Modern Family: Snapped (11x02)

So... um. This was mostly bad.

Cons:

Let's start with the worst of the plots. Phil tries to push Gloria in class because he thinks she has an innate talent as a realtor. But he then worries he's pushed too far and that she's "snapped" by hitting another top student with her car. There's one joke here, and it's bad. It gets even worse when Luke and Phil start to wonder if Gloria really is who she says she is, maybe she's crazy and a liar! It's an uncomfortable moment, when Luke immediately says he's always been suspicious of this "exotic stranger" who came into their lives. He then says that everyone has their breaking point, and says the other family member they might have something to fear from is Lily. Can you think of anything about Lily and Gloria that differentiate them from all of the other characters on the show?? Hmm, could it be that they are people of color? Yeesh, Modern Family. Get your act together.

Claire's plot thread was inoffensive but boring. She has an interview with a magazine about being a female CEO, and she contrives to get all of her kids out of the house so they don't embarrass her. The kids keep barging in, so Claire pretends to be sick, and sends them away. Again, there's only one joke here, and it's just that Claire has to lie to the interviewers and to her children. It comes to a head when the kids all catch Claire in the lie, but then Claire says that she's allowed to be embarrassed by her kids just this once, because of all the times they've all been embarrassed by her. Nothing really comes of it. I was bored.

Cam and Mitchell's plot was the best by far, and while I'll talk about it more in the "Pros" section, I will say that it could have been a lot better. They had a somewhat funny premise, but it was just that - a premise, lacking anything approaching real stakes. I understand that the show doesn't want to push boundaries, and that we're just going to coast through on this final season, but it doesn't make for a very exciting viewing experience.

Pros:

I will say that the one thing I liked about Claire's plot thread was that she kind of got away with her shenanigans. I thought for sure there was going to be a moment when the interviewers saw the truth about Claire's hectic life. Then, it could go one of two ways: either the interview would be totally ruined, or else Claire would be praised for being a mom dealing with a lot of chaos and a powerful CEO, and there would be some pseudo-feminist message in there. Instead, she just gets away with it and the article is all about how great she is and there's no mention of her kids. That was kind of fun, as a subversion of my expectations.

Cam and Mitchell get a new smart fridge and they both start to bond with "Bridget", making each other jealous. I think one of the reasons why this plot thread got some chuckles out of me was that it was different from what I was expecting. At first, when the fridge showed up and started overhearing bits of Mitchell and Cam's conversation, I thought I knew what the story would be. The fridge would accidentally start ordering them a bunch of food they didn't want, and it would take over their lives by messing everything up. But instead, the opposite happened. The fridge worked - it worked too good, in fact, and became emotional support for Cam and Mitchell both. So the subversion of my expectations worked wonders to make me forgiving of the somewhat bland story.

The actors really go all out with their physical comedy bits, too - I like Mitchell singing "Shallow" with the fridge, Cam taking a selfie, each of them caving to the idea of a sympathetic ear. I even liked the episode tag, where Jay ends up confessing some of his childhood trauma to the fridge, which has been moved to his house now that Cam and Mitchell realize it's tearing their relationship apart.

So that's all I've got. I'm just looking at my watch at this point, ready for this show to be in the rear view mirror!

6.5/10