Modern Family: Kids These Days (10x08)

I liked the Haley story, and I liked Phil and Mitchell's story. This still wasn't a great episode though.

Cons:

I really hate it when old people do their "hot takes" on millennial and gen-z culture, focusing on how we're all too sensitive or whatever. I hate it not because it hurts my poor millennial feelings, but because it traps me. If I want to discuss some honest problems with the portrayal of "PC culture" in this episode, then anyone reading this is going to be able to say "Gotcha! Were you triggered by this episode's wildly inaccurate use of the word 'triggered'?" And no, I wasn't triggered. I was annoyed, though. I thought the point was going to be that Cam and Jay learned not to be jerks, but instead the point was if you pander to young people, you can trick them into thinking you're actually an emotionally intelligent person, while making fun of them behind their backs. So... that's not great.

The worst example of this was that Manny is shown with a group of people who all introduce themselves and provide their pronouns. This is played entirely for laughs. Like... maybe this is a revolutionary idea to some people, but you don't have to be a jerk about things. And if saying my pronouns as a cisgendered woman helps make even one person feel more comfortable about expressing their gender, then... why shouldn't I want to do that? I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people. Also, there's the moment when the school principal says that you don't get as much mileage out of being gay anymore, in terms of representation/diversity. In a better episode, this would have been a chance for Cam to acknowledge his privilege as a white cisgendered man, who faces adversity because of his sexuality but still has privilege. But no. It's just another joke.

And since I just wrote two paragraphs complaining about the way social justice was discussed in this episode, anyone who wishes to can point and laugh and tell me I'm being a special snowflake. Again, I think respecting and caring about people who are different from me is... a good thing? Shocking. Whatever.

Alex's little subplot with Gloria and Claire was boring. Claire is uncomfortable helping her daughter pick out clothes to impress her boyfriend. That's actually perfectly understandable. And it didn't make me laugh.

Pros:

Mitchell and Phil had a fairly harmless yet fun little subplot. They're going on a Star Wars viewing adventure together, and they stop at a gay bar that Mitchell used to frequent. They run in to Phil's realtor nemesis, who it turns out is gay. Mitchell tries to help him through this difficult transitional period in his life, but then finds out that the guy is just trying to get in his pants. The episode ends with Mitchell and Phil reconciling after an argument, and expressing their fondness for each other. I liked the random guy from the bar who helps to get Mitchell back to Phil. He thinks he's reuniting two arguing lovers, but is still pleased when he realizes the truth of the situation. It's still a beautiful moment! Phil and Mitchell as a pair work really well because they're both such nerds, and it's fun to see them play off of each other in this way.

Haley is really struggling with finding out she's pregnant. We see that Dylan seems really chill about it, but Haley is freaking out about so much. She gets a promotion at work, which really only makes things worse, since she's worried she'll lose her job because of having a baby. She talks to her mom about it, without revealing that she's pregnant, and in the end she feels better, knowing that she'll be doing this scary new thing with Dylan by her side.

Sitcoms always have a tendency to introduce big things and then drop them for episodes at a time. That's just the nature of the format. So I'm glad that we're focusing on Haley's pregnancy here, and I hope that we continue to see the subject explored in the coming weeks. It would have been incredibly shocking and nice if Haley had contemplated abortion as an option, but at least it's hinted at that she's trying to decide whether she wants to have this baby or not. I like that Claire is honest with Haley about how her own pregnancy had bad timing, and there were things that she wasn't thrilled about at the time. But she loves her daughter, and she was able to go on this scary adventure because she had Phil. Despite the fact that Dylan continues to be played mostly for laughs, we've also seen him step up and grow as a person, and I think it's a great choice to show him being calm and excited for this upcoming change. I think he could make a great dad.

So that's all I've got. Two out of three plot threads were quite enjoyable, but unfortunately, the story with Cam and Jay was an annoying dud.

7/10