Modern Family: The Alliance (8x08)

This was probably my favorite episode of the season thus far. Modern Family works well when it has some heart to back up its comedy, but it also works well when it has a tight concept and it mines that concept for all of its comedic possibilities. This episode did that perfectly.

Cons:

The centralizing plot in this episode thankfully took up almost all of the time, but there were a few subplots hovering around as well. These subplots weren't horrible, but they were pretty bland, and just took time away from the better ideas going on elsewhere. In one, Haley meets Rainer's teenage daughter, who is disdainful of her father's latest fling. In the end, Haley finds her inner mom and disciplines the girl for wanting to go out to a party dressed provocatively. In another subplot, Jay is upset that the club has banned smoking cigars in the main building, and he tries to get people to sign his petition complaining about the ban. He unwittingly uses Luke as bait to get an older woman to sign the petition, making Luke massage this cougar and ignoring the uncomfortable fact that Luke is being forced to work at this woman's house shirtless. Finally, in another subplot Claire is still having trouble making decisions at her job without relying on her father's expertise. She wants to get out of his shadow. This plot thread doesn't really go anywhere, although Claire does decide to make a decision on her own after Jay tells her to trust her gut.

So... nothing terrible here, and there was even some fun potential with Haley trying to act like a mom to a girl pretty much identical to how she was as a teenager. But none of these stories really went anywhere. In fact, Jay's cigar thing just sort of tapered off at the end with no resolution at all. Claire's story was just a rehash of things we've seen a thousand times, which was a tad frustrating.

ABC clearly has a promotional deal with the new Google thing, the Android version of Alexa from Amazon. Whatever it's called. Phil can be heard to say "Okay, Google" throughout the episode in order to play music, dim the lights, and play YouTube videos. If anybody could pull this off without making me cringe, it would be Phil, but unfortunately I still felt the advertisement pretty strongly.

Pros:

The main plot was fantastic, and far overshadows my "cons" section, long though it may appear. Basically, Gloria, Phil, and Cameron have an alliance where they get together to help correct each other's mistakes before their spouses can find out. Being married to a Pritchett is difficult because they're all so uptight and judgmental. The three spouses have been getting together to help each other out of difficult spots for years. They even have a code, where they say they're going out to buy orange juice and then meet up to discuss their plans.

This time, Cam messed up by letting a couple of Russian guys stay in the rooms upstairs longer than originally planned. Now they've got squatters, and Cam doesn't want Mitchell to find out. Elsewhere, Gloria has gotten a shock collar for Stella, since she keeps escaping and running out to the street, but now the dog is scared of getting shocked and is hiding, and Gloria needs help finding her.

There were just too many funny moments here to count. Some of my favorites include Cam saying he's going out to get orange juice, with a cut to Mitchell turning around holding a full pitcher of orange juice. I also loved when Gloria scared the Russian guys out of Cam's upstairs apartment by using phrases she'd picked up in a Russian park where she likes to take Joe. Things like "you've been a bad boy," and "do you want chicken fingers" suddenly sound like a shakedown from a rival mob or something. Great stuff! Phil had some great physical comedy at the end, when he helps Jay unload groceries while trying to conceal Stella's shock collar. He keeps walking through the invisible barrier and twitching!

The episode ended with a great little plot twist that slightly altered the entire episode preceding it. Sometimes it can be hard to pull off a move like this without making the whole episode seem like a gimmick, but in this case it worked really, really well. In the end, the three Pritchetts find out that their spouses have been working together, and decide as their revenge that they will pick out the family vacation spot without any input from the others. Claire, Mitchell, and Jay pick... Italy! The other three pretend to be disappointed, but then comes the twist: apparently they've been planting the suggestion of Italy subconsciously. Gloria makes Jay lasagna, Cam sets out pictures of attractive Italian models where Mitchell will see them, and Phil picks out an Italian film for him and Claire to watch. These little throwaway moments from earlier in the episode suddenly build to a carefully constructed plan. It looks like the Pritchetts aren't as in charge as they think!

That's where I'll stop. I was really pleased with this episode. I hope that Modern Family can find more moments like this. Not everything has to be deep and meaningful, but if there's not any real heart behind it, then it should at least be creative and funny. This episode accomplished that!

9/10