An analysis on the TV show Modern Family

Modern Family Television network ABC Family’s breakout comedy series, Modern Family, is a show full of life lessons and hidden meanings. Most television shows nowadays are all about sex, alcohol, and the dramas that occur because of them. Modern Family is not an exception, however it focuses more on the family aspect of life’s many dramas. On the surface, it is similar to the sex and drugs filled television shows that consume the media these days, but underneath that surface each episode has a moral to be learned, and the show overall represents many different assumptions America makes on what a “typical” family is.
Modern Family is different mainly because of the variety of characters. Made as a mockumentary (a documentary but for a parody), it centers on the daily lives of Jay Pritchett, a middle aged man who recently married the much younger Gloria, a gorgeous Latina who hails from Colombia. Gloria has a young son, Manny, who is very introspective and mature beyond his years. Jay has two grown children, Claire and Mitchell. Claire married Phil Dunphy and had three very different children, Haley, Alex, and Luke. Claire is a bit of a control freak; family gatherings must be perfect. When things don’t go as planned, she feels like a failure. Phil is a real estate agent who tries to be the “cool dad” and is basically just a kid himself, causing him to create problems often so he’s always finding new ways to hide his screw-ups from his wife. Haley is a typical teenage girl; her worries are about boys, driving, her embarrassing father, and arguing her rights as a young woman with her mother. Alex got all the brains in the family; she loves taking advantage of her older sister’s stupidity and her younger brother’s naiveté. Luke is his mother’s baby and the epitome of a sweet innocent boy. And finally, Mitchell, who is a somewhat sensible lawyer, which makes him the exact opposite of his longtime partner, Cameron, also known as Cam. He is flamboyant with a capital F