Comments on: The Return of the Family Sitcom http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/07/the-return-of-the-family-sitcom/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Myles McNutt http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/07/the-return-of-the-family-sitcom/comment-page-1/#comment-164 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:50:48 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/07/the-return-of-the-family-sitcom/#comment-164 I’m with Jonathan on my resistance to The Middle, although I did watched the first few episodes before eventually deciding to “wait it out” to see how the show came together creatively. Being freed from association with Hank did the show wonders in my mind, and I think I’ll return to it eventually (especially with the show likely getting a second season renewal today).

As for Modern Family, I have some broad critical issues with the show (largely in terms of how it designs itself structurally), but I can’t deny that stories like the one you discuss, Sharon, are extremely well executed. I may believe the show needs a higher degree of difficulty to really connect with me, but I think I take for granted how easily the show made Cameron and Mitchell identifiable to the show’s broad audience – a lot of that is Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, but their stories (see: Costco) have worked even when episodes as a whole have not for me.

Looking forward to your thoughts on Cougar Town (which has evolved, as you note, into an extended family quite well at this point in its run).

]]> By: Jonathan Gray http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/07/the-return-of-the-family-sitcom/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:38:42 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/07/the-return-of-the-family-sitcom/#comment-131 You’ve strengthened my resolve to watching The Middle. I don’t like Patricia Heaton, so I was predisposed to dislike it, yet the previews looked excellent … and then somehow I failed to record it the first week, which led to me just not watching it. But I’m intrigued by a family sitcom that isn’t just anti-family sitcom (as with The Simpsons), but that struggles with its characters, rather than making it Tanner family-esque

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