Modern Family

Channel: Ten
Day & time: Tuesday, 8.00 p.m.

Seems poor old Ed O’Neill can’t get away from “love and marriage”. The one-time star of Married… with Children is back in the marital harness for Modern Family on Ten. For those fearful that this is simply a re-run of the earlier series, rest assured – this is a lot better.

Modern Family springs from the minds and pens of Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd (no, not the horror actor). They both have a strong track record in TV, having collaborated on the brilliant Wings (as well as the less-brilliant Back to You). Levitan’s CV also includes The Larry Sanders Show and Just Shoot Me; and Lloyd’s, Frasier and the movie Flushed Away.

The idea – as the title suggests – is to take a fresh look at family life by breaking out of the ‘mom-and-apple-pie’ model so beloved by American network TV and examining how ‘modern’ families really are. For the purposes of this series, that includes blended families and (shock, horror!) gay families. Yep, this is about as far away from the middling Patricia Heaton vehicle The Middle as you can get.

In keeping with their ‘breaking the mould’ approach, Levitan and Lloyd employ a mockumentary approach to each episode. The characters speak directly to the camera, and the action unfolds in fly-on-the-wall style. This is a refreshing approach from your standard sitcom scenario; and I for one don’t miss the canned laughter track.

At the start of each show, a question is posed to each of the three families. The reactions of the family members to that question provides the theme for each episode. You might recognise this as similar to the device used in Sex and the City on the small screen.

The three ‘modern’ families of the title are a traditional family, a blended family and a gay family. The ‘traditionals’ are Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) and their kids Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould). The ‘blend’ consists of Jay Pritchett (O’Neill), his new – and much younger – wife Gloria (Sofia Veraga) and Gloria’s son from a previous marriage Manny (Rico Rodriguez II); while the gay family is Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) and adopted baby Lily.

At the end of the first episode, it’s revealed that they’re all actually related, with Jay being the father of both Mitchell and Claire, making him grandfather to their kids and making them brother and sister. It’s all a bit confusing, but the show generally keeps the various families separate, making it easier to follow what’s going on.

Where Modern Family differs from many other shows about domestic relationships is that it’s actually funny. Although you might expect O’Neill to be at the centre of the laughs, he generally plays things pretty straight. Ty Burrell however is hilarious as ‘cool dad’ Phil. Eric Stonestreet camps it up wonderfully as the flamboyant Cameron, while Sofia Veraga vamps it up as the saucy Gloria.

For something out of the mainstream, Modern Family ticks a lot of the right boxes. That it doesn’t pander to the standard formula is definitely a big part of its attraction. As you might have gathered, it also hits on some hot-button topics, which has led to be being somewhat controversial in America (whether it will have the same reaction in more laid-back Oz remains to be seen).

Ten have certainly given it every chance to succeed, placing it in the 8 pm slot immediately following the hugely successful Masterchef Australia. I hope it does well, if only so that other networks might take a risk on something that’s a bit adventurous instead of force-feeding us the same drivel packaged slightly differently.

Phil James