Like The Office before it and many other single camera sit-coms flooding the airwaves, Modern Family is supposed to exist in reality. Theoretically, the show is a documentary that focuses on an every family that really exists. Each show that’s shot in this way has its own little quirks that keep it from ever really approaching the feeling of actual cinema verite, but last night’s episode was one of the more interesting illustrations of this strange “reality” line since The Office acknowledged the existence of its cameras.
Remember last week when Mitchell lost his job? Well, the only concession that “Stary Night” made to that was the increased thickness of Mitchell’s beard. Mitchell spent the episode accompanying his father on their traditional star-watching trip, with the caveat that because Jay thinks Mitchell may have some advice for his young grandson Manny is brought along, too. Due to Jay’s advice, Manny spends their trip insulting his uncle, but after a skunk sprays Mitchell and the only thing he can change into is a dress things ease off and the whole group bonds. It’s a well-done plot, even though it feels out of place considering what Mitchell just went through, and shows some surprisingly solid parenting on Jay’s part: if you don’t have the answers for your child, don’t ignore their problems, bring them to someone who may.
While those three are off stargazing, Cameron decides that he should use this as an opportunity to patch things up with Gloria after some offensive comments he’s blundered into saying about her (or “her people,” as he would say). They bond over a meal so spicy Cameron can’t handle it, but what ends up odd here is that despite his partner losing his job and thus the pair raising a child with no income, he offers to take Gloria to an expensive restaraunt. Financial realities truly don’t exist in the Modern Family world, at least so far.
The two plots tie together cleverly with the introduction of Gloria’s guilt about buying an expensive dress that Mitchell ends up wearing, but moreso through the spoken-to-the-camera commentary offered by Cameron and Mitchell. This device, also ubiquitous since The Office, tends towards feeling forced or at the very least unreal. Their commentary, though, actually referencing that what happened was in the past, felt real, in no small part due to a pair of impressive performances. They sold things as actually happening in a way that I rarely see happen on other sit-coms of this sort. Cameron and Mitchell were just two people talking about what happened the other night, not a cheap device to bring in some jokes and exposition. It’s not the show that pioneered this technique, but right now Modern Family uses it better than anyone else.
In the unrelated world of the Dunphy family both Haley and Luke procrastinated on homework assignments and their parents divide by sexes to see to it that these get finished. This subplot explores the similarities between Luke and Phil, though this is hardly new territory at this point, while elsewhere Haley finally has to do something for herself after annoying Claire. It’s not a bad area of the episode, it’s just not as original as what went on elsewhere. The highlight for the Dunphy’s is a cleverly edited section where Alex describes ADD to Claire that’s cross-cut to what Phil’s up to at the moment.
That being said, Luke’s (and Phil’s) ADD seems unlikely to be something we’ll get anymore of, considering that something as momentous as Mitchell leaving his job hasn’t been addressed. It will probably be something referenced, but never really addressed. Not that the show necessarily has to build on previous episodes, but not doing so definitely stresses that it’s just a sit-com. I have hopes that episodes will become more serial given the material of this and the last one, but at this point it’s hard to say what direction Modern Family is leaning towards, as no plots have ever carried past a single episode so far.
Stray Observations:
-I quite love Luke’s version of what noise-cancellation headphones do.
“My mom’s not dumb, you can’t just casually ask her to do something for you. You have to put the cheese in the trap.”
“I don’t want to say the wrong thing.” “You can’t, that’s the beauty of having a brother.”
-Van Gogh does kinda look like “uncle Mitchell” if Mitchell were insane. Well done, Modern Family.
-The season’s almost over but the staircase remains broken. Truly a great running gag.
“I’m sorry things got out of hand back there, but in our defense … look at you.”
“I’m just saying that if you were that type of a gay, you’d probably be doing alright for yourself.”