Modern Family: Snow Ball (8x09)

This episode was kind of just... meh. Which I feel like I've been saying a lot about this show lately. There were a few really lovely elements, and then a lot that just had me shrugging my shoulders.

Cons:

Phil seeks validation in his relationship with Jay, again, and Jay is annoyingly aloof when it comes to his needy son-in-law, again, and then there's a vaguely sweet moment of connection between them, again. Nothing new here.

The framing device of this episode is that Luke and Manny organized the school dance, and the adults are chaperoning. There's this plot thread where Claire and Gloria try and set up one of the uptight manic mothers with the principal. Principal Brown is hilarious, but the mother was just your generic high-strung helicopter mom. Just a little uninspired.

Pros:

That being said, don't you love that the Principal's name is "Prince?" Like, WTF? Also, Gloria pretending to speak in extra broken English whenever she didn't want to do something was pretty funny.

Manny and Luke had my favorite of the plot threads, which is not something I thought I'd be saying. Manny accidentally goes way over-budget for the dance, and Luke saves the day by saying that they need to raise $8,000 for a student in need. Luke, predictably, spends the party taking credit for organizing it all, while Manny is the one who actually put in all the hard work. In the end, however, it turns out that it was Manny's mistake that put the party over budget in the first place, and it was Luke who came up with the idea to save the day. It was nice to see them working together, and it was a nice role reversal to have Luke fix one of Manny's screw-ups.

Also, the Trump reference was a thing of beauty. At the beginning of the episode, Luke says that he's left Manny to plan the dance because he's working on the "big picture" stuff. We then see a giant portrait of Luke that he's planning on hanging in the school. Sick burn! Later, Manny tells Luke that he deserves to be president because he's a great liar. Ha!

Cam spends the episode paranoid that his football team is going to prank him. When he thinks they're not going to prank him, he then becomes insecure about how they feel about him, as he wonders why he's not prank-worthy. In the end, he does get pranked, but Jay's the one who gets paint dumped on his head. There was nothing revolutionary going on here, but Cam's physical comedy was hilarious throughout, as every approaching person became a potential threat. Also, comedic line delivery of the night: "Is this your bizarre way of not validating my feelings?"

Mitchell has a crisis of conscience when he learns that the biggest bully in the school is a gay kid. Mitchell tries to relate to Damien and says he knows all about the kid's struggles, but Damien is just as nasty as can be. Then, Mitchell tells him he's an ungrateful little shit who has the luxury of being a bully thanks to the hell that the gay generation before him had to go through. Mitchell then shoves him in a locker, something he's not too proud of.

This plot thread could have been one of the greatest things this show has ever done, if they'd nuanced it a little bit. Instead of just a gay guy bullying football players, it could have been a gay guy bullying some other kind of minority based on those traits. This kid is a white man, even though he is gay. There could have been a lot more about inter-sectional acceptance. But for what it was, I thought the message came through loud and clear. Mitchell's speech to Damien was amazing! Another comedic highlight - the principal is afraid of Damien, too: "Here comes Damien. Do not tell him that I thought I had a shot with Gloria."

I guess that's all I've got for the time being. This was a perfectly serviceable episode, but I didn't walk away from it feeling anything in particular. It was just a generically competent half-hour of television.

7.5/10