What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 3, Episode 10 “Express Christmas” (A-)

What a hilarious episode this was, impressing most with its ability to create unconventional pairings of its characters. Phil’s suggestion to create Express Christmas was inspired, and I completely loved all of its components. Manny’s constant fear of being snatched by child kidnappers led to the episode’s funniest moment, which was when Phil got the mint condition baseball card in his hand moments after being tased and then gradually destroyed its quality by crumpling it with his hand. Kudos to Ty Burrell for a marvelously-acted scene, and a terrific submission for next year’s Emmy race. Claire and Haley going shopping together was great, and Haley was particularly crafty with her donning of a store uniform to get the steal of Lily’s gift from its intended purchaser. Luke and Gloria searching in the attic led to a surprisingly fresh joke about her accent, in which she finally came to understand the similarity between her pronunciation of the words “Luke” and “look.” Luke stepping through the attic floor was hardly the most violent of their experiences, and I’d say that watching Gloria mow down the Christmas tree and then just keep driving was pretty formidable. Mitchell and Alex’s singing of “Oh, Symmetry” was a wonderful moment of dorky bonding, and I like how upset Cam got about Jay’s non-reaction to his thoughtful gift of the cork from the bottle of wine from their first football game watched together, which ultimately resulted in the best present of all to Cam: a four-to-five second hug.