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Friday, 25 September 2009 22:06

Modern Family/Cougartown

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Two new comedies on ABC - I sampled them both recently.  The verdict - they're both good for different reasons with my fav being "Modern Family."

MF reminds me of "Arrested Development" that brilliant, quirky comedy that has outlived its cancellation.  The gang in MF aren't quite as dysfunctional but they are definitely dysfunctional with the same funny results.  

The stories rotate around a patriarch, Ed O'Neil of "Married With Children" fame and his very young wife and her son.  O'Neil is just perfect in his characterization as is his Latina wife who is constantly propositioned because they think O'Neil is her father, not her husband.  The actor who plays the son is freaking hilarious are he dresses in white satin, puffy shirts and reads poetry to the "older girl" at the photo hut.  

O'Neil's immediate family consists of a gay son who is in a committed relationship and a daughter whose family is basically "normal" although the father character is so clueless about how clueless he is he is a constant source of hilarity.  "I'm one of those hip fathers.  I text.  LOL - laugh out loud, WTF - why the face."  Oh my - he is just painful and funny to watch.

There's funny and sweet in good measure here.  This show went immediately to my Season Pass on my Tivo.

Following "Modern Family" is "Cougartown."  Courteney Cox, Bill Lawrence (creator of "Scrubs") and funny sexual innuendo and chit chat. How could "Cougartown" miss? It does but only barely.

"Cougartown" has that Bill Lawrence touch of manic comedy that made "Scrubs" so popular. And Miss Cox is in fine, comedic form (and other form) for the role. If they just didn't try so hard to be funny. There was one line about "hooking up with my son" that simply made me cringe - among others. It all felt...forced. Like someone acting out at a dinner table trying to impress. They might say ten things that are not funny and/or cringeable and then one thing that is legitimately funny. Unfortunately that's not enough to mitigate the rest of the evening when they talked about boogers. That's this show. There's gags about Realtor Cox's friend (Busy Philipps) putting out those promo signs to sell a house with Cox's boobs nearly popping out of her top - her friend's explanation - "we need to get you out there again" (after a messy divorce, natch.) By the way, the actress Busy Philipps should really be spelled with a "t" because she is well-endowed and damned proud of those mams - they are put in a very good light whenever possible.  Thanks, Bill Lawrence.

Cox's son's character, a potentially legit bright spot,  is long-suffering because: all the kids want to steal the promotional posters with Cox's boobs popping out; his lame father gets a job at the high school cutting the lawn while rocking out to heavy metal, and he catches his mom having oral sex with someone almost her son's age.

But one major problem is that anyone who looks like Cox would have her choice of men so the plot to get her in the "action" again is just unbelievable. If there is any fat or cellulite on this woman's body (which they show over and over again in lacy underwear - another big ups to B) I'd be hard pressed to find it.  She looks very, very good.

I had my share of meetings with Ms Cox when I wrote a script for her company. All of them were very pleasant. She's a likable and funny woman. I wish she or her company had liked my script more but that's show business. They may have handled it wrong, so be it. That doesn't diminish the fact that I love her comedic skills or her simple likability as a person and it's apparent in abundance in this show. But she's struggling in this show most of the time because the concept is fundamentally flawed - I don't want to watch a totally desirable woman struggle to find sexual partners - it just isn't that funny and it's unbelievable. Plus, unlike "Scrubs" which had an amazing supporting cast, this one isn't quite as good and so it puts even more burden on Cox to be funny. Even in "Friends" Monica was a good, solid and funny character but we also had the others to go to - it wasn't so one note. Here we only have her. It's just not enough. Yet. This show may find its way although it probably won't be on my Tivo in the future.

With these two good shows the future of half-hour sitcoms looks good to me.
 

Read 1617 times Last modified on Wednesday, 05 August 2015 16:12
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