Not a flawless episode of Modern Family, but one that made me smile and laugh quite a bit. It's Valentine's themed, and most of our characters get at least a little moment to shine. I'll take it.
Cons:
Alex's tiny subplot was the only one I thought was a total failure. She gets flowers from a secret admirer, then learns it's her mother's assistant, and starts making out with him. The joke here is that Alex has a really bad track record with guys, and that her life is kind of a mess. Okay, fair enough, but Alex's character has been meandering around with nothing to do for far too long. I want something substantial, dammit! Give her something to do!
Manny was barely in this episode either. He just kept complaining about his dating woes. I will admit, I'm sort of with Jay on this one - it's getting a little old.
Pros:
However, Manny's complaining did lead to one great moment: the resolution of Jay, Gloria, and Joe's plot thread. Joe has been stealing his mother's lingerie and gifting it to his teacher and to students at his school. Jay initially tells him that it's okay to give underwear to girlfriends, but when this backfires, Gloria is mad at him for not putting his foot down. Jay likes that Joe is taking on some of his qualities, but when he hears Joe being mean to Manny, he realizes that he doesn't want his kid to take on all the worst aspects of himself. He tells Joe not to disrespect Manny. It's actually a very emotional moment. Jay and Manny's relationship has been one of the particular treats of this show. Any opportunity to have Jay examine his role as a father is bound to reap rewards.
Cam and Mitchell's plot thread had the most laughs, and probably had the least in the way of emotional moments. But that's okay - this is a sitcom, and some good joke material is always welcome. The two of them want to spend Valentine's Day doing things that they normally never have time for. Unfortunately, their crazy friend Sal comes in and forces them to go out with her. Haley tags along, leaving Alex to watch Lily. Cam and Mitchell keep sticking their foots in their mouths, ruining Haley and Sal's relationships by encouraging them to stand up for themselves. Haley thinks she sees Rainer cheating on her, so she angrily dumps him. Turns out, Rainer was trying to save Haley from public embarrassment by getting a bad picture of her out of the hands of the tabloids. Sal calls her boyfriend and tells him she won't settle, and then she gets dumped.
There were lots of great jokes, here. Sal is always a delight. I think my favorite part is that Sal - horrifyingly - is raising her son to be "gay." As in, she tells him to make sassy remarks about other people's clothing. The payoff for Sal's gross behavior is that when she's trying to purge her boyfriend's boat of his expensive belongings, she tries to throw his Tony Award overboard. Cam stops her: "I'm not telling your gay son you threw a Tony in the ocean!" That was fantastic.
Phil and Claire's plot thread was the best of the night. Phil gets Claire a perfect gift - the swing set where they had their first kiss. Claire's gift is an old broken watch, and Phil is very disappointed. He keeps trying to rekindle the flames, but Claire is busy and distracted at work. In the end, however, Claire actually had a whole big thing planned: she learned to do magic tricks, and pranks Phil into thinking that she's not invested in Valentine's Day, only to pull through with a fancy restaurant, a slinky dress, and Houdini's special handcuffs that Phil had been hinting about.
What I loved about this story was that it so easily could have been a cliche - the distracted workaholic spouse forgets to do something special, the other spouse gets mad. Even adding in that it was all a trick has been done before, though less frequently. What I liked was that Phil didn't get all angry and pout-y. Even at the very end, he only told Claire he was angry because she asked him. He never gave up, and was willing to put in the extra effort to rekindle things between him and his wife. He didn't resent her for being distracted and overworked, he just decided to pick up the slack. And of course the reveal that Claire had planned the whole thing was great. I actually didn't see it coming, so the moment when Phil looks down and realizes he's been handcuffed to his chair was really effective. And Claire was rocking that dress!
That's all I've got. Holiday-themed episodes seem to be Modern Family's strong suit, and this was no exception.
8.5/10
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