What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 8, Episode 4 “Weathering Heights” (C+)

Based on everything we know about Phil, it makes total sense that he would idolize a weatherman for providing a truly noble service to the community. Casting Nathan Fillion in the role of the fantastically-named Rainer Shine, a character who could only exist in this show, was brilliant, and naturally Phil would utter have a conversation in which he encouraged Rainer to date his daughter without having any concept that he was doing so. I don’t know if Fillion will be back again, but I think that keeping Rainer around for a bit could be fun. As she’s dealing with the tail end of her mono, Alex is becoming truly insufferable, and her victory celebrations are far worse than any unethical cheating that Luke and Claire might have attempted. Lily trying to frame her new housemate by putting alcohol bottles under his bed shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise, and I think her fathers’ inability to feed her since they were allowing Dwight to eat and finish all the food was more than ample cause to do so. Jay shaping Manny’s video in a very artificial way was just the run-up to the more dramatic development of the hour, which was Manny realizing that both of his current parents have shaped the person that he is today. I was just thinking that it was a little last-minute for him to be waiting for the big idea to hit. Gloria trying to learn how to speak English better was both mildly entertaining and pretty horrifying.