No discussion of the new season? I’m surprised! Anyway…
The premiere was mostly okay. My favorite bit being Phil telling Jay that whatever problem he has with him is now his problem alone. I love how Phil has grown. The next episode was GREAT. I LOVE that Lily talks now, AND she’s damned funny to boot. I nearly DIED when she murmured “Kill the baby…”
Last night’s episode was pretty great as well. To me, any scene with Phil and Luke is golden, but the girls did great too.
For the most part they’ve never really paid much heed to how time passes on the show. With the exception of holiday episodes and the occasional small nod to continuity (Alex starting high school, Jay’s dog) most episodes could happen at any time. Really the writers decided they wanted to have fun with Lily talking so they aged Lily. It doesn’t really call for much more of an explanation than that.
I am DVR cleaning, and just watched all 3 episodes, its a pleasant show, not too funny, sort of right on the mark. The amazing cast has a lot to do with that.
When you cast a baby, you’re pretty stuck in real time. They’re beginning the third year of the show. They got Lily as a baby at the beginning of season 1. She’s over 2 now. The same thing is happening on Raising Hope. That kid’s starting to walk and talk this season.
The weirdness is they air 22 episodes (or so) over a period of around 8 months. It doesn’t take them 8 months to shoot the series, so you have 4 months of actual aging on screen followed by an 8 month leap between seasons.
I’m finding this season to be a little too wacky and sitcom-y. The scene with Cam and Mitchell ending up in the surf was a bit much. And Gloria with a shoe in her mouth? Come ON.
I agree. They are crossing over a bit too much into camp. One of the charming things about the show is that in the past, it seemed to stay closer to the edge of reality. The first part of this season, it has crossed over into caricature.
That transition has been happening for a while. I love the cast, but a lot of the writing since season 2 has been pretty lazy, especially compared to things like Parks and Rec, Cougar Town and Community. They are pretty methodically working their way through a bunch of standard sitcom family tropes hoping that the documentary format and a bunch of talented actors will elevate the material.
On one hand, fuck y’all, this latest episode was hilarious. Dave Cross helped. The video was nuts.
On the other hand, Luke’s “if we had that on tape it’d be the biggest thing on YouTube!” kind of killed me. Are they not being taped constantly by a documentary crew?
Admittedly, I’ve never seen the first few episodes, so I may have missed the setup. But I’ve never had the impression that they were supposed to be being filmed for a documentary, like in the UK Office. I thought it was just a stylistic thing. I kind of enjoy the juxtaposition of the verité camerawork with the fourth-wall breaking chats to camera and stuff.
Also, I enjoy that Sky over here now gets Modern Family a day after the US. Looking forward to seeing this episode. David Cross!
