Modern Family rolls out another average episode this week, but does so by mixing up the formula with most every character; which I much appreciate.
The first big shift is Cam, Mitchell, and Lily have moved in with Jay, Gloria, and Manny for a few days while their house is fumigated and the adults get into it a bit. Cam immediately begins to take over and the fellow house wife, Gloria, immediately begins to take resentment. That’s ok though, Gloria will just steal Lily to get back at him. Gloria starts doing her hair, buying her clothes, and taking her to school as the two begin a dance of words only to end in a literal dance around the kitchen. The back and forth was slight, yet cute, and getting to see these two go head to head was a confrontation we rarely get to see. The flamboyance of each of them made their little squabble easy to enjoy, even if there wasn’t a whole lot of depth to the story.
Mitchell on the other hand is getting into it with this dad, Jay, as he has a lawyer joke book lying around in the guest room when they arrive. Mitchell thinks his dad doesn’t respect him and his resentment is only heightened when his dad crashes a meeting with an important client. The client is a DJ from Jay’s youth who was quite the prankster. The story doesn’t really go anywhere though and wraps up with the DJ pranking Jay at the request of Mitchell after the two bury the hatchet over their differences. Jay assuring Mitchell he respects him is old hat for the show and they didn’t do anything clever or interesting with that here to validate retreading those waters.
Manny was regulated to the sidelines for the most part, but it was nice to not see him used as the one note joke they usually do. They didn’t betray the character in the process, Manny was still mature and acting beyond his years here, but instead he tries to use it for good instead of the show turning it against him. Creating the Danielle character to try and get Cam and Gloria to see the errors of their ways was a thoughtful gesture, but the humor didn’t really register for me; the call back to Danielle with Mitchell made me laugh though.
The Dunphy’s didn’t have a lot to offer this week, even with Greg Kinnear guest starring in their plotline. The kids are regulated to cross dressing Luke that pays off in the epilogue, but nothing happens along the way. Claire and Phil are left to deal with Kinnear who is a big shot real estate agent and might be trying to pick up Claire. Phil is oblivious though as he is trying to impress the guy to get some future work from him and the humor they try to create fell flat at almost every turn. They squeaked a couple good lines in there for Phil and it was nice to see Claire be waving the red flag, but all in and all there was nothing to write home about. Quite a waste of Kinnear as well, does any show waste guest stars as frequently as Modern Family does?
Modern Family mixed things up this week, and for that I am terribly appreciative, but unfortunately the episode didn’t bring the funny. Smatterings of laughs are sure to be had week to week on the show, but again the show was unable to break out beyond that. Still, I am glad they are trying to mix things up and I hope they can continue to do so more in the future.
Bullets:
-Have they not done the divorce joke before?
-Cam’s giggle!
-Greg Kinnear!
-Salmon, steak, and chicken?
-I love awkward “handshakes that almost became a hug.”
-“Most of them transit by zip line.”
-What are Cam and Gloria going to get into?
-It’s a “wife” off.
-It’s fun to see Jay so happy.
-“Could I talk to Grandma Groovy?”
-I really like the dynamic of Claire being turned off and Phil turned on/dubious to Kinnear’s games.
-“The other day, when you put on make-up, I was like, ‘There she is.’”
-Luke’s face.
-I like Gloria and Cam spitting fire at each other.
-Is Manny going to actually have something to do?
-“I’m sorry to be so blunt.”
-Manny’s intelligence/maturity works better when it isn’t just a played out joke.
-Didn’t SNL do this gag on their show more than a handful of times?
-Betty Luke, how cute.
-The kitchen Salsa, that was cute.
-“Guess we are going to talk.”
-Poor Danielle.
-“Only I can take my wife to bed, comma, and make her laugh.”
-I don’t understand this either, very convoluted story here.
-Poor Luke, “Good to see you Betty Luke.”
