Modern Family - Season 4 Episodes 2 and 3 - Recap and Review - Schooled/Snip
With Modern Family's two-episode double header, it's pretty easy to see why it won Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys for the third year running. In every way that the premiere failed to live up to expectations, tonight's hour was Modern Family back in top form. "Schooled" followed the Dunphys on Haley's college move-in day, the Tucker-Pritchetts dealing with the fallout from a confrontation at Lily's first day of kindergarten, and Jay and Gloria's enrollment in a parenting class. Meanwhile, "Snip" followed up on the alienation of Claire from her daughters, Gloria's estrangement from the reality of her pregnancy, and Phil's fear over his upcoming vasectomy. The two episodes are, narratively, quite different, but they follow very similar themes, from trepidation over the future, to the fear of letting go. It feels as if Modern Family is getting back to its more focused approach to storytelling that made its first season such a breakout hit, and put all these eyeballs on the show in the first place, and that's a great sign for the rest of season four.
"Schooled" is the first, and funniest, of the two episodes tonight, as Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) gets her hair pulled by a boy on her first day of kindergarten, and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) overreacts by picking up the boy, pressing him up against the swing set, and giving him a very stern warning about touching his daughter. This leads to the boy's parents, a lesbian couple, being called in to meet with Cam and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). In the episode's best sight gag, Cam and Mitchell explain (to the camera) why gay men and gay women don't get along, by making a Venn diagram with their arms. It's a better bit than I can do justice by describing, but it works. Also well-mined for comedy, Cam's adversarial banter with the equally rough-edged lesbian mother (Wendi McLendon-Covey), as they trade barbs over Cam's girlish hands and the woman's mannish boot size. In addition, the standoffish nature of Cam and woman is paired nicely with the more demure nature of Mitchell and the other half of the lesbian couple, each of whom seek a peaceful resolution. The children wind up locking themselves in Lily's room during a make-up playdate, and the moral eventually comes through the realization that, whether gay or lesbian, they share the love of their children.
"Schooled" also provides us with a strong instance of escalation comedy that the show tends to do so well, as Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen) move Haley (Sarah Hyland) into her new dorm room, and everything from a box of condoms Claire bought for Haley, to Phil's penchant for squeezing Claire's butt, comes back to haunt the Dunphys in the madcap climax with Haley's new roommate. It's a terrific sequence, and while I'm usually irritated by the constant mining of the Dunphy parents embarrassing their children for comedy, this was one of the best bits over the two episodes that aired tonight, combining physical comedy with Ty Burrell's manic line deliveries ("I'm a respected realtor!"). The plot thread even had an emotional beat towards the end when Haley calls her parents during their drive home upon realizing just how little she fits in on the first day, and the scene really punctuated the madcap nature of the scenes that preceded it. Learning to let go is a universal theme, even if saying goodbye at college move-in day isn't a universal experience.
Credit: ABC
That said, if there was an unsuccessful plot thread in "Schooled," it was the class attended by Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria (Sofia Vergara), which again relied on the "aren't Colombians crazy?" humor that doesn't really click as well as the writers probably think it does (Gloria's nanny was a goat! Gloria so cray-cray!). However, even in that plotline, there's still a worthwhile scene, as Jay tells Manny (Rico Rodriguez) that he doesn't have to try so hard to be the man of the house, he can just be the kid now. It sheds valuable insight into Manny's character, and the reasons he acts more like an adult than as a kid, having to be the man of the house for his whole life before Jay came into it. It gives Manny greater dimensions, and really works to help humanize him as more than just a precocious voice for the writers.
"Snip," while not as funny as "Schooled," was the most emotionally-resonant episode of the evening. Phil is getting a vasectomy, as it's part of his and Claire's five-year plan for once Luke leaves for college, in which the Dunphys are going to travel and vacation and just enjoy empty nest status. Meanwhile, Mitchell tries to talk Cam into going back to work, a suggestion that offends Cam, as he infers that Mitchell is imply he's a freeloading layabout. Also in the mix are Jay and Gloria, who get into a tiff over whether they should learn the gender of their new baby or leave it as a surprise.
Gloria's denial about needing to start wearing maternity clothes isn't as funny as it should be, although it leads to one of the episode's most touching moments when Manny, building off of Jay's speech to him in "Schooled," tells Gloria that she doesn't have to worry about going through this pregnancy alone like she did during her first. She now has two partners in this, Manny declares, and it really is a genuinely sweet moment, and not at all cloyingly so. Gloria and Manny's mother-son bond is one of the show's strongest emotional relationships, and it's interesting to see how Gloria's pregnancy changes, and strengthens, that bond. Meanwhile, Phil and Jay finally have a personal moment, as Jay confesses that he's scared that his baby will be a girl, claiming that he "gets" boys, but he doesn't understand girls in the least. Phil, for his part, confesses his own fear of getting the vasectomy (in the episode's funniest bit, Jay tells Phil that he doesn't have to worry about the vasectomy making people think less of him as a man, to which Phil responds that he was just scared it would hurt, and that he hadn't even thought of the possibility of people thinking less of him). Ultimately, the men reassure one another, and it's the fitting father-in-law/son-in-law moment that's been eluding Phil for so long. And Jay continues to grow as an expectant father, excited about this next chapter in his life, when he declares that he ultimately doesn't care whether it's a boy or a girl, so long as it's healthy and happy (but really, he wants a son).
Credit: ABC
There's also a subplot in which Alex (Ariel Winter) goes goth to fit in with her new goth friend, and though the story is lightweight "Claire embarrasses her daughter" material, it builds on the emotional beats carried over from "Schooled," as Claire eavesdrops on a Skype session between Alex and Haley in which they share horror stories about their mother while admitting just how much she means to them. It's a warm moment, and it has the added effect of causing Claire and Phil to rethink the vasectomy. In addition, the moment further establishes a more sisterly bond than the catty back-and-forth that Alex and Haley usually have. The subplot is also responsible for one of the night's best bits, as Claire comes up with the term "Post Post Office Traumatic Stress Disorder" over the phone with Haley, and Haley tells Claire to stop smiling because the line wasn't as clever as she thought it was. Claire then hangs up and tries the line on Phil, who declares that she "nailed it." It's neck-and-neck with Luke's elaborate backstory to explain why he's wearing a mask when saying goodbye to Haley in "Schooled," to avoid admitting it's because he's emotional over his sister departing. It really felt like the show was firing on most of its cylinders tonight.
"Schooled" and "Snip" was a fitting return to form for Modern Family. If the show can maintain this balance of comedy and heart, then season four has the opportunity to be the show's best season.
Credit: ABC