My Critique Format Modern Family Style
Many people ask me how I go about gathering all of my information for a critique. Well here is a look into my process.
- Series to be critiqued:
Modern Family
2: Name of episode and its writer:
Snip
- Creator of the show:
Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan
- Brief character descriptions for major and supporting characters (like 4 or 5 chars, should be a page or more)( Do this once per character and reuse them if the characters appear in multiple episodes):
Jay Pritchett is the father of Mitchell and Claire and the husband of Gloria. He appears to be a wealthy man who is either retired or doesn’t have to work to much because he regulates the jobs elsewhere. He is a smart man and seems to keep Gloria in check, they are polar opposites. He is also the oldest in the show by a good bit, being much older than Gloria.
Gloria Delgado-Pritchett is Jay’s wife and mother of Manny. She is hispanic and exceptionally beautiful even though she is currently pregnant. She is madly in love with Jay and is best friends with her child. She is quite vain and spends the entire episode denying that she is beginning to look pregnant even though we see at the end she is.
Mitchell Pritchett is Jay’s son, Claire’s brother and Cameron’s gay lover. He is the smaller of the two and is the quieter of the two. Cameron is loud and extravagant while Mitch is more conservative and mild. He is successful as he is a big time attorney. They have also adopted a daughter together named Lily.
Claire Dunphy is the daughter of Jay, Husband of Phil, and mother of Alex Luke and Haley. She is a typical mother who is over involved in their children’s lives and concerned about their well being at all times.
- Logline for the show:
The hilarious lives of the very complicated family tree of Jay Pritchett.
- Logline for the episode:
Phil debates getting a vasectomy while Gloria and Jay debate knowing the sex of their baby. Meanwhile Cameron fails to find a productive way to spend his free time.
- Episode synopsis (should take around a whole page if double spaced):
The episode begins with Phil telling us that he is getting a vasectomy. Alex has a new friend, Skyler, who has influenced her to dress gothic. Mitchell believes that Cameron should get a job, and Cameron gets upset and leaves with a suit case. Jay and Gloria disagree about whether they want to know the sex of their unborn baby. Claire has arranged for Jay to take Phil to go to get the procedure done. Claire drops off something for her son, Luke, and breaks in to his locker embarrassing him. Cam shows up to take Mitchell to lunch but gets set up for a job. However Cameron is mad when he finds out it was a set up and storms out. Manny, Gloria’s son, is upset because his music teacher at school who was going to give him a role he wanted was fired. Claire comes home to find out that Alex and Skyler skipped last period to cut their hair. When she busted them she accidentally cuts a chunk of Skyler’s hair. Cameron revels his master project which has occupied all his free time for eight weeks which is actually a mermaid costume for their cat. Phil runs from the vasectomy because he is scared it is going to hurt. Jay admits that he is scared of having a girl which is why he wants to know the babies sex. Gloria refuses to admit she looks pregnant even when Manny and random people tell her. Phil decides to go through with the vasectomy however Claire shows up and says she is not sure if she wants to and Phil agrees.
- What network is this on? What studio produces this show?
ABC at Fox Studios
- What is the A plot or A story to the show?
Phil decides he is going to get a vasectomy. However upon arrival he chickens out until Jay talks him back into it. While sitting in the chair Claire shows up and they both voice their doubts and decide not to go through with it.
- What is the B plot or B story to the show?
Gloria does not want to know the sex of her child while Jay wants to know. Jay goes on to admit that he only wants to know because he fears having a girl. However at the end he says he will be happy with whatever happens.
10a. C plot? D plot?
Cameron fails to fill his free time in a productive way. Mitchell tries to set Cameron up with jobs however Cameron always gets mad. In the end Cameron learned some deeper emotional issues. Also Gloria has to eventually come to grips with the fact that she is beginning to look pregnant.
- Write a paragraph (or more) as a TV critic as to what you thought of this episode. Identify its strengths and weaknesses.
It was a pretty good episode of a good comedy for the time period. The main plot is the vasectomy but I find the sub plots with Cameron and Gloria to be funnier. Also this episode goes to show us the change in Jay from when he raised Claire to this new child he is going to raise. We see a real concern in him because he has the time to be a real father and does not want to mess that up.
- Anything interesting about this show’s inception (how it came to be)?
The two creators of the show were just swapping stories of their lives and their familes and decided it made a good base for a television show. They decided to add another family and turned it into a mockumentary. They also teamed up to create a production team named Picture Day.
- What (type of) ads were played during the show?
They played a K Mart layaway giveaway commercial twice followed by a Verizon wireless commercial and than a new smart car.
- Considering its ads, what kind of audience watches this show?
These commercials are appealing to an older audience that is more in the middle class range.
Brad Lee
