I love this series.
Nope. ABC went ahead and did the easy thing.
Comedy is to a large part based on stereotyping and/or contradicting them and playing with them. Take Rachel Green from Friends (the self-centered shopping queen), the nerds of Big Bang Theory, the nerdy and the girly daughter from Modern Family and their resulting conflicts, take Gloria as the high-spirited, hot-tempered Latina, and on and on it goes.
If you take offense on all those stereotyped characters I guess you don't have much to laugh about.
As far as Cam and Mitch go, I think they're portayed mostly as regular guys, doing the typical suburban thing: build a house, raise a family. Sure, Cam's shirts are outrageously flamboyant and he can be quite a drama-queen, and Mitch used to be a figure skater - but Cam also grew up on a farm, loves sports and can be more hands-on at dealing with a dove in their daughter's room whereas Mitch is mostly pretty level-headed and low-key.
One part that I really do like about the series is the Jay character and how he deals with stuff. He is old-school and clearly isn't totally comfortable with "the gay thing", he's not the type who would ever march in a LGBT rights parade - but he loves and accepts his son and his partner and he is really trying to be understanding and supportive. I think he is typical (stereotypical? - here we go again, lol) for many men of his generation, who were raised with a totally different worldview regarding women, men and gender roles.
Same goes for his relationship with Gloria - he not only loves, but adores her. Yet he sometimes shows prejudices against Columbians/Latinos and sometimes just doesn't want to know about Gloria's traditions. "We live in the USA and we do things the AMERCAN WAY, period."
But then it is Mitch who falls for gay stereotypes and convinces Jay that one of Jay's buddies is also gay. Jay first doesn't want any of it, then kind of shakes his head, sighs and grudgingly accepts it. And then Jay does the real friend thing and talks to his friend, being very supportive. Of course, that conversation goes hilariously wrong because said friend is not gay after all.
Playing with stereotypes - with hilarious results.
This Jay character, who clearly does have weaknesses and is far from perfect is also the guy who goes out to the sidewalk where his stepson (Manny) waits for his biological father who will again leave Manny in the lurch - and Jay lies for Manny's father, ditches his plans of a romatic day alone with Gloria, is simply there for Manny and on top of that, leaves the hero status to Manny's biological father instead of telling Manny the truth because he knows it would hurt Manny. Gotta love that man!
But to me, the best thing about the whole show is that is simply funny as hell. Which is the first thing a comedy/sitcom ought to be.
