Last week I defended Modern Family from the charge that the show isn’t as good when the three families are kept separate. Fair’s fair; last night’s episode, which kept the three storylines largely separate, wasn’t as strong.
But it wasn’t because the families were separate or because the stories weren’t thematically connected: the tete-a-tete between Marshall Mitchell and Jay brought those two plots together with the idea that their differences with their spouses were exactly what made their relationships strong. It was just that each storyline felt slight, like three B- or C-plots taken from another episode.
Still, there was a dog butler. Which is to say that even a less-strong episode made me laugh a lot. As a result, my notes consist almost entirely of my favorite lines of dialogue. Feel free to add your own (or your own criticisms) after the jump:
* “Sometimes at night, I think it’s the devil.” (Tied with: “This is not art. It’s an unholy mix between man and beast.”)
* “It was a topless woman on a tractor. You know what they call that in Europe? A cereal commercial.”
* “What’s his name?” “Cesar Salazar.”
* “It’s just some dude with weird hair.” “This is Maya Angelou!”
* Finally, I had to love Phil’s blaming of his tractor-porn on his work colleague, a.k.a. the comics’ best-loved high-school coach, Gil Thorp. Gil, you old rascal!