Parenthood Wrap Up and Modern Family's Visit From the Godfather

This was a busy week in television with the return of American Idol and the beginning of the new Kevin Bacon series The Following on Fox. I have already written about The Following and while we watched Idol it is kind of a big yawn.

Not boring this week were a couple of our regular favorites. Parenthood, the much loved but low rated NBC series, ended it's season with a show that wrapped all of the bows of the season up in a nice package. If you were looking for there to be any loose strings you did not find many. The Ron Howard produced show is consistently one of the best shows on the air, people joke about crying each week, but folks only cry when a scene hits home.

NBC finished the series off quickly as they want to make room for their rebooted show SMASH, which coincidentally is another cult favorite that the network would like to see build a broader base. As to Parenthood the worry each spring is NBC will pull the plug but it seems unlikely that they will throw such a well regarded show over the side. If that decision is made certainly it's viewers will have to be happy with the season end.

Over on ABC Wednesday night Modern Family had a smart episode. The plot line was typical sitcom stuff but what made this show standout was the ending sequence which out of the blue put together a spin on the culminating scene in the Godfather when the baby is being baptized and at the same time a wide variety of hits is going down all over Gangster world, even with the " Do you renounce Satan" line. The short clip at the end of the series even had Phil and his son closing the door to the den in Claire's face telling her " not to ask him about his business." This is pretty clever stuff and while silly this is culturally aware silly as opposed to the foolishness that typically goes on HIMYM that I wrote about last week.

Both of these shows are standouts this week.

Comedy Lives: Mindy and 1600 Penn

Outside of The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and the increasingly uneven How I Met Your Mother it is not easy to find a comedy worth watching. One might laugh at The New Normal and last year I enjoyed the new Tim Allen vehicle a bit but neither has really stuck.

It is hard to find a niche. As comedy becomes more niche oriented it is much more difficult to have a broad based hit. This past fall Fox started airing a show called The Mindy Project. Starring Mindy Kaling, previously on The Office the show garnered lots of critical praise but not a great deal of viewers.

This past fall my oldest son discovered The Office and has since watched all the seasons of the show on Netflix. Being in the room with him occassionally I have gained an appreciation for the show and its template for humor. By now we are all familiar with the premise of the characters occasionally talking to the camera, Modern Family copied it though that seems to be less and less of a factor on the show. For those mourning the loss of The Office at the end of the season Mindy is an excellent remedy.

Around the holiday Fox spent an evening broadcasting multiple episodes of the show and I found myself quite impressed. The show is like The Office but with perhaps a little more of the vagaries of a typical sitcom. Kaling who is considered one of the most talented comedy personalities around is excellent in the show, she has a strong cast, and the writing is top notch. One hopes that Fox will be patient with the show, it took quite sometime for The Office to gain an audience and this show deserves that time as well. It has been added to the list of shows that I tape so it must be doing something right.

1600 Penn has been placed on NBC's Thursday night lineup and the network has very high hopes. Having seen the pilot a couple of weeks ago in a sneak preview and the second episode last night I would rate the show as funny and sweet. This is not necessarily a combination that always works, especially with the shows that NBC has made a habit of playing in this time slot. Snark has been the word and this show is a combination of over the top silly and sweet endings. Said to be NBC's response to Modern Family one wonders if any show that has politics involved, certainly a sitcom will sell well in flyover country. If not then the demographics on the coasts must be very strong indeed and this show seems like it might struggle in that department.

With all that said for me the show is a winner. Bill Pullman plays a President with four children, and a second wife played by Jenna Elfman. Trophy Wife she may be to the American public but she is genuinely trying to develop a relationship with her new " kids." In the first episode the sad sack oldest son, after seven years in college, is expelled and returns home. Played as a more sweet, naive, Bluto from Animal House in the first two episodes he helps his father win a trade deal with South American countries and announces to the press that his sister is pregnant from a one night stand and does not even know who the father is.

Having a strong liking for Jenna Elfman, who will always be Dharma to me does not hurt the show for me. I think it will be tough to make this a wide ranging hit but if NBC is patient it might do well mixed in with other shows that appeal to the left wing audience if they do not find it too silly. It is a tough line to walk, but for me, while they try it is well worth watching.

Modern Family and The Middle

These two ABC stalwarts made their season debut last night. As singing shows rule the roost in our house I DVR'd these both the premiere episodes.

Both shows are examples of how tremendously funny a television show can be. Modern Family, which wins award after award each year, is funny, sarcastic and mixes effortlessly between right between your eyes funny and under the radar humor that you have to catch or observe. Last night's episode for example featured a couple of very large stuffed animals apparently copulating on the roof of a car. Who thinks of this stuff?

The Middle on the other hand is surely the less cool of the two shows. While Modern Family features a diverse group of people, including a gay couple with an adopted Chinese baby, The Middle tells us the story of a middle class family in Indiana with the last name Heck. Hollywood loves to celebrate themselves and so The Middle is rarely acknowledged for it's success. Flyover country, it seems, exists in television shows as well.

With that being said The Middle is fantastic television. While I watched the episode this morning I felt like I should resolve to find the hidden cameras in our home as they clearly were stealing all of their ideas from our lives. As the Heck family last night struggled on a thin budget to create memories of their perhaps " one last summer with everybody together" I recalled a conversation with my wife a few months ago where she said the exact same thing. Of course the similarities are clear, they have three kids, we have three kids and the gratifying thing in watching your life on the small screen is realizing that what you are going through with your kids is close to universal. They are not really spying on you, your family life is terribly familiar to all parents.

Modern Family is perhaps slightly more sophisticated in it's humor and I suppose in some parts of the country featuring a gay couple might still be controversial but I don't think in too many places that matters anymore. Ann Romney, for Goodness sake said that the show was her favorite. That of course begged all kinds of follow up questions but to my knowledge they were never asked.

The Middle featuring that white-bread, boring, Indiana family might be more of a challenge to produce. What is true is that a great prejudice exists in our culture amongst the elite against middle class families like the Hecks. Middle class values are claimed to be respected and honored but in many cases it is just lip service and those speaking the words go back to their vacation homes and enjoy their cognac. In short how many social scientists wear flannel and live in Middle America. To them the Middle and the people they portray could be as foreign as aborigines.

Both of these shows are brilliant and I enjoy them both. I suspect that most of the viewers who watch one watch the other. Still I do find it remarkable that with a little bit of thought the two shows can be seen to be portraying many of the divisions in our country. Traditional versus new age families, East and West Coast culture versus flyover country, those who live in huge palatial homes versus those that live in a small, well lived in, ranch house. Indeed in it's simplest terms blue state versus red state.

I enjoy both shows and think most people do not think that deep. Nor should they. Still I suspect that somewhere, right now, a social scientist is writing his dissertation on the subject of the ABC Wednesday night comedies.

The Middle

Last fall when ABC launched their new fall lineup this Wednesday night show did not get the pre press that Modern Family did. We enjoy Modern Family in our house but in terms of being relatable The Middle is the tops. A week does not go by that in watching this show my wife and I do not have one of those " We have been here before looks" in watching a scenario that is depicted on the show. My oldest son who at 14 will parade into the kitchen barely speaking above a grunt and advise that we have nothing good to eat the minute we run out of unhealthy cereals and pizza rolls could easily be the young man on this show.

Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond fan fits this role very well and the rest of the cast fits as well. The youngest son Brick ( the oldest is named Axl, so much for Wally and the Beav) is a very strange child that serves to make us feel bad for laughing at him but laugh we do. How many children across America after watching him now repeat things to themselves under their breath.

If they are what they should be whispering is " Funny" as in this show is " Funny"

Modern Family

We watched Modern Family last evening. You know nothing outrageous happens on the show but there is something comforting in seeing the kids on the show act like the kids in your house. Last evening the eldest son wanted a car so he was acting more responsible and the Dad and the Mom had a disagreement on who gave in to the children more. Nothing outlandish just funny.

Set the Tivo to watch the returning Nip Tuck. This is the end of the show after this run. How much more stuff can those boys go through. I guess we will find out