ever read.

I'm not sure why I was so affected by this series, but it has been almost two weeks since I finished and I am heavily considering starting it all over again.  I think it has to do with my fascination for post-apocalyptic worlds.  I love that stuff.  Again, I'm not entirely sure why, but I sometimes think of myself as invincible and it intrigues me to think about whether or not I may have survived a given apocalyptic scenario.  In real life, my chances are probably average, but in my head, I'm the one leading the group of survivors.  I am the one who found a suitable shelter and a means for acquiring food and supplies.  I guess we'll know for sure when the zombies take over.  In this book, the apocalypse came and went long ago, but I can just as easily put myself in the Hunger Games and consider whether or not I'd come out a victor.

Yes, this makes me Buffy.

Outside of my (wild) imagination, I think I enjoyed this series so much because of the unique concept and the characters.  These characters are subjected to a world where right and wrong are not black and white, and every shade of gray leaves us questioning their decisions.  Almost everyone is motivated by fear and an instinct to survive.  Katniss, our heroine*, is far from righteous, but every choice she makes is based on what she views as being right in that moment.  You root for her from the beginning, even when you don't agree with some of her decisions.

Of course, there is a love story, but it isn't all-consuming.  This love-triangle is simply another battle in Katniss's war to survive.  And even though the pressure to choose between Peeta and Gale is always there, Katniss puts this decision pretty far down her priority list.

In summation, go read these books.  Or you can borrow them from me.  And I do mean borrow.  I'm going to want them back in a timely manner.

Furthermore, The Hunger Games has recently been adapted for film and is set to open on March 23, 2012.  Just last week, posters were released, giving fans a first look at the characters, as portrayed in the film (all posters can be found at EW here).

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen

I am giddy with excitement!  However, not all adaptations are good.  In fact, most of them are pretty bad, but right now, I'm happy for any and all things Hunger Games-related.  Perhaps my new fixation will subside by the time March finally rolls around.  But if it doesn't, you know where to find me.  Until then, I'll be watching the teaser trailer on repeat...

* And by heroine, I mean "lady hero."  I don't want to inject her and listen to jazz.