Monday, October 25, 2010

What I'm Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 5 “Unplugged” (B+)

Ah, the family dynamic. While she's hardly as up-to-date with the most modern technology, Claire certainly is astute at recognizing the current trend of people being completely wired to and inseparable from their electronic devices. The ensuing challenge proved quite entertaining, and Haley's sly plan was hilarious. The fact that she asked her family outright for a bar of soap and a marker in order to craft her decoy device was very funny, and her description of the lengths to which she went to win the contest – talking to a bar of soap for two days – was simply terrific. While somewhat painful, Claire and Phil trying to back out of their deal proved extremely entertaining. Cameron and Mitchell's desperate search for the perfect preschool yielded expected results (supremely enjoyable ones, of course) as Mitchell's eyes got bigger than his stomach, just like way back when at Costco. Mitchell's gradually worsening attempt to appear diverse during the interview was fantastic, and I loved the way their jaws dropped when they recognized their competition, the wheelchair-bound ethnic lesbian couple. Any reference to Gloria's past in Colombia is going to go over quite well on this show, and all the talk about her murderous tendencies was great. My favorite part was Jay's reaction to her explanations about the neighbor dog's whereabouts and how each of them was exactly what people say when they have a dog put down. Sometimes, Jay really seems like even more of a child than his stepson, and it's fun to watch him tiptoe around trying to stay on Gloria's good side.

1 comment:

Richter Scale said...

What, no mention of Cam being Native American during the interview? That was my favorite part, as not only did Eric Stonestreet nail the timing, he was able to sustain throughout a credit sequence. Cameron is hilarious (though I would not have him without Mitch).

Also, one thing that struck me about the Dunphy's competition is seriously how used we are to using the Internet for everything. For reservations, for doing homework, everything. I loved Alex freaking out over getting a "B" and choosing to drop out of the competition because of that, but it's true. The Internet is a great resource for doing homework, since the library isn't constantly updated. Still, the bar of soap is by far my favorite Haley moment (I love that they're showing that she's smarter than given credit for last year, although you do have to wonder why Claire called her their dumbest kid last year).