What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 5, Episode 6 “The Help” (B)

This episode was the weakest of the season thus far, but, as tends to be the case, it still had its funny moments. Frank staying at the house led to the very unlikely scenario of Jay, Phil, and Frank going out together to try to help Frank pick someone up, and the very unfortunate result of Frank bringing home a prostitute by accident. Peri Gilpin of “Frasier” was well-cast as the surprisingly sophisticated overnight guest, who had Claire plenty confused and whose best line was definitely her comment that she saw so much of herself in Alex. Phil telling Claire that she was mad because he lied and not because there was a prostitute in her kitchen was very amusing, and yet another instance of why Phil is this show’s most reliable character. While I like Nathan Lane, I find that his character is tremendously overused on this show, and over-nominated for Emmys, and I think this show could do with a little less Pepper. There were too many jokes about purple and gay weddings, and the whole character of Ronaldo was unnecessary. I wasn’t particularly taken with the introduction of Andy the new male nanny, though Gloria introducing him to Jay and Manny did lead to the best line of the episode, from the younger Manny: “Am I being replaced?” This show relied a lot on its guest characters in this episode, and I think it would be well-served to focus more on its primary players and let them speak for themselves.