The 10 Best Sitcoms on TV Right Now
The 10 Best Sitcoms on TV? I can't believe I'm even typing that... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayModern Family Review: "Benched" (1.20)
It's taken a few episodes, but finally Modern Family has stepped back to address the fallout from Mitchell losing his job. I'd like to say that the show is attempting to mirror the goings-on of the modern economy, but that's simply not the case. A third of "Benched" is devoted to Mitchell following up a job lead that he's somewhat ambivalent about but nonetheless interested in, while Cameron tags along and generally messes things up for him by being an awkward drunk. Why he's there at all is never really explained, but that isn't the real problem this plotline drifts into.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsModern Family Review: "Game Changer" (1.19)
How funny exactly does a sitcom have to be? It's hard to escape the notion that the most important thing for any comedy is going to be the quality of its jokes, the whether-you-laugh aspect of things. That being said, some of my favorite stand-up comedians (Lenny Bruce, George Carlin) could talk for a while without any jokes being said, or anything particularly funny at all about their diatribes. They were still great, but it wasn't the laughs alone that you listened for. On the other hand, you won't find out much about Mitch Hedberg's politics from listening to his... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsModern Family, Glee, NPR Win at 2010 Peabody Awards
Since 1941, the George Foster Peabody Awards have been acknowledging excellence in television and radio worldwide (adding the internet to the mix in recent years). Today the 2010 winners were announced at the award’s University of Georgia headquarters. Amongst the victors were ABC’s Modern Family, Fox’s Glee and HBO’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.... read more
Found in: Radio, NewsModern Family Review: "Starry Night" (1.18)
Like The Office before it and many other single camera sit-coms flooding the airwaves, Modern Family is supposed to exist in reality. Theoretically, the show is a documentary that focuses on an every family that really exists. Each show that's shot in this way has its own little quirks that keep it from ever really approaching the feeling of actual cinema verite, but last night's episode was one of the more interesting illustrations of this strange "reality" line since The Office acknowledged the existence of its cameras. Remember last week when Mitchell lost his job? Well, the only concession that... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsModern Family Review: "Truth Be Told" (1.17)
While some of my complaints from last week’s extremely disappointing episode of Modern Family returned for “Truth Be Told,” this week’s episode had a real change. I should note here that a show doesn’t have to have characters and their relationships constantly changing to be interesting. The Simpsons was the strongest show on television for most of its first decade and every episode began right back where they started at; likewise Arrested Development would never do more than hint that change was possible while always returning things to status quo. But it takes some pretty brilliant joke writers and more... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsModern Family Review: "Fears" (1.16)
There are few things that irritate me so much as high-concept filmmaking, which means that the introductions at the beginning of most episodes of Modern Family usually serve to do little more than irritate me. Not only do they tell you that the episodes themselves are going to be high-concept, they also spell out for you what the theme we're going to be dealing with is in case you're too stupid to figure it out on your own. While not exactly the same thing as "it's a movie where dinosaurs come back to life," it's easy to see that the... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsModern Family Director to Helm Russel Brand's Arthur Remake
A remake of the 1981 comedy Arthur—a film starring Dudley Moore as a drunken ladies man who must marry a rich woman in order to inherit a share of his family’s fortune—has been in the works for a couple of years now. British comedian Russell Brand will fill Moore’s boozy shoes by taking on the lead role in the updated version.... read more
Found in: Movies, NewsModern Family Review: "My Funky Valentine" (1.15)
It feels like we’re just past the season’s slate of Christmas episodes and already we’re flooded with Valentine’s Day. While holidays in reality unfortunately comprise only a week or so of our lives, in TV world they’re usually about three out of a 22-episode season. Fortunately, the first few of these tend to be the best, before shows have already drained the holiday well so many times that we know what to expect. Modern Family sees no reason to buck this trend, so fittingly “My Funky Valentine” focuses on how each of the show’s three families celebrates the holiday, each... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsThe Funniest Characters on TV Right Now
Say what you will about the boob tube, but because of its serial nature, television allows for more character development than film or even most novels. When we find characters worth watching, we may stick with them for years (or in the case of the ageless Simpsons, decades). That’s a big investment of time, so the payoff better be good. In the case of these 10 characters, the payoff is in laughs. Here are the 10 funniest TV characters still on the air:... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the Day
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