What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 4, Episode 21 “Career Day” (B)

This was a perfectly decent episode, but there was nothing particular hilarious or inventive about it. The best moment was definitely Haley asking to borrow the tooth fairy costume she had put on to help convince an unimpressed Lily, adding that she’d prefer not to reveal to Cam and Mitchell why she was requesting it. It’s rare that Haley gets involved in situations that require her to do something she doesn’t want to, and this was an entertaining aspect of an otherwise drawn-out plotline involving Cam’s accidental selection of a hundred-dollar bill. Gil Thorpe is a great nemesis for Phil, and it was unfortunate to see Phil get so flustered and miss all of the cues from his carefully-prepared video. His full support of Claire taking the job was sweet, and it was funny to see her come home furious after one day of working for him declaring that she had already quit. It would be good to see her get back to some work, but I suspect that the process itself will become an ongoing storyline now that the spark has been lit. Manny helping Jay to write his novel was amusing, though I’m not sure I bought Gloria dissecting it the moment she got home just because she wanted to give Jay a hard time. It’s just as infrequent that we see Jay actually getting invested in something, and even if he’s far from the world’s best writers, it was enjoyable to hear his ideas for the best book he never got the chance to write.