What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 6, Episode 12 “The Big Game” (C+)

Those annoying neighbors are back again, and, predictably, they’re not up to much good and it doesn’t do this show’s storyline any favors. I did enjoy the fact that Luke watches their daughter sunbathing and went out to try to play it cool only to have her call him out on staring at her every day. It seems that her tricking him into admitting that he had never been with a girl only made her seem more attractive to them, so I fear we’ll see her and the family again. Phil calling in his father and his retired RV buddies to intimidate the neighbors into getting rid of their boat failed miserably, nearly resulting in Haley charging into the pot party aboard the boat. Everything did manage to work out in the end, of course, but by that point Claire had already called the police and made the situation infinitely worse. Manny being jealous of Joe didn’t do much for me, but I enjoyed his reaction to the fact that Gloria made up a bunch of early accomplishments for him that he had cherished as defining pieces of his character. Jay potty training Joe was somewhat sweet, even if it was just to get convenience store employees to stop showing him adult diapers. I go back and forth on Cam’s clown obsession, and I think that while Lily pushing Cam over and hurting him to make Mitchell laugh was probably the perfect revenge for Mitchell, it wasn’t all that interesting or fun to watch.