What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 7, Episode 9 “White Christmas” (C)

It’s understood that Gloria doesn’t always manage to come off as highly clued in to what’s going on around her, and much of it stems from the fact that she doesn’t have a strong grasp of the English language. But it’s a stretch to think that she would mistake celsius temperatures for fahrenheit measurements and bring her entire family on yet another torturous adventure, following their recent therapy session, with winter clothes ready for a white Christmas instead of shorts and t-shirts. I’m not usually too fond of when shows try to do parodies that don’t extend into the entirety of the episode, and I feel like “The Shining” is the most-parodied movie out there. Having Luke and Manny try to scare Lily only to actually frighten a dim-witted Luke was mildly amusing but hardly as funny as it should have been. Naturally, Andy and Haley decided to have sex in just the spot that Luke and Manny had pretended was haunted, leading to the whole family discovering their affair. Gloria inviting Beth was a cringeworthy development, but she got written out pretty quickly after she told Andy that she too was having an affair, making his newfound relationship with Haley perfectly acceptable going forward. Though it’s less fun now that people know about it, it’s going to be good to see the two of them together since they really are so different despite their strange attraction to each other. Jay’s efforts to ensure that Claire really wanted the job were well-intentioned but as usual hardly gentle.