Modern Family: Basketball (8x16)

This episode had a ton of really funny jokes in it, but the structure of the story-lines themselves didn't always hold up. Still, it was a success for the most part. Let's take a closer look.

Cons:

Claire's plot thread involves a mishap at work. She learns that she has sold closets built with contaminated wood, and tries frantically to track them all down before Jay finds out that she screwed up. Jay, meanwhile, is trying to teach Joe to fear him. Upon realizing how much Claire fears him, he decides that maybe fear isn't the best way to raise a child.

I asked for more stories about Claire at work, but... not like this. Somehow this became again about Claire and Jay's relationship, which wouldn't be a bad thing if there were something heartfelt to grab on to. This wasn't a horrible plot thread necessarily, but Jay learning the lesson that fear is a bad way to raise kids was sort of tacked on at the end, and it didn't really feel like it amounted to anything. Ben can be funny, but he's underutilized, and this whole plot thread felt very repetitive.

Cam, Mitchell, Haley, and Rainer get their own little story, which I mostly enjoyed. However, there was a really lackluster punchline at the end. Mitchell says that there are some things he'd rather not ask Cam to do, and Cam gets all offended that Mitchell doesn't open up to him. So then Mitchell does ask Cam to do the thing, and it's... shaving his back. That's neither funny nor gross enough to be an effective punch line. It's a small moment in the course of the plot thread, but it's supposed to be the joke that Cam and Mitchell's little squabble was all leading up to. Pretty disappointing.

Pros:

Claire and Jay's plot thread did have a number of really funny jokes, the best being when Claire swallows a live fish to avoid her father finding out about the poisoned wood. Later, she says to Phil: "I could use a win after drinking a fish." And Phil corrects her: "drinking like a fish." That cracked me up.

Mitchell and Haley go out for tea, an uncle-niece tradition they've been doing for years. Haley reveals to Mitchell that Rainer asked her to do something she wasn't comfortable with in bed, but before Haley can tell him what it is, Rainer walks in and joins them for tea. Cam then shows up after Rainer posts a picture of the tea online. From here, we see Cam and Mitchell trying to figure out what Rainer's kink could be, only to discover that it's candling. Ew. Haley and Rainer have a conversation about being more open with each other, while Cam and Mitchell also argue over opening up. The resolution was weak, as I mentioned above, but there were a lot of laughs. My favorite joke in this one was when Cam and Mitchell talk about why they need to figure out what Rainer asked Haley to do. They say that because they're her uncles, and she's dating an older man, they need to be sure Haley is protected and not being pressured, and that she's not uncomfortable. And then Cam says: "Okay, so, we said all that, now what do you think it could be?" I just loved the idea of the two of them justifying their gossip to each other.

The main plot is the most successful. Phil has been preparing all year for the charity teachers vs. parents basketball game at the high school. Last year, he let down the parents' team by missing a penalty shot at the very end. He thinks he's ready, but he's thrown off by the presence of two actual NBA stars. Each star quickly picks a side and starts to coach it, getting caught up in the drama. In the end, the power goes out just before Phil is poised to tie the game with a penalty shot. In the dark, Phil takes the shot by himself, wanting to know if he would have made it. It's a perfect shot, all net.

Phil is a character who has this crazy ability to take silly story-lines and make them feel emotionally resonant. There's just something so sweet about the way he takes this whole thing so seriously. He's looking for a chance to redeem himself, but, importantly, it's not really about how the rest of the world sees him. It's not that everybody has been ridiculing Phil for his missing shot the year before, and now he wants to show them that he's good enough. That would be a different plot line, one far less interesting. No, Phil just needs to prove to himself that he can do this. He's trained and he's fought and in the end, the fact that nobody sees him make the winning basket isn't nearly as important as the fact that he does it.

There was also a lot of great humor here, like Phil getting increasingly agitated at the presence of real professionals, and the way said professionals got sucked in to the drama of the match, and started to bet increasingly high amounts on the results. Gloria's little subplot also provided humor - she's competing with another mom over who can volunteer better, and she comes to the conclusion that she likes her pretty life, and doesn't feel guilty for the luxuries she has. Not a ton of meat here, but guest star Jane Krakowski is fantastic.

That's where I'll stop. This episode was fairly middle of the line, in that only Phil's plot thread was a true success. However, nothing in it annoyed me. The absence of Manny was actually refreshing, which says something about what this show has done to a once funny character. Alex got a funny little bit there, and most of the other characters had at least a moment to shine. Sometimes that's as good as it can get!

7.5/10