Modern Family - "My Funky Valentine"

  Modern Family tonight did the best it could with a somewhat clunky premise. Writers must get tired of being instructed to do the stock Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day episodes every month. If they aren't tired of those holiday episodes, they could have fooled me. Not that this episode was terrible by any stretch, but the Valentine's Day premise did end up pairing off the adults into three neat and tidy stories that didn't feel that much like new ground.


Claire and Phil

   

     The best gag of the episode had to be Phil's roleplay aliases. He was Reginald Applebee, Honorable Businessman from Hong Kong, Tiger Trainer, and the last one he went with- Clive Bixby, purveyor of high-end electro-acoustic tranducers. Phil was completely great tonight playing his mostly dead-pan doof persona. Claire didn't have much to do other than react, but the small touch with her own fake name (Julianna) showed that she was having almost as much fun as Phil with it. This plotline definitely ended weaker than it started - the argument and the escalator really didn't work and went broader than this show usually does. That's not always necessarily bad, but it seemed a little too standard-sitcom for a show that tries to buck that sort of thing.

Gloria and Jay

    

    A lot has been made in this show about the cultural differences between these two, but slightly less so about the generational differences. This plotline started out going in a new direction. The crack about Gloria thinking "Simon and Garfunkel were my lawyers" was good, and her reaction was even better. The restraint with the whole mean stand-up comic was really welcome. That sort of stuff in sitcoms really makes me cringe in a bad way. I had my own generational differences moment watching the show and having to look up who David Brenner was. The makeup in the hotel lobby was sweet, since any serious relationship differences in this show would be kind of terrible and torpedo a lot about what makes the show work. There wasn't much glaringly bad about this plotline, but not that many standout jokes either. The idea of this thread seemed to outpace the actual execution.

Cam and Mitchell and Manny

    This third of the episode definitely shined compared to the other two, and had many more great and quotable gags. Also, maybe not coincidentally, this was the only part of the ep that had some of those awesome character/family blending parts that really highlight the strength of the ensemble. Cam and Mitchell's banter is definitely the best out of the three central couples to the show. Their comedic timing is impeccable. Their love storyline was much more understated compared to Jay/Gloria, Claire/Phil, and obviously Manny. Cam showed his love for Mitchell by helping him work out his work frustrations in a hilarious climactic closing argument in the middle of Great Shakes. What Manny learned in this ending was also really good for the character, and it was great to see him gain the self-confidence of not wanting the "cutest girl in class" if she didn't appreciate his love letter. 

Random things

    Dylan's photo-painting was a great sight gag even though the reaction to it was more out of the Cosby Show than Modern Family. Anyone watching the show could use more Dylan in their lives. Hailey and his Valentine's Day would seem more interesting than some of the parts tonight. The very sweet, family-conquers-all type endings had been gone for a few episodes until tonight. It was a nice touch to have Gloria save the day for Claire, despite some of their huge blowups in the past.