I recently wrote a DVD Flashback Friday blog post on Modern Family. I’ll fill you in on it: I was wrong. You were right. Actually, no. You were right. I was negligent. I’d been told for a long time that I would love Modern Family, but I resisted. I’m not sure why. Probably because my television viewing schedule is already quite full. If I’m going to take on a new show, it’s gotta be good. But. Modern Family is gooooood.
I can’t believe I didn’t catch on sooner, but luckily I caught up in time for the season two premiere. I’m happy to say that all the hype, success and awards did not go to Modern Family‘s head. It’s still funny as hell.
This episode Phil and Claire took a trip down memory lane when they decided to sell the old family car, Gloria struggled to let go of Manny and Cameron, Mitchell and Jay built a princess castle. I’m going to start with the castle, because it was hilarious.
Cameron and Mitchell are probably my favorite couple on Modern Family because I love watching them struggle with new parenthood. I also love them struggling to affirm their manliness as gay men. And it’s not easy to make building a princess castle manly.
What’s great about Mitchell and Cameron is what they hide from each other. Always out of love! It’s hilarious. Last season, the idea that Cameron had been faking an interest in everything Mitchell likes had me cracking up. This episode, it was Cameron pretending that Mitchell is handy when he’s really not. Not at all. Apparently Mitchell built a few sets for musicals in college and thought that meant he could handle a nail gun. He couldn’t. Cameron sneakily called Jay in for reinforcement, and they tried to build Lily’s princess castle without Mitchell. The best line of the night was when Jay described building a bookshelf once with Mitchell by saying “That was my Vietnam. And I was in Vietnam.”
I also loved how the show revisited Mitchell’s fear of birds by locking him in the castle and then having one fly in. Mitchell shrieking will never get old.
The stuff with Gloria and Manny was great too, because I love watching that kid try and flirt with girls. How could she not like his maroon dinner jacket? There were some great Gloria lines, like when she tried to say “Shia LaBouef”. And does anyone else now want to try putting a bit of salt in their chocolate milk? Is that a real thing?
There were some great Phil and Claire moments this episode too. Phil took Claire up on a challenge to sell the old family station wagon because while you can insult anything about Phil (I’m compiling my list of insults now), you can’t insult his selling. That’s crossing a line. “What line?” he said. “Oh, you can’t see it? That’s because I just sold it.” He also had some great lines about mnemonic devices and some classic insulting Claire moments. Like explaining to Luke why Claire isn’t pretty anymore, even though Luke was actually asking what happened at a football game…not what happened to his mom.
When the time came to clean up the piece of junk so the new owner could get it, though, Claire got sentimental. It was filled with Luke’s bottle of sunshine (yes, a bottle…of sunshine…), Haley’s old blanket and…was there anything of Alex’s in there? That seems so unfair, she’s my favorite kid. Phil decided to take the family all out on one last trip in the car for burgers. And after an unfortunate incident involving Luke’s weak stomach, a spider, and a car with a whole lot wrong with it, the car ended up rolling down a ravine. For a moment, it was rolling down the ravine with Phil clinging to the hood of the car, which would have been spectacular. I can just imagine Claire still yelling “WHAT’S THE PLAN, PHIL???” as he toppled over the edge.
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