Come on, Al - we know you're there and we need you

Modern Family TV3, Sundays, 8.30pm Reviewed by Nick Ward

Welcome back, Al Bundy. It's hard to not feel that way when watching Ed O'Neill in Modern Family (Sundays at 8.30pm, TV3), but that nostalgic frisson I get when seeing him helps to make the rest of the show bearable.

Apart from a stint in The West Wing, O'Neill's last TV gig was an ill-advised remake of Dragnet a few years ago – I'm sure he wants to be taken seriously as an actor, but it makes him a lot less fun. He's back as Jay, the patriarch of a (you guessed it) somewhat dysfunctional family, who is full of Al's bluff attitudes and disdain for everything new and different.

Jay's daughter Claire used to be a wild child, but is now married to Phil, a lazy, self-styled (and embarrassing) "cool dad" with a wandering eye. His gay son Mitchell and partner Cameron have adopted a Vietnamese baby. Jay himself is divorced and has remarried, to a much younger Hispanic hottie with a 10-year-old son who is mature and wise beyond his years.

Co-creators Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan dipped out with their last show, Back To You, an attempt to resurrect the careers of Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton (Levitan also brought us the dire Pamela Anderson vehicle Stacked), but they seem to have learned lessons from the hilarious Arrested Development. Modern Family is a reduction of the same: mockumentary style with oddball characters, snappy dialogue with globs of un-PC humour, and a bit of lateral thinking required to get some of the jokes.

It's funny, but is let down by some unimaginative characterisations. Claire and Phil's daughters are annoying brats (the elder is full of bored-with-it-all teenage rebellion; the younger is yet another precocious smart aleck who talks like a psychotherapist), Phil is a one-joke character, and Mitchell can't go five minutes without railing against the anti-gay prejudice he sees in every straight person's innocuous actions or comments.

So it's up to O'Neill to carry the show. When Jay gives his reactionary attitudes another airing, it's like Al Bundy never left us. "Kids need a mother – if you two guys are bored, get a dog" isn't that far removed from "Somebody told women they should start enjoying sex, too. That was the beginning of the end."

It's as if Al gave Peggy the flick for a younger, hotter model, and has become slightly mellowed by money. His daughter, ironically, now finds it difficult to keep her man's attention, and his son has turned into his worst nightmare come true. Sooner or later, they're going to have to reveal Jay's true identity and make him the central character. I just hope they hurry up and do it soon.

- © Fairfax NZ News