Modern Family: Do It Yourself (8x13)

A cute episode with a couple of really excellent elements. I didn't dislike anything that happened in this half hour, so that's a great sign.

Cons:

The only plot thread I did feel ambivalent about was Claire's. Apparently, she's a terrible cook, and never listens to the advice of a TV chef that she watches every day. Haley signs her and her mom up for the guy's cooking class when he's in town, so hopefully this guy can tell Claire she's a bad cook. However, when the guy insults Claire's cooking, Haley feels compelled to jump to her mother's defense. Claire still thinks her family likes her food. This just felt rather uninspired to me. It's not like the acting was bad or anything, but it just didn't provide anything new or particularly clever. A working mother who can't cook! Who woulda thunk it. Also, it seems to come out of nowhere... has Claire been portrayed as a bad cook in the past?

Pros:

Cam and Mitchell's plot was the silliest, with a lot of great laughs. Lily hires a cleaning lady to clean her room, making Cam and Mitchell realize that they're too reliant on technology to do their chores for them. In an effort to set a good example for Lily, they end up disturbing a wasp's nest, and they all get stung. There's nothing really substantive here, but I laughed a lot. My favorite moment was probably when Lily took her cellphone out to videotape her dads trying to get rid of the wasp's nest. She says sometimes her friends at school don't believe her stories.

Jay is feeling upstaged by a coach from Manny's school named Coach Gary, played by Payton Manning. He's teaching Joe to catch, helping fix things around the house, and just generally displacing Jay as the man of the house. Jay gets stuck on the roof trying to fix the satellite, thus causing him to feel even more discouraged. But Coach Gary makes him feel better by appealing to his business acumen and asking for his help with "Gary's Gazebos and Sheds," a business idea he has. Another plot thread without a ton of meat to it, but one that made me laugh a lot. Gloria's frequent references to what life will be like for her after Jay is dead, Joe imitating Jay's throwing with a bad shoulder, and Payton Manning's unassuming attitude all had me chuckling. The Gary's Gazebos and Sheds commercial at the end was also a thing of beauty. Apparently they also do birdhouses!

Phil's plot was where the heart of this episode truly rested. It starts off with him fixing the dryer by himself, something he's very proud of. This gives him the confidence to finally move forward with his real estate dreams. He gets Jay's money to buy an empty lot, but after purchasing it he starts to get really anxious about screwing things up. His competitor tries to tell him the lot is worthless, and the seller takes Phil's first offer really quickly, which suggests there's something wrong with the property. When the newly repaired dryer starts to act up again, Phil's confidence is crushed. However, some encouraging words from Claire convince him to keep pursuing his dream.

Phil is the character who has probably had the most consistent, interesting run on this whole show. He almost never has the worst story-line of an episode, and his sincerity comes through in a way that's impossible to dislike. With Phil, you can take a simple and silly conceit like trying to fix a dryer, and turn it into a story about pursuing your dreams and taking risks, and it all feels natural and earned. I also like seeing Claire supporting Phil. Crazy antics aside, these two have a strong relationship.

That's where I'll leave things. I wasn't super happy about Claire's plot thread, but everything else I thought was excellent!

8.5/10