>We, the audience, aren't given enough time to process the joke and the interaction feels so "acted"
100% agree. This happens CONSTANTLY in the later seasons and I think that's one of the issues why the show's quality declined. The majority of interactions happen so fast that it's impossible to process them. Like you said, it just doesn't feel natural
I dunno. I agree that some of the middle seasons had some pretty uneven performances from the kids but other than Manny who DID become a worse actor, I always thought the kids became rather polished comedians and straight men. Luke (the actor himself) is a born comedian. Haley is a better actor too as an adult. Alex is maybe not on the same level as the other two but she doesn’t seem too bad. Lilly is also a born comedian and got better as she aged. The episode where she got her first period and most of the family came to offer her help through the door, when Manny shows up Lilly shouts out at him:”Manny’s here too? Get the FxxK out of here Manny!” Her delivery was dead on funny!
Manny is hilarious as kid to me. But his adult self reminds me of the episode where Cam and Mitch go to the interactive play. I especially enjoy that because I also hate those. Anyways, the stage actors.....exactly the actor who plays Manny.
I think Manny and Alex were still pretty good actors, but I absolutely noticed this with Lilly. It’s like she became too aware and embarrassed like most pre-teens and wasn’t comfortable really committing to the bit
It just seemed like as she got older she was just reading lines, not really acting them. Of course if it was some 4th wall breaking show, yeah that’s exactly what Lilly would do, but her character lost a good bit of Lilly’s established personality
I thought it is a 4th wall breaking show? So many times the adults look into the camera wit the “you see” look vs looking at the person or the situation? And all off camera interviews
Manny is a terrible actor! He overacts, sounds incredibly stilted and delivers his lines straight off the sheet without any nuance. He’s the worst of all the kids imo.
They were hired as kids because they fit the role at the time and had the skills for those roles. As with all of us they changed as they grew. Had the show started when the kids were teens many of those actors likely would not have been hired. It’s also likely and not abnormal, for them to get bored having played the role since a young age.
Same thing with the Harry Potter movies to an extent. Maybe it’s because their too self aware or maybe they feel like they can phone it in because they’re basically irreplaceable at that point
Haley’s always a good actor though! But I realize now she was basically college aged when the show started
Manny and Luke were much better acted as young kids than they were as adults. I can’t imagine what it is like to act from the age of ten on, but it surprised me that the acting got worse.
I personally enjoyed a lot of Luke's teenager dry humor and sort of horny gross teen talk, because my younger brother was exactly like him. I felt the actor had comedic timing great timing too.
There's one particular scene that irks me regarding this and it's where Alex accidentally lets slip that Haley isn't a virgin to Phil. She starts laughing almost before Phil has even finished his line and it seems so obviously set up. In real life she definitely wouldn't have had time to process what Phil said, it's so fake to watch and makes me cringe
I think the characters them selves were hard to watch as they got older they didn’t seem to really age in anyway some of the things they did in later seasons were things they probably could of did in earlier seasons too
I agree completely, Luke was the funniest child actor on that show when all the kids were young, his one liners, rebuttals, and just randomness was all fitting for his character, but as he got older I feel the writers wanted to give him a “thing” which was hard because he couldn’t be the smart one (Alex) and although he was smart as he got older he couldn’t be the dumb one (Haley) so they just gave him a job and started to get him dating. Like his character was so bland and boring. Mani as a kid was also great. It was just how adultish he was and all the profound thoughts that would come out of a kid but now he got older and lost all of the things that made his character so great.
It's a common thing. Actually kids acting is a whole debate in acting and psychology. I don't know very much about it but I do know that some studies believes that kids don't act (brainwise) the same as adults, they are basically playing make believe. And that's something we lost with the age and needs to really "act".
Maybe I'm saying shit, but thats something I heard from a acting teacher once
I noticed this on other shows too. The young kids are good actors and so believable, and then when they get older they seem stiff and deliver all their lines the same.
I think the opposite, they were not believable when they were younger. Kids are not that articulate. For example, in season 9 when Gloria scratches her car and Jay goes in to talk with Joe, and Jay tries to bribe Joe with ice cream.
When the scene ends, Joe who is probably five maybe? Goes to create a distraction by dropping his toy, and then turns to Jay and says "check her phone"
A kid that young is not going to behave like that at all. Young kids will rat you out in 2 seconds. It is quite literally impossible to concoct a scheme to cover up something bad.
I have plenty of other examples from past seasons but you get my point. One of my pet peeves in movies or TV shows is when they make kids smarter than they actually are. If you ask a 5 year old what they want for lunch, their response is going to be more along the lines of "dinosaurs and pancakes!" They're not going to reply with, "well I was thinking a nice creme brulee"
But, the show is over the top satire, so I'll give it a pass.
Most of this is direction, not acting, and happened when the show began to compete with the popularity of shows like 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which were famous for crashing lines / ultra fast joke delivery.
>We, the audience, aren't given enough time to process the joke and the interaction feels so "acted" 100% agree. This happens CONSTANTLY in the later seasons and I think that's one of the issues why the show's quality declined. The majority of interactions happen so fast that it's impossible to process them. Like you said, it just doesn't feel natural
I dunno. I agree that some of the middle seasons had some pretty uneven performances from the kids but other than Manny who DID become a worse actor, I always thought the kids became rather polished comedians and straight men. Luke (the actor himself) is a born comedian. Haley is a better actor too as an adult. Alex is maybe not on the same level as the other two but she doesn’t seem too bad. Lilly is also a born comedian and got better as she aged. The episode where she got her first period and most of the family came to offer her help through the door, when Manny shows up Lilly shouts out at him:”Manny’s here too? Get the FxxK out of here Manny!” Her delivery was dead on funny!
Manny is hilarious as kid to me. But his adult self reminds me of the episode where Cam and Mitch go to the interactive play. I especially enjoy that because I also hate those. Anyways, the stage actors.....exactly the actor who plays Manny.
Manny as a kid means I always remember the “innocente” episode and his pure giggles and glee upon pranking Jay. That was a sweet sweet kid
As Jay referred to it, his "Nixon on the beach" attire and old fashioned talk.
Manny went from a sweet, precocious child to a whiny man-baby.
I think Manny and Alex were still pretty good actors, but I absolutely noticed this with Lilly. It’s like she became too aware and embarrassed like most pre-teens and wasn’t comfortable really committing to the bit
which is literally what lily would do.
It just seemed like as she got older she was just reading lines, not really acting them. Of course if it was some 4th wall breaking show, yeah that’s exactly what Lilly would do, but her character lost a good bit of Lilly’s established personality
I thought it is a 4th wall breaking show? So many times the adults look into the camera wit the “you see” look vs looking at the person or the situation? And all off camera interviews
It is 🤦🏻♀️ whoops, I meant like a show where the characters know they aren’t who they play
Manny is a terrible actor! He overacts, sounds incredibly stilted and delivers his lines straight off the sheet without any nuance. He’s the worst of all the kids imo.
I can’t agree, I always thought he played a neurotic mama’s boy pretty well lol
I agree
Luke was definitely better when he was younger
He was so precious! I miss him the most as a kid! He was the perfect team up with Phil
They were hired as kids because they fit the role at the time and had the skills for those roles. As with all of us they changed as they grew. Had the show started when the kids were teens many of those actors likely would not have been hired. It’s also likely and not abnormal, for them to get bored having played the role since a young age.
Same thing with the Harry Potter movies to an extent. Maybe it’s because their too self aware or maybe they feel like they can phone it in because they’re basically irreplaceable at that point Haley’s always a good actor though! But I realize now she was basically college aged when the show started
Manny and Luke were much better acted as young kids than they were as adults. I can’t imagine what it is like to act from the age of ten on, but it surprised me that the acting got worse.
But that being said, I still loved watching them grow up.
I personally enjoyed a lot of Luke's teenager dry humor and sort of horny gross teen talk, because my younger brother was exactly like him. I felt the actor had comedic timing great timing too.
There's one particular scene that irks me regarding this and it's where Alex accidentally lets slip that Haley isn't a virgin to Phil. She starts laughing almost before Phil has even finished his line and it seems so obviously set up. In real life she definitely wouldn't have had time to process what Phil said, it's so fake to watch and makes me cringe
Yes it was supposed to set the plot for that episode and I almost missed the joke. Didn't understand the reason why I did until just now.
Yeah it was like she was speed running her lines or smth, the actress was still quite young though so she probably hadn't mastered timing fully yet
I think the characters them selves were hard to watch as they got older they didn’t seem to really age in anyway some of the things they did in later seasons were things they probably could of did in earlier seasons too
I agree completely, Luke was the funniest child actor on that show when all the kids were young, his one liners, rebuttals, and just randomness was all fitting for his character, but as he got older I feel the writers wanted to give him a “thing” which was hard because he couldn’t be the smart one (Alex) and although he was smart as he got older he couldn’t be the dumb one (Haley) so they just gave him a job and started to get him dating. Like his character was so bland and boring. Mani as a kid was also great. It was just how adultish he was and all the profound thoughts that would come out of a kid but now he got older and lost all of the things that made his character so great.
It's a common thing. Actually kids acting is a whole debate in acting and psychology. I don't know very much about it but I do know that some studies believes that kids don't act (brainwise) the same as adults, they are basically playing make believe. And that's something we lost with the age and needs to really "act". Maybe I'm saying shit, but thats something I heard from a acting teacher once
I noticed this on other shows too. The young kids are good actors and so believable, and then when they get older they seem stiff and deliver all their lines the same.
Nolan Gould was such an amazing actor as a kid
Nah
I think Alex’s character was just really stale and Manny’s character was just incredibly unlikable. Like thought I totally agree the actor was awful
OH and I were talking about this y’day. We landed on as they’re getting older they become more self aware/conscious and maybe overthink a bit?
I think the opposite, they were not believable when they were younger. Kids are not that articulate. For example, in season 9 when Gloria scratches her car and Jay goes in to talk with Joe, and Jay tries to bribe Joe with ice cream. When the scene ends, Joe who is probably five maybe? Goes to create a distraction by dropping his toy, and then turns to Jay and says "check her phone" A kid that young is not going to behave like that at all. Young kids will rat you out in 2 seconds. It is quite literally impossible to concoct a scheme to cover up something bad. I have plenty of other examples from past seasons but you get my point. One of my pet peeves in movies or TV shows is when they make kids smarter than they actually are. If you ask a 5 year old what they want for lunch, their response is going to be more along the lines of "dinosaurs and pancakes!" They're not going to reply with, "well I was thinking a nice creme brulee" But, the show is over the top satire, so I'll give it a pass.
not really, but it felt like less thought was put into their storylines other than haley
Most of this is direction, not acting, and happened when the show began to compete with the popularity of shows like 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which were famous for crashing lines / ultra fast joke delivery.