Modern Family

I just started watching this new show called Modern Family. It airs on ABC, but I watch it on my laptop on Hulu (yay media convergence!). The show centers around this very dysfunctional family where three generations play a role in the plot. The grandfather is married to a hispanic woman who is younger than his daughter, his gay son and his partner have just adopted a baby girl from China, and his ex wife (played by Cheers' Shelly Long), tries to come back into the family to break up the marriage. The show deals with a lot of issues about representation that we have been talking about recently because the couples and relationships are all a bit unorthodox. A beautiful suburban housewife is married to a really dorky man with awkward social skills, a sexy Latina woman is married to a man twice her age, and the gay relationship takes a look at certain stereotypes of gay people. The show is funny because nobody can escape being represented - there is really something for everybody. Part of the humor of the show comes from the fact that it is a somewhat accurate representation of human nature, no matter how ridiculous it can be. The show is filmed as a regular episode, but has interjections of Christopher Guest-esq interviews with an anonymous interviewer. The characters sit on a couch and look just past the camera, but it serves to give us a better insight into their personalities. I think it's up to the viewer to decide whether or not ABC is making fun of these stereotypes in a malicious way, or if their poking fun at it brings the issue of representation to national attention.