- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: May 12, 2009
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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- By date
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This remains far and away the best prime-time sitcom: crisp and farcical, but very kind. [25 Oct 2010, p.37]
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This fast-paced mockumentary perfectly captures the experience of parenthood.
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Modern Family has the finest cast of any new fall show and, thank goodness, this excellent comedy gives these talented performers the kind of sharp material they deserve.
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In a fall season surprisingly flush with good sitcoms, the best new comedy by far--and it's not that close of a race - is Modern Family on ABC.
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Modern Family works because it does something the network sitcom hasn't managed in years: It offers a comic equation for almost every audience segment, while never blanding out the characters for mass consumption.
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Long on heart, brimming with great characters, smartly cast, expertly written and funny from start to finish, Family is the obvious choice for best new fall comedy--and possibly best series.
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Tthe best new half-hour of funny television in a season rife with half-hours of funny television.
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This is the funniest sitcom pilot of the fall.
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Instead of the usual family sitcom curse of clichés and bad "Full House" jokes, Modern Family captures the absurdities, quirks and freakish flaws of today's extended family in ways that feel lively, unique and just dark and mean-spirited enough to be...well, accurate.
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The family comedy gets a welcome and winning update in ABC's Modern Family, the fall's best new sitcom.
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This show earns its laughter with sharp writing, brilliant casting and characters that hit very close to home while often striking a nerve (mostly the funny bone).
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The best of the bunch, and the best new series of the fall, comes first.
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It's funny, it's vicious, it's politically incorrect--in other words, everything that "Community" wants to be and isn't.
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Most of the episodes so far have ended with a simulacrum of a group hug, an acknowledgement that, even though they don't always get along, this family loves one another. So far, these moments have worked on the show, but the formula could get tired.
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Modern Family is good. Better than good. Really good. O'Neil--dry and wonderful as ever--and Vergara (considerably less dry) are a winning combination.
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Flitting among three storylines, it's smart, nimble and best of all, funny, while actually making a point about the evolving nature of what constitutes "family."
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It's not too early, however, to heap praise onto this astute, well-written show and its many specific wonders.
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Modern Family is sharp, timely and fresh, complicated enough to be interesting but with a soft, sweet center because, and I'm speaking loudly so even cable channels can hear, there is nothing wrong with that.
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[The mockumentary style is] used not to excess but to success, which is just what this wise, clever and bighearted comedy ought to be.
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For the first time since Married...With Children stood the genre on its head two decades ago, somebody has come up with a new take on the family sitcom, and the results are riotously funny.
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It's like three, maybe four sitcoms all squeezed into one, and quite an enjoyable one.
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Though I enjoyed NBC’s pilot for Community a little bit more, "Modern Family" has as assured and entertaining a start as you could hope for.
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ABC is taking it one step at a time as it uses its biggest hit, "Dancing with the Stars," to give three of those shows a fighting chance. At least one of them actually deserves it. That would be Modern Family.
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Any one of these families has the potential to power a decent sitcom, but Modern Family manages to juggle all three in a balancing act that is not just funny, but heartwarming, and when was the last time you saw that on TV?
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The pacing of the show's jokes, which heralds a welcome respect for the quickness of the audience, helps all the humor pop. Of course, good-old dumb physical juxtapositions don't hurt, either.
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For their part, Messrs. Levitan and Lloyd set their ambitious sights on a rare kind of comedy, and they have, it appears, found the gold.
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With its deft writing and sharp performances, the show is a telling snapshot of how families live now.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 588 out of 652
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Mixed: 31 out of 652
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Negative: 33 out of 652
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May 25, 2011
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Jul 3, 2011
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Dec 18, 2015