Modern Family 2.07 “Chirp” Review

If you missed last week’s spookirific episode of Modern Family, “Halloween,” read my review here.

After two very funny weeks of Modern Family, I thought the season was taking off to greater creative heights. Then this week happened. As I’ve said before, even “bad” episodes of Modern Family are better than most of the schlock on TV that passes itself off as comedy, and not every good episode of the show needs to have some unifying theme, but in almost every way, “Chirp” was a bust.

This episode felt like the people sitting in the writers’ room looked up at their big board of story ideas, threw darts at the board to get the three families’ plots, then forgot that they had to write the show. The day before the script was due, the writers remembered they needed to turn in something, so they did the best they could, but had no chance to go back and refine anything. The result was the almost laughless (thank you Nolan Gould for saving the episode) entry that aired this week.

My biggest problem was that the script just wasn’t funny. For me, Jay/Gloria plots are inherently the least funny. The individual actors are great, but their best moments come when the characters are interacting with members of their extended family. Not much humor comes from Jay interacting with Gloria, especially when the comedy is derived from stereotypical “women remember everything, men remember nothing” anecdotes. Even Manny, who is usually a great source of comedy (though I’d say the character was more effective last season), didn’t get much to do in this episode. Call me cold, but I just didn’t care one way or the other whether Jack got his job back. I will say, however, that the moment between Manny and Jay when Jay called him “my kid” was pretty excellent, but this was a sentimental moment, and not a comedic one.

I always love Mitchell and Cameron, and while the idea of Lily getting her first commercial was a good one, the execution was terrible, and borderline offensive. There is a great comedic opportunity in having Cameron be a hysterical “stage mother” figure, but it would have been even funnier if Mitchell was the stage mother. Further, I’m sure there could be a million and one different commercial situations Lily could have been put in without having to resort to an extremely crude stereotype. Coming off Cameron’s imitation of an “Injun Joe” stereotype in “Unplugged” (which, admittedly, I found funny, though some were offended), the outrageously stereotyped Japanese voices seem to be creating a pattern of racial comedy of sorts. I understand that the poor stereotype was the point (Cameron points out that Lily is Vietnamese, not Japanese), but it made me feel like Cameron’ was fine exploiting his daughter as long as the commercial wasn’t blatantly racist. To me, there’s really nothing funny in this.

Last, there is the usually reliable Dunphy home for comedy. I know many critics are usually, well, critical of the Dunphy plots because they tire of Phil’s antics. I am not one of those critics. I usually find Phil and the rest of the family pretty funny. When this week’s Dunphy story was introduced, I actually thought it would be pretty funny (and it was, overall, the funniest of the three this week). God knows I often battle with the smoke detectors in my home, but I never feel less manly because they beep. This was just very weird to me. Dylan was brought in to the proceedings this week, which was I was jazzed about because I find Haley/Dylan/Phil interactions to be hysterical, but he disappeared after a couple minutes before the titles. Then we had Claire and Haley’s day in the sickbed. I appreciated how they spoke past each other regarding Claire’s comparison of Haley and Dylan to the soap characters, but I never found it particularly funny. I guess I don’t find speaking with stuffed noses to be particularly humorous. Thank God Luke was there to provide some genuine laughs. From him trying to eat the ladyfinger but bumping his hand into his helmet, to bringing in the keyboard (see below), to the idea of him kissing a pigeon was hysterical. For whatever talk Rico Rodriguez received for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nomination (and it was very well deserved), Nolan Gould should get the same this season.

I understand that in a 22-plus episode season, there are going to be a few stinkers. Further, because of its track record, Modern Family has high expectations that can be hard to meet week after week. Unfortunately, “Chirp” was one of those episodes that fell flat. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t a couple great lines:

Claire explains all of the things she has to do that day, depsite being sick.
Phil: Honey, with all you do for me, including going to the gym four times a week to keep me interested, I got this.

Luke: Are you OK?
Phil: Yeah, I just had a couple showings fall through.
Luke: I’m sorry.
Phil: It’s alright. You know what I always say…
Luke: “You can’t get back on the horse until you fall off.”

Claire’s handsome gym trainer shakes Phil’s hand when returning Claire’s cell phone.
Phil (wearing an apron from baking for the bake sale, screams like a girl at the handshake): Sorry, I burnt my ladyfingers.

Luke (entering with a keyboard): Hey Dad. I think I found a place online where I can sell this organ. Can you drive me to the black market?
Phil: I think they mean a different kind of organ, buddy.

After changing all of the smoke detectors’ batteries, the chirp sounds again.
Phil: I can handle this. I just need the old Burglar Basher.
Phil pulls out a baton.
Luke: Is that your college cheerleading baton?
Phil: Not when you’re on the business end of it.

So, that’s what I have for this week’s episode. Were you as disappointed as I was? Did you find anything particularly funny that I missed? How did you feel about the stereotypical voiceovers for the commercial? Is Modern Family developing a disturbing pattern of racial humor? Please leave your questions and comments below. I’ll be back next week with another review, when hopefully the show will be back on track. Until then, I’m off to help Savezilla knock down prices.

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