Tag: comedy

mixed media, show the love, television, that is so gay

must watch: Modern Family

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Initially, it seems that it always takes me a while to get into anything that gets a lot of hype, and because of the pre-season buzz, Modern Family was no exception. However, thankfully, I saw the light early on in this case, and after last night’s hilarious episode, I can definitely say that the hype was right in this case; there is something truly wonderful about this show. The characters are all funny, they are developing them well on the show, and they all play off of one another as an ensemble masterfully. This show doesn’t feel like a “new show” at all.


I almost don’t want to compare it to anything, but I would definitely say that Modern Family bears many similarities to another great show, Arrested Development; perhaps most obviously in the way that it uses a hybrid mocumentary filming style in the story development (not to mention the laugh out loud hilarity found in each show). Shows and movies that use that form of story telling usually draw me in (Best in Show and Drop Dead Gorgeous are all time favorite movies of mine), and Modern Family is no exception. When you add that to the witty writing, and laugh out loud gags, I am confident in saying that that I have found a new must watch show of the fall 2009 season. It’s also extremely refreshing that there is a gay couple on the show, and that they are not just background characters, or stereotypical punchlines/token go-to’s for a laugh. I actually really like their characters, and I like even more that they are portrayed as normal; which, importantly, is what gay people are. Perhaps their characters will help further educate the people in America that still see us as “other” and “different” that we’re just normal people with normal lives; and that we might be the funniest ones around, too. ABC is getting all kinds of plus marks and gold stars from me in their portrayal of gay characters on prime time shows.

I’ve really enjoyed every episode of Modern Family that I’ve seen thus far, and I am excited to see what this show has in store for us. Wednesday nights at 9 just keep getting better and better.

happenings, is it just me?, mixed media, the catch-all-egory

reality tv, fire drills, and little bags of poop

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With all of the “good” programing over, and the summer programming kicking off in full swing, I find that there are less and less “real” shows to choose from, and more reality tv options that keep popping up on my television. There’s the good, most notably, Kathy Griffin’s My Life On The D-List, which started season 3 last night. I LOVE Kathy Griffin, and I was elated to know that her show was coming back, because it is a side-splitter, and definitely the best that reality TV has to offer; she is a brilliant comedian, and her show always has me in stitches. But she is an unusually bright light in the otherwise dark realm of reality tv. I don’t see myself watching many of the other shows, because they don’t peak my interest. Kathy is definitely the cream of the crop.

With that being said, I probably will find myself tuning in to shows like So You Think You Can Dance? and America’s Got Talent. I will admit that I got sucked into SYTYCD last year, although, I haven’t gotten pulled in yet this year. I will probably end up watching it because there is nothing else on, which is the main reason I find myself watching reality TV in the first place. That makes me think that they should call it “America’s Got Nothing Better To Do Than Watch, Because There’s Nothing Else On”, rather than America’s Got Talent; that title seems more fitting to me.

With the little good and all the bad things that reality TV represents to me, I do want to mention a great documentary that I saw last night on Logo. It focuses on the life of a handful of gay men in an extremely small, rural town. While they considered the small town home, because they had grown up there, they pointed out how there were few options for meeting someone, as well as the obvious discrimination for being gay. While they pointed out that it was significantly diminished, they didn’t feel comfortable being as “out” as many gay people in larger cities are, and even mentioned the fear of being hurt or killed due to the fact they were gay. While I know that all of us gays are susceptible to such retaliation because of who we are, it really had me question why you would want to live in such a small community (the one in the movie had a population in the low hundreds), if you could live somewhere more open? I guess it is an “to each their own” situation, but it just isn’t one for me. They seemed genuinely happy, and they managed to find partners and friends and stuff, and that made me happy. I just don’t see myself living on a farm in Idaho any time soon. But good for them.

On a different note, there was a fire drill at work today. While me and my friend Deb got out of the building practically first, it literally took everyone forever to get outside, and group with our monitors so that all could be accounted for. I would really hate to see what would happen if it wasn’t a drill; I fear that it wouldn’t be a pretty site. Let’s hope a drill is all we have to worry about. At least it killed a good hour of my day.

Finally, on an even more different, and definitely more disgusting note, when I was driving in to work today, I noticed a man walking his dog, and carrying that signature bag of poop that many dog walkers can be seen with. I have a dog, and I don’t mind being a good dog owner and picking up after him, but I’ll be damned if I am going to walk around with a bag of poop just swinging in my hand. Gross. That is probably one of the grossest things to me, and that is probably the main reason that we just let Sydney do his thing in the back yard wherever he pleases. This boy does not do bags of poop, okay? Yuck. I don’t know why, but I just felt compelled to share that information.