Modern Family

"Nobody wants to think, it's a graduation, a celebration of being done with thinking."

Very appropriate to describe my mindset since graduation. Gotta get back on the horse though 'cuz soon enough I will be officially working and writing orders as a resident MD. Yikes..

So that quote was from Modern Family, one of the few shows I keep up with. I started watching it at the recommendation of some classmates I was on rotation with last year, and while I am not usually an early adopter of a new show, after just one episode I was hooked. It's a very smart, well-written show and they manage to make old sitcom cliches fresh. And of course, it helps that Sofia Vergara is absolutely a stunning and gorgeous woman. If I could bag a woman like her I seriously would never touch a cock (aside from my own) again. Just so incredibly beautiful AND her character has probably become THE funniest character on the show. So that's one good reason to watch. (or two, haha)

The other relevant issue here is the gay couple on the show, both really funny characters. BUT.....while I am shocked and pleasantly surprised that a happy, functional gay couple could be portrayed on network TV, I am a little disappointed that especially in the second season as the character molds are solidfying, they are choosing to make the gay couple well....gay. Especially given how enormously successful the show has become (I think it's the #1 comedy now?), this is a real opportunity to show America that gay men could pretty much be any guy walking down the street. Unfortunately I feel like for either comedic reasons or otherwise, they are falling back on scripting the gay couple as the stereotype at large in the majority of the population..you know the sassy, hands-on-their-hips, flamer gays. Which is all fine and good, but as their characters become more entrenched in that stereotype, I wonder if their portrayal is really doing much to change the mindset of the unknowing, ignorant viewer whose concept of gay men is exactly that.

I love that the show is breaking ground by showing a normal, loving, human gay relationship (with an adopted kid to boot), but hate that they have to resort to certain stereotypes at the same time. I guess America can only handle so many paradigm shifts at one time. I do think by some of the little jokes they slip in the writers are aware of the limitations they face because of the broad audience they have to appeal to. And anyway it's not up to some stupid TV show to challenge whole perceptions of the public. That comes from their peers, like you and me, to show them how normal, how human it is to be homosexual; unfortunately I just still don't feel ready to be a living example of it.

Anyway check out the show though if you haven't, it's really funny!