Modern Family is kind of confusing: the weekly gatherings of three branches of the Pritchett family seem a little contrived, but this week’s episode shows us just how necessary that contrivance is. Other than a brief scene between Mitchell and Claire, the families stuck close to home this week, and the episode suffered a little bit for it.
That’s not to say that the episode was bad — far from it. Celia Weston as Cam’s mother Barb was 100% fantastic. As someone who gets weirded out by people I know getting overly affectionate with me, I was cringing along with Mitchell throughout the entire episode.
It is a little bizarre that it took Cam so long to notice this, but he didn’t seem to notice that Lily was missing (the same thing happened on Cougar Town, with Andy and Ellie apparently abandoning their baby somewhere during Thanksgiving), so a butt pat-down here and there can’t be too high on his list of things to be aware of.
Also unaware, is of course, Phil. After realizing that she has been paying Haley’s tutor to make out with her, Claire doesn’t freak out as we’d expect. Instead, she uses this as an excuse to get rid of the long-hated Dylan. I always think they’ve already broken up, so every time he pops back up in a storyline, it surprises me. Dylan is kind of great though, so it was a pleasant surprise. Phil also got some Phil/Dylan time in, so that of course made him creepily happy.
I loved the scene with Haley and the guy who works at the ice cream place. “Well they were talking about taking a trip to Graceland together,” cracked me up for some reason. Phil’s lady sweatshirt also led me to my favorite part of the episode: the very end where he’s talking to Dylan on the phone, sees a teenage girl wearing the same hoodie, and without missing a beat, puts the phone in his mouth and tosses the jacket in the trash can. It was such a well-executed visual joke, that it was the perfect way to end the episode.
Jay’s branch of the family is the one that benefits the most from interaction with the others. On their own this week, they were easily the weakest links of the night. The medical website storyline was basically, “Ha ha, Gloria’s Colombian and crazy.” We get it, guys. Her culture is different from ours (although I will say I loved her line about going to the mall to buy him a crib and a little dress).
All in all, it wasn’t the strongest episode of the season, and I’m pretty shocked that it aired the night before Thanksgiving but wasn’t actually a Thanksgiving episode. With a family show, it just seems like a weird missed opportunity.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Nov 25, 2010 @ 09:15 EST5EDT
