Wait, Who Is the Main Character in Modern Family?
Wait, Who Is the Main Character in Modern Family?
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“Today’s American families come in all shapes and sizes. The cookie cutter mold of man + wife + 2.5 kids is a thing of the past, as it becomes quickly apparent in the bird’s eye view of ABC’s half-hour comedy, which takes an honest and often hilarious look at the composition and complexity of modern family life.”
That’s the official description of Modern Family on Hulu, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about one of the 21st century’s best sitcoms.
But what the description doesn’t say, is what I want to talk about. Who does the show follow? Who is the protagonist? Who do we root for? Against? And, though most of them subscribe to Main Character Syndrome, who is the MAIN CHARACTER?
Well, the short answer is that we are made to root for everyone in the show. Over 11 seasons, through the daily ups, downs, ins, and outs of their lives, we learn about each of the regular character’s stories, their desires, shortcomings, and other, often hilarious tendencies. Enough so that we quickly realize they are all beautiful, funny, and loving train wrecks, just like us.
But still, who is the main character? Let’s discuss. (If this is much too much for you, you can just donate above and go on about your day; no hard feelings 🙏🏽)
It’s PHIL, right?
That’s the de facto answer. Can’t go wrong with it… but why is that? Is it because he is the father, husband, and breadwinner of the most traditional household on the show (the household in the middle of the opening credits)? Probably. But then again, that isn’t what the premise of the show is. In this case,
”modern” is meant to mean “non-traditional”. Funny enough, Phil is not what the title suggests by “modern”. Which is what got me thinking, what if we went the exact opposite way here. And if we did…
We gotta go with CAM, no?
Whereas Phil would blend in (almost painfully) seamlessly within any police lineup, Cam would NOT. Cam and Phil are opposites on paper (though sometimes quite similar in temperament). Cam is a BIG personality, and BIG does well on TV. He typically has the biggest bursts of energy, biggest and brightest clothes, and evokes the biggest reactions out of the people around him… while ALSO having the biggest reactions of anyone he’s around. He’s BIG. But honestly, he I’d feel wrong saying he’s the main character because…
What about MITCHELL?
Now, he just might be the only sane one in the whole show (next to maybe Alex and Jay). Albeit up tight (have you ever even heard anyone call him “Mitch”? that’s not by accident), and standoffish, he brings a certain, necessary humanity to the show that typically surprise the characters around him (and us). More than anything, his character represents what most of us “normal” people watching are thinking. Chaos is good, it provides variety and excitement, and opportunity you wouldn’t otherwise experience. But it can be detrimental (in life, and in a show) if there’s no force to control it. Mitchell is the controlling force, which makes him feel rather central in all of this to me. Yet still, NOT the main character we’re looking for. He doesn’t even steal scenes like his partner Cam, nor his mother-in-law of roughly the same age…
How can we forget about GLORIA?
She actually steals every scene she’s in for obvious reasons: her accent and her boobs. They both have main-character syndrome, and demand a certain amount of my attention. But I think it goes deeper than this. In many ways, she makes this show the most “modern” of anyone. With the age, wage, and cultural gap between her spouse, her past and present single-mother chronicles, and a consistent, underlying struggle between honoring the culture she grew up in and assimilating into the one she currently enjoys… perhaps it doesn’t get more “modern” than that.
Somehow, and not always gracefully, she keeps all the plates spinning in the air though (usually starting and ending with her son, Manny), which speaks to her loud strength, something every family must do for their children. Which brings me to my next point. Maybe this show is all about…
THE KIDS, am I right?
Lilly is a master of her domain (the favorites of G&G friends Yan and Bri). Similar to Rudy (The Cosby Show), Michelle (Full House), Baby Girl (The Bernie Mac Show) or Kady (My Wife And Kids) and any other small person on TV with a big personality, she elicits a smile with almost everything she says. But she’s not central, and neither are her cousins.
The Dunphy’s are all extreme archetypes, which you absolutely NEED for network TV, in some shape or form (think: Seinfeld). While Manny is in a league of his own, as many only children are, almost representing the total opposite of the best and worst of each Haley, Alex, and Luke.
Fulgencio Ramirez Pritchett (AKA Joe)? Well, he’s a little too small to be a main character but he’s very very cute.
With a word like family, perhaps nothing is more important than kids (and cousins). But I’m going to pass on them for this exercise.
And speaking of family and kids, none of this is possible without…
Forgot About JAY?
According to my boy Eli (the big one, not the lil’ one) he is the the main character. The head of the family, the reason why everyone is connected. Without him, technically and genealogically, the family or show doesn’t exist. Perhaps the one in the show whose life has gone as successful as any “modern” man can hope, between him navigating the long-term effects of a failed marriage, children and grandchildren who continually miss the mark, and an at-home life about as far from what he probably imagined as a kid, somehow he manages.
Stuck between a world moving just a little too fast and far away from center for his liking, and still trapped in his own, simpler time, he’s most of what this show aims to do. He is the vehicle with which we view the Pritchett family, the lens through which we find ourselves questioning the words “modern” and “family”… What’s more main character than that?
Well, his daughter…
Wait, it’s Claire, isn’t it?
This is my bet here. Her energy is actually the driving force and honestly is the one person that most seamlessly connects all 3 families. You can never tell if she’s driving the car, or kicking and screaming on top of the car. But it’s definitely her car, because she just makes the show go. She’s frantic, she’s loving, and she’s downright hilarious. All great for TV. She makes funny faces, funny noises, and no matter how many times she comes up short of what her idea of the perfect life is, she wakes up everyday with a cup full of coffee, a list full of to-dos, and a heart filled with gold (and titanium). Claire is living the American Dream.
What’s more modern that that?
For Lack of a Wetter Bird, Claire is the main character of Modern Family.