What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 3, Episode 13 “Little Bo Bleep” (B+)

It’s been a while since this show has focused on Claire’s campaign for local office, having forgotten about it in favor of standalone storylines, but it’s nice to have it back front and center since it’s seriously hilarious. The Dunphy family sitting around and honking while watching Claire to tell her what she does wrong with her physical and verbal presentation made for a terrific scene, and that was hardly the best of it. Claire was actually doing pretty well in the debate against dog suicide believer Duane Bailey, but his mention of Phil’s arrest for a mistaken Clive Bixby incident soured the whole event. Phil getting up to defend himself was fantastic, and so was Claire’s horrific fidgeting that ensued in her response. The best part, however, was the immediately-presented autotuned version in which Phil and Claire were shamed to an impossible degree. Lily’s sporadic cursing and Mitchell’s reaction to it were quite funny, and I enjoyed how the entire Pritchett extended family started cracking up in the middle of the ceremony, angering the bride and groom quite a bit. The subplot with Stella the suicidal dog was a bit drawn out, but this show can’t always perform excellently on all levels, so having a storyline that’s not too interesting is certainly forgivable in an episode like this, where the other characters really get a chance to be themselves and show the world the unfortunate tics they possess. This could be a great Emmy episode for recent Emmy winners Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell.