RAVE of the week

ABC’s new series “Modern Family” is a delightfully charming comedy chronicling the lives of three families. The show is filmed as a mockumentary similar to NBC’s “The Office.” The characters are aware of the cameras and portions of the show include interviews where they reflect on themselves and the various situations they get into. One of the three families, include Claire and Phil Dunphy (Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell), a married couple of sixteen years trying to raise three children. Burrell is hilarious as a dad trying to stay hip for his kids only to embarrass them more by using their lingo. (Phil even knows the dances to “High School Musical.”) Ed O’Neill (“Married.with Children”) is back on television as an older man with a younger, hot wife Gloria, who have only been married for six months. Gloria has an 11-year-old son Manny from a previous relationship and she is from one of the smallest villages in Colombia with the highest rate of murders. Finally, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) are a gay couple who have recently adopted a baby without telling Mitchell’s family. They would have had one of their lesbian friends as a surrogate to carry the baby, but according to the duo, they are “mean enough.” The kicker is that all three families are related to one another (O’Neill plays the father to Bowen and Ferguson). ABC has not had a real comedy success in years that was worthy of the audience’s time, but “Modern Family” has shown in a single episode that the idea of the family sitcom can be re-interpreted to new hysterical heights.

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