Modern Family: Double Click (7x22)

Well, to nobody's surprise, this finale was a lackluster end to a lackluster season. I don't know what happened this year, but Modern Family could not sustain itself very well. Hopefully after a break we can get a more invigorating Season Eight.

Cons:

Last week the whole gang was heading to a wedding. I sort of thought the finale might explore that, but there was no mention of it whatsoever, and everybody was just back to their regular lives. I thought a wedding episode might have been a fun way to create some sitcom hijinks. I guess not. What we got instead was a severely overcrowded episode. There were way too many different plot threads going on here, and as a result there wasn't the time to let them breathe and develop. Almost nothing hit its mark.

The Dunphy family is all having a bad day, with various things pulling them in different directions. Alex is grumpy because she just arrived home for summer vacation and nobody notices or cares that she's returned. Phil has to confront the fact that Luke might be sexually active, and might be sneaking girls into his room. Claire is anxious about firing somebody at work, because this guy just beat her score on a dance game in the warehouse, and she's afraid people will think he's getting fired because of that. Andy gets a dream job that means he'll have to move away. Andy and Haley agree to make it work, but Haley is depressed at the thought of losing her first real love.

Like I said, too much happening. The stuff with Alex was annoying because it just emphasized how utterly underutilized she's been all season. Alex going away to college should have been a meaningful new direction for the show to take, but they haven't done anything with it at all. Alex complaining that nobody noticed her felt like a lazy way to point out the show's own complacency in letting her character fall by the wayside. Another plot thread that should have been better this season was Claire taking over her father's job. But this scenario, wherein she doesn't want people to think she's firing somebody because they beat her at a game... it's not relatable. It doesn't tell us anything about how Claire is doing in her job and how her employees really think of her. For a while this season, we got to delve in to the challenges of Claire taking on such an important position in the company. But we never delved very deep, and this finale just emphasizes another wasted opportunity.

Haley and Andy's plot thread was supposed to be emotionally poignant, with Haley tearing up and confessing to Andy that he's the first man she's ever really loved. The problem is, this couple has had virtually no time to develop since we saw them get together. I wanted to like these scenes, but they just didn't feel sincere. I guess I hope for Haley's sake that she and Andy can stay together, but honestly Andy isn't nearly as interesting of a character as he used to be.

Luke and Phil's plot line is the one that really should have worked, but didn't manage to. Phil grappling with his children growing up could really be an emotionally affecting story to follow. We've teased out this plot thread a lot since the beginning of the show. It seems that whenever Luke doesn't want to do something with Phil, Phil has to try and come to terms with his son growing up and growing apart from him. But haven't we seen this a thousand times? And if Luke really is getting to that stage with a girl, wouldn't it be more interesting to try and complicate his character, and see how he's dealing with things, instead of focusing on Phil's reaction to it all?

Meanwhile, Jay has started back up at work, and spends his whole first day trying to figure out how to work the copier to prove to Claire and to himself that he's a competent and useful employee. Gloria tries to trick Jay into going to her cousin's wedding in Juarez by buttering him up with his favorite tear-jerker movies like Rudy and Casablanca. In the end, Jay leaves with Gloria to go to the wedding.

Manny had virtually no part to play, which is par for the course with the rest of the season. Jay feeling inadequate as he starts up at work is boring and predictable, and there's nothing funny about watching an old person unable to use technology. (Trust me, I work in a law office and I have to deal with the reality every day.) But seriously. Jay vs. the copier wasn't doing anything for me. And then there was this insufferable moment when Gloria gets Joe to quote Casablanca, and the poor tiny kid is just butchering these epic lines, and I was just rolling my eyes all over the place.

Pros:

The one plot that worked was Cam and Mitchell's. It looks like Cam got a summer job assistant coaching a team in Missouri. He and Mitchell are going to be apart, and Lily is going to travel back and forth. Lily and Mitchell are too busy with their own stuff to notice how much Cam has been doing to prepare for the separation. In the end, they decide to make it work and join him in Missouri for the summer. This plot thread worked because you feel the emotions and relationships between the three people in this family. One of my favorite recurring jokes with Lily is how Mitchell will kind of treat her as his equal, as they both mess up and hurt Cam's feelings, or when they're planning something for him. Mitchell treats his daughter almost more like a pal, but it still feels like a loving father/daughter relationship. Cam's giddy reaction to their showing up at the airport was really lovely as well.

I think I mentioned that Ty Burrell really is the shining gem in this show, and that was evident in the fact that while the Dunphy plot lines were pretty weak, he still managed to get a few laughs out of me. Phil and Andy's weird father/son bromance is hilarious. Phil gives Andy an impassioned speech about how Andy should pursue his opportunities, even if it means being apart from him. It's the sort of speech Haley should be giving to Andy, but Phil beats her to it. I did enjoy that.

Also, Phil and Alex had the funniest part of the whole episode, despite my not liking either one of their plot threads. Phil asks Alex about the possibility of Luke having snuck a girl into the house. Alex begins to respond in a cavalier manner. She basically says: "oh, come on, Dad. We were all seventeen once..." and then once she realizes that she's on the verge of discussing her sex life with her father, she just stops talking. Phil sits there in stunned silence, while Alex backs slowly out of the room, maintaining horrified eye-contact with her father. They never speak about it again. That feels very true to a father/daughter relationship of this type. Phil was opening up to Alex about his concern for Luke, but there are some lines that you just don't cross.

The real bummer of this finale is that the episode tag is the best part, and if the stories leading up to it had earned the ending, I would have walked away with a very strong impression. Basically, by the end of the episode everybody has taken off on impromptu trips. Jay has decided to go with Gloria to her cousin's wedding. Mitchell and Lily are going to tag along with Cam to Missouri. And the Dunphys, in order to get in some much-needed family time, take a trip to New York. They all call each other and leave voice mails, with Claire asking Mitchell to go over and make sure the back door of their house is locked, Jay calling in to tell Claire he won't be coming to work, and various other favors that one might ask family to do when one goes out of town. The only trick is, none of them knows that the others have left as well. This feels like the kind of funny misunderstanding-based hijinks that would make a good basis for an episode. I liked the fact that even though these plot threads were all primarily separate, the whole family ironically came together through their absences at the very end.

There you have it. A disappointing ending to a disappointing season. I wish I could be more enthusiastic, but the overcrowding and the lack of emotional payoff didn't do any favors to this last installment of Season Seven. Better luck next time!

5.5/10