T h i c aMonday, March19, 2012 - 7A

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com


Cut the power to
'Lights' movie

Misplaced values in 'Family'

Five Emmy
no easy fe
ern Famil
like a cakewalk t
when the ABC si
in wins for

's in one year is
at, but "Mod-
y" made it look
his past August
tcom raked

Some TV shows ton,
nove
should stay on the real
film
small screen wor
that
By KELLY ETZ ing
Daily TV/New Media Editor film
doe
Having heard that Peter Berg ing t
was all systems go for a "Fri- mov
day Night Lights" movie, I did wou
what any normal person would toge
do when faced with this news the
in conjunction with a week-long seri
break. I re-watched every epi- L-
sode of "Friday Night Lights" beet
ever produced - all five seasons, ing
from the shiver-inducing "We all sma
fall" speech in the last minutes of "Arr
the pilot, through every win and rum
loss, to the final tear-wrenching adap
moments of the season finale. sode
I waited with baited breath on t
as Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) take
stepped up for paralyzed Jason Dow
Street (Scott Porter), shook my Shov
head furiously when I found out othe
Smash Williams (Gaius Charles) S
blew out his knee and his chanc- thin
es for a scholarship in one fate- a te
ful crunch, lusted after adorably bun
and habitually drunk Tim Rig- ent
gins (Taylor Kitsch), alternated ther
between sympathy and hatred to w
for golden boy J.D. McCoy (Jere- houi
my Sumpter), and fell in love with has
every sweetly accented word out and
of Coach Taylor's (Kyle Chan- to w
dler) mouth. I virtually lived and give
breathed Dillon football. neec
And in doing so, I realized that mate
while the question of choosing mad
your favorite TV show isn't taken N
lightly - favorite here mean- mem
ing the TV show you followed even
religiously when it aired, then tably
ran out and bought the season - it
DVDs, watching them till your Ligh
DVD player died and the backs of up
the discs were so scratched you Tayl
couldn't get through one episode are
without it skipping - I can't help star
but conclude that if I had to pick of tb
a show that would fall under that pied
umbrella of exceptional, "Friday not
Night Lights" would hit high on mov
the list. out
However, as much as I loved Si
the Texas-flavored series, I'm belo
positive that I will hate the seri
impending movie adaptation. focu
The series is already based off the opin
original "Friday Nigaht Lights" reac
movie starring Billy Bob Thorn- day

which was adapted from the
el by H.G. Bissinger. Is there
ly a need to squeeze another
out of the admittedly over-
ked concept? Of all the series
had a less-than-stellar end-
warranting a final hurrah in
form, "Friday Night Lights"
sn't even come close to mak-
the list. The characters were
ing forward in a way that
ld be difficult to jumble back
ther again. Why undermine
emotional perfection of the
es finale?
ately, it seems there has
n a flux of TV series attempt-
to make the jump from the
ll screen to the silver screen.
ested Development" is
ored to be producing a movie
ptation, after the new epi-
s air on Netflix. "24" is also
he list of series that want to
the leap, along with "Party
n" - a relatively obscure
wtime series - and several
ers.
b why the rush to take some-
g that worked so well in
levision format and try to
dle it up in the wildly differ-
arena of film? For one thing,
e's no long, drawn-out season
vork with, only a continuous
r-and-a-half storyline that
to fully resolve all loose ends
end strong - strong enough
arrant this extra addition, to
a reason as to why the series
ded to be continued, and ulti-
ely, why the film needed to be
e. Now that's one tall order.
ot to mention that all the cast
nbers must be assembled,
though many have inevi-
y gone on with their careers
n the case of "Friday Night
ts," Connie Britton is tied
with a potential new series,
or Kitsch and Kyle Chandler
well on their way to movie-
status, and much of the rest
he cast is similarly preoccu-
. And if you can't get most, if
all, of the original actors, the
ie is pretty much toast right
of the gate.
o, while I appreciate the
ved - and I would know -
es, I wish Peter Berg would
s his attentions on devel-
.g a new series that might
h half the affluence of "Fri-

Outstand-
ing Comedy
Series, Out-
standing
Directing for
a Comedy
Series, Out-
standing Sup- KAYLA
porting Actor UPADHYAYA
in a Comedy
Series, Out-
standing Supporting Actress in a
Comedy Series and Outstanding
Writing for a Comedy Series.
Exhausted? You're not alone.
Hearing any show's title called
out that many times in one
awards ceremony would make
me uneasy, because it means
other deserving shows are prob-
ably being ignored.
Don't get me wrong - when
"Modern Family" first came
out, I was instantly smitten. But
lately, I've been finding more and
more reasons to complain about
the show. Let's put the Emmy
topic aside, since I don't wish to
discuss whether it deserved its
endless wins. The absurd lack of
nominations year after year for
"Community" and "Parks and
Recreation" is enough proof that
the Academy of Television Arts
& Sciences is woefully wrong
when it comes to recognizing
television's best comedies, and I
would hate to beat a dead horse
(it's probably too soon to make a
"Luck" joke, right?).
Instead, let's focus on how
"Modern Family" is fooling
itself and its viewers. As the title
and many of the themes sug-
gest, "Modern Family" wants
so desperately to be a progres-
sive movement, a champion of
breaking down the traditional
LIKE THE
DAILY ON
FACE=
BOOK

family
But the
this am
petuati
limitin
der rol
"moder
Foro
on thes
of thelh
ing to l
some w,
stay atf
necessa
Clairee
as infe
the rea
or wife
a messa
ers of "
moi
woman
Noe
than "
decides
At first
Claires
herself
the shoe
Claire h
her mi
thing s
trol: Ph
Luke in
nursea
the wro
and hej
the hou
Claire.
Of co
ineptitu
tryingt
not bal
woman
of this,
wantin
becaus

and defying social norms. ful women, not because he wants
show falls very short of Claire to succeed. "Hit and Run"
ibitious goal, often per- similarly mistreats Gloria, who
ng sexist stereotypes and spends the whole episode trying
g the characters to gen- to get her husband and son to
es that are anything but listen to her advice. Jay finally
rn." allows Gloria to help him with
one, none of the women a sales pitch, but what wins the
show have jobs outside client over? Well, her natural
some. I'd be more will- "assets," of course.
et this slide, because yes, Every once in a while, "Mod-
somen make the choice to ern Family" will have an episode
home and there's nothing that makes me say yes, there's
arily wrong with that. But that forward-thinking mental-
either fails or is depicted ity you're always preaching and
rior every time she enters rarely practicing! Take "Virgin
lm outside of motherhood Territory" for example. Alex
dom, which really sends inadvertently reveals to Phil that
age about where the writ- Haley isn't a virgin. Phil is ini-
Modern Family" believe a tially shellshocked - though no
one else is ... doesn't he remem-
ber former boyfriend Dylan's
Vhere is the hit song "In the Moonlight (Do
Me)"? But Phil doesn't lock Haley
dern wom an? in a cellar for the rest of her life
or patronize her with a lecture.
Instead, he assures her that if she
feels ready, he trusts her to make
ibelongs. decisions for herself. Cue the
pisode makes this clearer waterworks.
lit and Run," when Claire But then "Virgin Territory"
s to run for city council. was immediately followed by
, I was thrilled because the problematic "Leap Day." The
seems genuinely thrilled episode was already destined to
But then I realized that fail, followingthe ingenious Leap
'w is setting her up to fail. Day-themed "30 Rock" episode
has barely even made up that so wonderfully created an
nd to run before every- imaginary holiday I wish was
tarts spiraling out of con- real.
il accidentally punches "Modern Family"'s "Leap
the face when trying to Day" is centered around Phil's
scratch, he gives Alex favorite day being ruined when
ong allergy medicine, Haley, Alex and Claire all slip
just generally fails to run into ultra-emotional states
ise with the efficiency of since, as Luke excellently puts
it, they're all "monsterating."
ourse we laugh at Phil's Other sitcoms have succeeded
ude, but what is the show with a similar premise, but
to say? Can Claire really "Modern Family" comes across
ance the roles of a career as insincere, trite and offensive;
and a mother? On top focusing mainly on the plight
Phil's main reason for of poor Manny, Luke and Phil
g Claire to run for office is in the situation and making the
e he's turned on by power- Dunphy women look like actual

crazy people. What's more, the
B-plot features Jay questioning
his masculinity since he avoids
conflict when men insult Gloria.
We got the great payoff of Sofia
Vergara socking John DiMag-
gio in the face, but is the show
tryingto say that Jay is less of
a man because of his pacifism?
The sidestory was too under-
developed for me to come to
any major conclusions about its
message, which is a whole other
problem in and of itself.
I'd have more of a problem
with "Modern Family" if it
wasn't so funny and if it didn't
feature a superb cast, including
some of the most talented child
actors around (Rico Rodriguez
and Nolan Gould are the best
things to have happened to
television in a while). And the
writers usually succeed in tak-
ing simple plotlines and making
them hilarious - Claire desper-
ately tryingto get her daugh-
ters to friend her on Facebook
reminded me so much of my own
mother that I couldn't help but
laugh (sorry mom, still not going
to happen!).
But when creator Steven Lev-
itan remarks in his umpteenth
Emmy acceptance speech that
fans come up to him and say
things like "You're not just mak-
ing people laugh; you're making
them more tolerant," I can't
help but want to tell everyone
to calm down. Yes, I think it's
great that the show features a
same-sex couple raisingtheir
adopted Vietnamese child and
functioning like any other fam-
ily, but let's not forget that this
is a show about upper-middle-
class families in the suburbs
whose biggest problems are
things like whether or not they
should confess to their golf bud-
dies that they didn't make that
hole-in-one or what elaborate
theme they should select for

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Piclered trm lkt too Shiasjo sw aR Sbans Ross, Marc l Lapp, and AvAdrw rio
We are proud toreconize four outstadixng graduate student istructors
for the commitmen to excellence in engineering educaon.W Each 2012
winner of the Towner Prize for OutstandiNg GSIs receivesan honrariUm.
2012 RICHARD AND ELEANOR TOWNER PRIZE FR OUTSTANDING
GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTOR RECIPIENTS
Shaurio Btswas
Materials Science and En ng
Andrew Dero
Electrical Englneerlng and Computer Scence
EECS 470
Marcial Lapp
adui al r rra kn.s Engi feerag
10E 202
Shani Ross
B i rrcaErneering
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