Tag Archives: Modern Family

A few months ago, when I heard the rumor that Modern Family was going on a Hawaiian vacation, I got simultaneously excited and nervous. The “vacation to someplace nice!” is a pretty cliche and often terrible plot that a show will do in it’s later years (see: Scrubs goes to the Bahamas for the Janitor’s wedding), and so far, Modern Family has been able to take all sorts of sitcom cliches and spin them into their own, hilarious version that has yet to disappoint. I was really hoping this wouldn’t be the one to flop.

Why I was nervous I now don’t know. Modern Family did the episode in their unique style as episode ended before they’d even left Los Angeles in this first part of what appears to be a three part finale. Let’s backtrack. Gloria decided to surprise Jay for his birthday by getting him a trip to Hawaii. Though Jay knew he actually was the one paying for everything, he was excited to get to spend some time with just his wife and his “electronic reader thing.” The hitch in that plan? Gloria has a string of surprises, the biggest being that she’s also paid (again with Jay’s money) for the entire family to join them. Making matters worse, they’re planning on going to luaus, daily hikes, and the rest of the show is essentially going to put on a variety show for him. Then Luke sits down on his Kindle and breaks it, sending Jay to the bar, where he worries to Claire that maybe Gloria doesn’t want to spend time with him, inviting the rest of the family to help keep that from happening. But Claire drunkenly reassures him its fine (more on that in a second), and later he learns about the last surprise, that the family is leaving early so that he and Gloria can have a few days to themselves. Jay tells his wife he couldn’t love her more- that is until she mentions she found a topless beach.

Meanwhile, Claire and Mitchell are having issues with the reliability of their respective partners. Claire is a nervous wreck about flying, but “Uncle” Phil has reassured her and promised to help her get through the flight. Mitchell is frustrated with Cameron over the fact that he scheduled a playdate for Lilly with an in-demand kid, Jasper, an hour before they had to leave for the airport. Subsequently, Mitchell blames Cam for his forgetting his wallet at home. Phil steps up though and tells Mitchell they can get the wallet and get back to the airport in plenty of time for the flight, so they motor away. The problems? Phil forgot all about the extra-nervous Claire and Cam has the keys to the house. So when they get there, Phil uses his skills to get in the house, explaining “every realtor’s just a ninja in a blazer.” Meanwhile, Claire is getting more and more nervous, thanks to the off handed remarks of her family about the perils of flying, including the long-awaited Julie Bown-Lost reference, where Luke asks her how cool it would be if their plane crashed on the Island from Lost (for those non-Losties, Julie Bowen played the wife of one of the main characters in a series of pre-crash flashbacks). So after a chat with Cameron about her frustrations with Phil, which is intercut with Mitch and Phil talking about the same thing, she goes to the bar with her dad, where she gets wasted. Luckily, the two make it back in time, and everyone apologizes and makes up, in a sweet ending.

The kids two all had their own stories that were just as funny. Luke gets sick flying, so he takes Dramamine, which he uses as an opportunity to spin in circles without getting dizzy, which is what eventually caused the breaking of Jay’s kindle. Cameron was trying desperately to keep Lilly awake so that she would sleep on the plane and not annoy the other fliers. Hailey and Alex had their own mini-adventure, starting with Hailey waking up to discover that Dylan accidentally slept in her bedroom all night, and in his attempt to not get caught by her family as he leaves, he gets stuck in the house after the alarm turns on. But Hailey doesn’t care, she spots a cute boy drawing in the airport, and after ignoring Dylan’s texts (“such a drama queen!”) and several rebukes of her sister, she goes to flirt with him, only to realize he was 14. This sends Alex into a fit of laughter, which included her hilariously falling onto the floor and kicking her legs in the air. As for our favorite 50 year old stuck in a boy’s body, Manny gets pulled in by Homeland Security, being mistaken for another Manny Delgado on the No-Fly List. He answers questions about trips to Japan he couldn’t have taken when he was four, and Gloria defends him as best she can, and eventually, Manny gets to join to group before they board. Oh and if you were wondering about Dylan, he ran out of the house, causing the alarm to go off, the alarm company to call Phil, him to panic, Mitchell to tell him the alarm company would take care of it, and presumably, the Dunphy house was left open as they left for Hawaii.

All in all, “Airport 2010″ was another stellar episode from a show that is looking to have one of the best first seasons since Arrested Development, an honor I realize is both too early to call and pretty serious. Consider the intersecting stories, the hilariously choreographed scene of Dylan attempting to sneak out of the house as the Dunphy family leaves, the reoccurring joke of Gloria “sparing no expense,” but with Jay’s Money, and the great scene featuring the family boarding the plane, complete with Gloria’s accent problems (“wale washing”) and Phil passing off his wife’s drunkenness as impressions (“do a zombie!”). “Airport 2010″ could have been the most boring, cliched episode ever (Mitch forgot his wallet! Hailey’s flirting with a cute boy! Claire hates flying!), but it had the distinctive feel of a Modern Family episode that has won over so many audiences in its first season. Only two more episodes are left before Summer TV Purgatory, and “Airport 2010″ sets off the Hawaiian Vacation Trilogy in near perfect fashion.

Michael’s Score:85
TUiW Grade: A-

With no How I Met Your Mother or Lost on this week, I was really excited for a new Modern Family to fix my need for new episodes of a favorite show. Sweetening the deal? It was to feature a guest appearance by Fred Willard as Phil’s dad. Maybe it was high expectations, but I ended up being a little disappointed. “Travels With Scout” was a mixed bag of an episode, with some incredible moments, and some that were just undeveloped and fell below the bar already set so high by the show.

In the “A Story,” Phil’s dad Frank arrives in an RV at the Dunphy house with a dog, Scout, that he and Phil’s mom got from the pound, but cannot keep because she’s allergic. Scout is going to the Dunphys, which was previously unbeknown to the reluctant Claire. She worried that she would end up taking care of the dog, much like when she had to do Luke’s paper route for him, as seen in one of my favorite sight gags of the night. But Phil is just happy to have his dad around, mostly because he’s an older version of Phil. Everything is great, but then Claire discovers Frank crying alone in his RV. She thinks this means that Frank and Phil’s mom split up, a fact Phil is reluctant to accept. Meanwhile, Scout is getting himself settled in the Dunphy home, stealing underwear from the laundry, getting himself out of the crate, and asking to be let out. The best part: Luke has trouble with the latter two, getting trapped in the cage and running through screens. In the end, Frank reveals he’s actually just sad to let Scout go, so Phil decides to let him keep the dog. The only problem is that now Claire has grown attached to him, and the look on Julie Bowen’s face when she realized that Scout was leaving was hilarious and heartbreaking.

While all of this was going on, Dylan was freaking out because his band’s drummer’s parents were getting back together, and he’d have to move, leaving them in a lurch right before a show. Luckily, former music teacher Cameron was there for the rescue, and after fooling his bandmates with bad drumming, Cam unleashes his skills (“dude, you should label your sticks”) and joins the band for their gig. This, however, comes amidst protests from Mitchell, who doesn’t like the idea, but also because they have “Pepper’s apres-ski fondue party.” But Cameron rocks at the gig, and Mitchell’s mind changes. That is until Cam’s solo goes on way way too long. When the band’s drummer returns, Cam is forced out of the band, much to his sadness.

Meanwhile, Jay takes Manny to go see a horror movie that stars an old high school friend of Mitchell’s as a psycho killer. Jay thinks this is a brilliant idea…that is until Manny has the living daylights scared out of him. Manny freaks out when the broken doorbell won’t stop ringing (he thinks it’s possessed), and offers to protect the house with his fencing sword. Jay still doesn’t believe its that big of deal until Manny shares the bed with he and Gloria, and wakes them up with his night terrors. So Jay has his second brilliant idea: invite the actor over to house one night so Manny can see that he’s not a psycho killer and that his machete is just a prop. This sets up a hilarious chain of events, when after the doorbell doesn’t work, the actor comes to the window (where he’s horrifyingly lit from below), holds up his (fake) machete and says, “Are you Manny? I’m here for you!” Absolute perfection.

So if there were so many great moments in “Travels With Scout,” why didn’t it work as an episode? For one, the overall pacing seemed off. Episode seemed to drag at parts, and while it had these great bits, didn’t tie together well enough to function as a stellar episode. Like I said, there were some absolutely hilarious bits, and each individual story seemed well constructed, but there seemed to be a lack of overall coherence that dragged it down. Because of the great bits, I’m being a little more generous with my grade, but I’m hoping next week kicks it up a notch.

Michael’s Score: 65
TUiW Grade: B-

So much has praise has been bestowed on Modern Family for its tremendous cast and generally positive outlook, and rightly so, but perhaps the best thing about it is that it’s on Wednesday nights. Right in the middle of the week, it’s the perfect cure for mid-week blues. It’s episodic nature makes it possible to just sit back and enjoy the hilarity that will no doubt ensue. There’s no drama, it’s entirely comedy. I love Parks and Rec (and actually think it’s the overall better show), but Modern Family‘s ability to just divide and conquer; it sets up the action, sends its characters into it, and they go, not needing to refer back to anything or have any sort of overarching plot. While that overarching plot can be enjoyable, it’s also nice to have the standalone, picaresque comedy of Modern Family. The show has already treated us to an all-time classic in “Fizbo,” and now it has a second in “Starry Night.”

In “Starry Night,” we had three things going on, all sort of A-stories. In the Dunphy house, Hailey needed cupcakes for a school event made at the last minute and Luke needed to prepare a presentation on Vincent Van Gogh (Alex reminds us she’s done all of her work unassisted). Claire dispatches Phil to help Luke, while she’ll work with Hailey, who’s plan is to just make one slip up and convince her mother to do all the work for her. Phil disagrees with Claire’s notion that Luke needs extra help staying on task, and Alex stirs the pot by suggesting that he has ADHD. But it seems that it’s actually Phil that can’t focus, indulging Luke’s question about how lead gets in pencils and falling in the garage during an ill-fated search for a screwdriver to fix a chair. When they walk in on Luke playing with Mr. Potato head, both parents get upset. But Luke wasn’t playing, he was quite creatively getting ears to put on his poster of Van Gogh. Claire and Phil realize that they not only underestimated Luke, but that Hailey could do the cupcakes by herself. This lead to the hilarious close, where Claire and Phil gush over how good Hailey’s cupcakes are, only to spit them out in horror as she leaves (Luke: “I can’t feel my mouth like at the dentist”).

Cameron and Gloria decided to take advantage of a night without Mitchell, Jay, and Manny (more on that in a second), and Cameron was viewing it as a chance to become friendly with Gloria after an awkward misunderstanding at a family dinner. You see, while complaining about some snooty Ivy League people and Gloria caught him saying “I wish that tart would go back to Columbia and take her weird little Brown friends with her,” just as Gloria and Manny walked by. It was one of the greatest misunderstandings I’ve ever seen. So Cam wants to make up for it by taking her to an exclusive restaurant that one of his “yoga brothers” got him into, but Gloria wants to just go to her favorite Columbian restaurant. Cam goes along, and wanting to be close to Gloria, brazenly orders the same carnitas diablos. Of course, he can’t handle them, and we’re treated to Cam’s sweaty crying and screaming (“I feel like I just ate the sun!”), which was a highlight of the episode. When he cools off, he reveals to Gloria he wants the two of them to be friends, and she reveals that the only reason she didn’t want to go to the fancy restaurant was because she already spent a lot of money on a dress that day (more on that in a second!!). They two bond, and even though Cam’s tires get stolen and Gloria goes crazy over it, it’s a sweet ending.

The three remaining members of the Pritchett clan were off on an adventure of their own, watching a meteor shower. It’s normally the one time Mitchell and Jay get to bond, but (unbeknown to Mitchell), Manny was left out of some plans made by his friends who thought he was too weird, so Jay decided to take him along. This would have been fine, but Jay helped easy Manny’s concerns about how to get along with his step-brother by ragging on him constantly. So not only is Mitchell upset that it’s not just him and his dad, but also that he is constantly getting made fun of, which provided some of the funniest lines in the episode (“Hey Jay! Guess who thinks Mercury is the densest planet in the solar system!”). To make matters even worse, Mitchell gets sprayed by a skunk, and Jay forces him to change out of his clothes. All that’s available: Gloria’s dress, and it looks absolutely hilarious. Jay eventually comes clean about why Manny came along, (not before telling Mitchell “If you were that type of a gay, you’d probably do all right for yourself.”) and Mitchell and Manny eventually get to connect.

The end of the episode was the perfect encapsulation of Modern Family. We’re treated to shots of Jay, Manny, and Mitchell staring at the meteor shower, and Cameron and Gloria happily waiting for a tow truck as Luke shares his presentation on Van Gogh through a voice over. There’s even the happy “awww” music playing the background. Luke talks about the meaning of “Starry Night” and it’s a sweet moment that even borders on sappy. That is until Luke adds a part about “Aliens who could be here any second to liquefy us and use us as fuel.” If you can’t love a show that does that, then you really don’t have a sense of humor.

Other Notes:
-Phil’s attempt to find sunglasses on the top shelf was amazing. Ty Burrell is a phenomenal physical actor.
-Another occurrence of my favorite gag: “Gotta fix that step!” Was it just me or did it look like Julie Bowen really took a fall?
- “Shot gun suckah!”
- Luke thinks the noise canceling headphones cancel his noise. “Everybody is stupid except me … I am funny!”

Michael’s Score: 94
TUIW Grade: A

One of the things that I love about Modern Family is that every episode is funny throughout, but they always build towards a hilarious climax that’s unrivaled in TV right now. “Truth Be Told” was a prime example of that, the show slowly building, as if it was raising its grade throughout. It’s another episode where the three families are completely separate (until the very end), but each plot worked extraordinarily well.

We’ll start with my favorite, the Dunphys. A couple things are going on, with Luke finally getting a good burn on a dumbfounded Alex, Phil reconnecting innocently through Facebook with an ex, Denise (the always great Judy Greer), and Claire being jealous about that, thinking Denise’s intentions are far from innocent. All three weave together as Alex tells Luke that Denise is his real mother, Denise really does want Phil to come to her hotel, and Claire backs off, thinking it all innocent. The incredible blocking of Phil avoiding Denise behind Claire’s back in the kitchen was one of the funniest bits of physical comedy I’ve seen on any show in recent years. It was a great sequence, made all the more better by three actors with incredible comedic instincts.

Over in the Mitchell and Cameron household, Mitchell was struggling with being constantly called into work and missing out on Lily’s growth. He gets especially nervous when he complains about his boss on speakerphone with the windows open at a light next to his boss. Ouch. He and Cam try to recreate the moment at the light, in one of the funnier bits of the night (“A little bit louder now!”), but Mitchell can’t take it anymore and quits his job. He and Cam celebrate at first, then panic, as their source of income is now gone. But things will get better, and they’ll be okay. In the meantime, we’ll inevitably get to see some hilarious panicking.

Lastly, there was Pritchett house, where Manny was lamenting his unsuccessful audition to play Teyve in Fiddler on the Roof (I’ve seen Fiddler dozens of times, but I’d be first in line to see that show). Jay tries cheering him up with an inspirational poster saying “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” Of course, when he attempts to hang it up, it falls on Manny’s turtle tank, breaking lamps, and killing his turtle Shel Turtlestein (best turtle name ever!). Rather than own up to it, and risk losing the rapport he’s gained with Manny, he fakes the scene and claims a raccoon came in and attacked the turtle. Gloria figures it out right away, and pressures Jay to tell Manny the truth, but he can’t bring himself to do it during a memorial service for the turtle, instead revealing the truth that night. Manny already knows, and it turns out he had a secret of his own, having scratched Jay’s car. So all’s even, (dead turtle = scratch on car) and things go back to being normal.

All in all, it was an episode that didn’t miss a beat. Like I said, the three households were separated this episode, but it didn’t matter. Every plot was played perfectly, every little joke hitting the mark. Modern Family is justifiably the best new comedy of the year, and is currently tied in my mind with Parks and Rec as the best comedy on TV. This is what a good comedy should be.

Other Notes:

- Phil auditioned as a break dancer for Star Search under the name “O-Zone!”

- Other pet names: Flyza Minnelli and Zsa Zsa Gaboa. How did Jay not know Mitchell was gay?

- “Go around — we’re recreating a faux pas!”

- “I need the ID to make the elevator go down … to freedom!”

Michael’s Score: 98

Tangled Up In Wires Grade: A+

Ah, Valentine’s Day on sitcoms! So often, when V-Day hits a sitcom, there’s someone dying to tell another how they feel, someone lonely that hates the day, and two people in love having a good day. Modern Family is, of course, not the typical sitcom though, and their first take on Valentine’s Day was unique and packed with laughs.

Our three households were off on their own again, each with their own Valentine’s Day schedule. For Phil and Claire, it was a night of role playing at a hotel instead of their annual tradition, a night out at a family style Italian restaurant. They decide to meet in the hotel bar, with Phil attempting to pick her up. He goes by the name of Clive Bixby, and even sports a name tag, just in case. As the encounter escalates, Claire returns to the table in a trench coat, giving Phil her dress. On their way to their room, her coat gets stuck in the escalator. Cue every person they don’t want to run into (a co-worker, Luke’s teacher, a principle), all offering to help get her unstuck and asking why she doesn’t just take of the coat.

Meanwhile, Jay gets Gloria tickets to go see comedian David Brenner, though she’d rather go salsa dancing. They’re having a grand time until he notices the two of them, starts mocking Jay for his age. We’ve seen this before, but it makes sense that Jay wouldn’t quite be used to the idea of being mocked for their age differential. They leave, with the plan to go salsa dancing, and that’s when the run into the still trapped Claire and Phil. Claire couldn’t possibly be more embarrassed, but Gloria knows what to do, and they get Claire out in Gloria’s coat.

While all of this is going on, Cam and Mitchell are having their own Valentine’s Day adventure with Manny. Mitchell had already had a rough day, when a case he’d been working on for months ended in a settlement and he doesn’t get to deliver his big closing argument. Cam volunteers to watch Manny for the night, and he comes in, pours himself a drink (sparkling water), and details his problem, that some jerk named Durkiss stole the poem he’d written for a girl and claimed it as his own, taking the girl on a date to Manny’s favorite restaurant, Great Shakes. Cam and Mitchell take him there, and Cam lures Durkiss away with a telephone survey (that accent was fantastic), and Manny swoops in.  When it comes time to finally confront Durkiss, Mitchell comes to the rescue, getting the chance to deliver his closing argument in front of the whole restaurant, ending by pointing at Durkiss and loudly saying “Shame!” It was an absolutely hilarious scene, and his final pronnouncement was the cherry on top. Sadly, Manny doesn’t get the girl, but he realizes, she really wasn’t worth it.

All in all, it was one of MF‘s best episodes yet. There weren’t any too many moments where I wasn’t laughing. The only real issue I had with it was the Jay and Gloria story, which I feel like we’ve already seen. There wasn’t too much to it either, with David Brenner delivering most of the jokes. But the Phil and Claire story was pitch perfect and the adventure to Great Shakes got better and better as it went along. “My Funky Valentine” broke the Sitcom Valentine’s Day Mold in the same way the show itself breaks the sitcom mold, and proved, yet again, why so many people are so smitten by it.

Other Notes:

• Didn’t mention the brief bit of Dylan and Hailey we got. That painting was hilarious.
• Speaking of the Dunphy kids, that ending was pretty great. I loved Hailey’s horrified look and the complete naivete of the other two.
• I almost died laughing watching Manny pour himself a drink at the bar. Mitchell’s reaction when he noticed the two of them doing the same thing was priceless.
• “I’m not letting you get any sleep tonight.  So you might want to take a nap at work.”  ”I always do!”
• Phil’s misunderstanding of “role playing” was pretty great. Loved those characters.

Michael’s Score: 91

Tangled Up In Wires Grade: A

For those who didn’t hear the unsurprising news, Modern Family got renewed this week for a second season, which means that we’re guaranteed at least one more season of dog butlers, gardener weddings, and inappropriate pictures. If you missed last night or haven’t seen the show, that sentence probably made little sense.

In “Not In My House,” we saw all three family units in conflict over, well, what can happen in their house. In the Dunphy house, Claire was raising hell over a picture of a topless woman on a tractor she found on the family computer, which she assumed belonged to Luke. Phil, however, had gotten the picture from a friend at work and let his youngest child take the brunt of Claire’s wrath. He pretends to talk to Luke about it and tells Claire not to bring it up so as not to be awkward. Meanwhile, Hailey is upset that Alex read her journal (kids really still write journals?), when it was in fact Luke. This led to perhaps the funniest moment of the episode, when Claire and Luke have a conversation, which Claire thinks is about internet porn, and Luke thinks is about reading his sister’s journal. In the end, Phil get’s busted and Luke gets let off the hook.

Meanwhile, Mitchell was bothered by the fact that Cam is “too nice.” When they saw their gardener crying outside, Mitchell wanted to bolt to go see marionettes, but Cam, doing the right thing, let’s him in and mistakenly tells him in Spanish he can basically lock himself in their bedroom. Things escalate and finally, there is a Mexican wedding in Cam and Mitchell’s house.

Jay got the best sight gags of the night, thanks to a statue of a dog butler he bought with casino winnings. Gloria hated the thing, and as Jay moved it throughout the house and repaired it, Gloria walked in to find him first holding its hand (excuse me, his hand) while talking about loving it and then holding its hand while standing with a priest after the wedding. His obliviousness to what he was doing (he was actually gluing on the hand and talking about her, holding the hand to steady it while setting it up) made a really goofy, minor story line one of the funniest parts of the episode.

All in all, “Not In My House” wasn’t exactly an episode rich with story, but was an extremely well crafted, funny episode. I go back and forth between Modern Family and Parks and Recreation as my favorite comedy, and what frequently sways me towards Modern Family is the genuine sweetness the show conveys. “Not In My House” was full of that, which made it stand out from the many other stock family comedies that have been on TV over the years. I think that, in addition to the crisp writing and comic timing, have made Modern Family such a hit. Now that we know there’s going to be a season 2 for sure, it’s good to know that we’ll be getting many more episodes like “Not In My House.”

Other Notes:

I can’t write this review without mentioning the hilarious ending over the credits, with Cam voicing the dog voice. Absolutely hysterical.

Michael’s Score: 95

Tangled Up In Wires  Grade: A