Critics will always be critics

November 5, 2009 by
Filed under: reviews 

It seems that yesterday a few critics were on Twitter jawing about which they considered the best comedies on right now. Modern Family came up, and while there was general agreement that the show is hilarious and clever and warm, James Poniewozik added that he hoped that its warmth didn’t get expressed, in every episode, as “[Ed] “O’Neill says something gruffly sweet in last 30 secs.”

Here is what he says about the ending monologues:
I’d like to see the show change up from those here’s-what-we-all-learned homilies, for a couple reasons:
* First, and most obvious, a show is just better if I can’t predict its ending the afternoon before it airs.
* It undercuts the documentary format. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ending an episode with a longer speech from one of the characters’ “confessional” interviews in a mockumentary show. But the Jay we hear in a speech like last night’s isn’t entirely the Jay we see in action or hear interviewed on camera in the rest of the episode: he’s more reflective, self-aware and empathetic. Though the speeches end on a tension-breaking joke—like last night’s Guilt fades, but hardware lasts forever—it verges on breaking character.
* Finally, it’s just not always necessary. Modern Family has heart and sentiment to spare, and it doesn’t need to oversell it to get us to like it. If you took the monologue out, the montage it ran over would have been just as affecting, and actually maybe more.

What do you think?

Read more at the: Time.

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