thebitterbabe

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/24/modern_family_is_a_class_blind_fantasy_world/

With “Modern Family,” the twain meet. Family happiness presumes wealth; one cannot say it’s contingent on wealth because there’s no threat that wealth will ever evaporate. That wealth is never remarked upon in the episode-ending sequences wherein characters describe what they’ve learned — instead, it’s Walton-like homilies on the value of family and love. If love is all you need, why depict an iPad-toting, Hawaii-visiting clan as average? The most popular and acclaimed comedy on television tells a story where whatever one wants is easily available; it’s an attractive fantasy being sold to the public as an examination of the way we live now. Perhaps the extended Pritchett family’s denial of a world outside their three big homes is symptomatic of a particularly modern condition. Or maybe, offscreen, Claire and Phil Dunphy have run up huge amounts of credit-card debt to keep up with their family and aren’t telling anyone about it, hoping against hope it’ll all work out. Now that would be modern.