Modern Family – Episode 2-7 Review

Reviews, Shows

I think I need to watch last night’s episode of Modern Family again, because I don’t think I was able to fully enjoy it. I’m stuck at home with the kind of cold that makes lying on the couch and drinking tea seem like a strenuous task, and I don’t remember laughing that much during last night’s episode. Perhaps it was because I was coughing so much. But now thinking back on it, it was a pretty funny episode.

My favorite storyline was Claire’s attempt to connect with Haley while they were both stuck in bed with the flu. Maybe I liked it best because I could relate. Claire was trying to convince Haley that she shouldn’t limit herself to dating Dylan, but instead it sounded like Claire was expressing her regret in marrying Phil so young, or at all. “He’s kind of a doofus I guess, but I thought you liked that about him,” Haley said.

Phil is a doofus, even though Claire had actually been referring to Dylan. But Phil was acting like a doofus, since he was home for the day taking care of Claire’s errands. And searching for a rogue smoke detector that wouldn’t stop beeping. He’d had a slow business month and each beep of the mystery smoke alarm diminished his manhood a little more. He ended up smashing most of the smoke alarms to bits with his college cheerleading baton before realizing that the beeping was coming from the attack, where Luke had stored the old smoke alarms to use as parts for a robot. My favorite part of the storyline, though, was when Haley told Luke “I did that” after seeing her parents kiss and then told the pizza boy not to come around anymore, thinking Claire had her eye on him when she’d really been suggesting him for Haley.

Meanwhile, Cam decided to put Lily in a commercial behind Mitch’s back. The commercial ended up being incredibly racist, and Cam ended up realizing Mitch had been right and pulling Lily from the commercial. Well, actually, he pulled the wrong baby from the commercial, right after making a speech about how the children were not interchangeable stereotypes. It wasn’t my favorite storyline, but the final gag was similar to “Look at that baby with those cream puffs” and definitely got a chuckle out of me.

Jay and Manny bonded a bit this week after Jay fired an employee that Manny liked. Manny was giving Jay the silent treatment over the ordeal, but Jay stuck to his guns – the employee had let Manny drive a forklift, which resulted in a bit of a scrape-up that could have been a lot more dangerous. Before leaving for a date with Gloria that was celebrating one of the many milestones in their relationship (first meeting, first date, first kiss, first fight…), Jay told Manny anyone who put his kid in danger didn’t deserve a second chance. Awwwwwww! Manny, of course, dwelled on the fact that Jay had called him his kid, but Jay didn’t – and that’s something that Modern Family does so well. The show mixes humor with touching moments and never lets things get too sappy.

Here’s some of my favorite lines from the episode:

  • Manny thought he was in an ambulance because he heard a siren, but that was just Gloria’s cries.
  • “With all you do for me, including going to the gym four times a week to keep me interested, I got this.” – Phil “It’s just a cold silly, you don’t have to ‘conceive of a world without me’!” – Haley, talking to that doofus Dylan
  • “You care about germs? I’ve seen you kiss a pigeon on the mouth.” – Phil, to Luke, who was wearing a helmet to avoid getting sick before a class trip to Disneyland
You can follow Jill at her blog, couchtimewithjill.com, or on Twitter @jillemader Jill has been an avid fan of TV since the age of two, when she was so obsessed with Zoobilee Zoo that her mother lied and told her it had been canceled. Despite that setback, she grew up to be a television aficionado and pop culture addict.