MODERN FAMILY: Fifteen Percent

I don’t think of myself as a pessimist, but I just may be. Watching last night’s MODERN FAMILY I found myself wondering just how the show’s sophomore season would ever live up to the brilliance of this first year. The cast, the writing – everything is just in such perfect harmony, that I hope creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd are somehow bottling this magic in a jar to pull from for years to come.

Although we are always gushing about the show on the podcast, I find that I rarely talk about MODERN FAMILY here on GMMR. But in my resolve to bring GMMR back to more of a personal focus, I’m going to (somehow) make the time to talk more about the shows that I find the most joy in. MODERN FAMILY is one of those shows that I spend the whole day looking forward to. Whatever “it” is…it’s got “it”.

The strong connection between the Pritchett, Tucker-Pritchett, and Dunphy families is present, even if they don’t interact on-screen. You don’t need to see Claire and Mitchell in the same room to realize that they are their father’s children. That’s quite apparent in Claire’s stubbornness to learn to use the remote, or in Mitchell’s inability to forgive and forget when it comes to his father’s past transgressions. Despite the rough exterior it’s Jay that tries the hardest to become a better man for his family. It’s that very reason that I think the casting of Ed O’Neil, a man that brought to life the iconic Al Bundy, was so genius. He’s always surprising you.

Never a surprise is sweet little Manny. You can always expect the boy to be wise beyond his years. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that he found love online with an older woman. Hey, it’s just the way he rolls. Manny’s short lived love affair with Whitney had all the elements of timeless love. “Her name is Whitney. I met her in an online book club. We both like vampire fiction an the romance of eternal life.” I mean who doesn’t?

Gloria’s makeover magic is so powerful that it can make a man as gay as Cam go straight. Ok not really, but don’t Whitney. She’s had a bad enough day as it is.

Meanwhile, Cameron had had a day himself. I mean the flowers he bought were droopy. My god is there no justice in this world? The hilarious notion that he went “medieval” on the phone by saying he was “displeased” nee “very displeased” was the embodiment of Cam – a people pleaser with a huge heart.

The same can’t always be said about his partner, Mitchell, but that’s ok because he’s good at other things, like using the voice command function in the car. By good I mean if he can get directions to Hell via Taco Bell. He can’t help it, the technological ineptitude runs in his family. Claire can get the remote to work.

This is where I stop and admit that despite the very name of this website, I too had my past struggles with the remote. Not mine, but I don’t have a fancy home theater like the Dunphy’s. But when my friends Steph & Rob first got their system, they not only had to label the buttons on the remotes but they taped little pieces of paper with instructions to the back just in case a wrong button was accidentally pushed. I stayed at their house once when they were away and I didn’t watch TV for two days because I pressed the wrong channel up button. It was a dark few days. I might not be as smart as Luke Dunphy, but I figured it out….eventually.

Although I was sad to see only 1/3 of the Dunphy kids, Haley never disappoints. (And I suppose if you’re her boyfriend Dylan, you aren’t ever disappointed in the Dunphy women either.) The bond that was made while Phil was teaching Haley how to use the remote was a lasting one. It was nice to see have the upper hand on Claire for once. She can be so condescending to him that it was nice for him to give her a taste of her own medicine. And who doesn’t appreciate a song that reminds you how to use the thermostat? Come on.

Despite everyone’s woes, it was perhaps Jay that had the hardest time of it. Feeling guilt over how he handled himself the three times Mitchell came out to him, Jay wanted to better by his friend Shorty, who according to Mitchell and Gloria’s gaydar, was indeed gay. He wasn’t as it turned out. He was just into fashion. But the mistake cost Jay $20k all the same.

Although MODERN FAMILY usually has some fantastic dialogue, last night’s episode was especially quotable. I couldn’t close this review out without sharing just a few more memorable moments.

• [Cameron on coming out to his parents] “And my parents, they just knew. My mother says labor with me took 36 hours because I came out of the womb like this, “HELLO!”

• Manny: “You’re not stupid. Stupid is not following your heart and taking a chance on love.”

• Gloria: “In my country there’s a saying that means ‘love is just around the corner.’ I come from a neighborhood with a lot of prostitutes.”

• Gloria: “You just need to find your inner beauty.”
  Manny: “It’s hiding behind the mask of insecurity.”

• Manny: “I’ll tell you what. If neither of us is with anyone in ten years, how about you and me give it a shot?”
  Whitney: “That’s disturbing…but maybe.”

• Claire: “I had a 4.0 in college. How about you?”
  Phil: “I was almost that, despite my substantial time commitment to cheerleading.”

• Mitchell: “Look at that, two things flaming at once.”

• Shorty: “If you don’t relax, you’ll never get the shaft where you want.”

• Claire & Phil: “Face!”

• Jay: “I’m here to let you know that your gaydar is broken.”

• Jay: “Don’t you see how hard this is for me? See, I used to be just like one of those guys. Now look at me. I’ve got a house that looks like little Colombia. A gay son and a Chinese granddaughter.
  Mitchell: “Vietnamese”
  Jay: “Only you would know the difference.”

A very funny episode from beginning to end. What did everyone else think?