What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 7, Episode 12 “Clean for a Day” (B-)

It feels like it’s been forever since this show aired – about a month – and I haven’t really missed it in that time. It still hasn’t reached a point of being truly terrible, but there’s nothing about it that really makes it immensely watchable. The one line that I liked a lot in this installment was when Alex asked about an alternate universe and Phil responded about a storage unit that parallels the freeway, a humorous phrasing for a great concept – Phil’s solution to Claire’s obsessive and obnoxious cleaning drives that resulted in them getting rid of childhood treasures that didn’t need to be thrown out. Jay taking a flying lesson made sense, and Cam coming along to knock the pilot out was more than a bit silly and unnecessary. I like that Gloria tried golf lessons only to have Jay tell her that they could never play together since it would ruin one pastime and that they should instead find a shared activity they both enjoyed with each other. Gloria firing “Red” was somewhat funny, more so than Manny being able to teach Lily how to play when Mitchell failed pretty miserably. I liked that Haley encouraged Alex to move on from her relationship with Sanjay and then took her over to his house, where she cringed at the geeky verbal foreplay and then hastily left once Sanjay made it clear that his parents weren’t home. Haley and Alex are very different people, but as sisters they sometimes know exactly what the other needs.