Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Theblazeuk]

It really works better on a slow burn.

[Dark Jimbo]

Yeah, I don't blame the series itself. Always meant to give it another shot one day.

[Tiplodocus]

Just started watching MODERN FAMILY - an american sit-com about life in a modern family. 

There's a traditional husband and wife and 2.2 kids as one strand but also some less than traditional couples and offspring. It's done in "Office" style i.e. people speaking directly to an unseen interviewer at points but also able to cast some great glances to camera during otherwise normal scenes.

I must say, I like it. There are some great characters, some fantastically crafted gags (that aren't always obviously "set-up/punchline" or sarcastic quippery).

Some issues - everybody is very pleasantly well off and the mums are all stay at home and often "let the dads win" to keep the peace. What is this, 1970?

But other than that, I find it very smart slice of (unattainable) life comedy.

And I'm totally in love with one of the cast members. Not Sofia Vergara (who, to quote "looks like she fell off a mud flap") but the marvellous Cam. The thought of his Lion King still makes me laugh.

Right, you can all slate me now because it's so boring and traditional and not in the slightest bit edgy.

[Theblazeuk]

You can only be truly poor in America if your family is involved in crime, substance abuse, or if you are in possession of a different skin colour. Or at least that's what the TV tells me. Otherwise you can afford a massive apartment with a terrace in the middle of New York on the salary of a waitress and a chef.

[Professor Bear]

It's not just an American thing, British tv is very middle class-centric, too.
Having said that, I think Modern Family has an in-built excuse because of the reality/documentary conceit, as the show-within-a-show is following a "normalised" family unit rather than one in extreme circumstances (such as poverty), though there's plenty of US shows about poor people, like 2 Broke Girls, Devious Maids (which technically qualifies even if there are rich people in it), Mom or the Fosters.

[Keef Monkey]

Modern Family has become our teatime sitcom now Tips, I wrote it off quite early on but it won me over and now I'm really enjoying it. Some great moments and performances in that show.

I decided on a whim to figure out where I left off 24 and pick it up again, so I've just jumped back in towards the end of season 6. I'd stopped because I got a bit burnt out on it and wasn't feeling it anymore, but coming back fresh the hooks are right back in. I just love it, and mainly because it's ludicrous. Guaranteed I'll gasp at something insane at about the 58mins mark in every single episode. It's mental but brilliant, brilliant tv.

[radiator]

Just started watching MODERN FAMILY - an american sit-com about life in a modern family. 

There's a traditional husband and wife and 2.2 kids as one strand but also some less than traditional couples and offspring. It's done in "Office" style i.e. people speaking directly to an unseen interviewer at points but also able to cast some great glances to camera during otherwise normal scenes.

I must say, I like it. There are some great characters, some fantastically crafted gags (that aren't always obviously "set-up/punchline" or sarcastic quippery).

Some issues - everybody is very pleasantly well off and the mums are all stay at home and often "let the dads win" to keep the peace. What is this, 1970?

But other than that, I find it very smart slice of (unattainable) life comedy.

And I'm totally in love with one of the cast members. Not Sofia Vergara (who, to quote "looks like she fell off a mud flap") but the marvellous Cam. The thought of his Lion King still makes me laugh.

Right, you can all slate me now because it's so boring and traditional and not in the slightest bit edgy.

Not at all, I've mentioned many times on this thread about my love for Modern Family. A genuinely funny family sitcom with broad appeal is a rare thing.

Be warned though, it (IMO) completely goes off a cliff after season 2. Every episode from 3.1 onwards almost entirely lacks the charm and wit of what came before. Even my girlfriend, who held on longer than me, have up on it midway through season 4.

[Frank]

You can only be truly poor in America if your family is involved in crime, substance abuse, or if you are in possession of a different skin colour. Or at least that's what the TV tells me. Otherwise you can afford a massive apartment with a terrace in the middle of New York on the salary of a waitress and a chef.

It was a rent controlled apartment, and Monica had to pretend her Grandma (the official tenant) was still living there to hold onto the lease - they did a whole episode about it, so it wasn't just a yuppie fantasy. The conspicuous wealth of characters in US film and TV fascinated me as a kid; all those John Hughes teenagers living in two-storey clapboard mansions making unmetered calls on the phones they had in their rooms and holidaying in The Islands. Roseanne was the only exception.

I just assume that's because very few of the US nationals who manage to get their work on screen come from a working class * background or have any experience of that form of existence. That's largely true of successful UK screenwriters too, they just feel more guilty about their privilege than their counterparts in the aspirational US, and so inflict wretchedly clichéd portrayals of what they imagine working class people and their lives are probably like upon viewers.


* that term's a synonym for bum or trailer trash in the context of the US - almost anyone with a job figures themselves as middle class

[Professor Bear]

It's not just film and tv - yank comics in recent years seem to have migrated focus from the slums of NYC to the beaches of Los Angeles.  I think I noticed it first with Runaways - a comic whose cast never seemed to encounter poor people and who always lived in lush mansions despite the premise of the book being that they were homeless kids "making it on their own" or something.  The in-house art preference seems to have changed at Marvel to reflect this, too - switching from scratchy, gritty realism to bold, slightly abstract manga styles.

[TordelBack]

...they did a whole episode about it, so it wasn't just a yuppie fantasy.

Similarly the Simpsons, supposedly eternally teetering on the brink of poverty, appear to live in a detached house with a vast garden, basement, attic, garage and four bedrooms. But again this became the subject of an episode, with Frank Grimes as the incredulous observer. 

At least Lois and Hal from Malcolm in the Middle had a shit lawn and had to get by with two bedrooms. 

The bit that always got me was Ferris bitching about getting a kickass computer with a modem and a synthesiser instead of a car like his sister.  Boo-drokkin'-hoo, Bueller,

[Theblazeuk]

Also British stuff clearly does it better. The doctor's place is the definition of a box room and even Sherlock has to lodge at someone's house.

[Frank]

The bit that always got me was Ferris bitching about getting a kickass computer with a modem and a synthesiser instead of a car like his sister.  Boo-drokkin'-hoo, Bueller

I always took the modem and computer line to be a reference to Broderick's character in War Games. Which I suppose could mean Ferris's sister got her car as compensation for her nasty experience of sexual predation by a much older member of staff at Summer camp.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

At any one time, my TV schedule would comprise of either of the following: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Boardwalk Empire, Doctor Who, Endeavour, Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, True Detective and Utopia.

[IronGraham]

For me my current habbit is mad men

[Hawkmumbler]

Been watching Adventure Tim. Shame on me for not getting into it sooner! What a bloody fun series!