Modern Family: The Long Goodbye (9x02)

This was fine. I think nowadays "fine" is about all I'm going to get with this show, and I'm okay with it.

Cons:

Mitchell and Cam's plot thread involved their kitchen catching fire. At first Cam thinks he may have subconsciously burned down their kitchen so that he has an excuse to remodel it, but it turns out to be a faulty blender that Mitchell has been using to make smoothies. This plot thread seemed oddly unbalanced, as the enormous financial and personal loss of a fire was not played even the least bit seriously. Pam is still around, and she's not very funny, and in the end Mitchell and Cam spent the episode bickering per usual. Nothing really substantial or really funny came out of this.

The other plots all had some fun moments, but I mostly just found myself shrugging my shoulders. This all could have been taken way further. Manny is starting school, but given how much they've botched Alex's college plot thread, I don't feel much investment in Manny's either. And Alex's plot thread involved her being at school, which felt unbalanced because last season I could never tell when she was supposed to be living at home and when she was actually attending classes. Didn't she take some time off at some point? I don't know. Point being, this show doesn't seem to know what to do with the kids now that they're all grown.

Pros:

But there were some good moments in here as well. In Manny's plot, I liked the idea of wanting the "perfect goodbye." Manny doesn't want to get too emotional, but he ends up in a big family hug with Gloria, Jay, and Joe by the end. Predictable, but cute. Some of the impact of the kids going away for school is taken away by the fact that they're still close enough to home for regular visits, but even so... going to college is a big step. I liked the revolving door of roommates that Manny has on his first day. Nobody wants to stick around!

Alex's plot thread had Claire and Phil being oddly disappointed at how well Alex is doing on her own. They expected to sweep in and solve her problems, but she's doing just fine. Later, however, they find out that she is having a hard time, just not in the way her parents suspected. She's not fitting in with her peers, as she comes across as a bit of a show-off. The episode ends with Alex making strides to befriend her classmates, and Phil and Claire patting themselves on the back for their superior parenting skills. I hope that we actually get to see more of Alex at school, because I did quite like this plot thread, especially the rock-paper-scissors robot arm.

Haley and Luke had a throw-away plot thread that actually provided a lot of laughs. Luke hires Haley at the club. Her job is to bring drinks out to the golfers. She gets distracted by a glamorous gold digger who wants to hire Haley as a personal assistant basically so she has someone to hang out with and talk to. Haley decides to do it, but immediately gets abandoned when the gold digger doesn't want to compete with Haley for the attentions of rich old men. Luke immediately hires Haley back to her old job. We don't see a lot of plot threads with Haley and Luke, and it was kind of touching to see Luke help his big sister out in this way. I also loved the scene where Haley was listening to both Luke and the gold digger woman on two phones, basically listening to the angel and the devil on her shoulder.

I think I'll stop there. I'm getting a little weary of reviewing this show, and knowing it's been renewed for at least one more season is making me wearier still. I don't have a terrible time watching it, but it just doesn't do much for me anymore.

7.5/10