'Modern Family' Season 11: All the reasons why Luke has become more likable than Manny despite his many flaws
With its quirky cast of characters and newfangled kinships, ABC's 'Modern Family' has been entertaining us for over a decade.
As the series is now approaching its end, the creators are seen experimenting a lot with our beloved characters to provide viewers with a highly enthralling experience besides delivering a decent ending.
Luke Dunphy (Noland Gould) and Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez) make for one such intriguing duo and are hard to be ignored. They struck the right chord with viewers when they first made an appearance on screen in 2009 and continue to be part of the audience's conversations even now.
Although Luke and Manny are widely discussed on social media, each has appealed to fans or garnered some dislike for various reasons. And, going by what viewers have to say, intentionally or unintentionally, the creators of 'Modern Family' have made Luke more likable than Manny.
While Luke's character has witnessed a certain development in the last few seasons, Manny continues to remain a sad soul with a philosophical approach to life, which seems to have struck everyone's nerves on the show and off it.
Rico Rodriguez's character needs to be credited for serving up the show with his comical flair in the first couple of seasons. However, what happened to Manny once he hit puberty? As the humor in his character took a backseat, he became a typical teenager with typical tween issues.
His intellectual talk began to sound like one of those boring lectures that put us to sleep, as it was spoken by a boy on his way to becoming a man. Apart from a change in appearance, Rico's character couldn't offer anything that we haven't seen before.
However, this hasn't been the case with Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil Dunphy's (Ty Burrell) son Luke, whose one-liners and a carefree attitude never seem to bore viewers. For instance, who could have aced calling Gloria "Coal Digger" if not for Luke?
Luke's quirks headline his character as much as his silly yet intriguing jokes. He jumps on the trampoline wearing white underwear with his face covered in a box like it's nobody’s business and still manages to get away with it.
There have been several instances when Luke's presence was absolutely redundant, but maybe he was only retained because he acts as a fresh breath of air on the series when its pace slows occasionally. As ironic as it seems, fans feel Luke's stupidity mirrors his brilliance.
One of Luke's fans defended him on Reddit saying, "Since when do people have to portray characters that they resemble in real life? I find one of the joys in the show is watching Luke do his silly things, and knowing he is actually a genius. It shows what a great actor he is."
While ardent followers of 'Modern Family' heap praise on Luke, they are seen criticizing Manny for being the "the saddest" character on the show. A few have to say that the only factor about Gloria's (Sofia Vergara) son that comes across as funny on the sitcom is his weight.
'Modern Family' airs on Wednesdays on ABC.
