What I'm Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 3, Episode 14 “Me? Jealous” (B+)

What a hoot this half-hour was, and the most notable thing about it is that the big-name guest star of the week, Greg Kinnear, was far from the funniest part. Kinnear did exactly what he needed to do, charming Phil more than Claire and then freaking her out by kissing her on the mouth each time he left. Phil’s obliviousness was front and center in this episode, but what I laughed at most was when he made a big speech, like only I can make her laugh, and then had to correct himself because he had given anyone else permission to take her to bed. It was sweet that Phil being oblivious was what ultimately made Claire happy, since he wanted to be protective of her. Haley’s misappropriation of her Big Sister title led to a hilarious scenario is which the Dunphy children got the chance to reexamine their relationship with Alex offended that Haley was a better big sister to some random girl and Luke unhappy that they were both bad big sisters, which then resulted in some unfortunate dress-up activities for Luke. Bringing Cameron and Gloria together was iffy at first, not so great in the middle, highlighted by Manny trying to do damage control with a made-up story, and then inspirational by the end with their choreographed kitchen work. Jay making lawyer jokes was no surprise, and it was nice that Mitchell cared enough, even after his business meeting was disrupted, to have the DJ come prank Jay.