Modern Family: Dead on a Rival (11x12)

Meh. I'm really just ready for this show to be over, y'all.

Cons:

Sometimes a thing will happen on Modern Family and I'll get excited to see where it's going. But where it's going is... nowhere. Like Alex, for example. She's trying to find an assistant. Does that mean we're going to spend time with her in her new job, learning a bit about what she does and what challenges it brings to her life? I doubt it! And what about Manny? I appreciate the show for acknowledging how insufferable and immature he is... but are we going to see him actually grow and change before the show ends? Seems unlikely, and even if it happens, it won't be enough. And hey - what about Haley and Dylan and the kids? They sure haven't been around much lately.

To get more specific... there were a couple of setups in this episode that seemed funnier than the results ended up being. For example, Alex lusting after her potential new assistant was played as a throw-away joke. I thought we were going to spend time maybe seeing other candidates, and make something deeper out of that. Instead, it became about Jay's assistant Margaret working for Alex. Not a bad story, but not as promising as the one I thought we'd get. Ditto for Cam and Mitchell's story, which began when an old man showed up at their house, saying he used to live there and he had come back to die. I thought this was going to be funny and maybe even heartwarming, but the plot immediately shifted to something unexpected when the old man finds out that his childhood enemy still lives next door, and it becomes about angry old people seeking revenge. Again, not necessarily bad... but I felt more promise from the idea of the story than we ended up getting.

Also... Josh Gad is a funny guy and everything, but has he ever appeared on this show before? I hate that he showed up and apparently Phil was the guy who inspired him, and they had a special handshake... we've never seen this dude before. That's just annoying.

Pros:

The best praise I can give this episode is that there were still a lot of jokes that landed.

Manny, who has long been my least favorite thing about this show, performs a one-man show about people connecting in a cafe when the WiFi goes down. And it's insufferable, but intentionally so. I loved that Manny's father Javier was in attendance, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the performance. This, contrasted with Gloria's muted horror, made the scene for me. It's also nice to have Gloria realize that she has enabled her son and sheltered him to the point where he's an artist without anything to really talk about. She ends up giving her blessing for a year-long trip with Javier, so Manny can see something of the world. Again, I wish I thought they were going to go somewhere with this. But even so, I enjoyed the story-line here.

And like I said, Josh Gad is a funny dude, so it was kind of nice to see him here. I liked the group hug with Haley, Claire, and Phil. I liked the extravagant offer to take Phil into space, and the way in which it's later revealed that both men are terrified and neither really wants to go. And it was funny that Claire volunteered to be the "bad guy" and not let Phil go to space, but then betrayed him immediately upon realizing that she might have a cool new job opportunity.

I think my favorite joke of the night was when Jay and Margaret got all emotional about their long working relationship, discussing how they had been together longer than either of them had been with any of their spouses. And then Margaret says "we'll always have Mitchell," implying that he's their child. Alex reacts in horror. I just thought that was a well-executed joke. And it was sweet to see this relationship that has lasted for so long, formed through mutual respect and hard work.

I think that's where I'll stop. As always, I just... wish this show would end already so I wouldn't have to keep writing these less-than-enthused reviews!

7/10