What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 5, Episode 8 “ClosetCon ‘13” (B)

This episode was perfectly enjoyable, but all of its moving parts relied heavily on their content being taken either too literally or mimicking something very closely. Phil’s reconstruction of the model was a perfect example of the latter, since it was timed carefully and then metered out as a play-by-play parody of the actual launch when Phil was finally ready to test it to see if his efforts had worked. It was better than the spill on the shirt last week, but not by much. Meanwhile, Jay’s adventures at Comic-Con with his non-mistress were mildly amusing, and Claire’s reaction to the news that Jay had tried to get rid of Phil were well-matched by Jay bringing up the fact that Gloria had gotten a call from immigration. It’s no shocker that Mitchell doesn’t like the farm, and that he doesn’t fit in so well in that environment. But in this episode, he had the rare opportunity to be the one who wanted to have more public displays of affection, and, Southern accent and all, shame Cam for not being proud of their relationship. I liked that Cam was proud of the fact that his grandmother was going to attend the wedding, even though she planned to stand outside with a sign. Though it was relatively overdone, I think this was one of the more positive plotlines involving Cam and his farm life, since he’s a character who we see out of context most of the time, and spotlighting him in his natural habitat can be jarring.