What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 6, Episode 8 “Three Turkeys” (B)

This episode was extremely choreographed, but unlike some of the installments that came before it, it actually worked to pretty decent comedic effect. This was the first Thanksgiving episode of the season that I’ve seen, which may have helped to cast it in a positive light, but there’s no denying the ambitious quality of the setup here as related to the famed giant family holiday. Jay and Gloria’s faked vacation to be able to get away from time with the family was entertaining, and leaving Joe upstairs in the room by himself was the high point of that particular plotline. Cam and Mitchell putting on dresses designed purely to show no reaction from Jay or Gloria was a bit too coordinated, but forcing Lily to carry the backpack that ultimately made her fall on the ground was funny. Phil’s best moments were reacting to the shrunken turkey and the fact that nothing was going right, and I probably could have been done with the seductive-sounding app by about the third or fourth time we heard it. Manny and Haley’s storyline was actually the strongest simply because of how both reacted to it, and my favorite part of the episode was Haley’s quick thinking in figuring out a way to convince the family that it was their idea not to spend Christmas together so that she could go away on a planned trip with her friends. For one of the two dumbest members of the family, sometimes she can be pretty smart sometimes.