Modern Family: Perfect Pairs (11x03)

I doubt I'm ever going to watch another episode of this show that actually excites me ever again, but that doesn't mean there's absolutely nothing of merit here.

Cons:

It really skeeves me out that Luke is still dating this much older woman, and the show is doing nothing to comment on that. It's such a gross running gag and it's the only character trait Luke has left, and it really bothers me.

Alex similarly has nothing to do. Apparently she's applying for a job at NASA? If this show were better, I would say I was interested to see where this is going. But let's be real - it's going absolutely nowhere.

I don't strictly hate Claire's story this week, or Gloria's, but both just bored me, for the most part. I feel like we're seeing nothing new, nothing insightful, nothing memorable. Claire is overly ambitious, and wacky hijinks ensue. Gloria is mistrustful and conniving, and ends up misinterpreting a situation. Even Jay's story is just about him making friends with a landscaper/gardener dude to prove to Manny that he's not snobby about money. The whole thing is slightly in poor taste, and there really isn't a single good laugh in the whole plot thread.

Pros:

I do like the basic premise of the Dunphy story, even if the individual character beats leave something to be desired. Basically, Haley and Dylan are feeling frustrated because the family isn't spending time with the babies. But then, each of them realizes that the babies can be helpful to them - Alex uses them to cut in line, Luke uses them to get booze, Claire uses them to get in with a prospective closet buyer, and Phil uses them for his magic act. That's a fun concept, one that offers no real surprises, but follows the formula well. I liked how Haley kept trying to spend time with her kids, but then yet another family member would dash off with them, leaving her bereft. That was pretty funny.

Ty Burrell is such a comedic actor with great physical comedy skills, so all of his magic-act material in the episode was pretty funny. I like how excited he is about performing for a realtor event. I like how he tries to rope the rest of the family in. I like that his tricks are actually very good for once, but even as the rest of the family praises him, he puts himself down because it can't possibly be good enough. And the punchline with using the twins was pretty cute.

I will say that the one part of Gloria's story-line that I enjoyed was her sister, and the reveal that she actually is a gold-digger. I could do without all of the cheeky references to Gloria's own marriage to Jay, of course, but it was a funny reveal that I didn't see coming.

Cam and Mitchell actually have a pretty successful story-line. Much like last week's with the fridge, it's not that this is some groundbreaking and insightful character building, but it's a solid central conceit and they do a lot of fun stuff within it. Cam and Mitchell are thrilled to have renters who are a gay couple with a daughter Lily's age. They hope to bond, but then find that these people are really fit and very different from them, and they have perfect lives. Lily gets rid of them by cheating to beat their daughter in a card game, which sends the girl into a tailspin for not being perfect. The family immediately decide to move away. I like that Cam and Mitchell try to make themselves more cultured and adventurous to fit in, but ultimately decide they don't want to put in the effort. That felt very hashtag-relatable.

I think that's everything. As always, I'm kind of just counting the days until I can say adios to this show for good, but this episode wasn't a totally useless experience!

8/10