Thursday 24 September 2020

Modern Family (2009 - 2020 Created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd)

All 11 series - about 90 hours. Season three was a little silly; becomes increasingly clever, viz. season six episode which takes place entirely on Claire's laptop, Fawlty Towers-ish Christmas turkeys, Phil caught on plane between magician (Penn) and masseuse.

Phil trying to saw down a fir tree. It snaps the saw blade. 'What's this thing made of? They should make saws out of it.'

Interesting people appear throughout - a very young Kaitlyn Dever, Jesse Eisenberg, Steven Merchant (butler in hilarious Vegas episode), Rhys Derby, Steven Zahn, June Squibb, Adam Arkin, Chris Martin, Billy Crystal.


Think my favourite character might be Alex (Ariel Winter):
Hayley to Andy: "We even share the same brain!"
Alex: "Who's using it now?"

But they're all good. Sarah Hyland (Hayley), Ed O'Neill, Julie Bowen, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Jess Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.

One of my favourite bits is Claire weirdly smiling when she says someone has died. Also loved Kelsey Grammer as 'ebutler', the 'orange juice' network for non-Pritchards, Gloria's eviction of the Russians using nanny language, and Valentines episode where Claire has learned magic (including getting changed in a shower of confetti). 'Jotham' one of the funnier mad names of the gay crowd.

"Didn't you sell my neighbour's house? White, mid-century, big back porch?"
"That's her."

"We only do one thing, and that's install gazebos and sheds... Look out for our new bird baths."


Niecy Nash is fun as parking attendant - we thought her character Joan could have her own show. And Andy Daly good as school principal.

"Sweet biscuits..." Q said to me the other day in Waitrose. "That sounds like one of Phil Dunphy's exclamations," was my reply.

There's no let-up in the quality of the final season, beginning intriguingly at a research station in Antarctica, though it does end up a bit mushy.

Phil: "Does this straightjacket look right on me?"
Alex: "More and more."

Hayley: "I've been going to that liquor store since I was 15.. minutes past 21."

"Oh my God - you knew you were going to die and you flew coach?"

Amusing digs at technology (talking fridge and closet).

Lovely to see a reprieve of Steven Merchant, as a super-concierge - "There is no greater joy than getting something I've never heard of for someone I've just met". And Phil's Psycho Halloween moment, and his car-jack invention which you know is going to go wrong - just unaware how spectacularly wrong!

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