Modern Family: A Fair to Remember (5x07)

This is one of those episodes of Modern Family that brings all of our characters together into one centralized location, giving us lots of opportunities for creative jokes. While by no means an astounding episode, this one was a lot of fun to watch. The framing device is as follows: there's a giant school fair, and everyone has different things they want to do there. The whole family goes, and shenanigans ensue. Let's take it plot by plot.

First of all, it's Phil and Claire's 20th wedding anniversary. Phil has plans to sing a song for Claire at the fair, surprising her in front of everyone. However, Claire also has a surprise waiting at home for Phil - Chinese acrobats. Claire is anxious to leave the fair and get to her surprise, but Phil keeps on insisting that she stay. However, right before Phil is supposed to go up to sing, another dad, Harold Grossman, takes the mic. He is an amazing singer and he gets the whole crowd - including Claire - to go nuts. After that, Phil doesn't want to perform. He flakes out. When they go home, Claire is happy to give Phil a good present for once, since he always shows her up in gift giving.

To be honest this was probably the weakest of the plots. There were some funny moments, but no big payoff. It would have been funnier if Phil had actually sang, and done surprisingly well, or if he sucked but Claire still loved it anyway. I don't know. The cop-out angle just made the energy drop.

Next we have Luke and Alex's plot. There's a new girl in school, Sienna, and she and Alex have become friends. Alex has a bit of a crush on her, because she's really cool and doesn't yet know that Alex is a nerd. But we then find out that Luke has a crush on her! When Alex finds out, she tells Sienna and tries to apologize for her weird little brother. But then Luke tells Sienna that Alex is obsessed with her. Sienna ends up leaving both of them.

Again, this was a plot with a lot of funny jokes but no real payoff. When Sienna finally learns that Luke likes her, it would have been funny if she had had feelings for him in return. Instead, she just leaves. Hopefully this character comes back and we get more development with her.

Manny has made a cake for the baking competition, but Gloria is worried that the other kids will make fun of him for doing that instead of participating in the more "cool" activities. She sabotages his cake, but instead of giving up, Manny saves the cake. Gloria admits what she did, and Manny says that while it does bother him that he's not popular, he just knows he's not good at the stuff that makes you cool. With limited time to get his fixed up cake to the judge's table, Manny shoves through the crowds and makes it in time. He wins the contest and he also makes it onto the football team!

This plot was really cute and it had a cute payoff, but I never felt myself totally captivated by it. This plot of course ties into Cam's story. He's been struggling being the football coach, and just can't figure out a way to make his team win. When he sees Manny's determination about the cake, he realizes that Manny is the missing piece to his team. I didn't think much of Cam's plot. Again, nothing horrible, but it basically all came down to Cam yelling at the kids trying to motivate them, and failing.

Finally, we've got Jay's plot. He's been paired up with another dad, Derrick, to play a fair cop. They get assignments to "arrest" people and put them in a fake jail for small sentences such as ten minutes or thirty minutes. At first, Jay and Derrick don't get along, but then they form a friendship. This all culminates in a kid throwing a red icy on Derrick's shirt, which he had been attempting to protect from stains all day. The red dye works as fake blood, and the two of them have a stereotypical partner cop conversation as Derrick lies there, having been "shot."

Maybe it's just my love of stupid puns, but this plot thread cracked me up. I liked the Derrick character. I liked Jay's initial animosity. I loved the icy scene at the end. It was like the plot of a procedural cop show all rolled into a few short minutes. Two people don't like each other, then they form a friendship, then tragedy strikes. I was smiling whenever the two of them were onscreen.

The last plot thread involved Haley, and I'm putting it at the end because it really didn't fit in with the other plots, since it doesn't take place at the fair. She goes over to Jay and Gloria's house to drink a few beers by the pool, when she runs into Andy, the new male nanny. He tries to stop her from drinking the beers, but she does it anyway. They struggle, which culminates in one of the beer bottles smashing into the pool. Andy dives in to get the glass out, and the two of them have a sort of flirty conversation. In the end, Haley tells Gloria what happened with the beer, and she totally brushes it off. Jay similarly waves it off when Andy tries to take the blame.

Now, on the one hand this plot doesn't really work because it doesn't fit with the rest of the plots at all. It was the only one that stood out. On the other hand, this may have been my favorite plot, maybe tied with Jay's. I really like the idea of Haley and Andy forming some sort of relationship, since I think Haley has been underused of late, and I really like Andy's character. Their conversations were such a delightful mix of real anger and flirtatious teasing, and it was a lot of fun to see.

I know I commented on a lot of weaker elements in this episode, but overall I had fun watching it.

7.5/10