Modern Family: Express Yourself (7x17)

I think there may have just been too much going on in this one. Usually this show easily sustains its multiple subplots, but here I felt like not a single one of them got the attention it deserved. On their own, a lot of these stories had potential. But crammed together, they had nothing to do with one another and didn't get a proper chance to shine.

Cons:

Let's start with Cam, Mitchell, Lily, and Cam's sister Pam, who has just been left by her husband. There were lots of weirdly truncated plot ideas here - one was that Pam is a bad influence on Lily because her validation comes entirely from a man. One was that Cam and Pam both have sleep apnea and have to sleep with breathing apparatuses that drive Mitchell crazy and force him out of the house. Then there are the jokes about Pam and Cam's weird similarities, and Mitchell trying to stay out of everybody's business to preserve peace in his relationship. As I'm going to be saying a lot in this review, this idea could have been interesting if we'd had more time to look into it all. I didn't understand the connection between Pam and Lily, or between Pam and Cam, or between Pam and Mitchell. Pam's presence was totally wasted.

Jay, in an effort to keep busy, decides to remodel the master bathroom, but it takes longer than expected, and shenanigans ensue when Gloria accidentally undoes a lot of his progress due to Joe getting stuck in the bathroom. This episode followed the exact same narrative beats of so many other plot threads with Jay and Gloria. Oh, so Jay is struggling with retirement and finding out who he is without his job? Haven't we already been covering that? And Gloria and Jay both try and maintain the upper hand in a silly argument? Isn't that the plot of every episode with these two? There wasn't anything offensively wrong with this plot, but it did absolutely nothing for me at all.

Haley and Andy spend the episode having a wild night out, because Andy thinks Haley will get bored with him, and Haley thinks that her wild side is what Andy is attracted to. Turns out, Haley likes slowing down to be with Andy - she likes the person she is with him. In the end, they both decide to stop pretending to be something they're not. The emotional payoff here was weak as hell. I get it - there's a gentle and harmless misunderstanding, wild antics ensue, and in the end everything turns out fine. An exploration of Haley and Andy's relationship would be fine in theory, but this was so shoehorned in that I didn't learn anything new about them at all. I like the idea of Haley slowing down, but this idea could have been expressed a hell of a lot better.

Claire and Phil had the most promising setup - Phil gets a sweet deal for a trip to Paris, but they'd have to leave the next day. In order to avoid jet lag in France, Phil and Claire decide to stay up the whole night before, sleep on the plane, and thus sync their morning with France's morning. Alex stays up all night with them, keeping them distracted from their exhaustion. In the end, Phil confesses that he pushed so hard for this trip because he misses Claire, who has been working nonstop at her new job. They do indeed make it off to Paris, with Phil carrying the sleeping Claire out to the car. This setup could have sustained a whole episode. Imagine Phil and Claire at the center of things, with the others popping in during the night for various reasons. It could have been a lot stronger that way. Instead, this episode just repeated the tired message that Phil is having a hard time adjusting to Claire's new working situation. We get it, already! I'd love to see Claire actually at work, and see what comedic possibilities that can afford!

Pros:

In the Cam, Pam, and Mitchell plot line, I did like the punch line. Mitchell gets Pam to see her self worth by quoting Madonna lyrics to her, since he had earlier sang karaoke with his father at a midnight diner. That got a laugh out of me, although it would have been funnier with more buildup.

There was nothing really redeeming about the Jay plot line, although I did like the grumbling about how to make a Reuben sandwich, and a Manhattan drink. Jay wears curmudgeonly old man very well.

Haley and Andy had a few funny moments scattered throughout. I thought it was a sweet idea to explore how Andy has helped to slow Haley down, but like I said, they could have done more to round it out. There was a nice delayed punchline of Andy winning a bunch of cash gambling in Vegas that I liked alright.

Phil and Claire's plot thread had the most promise, and had the funniest moments. I liked it when Claire took to wearing scary masks and jumping out at Phil as a method of keeping them both awake, and Alex's interjections throughout the episode were pretty great. Phil keeps using the wrong name for Paris, calling it the "eternal city," to which Alex replies "Rome," and then Phil tries "Emerald City?" and Alex responds: "Seattle or Oz." As a native Seattlite, I always like getting a shout-out. The episode tag has Phil calling Paris "Paradise City," and Alex pointing out his mistake: "Guns and Roses." That was pretty great.

Unfortunately, that's really all I have in the way of good things to say. Why did these creators take four adequate ideas and try to accomplish them all in one go? There could have been something good here, but now all those ideas are wasted! Frankly, this season has been a bit of mess. Hopefully they can go out on a stronger note and pick up in a better place next year...

6/10