Ay, dios mio!

So, I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to eloquently begin this recap, but fuck it. Last night’s episode was funny, but not funny enough. It had the same hackneyed jokes that have become SO predictable. It actually makes me angry that I can say the jokes out loud, but have to wait for the agonizingly slow set up, before finally hearing the joke that I already said out loud anyway. This happens a lot. Like Haley’s whole thing about taking a “gap” year. UGH. The episode did have its moments, though. Last week in my recap I railed against how this show doesn’t do heartwarming up to par anymore even though I know it can. Well, the last scene with Mitchell and Cam definitely was heartwarming, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for with them. The episode as a whole was okay, but it doesn’t change my mind about not recapping this show next year. Oh, and the season finale cliffhanger? I… just really don’t care. There, I said it.

So, let’s just do the quick and dirty, eh? Alex, is going to prom, and her date is super gay, but doesn’t realize this yet. This provided for a few pretty good gags, especially posing for the “flash” photo. But the whole point of Alex going to prom was that Haley was NOT. Instead, she’s actually being very adult. She tells her parents that she applied to community college already, AND she has an interview at the mall (the aforementioned Gap joke). Also? She’s cooking dinner for Dylan and invited her parents to it. But that’s only to butter them up because she’s going to drop the bomb that after graduation, she’s moving in with Dylan. This goes about as well as you would expect, which is horrible. Claire and Phil spent most of the rest of the story line trying to convince her that moving in with Dylan is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea – one that results in wrinkles and dull, unshiny hair. Luke, though, saves the day by admitting to Dylan that he’s a mail hoarder, and Haley actually did get into the college that waitlisted her. Dylan is happy for her, but has one request: that they go to prom. So wearing borrowed clothes (Dylan in Phil’s double-breasted tux… because he too is double-breasted), they go. Yay. Read the rest of this entry »

MY LUKETONIUM! NOOOOOOO!

You guys. I don’t know if it’s because I woke up an hour later than I intended to, or because I was having an awful work dream, or because I’ve just had an emotionally draining week, but I watched last night’s Modern Family this morning… and I did not really enjoy it at all. I don’t really know what the deal is with this show, but, you guys, it’s changed. It is not the show I started watching mid-Season 2 and went back to Season 1 and DEVOURED because it was so fucking funny. I think it boils down to this: It used to be a sitcom that did new and inventive things, or at least the same sitcom-y things in new and inventive ways that made once-hackneyed storylines seem new and refreshing and hilarious again. But now… recently, it’s just become a sitcom. It has its moments, but more and more I feel like it’s run out of ideas. Or at least run out of ways to transform these ideas. That’s why I titled it with the quote I did. Last night’s ep just wasn’t Modern Family.

I will admit that the parenting argument between Claire and Cam was pretty entertaining, especially given the parenting article I read just yesterday, despite the fact that, you know, I don’t have kids. But there were two things about the episode that just… didn’t do it for me. One was something we’ve seen time and time again, and I’ve mentioned it before, and the other completely took me out of the episode. So much so, that I can’t even give y’all my typical recap. I have thoughts, and they need to get out.

First of all, what we’ve all seen before. Basically this moral of this episode is “try to see things from their eyes.” You know, don’t be quite so selfish and try to see how others might see a situation. Claire didn’t agree with Cam’s “never say no” parenting “technique,” Gloria was jealous of this waitress who worked at a diner whom everyone else in the family adores and seems to know Jay on a person (but not carnal, as far as I can tell) level, and Phil had to “fire” Mitchell from a favor he was doing for Phil’s firm. They all took it personally, and there were definitely funny moments. But when the episode culminates in people pairing off and being the voice of reason to the other person… and then having them all show up at the diner to eat Jay Pritchett sandwiches (which sound disgusting, by the way, especially since Gloria describes it like so: “It’s like a fish and a turkey beat themselves with a pepper.” Gross.), was exactly what we all expected to happen, and it wasn’t even that heartwarming. This show can DO heartwarming. It has done it SO WELL in the past, but this episode had no fire – except the one Luke started and extinguished. The chats were all… typical, and expected.

And maybe I’m just expecting too much from this show, or something. Maybe I’m wanting it to be something that it’s not. And I know that not every single episode is going to be a goddamn gem, but this show had TWO seasons that were not this predictable. And what’s worse is that I feel like the characters have kind of become caricatures of themselves. That’s not always a bad thing, and we don’t see it in every episode. But it’s like when we get handfuls of episodes where Mitchell has issues with his childhood and Jay. Of COURSE this is realistic. Daddy issues don’t go away overnight. I know this. But when we get the same story line over and over and over again and drama and hurt feelings and blah blah blah, but it’s all going to be resolved in a hug. It doesn’t work for me anymore. These kinds of sitcoms don’t work for me. Modern Family has become… *gulp*… formulaic. And I hate it. Read the rest of this entry »

So, as you’ve probably noticed, I was a bit fail with last week’s Modern Family recap. But it wasn’t my fault! My POS DVR decided last Wednesday that it didn’t feel like recording Modern Family. I don’t normally watch it live, so I didn’t notice until 9:03, so I scrambled to start the recording when the apocalypse hit. My DVR crashed. And proceeded to try to reboot itself for the next 45 minutes. *Sigh* But, so, instead of having the recap be days late, or show up on a Saturday, I decided to make you wait a week, because that’s the logic that my brain follows. Kidding. I figured I’d just hit y’all with a DOUBLE recap this week! I know. I’m too kind. So that’s what I’m going to do.

Last week’s ep was pretty good. There was a good call back to Phil’s friend Andre, the neighbor he met while he was working on Luke’s treehouse, so that was pretty awesome. I enjoy them together. I love Phil and Luke together (like with last night’s episode), but it’s good to see Phil with actual adult friends. Anyway, the purpose of their friendly outing was that Phil was going to buy a new car. He was going to be all practical about it and buy a sedan, but Andre convinced him to get the sleek, 1991 convertible instead, even though Phil knew Claire was going to be mad. Soon after purchasing, he realizes it’s not practical for work, so he and Claire trade cars for the day so he can have the van.

Read the rest of this entry »

After almost a month, Modern Family is back! And you know what? It was a fairly decent episode, I guess. Honestly not a lot happened, but at least there were some pretty great lines. I mean, just Mitchell and Cam alone. Driving around in their hybrid, they spouted some of the best puns I’ve heard in a while. And if y’all only need to know one thing about me, it’s that I love a good pun (except news reporter puns. I detest news reporter puns). Really, the lines were the best part of the episode because the more I think about it, the more boring I realize most of the plot was. It may be realistic, but maybe the timeline of the Claire running for council thing is just done, you know? Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought that… I guess it’s good, then that, this ep was all about election day. The moment of truth is upon them! Did Claire win the spot on the council? Let’s get to recapping to find out! Or to refresh if you already saw the ep. ONWARD! Read the rest of this entry »

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this show. For as many laughs as it does give me, I think I’m growing kind of tired of Modern Family, you guys. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they use the same themes a lot (e.g., Mitchell’s daddy issues that aren’t daddy issues because he and Jay mostly just hover around each other until someone has a tiny emotional breakthrough), or maybe because it’s one of the more exhausting shows I’ve recapped because it has 11 main characters. Or maybe it’s because week after week, they’ve proven my theory about bad, good, bad, good episode order. The storylines aren’t predictable, but this show isn’t consistently funny anymore. And that really, really, really pains me because when it first came out, it was hands-down the funniest show I’d ever seen.

All that said, last night’s episode actually had a LOT of laugh-out-loud moments for me. It was really funny. It was definitely one of the peaks in the up and down formula. Phil was awesome, Luke, again, is a genius, and Cam was kind of delightful. AND STELLA WAS BACK. That automatically makes it a peak episode for me because that dog is goddamn amazing. I really enjoyed the episode, but as a whole, I’m not sold on this show anymore. But let’s focus on the good from last night. And maybe in the comments y’all can convince me that I’ve just forgotten the magic of this show. Read the rest of this entry »

And here we are again. Remember that cycle that I wrote about in my recap a few weeks ago? Basically I postulated that Modern Family goes through a cycle where the episodes are varying degrees of enjoyable this season. There are 2 or 3 episode lulls in between really great episodes. And this was one of those lulls. Modern Family puts out great episodes that are so, so hilarious and enjoyable. But then there are episodes where the whole plot just seems so fraught with predictable and overwrought jokes. I don’t know, you guys. A few people I’ve talked to seemed to enjoy last night’s ep, but a couple of people also seem the feel the way I do, so I don’t think I’m totally off base here. For me, last night’s episode was only marginally enjoyable. I mean, there was Phil who is the heart of my heart, and who, in my eyes, can do no wrong even when he is doing the wrongest of the wrongs, so that was a highlight. And Luke should also win awards just because he is so dumb and I just want to give his little cheek a pinch. But the rest of the episode… let’s discuss.

So, since the Dunphy story line was actually my favorite of the episode, let’s just start with that. It’s Leap Day in Modern Family land – just like in OUR world! I do have to give the writers props for how well this season’s episodes have been planned. It’s Phil’s favorite day, because of course it is. Because Leap Day cannot be wasted on such trivialities as school or work, the entire family is going to have trapeze lessons. This actually sounds really fun. I mean, I would probably puke, but I would totally be in on this plan had Phil thought to invite me. Anyway, there’s only one problem – or really, three problems. The ladies of the house have inevitably synced their cycles so they’re all PMSing together, and crying at that goddamn Sarah McLachlan battered animals commercial. I suppose this would have been funnier if I didn’t HATE THIS COMMERCIAL WITH THE FIERY PASSION OF AN EXPLODING SUN. I used to like that song. Thanks, animal abusers. You’ve ruined it. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an interesting thing that happens when you watch a show when you know you have to be all analytical about it. You start to become hyperaware of patterns and themes and formulas (or maybe you’re all aware of it too, and I’m just a slow, unobservant leisure watcher). They don’t necessarily make a show bad, but it can sometimes make things tedious. But, sometimes you’ll come across a show that’s able to recognize the formula, tweak it and still manage to pull at our heartstrings. You guys, I love it when Modern Family has those sentimental little moments. There were two in last night’s episode, and honestly, one worked better than the other, but maybe I’m just biased. One involved Phil and the girls (y’all KNOW how much I love Phil with the girls, especially Haley), and the other involved Mitchell and Jay.

Before we get to that, let’s quickly cover the other less weighty subjects. First of all, the episode started off with the entire family together for brunch at the Dunphy’s, which is a nice change to things. First of all, it finally becomes clear to me just what Luke’s whole “but can we agree that she’s a disastrous human being” about Lily was about last week. He’s jealous because he used to be the cute one! Oh, why didn’t I see it before?! So he and Manny decide to rig a booby trap to get her in trouble so I guess the parents finally will see what a disastrous human she is, only it backfires andCam falls victim to it instead. He slips on the puddle of milk they’d hoped to blame on the tot and lays prostrate on the sofa to recover.

But it’s a sham! He really just wants to look through the house for a piece of Tupperware that he let Claire borrow and that she swears up and down that she returned. Now that I type that out, this story line sounds really boring, but hello, it’s freakingCam, so you know it was hilarious. Long story short,Camtears the house apart and finally finds the bottom high in a cabinet and has to climb the drawers to get it. They end up breaking and Claire runs into the kitchen to find him on his back again, with the contents of the drawer strewn about. By way of explanation, he simply looks at her, gestures with the Tupperware and says “Um, this had a lid.” Oh,Cam. *sighs contentedly* Read the rest of this entry »

Is it weird that I kind of feel like it’s a treat that there was actually a new episode of Modern Family last night? I feel like there have been so many off weeks. But whatever because last night was new. And though I found some of the jokes kind of predictable, the delivery of the punch lines got me every time. It was genuinely a very funny episode. Sometimes I feel like I forget just how funny this show can be. Like this scene:

God, I love Phil.

Anyway, so last night’s common theme was children, and more than that, it was about how children are pretty much perfect just the way they are. Awww. That sounds really corny, but it was actually done in a really subtle way, and I didn’t actually realize that was the theme until just now as I was writing that sentence. So let’s split up the story lines and get to recapping.

First, we’ll talk about Jay, Gloria and Manny because you all know how much I dislike Manny so let’s just get him out of the way. Jay talks to some neighbor kids (or more likely the parents) who want Manny to come play football with them. Marco is trying to get theater tickets for him, Gloria and Manny, but Jay lies to him that Manny already has plans to play football – and lord does this boy need football. Jay doesn’t approve that Manny is basically an old man, and I totally agree with this one. I mean, I support letting your kids be who they are, but I will tell you this, future kids. If you are anywhere as annoying as Manny, though I know you won’t be because I’ll be your mom and I’m awesome, but if you are, I may have to sell you for concert tickets or something (because you know by the time I have kids that shit will be outrageous). But because Jay is a far better person than I, he forces Manny to play football with some friendly neighborhood kids instead of spending more time with his mother. Like collecting lucky pennies so they can buy a lucky lottery ticket. Read the rest of this entry »