What’s up?

The good news? “Up All Night” has been given a whole season. The bad news? So has “Whitney”

I’m sorry, what? Has NBC even watched their own show? It’s awful and unfunny.

But let’s focus on the good. If you’re an “Arrested Development” fan then this is old news. But for anyone who hasn’t heard, AD is getting a short season and a movie!!! HELLZ YEAH! I’m super excited to see what the Bluth’s have been up to in the past 5 years. From the sounds of it, a lot and it’s not good (but probably hilarious).

Also pretty awesome is new new Fox show “Terra Nova.” Maybe you caught the 1 hour and 45 minute long pilot? If not, go check it out on Hulu right now! I’m not a big dinosaur person. I mean the science in how they are discovered and dated and how their physiological aspects are reconstructed is pretty cool. But…. yeah, they just don’t fascinate me. “Terra Nova” does a great job at making me care though because they are a very real threat to the characters. They’ve been brought back in time to a point where they will co-habitate on the same planet with these beasts, yet there is so much to be discovered. Example: this week’s episode. The whole concept is cool and the production value is super high (what do you expect with Spielberg at the helm?). So why was it so surprising that the ratings would stay high for this show? Well produced SciFi is really popular right now.

I mean come on. What else are you going to watch? Not “The Playboy Club.” That crap has been CANCELLED!

Cage Match Part 2: Modern Family

Thanks for coming back to read part 2 of the cage match. And again, to clarify, I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of Modern Family. So I’m not completely versed in the Modern Family ‘verse. Maybe I haven’t seen enough to fully get a huge sense of what the show is about yet, and so I’m giving myself permission to revisit the idea of reviewing this show at a later date. But NBC did try to market Parenthood as a Modern Family type show and I was able to clearly see that it was not. So what type of show is Modern Family?

Modern Family

Yeah, it’s a straight up comedy. It certainly has heart too, but in a different way than Parenthood. How can you not occasionally hit a soft spot when your main topic involves something we all have; loved ones. Modern Family, however, delves into the ridiculous side of life. They present us with the dad who wants to be cool so he tries to speak the “cool kid” lingo. The grandpa of the group is also remarried and is father to a young kid and needs to be more modern so he has to embrace dressing like a younger guy so that he doesn’t look like a mall walker. And one half of the gay couple is so stereotypically gay he presents their adopted daughter to the family to the Lion King theme. Over-the-top is the word that comes to mind.

Another show that employed this tactic was Arrested Development. I loooooved Arrested Development (another family-centric show!). Modern Family really recalls this show for me. It’s almost as if they’re trying to emulate this show, but somehow they miss the mark a little bit. They’ve got a hint of the flavor, but the taste is off a bit for me and I can’t figure out why. Is it the characters? When AD did gay they did gay in both the Tobias is he/isn’t he way or the  gay sailor way. Uptight/old mannish child in the family? Look no further than George Michael.

I’m not saying Modern Family is a bad comedy. I think I’m just not warming to the characters immediately. I also haven’t finished an entire season yet. Or maybe I just miss Arrested Development too much.

So I’ll just enjoy this clip from Arrested Development for now:

Modern Family first season we watched via disks through Netflix. Second season is on Hulu.