The Show

Every night between 8 and 9 o’clock pm, my home is filled with the laughter of many, due to the hysterical ABC series, Modern Family. The nine seasons of the well-known show is based on a gay, multicultural, and unconventional family that although is not perfect, they attempt to overcome all of their obstacles together, as one unit. The show not only is meant to entertain us all on weekday nights, but also it is meant to inform families on the importance of keeping families together. Three different, but related families experience complication and prosperity in their own amusing ways that usually has my family laughing out loud.

Major Characters

Often faced with difficult obstacles, the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family maintains a powerful relationship with one another. Jay Pritchett, Ed O’Neill, head of the bizarre family, is often confused to be the father of his young, Latin-American, beautiful, and second wife Gloria Delgado Pritchett, Sofia Vergara. His already grown daughter, Claire Dunphy, Julie Brown, has three children with her husband, Phil Dunphy, Ty Burnell. Claire is the one to keep her family functioning and out of trouble because Phil is known to be an over-sized child even though he always has the best intentions. Mitchell Pritchett, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, is Claire’s younger brother and Jay’s homosexual son. Him and his long-term partner Cameron Tucker, Eric Stonestreet, had just recently moved in together and adopted their daughter from Vietnam.

Minor Characters

Although I believe all the characters have a major role, it’s best to separate the adults and their children in order since there is so many of them. The oldest of Jay’s grandchild is the beautiful Sarah Hyland, playing Haley Dunphy, the the popular teenage girl trying to grow up too soon. The second oldest is also a Dunphy, Alex. Alex Dunphy, the extremely bright kid, is played by the gorgeous Ariel Winter. Manny Delgado Pritchett, played by Rico Rodriguez, is Gloria’s son and Jay’s stepson. Although him and Jay face several obstacles, they always seem to overcome them and make peace with one another. Manny is commonly accused of being too mature for his age. The youngest male figure in the family is Luke, Nolan Gould. The tremendous child is often accused of being mentally slow, however, his father, Phil attempts to convince everyone that he is simply just curious and different, like a genius. The youngest member of the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family is, the the adopted daughter of Cameron and Mitchell, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.She was adopted in Vietnam to be a member of this large, unusual family.

Season 1- Episode 5 Coal Digger

Every family has their obstacles, whether they chose to ignore it or smooth it over, no family can be so incredibly perfect to the point where no misunderstandings emerge. This became clear to me after watching this episode. The already scheduled barbecue does not go as planned due to the rise of physical and verbal problems between Manny and Luke at school that afternoon. In this episode, Manny and Luke come across some issues that results them fighting each other on school campus. Both the Dunphy and Pritchett families show up at the principal’s office and are infuriated with one another due to miscommunication. This later causes tensions during the barbecue at the Pritchett house. To add to the tension, Luke accidentally tells everyone that his mom, Claire, had referred to Gloria as a Coal Digger (Gold Digger) several times in the past. Although these problems emerged, both Claire and Gloria, and Manny and Luke decide on no longer sweeping their difficulties under the rug and instead working out their differences. Another part of the episode that I found very humorous was that Cam and Mitchell tried to watch with Jay, but he doesn’t want them to. Jay is very grumpy mostly all the time and his sarcasm makes me laugh uncontrollably. Both Mitchell and Cameron try to overcome this, but become frustrated with Jay and decide against the idea. That is until they all work everything out. However, it wouldn’t be a ‘modern family’ if they didn’t give each other a hard time. Gloria decides that if Claire is sincere about her about her apology then she had to jump into the swimming pool. Seeing Claire actually jump into the pool causes everyone to hop in and instead of being a terrible experience for Claire, it turns out to be a pool party for the who family.  Coal Digger is absolutely my favorite episode of all nine seasons of Modern Family because although several problems emerge throughout this episode, several relationships strengthen and cause the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family to be happy once again.

What Stands Out

The biggest highlight of this episode is that although each family has their own problems, they can still get along and look past one another’s differences. At the end of the episode, the fun and happiness of each family member is portrayed by the laughter and giggling of them all individually. It’s beautiful to sweep the problems under the carpet and not ending with a lumpy one because the problems were all smoothed over.

Why YOU Should Watch

I personally really enjoyed watching this series because it helps my family relax at the end of everyday with a little laughter. Modern Family is a humorous yet heart-touching series that I recommend to those who would like to have a source of entertainment every weekday at 8 o’clock to 9. I hope you enjoy the powerful messages portrayed in each individual episode!