Never Too Old To Play™

Despite the debut of many new television dramas like Mercy and Trauma this fall, comedy was king with runaway hit Glee and critical darling Modern Family both doing very well in the ratings, especially in December. USA Network’s new show White Collar is also doing fairly well although not as well as the network had hoped despite a good premise, good stories and a well cast lead actor.

Of these three new shows, Fox’s Glee is easily my favorite new show of the season and one of the shows I most look forward to each week. True “feel good” shows are rare these days, and Glee couldn’t have come at a better time with the country suffering from a recession and the people divided on so many issues.

Television is great for just kicking back with the family and forgetting about the stresses of life for a while, and I can’t think of a more entertaining and endearing cast of characters than the members of the William McKinley High School glee club (and one hilariously vindictive cheerleading squad coach).

Glee’s midseason finale, which aired on December 9, tied the previous week’s episode’s season high ratings and was the highest rated episode with teens. Couple that with the consistently great sales of both the individual songs posted after the airing of each episode and the Glee: The Music soundtracks – the second volume just went on sale and, alongside its predecessor, sits at or near the top of the charts – and it becomes clear just what a runaway hit Fox has on its hands.

Modern Family may not have over 2 million iTunes downloads, but it is every bit as good a show as Glee is. Starring Married With Children’s Ed O’Neill and Ed’s Julie Bowen, the single-camera mockumentary seems like the love child of Arrested Development and Everybody Loves Raymond (in other words, you should watch it).

O’Neill’s Jay Pritchett is the patriarch of the family and has just recently married a hot, proud Colombian woman with a young son. His daughter Claire (Bowen) has a large family of her own with two daughters and a son, and struggles with the challenge of having a husband who tries too hard to be “the cool dad.” Pritchett’s son Mitchell has his own challenges, having just adopted a Vietnamese baby girl with his life partner.

During each episode, the three families in the Pritchett clan face the types of issues one would expect from a situational comedy and handle them in obviously comical fashion, but the highlight of the show is how those trials and tribulations always teach a valuable lesson on dealing with life and bringing the family closer together.

My third favorite new show of the season, White Collar, deals with very different situations and subject matter. The light hearted police procedural centers around Neal Caffrey, a convicted con-man and art thief, and Peter Burke, the FBI agent who captured him and now agrees to let him help him solve similar cases in return for limited freedom in a sort of work-release program.

White Collar is a buddy cop show with the stiff, by-the-book Burke contrasted against the suave Caffrey, played with a lot of charm and wit by Matt Bomer, who previously appeared in the recurring role of spy Bryce Larkin in Chuck. Indeed, the show itself is a contrast with typical police procedurals that typically deal with deadly and brutal crimes.

UPDATE: Congratulations are in order – both Glee and Modern Family were nominated for the “Best Television Series – Musical Or Comedy” Golden Globe. In addition, Matthew Morrison was nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor In a Television Series – Musical Or Comedy,” Lea Michele was nominated for “Best Performance by an Actress In a Television Series – Musical Or Comedy” and Jane Lynch was nominated for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.” All three actors star in Glee.

Source: TV By the Numbers, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Experience this for yourself!

• Glee: Season One: or Amazon Video on Demand
• Glee: The Music, Volume 1: or Amazon MP3 Download
• Glee: The Music, Volume 2: or Amazon MP3 Download
• Glee: Season One DVD (Amazon)
• Modern Family: Season One: or Amazon Video on Demand
• Modern Family: Season One DVD (Amazon)
• Modern Family: Season One Blu-ray (Amazon)