Before I get straight into Episode Reviews, I think I should start reviewing all the Modern Family characters, and how they developed throughout Season 1.
The first character I will be reviewing is Haley Dunphy, portrayed by the beautiful 19 year old Sarah Hyland.
---BACKGROUND INFORMATION---
Haley Dunphy is the oldest Sibling of Phil and Claire Dunphy. She is a typical teenager, who is always on her mobile phone and is very concerned about popularity. She has a boyfriend named Dylan, who is occasionally in episodes of the show. It seems like Haley is not very smart, however is very capable of manipulating her mother. Claire Dunphy considers Haley to be just like her when she was a kid, which she says is a bad thing.
---CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT---
Haley, along with Alex, were the least developed characters of Modern Family's season 1. While Haley was a good character in the season, too little information about her has been revealed. After Alex, she received the smallest amount of airtime on the show. As an actress, Sarah Hyland does an excellent job portraying the one dimensional, superficial teenager, but sometimes I think that that is not enough. It would be great if we could see more of Haley in a good light, because most of the time we see Haley she is whinging about not being able to go to a party or arguing with her siblings. In particular, the way she yelled at her grandfather (Jay) for not being able to go to a part was disrespectful considering he is older and is the boss, not her.
One of the best things that has come out of Haley is her boyfriend, Dylan. Dylan is a senior, who is also not bright, and many of the great moments he has had have been set up by Haley. In the show, she was pitched as the 15 year old daughter, however when she goes for her license she obviously is 16 because the minimum legal age to drive is 16. Her driving segments in Season 1 are very comical, which adds to the show quite a bit. Her parents fear of them making it out of car trip alive are very funny.
As shown in episode 9, Fizbo, Haley is shown to be quite jealous of other women interacting with Dylan. She went as far as letting a scorpion running wild at Luke's party just to get the Jungle Lady away from Dylan. This started a major chain of events which led to Luke getting sent to the hospital. No-one seems to even know that Haley actually caused all the problems. Another slight example is in in episode 14: Moon Landing when Haley hears that Dylan went to a film with another girl. She breaks up with Dylan, even though (apparently) this was not true. By the end of the episode, the two were fornicating on the stairs.
One thing I have to notice about Haley is the way that she constantly argues with her mother and seems to never ever do anything (around the house). Sure, the show is meant to be super realistic, however if my mum asked me to help her with the washing, I'd be obliged to help her. Shoving her off because she's talking on the phone (something that she is almost never not doing) would be just disrespectful in my house. The kid needs discipline.
Haley has also shown to be a little distasteful, particularly in the episode: Not In My House. Haley accuses Alex of reading her journal, so she destroys Alex's poster that she treasured. Eventually, she is informed that Luke and Claire were the ones who read the journal, not Alex.
One of Haley's best moments of Season 1 came in episode 18: Starry Night. In the plot, Haley tells Claire that she needs to make 40 cupcakes for school the next day. She manipulates Claire into making the cupcakes for her, while sitting there the whole time on the phone. In the end however, Claire knows she was getting played and throws away the cupcakes, telling Haley that she now knows how to make them. The next morning, the family tries the cupcakes and congratulate her, she goes to school and immediately everyone throws them out; they are repulsive.
Another one of Haley's great moments is in episode 22: Airport 2010. In a flashback scene before the Dunphy's go to the Airport, Haley has slept in, and has not got ready for the flight. She wakes up to see Dylan lying on the floor. She tells him he has to leave, but he actually gets stuck in the house and has to set off the alarm to escape. At the airport, Haley is crushing on a boy who turns out to be in Year 8. The whole scene is quite funny.
In the episode after Airport 2010 where they are actually in Hawaii, Haley tells her parents that she's going back to some random kid's house and gets drunk, and ends up on the bathroom floor. This provides a great mother-daughter moment between the two, and we don't see Haley as a preppy b**ch.
---CONCLUSION---
There's a lot more stuff that can be revealed about Haley, they just need to give her more airtime. Pair her up with characters like Manny, Mitchell and Gloria. She only seems to interact with the Dunphy family which is fine, but this limits the fun she can have on the show. Making Haley a more interesting character and not just a one-dimensional character would really make Modern Family even better than it already is, because at the moment, Sarah Hyland's acting ability is not being used enough. In Season 2, Haley will be older which could mean that we'll see more of her.
So I hope you enjoyed this Character Development session! Next up, I'm gonna be talking about Jay Pritchett, the grumpy father of Claire and Mitchell.
Tell me in the comments below what you thought of Haley Dunphy in season 1, what you loved or hated about her, and what you'd like to see from her in Season 2.
