Modern Family: A Year of Birthdays (10x22)

This was a perfectly serviceable finale, with a few genuinely funny and heartfelt moments!

Cons:

This episode is structured in flashbacks, so we look over the past year and see how everyone's birthdays went. That means that when a joke doesn't work, it mercifully doesn't stick around for long, because we're already jumping to a new scene. But just because we don't have to drag out the dumb moments, doesn't mean they don't exist, and there were plenty of little jokes in this episode that fell seriously flat. Luke's moment where he tries to get together with a tattoo artist and wonders if he should become a woman upon finding out that she's gay? Yikes. Manny's awkward proposal to Sherry wasn't the worst scene from Manny this season, but it also wasn't particularly insightful or funny. I guess Mitchell having a birthday alone is an okay setup, but the fact that Cam messed it up was just a touch too predictable for me.

Pros:

But like I said, these little negative moments were brief, and we were on to something else before I could get bogged down or too annoyed.

I liked Claire's birthday flashback probably the best - everyone's gifts for her are things meant to relax her, and there's a great gag about a vibrator from Gloria that comes back later. I also liked Alex getting really drunk on her twenty-first birthday with a sober, pregnant Haley. Manny's proposal at his birthday was lame, but the other talent show acts were all pretty funny - Phil being unready to play the piano, Cam and Mitchell having matching vests and an already-choreographed musical number, Haley's impressive texting skills.... all of that was lovely. Jay gets roasted for his birthday - not the most inspired or hilarious thing I've ever seen, but I did chuckle at a few of the jokes, and Alex bringing the mood down but getting the best insult in was a pretty nice punchline.

Phil's story arc in this episode was probably my favorite thing. When he turns fifty, he decides to learn to play the piano, so that he's ready to play in front of other people by the time he turns fifty-one. We see his progress in brief snippets throughout the rest of the year, and then we get the resolution when Phil's piano recital is interrupted by Haley going into labor. He plays his song really quickly, proving that he actually did develop the skill, and then rushes off with his family to the hospital. Phil is often the punchline to a joke, so it was nice to see him commit to something, and follow through with it in a satisfying way.

Really, the thing that I liked best about this episode was that they did away with the expected cliche. We've been following Haley's pregnancy all year. I would have expected an entire episode devoted to her going into labor, shenanigans at the hospital, the birth, the new babies. But instead we see one final birthday, that of Haley and Dylan's twins, as the episode ends. The whole family gathers together to celebrate the new members of their family, and we get to see everyone cooing over the adorable babies. It's sweet, and refreshingly uncomplicated.

This episode both did and didn't feel like a finale, because it had a big important plot thing happen - Haley has her babies - but it didn't escalate wildly or try to do too much with the concept. I liked this creative, somewhat more mellow take on such an important event!

9/10